It's been a big past few weeks for "Hunter x Hunter" fans. After Shueisha's "Weekly Shonen Jump" announced mid-March that "Hunter x Hunter" would be making its return to the magazine (confirmed for April 18) after being on hiatus since 2014, fans in America now have even more to look forward to, as Adult Swim's Toonami revealed that an English dub for the series will be aired on the network starting April 16.
The announcement was made Friday during a pre-show feature on the Adult Swim website Toonami: Pre-flight. The series will make its premiere on the network starting April 16 at 1 a.m.
This dub will be the English rendition of the second television anime adaptation of Yoshihiro Togashi's "Hunter × Hunter" manga, which ran between 2011 and 2014 in Japan and lasted for 148 episodes. It retold the story of original manga from the beginning, following the exploits of series protagonist Gon Freecs as he strives to become a Hunter in order to find his father and learn why his father abandoned him as a baby.
Viz Media, which announced in October that it licensed the series with plans to release the series on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, as well as bring a dub to the West, revealed on its Twitter account that Bang Zoom! Entertainment is producing the dub.
Bang Zoom will be working on #HUNTERXHUNTER @abzeronow @tristencitrine @tsunderica
— VIZ Media (@VIZMedia) April 1, 2016
The main voice cast was revealed at the C2E2 event in Chicago last month:
- Erica Mendez as Gon Freecss
- Cristina Vee as Killua Zoldyck
- Matt Mercer as Leorio
- Keith Silverstein as Hisoka
The news was certainly unexpected for fans, who, despite listing "Hunter x Hunter" as one of the top five most-requested anime for the network to broadcast, never expected Toonami to actually go through and acquire it. Some might have seen this development coming, however, as Toonami has certainly been hard at work in a bid to appease its viewers. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Toonami would be working with Production I.G. to bring two more seasons to the legendary sci-fi anime "Fooly Cooly" (FLCL). Premiering in 2001, the original series had six episodes and ended in 2003.
With these two new acquisitions under Toonami's belt, who knows what it will do next.
In the meantime, check out the "Hunter x Hunter" English dub trailer below:
