Hunter x Hunter

The story begins with a young boy named Gon, who aspires to be a hunter just like his father Ging. Ging leaves his son in the care of Mito, Gon's aunt, and has not been seen since. Gon catches the local monster fish, "Lord of the Lake", in order to prove his ability to take the exam. Although Mito is reluctant to let Gon leave his home, she relents after he is determined to understand the reason his father left him and his interest of being a hunter.

Gon, Kurapika and Leorio reach Dolle Harbor and are given instructions by the captain to head for the cedar tree on the hilltop behind the city. Moving through a small town, the three are stopped by a group of people, where an old woman gives a question requring them to choose from two choices. Answering wrongly, refusing to answer or attempting to head back will result in failure of the exam.

With the navigators' help, Gon, Kurapika and Leorio arrive at Zaban City, the venue of the exam. The navigator leads them to a small restaurant, which is revealed to be the front for the venue. Gon's group is led to an elevator disguised as a back room, which leads a hundred floors underground. Below, they meet the rest of the participants and given their numbers. There they meet Tonpa, a regular participant who claims to have tried and failed 35 times in the exam.

During the first test, a number of participants fall out from fatigue after running for at least forty kilometers. Leorio almost gives up until he is encouraged by Gon, who waits for him. Killua, a participant, is introduced and he is curious of Gon's personality when he discovers that the boy is the same age as him. Kurapika and Leorio talk about the reason for being a hunter, with Kurapika wanting to take down the Phantom Troupe as his clan was massacred by them for their precious scarlet eyes, which manifest when the Kurta uses their heightened sense. Leorio aims to be a hunter for money, for purely altruistic reasons, as his childhood friend died of an illness without the funds to save him. He wishes to be a doctor so he can give his patients free treatment. Finally, the participants reach the end of the tunnel they are in and up to the surface to the Numere Wetlands, also known as Swindlers' Swamp.

While following Satotz, a fog moves into the swamp and most of the participants are either rendered unconscious or killed by traps and verocious beasts. A group of candidates target Hisoka as they feel he's a threat. Gon and Killua are separated from Leorio and Kurapika and both sides are eventually attacked by monsters. Leorio and Kurapika encounter Hisoka about to be attacked by candidates but are shocked to watch the magician easily take the candidates down. Hisoka then targets Leorio and Kurapika, but realizing that they are no match for him, they decide to head in different directions to stop him from following. However, Leorio returns, unable to run away from a fight. As expected, Leorio is beaten badly by Hisoka. Before the melee can get any worse, Gon, who is separated from Killua, arrives to stop Hisoka. Although he is also no match for Hisoka, he manages to hit his face once before being strangled by Hisoka.

Gon and Kurapika reunite with Leorio and Killua at the Phase Two site. Satotz leads what remains of the candidates to meet the second phase examiners, named Menchi and Buhara. The examiners declare the next phase is to test their cooking skills, much to the candidates' disbelief. The test requires pork, so the candidates are sent to find pigs in the forest. However, the pigs living inside the forest are carnivorous and tear through the candidates. Thanks to Gon, they discover the pigs' weakness and they manage to each get one for their cooking. Upon tasting the candidates' cooking, Buhara gives a pass but Menchi fails all of them. Knowing the candidates will riot, Satotz informs Chairman Netoros of the Hunter Selection Committee to make an appearance. Netoros arrives to correct Menchi's habit of getting biased whenever it's related to cooking. Netoros allows Menchi to stay on as examiner, and she gives the candidates a retest: boil eggs laid by spider eagles on Mt. Split-in-Half.

Gon and Killua have finally realized Biscuit's true strength and asked her to teach them Nen. With that said, they begin their hard training.

Gon and Killua are gradually improving their Nen under Bisky's tutelage. They are now able to easily capture the monsters that they previously struggled against. While their training draws to an end, the Bomber is paying a visit to the players who have teamed up.

After hearing Bisky's lecture on rock-paper-scissors, Gon decides to work on a special technique modeled off of rock-paper-scissors by using Enhancer, Emitter, and Conjurer abilities. Meanwhile, Killua leaves the game temporarily to take the HUnter Exam. While he's gone, Gon and Bisky find learn about the Bomber's most recent attack.

Killua returns after easily passing his second try at the Hunter Exam. Now that Gon, Killua, and Bisky are together again, they begin working on beating this game by collecting cards. Meanwhile, the other players are scheming to gather the cards they need to complete the game.

Team Genthru now has 96 different types of restricted slot cards after tricking Team Tsegzerra. Gon and Killua receive an invitation from other players to team up to prevent Genthru from beating the game. They head to Soufrabi to monopolize Patch of Shore, one of the cards Genthru is missing.

The condition for obtaining Patch of Shore is to chase a band of fifteen pirates out of town. Gon and crew are immediately taken to the boss, Razor, but they are quickly defeated. The plan is to recruit stronger party members and try again, so they start with the player named Chrollo.

To ensure that Netero's last wish will be followed, Ging convinces the other members of the Zodiacs to procede with the election according to some rules defined by him. However, after the first round of voting, a winner is not decided and a second round begins. Meanwhile, Illumi informs Hisoka about Gon's condition and asks for his help to ensure Killua's safety as well, in a plan that somehow involves a fifth, yet unrevealed member of the Zoldyck siblings.

With the elections in a stalemate, Pariston, the current vice-president proposes a new set of rules to his fellow Zodiacs in order to solve the impasse, but the others know that he actually plans to make use of this to secure a victory for himself. Meanwhile, Killua returns home and asks his father to let him see his younger sister Alluka, intending to use her mysterious and frightening power to grant wishes in order to save Gon's life.

Killua reunites with his sister Alluka and uses her as a leverage for them to be allowed to leave the Zoldick state, as her powers can only be used to heal Gon if she is close to him. Meanwhile, Illumi asks for Hisoka's help to stop Killua's plans, and with elections yet to reach a conclusion, the Zodiacs keep arguing about a possible way to bring it to end.

Killua is allowed by his family to leave the Zoldick estate with his sister, but only under supervision of several butlers with orders to bring them home if he ever leaves Alluka's side or allows any of their secrets to be leaked. Meanwhile, Leorio appears and confronts Ging, asking him why he had not ever paid a visit to Gon at the hospital yet.

Leorio's confrontation with Ging earns him the respect of his fellow Hunters and make him one of the frontrunners for the election. Meanwhile, Illumi begins an attack on Killua as part of his plan to kill Alluka, assisted by Hisoka, who has other plans for her.

Gotoh is killed by Hisoka, while the other butlers keep following Killua until he manages to shake them off. Meanwhile, Illumi uses his needles to take control of several people to assist on his plans and when news of it come to the Association, a team of Hunters is assembled to bring him to justice, while some of them decide to take advantage of it in order to win the election.