Hunter x Hunter

[Doppleganger]

I think all the Chimera Ants are sexless except the royalty. They might have what appears to be sexual dimorphism but it's mostly a function of the bodies they were recycled from. At that, I think the species is parthenogenic too.

[Talon87]

Episode 102:

Spoiler: show

This episode can be roughly divided into two portions. The first, longer portion is the Gon & Meleoron segment. The second, shorter portion is the King & Mystery Girl segment. Guess I'll take each in its turn then.

The Meleoron segment was cool I guess if these episodes were twice their normal length. Sadly they are not. ^^; And so I couldn't help but feel a little impatient with each of Meleoron's successive revelations. "Oh, so you have a second ability which is way better than your first ability? ..................... oh. It's the same concept as your first ability but it extends to all five senses now and not just vision." Then, "Oh, so you have a third ability which is way better than your first two abilities? ............... oh. It's the same exact thing as your second ability only now you can share the benefits with others. I ... wouldn't really call that a third ability but rather an additional feature of the second. ^^; " Still, though, I liked how Meleoron's discussing of his human memories with Gon touched on something which I don't often give much thought to: and that's how there's a difference between the ants who identify more as transformed humans (the way Meleoron and Colt seem to) and those who identify more as transformed animals (the way that Leol and Ikalgo do). While it felt like a bit of a late hour retcon ^^; , I was also intrigued by how it turned out that Peggy and Meleoron had originally been foster father and son in their human lives. Togashi's bringing up the memory stuff again seems like a move he's executing deliberately to prepare us for the King's inevitable tying in to the underground kingpin of NGL. I mean, we've been calling that one since the day we first heard the NGL kingpin's backstory. But it still has yet to be confirmed. Togashi's probably waiting until the right moment to have the King start remembering things from his human life.

Since we're speaking about the King already, guess I'll move on to him. I don't think I ever voiced these suspicions here (can't remember; if not, *sigh* , but if so, woo! ) but this week's episode confirms that the mystery girl is blind. I had had my suspicions from how the ED credits show her with her eyes closed but face seemingly turned with inquisitive intent, like a blind person turning to face the source of some sound. It also would make good sense if she were the girl the King was going to fall in love with since, owing to her blindness, she wouldn't be scared of the King or the other Chimera Ants -- at least not owing to their physical appearances -- and she would judge him purely based on his personality. Now ... what we've seen so far of the guy is pure evil ^^; , but it's possible that Togashi may try and argue that the King is just an ignorant baby (I mean, he literally is only a few months old still ^^; ) and that he can learn to be better, inspired by the girl he falls in love with. Who knows. I kinda doubt it. I think it's more likely that the love is one-sided (or one-and-a-half-sided) and that in the end, whether the girl dies too or not, the King is going to be taken out by our heroes and no one in the audience is going to be sad because of it. Anyway, those suspicions of her blindness were confirmed here: she's blind. And so it'll be interesting to see what her relationship with the King is like next week ... assuming we get to see much of it at all. That's one problem with the story right now, unfortunately: we've got too many different plot threads owing to too many splinters:

• Gon and Meleoron
• Killua and Ikalgo
• Knuckle and Shoot
• Knov and Morel
• Netero
• the King and the blind girl

Not to mention even more shelved threads like:

• the Phantom Troupe (fragment #1; the ones who took out the scorpion ant)
• the Phantom Troupe (fragment #2; Nobunaga's group)
• Chrollo (assuming he isn't with fragment #2 already)
• Kurapica and Senritsu
• Leorio
• the appraiser
• Wing and Zushi
• Bisky
• Palm
• Ging
• Hisoka
• Illumi
• Silva Zoldyck and the others besides Killua, Illumi, and Kalluto
• other (this list included characters like Goreinu)

Yeah, we've got a lot of active plot threads and a crapton of other plot threads or characters on the back burner. Can make it rather frustrating when only getting 22 minutes or so of new footage each week. ^^; *sigh* Oh well.

Overall, I enjoyed the episodes and I'm sure there's more to say but this is a decent enough start to elicit some conversation.

[lilboocorsola]

Episode 102:

It did feel like the episode should've been longer.

Spoiler: show

Lizard-guy's okay I guess, but I wanted to see the resolution with Killua and the octopus. =3=

I did like how Gon told him he should quit smoking, and gave a practical reason other than for health. Felt like another subtle way to illustrate how he's close to human, but not. (Poor birdie though, getting poked by a cigarette butt... I was afraid he was going to burn it at first. =< Birds really seem to get abused in this series...)

Nice to get a call-back to Peggy (even if the explanation felt a bit contrived).

I did not actually anticipate the girl being blind at all (by the same token, I don't recall you ever saying it XP). Interesting to see how that plays out.

Yeah, not a whole lot to say. ^^; I enjoyed the episode fine, but expected a lot more to happen. Ending took me by surprise even.

[Talon87]

Yeah, it doesn't look like ...

(Episode 102 spoilers)

Spoiler: show

... I ever used the word "blind" in this thread in reference to the newest ending credits or more precisely to the girl with the bushy eyebrows. I can try seeing if the word was used on Skype but if it wasn't used there then yeah I never shared the thought and so no bragging rights for me. Anyway, doesn't matter much either way now anyway: what matters is that it's been revealed and so it'll definitely be interesting to see how this girl handles the King. I imagine it's going to be a lot like Scheherazade and the sultan in the 1001 Nights, with the King wanting to execute her on the one hand ("How dare you defy me!? " or some such) but not being able to bring himself to on the other hand, initially because she has something he wants/needs (which in this case would be the secret to mastering the game, I guess) and then later, presumably, because he's fallen in love with her.

[Talon87]

I had watched the latest episode of Hunter x Hunter from some distance; seeing some screencaps up close now, I've noticed something about one of the characters:

Episode 102:

Spoiler: show

the blind girl had snot dripping down her nose out of both nostrils! Obviously that could just be Togashi showing that she's been crying, but part of me wonders if, in combination with those huge bushy eyebrows and kind of androgynous face, Togashi is trying to show that neither her nor the King judge people based on their physical appearances. Which is to say, assuming he falls in love with this girl, then he will fall in love with a girl who by our standards is not exactly attractive (she's certainly no Good Looking Palm!) but that doesn't matter to him: he loves who she is on the inside. We'll just have to wait and see!

To be honest, one thing I am interested in seeing Togashi address is how the King could respect this girl when she has such an obvious physical handicap. Normally he's incredibly aggressive with how superior a being he is to others. No one is as strong as him, no one can use nen as well as he can (or so we've been told; and only of the characters he's run into, of course. No one's said anything about Ging or other nen practitioners being weaker than him), no one can best him in mental combat, so on and so forth. We saw him slay a bawling child who had lost her parents. We saw him murder his own mother because she was trying to keep him from being born prematurely. The guy is pretty much evil and has no remorse when it comes to killing people who get in his way. But that's just it: we haven't seen him go on a euthanasia spree murdering people left and right for being lesser beings. He's only killed people when they've "crossed him" in some way, even something as simple as a bawling child continuing to cry or a shogi master failing to forfeit in a life-or-death match when the game was lost twenty turns ago. (And even then he didn't actually slay the guy until he made a run for it. Although I think we can all agree that the guy was likely going to be killed even if he hadn't attempted to flee.) So it may not be enough that she is blind for the King to feel that she deserves to die. But we'll see! We'll see. Like I say, I'm interested to see where Togashi intends to go with this. There are several options and any of them could be entertaining.

[Doppleganger]

I wouldn't say no one exists who can use Nen as well as him, he's just simply more powerful than everyone else. There certainly exists people who have lesser ability but can make use of that ability more effectively.

The King is interesting in that he's not necessarily arrogant...he's speaking from what he sees as observations of the world. When he says he's superior to everyone else, it's an observation of fact, not an expression of opinion. An arrogant individual, when confronted with evidence against what they believe is true, would fall into denial. The King, as you note, is a bit more open minded than that.

[Talon87]

A fair distinction. To use a (perhaps poor) analogy, he's the ten-foot tall, 400-pound monster man who is doing karate at a power level that is off the charts but a technical level that is one or two belts below a black belt. Meanwhile we have black belts over here who have technically mastered the art (or as near to as anyone can) but whose capacity for power is limited by their human frames. (A karate martial artist, no matter how strong, can only hit so hard.) Anyway, all I meant to say was this:

Spoiler: show

the King is, as far as we have been presented with thus far, unmatched when it comes to his ability to win in a 1-on-1 fight against human beings. Netero himself suggested that he did not think that he could take out the King and we've been told that Netero is, even in his old age, still one of the best nen users in the world. The implication seems to be that the number of people who could defeat the King in 1-on-1 combat are limited in number and probably includes (but does not go far beyond) Ging, Chrollo, and three to five future nen users we have yet to meet whom Togashi had already planned for at this point in the tale. (As for ones we already have with us, Gon could be one. Silva Zoldyck might be another but it seems kind of doubtful given that he and Zeno together took on Chrollo and couldn't defeat him. I'd love for Biscuit Krueger to be one but the impression we're being given is that raw power alone won't help any human to take out the King and sadly Bisky's nen ability isn't really one which would empower her to overcome the King.) Then again, lest I forget so soon, we were shown that Feitan has a stupid broken power level where he can basically summon an artificial Sun and avoid being roasted by it himself while his opponent is afforded no such protection, so ... maybe it's not fair to say that the King is unmatched even as raw power goes. We'll just have to see.

One thing Togashi hasn't really bothered justifying yet is why the successive tiers of ants are each better than the last at controlling nen and why even the worst of them (like Rammot) are innately more powerful with nen than most humans. Like ... Kite got his ass kicked by Neferpitou, never mind by the King. Netero says he doubts he can defeat the King in a 1-on-1 fight. Why is this? What is the in-universe justification for this being the way things are? Is the idea that the humanoid Chimera Ants are akin to superhuman aliens whose nen prowess matches their physical prowess? Is the idea that animals are more in tune with nen than humans and thus Chimera Ants, being part-animal, are also more in tune with nen than humans? I'm interested to see what implications this has on the HxH universe in future, like:

• would someone like Hisoka willingly transform himself into or get his soul reincarnated into the body of an anthropomorphic animal if it held this promise of increased power?
• are the Hunters Association's most powerful hunters generally beasts and half-beasts?
• can dragons use nen? (And if they can, what does this mean for Ging?)
• can the planet use nen? Are we going to be presented at some point with an avatar who represents the planet's very life force? Is that the idea? That the closer you are to the pure planet itself the stronger your nen? So like, humans < animals < rockmen and cloudmen and other elementals < the planet itself?

I'm not sure if he intends to ever explain this, but I sure do hope he will at least explain things more than he has so far.

[Doppleganger]

The ants are more powerful because of the "rule of generation" (my own words), where the second generation is more powerful than the first. Since most of the ants recieved their nen powers from devouring individuals who either had nen potential or were nen users, by virtue of being the second generation, they're more powerful with them.

I think there's three generations of Chimera Ants, and the Royal Guards are members of the second generation. Even though the Royal Guards are far more powerful than any other generation of Chimera Ant, they lack abilities that the third generation (which includes the King) have.

Among the power levels, it's never a straight thing in HxH. It's about use of abilities just as much as raw strength. Netero's merely starting that in terms of mass Nen size, he's inferior to the King, without seeing any of the King's abilities.

Incidentally, as of the most recent chapter, the Chimera Ant King is the most powerful being in the series. Another being did appear that in terms of pure power was believed to be almost as strong and fully capable of killing the Chimera Ant King, but a fair match between the two is the domain of speculation. It's basically those two, huuuuuge gap, the Royal Guards, then everyone else in the series.

[Talon87]

I don't think ingestion has as much to do with it as birthright. Otherwise we'd see Hisoka devouring the nen practitioners he defeats. (Or, if not him, someone like him.) So far we've seen zero evidence of cannibalism amongst the hunters, so I don't think that "I ate you therefore I get your powers" works.

(spoilers for beginning stretch of Chimera Ant arc; we're far past this right now in the TV series)

Spoiler: show

Maybe it works with the Chimera Ants since they specifically have weird rules about "phagogenesis" and what not? But the regular soldiers aren't giving birth to anything. And I don't really buy that the phagogenetic aspects of the ants should carry over to giving they themselves powers from the food they eat. Think about it like this: Togashi's phagogenesis was explained to work, reproductively, where what you ate was then incorporated into your gametes during gametogenesis such that your progeny were part you and part what you ate. He never said anything about "You yourself become what you eat," and sure enough we've never seen any physical signs of this. For example, the Chimera Ant Queen always remainded a frightening ant-human hybrid that was mostly ant-like. She never became as human as her children did despite the enormous amount of humans she ate. Nor did she ever develop the ability to use nen despite the fact that some of her loyalest soldiers would have doubtless told her about nen and wanted to share their gift with their queen. So I don't think there's any solid basis for arguing that just by eating things you become more like them. I think instead that what we've been shown (from Pokkle's death on forward) has been that:

• nen practitioners taste better than regular humans
• since the queen ate some (though not too many) nen practitioners early on, her children could use nen, I guess?
• since the queen then ate a crapload more nen practitioners later (as her children began to selectively hunt them out for her), her later children (the Royal Guard and the King) could use nen even better?

But none of this explains why they can use it better than the people the queen consumed. Like, you'd think they could use it either a) as well as or else b) worse than the people they got it from. Because the people they got it from were 100% nen user while the ants' origins were (say) 15% nen user and 85% a hodgepodge of animals or non-nen using humans. So again, I turn to an animal explanation, like "Animals are just more in tune with nen than people are" or something.

But sure, if your theory about ingestion being how the successive generations got stronger is correct, then I guess it scarily means that any single one of the old generals (like Leol or Cheetu) could sire the next King-like lifeform if they got some girl pregnant, given how many nen users they've slain (and presumably devoured). Scary. ;o

[Doppleganger]

Remember what I said earlier that the Chimera Ants are sexless (and also sterile) except for the Royalty. The King is technically capable of sexual reproduction, but does so with other animal species. But that only applies to the small scale Chimera Ants, whereas the Chimera Ant King seen in HxH recognizes himself as the ultimate being without need to reproduce, because his children would be inferior beings to himself.

Spoiler: show

Not unlike a certain vampire, I might add.

[Talon87]

I don't see how your reply is a rebuttal to anything I just wrote. ^^; You're going to have to explain it a bit further, I think.

[Talon87]

Episode 103:

Spoiler: show

This week's episode is one of those cases where quite a bit happened or was revealed and thus I should be really happy ... but when the episode ended I instead had this feeling of "Oh. So it was one of those weeks " where it feels like nothing has happened. I dunno, it's very strange. As I go back over the episode contents for this post, I see that quite a bit happened, much of it entertaining! So I'm guessing that I'm just frustrated by this: the fact that we began several little different plot threads, continued others, but got cliffhangered by each and every last one of them.

The King and the Girl: This plot thread was one of two main focuses this episode and was, per the cliffhanger nature of last week's episode, one of the plot threads we were all probably most eager to see. As expected, the blind girl doesn't fit one's expectations of an ideal wife in many ways. From her huge eyebrows and bushy hair in simple side-tails to the snot running down her nose constantly, she's not exactly bringing sexy back. ^_^; Then there's the fact that she seems to lack common sense and is rather goofy: again, she's not some suave, chic chick. But while she may not be the epitome of sexual attractiveness, she seems to have good manners, an upbeat attitude, and other various factors which will no doubt prove critical when it comes time for the King to perhaps want to rage-kill her for being so much better at this game than he is. As for the King, he actually shows surprising patience right on up until the very end of the episode. You can definitely tell that he's intrigued by this girl and game: this is the first time in his life that he hasn't been able to master a human game of strategy in fewer than ten games, let alone the 140-odd games he's already played. There are no sparks yet for romance -- and perhaps there never will be -- but I think it's just a matter of time. Probably very deliberately, there are some mild The King and I vibes I get from the King. (Maybe not so much the girl; but the King, yes.)

Morel and Cheetu: this is where we spent the other half of the episode for the most part. I was entertained by it from start to finish, but I'm not enthralled by it: mostly because it seems like a foregone conclusion. It seems inevitable that Morel will outwit Cheetu and will manage to tag him before time is up. It also seems highly probable that Morel will outright defeat Cheetu (likely slaying him), although the sneak peek for next week's episode teases the reverse possibility, showing us an angry Cheetu viciously impaling Morel with his arm. That teaser has me wondering if we've been duped this entire time: if Morel is actually capable of producing nigh-on identical clones of himself by use of his smoke nen (and not just the crude smoke warriors and smoke bunnies we've seen him making up until now). If that is the case, then it's quite conceivable that the Morel we see getting impaled in the sneak peek is in fact none other than a remarkable copy of the real Morel. Guess we'll find out next week. In any event, I really like Morel's cool head in tough situations. I can see why Doppel likes the character and respects his intelligence. The part where he walks away and reaches the wall ... the part where he lies down to take a nap and angers Cheetu ... both of these were good examples of Morel being very clever. It feels a little convenient of Togashi to write the plot such that Cheetu is so simple-minded and easy to anger that he doesn't realize what he should be doing in this situation of his own making, but I guess it's fair insofar as Cheetu was never one of the smartest Chimera Ants and ultimately all of the ants, even Neferpitou and the others, are still (as Morel points out) animals with animal behavior and animal instincts.

Gon, Meleoron, Knuckle, and Shoot: Not much really happened here. Meleoron gets to see some of Knuckle's personality up close, the most notable thing being Knuckle's soft spot for animals. He learns pretty much nothing about Shoot, however, and in the end Meleoron doesn't conclude the mission in either direction (either success or failure): he just keeps observing Knuckle and Shoot from the grass, leaving us hanging until next time.

Killua and Ikalgo: No developments this week.

Other Characters: We don't get anything new with Netero or the Phantom Troupe. The Royal Guard doesn't really get much in the way of development (aside from Morel's observation that Neferpitou's military strategy belies an ant's thinking). Some minor characters get some development though. Hirin (Leol's adorable female henchman) finally gets a name, although I don't see the connection with either the mythical beast or with giraffes (which is what I assume they're going for with kirin). And we also find out that she, and not Leol or Neferpitou, is the one who has the nen removal ability. It's also suggested by Leol's commments that Hirin can't remove nen permanently the way that the shaman from the Greed Island arc can. It seems like she has to hole herself up somewhere and maintain focus on dispelling nen from somebody or else the nen will come right back. Speaking of Leol, we discover that he has some as-yet unrevealed ability which he wants to keep under wraps for as long as possible and that he still fancies himself in a position to become the next king. (Neferpitou meanwhile is laughing at this notion and has no qualms about sending two more henchmen to lend Leol the assistance he requests.) I guess the last characters to bring up would be Knov and Leol's dragonfly henchman. The dragonfly dude either a) is revealed to be back in the city, away from Killua and Ikalgo, or else b) is revealed to have very long range with his scouts. Because he has a minor dragonfly chasing Knov around the city and reports to Leol telepathically about what he sees. So yeah, that's that, and whether it's A or B will be revealed in due time, I guess. As for Knov, we see that he doesn't seem *too* too worried about Morel's disappearance and that he deems the mission to continue given that Morel hasn't dissipated his smoke warriors. No sign of Palm yet, although I imagine that she'll come up in a big (and possibly fun) way by the end of this: it just seems like too good of an opportunity to pass up since the ants are convinced that Knov is the only one around and since we know that they're trying to corner him and take him out. While cornering a portal master seems a bit impossible , I'd still love to see Palm make an appearance and just decimate someone who is threatening Knov-sama.

As usual, looking forward to the next week's episode. Thankfully, it feels like we're starting to make our way into the middle of this second part of the Chimera Ant story arc, so with the obligatory beginning stuff out of the way, it should be only up, up, up from here until the end of the part (and possibly the end of the entire arc).

[lilboocorsola]

For me it was the opposite. It felt like a lot happened... Yet when I looked back not much did happen. ^^;

>The King and the Girl

Wasn't sure how I'd feel about her when I first heard her voice, but she turned out to be pretty cute and fun.

Spoiler: show

I wonder if she's probably (unconsciously?) using some kind of Nen ability when she plays. Perhaps something like Pegasus's Millenium Eye?

>Morel and Cheetu

Nothing too impressive happening here, but I appreciated how quickly Morel recognized the right strategy to use in this kind of situation. Though that sneak peek is certainly a tease.

>Gon, Meleoron, Knuckle, and Shoot

Oh, Knuckle. ...Also first time I realized Shoot really has no eyebrows. o.O

>Killua and Ikalgo

Surprisingly I didn't miss these two that much. I guess it's a good sign everything else kept me distracted enough not to notice.

>Other characters

The scene with Hirin amused me just because it looked like she was pregnant. Curious what Leol's power is.

Yeah, not a whole lot to comment on, just some little things that kept me entertained/intrigued throughout the episode. ...Felt like there was some other remark(s) I wanted to make, but I can't remember now.

[Talon87]

Well, there were a lot of little things we learned that I omitted from my post. For example ...

Spoiler: show

Learning that Morel can make up to 256 or so smoke soldiers.

Learning that if he cuts down the number, he can increase the strength of those that he does produce.

Learning (by virtue of power levels and logical analysis) that a Morel who has much of his energy currently invested in smoke soldiers is still more than a match for the never-been-more-powerful Cheetu. (Because obviously: if he didn't think he was a match, he'd take the risk he said he wasn't willing to take. Because just as obviously: if Morel's dead, he's not going to be doing anyone any good with his smoke army anyway. They may persist for a couple of days at most but that'd be it, most likely.) This suggests that even if Morel has a tough time beating Cheetu right now, he will be more impressive when he's operating at full power.

Learning that Reality Marbles are a thing which exist in Hunter x Hunter. (You could say that we already knew that with Knov's portal, but it still hasn't been confirmed whether his portal leads only very specifically to that one room where Netero pwned many bugs or whether he's able to open a portal between any two points in space and travel between them by use of the portal. In other words, it remains to be seen whether the room Knov prepared for Netero was a room that existed in the physical world or whether it was Knov's Reality Marble. For this reason, I'd consider Cheetu's as our first solid proof that Reality Marbles exist in HxH.)

Lots and lots of little things like these.

[Talon87]

TORTURE! I want the next ten episodes now, not at the start of February. Argh.

Episode 104:

Spoiler: show

The bits with the King and the Gungi player were great but far too few. Quite enjoyed the climax (with her story about how the King re-invented a move she previously invented and later found the answer to defeating).

Morel and Cheetu's scenes were good too. Called the "Morel's actually a smoke clone" twist last week. But I figured he'd been smoke since before the duel started, not that he and his newly-generated smoke clone were trapped inside Cheetu's bubble. Did not predict Cheetu's getting a new ability. Likewise, did not predict Cheetu surviving. Figured he was being written out here. Guess Togashi wants to keep him around at least a little longer.

We finally get to learn the extents of Knov's ability this week. Nice. It's not as awesome as I'd hoped but it's not as poor as I'd feared either. The one lingering question I have is whether Knov must make all twenty-one entrances first (and, once made, they're what the exits lead out to) or whether he can generate an entrance on the outside from within the Nen zone. The latter would be close to what I hoped he could do (though it still falls short of Yakumo Yukari god-like power) but I suspect it's the former from what explanation the episode did provide.

lol @ Hagya's frankly shitty ability. ^^; For a self-professed king of the jungle, his ability sure doesn't match up!

Looks like next week is going to be as Killua-less as these past two episodes have been. So it'll have been a month at least since we last saw Killua by the time we get his next appearance.

I really, really want more HxH now. Fuckin' Shounen Jump. Them and their Dickensian storytelling!

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

TORTURE! I want the next ten episodes now, not at the start of February. Argh.

Episode 104:

Spoiler: show

The bits with the King and the Gungi player were great but far too few. Quite enjoyed the climax (with her story about how the King re-invented a move she previously invented and later found the answer to defeating).

Morel and Cheetu's scenes were good too. Called the "Morel's actually a smoke clone" twist last week. But I figured he'd been smoke since before the duel started, not that he and his newly-generated smoke clone were trapped inside Cheetu's bubble. Did not predict Cheetu's getting a new ability. Likewise, did not predict Cheetu surviving. Figured he was being written out here. Guess Togashi wants to keep him around at least a little longer.

We finally get to learn the extents of Knov's ability this week. Nice. It's not as awesome as I'd hoped but it's not as poor as I'd feared either. The one lingering question I have is whether Knov must make all twenty-one entrances first (and, once made, they're what the exits lead out to) or whether he can generate an entrance on the outside from within the Nen zone. The latter would be close to what I hoped he could do (though it still falls short of Yakumo Yukari god-like power) but I suspect it's the former from what explanation the episode did provide.

lol @ Hagya's frankly shitty ability. ^^; For a self-professed king of the jungle, his ability sure doesn't match up!

Looks like next week is going to be as Killua-less as these past two episodes have been. So it'll have been a month at least since we last saw Killua by the time we get his next appearance.

I really, really want more HxH now. Fuckin' Shounen Jump. Them and their Dickensian storytelling!

Spoiler: show

>Gungi

I enjoyed the denouement too where the butterfly guy remarked that was the longest the King had listened to anyone speak, and the King himself questioned why he found the game so entertaining despite losing.

>Cheetu

I actually wasn't expecting Morel to survive based on the sneak peek, so I was had by the clone trick. XP The smoke rope attachment was clever too. Lol @ Cheetu summoning a(nother) useless ability. Why would you want a weapon that's slower than yourself indeed?

>Knov

I liked how he stored snacks and water in the Nen room. Gotta rejuvenate!

>Hagya

If he does somehow manage to pull his power off on the King though, that would be pretty impressive. One threat taken down surprisingly easily, only for another to rise in the same place. Likely won't happen since I can't envision Hagya becoming the Big Bad or the King falling for his trap, but we'll see.

>Killua

Hope he hasn't died already. =/ Come on, Octo-guy! Get him some help faster!

Also missed Gon this week. Forget if the sneak peek showed him or not.

[Talon87]

The problem with _____'s ability is ... (Episode 104 spoilers)

Spoiler: show

Hagya's ability is basically a clone of Chrollo Lucifier's except inferior in just about every way it differs. Both are abilities which say "I don't bring anything to the table myself, but what I do bring are the abilities of others. Potentially many, many such abilities, all usable in one fight." However, what sets one apart from the other?

• Chrollo's requires him to pull out a book, open it to the page where the ability he wants to use is jotted down, and then use it. Hagya's/Leol's requires him to pull out a PDA, thumb through the list of abilities present, select one, print out a receipt, and tear the receipt up. I'm willing to call this one a tie but if I were forced to pick I'd say that Chrollo's sounds slightly easier to pull off in the heat of battle.
• Chrollo's stores abilities indefinitely. ("Permanently", I'd say, but for the fact that iirc it was explained that you can get your ability back from him if you fulfill certain criteria.) Hagya's, by contrast, only stores abilities until they are used for the first time. And that's because ...
• Chrollo's allows him to use and re-use the abilities as many times as he sees fit. He can use them hundreds of times in a battle and he can use them tens of thousands of times across many battles. Hagya's, on the other hand, only allows him to use each ability once. Not even once per battle: once per entry. Once he's used it up, that's it, it's gone. So if he cycles onto another ability in the same fight, he can't go back and use the first ability again: it's gone, or at least it's gone until he can get someone indebted to him again. (See below.) This is an easy win for Chrollo.
• Chrollo can use any of his abilities as long he has the stamina, nen, et cetera to do so. There's no time limit. Not so with Hagya. Hagya, we're told, gets the ability for up to only one hour. And then that's it: poof! It's gone. Another win for Chrollo.
• Chrollo can steal an ability just by seeing it. Hagya has to get someone indebted to him (e.g. by saving them from drowning) before he can get their ability. Once again, win for Chrollo.
• While Chrollo has their ability (i.e. semi-permanently ^^; ), the original nen user cannot use it any longer. The same is true for Leol's ability (although his is only for one hour). This is another one I'm willing to call a tie, but l-o-l at the "tie" that it is given the time window differences noted above.

If you add all these points together, what you find is that Chrollo Lucifer can juggle between five to ten abilities in a single fight whereas Hagya has to stick to just one or two (or, if his life depends on it, fuck it: use 'em all!) and cannot juggle between them: once he shelves one, it's gone for the remainder of the fight barring some miraculous in-fight indebting he can pull off. This means that Chrollo Lucifer can simultaneously send sparks and nen dragon-worms hurtling towards you, can produce fifty copies of himself, can give himself stone skin, can summon the stars, all at once! And it means that Hagya ... can make dragonfly scouts or Nen-containing pregno-bellies. And not even both at once. Just ... one at a time, in sequence, no turning back. ^^; And while Chrollo can steal your very best abilities from you just by witnessing them in the fight as you try to pull them off, Hagya has to get you indebted to him to steal them. So Hagya has no hope, for example, of sealing Gon's Jajanken in the middle of a fight whereas Chrollo could do it easy peasy. If we want to use a chess analogy, it's like saying that Hagya has the ability to seize your queen from you provided he can get you indebted to him while the two of you are playing; on the other hand, Chrollo Lucifer can seize your queen ... just by looking at it. No comparison. ^^;

So yeah. There is no way Leol is going to ever become a Big Bad in this series. Even if by some freak miracle he manages to be the one to take down the Chimera Ant King, Leol is a poor man's Chrollo Lucifer. If no one else could beat Leol, Chrollo Lucifer could: just by sheer virtue of the fact that he's everything Leol is (minus the being an ant bit ) taken to the next level.

As for Gon, no, I don't think the sneak peek showed anything to do with him, so while we might get a brief snippet of him next week, I wouldn't expect anything more than two minutes. And I think it's more likely that we'll get nothing at all.

[lilboocorsola]

...I always seem to forget about Chrollo's ability for some reason. Wonder what that guy's up to anyway.

Spoiler: show

Given that even the Chimera Ants have someone who can dispel Nen on their side, it seems like it shouldn't really take him too long to find someone to undo Kurapica's curse. ^^; Maybe he's met up with the Greed Island guy already.

[Talon87]

Episode 105:

Spoiler: show

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! This was another very entertaining episode. I so, so wish I could have next week's episode now. And the next week after that's. And the next week after that's. And so on, all the way on until at least the end of this Chimera Ant story. ArRrRrRrgh! @_@

I absolutely loved the scene with the Gungi player (do we even know her name yet!?) and the King. It's such a shame that he's such a terrible person who deserves to be terminated by Team Gon, because if he weren't, I would be so, so helplessly in love with this love story we've got blossoming here. Oh my word. I just love watching the King fall in love with this girl. And I just love how Togashi is doing it! He even calls attention to the fact, once again, that the Gungi player isn't especially attractive or intelligent or anything -- she's basically just really skilled at Gungi and a dear of a girl -- but despite this the King still finds in her such incredible awesomeness that even he feels inferior when comparing himself with her. Really can't wait to watch their scene again. I'm just such a sucker for stuff like the first half of it, and the second half was plenty exciting in its own right.

The other main focus of the episode -- Knov -- sure was tense to watch this first go-around. The entire time I was watching, I kept holding my breath subconsciously, waiting to see Shaiapouf or the big red guy plummet from up high right on down on top of Knov's back, snapping it in half or something. ALL THOSE CRAWLING-AROUND SCENES! >_< But in the end, the narrator is nice enough to finally broadcast to us that Knov really did have free reign of the perimeter at this time and wasn't in any immediate danger.

Not really sure why Togashi needed to invent a human shadow leader for the country. In fact, I was surprised he bothered with it at all given that he argued Diego is still alive. (Didn't we see Diego's head get blown off by the King? No? I forget.) I mean, obviously Neferpitou has her crazy witch doctor magic, but still. If you're going to go so far as to say that Diego's still amongst the living, why do you really need to invent this secretary dude to be the country's shadow leader? Putting that aside for now, the guy sure was creepy. He was ugly-lookin' to start with, but so what, lots of nice guys can be ugly too. But then he starts smacking his chops at the pictures of the sex slaves and it's like oh boy. -_-; Creepy gross.

Palm was quite the surprise. When they showed "Thinker Bell", I assumed it was the Gungi player's mother given the similar-looking eyes and hair color. I thought "Man, what a coincidence that would be if, as a result of the Chimera Ant stuff, the Gungi player's mother got abducted and sold into slavery and now she's going to wind up here at the very same palace her daughter is in." But then they revealed that Thinker was Palm and I was like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA? O_o Looks nothing like her! And not quite as attractive either. ¬_¬ Though still nice! I don't really understand why Palm is seemingly operating on her own and why she isn't part of the Chairman Netero task force. I even less understand why she's targeting the palace for infiltration. Is it because she knows she'll cross paths with Knov there? Is it for some other reason? Guess we'll find out in due time. Going to be pretty pissed though if either Knov or Palm dies. I don't want to lose Knov's power (PORTALS, MAN!) nor do I want to lose Palm's character.

[Doppleganger]

Heheheheheheh.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Heheheheheheh.

I can only assume you are laughing at one thing --

(HxH 105)

Spoiler: show

-- and I am going to be SO PISSED if that happens. >_<

Seriously: portals are too cool of a power not to keep around forever. And besides: I feel like Togashi gimped them enough that it's not like he needs to kill Knov off for the sake of the story. Knov's power is pretty darn impotent compared with Yakumo Yukari's. He can only make 21 portals at a time. He has to physically visit the site he wants the portal to be in and plant the portal manually. It costs him Nen to use his power, meaning that from the moment we've seen him go to the castle to either the moment the mission's accomplished or the moment he dies, Knov is going to have to maintain his portals, sapping his body of energy. I just don't see him as a liability to the plot. Certainly not when you've got someone else running around whose power says "I can do everything I witness and lock the original users out of it " and you've got someone else whose power says "I can summon a small star with which to roast you. Oh, and by the way: I can also conjure up a magical heat shield that protects me from the star's intense heat." I mean, come on, Togashi.

As for Palm, well, we still don't really know what her powers are, but even if it's something like shapeshifting (something arguably less powerful than Knov's, Chrollo's, or Feitan's abilities), I don't care: I don't want to lose Palm. She's a fun character. She's an interesting character. And even if she ended up proving to be truly psychotic there in the end, and even if it seems like Gon x Palm is dead, I still fancy that she has a crush on him (that maybe she's sort of a Brock-like character who can't help herself when it comes to falling in love) and I would still love to see her around making the occasional cameo appearance.

While a lovers' double death could make for some good Romeo & Juliet tragedy, I'd still really hate to see either of them die, let alone both of them. Not to mention that if Palm dies, then in retrospect it will make her decision to infiltrate the King's castle all by herself seem so, so so dumb.

Hopefully this is not what you were laughing at though. ¬_¬; I guess only time will tell.

[Doppleganger]

In the manga, the Chimera Ant Arc was widely hated because of the delays Togashi took to it, not to mention the deteriorated art. But, aside from some silly developments, it was actually pretty darn entertaining and well written through the end.

Because I was able to read the whole arc in one go, I didn't have the problem you (and the manga readers of the day) did, which was where the wait between chapters was agonizing. Be thankful! You don't have to wait 2-3 months between episodes. And the production values are noticeably better than...well.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

In the manga, the Chimera Ant Arc was widely hated because of the delays Togashi took to it, not to mention the deteriorated art. But, aside from some silly developments, it was actually pretty darn entertaining and well written through the end.

Well, I didn't say it wouldn't be well written! Just that I'd hate to see it happen. It'd be like if Bisky had shown back up this episode and I was saying how I'd be pissed if she were killed off this story arc. Even if her sendoff was amazing, I'd still be pissed she was sent off at all!

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Because I was able to read the whole arc in one go, I didn't have the problem you (and the manga readers of the day) did, which was where the wait between chapters was agonizing. Be thankful! You don't have to wait 2-3 months between episodes. And the production values are noticeably better than...well.

While I am thankful to not have to wait months between individual episodes, I can't accept that what you linked me to is real. That has got to either be:

1. a fan troll, where someone crudely copied Togashi's original page and then placed the younger drawing before the older drawing
2. rakugaki scribbles that Togashi provided as a sneak peek towards the end of one of his earlier chapters, meant to excite people for the things to come. The people who were scanlating Hunter x Hunter went ahead and translated that page too, and then of course they re-translated it when the real page came out later

I just can't fathom that the first of those two pictures was not only drawn by Togashi but was submitted by him to Shounen Jump as the final draft. No way. No matter how popular Hunter x Hunter might be, they'd have fired his ass so fast it'd have made his head spin. I have never seen drawings so bad before in a manga publication of Shounen Jump's level.

[Doppleganger]

As time goes on the art got worse, so I'll link you to actual full chapters with more atrocious sketches so seeing will be believing.

It's not ridiculous when you realize Togashi was literally dying when he drew those, and had no assistants to fill in things for him. And Shueisha is too loyal to him to turn away what he submitted.

[Talon87]

I thought his health issues were more along the lines of the psychiatric or chronic fatigue syndrome. Even if he were dying of cancer, I wouldn't expect it to compromise his drawing ability like that -- I would expect that either he can draw (no pain, no mental impairment, no motor impairment) or else he cannot (any of those three). What you showed me look like the scribbles of a child. I'm somewhat confident that if I were to pick up a pen and paper and try my hardest over the next 12 hours that I could turn out a page that looked better drawn than his. It's that bad. What the hell happened to him? Does he have some sort of PNS problem?