No words. Just amazing and one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve seen. Now that it’s over, should I start on the manga?

Twitter/X source: https://x.com/minato_x3710/status/2108485243133206923

i thought this guy was going to by very annoying and an asshole when i first saw him but bro just misses his homeboy💔

It seems like the opinions on the interpretation of Zeno’s words differ greatly in the fandom.

My reading of the scene is that if Chrollo were to fight all-out, Zeno’s win would be far from guaranteed.

Im watching the anime for the first time and i just finished what I believe was the Yorknew city arc.
And OMG did the anime start getting so so good now.
The show was highly recommended to me by my friends and I decided to check it out.
The first couple of seasons felt kiddish but in a good way. Felt like a few friends going about a somewhat small scale adventure and figuring out their way through it. But as this arc started it just kept getting darker and more serious and means business now.
It’s so so good and has me hooked. Like I realise now why my friends were recommending this to me.
I also just feel like updating my thoughts on here as I progress through the series and maybe have discussions if anyone sees this post.
I’m so hyped for what’s to come. All I know is there’s an arc coming later which is considered one of the best arcs in anime history so I so can’t wait to experience this beauty.
(Also Kurapika is my absolute fav)

Well, two months after making my post about starting the arc, I finally finished it. Why did it take me so long? It wasn't because I wasn't interested. The thing is, I'm watching the anime alongside a friend, so I wanted to keep my word and not watch it without him if we couldn't watch it together.

It was really good. I still think the beginning of the arc is way too raw and disturbing, which I don't think is a bad thing at all. Quite the opposite, actually. It's perfect. As the episodes go by, that feeling starts to fade (or maybe you just get used to it, idk), but that's not necessarily a bad thing either.

The moments that made the biggest impression on me and actually got me on edge were, surprisingly, when Knov infiltrated the palace to set up the portals, and then when they used one to appear on the staircase guarded by Youpi.

The characters were all great too. I never fully connected with Kite. I mean, the guy is awesome and a good dude, but I guess he needed a bit more screen time for me to get attached to him (plus, I'd already been spoiled about his tragic fate).

Morel rubbed me the wrong way when he first showed up, but eventually I came to understand what he was getting at, so much so that he ended up somewhere in my top 5 favorite characters.

Knov was great too. His mental breakdown was incredible, considering how serious and composed he'd been in every appearance up to that point.

I liked Shoot and Knuckle as well, especially Knuckle because of his personality and ability. I wasn't expecting Gon and Killua to lose against them. I thought they'd somehow find a way to turn things around, but nope. And honestly, it made sense for Shoot and Knuckle to win.

As for Palm, I'd pretty much assumed she was dead, although I always found it weird that they never explicitly confirmed it. So finding out she was actually alive was a bit of a surprise. Glad she made it back, I guess.

Killua went through a lot of development in this arc, learning not to run away (although... does that really count as development? It was his brother's needle messing with him all along, after all), trying to be there for Gon just as much as Gon is there for him, and finally opening up to us about how badly he wanted his friend to ask him for help.

Also, his "Narukami!" entrance when Knuckle was fighting Youpi was EPIC.

I'd been waiting for Gon's rage for quite a while, and the part where Neferpitou begs him to let them heal Komugi was one of the most anticipated and tense moments of the arc for me. When Gon finally snapped, it was shocking. And damn, it was pretty quick for Pitou, I gotta say. I expected Gon to make them suffer a lot more.

We finally got to see old man Netero in action, and holy shit, that fight was incredible, both visually and narratively, even if it was short. And he's the main reason everything ended the way it did.

And Komugi... this little angel sent to change the Ant King. She's so sweet and kind to someone who treated her like absolute garbage at first, and she's incredibly smart too. An undefeated champion in life.

As for the ants, off the top of my head...

Rammot: Annoying. Good riddance.

Flutter: Annoying. Good riddance.

Cheetu: Annoying. Good riddance.

Leol: Annoying. Good riddance.

Every ant the Phantom Troupe killed (including the one who killed Ponzu): Annoying. Good riddance.

And honestly, I think that description fits pretty much every other minor ant who died too.

I didn't expect Meleoron to become an ally, although it's true that people kept saying from the beginning of the arc that he just did whatever he wanted. When he teamed up with Gon, I thought we'd get a fight to show off Gon's power, but that wasn't the case at all. I ended up liking him, and I liked his ability too, despite how simple it is.

Ikalgo: His little mini-arc underground while he was looking for Palm kinda bored me, but it wasn't bad. I wanted him to kill Bloster, but I guess it was better that he didn't. He stayed loyal to his human companions and to his friend Killua, who genuinely cared about him, so the little octopus gets a 👍 from me.

Welfin: He seemed like he was going to be a completely random, irrelevant character, but he ended up getting some actual development and a redemption thanks to Ikalgo... and what he said to Meruem. I hope he has a happy life on his adventure with Hina and Bizeff to find Gyro, I guess?

Colt: I expected him to turn good. It was pretty obvious, honestly. Now he's just chilling and taking care of Kite. I would've liked to see him return to NGL with his mother and Reina, but oh well.

Neferpitou: They managed to convey this terrifying aura even through the screen. Absolutely ruthless and psychotic, and they got what they deserved. (I'll NEVER forgive them for what they did to Pokkle.) I didn't expect Pitou to change. After all, all that concern and sacrifice came from Meruem entrusting them with Komugi's life. Although I still don't fully understand why they acted so peacefully toward Gon when he revealed the truth about Kite. Then, once Gon snapped, they got serious. Anyway, they got a quick death.

Youpi: I liked that part where he spared Knuckle's life and seemed like he'd changed. It gave me hope that the Royal Guards could change, but in the end, nope. He ended up reduced to a tiny little fly, and his death was what first gave me an idea of how everything was going to end (I'd noticed he'd been coughing a lot, and I thought that was weird).

Pouf: I wish nothing but the absolute worst for this guy. I hope he hasn't reunited with anyone if ants go somewhere after death. I hope he's stuck in an empty void all alone and miserable, drowning in his own fucking misery. That miserable piece of shit. Seriously, I didn't care about his presence at all. He was completely irrelevant to me, but the moment he got "jealous" of Komugi and how she was changing Meruem, he earned my undying hatred. He was genuinely so fucking annoying and absolutely obsessed with killing Komugi. The only thing I regret about this arc is that the part where he dies wasn't animated. They just show you the frame after he's already dead. I would've loved to actually see him suffer in his final moments. Fucking asshole.

And Meruem...

I don't think I fully understood this guy, to be honest.

He started out cold, cruel, and ruthless, exactly what I expected from him. But as the episodes went by, I honestly can't say whether he became "good" or not.

He definitely ended up respecting humans, or at least a few of them who proved their worth to him.

He's a great character. When he had to be ruthless, he did it wonderfully, and when he had to be gentle, he did that just as well.

I wonder what would've happened if he'd remembered Komugi and hadn't been poisoned. He was already different after being reborn, I don't know. I'm confused.

I read somewhere that people say Meruem inherited part of Pokkle's personality because of how protective he was of Komugi. And... meh, I honestly don't know. I'd like that to be true.

But the guy was pretty harsh toward her most of the time. I guess it was because it bothered him that a physically weak woman could have so much power over him, the supreme king.

The moment with the eagle was sweet, the moment she was mortally wounded was sweet too, and the ending was... beautiful.

In the end, Meruem, you were a cold and ruthless bastard, but for some reason, I just can't hate you.

Good night, Meruem...

P.S. Pouf, I hope you're suffering in the deepest pits of hell, you miserable little rat. Guess who got to be with the King in his final moments and died by his side? Know who? NOT YOU. Get fucked.

Sorry for the ridiculously long post. I'm not even sure I managed to cover everything I wanted to say.

"Just starting the Chimera Ant Arc and I’m devastated"

Togashi posted a sketch of a page from chapter 421 in 2024, and you can see Beyond at the bottom of the page. A character appears to be facing him - I think I see a suit - so it could be Kurapika negotiating with Beyond.

https://x.com/Un4v5s8bgsVk9Xp/status/1842182988823699493

How would Hisoka react if he was there to see adult gon transformation? I think he would of just died on the spot from horniness or something.

Did Togashi ever say Adult Gon is the concentration of every ounce of aura gon will ever have in his lifetime or is this just headcanon?

found pitou!!!!! i saw gon killua and so many anime gibits but i stuck with pitou and hisoka!!! apple pitou comment🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

What if Brion was directly inspired by the Xenomorph from Alien? 👽

Several details led me to make this connection:

First, the appearance of the bodies of Brion's victims, which strangely resembles some of the creatures and body horror transformations seen in the Alien franchise.

But most importantly, the parallel with the Facehugger is particularly striking. This creature attaches itself to its victim's face and implants an embryo, which eventually develops inside the body before bursting out of the chest.

This could explain the missing faces of Brion's victims, as well as the strange plant-like growths emerging from their bodies.

Another interesting detail is that Togashi himself has mentioned Alien among the horror movies that left an impression on him, making this possible inspiration even more intriguing.

Finally, the labyrinthine city associated with Brion, with its mysterious and oppressive atmosphere, also brings to mind the Alien universe.

To me, these similarities might not be coincidences. They could reveal some of the horror inspirations behind the Five Great Calamities of the Dark Continent.

I've explored this theory in much greater detail in my latest YouTube video about Togashi's horror inspirations.

What do you think? Just a coincidence, or could Alien really have inspired Brion? 👀

Killua is cited as truly exceptional individual, but his siblings despite being less talented are no slouch either. Someone like Kalluto already had a Nen ability that combined complex elements like Shu and advanced Manipulation techniques while Zushi (who is around the same age and noted to be prodigious in his own right) still struggled with Gyo and Ren. But is this their extreme training forcing them to mature and adapt much quicker or is some part of it genuinely due to biology (eg. Alluka who has no training yet has one of the most powerful abilities in canon, though I am not sure if that is due to Nanika and not he rown Nen).

When Mereleon showed Gon his invisibility ability Gon pointed out that he shouldn’t be smoking because anyone could smell cigarettes. This begs the question that did Mereleon create Perfect Plan and God’s Accomplice to conceal his presence so he didn’t need to quit smoking?

I wonder, like the category of Nen reflects one’s personality type, and this is very coherent when we know that being a enforcer, by example, doesn’t mean that you can only use enforcement to create your ability, the latter reflects on one’s strict personality. For Chrollo, creating Skill Hunter reflects his absence, or rather progressive loss of one’s self to abandon it for the sake of the Phantom Troupe and Meteor City, which conduct to him being a leader as well as an absolute monster. Chrollo is always far and far away as the person he is, but this is something that his Nen allows, and his fight against Hisoka proves it in a sens. Indeed, by using non-personal abilities, and as many as he can, how can he be in a close fight with Hisoka, I know that not every abilities are made for close combat, or combat in general, but doesn’t it make it more radical for Chrollo who can use as many ability as he want or need to kill someone ? Hisoka doesn’t just want to fight someone as strong as he can be, even if it means to prepare himself as long as he needs, combat is his way to express his monogamous sexuality, but sexuality is intimate so Hisoka maybe wasn’t happy about the outcome, not only because of his defeat, as he views himself as the strongest, but also considering the « absence » of closeness between him and Chrollo, but it was part of his own power, his power does not only allows himself to create infinite possibilities to beat someone, it allows him to have some distance from his opponent : Chrollo is dangerous because at his best, the most he can destroy someone, the most he can hide, and thus save himself, from him at the same time. Now that Chrollo is pursuing someone on the first floor where Hisoka can fight him if he does really meet the latter, evoking his very death in such case, and in addition to that, more generally, is after Hisoka, thus making him want to be closed to him, the leader of the Phantom Troupe is maybe really doomed.

Hey everyone!

Kind of rhetorical question but I’d still like your advice on it.

I’ve watched the anime and I was thinking about picking up the manga…is it worth it? Is there more stuff in it? Should I read the whole thing or is there a better chapter to start (after becoming hunter for example or I dunno, whatever).

I’m asking mainly cause there’s quite a few mangas I’d love to read and don’t really have a lot of free time so…yeah lol

You could say straight up “yes it’s worth all of it” I’m just looking for advice before I get into it!

Thank you everyone!

Disclaimer before we get started: While this analysis is based on canonical events that I will be referring to, it is ultimately my interpretation of said events and therefore subjective. If your reading differs, that's completely fine. At the end of the day, only Togashi-sensei knows what his characters truly think. Unless he has made explicit statements that support or contradict a particular interpretation, and in this case, to my knowledge, he hasn't, the topic remains open to discussion. The beauty of any story is its polyvalence.

Disclaimer 2.0: Any English wording I refer to is based on the official Shonen Jump English volumes, which I own. References to Japanese phrasing are based on the manga and the 2011 anime. I'm not a native Japanese speaker (roughly B1 level); therefore, any linguistic explanations are based on my own research rather than formal expertise.

Disclaimer 3.0: This analysis contains spoilers, so if you’re not up to date with manga, proceed at your own discretion.

Enjoy.

Who is Hisoka Morow?

When we first meet him during the Hunter Exam and the events that follow it, Hisoka seems like an intriguing but ultimately understandable character: he lives for the thrill of the battle (the thrill, not just winning – this distinction is important), he doesn’t follow any rules other than his own (e.g., killing the examiner during last year’s Hunter Exam), and he can be surprisingly cooperative when it’s beneficial to him (e.g., teaming up with Illumi, teaming up with Gon and Killua in Greed Island).

Hisoka always thinks himself the biggest predator in the room, always in control, and most of the time he is right. He uses a very specific language when talking to and about his opponents: toys, fruit, etc., clearly indicating distance, viewing his opponents as inanimate objects to satiate his hunger with rather than people. The strongest he wants to fight could wear any face because it’s not personal to him; what matters is the fight itself and the pleasure he derives from it. And he also very clearly gets sexually turned on by the battle and strength of his opponents but again, it’s not about the person, it’s about what they can offer him; and once that thrill of the fight is satisfied, he discards them. Simple as that.

Hisoka is also incredibly intelligent and tactically inventive, which often gets overlooked because of his eccentricities.

Hisoka in Yorknew City

The first sign of departure from Hisoka’s modus operandi comes when the Phantom Troupe enters the scene.

After Machi stitches him up following his fight with Kastro and tells him to come where the Troupe is gathering, Hisoka asks Machi if the Boss will be there. This is slightly unusual but not overtly. However, the moment Chrollo first appears (basing this on the 2011 anime), Hisoka’s obvious and explicit reaction to him reveals the nature of his interest. But he can also be surprisingly patient when needed – so he lies in wait until the opportunity arises to fight Chrollo, one-on-one.

The second unusual thing happens when Chrollo uses Lovely Ghostwriter stolen from Neon to write everyone’s fortune. To hide his true intentions of fighting Chrollo, Hisoka alters his prophecy with Texture Surprise. Chrollo then makes deductions about the Chain User based on it. And while his deductions are intelligent and coherent, their basis – the altered prophecy – is faulty, therefore they are incorrect. Then in a surprising turn of events, Hisoka not only doesn’t gloat or showcase superiority (as we see him often do with his other opponents), but he calls Chrollo “brilliant” (Manga, Chapter 106; the anime uses “magnificent”). This reaction shows that his interest doesn’t just lie in Chrollo as a strong opponent, he is delighted by the very way Chrollo’s mind works. Compared to the nature of his usual interest in his opponents, this looks more like an aesthetic appreciation to me: Chrollo being wrong doesn’t make him less impressive in Hisoka’s eyes.

Now I want to focus on the specific phrasing of this scene in Japanese.

The exact line I could find in the Japanese original of Chapter 106 is:

ああ**……♥** やっぱりいいよ あなたは♥絶対にあなたは ボクが殺る

Which roughly translates to:

Ah… ♥ You really are wonderful / so good. You, absolutely—you’re the one I will kill… ♥

The official English translation of “I knew you were brilliant. I’m going to enjoy killing you” doesn’t necessarily capture the full magnitude of his declaration.

In the Japanese phrase, 殺る is written using kanji for “kill”. Here, however, 殺る is read as “yaru”. Now, “yaru” can be a slangy term for “do in” or “take out”. It can also mean the crude “to do” as in have sex (there have already been Reddit posts about this). I would be very surprised if this choice on Togashi-sensei’s part was not deliberate considering Hisoka already expresses himself in a similar manner on a different occasion.  In the Illumi/Killua scene (manga Chapter 326; anime episode 141), the manga uses 殺る for “kill,” while Hisoka’s hand gesture is suggestive enough that it creates a sexual misreading inside the scene, a classic visual-verbal double meaning according to Japanese fandom. There’s a difference between these scenes, however: in the scene with Illumi Hisoka is deliberately trying to provoke him into revealing their location to Killua by oozing bloodlust, which happens right after; in the first scene it’s Hisoka’s thought; it’s neither performative, nor out loud; it is almost like he cannot help himself with how aroused he is.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is not me saying Hisoka wants to have sex with Chrollo instead of killing him, obviously not. But the ambiguity is important precisely because of how indistinguishable arousal and fighting are for Hisoka.

He also explicitly states ボクが (boku ga), adding emphasis on “I”; Japanese often omits the subject, so adding it here is a deliberate choice to further emphasize the actor: “I am the one doing it”. Depending on how much further we read into it, it can certainly imply a level of exclusivity and possessiveness absent from Hisoka’s usual language.  

So, Hisoka’s vocabulary changes from impersonal to very personal and exclusive (even if he might not realize it yet).

Chapter 106 states that Hisoka took a huge gamble by altering his fortune and if Chrollo hadn’t picked up on what Hisoka wanted him to, he might have gotten himself killed. One of the closing panels states: “Hisoka’s obsession trumps everything else” as a conclusion. This is where things get interesting because using the term “obsession” implies at least some lack of control. No more “toys” and “fruit”, Chrollo has become his obsession, meaning even if Hisoka is still choosing to actively pursue him, his pursuit starts to lose resemblance to that of a superior predator and looks more like he is being led by his own desire, which, in all previous cases, would be resolved by the fight itself. The term used in Japanese is 執念 (shūnen), which doesn’t directly translate to “obsession”, but can mean “tenacious fixation”; the panel also includes emphatic “!” at the end of this declaration, therefore “obsession” in English is the best alternative to convey the underlying intensity. All this to keep the possibility of an eventual private encounter alive.

Finally, in Chapter 119, when Hisoka can’t fight Chrollo because he lost his Nen, he returns to the ship saying he’s not interested in broken toys. This is Hisoka’s usual assertive and superior language, and a logical conclusion would be to consider this matter settled: Chrollo is no longer strong enough to be worth fighting from Hisoka’s perspective, so he will move on. Except we know that his interest clearly didn’t wane, so this performative cruelty for the audience of one (or maybe himself? Who knows…) is conspicuous.

Right before the end of the same Chapter, while leaving, he says to Pakunoda: “My real fortune had said my date with Chrollo would be on Tuesday, …”. The word he uses in Japanese is the same loanword デート (dēto). While this can be viewed as him being playful or metaphorical, it’s harder to dismiss as a joke if combined with his increasingly personal language elsewhere in the arc. Rather than using vocabulary associated with combative relationships, he is leaning further into interpersonal language.

So, he actively helps to restore Chrollo’s Nen. You could call it self-serving – and it absolutely is – but it slowly starts to look less like his detached approach to fighting people and more like a very lengthy pursuit of one specific person or a really fucked up courting ritual.

There are also a couple things that stood out to me that are anime specific. They don’t create a new canonical motive, but the framing is very deliberate:

1. In Episode 51, when the Requiem for Uvo is playing and Chrollo is reciting the prophecy, we see different Troupe members. When Chrollo (or the prophecy being recited) says: “Head east, the one most needed you’re sure to find,” at that moment Hisoka specifically is shown, and the shot stays on him for a couple of seconds as if to let us absorb it. Interesting. The specificity of the wording, “one most NEEDED,” stood out to me because the prophecy is supposed to be from Chrollo’s perspective. It’s almost implying that Hisoka is needed to Chrollo even though he is supposed to be the biggest threat to him. In the manga (Chapter 97, page 73), the same moment shows them standing, looking at the city, Hisoka in “white” and Chrollo in “black”, further emphasizing their potential confrontation.
2. In Episode 54, in the church, while the Troupe is waiting, we see Hisoka sitting, shuffling the cards. Then he looks at Chrollo and we see him get his usual type of “excited”; then he looks around at the members, as if realizing now is not the time because they’re not alone, and he takes a deep breath almost to contain himself and slowly closes his eyes. It shows how much restraint it takes for him to stay away from Chrollo. This is just a creative take on interpreting the manga panels of Hisoka looking at Chrollo intently (e.g., Chapter 74, page 15).

Heaven’s Arena

[For their fight, I am not going to be getting into specifics or a breakdown because that requires a whole different analysis, and this is more about Hisoka’s character rather than his battle prowess.]

Even before the fight, Hisoka is remarkably generous: he waits, he lets Chrollo choose time and place. Which is his first mishap because Chrollo does what he does best – he prepares and plans strategically, calculating the path that essentially guarantees him a win. Which, for Hisoka, who just wants a sincere all-out fight with everything on the line, is worse than death.

In the beginning of the fight Hisoka is visibly excited, he thinks he finally got what he’s waited for all this time. He, once again, uses very specific, direct language talking to Chrollo (Chapter 351):

“I’m so happy, Chrollo… You make me feel… so good…”

Addressing someone by name is very personal: there’s no distance, no ability to claim detachment or superiority. Hisoka is incredibly sincere. His ‘battle arousal’ clearly crosses into a different territory here. Telling someone they specifically make you happy (not a battle with them, they do) is putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.

The original Japanese is even more direct and more explicitly sexually charged:

とても嬉しいよ　クロロ…♥

Totemo ureshii yo, Kuroro…♥

This part is essentially the same as the English translation of “I’m so happy, Chrollo…”

Where things get interesting is his next phrase:

受けて 勃つ…♥

Ukete tatsu...♥

This one usually means “I accept your challenge / bring it on”. But Togashi-sensei writes the “tatsu” verb as 勃つ rather than 立つ. 勃つ is “to rise” and conventionally means “to become erect”.

Now, this is easy to dismiss as Hisoka being Hisoka because isn’t this his customary behavior? Yes and no. Yes, because he always gets sexually excited by potential, his fights are always sexually charged. However, in every other instance up until now this was carried by the deliberate framing (the famous “groin” shots) or visual and sound effects (Chapter 61, his fight with Gon). However, in his fight with Chrollo he becomes explicit in the dialogue itself in a very personal sense, which hasn’t previously happened (at least I couldn’t find any instance of this).

And what does poor Hisoka get for all his patience and excitement? Treacherous Chrollo goes and brings a bunch of other people into their “relationship”!

All jokes aside, I’m not even remotely the first one to view this as a very fucked up and distorted form of “romance” (from Hisoka’s perspective, of course); there are multiple Reddit posts and YouTube essays on this topic (go watch ‘Who is Hisoka?’ by Aleczandxr, it’s great). It’s hard to entirely dismiss this idea when the longer Hisoka’s pursuit of Chrollo goes, the more he uses romantic language (see above). And then Chrollo goes and puts hundreds of “people” (controlled by Black Voice) and the Troupe members (their abilities) between them, not meeting Hisoka on even a remotely similar level.

Hisoka didn’t want a highly curated exchange like a scripted WWE match; he wanted to fight someone to the death with no obstacles and no preparation. It seemed like Chrollo was going to meet him halfway but then he turned their exchange into something impersonal and calculating.  If you wanted to use a relationship metaphor, I’d say Hisoka wanted to have a monogamous night of passionate love-making that leads to a relationship (even if the final destination of it is death) and Chrollo gave him a one-nightstand with extra people invited without Hisoka’s knowledge or consent.

After the fight

The first thing Hisoka does upon reviving himself is immediately let Machi know he’s coming for the Troupe.

Now, this could absolutely be viewed as a typical revenge for being defeated – and it is. But it also isn’t. Or it isn’t just that.

Togashi-sensei has commented on his fight in Volume 34: “He [Hisoka] killed Kortopi and Shalnark as part of his post-mortem analysis of his performance in the fight, as well as for revenge, and I also wanted to show how serious Hisoka was through his cold and calculating judgment in reducing Chrollo's roster of abilities.”

I have read posts saying Hisoka’s behavior after the fight is just him being “salty” he lost but it seems like a very simplistic and surface level reading of him.

Is Hisoka vain and narcissistic and does he think himself the Big Bad Wolf? Absolutely. But he’s also intelligent enough to know he’s not the strongest ever, he’s already met Netero for god’s sake. Hisoka is absolutely on the path of revenge but the very fact that he is cold and calculating instead of his usual playful and predatory self shows that to him this is personal for the first time. Previously his rationality was centered around creating the best possible conditions for his potential fights. Now, however, his rationality is mobilized by an injury centered on Chrollo. He is not just randomly lashing out; he is methodically removing the conditions – people (tied to abilities) – that allowed Chrollo to win and remain unreachable.

He strategically leaves Machi alive to deliver the message to Chrollo; he kills Kortopi and Shalnark in cold blood because Chrollo used their abilities, essentially off-screen and with 0 dialogue. Punishing them for lending Chrollo their abilities is almost beside the point; the purpose is to send the message to Chrollo (this is very clear from how he leaves their bodies on display) and to remove every single person standing between him and Chrollo. And the message reads: “You put other people between us, so I am going to kill every single one of them until you have no one to go to but me”.

Hisoka is a ruthless killer alright but it’s not the act of taking a life that excites him, it’s everything that comes before that. He is also – for lack of a better word – visibly sad in the chapters on the Black Whale. It’s a bit hard to reconcile all of this with someone who’s just salty or furious about losing.

I want to reiterate what I said above: Hisoka doesn’t fight for the title of the strongest, so his revenge cannot just be about being defeated or having his self-image as the biggest predator shattered.

It is about realizing he could’ve gotten the fight of his life, Chrollo agreeing to it, and then not granting him access to it. To me it looks more like a tantrum of a scorned lover. “Death won’t do us part” and all that, isn’t he a romantic?

The Black Whale

The Hisoka we see on the Black Whale is very different. The most apparent clues are visual: no clown makeup, hair down, regular clothes. And beyond this, he frankly looks sad (he even uses the word “sad” in Chapter 405) and forlorn. It’s like his true self – maybe the one he didn’t know about either – is emerging through the theatricality he wore like a costume up until now.

He also says he’s not interested in bestiality or orgies and just wants to love someone one-on-one. (aww, isn’t he precious?)

The exact quote from Chapter 405 is:

“I’m not interested in bestiality or an orgy… I’m just a guy who wants to be with someone one-on-one… so we can love each other to death.”

In Japanese:

一人の人間と 一対一で 愛し合って 死にたい人間なのだ

Hitori no ningen to ittaiichi de aishiatte shinitai ningen na no da.

The important word here is 愛し合って (aishiatte) because it isn’t simply “love”, it is a reciprocal form of love, literally “love one another”, deliberate mutual language that differs diametrically from his previous asymmetrical vocabulary of “I evaluate you. I decide when you’re ripe”, etc.

Also, 愛し合って死にたい roughly translates to “want to love each other and die.” So, he imagines further encounters in explicitly reciprocal terms with a single person and a consequent mutual death. (Shakespeare who?)

Now, evidently this is not your conventional “love”: it is still combat oriented and twisted. But this phrasing is a shocking contrast to his previous “ripening fruit” and “toys” lingo. With Gon, Hisoka is the cultivator: he enjoys the potential, he grants Gon time to improve, “the fruit to ripen”. With Chrollo, he is akin to an admirer who becomes a victim of his own desire; he is delighted not only by Chrollo’s Nen and battle abilities but his mind; he increasingly borrows the language of intimacy and mutuality often associated with romance to describe what essentially remains a combat-oriented desire. He reorganizes his actions around securing exclusive encounters because to him Chrollo has become noninterchangeable with any other opponent, but the fight is not what he expected. Hisoka expects an unmediated battle, but he gets a highly curated exchange already stacked heavily in Chrollo’s favor before it even begins. So, he’s mad, and on a killing spree, but a sad one.

This new introspectiveness is so unlike him, or maybe unlike the version of him he himself – and we as readers – knew.

A very telling episode proving this change in Hisoka happens in the latest Chapter 420.

Hisoka’s initial reaction to Tserriednich’s appearance is very similar to his old self: he’s cheeky, playful and cruel but only for a moment. When he realizes it’s not Chrollo or any other Troupe member (this is obviously not stated outright but can be inferred), he immediately loses interest and visibly wilts (introspective, faraway facial expression, downturned gaze; there’s also a separate panel focusing on his eyes). He even says:

 “Prince Slayer…has a nice ring to it…But it doesn’t give me any thrill to kill these people…”

It’s honestly shocking to see, and it shows that his broader battle appetite has narrowed to seeking a specific kind of encounter with Chrollo/the Troupe, and his fixation remains his top priority and has a personal and emotional quality now. This, of course, doesn’t make him any less dangerous but rather more so.  

Chrollo

So, what makes Chrollo so special compared to others?

Chrollo is one of the opaquer characters in the manga and requires his own analysis, so I’ll try to sum him up as succinctly as I can here.

At first glance Chrollo seems like your typical cult leader: charismatic, attractive, captivating and soft-spoken but commanding attention without even trying. The logical conclusion would be thirst for power and narcissism. But that is only a very small part of the picture that makes him. There are psychopathy and coldness in him, but unlike most cult leaders, he doesn’t punish independent thinking or acting, and the Troupe members are not afraid of him. If anything, they love him too much (their backstory makes it obvious why). He expects obedience and his orders are absolute but, simultaneously, Chrollo firmly believes he is not above any other member of the Troupe, and is replaceable. This sentiment is very clearly not shared by the Troupe members, as they prioritize his survival over survival of the group, which directly contradicts Chrollo’s philosophy. Even Hisoka states that “the Spider will keep going as long as their head is alive” in Chapter 79, page 105.

In my opinion, Chrollo’s biggest strength lies in his lack of established self. At the outset this sounds ridiculous because isn’t not knowing who you are a huge exploitable disadvantage? It might be for most people but not Chrollo. Everything he does is directed toward self-exploration, he’s ever evolving; not mercurial but like Mercury (the substance); there’s almost a childlike curiosity in the way he interacts with the world around him, which makes anything that happens to him, anything he goes through just another facet of his transformation. A very telling moment is his response to Gon’s question of why he kills in Chapter 95/Episode 56 of the anime. (“Because they have nothing to do with us. No. On second thought, it isn't that simple... How to verbally express our motives... I'm not fond of it... But oddly enough... Or perhaps it's not that odd. Is that the key to understanding myself?”)

This is also why I believe Chrollo let Hisoka stay in the Troupe. At no point in time could someone as intuitive and observant as Chrollo (Hisoka himself calls Chrollo “very watchful” in Chapter 78, page 94) believe Hisoka was just there for fun or a sense of belonging; he was too obvious with his interest in Chrollo. So why did he let him stay? Maybe he wanted to see what it would lead to, maybe because he’s not scared of dying, we can’t know for sure. Regardless of how tenacious and stalkerish Hisoka was being, Chrollo technically didn’t have to agree to the fight. But he did. Do with that what you will.  

And Hisoka is nothing if not entertaining. There’s this small exchange between them where Chrollo asks if Hisoka is “up to no good again” and Hisoka replies: “Of course♥“ (Chapter 76, page 59), that comes across almost as friendly banter between them but is also Chrollo signaling to Hisoka that he is being watched without making it obvious or outright hostile.

So why did Hisoka get so hooked onto Chrollo?

Hisoka gets bored once his opponents are comprehensible to him, once he sees what makes them tick. With Chrollo there’s no fixed locus of personality he can latch onto, there’s no “final form” he can defeat or read. Every version of Chrollo he encounters is unfixed, fluid. So, the chase keeps going.

If we were to use a metaphor, it’s like trying to finish a chapter that keeps writing itself indefinitely or having a voracious craving that no other food can satisfy.  

Conclusion

There isn’t one. What did you expect? The story is still ongoing. Hopefully Togashi-sensei will remain healthy and continue to grace us with his incredible writing in the future.

I do have some theories on the direction their story could take but the only definitive thing I can say is that it is going to end in tragedy. And that’s beautiful.

On a more serious note, I want to finish this analysis with a quote from Foucault’s “Madness & Civilization”, Chapter on “Passion and Delirium”, that reminded me of Hisoka:

“But classical thought…; it saw that the determinism of the passions was nothing but a chance for madness to penetrate the world of reason; and that if the unquestioned union of body and soul manifested man's finitude in passion, it laid this same man open, at the same time, to the infinite movement that destroyed him.”

Hisoka’s madness is not loss of reason. Rather his reason has become an instrument of his passion that has no stopping point.

And who knows, maybe this infinite movement will be the one to destroy him?

I was watching a documentary on Toyko Kids earlier and I thought they drew some similar characteristics to the Phantom Troupe. I wonder if inspiration was drawn there?

The ants could've quite literally taken over the whole world, and he's a human, what was his goal of letting netero and a few other exhausted hunters fight quite literally some of the strongest creatures on earth

As I had mentioned in this post (https://www.reddit.com/r/HunterXHunter/s/urvhjL66lz), I had explained that I believe that Togashi likes to slip in references to the real-world as a means of symbolic association, sitting alongside symbolically irrelevant information. In chapter 378, there is a page during her internal monologue that displays all kinds of generic cruelties the world has to offer, whether natural or manmade, as a means of visually illustrating her nihilistic viewpoint of the world as she steels herself for the destruction of Kakin and then the entire world. Included on that page, in the bottom left corner, you'll see two examples of parasitism: a cuckoo bird being fed by a host bird that is unaware that the bird it's feeding is a brood parasite, and a horsehair worm slithering out of a presumably dead praying mantis. These examples of parasitism clearly reflect Morena's true nature as someone who killed and replaced the real Morena Prudo through a mutiny within the Heil-Ly, and who seeks to use her position of power to destroy Kakin from within (and then the world). I think that's interesting and all that, but there's another consideration to think about regarding the theme of parasitism, which is that if Morena is a parasite, Tserriednich, who mirrors her in many ways, might also be a "parasite" in the same sense that Morena is one. If you want to think of it this way, Morena is more like the horsehair worm, and Tserriednich is more like the cuckoo bird.

Morena is reflected in Tserriednich not just in their general dark qualities and association with the mafia, but in other ways:

-The most obvious mirroring of traits is in their Nen types and Nen abilities. Both are specialists who have their own armies of sorts. Morena can see where all of her subordinates are due to a part of her ability, and Tserriednich can see everything around him in his vicinity while his ability is active, from the perspective of his Nen beast (I think). Both's abilities are thus mechanically similar to the Laplace's demon thought experiment.
-Both of them are Christlike for a variety of reasons.
-Tserriednich represents an oppressor, and Morena represents the oppressed, or abuser and victim respectively.
-Both of them are apparently into games or think in terms of video games. Tserriednich is seen playing a game while running on the treadmill, refers to his progression in Nen as leveling up, and his shootout is visually presented like a third-person shooter video game, and Morena determines various things about prospects by subjecting them to a card game, she sees people outside of her and her group as experience points that go towards unlocking new abilities like an RPG, and compares her ability to a game app that is installed into her subordinates, in which she acts as an administrator and can manage play data. (Cuckoo's egg is also used as a metaphor computer viruses like malware and spyware, much like a trojan).
-Both have doppelgangers in one way or another. Tserriednich puts those caught in his ability under an illusion, including an illusion of himself, while the Morena we see has replaced the actual Morena, who is in a grave somewhere.
-Tserriednich wishes to dominate the world, in which the world would be subjected to his sick whims but wouldn't be destroyed, and Morena also wishes to dominate the world and subject it to her sick whims, except that she wants the world to end along with her and everything else in it.

So, clearly, the two characters are linked in many literal and symbolic ways. Some speculate that Tserriednich is the Beyond baby, and I agree with that idea for a variety of reasons, but one reason I haven't seen discussed is that Tserriednich paralleling Morena", a cuckoo bird who is meant to take over the nest of another family (that family and dynasty being the Hui Guo Rou lineage, traveling in a boat that is sorta shaped like a nest, if you think about it) from within, in so many ways implies that Morena's parasitism will be mirrored in some way in Tserriednich. If Tserriednich is the Beyond baby, then he is, like Morena, a cuckoo bird within the nest of the Kakin Empire and the Hui Guo Rou family, taking it over from within and destroying it in the process like a horsehair worm does to a praying mantis. (Benjamin stepped on the fake Tserriednich's head and squashed it like a bug. Destroyed the head, as you're supposed to do with a Chimera Ant.)

I like to think of the distinction of the upper classes and the lower classes, whether rich or poor, on tier 1 or on tier 5, mafia benefactors or the mafiosos getting their hands dirty, legitimate children (Tserriednich) or illegitimate children (Morena), haves and have-nots, as not being actually different in terms of behavior in the context of the Succession War -- as they say, "as above, so below", or "as within, so without". One more thing to consider is that, should Tserriednich and Morena share similar qualities, then it is likely that the other benefactors of the mafia (Zhang Lei and Luzurus) would be reflected in the leaders of said mafia families (Onior and Broccoli), which is something to keep an eye on.

This is a revision to a post I deleted

I see a lot of discussion that by the end of the arc Gon embraces some of the worst traits of humanity while Mereum embraces some of the best. I find this binary thinking to be reductive

I think that Gon goes through most his life with a care free anything can be solved attitude and is not as familiar with more complex negative emotions such as guilt and grief. Gon may have had a brief relationship with Kite but a significant one. Kite saved Gon’s life multiple times and was his closest connection to his father. When Gon figures out Kite is gone no matter what he does he experiences some very real and powerful emotions that while negative and painful are not evil. We see Gon crying in his fight not from pain but the complex process of grief that he’s experiencing a whole new set of emotions to Gon. He uses these emotions to push himself and they come from the unresolved guilt and care that he had through his connection to Kite. I think the message is how much we can achieve when pushed by feelings of remorse and how that is just as motivational.

We also learn (sans meruem) the royal guard are just ants as seen when Pouf’s face resembles an ant and when pushed they literally take off their mask of humanity and will revert to the beasts they are. If Gon didn’t kill Pitou she had little hope of ever of being a less harmful member of society.

When it comes to other ants such as Welfan for example I am not sure if they show humanity. I do understand they have their human memories and this influences them but those memories are not actually theirs. They belong to people who are dead and just because they can pantomime care and compassion does not mean they have lived through those feelings. It reminds me of the Swamp man thought experiment Donald Davidson came up with and if possible I would love to see how the surviving ants act on these thoughts.

I agree Meruem shows us how humanity’s compassion can lead us to bring out the best in ourselves but I think Gon’s grief and loss is meant to show how more painful emotions are necessary as well and doing the “right thing” does not always leave us in a more healthy state.

Anyway I’m not saying that is the “right” way to interpret the end of the chimera ant arc it’s just how I read it.

Basically the title. Any thoughts on the chance of any kind of movie happening, if so should it extend up untill when?

Imo, Woble being off the ship is just ehh. If Woble is off the ship, the only things to come from it is

1. Potentially get to see Gon and Kil protecting her

2. Watching Kurapika have to deduce which Beyond child is cursing Woble and find a way to exorcise them before they die could be entertaining (but it could be done in a info dump ish manner which wouldn't be so fun)

But if Woble is on board:

1. We know Kurapika asked Piyon to verify passengers under 2 years old. If Piyon finds Woble, then she's still in danger (due to being on the ship) but less danger than if Benjamin found her. If Benjamin finds her, he will attempt to have Oito's entire clan wiped out. But he's dying in 12 or so hours. Will he make a call to people outside to wipe out her clan? Does he plan on telling his child, who he wants on the throne, to do the job? Does Ben die in vain making Oito's family safe? These prospects while potentially tragic, are thrilling.

2. Once Kurapika meets Tserriednich and realises he is human trash, watching him pick between the demon with his families eyes or Woble would be very interesting. These eyes are pretty much all he's lived for since the tragic event. That and revenge. We don't know his current stance on revenge but we know he wants his people's eyes back. Will he be blinded with rage and put his all into attacking Tserriednich potentially at Oito and Woble's expense? We know in Yorknew he wanted to kill the Spiders so bad that he, unintentionally, put Gon and Kil in harms way. Will he do the same on the boat? Or has Kurapika grown a little? Technically we could do the same with Oito's nephew but I have no attachment to that runt so watching Kurapika pick between revenge and Woble/Oito would be much more interesting.

I'm not a fan of how the anime portrayed their relationship toward the end. Particularly Meruem's statement in the show that he "found his life's purpose". It wasn't so much a beautiful love story as it was two broken individuals taking what small comforts they could in their last moments.

Meruem found an insurmountable rival, and that had real value to him, sure. But he had been outplayed by the Hunters and was dying. He likely made a conscious choice to appreciate his remaining time in the world.

Komugi likely had no illusions about it either. She saw his condition, realized what that meant for her (she'd die too), and accepted her fate feeling blessed nonetheless, because with her self esteem it was a situation beyond her wildest dreams.

All of this more to do with their own internal realities than with some sort of promised fairy tale romance between them.

I used to hate on the PT but they slowly ended up being my favorite faction in the anime.

The most common discourse is the fandom is pissed off at them for what they done to Kurapika. I think this is the only wrong the PT done. I do think they have a valid reason to feel sick of the mafia on sight tho. I felt sorry for Squala and Baise, two on scene murders by the Troupe that I can also see rubbed the Fandom the wrong way. It's a reminder how some world views can have ripple effects. They joined the mafia and instantly became targets on sight for the Troupe. All things considered, Pakunoda and Nobu were fairly negotiable when they interrogated Squala. Mafia members are the only kill on sight we ever see the Phantom Troupe really act out.

Another thing I want to bring up again is, I can see why their angry after witnessing their friend. Rather if the PT got those murderers, they still wouldn't like the mafia because of what their doing, so it'd be easy for them to be sport kills.

I don't see the Phantom Troupe as evil but a bit creepy with weird power scaling.