Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact and the Problem with Adaptations

By Grace Benfell | July 24, 2025 | 1:36pm

Video Games Features Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact

Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact and the Problem with Adaptations

Can a fighting game capture what makes Hunter X Hunter special?

If Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact is any indication, the answer is both yes and no. Yes, because Nen Impact is, despite some technical issues and a cheap look, a sincere chance to embody the classic’s characters. No, because there is so much about Hunter x Hunter that is out of step with the pure, muscular contest that a fighting game represents. This puts Nen Impact in an odd position. It at once feels inevitable and exciting that Hunter x Hunter is getting a game like this. I am often intimidated by the complexity of fighting games, but with Nen Impact I feel a little like I have my foot in the door. I already like these characters and I’m already thrilled by their abilities. However, it is possible that a game like this cannot capture what makes Hunter x Hunter a profound and unforgettable story.

Let’s start with the good. Even with its sort of off-model look, Nen Impact does capture a lot of the anime’s energy. Several of the heroes’ and villains’ signature abilities have direct translation in their in-game movesets. But Nen Impact‘s adaptation goes beyond superficialities. You’ll feel like you are embodying the scrappy strength of Gon or the effortless power of Meruem. There are some pretty hard limits to that, of course. Plenty of the characters’ powers are too strange or complex to give full force in this limited shape. But Nen Impact represents a sincere effort to move what is compelling about these characters into a kinetic, interactive for. Even though it has been drowning in online issues since its launch (and comes with a steep price tag for something so troubled), there’s something praiseworthy in that.

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But technical issues don’t represent the ceiling of Nen Impact’s limitations. If you are are picking up Dragon Ball FighterZ or Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, you are getting something that is fair approximation of the source material. Of course, they are not exactly the same. Any Dragon Ball fan would balk at the idea that you would “get” Dragon Ball just by playing FighterZ. But the arc of a good match in FighterZ is pretty similar to the arc of a good fight in the source material. I don’t think this is the case with Hunter x Hunter, and not just because of buggy online multiplayer.

Hunter x Hunter is at once a sincere instantiation of shonen tropes and a total dismantling of them. People call Hunter x Hunter subversive, but that’s not quite right. For one, it implies that the manga’s use of shonen conventions is only in service of a greater end. It is obvious that the manga’s pleasures come just as much from its straightforwardness as its complexity. Besides, I find that the description of “subversion” often comes from a lack of curiosity about the genre in the first place. There can be an assumption that other shonen fighting manga, like Dragon Ball, lack the depth that Hunter x Hunter has in spades.

I think this is bunk for two main reasons. The first is that Hunter x Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama are some of the finest pure draftsmen to ever work in comics. Both design instantly recognizable characters. Both have an incredible eye for motion and dynamism. There are plenty of things that distinguish them as stylists. Togashi’s line work is inky and sharp, where Toriyama’s is smooth and bold. But characters like Gon and Meruem show how much Togashi’s work owes to Toriyama’s. In other words, many of the pure sensory pleasures of both works are in total alignment. Hunter x Hunter is just as invested in action craft as any other shonen.

The second reason is that straightforward shonen can be plenty profound. Even manga like Naruto, which steals relentlessly from Hunter x Hunter and is about half as good, has moments of legitimate depth. When the RZA says that “Dragon Ball Z represents the journey of the Black man in America,” it’s hardly an absurd statement. People identify with and love Dragon Ball Z because it speaks to something real.

Neither of those points mean that Hunter x Hunter is not special. On the contrary, it is the fact that Togashi does not hold himself above the conventions of his genre that enables Hunter x Hunter to swing into transcendence. Togashi does not shy away from tropes or undercut them, but draws them taut like a bowstring. In both the anime and the manga, the fights and powers never become less thrilling, but they do gain dreadful edges. Hunter x Hunter swings from exhilaration at the discovery of a new power to dread at what that power might mean, indulging both feelings with utter sincerity.

Hunter x Hunter spoilers follow.

Protagonist Gon is at the center of those swings. He is a boy at home with nature and makes friends easily. He is kind-hearted and stubborn, with a strong sense of right and wrong. At first glance, he could not be more typical, drawing easy comparison to other protagonists like Goku and Sora. But that stubbornness can make him narrow-minded, unwilling to absorb information that changes a situation. The tighter the story pulls Gon, the more frightening depths he accumulates.

The flip side of this, and something that Nen Impact could not adapt, is Komugi. She is a blind girl, a master of Gungi, a fictional combination of Go and Shogi. Her foil, Meruem, is the king of the chimera ants, an evolutionary-next-step which threatens to kill or transform humanity. As Meruem waits for his master plot to begin, he starts playing against Komugi to pass the time. Though he has effortlessly bested every foe he has fought up to this point, he cannot defeat Komugi. The relationship transforms him from a bloodthirsty warlord to someone capable of care and compassion. At one point, he is baffled by his feelings for her. He could kill her at any time, and isn’t that the only power that matters? But he‘s drawn to the beauty of her mind, to the way it reflects him, and also how different it is.

Komugi is a character that would be absurd to put in a game like this. Any one of Nen Impact’s roster could dispatch her with a flick of their wrist. Yet, she is one of the manga’s most powerful characters, bringing its most powerful figure low. I don’t exactly begrudge Nen Impact this. It is hardly in danger of replacing the manga or anime as the primary means of experiencing this story. Adaptation is always a strange thing; something will be lost in the transfer, but maybe you’ll gain something too. Nevertheless, there is something profound about this loss. I can’t help but feel a little sorry that this is a game without Hunter x Hunter’s most striking and vital parts.

Grace Benfell is a queer woman, critic, and aspiring fan fiction author. She writes on her blog Grace in the Machine and can be found @gracemachine on BlueSky.