leah :))

On a more serious note, the last day on June is tomorrow and despite the fact that pride month is ending, gays still exist. We are still here. Commercial rainbow products may disappear, but we do not. Companies may try to erase any trace of rainbows on their logos, but we are still here.

In Japan, there’s a PariGing-only event (a doujinshi convention for PariGing fans) on July 5th, where people who love PariGing gather together.

Both Ging and Mito have some differences from the source material and 2011 anime. In the anime, Mito is perceived to be this perfect mother figure for Gon, while in the manga, it's a little more complex than that. Now, I'm definitely not saying that Mito did a terrible job in raising Gon, far from it, in fact. I'm just saying that she has her flaws as well. And I believe that the anime whitewashed her a bit to paint Ging in a more negative light.

This is also not me saying that Ging is a great father or even an okay one at that. He isn't. But I do believe that he does care about Gon. Now I won't lie, I am a bit baised about Ging, as he is one of my favorite characters right behind Gon and Killua, but there are moments that are changed or cut in the anime that make Ging seem worst than he actually is.

Mito

Let me preface this first: I like Mito; she is a great mother to Gon. However, she isn't this perfect mother figure that the anime portrayed. Mito seems to be a hothead and maybe even an alcoholic. She lies to Gon about his father and doesn't even try to hide her anger and resentment towards Ging after the truth is revealed. Not that Mito doesn't have the right to be upset at Ging because she does, but sometimes the anger she has for Ging, it gets directed to Gon unfairly. Mito kinda gives me vibes of a divorced mother where she trash talks about the father of her child to the child themselves. The child will pick up on that behavior, and it will affect them somehow. Even if Mito is a great mother and has good intentions and didn't truly mean the words she said to Gon, she still has made those mistakes in raising Gon, and it did affect him in some way.

I think her saying to Gon, "It's true! You are his son, after all." It does quite a bit of harm to Gon because it adds even more pressure of having to be enough for Ging. Later, when Gon comes back home after meeting Ging. He says to Mito, "Maybe I wasn't cut out to be a son." That line is heartbreaking. I know Gon admits right after that he was only joking, but honestly, I don't think he was. I think he was serious. I like Mito, but I think she unknowingly and unintentionally did damage Gon's self-worth in a sense.

Ging

But Ging did damage to Gon as well, even more so than Mito, obviously. A parent neglecting their child and abandoning them will definitely affect their self-worth. And Gon isn't different from this case. Gon is actually unique in the sense that he actually has a mature response to this situation, though. Children with parents who leave them usually grow to have resentment towards them, but Gon doesn't. He is just curious, and he assumes that he is the problem. That is the damage caused by Ging.

Now it's not a hot take to say that Ging is a deadbeat dad who left for his own whims. Ging left Gon at Whale Island when he was a baby. He asked his grandmother to, "Take care of my kid for a while." The anime makes it seem like he forced Mito to be a mother, but that was her decision she made. Mito decided that Ging was unfit to be a father and took custody over Gon (which I don't blame her, she isn't necessarily wrong). The anime completely cuts this out, and because of that, people have this perception that Ging forced Mito to be a mother and that Mito doesn't lie to Gon about his father.

Also, one small change that was in the anime was that they had Gon has this dream/nightmare where Gon was chasing after Ging and Ging didn't seem to care, and then the ground crumbled underneath Gon. Well, in the manga that doesn't happen. As I said before, it's a bit small, but there is a chapter cover, and it's of Ging reaching his hand out to Gon.

Now again, I'm not saying that Ging is a good father, but the anime does make him seem worse to where people have the opinion that Silva is the better father. Let that sink in for a bit. Killua's father, Silva, who let his children get tortured or even did it himself, poisoned them to the point of convulsion, isolated them, let Illumi stick a needle in Killua to manipulate him, is manipulating Killua himself, lied to Killua about his dog having rabies and convinced him to kill his dog, do even I have to mention Alluka, ect. ect. You can not convince me that Ging is the worst father in anime, let alone his own anime. Not when Silva and Gyros' father exist.

This was not a Mito hate post, or a Ging is the best father post. This was only to explain that in the manga, the situation is more complicated and complex than the anime made it seem like.