Queer Crip Pilipinx "Self in the Other" Kapwa and Queer Critical Race Feminist Disability Justice Alternative Worldmaking in Toagashi's Hunter x Hunter
By: Paulina Abustan, Ph.D.
Hunter x Hunter begins with main character and protagonist, Gon Freecs, a hazel brown and bright eyed 12 years young boy with light skin, black green spiky hair, green shorts, green jacket, and long green boots adventuring around lush green Whale Island surrounded by a blue and shimmering ocean. As we all first meet Gon, we cannot help but LOVE him so much as his passion for exploring nature and relating with animals is evident when he often speaks to and takes care of animals. Gon walks around with his fishing pole and even throws back an enormous fish the size of a whale back into the ocean.
The story then continues showcasing Gon's deepest desire and wish to become a Pro Hunter just like his father, Ging Freecss. Gon has no memories of his father because his father left him to live with his aunt at Whale Island when he was just a young infant in order to become a Pro Hunter and explore the world. Gon leaves Whale Island on a boat to take an exam to become a Pro Hunter which is an elite class of fighters with unlimited access to higher levels of government and business clearances, including underground business organizations.
Gon then meets Leorio, a tall man with light skin, spiky dark brown hair, small black sun glasses, in a blue business suit, white collar shirt, blue tie, and black dress shoes and in addition, meets Kurapika, an ambiguous gender presenting person with long yellow blonde hair, grey eyes, with a white long sleeve shirt and white pants with a blue and gold long vest and blue shoes. At first, Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika are mere strangers, however, they become closer to each other as acquaintances after both Leorio and Kurapika save Gon's life as Gon reaches out to save someone who almost fell off the ship due to a violent windy and rainy sea storm.
Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika continue on to take part in the Pro Hunter exam first taking place with examiners testing their mental and physical abilities on the boat, and then at a seaside town, and then at an island forest with wild magical creatures, and then at an underground tunnel where they meet Killua, a 12 years young boy with blue eyes, pale white skin, white spiky and fluffy hair, blue long sleeve turtle neck shirt under a white v neck shirt with grey shorts, and grey shoes holding a skateboard. As a large group of people taking the Pro Hunter Exam are running behind the examiner under the tunnel, Killua is at first riding his skateboard when he first sees Gon. He asks Gon what his age is and stops skateboarding to run alongside Gon when he realizes they are the same age. Thus, the beginnings of Gon and Killua's most amazing forever queer crip friendship!