"And in the end, the true treasure is the codependent relationships you make along the way." Anyway, I couldn't find a Hunter x Hunter thread so if there actually IS one feel free to tell me and I'll delete this. Seeing as HxH is old as heck, super popular, still updating, and has a lot of implied queerness + some textual canon LGBT characters I figure having a thread here for it is a good thing. My favourite is Killua, and I have tons of meta about how I am absolutely sure he's queercoded... Anyway, an opener question if you're looking at this thread: who's your favourite character?
oh my god it's really hard to pick a fav Killua is a good good murderpuff child and I love him most of the villains are super entertaining to watch even most of the minor characters are fun
It's been a few years since I saw HxH so alas I have forgotten a lot, but from what I do remember, 1) Gon freaks me out a little 2) God's Alibi/God's Accomplice are the best power names ever 3) Hilariously complex powers, (someone had the power of... Compound interest?) and very clever applications of seemingly 'meh' powers (BUNGEE GUM) are both my jam, so HxH is super my jam 4) I don't know how often Ging has been punched in the snoot, but it definitely needs to be more 5) I seem to remember this series having a hilariously high body count for a Shonen series (Sure DBZ kills more folks but they get better) and I mean Yu Yu Hakusho got a little corpsey but wasn't that series about basically ghost detectives? It's been like a decade since I saw YYH. 6) SO MANY HIATUSES. 7) Turns out the HxH dude is married to the Naoko Takeuchi, aka the Sailor Moon Lady? That's neat. I remembered more than I thought.
HxH is the kind of thing where every year (well. almost every year) it goes off hiatus for a bit and the fans cheer and are super excited and think it'll keep going on forever after this point and then it goes on hiatus again. That's okay, I expect it. There's actually a really well constructed chart of the hiatuses here: https://hiatus-hiatus.github.io/ (check out that top right 'Arcs' button for extra fun) Anyway, the current arc technically started in 2012, but it's probably more charitable to say it started in 2014 after an unusually long hiatus from 2012 to 2014 (with Kurapika's oneshot released in that period).
Also, for a more character based talk: I love that Gon and Killua are essentially Creepy Children except in this case they're complex characters and the main protagonists. It's funny that Gon is the one that hits more of an uncanniness for people, and I think it's because all of his positive qualities bend back around into negative ones with enough emotional blunt trauma. There's always something a LITTLE off about Gon narratively, like, it's not the thing where when you rewatch you're like 'oh it doesn't make sense Gon ended up like that'. Gon is always like that... and it doesn't make him fully bad. The situation brings him further into it. (Also on the Togashi + Naoko note, I always thought it was cool that not only were both of them people who created classic well remembered works, both of them also included some queer characters in their majorly well known work and... always seems a bit power couple to me in that sense at the least)
HxH is super important to me. I'm not super far in (I'm gonna have time coming up to watch more and it's on My List) but. The way Killua's relationship with Illumi is handled in the first arc just really... I needed that. Like, Killua is afraid of Illumi, even when Illumi isn't outright threatening him. And his friends understand this and sympathize with him. They take his side (although he did kill a guy so there's the whole 'okay but that's maybe a bad thing' angle) because they see how being around Illumi changes him. Then, Gon wakes up and hears that when Killua was given the choice to save him by fighting Illumi or let Illumi kill Gon, Killua backed down. I was thinking we were heading for some bullshit 'how COULD you we're FRIENDS'. But nope, instead Gon immediately goes to find Illumi to tell him the fuck off because 'Killua is already my friend. He never needed to prove himself.' Like... they treated Killua being afraid of Illumi seriously. They didn't try to play it off for laughs and have Illumi be ~comically mean~. No, he's fucking terrifying. And sure, he does love his brother, but that doesn't make up for the way he treats him. And Killua's friends take Killua's fear in this situation seriously. They don't get mad at him for 'abandoning Gon' or whatever - they understand that he was deathly afraid and that Illumi preyed on that fear. Even Gon, who theoretically had the most to lose, doesn't hold it against Killua. instead, he's upset that Killua got hurt in this whole familial mess. I watched that right after I found out my abusive Mom was coming to my home, which is 11 hours away from where she lived and where I felt safe because she'd never been. I was a total mess. And then I watched this play out and I just felt better.
Hunterxhunter is a really good show about some stuff, and child abuse is often one of them Like, when it comes to assassin hell family it doesn't shy away from how fucked up it is
Which honestly surprised me, because I was expecting it to be played as a ~quirky family~ with a bunch of child abuse the audience is supposed to find funny because... child abuse is hilarious??? I guess?? But then the anime completely threw me for a loop by being like 'this is a scene of emotional abuse, treated like a bad thing' and I decided I loved this show.
HxH does a bunch of nuanced subjects really, really well for a story which is basically a deconstruction of the shounen archetype.
Yeah, something that always impressed me in the immediate fallout from the end of the Hunter Exam is when Illumi and Gon have that one conversation together... which is, paraphrasing Illumi: "You're acting like I kidnapped him. He walked out on his own." Gon: "You were manipulating him so much that we can talk about kidnapping." That was so powerful to me, to comment that you CAN move someone through words alone or can have control over them even though there is no 'obvious' external control. Also I know there's a (99 exclusive I think) line that just struck me with how... successfully it conveyed the dehumanization of Killua in terms of his family. "You know what that's like? It's like a kid asking for a dog. They promise they'll take care of it, but before long the novelty wears off and the dog gets neglected." It surprised me too, because as far as original content that adds on to an author's original content that's a pretty strong line.
I have HxH fic and meta to rewrite and publish, but tbh in order to do justice to it I might have to rewatch canon first? (By which I mean the 1999 anime, because yes, the 1999 anime has filler about Killua and his family, and YES, said filler is 100% worth watching.) I mean, I did not remember this context of Illumi saying to Killua during the last section of the exam, "if you love him, fight me for him." I had remembered it differently. But that sounds really familiar. Probably the reason why I didn't remember is because there are like 10 different canonical versions of that scene and the 1999 one is ...not the most recent one I saw. There's the manga, two anime adaptions, a flashback in the manga that ends up in one of the anime adaptions, a radio drama segment, and a two-hour musical, plus anything I'm forgetting. Speaking of, I would love to do Zaoldyeck-centric collabs with anyone else who has an interest in them! I am especially fond of the Illumi-Killua clusterfuck (ask me about naaames) but I also have headcanons about I think every single other Zaoldyeck. Also timelines and hypotheticals and, as stated above, underedited fics. However if you have not seen all the ep30 remixes I may get distracted by shrieking about them and also try to translate them for you personally and I am sorry.
also just a few days ago i wrote a post on an anime forum about hxh but the anime forum is dead so im going to put it here instead about how much i LOVE the chimera ant arc (lol) Spoiler: CA Arc spoilers Chimera Ant Arc is personally the best shounen arc I've ever read/watched. One I've rewatched most and love most. Meruem and Komugi were great, but my favourite part has to do with Killua and Gon and the fracturing of their relationship. There is so much build up with Gon over the years and his desire to be strong, a NEED to not weigh anyone else down, that is seeded as early as the Hunter Exam and him hating owing Hisoka, or feeling he hasn't done anything himself and NEEDING to pay back Kurapika and Leorio for their help. As we know, Gon... really didn't depend on them that much, it was already a give and take relationship. However there is this burning validation in Gon - he feels he can't owe anyone anything, he feels he must be the one to make sacrifices, and being that kind of person can hurt those you are close to. Greed Island Gon says to Killua, 'thank you for helping me find my dad'. Killua doesn't correct him. But we know he is there, not just to find Gon's dad, but because he cares about Gon. However, Killua doesn't openly say things. He has difficulties doing that. But as Killua says to Ikalgo, 'friends don't have to say thank you'. For Killua, all the things he does are just what you do. Gon is distancing himself because he wants no one to sacrifice anything for him, his biggest flaw. He is the one who takes the hit. He rushes forward. He can sacrifice himself, but someone sacrificing themself for him is unbearable. Killua plans to die with him. Gon plans to die alone. For Killua, that is the most painful thing. It takes these flaws within both their personalities - (both are silent sufferers, in different ways) and uses them to their fullest. Regarding Gon specifically, Gon's quest for revenge after talking Kurapika down from murder all of Yorknew is such a fascinating parallel. "You really don't want to end up like that person," someone says to Gon. "Even looking at him, you can tell why, can't you?" Gon quietly agrees. Then he ends up destroying himself for revenge a few arcs later. Powerful. I know everyone's talked about that arc but it still gets me. Also, I didn't mention it because it was an anime forum but damn Killua is gay and although I'd always enjoyed Killua and Gon as a dynamic, the CA arc was the arc that convinced me Togashi himself was aware he was writing Killua subtextually as having feelings for Gon
Resurrecting this thread to complain about how I, having binged through 116 episodes of the anime in the past week and a half, am now in a position where I feel entitled to consume fan content, due to all the time I have put in, but cannot actually consume fan content yet, for fear of being spoiled. (I'm like...3/4 of the way done with the Chimera Ant arc, I think? I've heard a lot of things about this arc, but somehow no one ever told me how long it is. I was averaging an arc a day before I started this one. Then I start the Chimera Ant arc and it takes sixteen episodes just for the main antagonist to show up. Although damn, does it really pop off once he does.) Also Spoiler: spoiler for early in the CA arc I'm still sad Ponzu died :( I know she didn't do much, but...I appreciated the combat role she fulfilled in the cast, and I was really rooting for her in the Hunter Exam arc. I just wanted to see her come into her own as a pro Hunter. She deserved at least that much. (Maybe I just really liked her character design. I enjoy that 90's-energy no-patterns primary-colors Chrono Trigger/Dragon Ball shit.) And Spoiler: spoiler for about...the middle of the CA arc? I'm still unsure why, before I started HxH, I knew the appearance of exactly four characters: Gon, Killua, Hisoka, and Pitou. ...Like, I do really enjoy Pitou as a character, especially in the last several episodes I've watched (114-116), but what about like...Illumi? Or anyone from the Phantom Troupe? Or Kurapika and Leorio? (I did probably see Kurapika before, but just didn't retain the memory, to be fair.) Is that the power of...............................Cat(-Ant) People
Having now finished the 2011 anime, I can provide two updates: Spoiler: for HxH up to where the 2011 anime ends 1. I got attached to Alluka super quickly, but it took me a while to figure out why. She appears super late in the anime, she's mostly a plot device for the time she's there, and she doesn't really fall into my established Favorite Character Type. Then I realized, "oh yeah...the bodysharing." She's so protective over Nanika...even though we have no idea how their relationship started, or what all they've gone through together...I would protect them both with my life... 2. I was wrong about only having seen four HxH characters prior to seeing the anime. I had actually seen five before: Gon, Killua, Hisoka, Neferpitou...and Cheadle. Conclusion..................fandom is furry?? Anyway, now that I'm done with that, I'd like some advice. Since I'm a dummy who started with the 2011 anime rather than the 1999 anime, if I want to go back and watch the 1999-specific content...which episodes should I watch? Or...what...OVAs? Where do the OVAs play into this, anyway?? I mean, eventually I'll go back and watch every bit of the 1999 content, either way, but right now I don't think I'm ready to revisit everything I've just watched from the beginning. I'm pretty bad about rewatching things. I just want to know about that Zoldyck family drama filler I'm hearing about.
I hear the manga is still going! boyfriend was getting me into hxh way back in like 2017 and was reading them I just looked this thread up so I had somewhere to announce that! after three years! I have FINISHED WATCHING THE 2011 HxH ANIME
