Hunter x Hunter

Hunter x Hunter looks like a boy's adventure and turns out to be one of the most inventive, ruthless stories in all of manga. Gon Freecss is a bright, preternaturally capable kid who sets out to become a Hunter — an elite, licensed adventurer — in order to find the father who left him to chase that same life. Passing the deadly Hunter Exam is only the first door; beyond it lie tournaments, criminal syndicates, and a superpower system called Nen with rules deep enough to sustain some of the genre's greatest battles of wits. Yoshihiro Togashi refuses to coast. Just when it feels comfortable, the series pivots into darker, more complex territory — the merciless Chimera Ant arc alone is regarded as a high-water mark for the entire medium — and its villains are among the most memorable ever drawn. It's a shonen that thinks harder than almost anything around it. Two notes: the manga is famous for its long hiatuses, and the 2011 anime is a superb, complete-feeling entry point covering its major arcs. Start with either — Hunter x Hunter is a masterclass in never doing the expected thing.