<p>As you can see from these comments by me, @seijitsu, and @eha1234, there's a considerable amount of skepticism over how "recycled" these designs really are.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Me: Personally, I don't think the characters in this question even
  look that similar, not compared to Ken Akamatsu's Naru and Asuna, or
  the Ai Yazawa and Naoko Takeuchi characters that seijitsu mentioned in
  regard to the "same faces" question.</p>
  
  <p>eha1234: Yusuke and Gon have very different personalities and I think
  the green scheme is only present in the anime - the manga is black and
  white. Hiei and Killua's demeanour isn't the same. Killua, when
  relaxed, is quite playful whilst Hiei is silent. They've both got
  tragic pasts though. Many of Togashi's characters have androgynous
  appearances, especially in Hunter x Hunter: Kalluto Zoldyck and Pitou
  for example. I would say although the character designs are similar in
  some respects, they're all unique and different too.</p>
  
  <p>seijitsu: Yuusuke does arguably wear <a href="http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/59865.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a green seifuku in the manga</a>, but
  otherwise I agree with eha1234 that the characters' personalities are
  not very similar and with Torisuda that the characters do not look
  very similar.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If Yusuke and Gon both had hair which was a particular shade of periwinkle only expressible in the CMYK color space, I might agree that the similarity was significant, but black hair doesn't quite make it. You can see characters which are much more similar in appearance in <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/22641/7579">seijitsu's answer to "Why do anime and manga use the same faces?"</a>. And if having multiple characters with androgynous appearances constitutes recycling, then all shoujo artists have been recycling the same male character design at least since the 1990s. If anything, Togashi is doing better than many mangaka at not recycling character designs, as eha1234 points out.</p>

<p>There are answers to the question "Why would a mangaka recycle the characters' visual appearances?" over at <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/8181/7579">"Is it common for mangaka to maintain the same character design between different titles?"</a>, so I'll focus on the personality issue. At this point we're really talking about writing, which cuts across all media. If you follow the works of individual writers of any medium&mdash;literature, manga, Western graphic novels, visual novels&mdash;you'll notice that it's quite common for writers to have characters with similar personalities across several works. For example:</p>

<ul>
<li>Stephen King often has a tough, brassy guy who swears a lot that everyone looked up to; he also likes to have a kid or intellectually disabled man with psychic powers.</li>
<li>Gen Urobuchi likes to have an idealistic character whose ideals are a little too rigid, and slowly destroy everything the character believed in before sending them to a miserable death (Sayaka in Madoka and Kariya Matou in Fate/Zero). I asked <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/21310/7579">a question</a> about whether the similarities between another pair of Urobuchi characters was intentional.</li>
<li>Ken Akamatsu had three manga starring an energetic, caring, somewhat tsundere girl with thick eyebrows (Cindy in AI ga Tomaranai, Naru in Love Hina, Asuna in Negima). Two of these manga (AI and Love Hina) also had a young blonde troublemaker, and two of them (Love Hina and Negima) had a shy and quiet girl with short hair and a secret, passionate crush on the main character.</li>
</ul>

<p>There are lots of reasons why writers do this. Sometimes it's because of a theme that cuts across all of their work. Sometimes the character represents some portion of the author's personality that keeps seeping into their work. Sometimes the author wants to put similar characters into very different situations and see how this changes things. I haven't read or watched Hunter x Hunter, but from what I understand it's more lighthearted than Yu Yu Hakusho; perhaps Togashi wanted to explore how similar characters would behave in a more lighthearted story. From what eha1234 says in the comment quoted above, there are also some quite profound differences in personality between the Yu Yu Hakusho characters and the Hunter x Hunter characters; it's possible the purported similarities are a complete coincidence. We can't know exactly unless Togashi stated in an interview somewhere why he did it, or whether he even intended to do it.</p>

<p>Of course, in a visual medium like manga, if the writer reuses a certain personality, it often makes sense to give that character a similar appearance as well, because appearance and personality are closely related in anime and manga. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-07T12:10:07.277Z
You might want to quote their comments here, since comments are ephemeral. Otherwise, I think it's a good answer to a terrible question.
nhahtdh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-07T19:24:50.303Z
@nhahtdh Good idea, I've quoted the comments. Honestly, I was surprised this question remained open and did not go to negative votes. But I figured as long as it was open and not headed for deletion, I would throw up an answer and avoid having one more unanswered zombie question.
Torisuda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-07T08:57:42.287Z
2015-07-07T19:22:15.483Z
2017-04-13T12:54:49.117Z
Torisuda
<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/DQfK8l.jpg" alt="Yusuke &amp; Gon"></p>

<p>Although Gon doesn't look similar by facial design, he is similar to the green schemes that Yusuke has, and his hair color is similar.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/DxNgpl.jpg" alt="Killua &amp; Hiei"></p>

<p>Killua is similar to Hiei's demeanor.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/3E5Y1l.jpg" alt="Kurapika &amp; Kurama"></p>

<p>Both Kurapika and Kurama have androgynous appearances</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/6YNoyl.png" alt="??? &amp; Leorio"></p>

<p>Personalities are similar.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-27T19:26:12.343Z
A likely contributor is because he was quite attached to those designs and wanted to carry on their legacy.
Cattua
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-28T02:34:12.603Z
Related: http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/8181/7579
Torisuda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-28T03:45:40.783Z
See also on this SE: [Why do anime and manga use the same faces?](http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/22624/why-do-anime-and-manga-use-the-same-faces/22641#22641). I'm curious as to whether this question counts as a duplicate of the one Torisuda linked to? It seems that the correct answer to this would be the same as that...
seijitsu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-28T05:31:51.720Z
@seijitsu I almost wrote "Possible dupe" in my comment since the question I linked should be the more general umbrella above "Why does Yoshihiro Togashi reuse the same designs?" But the OP here also tosses in some remarks about the characters having similar personalities, which seems to be the only purported link between the characters in the bottom image. That was only obliquely touched on in the question I linked.
Torisuda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-28T05:35:43.420Z
Personally, I don't think the characters in this question even look that similar, not compared to Ken Akamatsu's Naru and Asuna, or the Ai Yazawa and Naoko Takeuchi characters that seijitsu mentioned in regard to the "same faces" question.
Torisuda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-28T09:06:10.453Z
Yusuke and Gon have very different personalities and I think the green scheme is only present in the anime - the manga is black and white. Hiei and Killua's demeanour isn't the same. Killua, when relaxed, is quite playful whilst Hiei is silent. They've both got tragic pasts though. Many of Togashi's characters have androgynous appearances, especially in Hunter x Hunter: Kalluto Zoldyck and Pitou for example. I would say although the character designs are similar in some respects, they're all unique and different too.
eha1234
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-29T02:22:13.713Z
Yuusuke does arguably wear a [green seifuku in the manga](http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/59865.jpg), but otherwise I agree with eha1234 that the characters' personalities are not very similar and with Torisuda that the characters do not look very similar.
seijitsu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-03T07:23:01.913Z
@seijitsu His theme colour is arguably orange, if you look at the volume colours of 10, 14 and 16. He is wearing a seifuku in one. Sorry I could provide a picture.
eha1234
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-20T02:49:13.613Z
Killua is not the character from HxH that is similar to Hiei, but Feitan instead.
Matemáticos Chibchas
<hunter-x-hunter><mangaka><yu-yu-hakusho>
Why did Yoshihiro Togashi recycle designs from Yu Yu Hakusho for his characters in Hunter x Hunter?
# Why did Yoshihiro Togashi recycle designs from Yu Yu Hakusho for his characters in Hunter x Hunter?
Posted by: username_0 on 2015-06-27
![Yusuke & Gon](https://i.sstatic.net/DQfK8l.jpg)

Although Gon doesn't look similar by facial design, he is similar to the green schemes that Yusuke has, and his hair color is similar.

![Killua & Hiei](https://i.sstatic.net/DxNgpl.jpg)

Killua is similar to Hiei's demeanor.

![Kurapika & Kurama](https://i.sstatic.net/3E5Y1l.jpg)

Both Kurapika and Kurama have androgynous appearances

![??? & Leorio](https://i.sstatic.net/6YNoyl.png)

Personalities are similar.
**Tags:** hunter-x-hunter mangaka yu-yu-hakusho
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: A likely contributor is because he was quite attached to those designs and wanted to carry on their legacy.  
> **username_2**: Related: http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/8181/7579  
> **username_3**: See also on this SE: [Why do anime and manga use the same faces?](http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/22624/why-do-anime-and-manga-use-the-same-faces/22641#22641). I'm curious as to whether this question counts as a duplicate of the one Torisuda linked to? It seems that the correct answer to this would be the same as that...  
> **username_2**: @seijitsu I almost wrote "Possible dupe" in my comment since the question I linked should be the more general umbrella above "Why does Yoshihiro Togashi reuse the same designs?" But the OP here also tosses in some remarks about the characters having similar personalities, which seems to be the only purported link between the characters in the bottom image. That was only obliquely touched on in the question I linked.  
> **username_2**: Personally, I don't think the characters in this question even look that similar, not compared to Ken Akamatsu's Naru and Asuna, or the Ai Yazawa and Naoko Takeuchi characters that seijitsu mentioned in regard to the "same faces" question.  
> **username_4**: Yusuke and Gon have very different personalities and I think the green scheme is only present in the anime - the manga is black and white. Hiei and Killua's demeanour isn't the same. Killua, when relaxed, is quite playful whilst Hiei is silent. They've both got tragic pasts though. Many of Togashi's characters have androgynous appearances, especially in Hunter x Hunter: Kalluto Zoldyck and Pitou for example. I would say although the character designs are similar in some respects, they're all unique and different too.  
> **username_3**: Yuusuke does arguably wear a [green seifuku in the manga](http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/59865.jpg), but otherwise I agree with eha1234 that the characters' personalities are not very similar and with Torisuda that the characters do not look very similar.  
> **username_4**: @seijitsu His theme colour is arguably orange, if you look at the volume colours of 10, 14 and 16. He is wearing a seifuku in one. Sorry I could provide a picture.  
> **username_5**: Killua is not the character from HxH that is similar to Hiei, but Feitan instead.  
---
## 1 answers
### Answer by username_2 on 2015-07-07. Score: 3
As you can see from these comments by me, @seijitsu, and @eha1234, there's a considerable amount of skepticism over how "recycled" these designs really are.

> Me: Personally, I don't think the characters in this question even
> look that similar, not compared to Ken Akamatsu's Naru and Asuna, or
> the Ai Yazawa and Naoko Takeuchi characters that seijitsu mentioned in
> regard to the "same faces" question.
>
> eha1234: Yusuke and Gon have very different personalities and I think
> the green scheme is only present in the anime - the manga is black and
> white. Hiei and Killua's demeanour isn't the same. Killua, when
> relaxed, is quite playful whilst Hiei is silent. They've both got
> tragic pasts though. Many of Togashi's characters have androgynous
> appearances, especially in Hunter x Hunter: Kalluto Zoldyck and Pitou
> for example. I would say although the character designs are similar in
> some respects, they're all unique and different too.
>
> seijitsu: Yuusuke does arguably wear [a green seifuku in the manga](http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/1/59865.jpg), but
> otherwise I agree with eha1234 that the characters' personalities are
> not very similar and with Torisuda that the characters do not look
> very similar.

If Yusuke and Gon both had hair which was a particular shade of periwinkle only expressible in the CMYK color space, I might agree that the similarity was significant, but black hair doesn't quite make it. You can see characters which are much more similar in appearance in [seijitsu's answer to "Why do anime and manga use the same faces?"](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/22641/7579). And if having multiple characters with androgynous appearances constitutes recycling, then all shoujo artists have been recycling the same male character design at least since the 1990s. If anything, Togashi is doing better than many mangaka at not recycling character designs, as eha1234 points out.

There are answers to the question "Why would a mangaka recycle the characters' visual appearances?" over at ["Is it common for mangaka to maintain the same character design between different titles?"](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/8181/7579), so I'll focus on the personality issue. At this point we're really talking about writing, which cuts across all media. If you follow the works of individual writers of any medium—literature, manga, Western graphic novels, visual novels—you'll notice that it's quite common for writers to have characters with similar personalities across several works. For example:

* Stephen King often has a tough, brassy guy who swears a lot that everyone looked up to; he also likes to have a kid or intellectually disabled man with psychic powers.
* Gen Urobuchi likes to have an idealistic character whose ideals are a little too rigid, and slowly destroy everything the character believed in before sending them to a miserable death (Sayaka in Madoka and Kariya Matou in Fate/Zero). I asked [a question](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/21310/7579) about whether the similarities between another pair of Urobuchi characters was intentional.
* Ken Akamatsu had three manga starring an energetic, caring, somewhat tsundere girl with thick eyebrows (Cindy in AI ga Tomaranai, Naru in Love Hina, Asuna in Negima). Two of these manga (AI and Love Hina) also had a young blonde troublemaker, and two of them (Love Hina and Negima) had a shy and quiet girl with short hair and a secret, passionate crush on the main character.

There are lots of reasons why writers do this. Sometimes it's because of a theme that cuts across all of their work. Sometimes the character represents some portion of the author's personality that keeps seeping into their work. Sometimes the author wants to put similar characters into very different situations and see how this changes things. I haven't read or watched Hunter x Hunter, but from what I understand it's more lighthearted than Yu Yu Hakusho; perhaps Togashi wanted to explore how similar characters would behave in a more lighthearted story. From what eha1234 says in the comment quoted above, there are also some quite profound differences in personality between the Yu Yu Hakusho characters and the Hunter x Hunter characters; it's possible the purported similarities are a complete coincidence. We can't know exactly unless Togashi stated in an interview somewhere why he did it, or whether he even intended to do it.

Of course, in a visual medium like manga, if the writer reuses a certain personality, it often makes sense to give that character a similar appearance as well, because appearance and personality are closely related in anime and manga.
> **Comments:**
> **username_6** (2015-07-07): You might want to quote their comments here, since comments are ephemeral. Otherwise, I think it's a good answer to a terrible question.  
> **username_2** (2015-07-07): @nhahtdh Good idea, I've quoted the comments. Honestly, I was surprised this question remained open and did not go to negative votes. But I figured as long as it was open and not headed for deletion, I would throw up an answer and avoid having one more unanswered zombie question.  
---
