Why Hunter X Hunter Still Hasn’t Released Any Anime Games Outside Japan

The Hunter X Hunter series ranks among the most popular Shonen manga and anime, but no games based on the series have been localized outside of Japan. This may seem peculiar to fans, as other popular manga like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto have seen numerous games released in English language territories. Hunter X Hunter characters have appeared in crossover games like Jump Force. There are more than a dozen dedicated Hunter X Hunter videogames, however, and these remain exclusive to Japan. With Jump Force about to be delisted from digital storefronts, Hunter X Hunter fans will have less avenues to experience Gon Freecss and company in videogame form. The reasons for the absence of Hunter X Hunter game ports could be due to delays in manga production, the timing of the anime series’ releases, the story’s sudden shifts of tone and subject matter, and happenstance of hardware.

Regardless of the reasons, the end result is that US and European gamers continue to wait for a Hunter X Hunter video game release more than two decades since the start of the manga. Though the Hunter X Hunter manga made its debut in 1998, it has only had 390 chapters published during that time. This can be contrasted with One Piece, which began its manga run in 1997, but has over 1,000 chapters. Games like One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 touch on history that spans over 1,000 anime episodes and manga chapters. The popular Naruto series has more than 700 manga chapters to draw from, meaning Hunter X Hunter, despite its age, does not have as much content as some other Shonen juggernauts.

The relatively small number of chapters for Hunter X Hunter over the last 24 years is due to numerous delays in production from manga creator Yoshinori Togashi. Togashi was also responsible for the popular YuYu Hakusho series, which has had several US-released games. The well-known Dragon Ball manga series began in 1984 and ran for more than 500 chapters. Dragon Ball video games have been relatively commonplace choices for English localization, spawning well-received games like DRAGON BALL FighterZ and Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, and gamers still question when Dragon Ball Z’s next videogame is releasing. Hunter X Hunter has not made the same cultural impact in the West as Dragon Ball, likely due in part to the timing of its anime adaptations.

Sudden Tonal Shifts Might Make Hunter X Hunter Anime Games More Difficult To Market

The anime series of One Piece began in 1999, two years after the start of the manga, and it continues to this day. This consistency has prompted numerous One Piece games, many of which has been localized as far back as the Game Boy Advance’s One Piece side-scroller, up through more recent games like One Piece’s open-world title, World Seeker. Hunter X Hunter has been less consistent in its manga release schedule, which has likely impacted the regularity of its anime adaptations, and in turn, localized games. A 1999 Hunter X Hunter anime ran for 62 episodes, then a 2002 adaptation continued where that series left off. Hunter X Hunter fans in the West are likely most familiar with the 2011 series that ran for 148 episodes and started the story from scratch.

Without a single, consistent anime to build the series’ notoriety, Hunter X Hunter has remained more of a niche product outside of Japan. Beyond inconsistent manga production and anime series restarts, the tone of Hunter X Hunter could impact the decision not to localize its videogames. Dragon Ball has been adapted into fighting games, RPGs, and more recently the asymmetrical action-horror game Dragon Ball: The Breakers. Tonally, Dragon Ball begins and ends as a story about superhuman martial artists engaging in increasingly challenging battles, however. The whiplash of going from more standard Shonen fare, like the Heavens Arena arc with its martial arts battles, to the gritty superpowered mafia drama of the Yorknew City arc, then to the more comical videogame-inspired Greed Island arc, makes it hard to quantify who the target audience is for Hunter X Hunter.

The mercurial nature of Hunter X Hunter’s story is arguably a strength, according to its fans, as it keeps the series fresh and unpredictable. Where the recent manga series Demon Slayer, adapted into the anime brawler The Hinomaki Chronicles, has a clear focus on slaying demons, Hunter X Hunter is harder to pin down. The series begins with Gon setting out to pass the “Hunter exam” to join an elite organization, following in his father’s footsteps. It then segues to Gon and his friends training in martial arts, becoming embroiled in mafia conflicts, pursuing Gon’s missing father via a rare videogame cartridge, and then clashing with evolved man-eating insects. While the series may seem lighthearted and aimed at a younger audience in one arc, the next might swerve into much darker territory. Most Hunter X Hunter games have picked a specific arc to focus on, which makes sense, given that it often seems like several different series in one, rather than a single consistent story, in terms of tone and subject matter.

Hunter X Hunter’s Popularity Did Not Align With US-Released Anime Games

Hardware also accounts for the absence of localized Hunter X Hunter games, with at least three adaptations appearing on Wonderswan consoles, a portable gaming system which was never released outside of Japan. At present, it seems there is more likelihood that newer Shonen hits like Jujutsu Kaisen will see a video game release in the US before Hunter X Hunter has a localized game. Anime-based games being domesticated became more commonplace following the PlayStation 2 era, but the last home console Hunter X Hunter game was released on the original PlayStation, when such ports were rarer. Following a series of games for portable consoles like the Nintendo DS and PSP, the most recent Hunter X Hunter games have all been released for mobile devices.

Some fans of the Hunter X Hunter manga chart the gaps in production, and it has been roughly four years since the last chapter was released. The 2011 anime adaptation ended with a sense of closure, but it was far from the end of the story. While series like Naruto have become ubiquitous enough in the West to prompt a crossover between Naruto and Fortnite, Hunter X Hunter is unlikely to see any games localized unless the series regains its momentum. More manga chapters could prompt a continuation of the most recent anime series, which could in turn raise awareness of Hunter X Hunter that is sufficient to warrant a localized game, assuming a new game is made for current hardware. Hunter X Hunter is one of the rare cases where even videogame fan translations have not picked up the slack, meaning English-language audiences will likely have to make do without a Hunter X Hunter game for the foreseeable future.

About The Author