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cocogum · 1 year

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Gon was born in 1988.

One thing that always bothered me about the 2011 version, was how they made Gon and Killua say that they were exactly 12 instead of saying “almost 12”.

Now I know I shouldn’t be complaining about something so small and insignificant.

But I’m still going to.

When I saw these two saying they were 12 instead of saying that they were almost 12, it irked me because I knew the math wouldn’t be right. If they were actually 12, then they’d be born in 1987 making the timeline of the story incorrect and changing the whole story by taking off a year of it.

By changing one detail and making it look like another, you mess up something bigger than just a character’s age. When it comes to what year hxh takes place in, we have to rely on what we’ve got since the story doesn’t say it for us but simply gives us clues and hints.

But that’s not the point here. The point that I’m trying to make is that every time his year of birth pops up on his bio, it shows the year 1987 instead of 1988. At first, I didn’t think much about it, since I knew the wiki was talking about his anime counterpart. But when people started using the year 1987 for his official birthday, it just felt too messy and unorganized for me so that’s why I’m making this to not only help myself to remember but also if anyone has had the same problem I had.

So let’s begin.

Gon was born on May 5th, XXXX.

At the very beginning of the series, Gon, Leorio, Kurapika and Killua take the 287th hunter exam on January 7th and took exactly 8 days for them to finish it (so from January 7th to January 15th). Specifically in chapter 6, Killua asks Gon how old he is. The boy tells him he’s almost 12 to which Killua also says the same thing (like seriously dude u could’ve just said 11 instead of saying “almost 12” like why complicate yourself???)

So now we know the main character’s age during this time period which was 11.

Next, when the main four finally reunite on September 1st (Kurapika joins them just a bit later) in the Yorknew City arc, Gon and Killua are finally 12 since their birthdays (May 5th for Gon and July 7th for Killua) passed already.

Let’s fast forward a little.

In chapter 146, Bisky tells Gon and Killua that the new year is almost there, specifically stating that it is currently December 29th.

(This scene also helps us to know that the Hunter exam usually stops accepting participants on the 31st of December.)

Just a bit later during the same chapter, when Killua exits the game to apply for the hunter exam a second time, we see a sign hanging from a store building which conveniently just happens to show us the exact year of when this is all occurring as well as the month and the day. According to the sign, the date is said to be December 29th, 1999.

(Not only do we get the full date but we also get the time too which is 15:08 aka 3:08 pm.)

We know this scene takes place on December 29th since Bisky confirmed it on the panel just above this one so we can trust this building sign for giving us an exact answer on the year and time this is taking place in.

Since every hunter exam starts on January 7th (the application deadline ends on December 31st), Killua would have passed the 288th hunter exam on the seventh day of the new year (since he instantly beat everyone on the first phase).

Now we go even further into the timeline.

If we fully skip the full chimera ant arc and go right to the scene where Gon’s at the hospital, we get to see a doctor in chapter 316 explaining to Knuckle and Knov the situation that Gon is currently in. While explaining to them the severity of his condition, we can see the doctor privately commenting on how he’s shocked to see that a 12-year-old boy turned out like this in just one day.

(So apparently 4 months have passed during the chimera ant arc cuz why the hell would that doctor say he’s 12 if it took the hunter team more than four months to win against the ants??)

Fast forward again.

The 289th hunter exam occurs only this time, instead of starting on January 7th like usual, it got postponed to a later date so that the Hunter association could gather the necessary resources to help Beyond Netero and the Kakin Empire to properly accompany them to the Dark Continent. Even though we don’t know when this specific hunter exam eventually started, we know that it ended on July 3rd which makes Gon 13 years old (and eventually Killua as well since his birthday is only 4 days later).

So there we go.

Gon is 13 years old in 2001 (which is the current year that the story is taking place in) and his complete birthdate is May 5th, 1988.