I don't think that it's an exaggeration
to say that Jing freaks is one of the
most significant figures in the entirety
of Hunter hunter after all he does
represent half of the title of the
series he himself being the first hunter
in the name with his son being the
hunter that is hunting the hunter making
gone a hunter hunter aside from whether
or not you buy into that interpretation
of the title Jing is one of the
characters that shapes the style and
just as importantly the most prominent
message of the series the themes
religious inspiration and
characterization associated with Jing
all merge beautifully to form a
character who is probably the best
personified depiction of Takashi's main
message with the series and to me this
makes him easily one of the front men of
the story even if he was absent for the
majority of it here I'll be discussing
the themes associated with Jing and what
he represents but I won't be doing much
Theory crafting on what he's done and
will do in the Dark Continent so keep
that in mind the entire premise of
hunter hunter is centered on the fact
that Jing left his young son with his an
Mito to go and become a hunter and
explore the world and this is the
starting block to the plot something
needed to inspire gone to leave whale
island to pursue grander goals and the
lure of understanding the type of man
his father was did just that
what I find interesting is that a common
perception about Jing both from Watchers
or readers of the series and characters
in universe is that he's a bit of a dick
for leaving his son to go off and do his
own thing a lot of people can't seem to
understand why GaN doesn't resent his
father for doing so as I touched the
point of my religious symbolism video
these actions would seem very selfish
and irresponsible to anyone with morals
founded in Western culture or even just
the majority of the world's population
in general but for the nine to ten
percent of the world who practice
Buddhism Jing's actions would likely be
more understandable it's my personal
belief that Takashi used Buddhist ideas
while formulating Jing which makes sense
both when you look at certain parallels
between the story and the religion and
the fact that he has incorporated
Buddhist concepts in other characters in
the series
see my NetID Oh analysis for more
information on that if you want I think
that one of the most telling pieces of
evidence for this is found in gongs
outlook towards Jing not only does he
not place blame on or dislike his father
for leaving him but he admires
everything that he is gone strives to
truly follow in his father's footsteps
to understand the man whose own personal
journey reflects the template of the
Buddha this template promotes a
disregard for responsibilities involving
family as the Buddha himself lets his
child and wife in order to pursue
enlightenment through doing this Buddha
achieves Nirvana
which represents total freedom but can
only be achieved by minimizing external
attachments and associations including
family this was Jing's quest in hunter
hunter to find his version of Nirvana
complete liberation and these sorts of
actions may be frowned upon by many but
this is part of the deep-rooted Buddhist
tradition and considered to be quite an
admirable thing and this is why Gaughan
values his father so much he views him
through an Eastern Buddhist mindset and
instead of looking at abandonment
negatively he seeks to understand Jing's
ideals and find out what's so great
about being a hunter of course
by jings introduction in the election
arc and has long a way to talk with Gong
his opinion has been swayed through his
experiences he has learned that in his
view Nirvana itself is not really found
as an end goal but instead through and
within the little adventures along the
way to that goal but more on that later
[Music]
despite how abstract some of the themes
and symbolism associated with the
concept of James character are he's a
very grounded man with personality
traits that are both realistic and
believable takashi contrasts the idea of
a spiritual wanderer searching for
nirvana
with a man whose characterization is
surprisingly blunt withdrawn and
standoffish as an additive to a journey
to explore and have fun having just
finished YuYu Hakusho for the first time
I couldn't help but notice parallels
between the personalities of Yusuke Yura
messy and Jing in a few ways even if the
reasons behind the similar behavior were
quite different but we'll save that for
another time
Jing seeks the pleasures of exploration
and fulfillment but did not want to deal
with the consequences of that he's
exceedingly shy and shameful admitting
through his recording that he doesn't
want gone to find him partly because he
won't be able to stand being face to
face with a person he basically
abandoned this has proven to be true
when the two finally meet and Jing is as
bashful as ever and this aspect of his
personality dispelled the notion that he
doesn't care about golf but reinforces
the fact that he's extremely flawed as a
person he's independent and self-made
but he just doesn't have great social
skills apart from when he's with people
that he knows closely Jing is incredibly
intelligent strategic and great at
predicting the actions of others for
instance he predicts many of Gaughan's
actions and manipulated lai oreos so
that he would be an obstacle for
perished in the election but he doesn't
really know how to interact with people
without seeming brazen I think this
stems from the fact that he is so boldly
different from the vast majority of
everyone else in this world Jing takes
life by the balls and does it without
shame if you don't count the situation
went gone he has a childlike love and
expression for the unknown and adores
doing things for fun and he can be very
selfish with how he sets out to have
this fun this can be repulsive to
outsiders but for anyone who gets to
know Jing his Stryper progression in
life exudes a unique type of charisma
and people tend to gravitate towards him
because of this and despite his poor
social skills Jing is just a very
independent guy who can't really
comprehend other people that aren't to
have self-reliant he isn't blind to his
flaws and clearly feels bad that he left
gone behind
he did it to both seek his own endeavors
and help gon develop as a person to him
it wasn't that bad of a thing to leave
gone with a mountain decline because he
himself has that sort of personality
however most Outsiders can't relate to
this mentality and this can lead to the
idea of Jing being a classic Western
example of a bad father to Jing himself
he isn't a great dad but he did what he
did for a reason and he can't understand
why others don't see the world through
his Buddhism centric lens as a result he
likes passionate people who take it upon
themselves to reach their goals and this
is why he left monumental challenges for
both gone and kite to complete it's also
why he had extreme admiration for Neto
and even has a grudging respect for
Paris ten men like this follow their
instincts independent of what others
think and that is what Jing values as a
side note I'll be delving more into the
relationship between Jing and paracin in
a future video
what's clear about Jing is that he's
distinctive and unrefined as evidenced
through both his actions and behaviors
throughout the story this turns him into
more of a genuine character than the
enigmatic final goal foregone that he
was through most of the series if Jing
had been a competent social butterfly he
was great at everything then he would
have been hard to relate to and
understand for the audience but as the
series shifts from the perspective that
Jing is some sort of unattainable
endeavour to a perspective that he is
now a living and breathing man an active
participant in the story our view shift
as well before he was a sort of ideal a
tool used to drive the clock forward but
in the election and Dark Continent arcs
the story has expanded its reach with
Jing as a primary character due to this
change in structure Jing needed to be
characterized well and if you can't tell
already I was really pleased with how he
turned out
aside from all that I've said though the
most interesting thing about Jing to me
is that he seems to be a reflection of
Togo she himself if you think about
certain elements of Jing with the
mindset that he is kind of like oh gosh
she's proxy then he suddenly becomes a
very meta character it's been said
throughout the story that although he is
goal-oriented Jing tends to do things on
a whim for fun to suit his needs or just
for the hell of it surprising others and
even himself with his behavior examples
of this are evident throughout the
election art but even more so when we
learned that Jing literally changed his
friends name from this to this dropping
the W so that the first names of the
group of friends could spell the acronym
greed Island and dropping the e at the
end because it was confusing to him it's
clear that Jing asked in a very
stream-of-consciousness way and I have
no better way to describe Hunter hunter
storytelling style as a clear creative
stream of consciousness as well as has
been pointed out in the past by didja
bro in his video on the series the sheer
variance and the type of arcs in this
series is pretty incredible and while it
is structured well it isn't wrong to say
that Takashi wanted to get as many of
his creative ideas as possible out there
through this narrative while at the same
time telling a great story we see till
gosh Ian's ideas about MMORPGs and card
games through greed Island his grim
thoughts about humanity through the time
era and arc and his brief perspective on
politics through the election arc while
this approach to arcs is tons of fun and
the story never feels out of place at
least in my opinion the arcs have very
little to do with each other
conceptually they're very much founded
on a creative flow of thought and Jing
himself reflects this through his
nonchalant and instinctual behaviors his
inane ability which allows him to mimic
men powers that have been used against
him also has a sort of go with the flow
aspect to it now I can see that this
could be a stretch for some people and
that this might not even be a conscious
decision by Takashi but my next point on
the meta aspect of Jing draws more
concrete parallels
you should enjoy the little detours to
the fullest because that's where you'll
find that things more important than
what you want this is probably the most
famous quote in this series and it's not
hard to see why Jing is a devoted
advocate of little distractions and fun
as illustrated numerous times throughout
the series he has always been someone
that values the journey more than the
destination always being after something
but ultimately enjoying the quest more
than the journey initially Jing was on
an adventure to find Nirvana but
eventually found Nirvana to be the
adventure itself this is important
because Jiang's mantra is a summary of
this narratives philosophy what else is
hunter hunter but a display of how
beautiful the little detours in life are
gonna set out at the beginning to find
his father and that was his ultimate
goal the only main semblance of an
overarching plot for this story but
hunter hunter really is just a series of
beautiful little distractions were we as
an audience thinking about finding Jing
when gone Cora Vika and Li oreos showed
their resolve and determination to save
their friend were we wondering where he
might be while we were witnessing the
badassery that was the fight between
crow Lo and his old --ax how about
during the amazing dodgeball game or
during Marilyn's gorgeous ascent to
humanity the detours are everything in
this series and in life depending on who
you ask
and this is why Jing is the
personification of Takashi's philosophy
when it comes to this series his own
ideals embodied everything that Takashi
and Hunter hunter are about but having
said all of this Jin's story is far from
done I would say with optimism that it's
only just started although who really
knows when it comes to this series he's
poised to be a major player in the Dark
Continent and I have no doubt that there
will be even more to learn from him in
the future as for now though and
regardless of his importance in the
story's future events Jing is already a
huge character gongs yearning to find
Jing was powerful in its emotional
resonance because of how distant his
father felt at times bringing stories
centered on a seemingly unattainable
goal such as The Great Gatsby and Final
Fantasy 10 to mind and leading to some
very poignant story beats but I'm
delighted that the characters
significance goes far beyond that
he simultaneously drives the series
forward contributes to a structure and
rooted in Eastern philosophy while also
representing Takashi's ideals within his
own fictional work Jing is a truly
unique character and one that I've grown
to like even more while working on this
video a lot of what he represents isn't
completely readily apparent so I was
happy to see that he was one of the most
requested character videos on this
channel let me know what you think about
my interpretation of Jing and what you
think of the character he's a one of a
kind character in this series that tends
to divide opinion between if he's a
completely awful father or a
misunderstood one so I'm interested to
see which side of the fence you guys sit
on as always you can give us suggestions
for the type of Hunter hunter video
you'd like to see in the future although
I do have the next couple already
planned I can't say which one I'll be
doing next as that's a perk reserved for
my patrons though anyway I've rambled on
long enough thanks again for watching
[Music]