What are the story arcs of Hunter x Hunter?
Hunter x Hunter is built as a chain of self contained arcs, each changing genre around the same cast. In order: the Hunter Exam arc, the Zoldyck Family arc, the Heavens Arena arc, the Yorknew City arc, the Greed Island arc, the Chimera Ant arc, the 13th Hunter Chairman Election arc, the Dark Continent Expedition arc and the ongoing Succession Contest arc. Together they carry Gon's search for his father Ging and keep escaping the shape the previous arc established.
The early arcs are foundations laid at speed. The Hunter Exam (manga volumes 1 to 5) is an adventure serial with deadly tests and the first appearance of Hisoka. The brief Zoldyck Family arc retrieves Killua from his assassin household. Heavens Arena introduces Nen, the series' power system, inside a battle tower economy, the hinge on which everything later turns.
The middle arcs are the famous ones. Yorknew City (volumes 8 to 13) is a mafia tragedy about Kurapika and the Phantom Troupe that barely features Gon's quest at all. Greed Island (volumes 13 to 18) traps the cast inside a card based game world built by Ging and his friends. The Chimera Ant arc (volumes 18 to 30) is the series' longest and darkest, an invasion story that mutates into a meditation on humanity, and it consumes more volumes than the first four arcs combined.
The Election arc (volumes 31 to 32) closes Gon's quest in a political comedy thriller about the Hunter Association's vote and the Zoldyck family's most dangerous child. Beyond the anime's reach, the Dark Continent Expedition (volume 33 onward) launches an exploration voyage, and the Succession Contest turns that voyage's ship into a locked room war among fourteen princes, the series' current and most intricate arc.
For readers choosing an entry point, the honest advice is volume 1: the arcs reward sequence because Togashi plants systems early and detonates them late, Nen's rules, the Troupe's history, Ging's games. But the arc structure is also the series' mercy: a reader can love Yorknew and the Chimera Ants as near standalone novels inside one long story.
