Hunter x Hunter continues after Gon Freecs and his friends have received their Hunters' licenses after beating “Greed Island". Gon and Kiulla headed off in search of Gon's father only to encounter an infestation of humanoid ants who quickly learned how to use Nen. Volume 26 continues the battle against the Ants. Gon and Kiulla meet up with Pitou while Knuckles and Morel, two Hunters, face off against Youpi. Other battles continue to rage, but things seem to continue going awry.
Gon finally meets up with Pitou. However, Pitou is completely defenseless as he is using his entire abilities, by order of the King, to heal Komugi, a small slovenly blind girl who is a master at Gungi (a Shogi-like game). Upon seeing Pitou, Gon feels only rage for him because of his mistreatment of Kite, the first Hunter who inspired Gon to become a Hunter himself. In a furious state of rage, Gon demands Pitou fight him right then and there. When Pitou refuses because he is healing Komugi, Gon's internal struggle begins. This is because Pitou heals Komugi not simply because it was an order, but because she is a precious person to the King, someone Pitou cares about. Gon's inner struggle for revenge for Kite, his wanting to have Pitou heal Kite and his caring nature not wanting the girl to die, especially as he understands how he'd feel if the positions were reversed, all play out inside him. That scene, where the action is the inner conflict rather than anything physical, is what makes this volume.
Overview:
Yoshihiro Togashi continues the somewhat unusual style, found in the later volumes of Hunter x Hunter, of narrating most of the thoughts of the various characters rather than using the more standard thought bubbles. In this particular volume the common thematic element has to do with the narrator describing the characters' thought processes and following up with why those normally correct thoughts are wrong this time.
The thought narration and constant shifting between multiple perspectives make it hard to feel atached to any one group. On the other hand, it doesn't take much effort for those who want to see the progress of a particular battle. Given that all of this takes place over a matter of minutes in different locations, the constant shifting of perspective and time is almost necessary. Fortunately, Tagashi shows his genius in the latter. In spite of the non-linear storytelling, everything flows smoothly narrative-wise, and the constant time stamps at the beginning of each chapter make it easy to track what time it is.
One thing that this last volume makes clear is that the King's guard ants are not your typical ants in the way they think. Pitou and Youpi clearly are willing to risk themselves for someone greater because they value the King. Earlier Shaiaouf had shown the desire to protect the King, but not the same willingness of self-sacrifice as Pitou nor the level of total devotion to the King as Youpi appears to show. The King has already shown this, at least when it comes to Komugi, but in this volume Pitou confirms what had just been strongly hinted at before with his relationship to the King.
As this is the last volume for a while — volume 27 only recently released in Japan — those reading it will be satisfied to know Tagashi did not leave the manga at a complete cliffhanger. While the situation remains largely unresolved, the final scene does get a partial conclusion that has been building up for some time.
The note about the release of volume 27 also makes a nice lead into the next note of interest; for those who don't already know, Hunter x Hunter is starting its weekly publication in Japan at the same time this volume is released. That means everyone here can look forward to at least two new volumes of Hunter x Hunter.
If you are already a fan of Hunter x Hunter this book won't let you down. As it's also the only book likely to be released in English for a while, the purchase won't hurt your budget and can help satisfy the craving for more Hunter x Huntergoodness.
ComicsOnline gives Hunter x Hunter volume 26 4 out of 5 royal guard ants.
