'Hunter x Hunter's Return Welcomes Back The Phantom Troupe

The Hunter x Hunter manga recently came back from its hiatus, and fans couldn't be happier. Especially with the return of one major group in the story, the Phantom Troupe, who have made their way onto the Black Whale carrying everyone to the Dark Continent.

While the Kakin Family's Succession Contest goes on up above, the Phantom Troupe is working on a mysterious scheme below.

After beating up a group of rent-a-thugs, the Phantom Troupe reveal that they're training to gain as much information as they can on the royal family in order to somehow sneak up to the upper floors.

Also revealed to be there is Chrollo, who's seeking out another match from Hisoka (as the two recently quite the brutal fight involving many deaths). He reveals that Hisoka is also aboard the Black Whale somewhere so the Troupe needs to get to the other floors as soon as possible.

Not only the Succession Contest arc full of psychological tricks and battles above, it seems that there are many parts converging on one another as Hunter x Hunter heads closer and closer to the Dark Continent.

Premium Bandai is currently selling a replica set of its Greed Island card game. It runs 8,800 yen (about $78 USD) and Premium Bandai will be taking orders through February with shipment beginning in April. If this seems like it would be too cumbersome but you still want to show off your love of Hunter x Hunter, you can do so with Premium Bandai's other replica offering, the Beatle 07.

For those unfamiliar with Hunter x Hunter, the series was originally created by Yoshihiro Togashi. The story follows a young boy named Gon Freecss, who discovers that his previously thought to be dead father is in fact alive. Not only is he alive, he is a famous Hunter, a professional traveler who specializes in finding rare treasures, exploring unidentified lands, and hunting down dangerous individuals. Gon then decides that in order to meet his father he has to become a licensed Hunter, but in that journey gets wrapped up in way more strangeness than he ever could have anticipated.

The series first ran in Shuiesha's Weekly Shonen Jump in March 1998. Unforunately, the series has gone on a number of hiatuses ever since 2006 which were most likely incurred by bouts of illness Togashi experienced when publishing his last work, Yu Yu Hakusho. The series has run for 360 chapters, and been collected into 47 volumes as of 2017. It's one of Shueisha's most successful selling series with over 66 million copies sold in Japan.

Hunter x Hunter was then adapted into two different anime series. One series ran from 1999 to 2001 from Nippon Animation and lasted for 62 episodes. The second adaptation, produced by Madhouse, ran from 2011 to 2014.