Gon Freecss

Infobox animanga character
name = Gon Freecss
("ゴン=フリークス")
series = Hunter × Hunter


caption =
first = Volume 01 Chapter 001
last =
creator = Yoshihiro Togashi
voiced by = Junko Takeuchi (series), Rika Matsumoto (pilot episode)
nickname =
alias =
age = 12Gon's profile. cite book|last=Togashi|first=Yoshihiro|authorlink=Yoshihiro Togashi|title=Hunter × Hunter, Hunter's Guide|year=2004|publisher=Shueisha|pages=Pg.18|isbn=978-4-08-872788-2]
gender = Male
born = May 5th
death =
occupation = Hunter
title =
relatives = Ging Freecss(father)
Mito Freecss (aunt/adoptive mother)
divider = Nen Information
aux1 name = Nen type:
aux1 = Enhancement [Results of the Water Test. cite book|last=Togashi|first=Yoshihiro|authorlink=Yoshihiro Togashi|title=Hunter × Hunter, Volume 07|year=2006|publisher=Viz Media|chapter=Chapter 060|pages=Pg.114|isbn=978-1-4215-0332-5]
aux2 name = Nen ability:
aux2 =

nihongo|Gon Freecss|ゴン=フリークス|Gon Furīkusu is the son of the legendary Hunter Ging Freecss and the protagonist of the series Hunter × Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi.

Creation and conception

History

Gon was left in the care of his aunt Mito on Whale Island as an infant by his father Ging, and never saw his father since. Holding great disdain for Ging's constant travels and putting Gon in danger, she forced Ging to give his son up so he could live normally. Mito told him as a child that his parents were deceased, but Gon eventually figured out the truth and chose the path of a Hunter to meet his father once again.

At the age of nine, Gon met another Hunter named Kite, Ging's only known apprentice. [cite book|last=Togashi|first=Yoshihiro|authorlink=Yoshihiro Togashi|title=Hunter × Hunter, Volume 01|year=2005|publisher=Viz Media|chapter=Chapter 001|pages=Pg.19-27|isbn=978-1-59116-753-2] Kite saved his life from a beast and proceeded to tell Gon that his father was alive. Their meeting steered Gon towards deciding to search for his father, and also influenced him to take the Hunter Exam.

Talents

A naturally optimistic youth, Gon's friendliness and innocence charmed many others to his side. In the primary rounds of the Hunter Exam, Gon becomes friends with three people who would become his most trusted friends--Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio. With uncanny and animalistic senses of smell, taste, and hearing (presumably due to his youth spent playing in the forest), Gon's instincts have aided his friends through many tough obstacles throughout the series. Gon has another remarkable talent; he is able to talk to and befriend animals easily. Gon also has the ability to heal at an unnatural speed, and he possesses immense strength for a boy his age.Gon has an unusual choice of a weapon, which is a fishing rod once owned by his father. Gon is able to accurately swing and hook the lure onto targets, proving itself to be useful time and time again. Combined with his natural strength, the fishing rod can also be used as an offensive weapon. Despite his apparent naivete, Gon is able to adapt quickly to situations and can come up with new strategies in the middle of combat. However, his lack of experience has been shown to cause problems within actual battles. After training on the Testing Gate in front of Kukuroo Mountain, Gon’s strength increased considerably; he is naturally agile and in excellent physical condition. Like his friend Killua, Gon has also been stated to have exceptional potential for using Nen. Knuckle's nen ability shows that Gon has approximately 20,000 aura.

Nen Ability: Jajanken

Out of the six nen types, Gon is an Enhancer. Enhancers excel in attack and defense, and also have the ability to heal themselves quickly. After being taught by his master, Wing, Gon sharpened his use of Nen and managed to increase the attack power of his fists.

His hatsu ability is called Jajanken (ジャジャン拳), a set of special attacks based on the game Rock-Paper-Scissors (Japanese: Jan-ken-pon or "Janken"). The ability was named accidentally, when Gon stuttered on the first syllable (due to nervousness) when asked the name of his ability by Knuckle.

*Rock (グー "Gū") - Gon focuses the aura around his fists using "Ko" and releases it in a punch. Rock is a close range attack, and has the strongest power among the three.
*Scissors (チー "Chī") - Scissors is formed using two fingers in a pistol shape. Gon uses Transmutation abilities to transform his aura into a long blade extending from the two fingers. It's a middle range attack, and not as powerful as Rock, though it can cut through what Rock cannot break. Gon has more trouble with this attack because he is an Enhancer leaning towards Emission.
*Paper (パー "Pā") - For this, Gon uses his Emission abilities to project his "Nen" towards his enemies. Paper uses an open palm to emit the aura. It's a long range attack that fires nen as a projectile; because Gon is an Enhancer and Paper uses emission, a different nen type, it is weaker than Rock. However, he has found this to be useful for pincer type attacks, as demonstrated in his battle with Knuckle.

Reception

Gon has been received well by Japanese readers, placing third in the first character popularity poll. [Results of the first character popularity poll. cite book|last=Togashi|first=Yoshihiro|authorlink=Yoshihiro Togashi|title=Hunter × Hunter, Volume 07|year=2006|publisher=Viz Media|chapter=Chapter 056|pages=Pg.27|isbn=978-1-4215-0332-5] He succeeded in acquiring third place in the second character poll, also. [Results of the second character popularity poll. cite book|last=Togashi|first=Yoshihiro|authorlink=Yoshihiro Togashi|title=Hunter × Hunter, Volume 12|year=2007|publisher=Viz Media|chapter=Chapter 115|pages=Pg.184|isbn=978-1-4215-0647-0]

References