Hunter x Hunter’s Gon Is More Emotionally Scarred By His Dad In New Manga

Hunter x Hunter and Desert 9 both tell the heartbreaking story of sons who dedicate their lives to finding their fathers who abandoned them to pursue their own dreams. But only one of these boys is emotionally scarred from the experience, and it’s not Gon.

In Hunter x Hunter, Gon decides to pursue a career as a Hunter just like his dad Ging who left his family. Gon is driven in this endeavor both by his desire to find Ging and out of curiosity, for if being a Hunter is compelling enough to tear a man away from his family, then it has to be incredible and must be experienced. Upon finding him, Gon learns that Ging was originally motivated to get what he didn’t have, which later evolved into a need to explore everything beyond the known world. Desert 9‘s Mao shares the same obsession as Gon, and his father left for a similar reason as Ging. Mao wants to find his dad who abandoned his family to find the ninth forgotten desert.

Besides taking place in a desert wasteland where hunters harvest ice from the corpses of water beasts, the manga Desert 9 introduces more complications to Mao’s relationship with his estranged father. For example, Mao initially tries to deny that he wants to be like him and finds it worrisome that his grandfather believes he’s been chasing his father. Because his father abandoned him, this would mean that he’s wasted his entire life chasing a dream. That’s why Mao doesn’t want his younger brother Lucas to become a Water Hunter like him because the exposure to hunting would naturally cause him to think about looking for his father as well.

It’s interesting that Mao later decides to embark on his journey to find his dad but only after he masters a certain skill his father promised to teach him and after he hears a recording from his father inviting Mao to find him. This contrasts greatly with Gon experiences. Gon already decides to search for his father regardless of whether Ging wants to see him and whether he possesses the necessary skills to find him. Gon also stumbles upon a recording from Ging who basically tells Gon he doesn’t want to see him and doesn’t care if Gon decides to look for him, but Gon is so resolved that he doesn’t care. Gon is able to prevent himself from getting hurt emotionally because he has no memories of his father and therefore can’t be disappointed. Gon, therefore, has nothing holding him back. Of course, this later changes when Ging expresses indifference towards Gon after they finally meet, causing the boy to experience a similar type of pain that Mao has been dealing with for years. But this is only short-lived. The other Hunters guilt trip Ging into bonding with his son, and they appear to actually connect during this time. Mao, on the other hand, has plenty holding him back, which is why he stalls searching for so long.

Although Gon becomes a two-dimensional character as a result of this dynamic, it’s understandable why Hunter x Hunterchooses Gon to have no memories of Ging. It makes him more mysterious for both Gon and the reader. All they have to go by for a majority of the series is an old picture of Ging and what other people are willing to talk about. Meanwhile, Mao’s interactions with his father before he’s abandoned in Desert 9 transform the boy into a deeper character who must undergo a rigorous emotional journey before he can even begin looking for his dad. Conversely, Gon‘s mind, like most Shonen heroes, is void of anything negative and is instead crammed with his goals and relentless drive.

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