#but then togashi lost interest

[maagicmushies]

Nen Talks #3 Kurapika

Hey. You got a free hour or two to spare? If not, fuck off because we're talking about Kurapika's abilities, their symbolism and their connection to his story line and this will be a yap session because he is one of the most storied characters in the series with the highest number of abilities.

So, I think for Kurapika it mostly makes sense to talk about how Nen abilities in chronological order, starting with the Dousing Chain. It's a silver chain with a ball at the end attached to his ring and while it is Kurapika's main chain for combat, the real interesting thing is that the name isn't just for show. Dousing Chain can be used to read maps and tell lies. We're already starting strong because Kurapika is someone who HATES being lied to or even having information withheld for him. All hunters are greedy to an extent, because to be a hunter means to constantly want something that you don't have. Kurapika is this with information, he (unintentionally) compromised the safety of his entire clan just because he wanted to experience more, learn more. The Dousing Chain is this hunger for knowledge taken to it's full form. You cannot lie to Kurapika, nor can you hide anything from him.

His next chain is the Chain Jail on his middle finger and no, I don't think that is a coincidence. It's a gesture brimming with spite and anger and how Kurapika binds the Phantom Troupe. There is more to say about Chain Jail, but it's better saved for a little later on. Next up is the Holy Chain, allowing Kurapika to heal himself or others. This one is almost purely subtext, but Kurapika has a lot of holy themes tied to him. He wears a monk's garb as his primary design for the Yorkshin arc and his primary adversary, Chrollo, has a lot of "anti-christ" theming going on with that evil bible, a cloak adorned with St. Peter's Cross and his twelve disciples. Kurapika is the holy soldier on a mission of righteousness while Chrollo is the embodiment of everything that Kurapika strives to avoid.

The turning point in Kurapika's abilities is the reveal of Emperor Time. It's not a chain, but instead a state he enters when his emotions reach a fever pitch and his eyes go scarlet. Instead of Kurapika being a Conjurer with 100% potential in conjuration with diminishing returns everywhere, it turns him into a specialist with 100% potential everywhere. This is the ability of someone who wants to do everything on their own. Hunter x Hunter's cast is initially set up like one of Togashi's previous works, Yu Yu Hakusho where everyone has their own strengths and no one can truly do anything on their own. However, Kurapika defies this, breaking away from everyone and trying to find any way to be his own team. It's not that he's selfish, it's just that this is HIS holy war and doesn't see the need to drag his friends into it. This aspect of Kurapika isn't just spiritually destructive, but physically destructive because late in the manga it is revealed that there is another restriction tied to Emperor Time. One second for the Emperor shaves off one second of Kurapika's life. As his search for his clan's eyes gets harder, he needs to use Emperor Time more and more. No one really knows how much time Kurapika has left. We just know that he has lost at least 6 years of what he would have had originally, and likely much more than that. After he completes his quest, that might be it. He might just fully burn out. Kurapika has acknowledged this possibility... and is mostly ok with it. Just like Gon and Killua (and his arch nemesis, Chrollo), he doesn't have a ton of self worth, that's what allows him to grab ahold to this great power in such a short time and leads well into the Judgement Chain on his pinkie. Judgement Chain forces someone into an oath with Kurapika and if the oath is broken, the chain which is wrapped around the heart will crush the heart, killing them instantly. I think the allusion to "pinkie promise" might be intentional? As said earlier, oaths and truths are a big thing to Kurapika, so this makes sense but the real tragic thing here is that Kurapika has used Judgement Chain on himself. In order to stop himself from going out of control on his revenge quest, he has made a Judgement Chain vow with himself to only use Chain Jail on Phantom Troupe members. Failure to acquiesce will kill him. Kurapika... still doesn't really know what will happen if he accidentally uses it on someone who isn't a troupe member. It's this lack of foresight and lack of self worth that keeps showing up for him, Kurapika just keeps digging down with no plan on how to get back up and seems to be resigned to the idea that he may never get back up.

The final chain and the one I likely have the least to say about is the Steal Chain. It's his index finger. It basically sucks someone's aura out of their body and then gives that aura (and the ability carried within it) to an ally using Stealth Dolphin. Steal Chain holds a similar role to Chain Jail in Kurapika's characterization, this idea that some nen users are terrible people who need to be chained to hell, having all of their godly nen powers removed. Kurapika really likes this idea because he even uses Judgement Chain to impose this on Chrollo. It fits into that religious theming that keeps coming up with Kurapika, his mission is one of righteousness or at least that's how he sees it.

There are largely two forms of story telling done through nen in Hunter x Hunter. One form hints at a characters backstory and struggles and how they've evolved past it while the other hints at the core of who the character really is. Kurapika's skillset is a fantastic case of the latter, because you get such a vivid picture painted just by knowing what these does. His obsession with truths and oaths, his religious subtext with the troupe and his lack of self worth. It's all communicated through his chains and eyes and this is honestly a fantastic showcase of what a "main character" ability looks like for this series.

[yyh4ever]

What did you think of the live-action yu yu hakusho I confess that when I finished watching the first episode I had good expectations for the next ones but from episode 3 onwards they lost their hand.

To be honest, I loved it! They skipped all the introductory parts and got right down to the point. It's a rough adaptation of the original, but the action scenes are amazing! I felt the love of everyone involved towards Togashi's work. There were more highs than lows.

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Togashi wanted to draw a battle shounen, but since it was his first battle series, his editor advised him to take it easy at first. The first chapters were stand-alone adventures of Yusuke's spirit helping others. They weren't even adapted into the anime. Although I love those early stories, I don't think they are crucial to the story. I missed the comedy aspects though, that's what makes Yu Yu Hakusho so appealing. Yusuke's resurrection was a bit rushed, but I loved that "Hohoemi no Bakudan" (anime opening song) was playing on the truck's radio. I also didn't mind a 17-year old Yusuke or Kurama.

Even though they gave a more actual look to the characters, like Botan wearing peep-toes heels and Kuwabara with a dyed blonde hair instead of his iconic pompadour, we can still feel an atmosphere from the 90s in the scenery.

The stealing of the Artifacts of Darkness was so well adapted. Yusuke VS Gouki was an impressive fight. Masaru finally got to thank Yusuke, something that I missed in the original. Kurama telling his story to Yusuke at the hospital was genial as well. I think the motive that driven Hiei to steal the kouma sword in the live action suited him better. Togashi only made Hiei a main character because his editor told him so. That evil Hiei who kidnapped Keiko is so different from the Hiei who showed up later. Making Elder Toguro do the dirty job was more interesting! I'm just curious what they are going to do about Shigure in case of a second or third season. They probably have something in mind already!

Genkai's Tournament/Training was there in a different way. I don't care that much about Rando, but I missed all the pain the original Yusuke went thought to master the reiko hadouken technique. It was a little disappointing to see him absorbing the spirit wave with just an "okay". But, I'm glad they included some iconic moments of his training, like when he's upside-down balancing himself up with only his index finger on a needle.

Probably, what I missed the most was The Saint Beasts Arc. It was during this arc that the four guys got to know each other better and form a bond. Keiko and Botan also worked together and became friends. Considering the budget, I'm aware the live action didn't have time and money to produce it, they had to focus on the first big villain of Yu Hakusho, Younger Toguro.

Filming a whole Dark Tournament would be too hard, expensive, and maybe a little tiring to watch. Although the Rescue Yukina Arc and the Dark Tournament Saga were re-written, all elements from the original series were there:

They showed both Tarukane's mansion and The Hanging Neck Island;

Sakyo needed money to open a big hole to the Demon World. Goro Inagaki also slayed as Sakyo;

Younger Toguro wanted the same thing, he became too strong for the Human World;

Elder Toguro was insanely crazy. Probably, the best villain of Kenichi Takito's career;

A bunch of rich old dudes from BBC gambling;

Tarukane making Yukina cry to sell her hiruseki stones;

The random guy trying to help Yukina. Instead of killing her bird friends, Elder Toguro killed him.

There wasn't Botan and Keiko helping each other, but instead Keiko and Yukina teaming up, and I really enjoyed it;

Kuwabara falling in love at first sight, and asking Yukina to not hate all humans;

Best scenes and lines from Hiei VS Zeru and Kurama VS Roto were incorporated in the fights against Bui and Karasu;

Youko Kurama appeared! Jun Shison nailed it!

In the original, only Kuwabara didn't know about Genkai's death, I liked that in the live action Koenma kept it a secret from Yusuke as well. Elder Toguro making a puppet of Genkai out of his body was amazing!

Younger Toguro "killing" Kuwabara;

The memorable 100% Toguro VS Yusuke's spirit gun;

Sakyo telling the original plan was to make Toguro lose on purpose, so he could collect money from the rich. Also, betting his own life in front of Koenma;

It was interesting that Sakyo told his story and how he had bet his own life a few times to Tarukane instead of Toguro. I felt the Tarukane from the live action was a little bit more human. The actor did a pretty good job. Genkai's dead by the hands of Younger Toguro happened too quick and was disappointing, but they made up for that by showing their amazing goodbye scene in the Spirit World. Young Meiko Kaji was dazzling.

In the first episode, Koenma had sadness in his voice when he mentioned the former spirit detective. There was also that post-credits scene with Elder Toguro. I really hope there will be a second season. I think the Black Chapter Saga is much easier and more interesting to adapt.

I think those who have already read the manga or watched the anime, felt the love all the cast and staff have for Togashi's work. The new generation will probably buy the manga and watch the anime. The live action will surely bring new fans to the Yu Yu Hakusho franchise!

Netflix announced a new One Piece anime by Wit, made in partnership with Toei Animation. I'm also hoping that with the huge success of the live action, some anime studio or even Studio Pierrot will produce a remake of the Yu Yu Hakusho anime too.

By the way, I recommend watching the "Making of Yu Yu Hakusho". The main cast talks about all the trial-and-error process during the shoot. Action Director Takahito Ouchi also shares behind-the-scenes stories. They gave their blood to shoot this series! RESPECT!

[i-heart-hxh]

Hi again! I've had this thought in terms of hxh meta that I personally have not seen discussed, so I'm gonna dump it here for you! There's an underlying theme I've noticed of characters throughout the series being one that lost their other halves. Like, most obvious, Leorio and Kurapika lost their childhood best friends. Melody lost her friend to the devil's music. We see Nobunaga lose Uvogin, and so on. So Killua saving Gon instead of letting him die after CAA seems to be a "breaking the cycle" so to speak, although I'm not sure what that would even mean! Nothing much to say besides those details I've noticed, but I wanted to know if you had thoughts? Or perhaps it's just an interesting background detail that is up in the air in terms of being significant?

Hello, thank you so much for sending an ask again! I've put some thought into this topic as well, so I'm happy you brought this up! How I'm answering this is both somewhat abstract and far-reaching in the series so it's a little difficult to summarize and express simply, but I hope you and others might get some meaning out of it!

I strongly believe that one of HxH's great overarching themes is the transformational power of love and how it grants people second chances in life. In this post I'm referring to love in a broader sense, not just romantic love, as of course many different types of love are portrayed and have deep importance in HxH. We see the theme of transformative love in so many different relationships and instances that it's difficult to even summarize them--a few examples are Gon and Killua, Meruem and Komugi, Meruem and his Royal Guard, Ging and Kite, Killua and Ikalgo, even in less major character pairs like Ging and Razor (Razor: "Ging taught me it took only one person, one person in the entire world who will trust you, to save you.") and Kite and Koala, but that's only scraping the surface. I reblogged a previous wonderful meta that pointed out the domino effect of Killua's act of kindness towards Ikalgo, which ended up changing the ultimate trajectory of humanity's war against the Chimera Ants. This is a great example of this theme in action!

But of course, while meeting and loving someone can transform that person's whole life, so also can losing someone significant. It can set someone on a completely different life track than they would have been on had they not lost them--Kurapika, Leorio, Senritsu, the Phantom Troupe (especially with their flashback in recent chapters), Gon and Kite, Kacho and Fugetsu (though this hasn't played out all the way yet) come to mind, but there are many more throughout the series as well. Not all of the losses that fit into this are someone losing their other half/most important person, but there's a solid enough percentage that it certainly seems to be a trend Togashi is establishing and exploring.

It's difficult to explore one of these themes in depth and with honesty without the other--love happens, loss of loved ones happens, both are deeply transformative, and both can ultimately be placed under the broader umbrella of the transformative power of love. After all, if losing a person causes someone's entire life path to change, chances are they loved them a great deal and the force behind the change that occurs in their life is the love and grief they still feel after the loss.

HxH has many tragic elements and Togashi certainly doesn't shy away from the heart-wrenching and long-lasting results of loss, but I think it's fair to say from the 400 chapters we have so far that HxH's themes are not ultimately tragic and hopeless on this topic by any means. In HxH:

Death is not always insurmountable, i.e., Kite, the Chimera Ants in general

The life path one ends up on after a major loss need not be a tragic one, i.e. Leorio deciding to be a doctor and help children in poverty as a result of losing his friend

Death in itself can be an act of love, i.e. Meruem and Komugi, Netero and humanity

Even if one ends up on a dark path as a result of loss, that doesn't mean they can't be saved by someone else's love for them, i.e., Gon and Killua, this could also end up being the trajectory for Kurapika and Leorio potentially?

With Gon and Killua, their whole relationship is based on them transforming each other and giving each other second chances:

Gon saving Killua simply by not judging him, befriending him, and showing him another life path

Gon retrieving Killua from the Zoldyck family when Killua's resolve broke down because of Illumi

Killua pulling the needle of out of his head out of sheer love for and desire to protect Gon

And of course Killua not allowing Gon to die, simultaneously saving him and transforming Alluka's life.

(And Killua's ability to save and help Alluka is of course, a direct result of the kindness Gon extended to Killua and the love Killua has for Gon.)

There's no way to know for certain what will happen in their future, but I definitely think their relationship has one more transformation in it at least, in the form of a reunion and reconciliation.

So, in summary, I think these themes of someone losing a person who was their other half and how one continues to live after that are another way of exploring the broader theme of what it means to love someone and be transformed by meeting them, which I see as a primary theme of HxH. I also think some of these relationships are intended to be comparisons to or foils of Gon and Killua's relationship in a sense (especially Kurapika and Pairo and Kacho and Fugetsu, but others as well), expanding on the themes of their relationship and how a love that deep affects people, both in beautiful and in deeply painful ways.

[aracaeli]

I've read the D ending for HxH on twitter, (@cocogum made a good summary about the post )

While the idea is scrapped, I find it interesting that Togashi even considers it in the first place, and offer it to us as consolation prize if he didn't manage to finish HxH.

What I find most interesting is the fact that Gon's son and his granddaughter refuse to partake in the tradition started by Ging to catch the Lake Lord and went off to become a Hunter. In the manga universe, people always kinda admired Gon for his determination and goal-focus mind, people always help Gon to reach his goal (Killua is the most notable, but also that One guy in YorkNew who literally went in debt to help Gon), and it was always portrayed as a good thing. An inspiring quality.

But the manga (particularly in Chimera Ant) subverse this particular shounen trope hard by basically saying: ACTUALLY It's not a good thing!!! What Gon did is selfish and hurting the poeple who care about him.

The scrapped ending basically reinforce this message by having Gon's descendants break the cycle of heartbreak and devote themselves to their family and friends instead of searching some adventures elsewhere.

A lot of people are upset because the ending seems so generic, but I truly think this comes from Togashi himself because it really in line with what the manga had been saying all along, not to mention, it subverts the shounen's most prominent trope: always look for adventures.

I think the ending is scrapped because the possibility of Gon gaining back nen and become a famous Hunter is small, not just because Gon lost his nen, but also because Gon at this point in manga is not likely to do something so selfish again after Chimera Ant arc. But the general message is there.

P.S. This ending also reinforce my believe that Killua will be the head of his family someday and break the assasin cycle.

[hxhhasmysoul]

so someone compared gojou to leorio, and came to the conclusion that gojou is better...

hxh is my comfort fandom, these are my comfort tags, especially in these trying times in the jjk tags. please don't bring that shit here, especially not the gojou shit. is it not enough that you people try to make the whole juju fandom about that man? must you go into other fandoms and do the same?

ok so tldr: leorio slays. gojou is an irresponsible man with a god complex who failed and traumatised the people close to him, especially the people in his care several times.

leorio didn't adopt anyone, but leorio cares about his friends and he has devoted his time and attention and care to them. he worked with them throughout the exam. he went to save killua from his fam even though killua was a little shit to him. he reunited with his friends in york new. he tried to do stuff when gon was dying. all this while being in med school, and being neglected by togashi.

gojou took megumi in as a power play between himself, the elders and the zen'in. then couldn't bring himself to teach megumi anything. worked hard for megumi to honestly dislike him and honestly have responses to him that signal childhood trauma. and then did nothing to save megumi from sukuna. he actually trash talks megumi during that fight. i will not go into it more because i already have.

their friends drowning i emptiness is true but. leorio has always actively shown interest in kurapika and supported them as much as he could, despite pikachu trying their hardest to ghost their friends. gojou let getou to rot in his fascist thoughts. and then was sad about what happened next...

gojou was born into wealth and privilege and had been worshiped since birth, he'd been created for greatness. he'd always been arrogant. his irresponsibility is the partial cause of most of the tragedy in jjk. his goal was to make his world better but only a smidge, with no true change. because true change of the jjk world would've made him lose his god-like status and rendered the title of the strongest meaningless. he has accomplished nothing and abandoned those ideals as evidenced by him appointing gakuganji as a leader of the jujutsu society and didn't try to save megumi or how he readily dumped the responsibility on his students when he got sealed in shibuya.

leorio came from poverty and lost his best friend to poverty. he's disillusioned by the world. he truly cares about the injustices and the weak. his goal is true change. whether he can accomplish that is unlikely. but he's staying true to it. he's strong but not the strongest. but he makes as much as he can out of what he has and has developed a technique that could save countless lives. his technique literally reaches outwards when gojou's concentrates on himself.

[kosmicdream]

Ode to Togashi

Stream of conscientious incoherent rant about manga/hxh below, read at your own discretion as i AM NOT EDITING IT: 

While I’m still in the mood to talk about art and what i love about manga, i feel like i wanted to share (some) of my thoughts on why HXH continues to be one of my favorite stories. Togashi’s writing method continues to be probably like, the closest one that i aspire to replicate in my own work, partly because i love to see how much it builds and learns from itself, reinvents itself, ect. But i DONT think Hxh is perfect, even if i wouldn’t change anything about it or togashi’s writing style. 

When I first got into HXH, it was actually through the old anime. I watched that all the way thru before reading the manga, and when i was watching the anime it was during a period of time when i hated all shonen. I still kinda hate “the shonen” model, despite loving many shonen series, but something abt HXH pulled me in to give it a try and i was quickly hooked. I of course, already had experience with YYH growing up as a teen but i somehow missed HXH completely until my early 20s. I had already started trying comics by then, but it was EGGSHELLS and i had not started FFAK at that point.

HXH almost lost me at greed island my first round, ngl. I appreciate it now, andi still think the set up for Greed island was amazing but the arc itself.. I was not into it, mostly cause i think the villain for it was kinda lackluster and i didn’t really think the world of greed island had a strong design sense. There was interesting aspects, i enjoyed Bisque as a new character and she helped carry a LOT of the weight of that arc for me, but it was kind of a drag. IDK if it was also partly the adaptation for that arc, but i didn’t enjoy it much more in manga form either. It just went a bit faster. However, the end of that arc and the final fight was surprisingly brutal and enjoyable, which made me optimistic and helped me to continue. And then the chimera ant arc was the first arc i read ONLY manga first and i truly fell in love with it, obsessed even. That arc, as many readers already know, is probably like the closest thing to FFAK’s “Parent” for inspiration. Obviously, FFAK draws from a lot of things (Trigun is probably the 2nd strongest influence on FFAK) but it isn’t quite the same as HXH. As MUCH as i adore hunter x hunter part of me does cringe and laugh that like, in the end, a battle shonen manga still excited me that much but like.. As MUCH as i clearly love battle manga.. I am so over them. You know? Who cares. IMO. No matter how great it looks, i probably am never going to be more impressed (visually) with an action scene than the ones Yukito Kishiro drew. He did it, He won the action manga game to me. I have no idea what’s actually happening in Gunnm most of the time but as far as the visual spectacle of it all, it literally doesn't even make sense how good his action scenes look. (I could talk a lot about Gunnm too, but i’ll save that for another time IG) Like how the fuck does someone draw that good and it just made everything else by comparison just like, not.. Matter too much to me anymore. Which is great, because I can then look at other aspects for a work rather than just being drawn in by the visuals. And stuff. 

Where i’m at now.. I dont want to read another, even if its drawn well and .. the powers are SO powering or whatever. And i love to draw action scenes, they’re really hard and i still have so much more to go to learn about them. At best, I think im okay at them. But even when i work, i just get tired now so i cut them down a lot. Thats partly because i jsut dont have the time to draw fighting scenes. So i kind of feel embarrassed by a lot of them that ive made, i know I was lazy. Lazy in a way I’m not proud of the result, but im proud of the compromises to get the shit done. Which is the most important think in the end, to juggle your own expectations and limitations with the timeframe you have to get somewhere you need to go. I will still read more action/battle manga in the future.. But im in no rush. And im certain, for the most part, they arent going to teach me anything I don’t already know. They might entertain me and i might be like “..huh!” at a few things, but my expectation for them to do more than that is pretty low. I’m delighted when im wrong, but i cannot deny the apathy towards them is super deep. Togashi to me, is one those authors, that makes me really wake up and realize there’s still a lot of unexpected territory out there. 

He writes like an enthusiastic newbie, not a seasoned old timer that he is, who basically helped popularize the “tournament arc” and “dark edgy shonen” stuff with YYH. All his characters in HXH are geniuses, which is kind of a valid critique and can be annoying as hell too… Id say most readers dont really get how the hell nen works, yet somehow the story still functions so well in its character motivations/conflicts that it kinda doesn’t matter too much that.. It doesnt really make sense? We have to relearn what nen is basically every arc. Its not gonna stick. And yet im just so excited every time it updates and i really want to know what he wants to do with his new arc, if he is going to be able to do it. Nen to me is like a fake fantasy science that is tangible and real yet also you’re in a dream and you try to read the letters on a page, and you can read it but if you stare hard at it. The words are just blurs, or it doesn’t really connect. I like that there’s this malleable illusion that it functions in a way, that is concrete, but it isn’t really. But its enough that i can believe that for the characters, who are also not real, it is real for them. 

The fact that i can talk about “”””NeN””” like this to me is essentially why it becomes the perfect shonen to me because it takes itself so seriously, so genuinely, yet it also is nonsense but not in the way where its like.. Irony poisoned, “gotcha” twists? Im sick of all these subverting shonens that arent subverting anything. Or even just the attitude that is what makes a good shonen these days is to subvert, diminish, laugh, ect at shonen while completely stepping inside the same footprints again and again. So much manga just wants to be dragon ball, but dragon ball was good cuz it was just a fun, well drawn action manga that wasn’t trying to BE dragonball. It was just dragon ball. (maybe now its trying to be dragon ball, which is why i dont care about whatever sequel attempt we’re at now, but that’s another story.) Its fun to me that i dont know if Gon is gonna come back in Hxh. like, maybe he will and his powers will be restored ect.. But at the time of writing this, and for YEARS we just.. Have the main pals of the manga separated. Their friendship has changed. There’s a great shift in it. Gon met his dad, who sucks, but that kind of was his main quest. Sure, we have kurapika’s arc, and many other routes to go - but in a weird way HXH is done and it isn’t done at the same time. I’m just like, what are we going to do now. TOGASHI said flat earth real and was like, the other half of it is UNEXPLORED AND SO DARN DANGEROUS and theres SOM BIGGGGG DINOSAURS THERE and it just feels so gleefully like.. You’re on the swingset and some kid just keeps having to up the stakes but in the most kid-like way possible. For serious. But Togashi’s 58. But he’s right too, the dark continent IS so cool.. I just imagine leorio going there and getting so sick and shitting mutant diahrea and dying the SECOND he sets foot there and its awesome. That’s NOT what’s going to happen but im delighted at the opportunity.

This is the point where I’m writing something when i take a pause and wonder how the hell i got here. I have skimmed the above written text. Whatever point i think i was going to make, wasn’t made, but i expressed.. good feelings here. This is how i write. I typed all of that in about 15 minutes with no idea where it was gonna go. Part of the process now would be to go back, organize, edit, ect. To *TRY* to make it a little more comprehensible, as with all writing. Believe it or not i have gotten better at editing my own work. But the true nature of it all is still the same. And its the same in the way that i dont want, no matter how much i improve at my craft, i dont want to lose that enthusiasm i feel when i reach 58. I think that would be such a triumph, id be so lucky to be able to muster that energy. When I think of togashi, i think he has that. He has that real artistic spark that no amount of time/experience has ever diminished and that’s why i think he’s truly my personal favorite mangaka.  (maybe tezuka too)

[illegalmushrooms]

shrooooms, the kids miss uu where art thou 😭

... hey!

(incoming yap session, beware)

This is a little awkward. I haven't touched my Tumblr in like, apparently three years. There's some questions in my inbox, but they're so old it feels a bit strange to answer them now, right? 😭

Anyway. It's nice to see you! Whoever you may be! (Are the kids OK?)

Last week, for god knows what reason, I re-donned my mushroom hat (humor me for a moment and imagine a Mario Toad-style monstrosity) and published a new (old) chapter of Don't Leave! (y'all remember that? Does anyone reading this right now remember or know who I am??).

Laying off the parentheses now--I explained in the chapter a bit of the future of the story and what was happening with me. Oh my gosh, is that a conveniently-placed link to the chapter down below?

As I mentioned somewhere in that conveniently-placed link, I'm mostly fine, and there's nothing else I have written for Don't Leave! so far.

Well...

Okay, so that's a complete and utter lie. I do have something written. But I'm afraid it's not very useful.

I actually wrote... a complete, very dramatic ending to the story. It's an interesting ending, to say the least, but of course, the story is nowhere near that point. I'd have to write another thirty-forty-who knows more chapters or something to even reach this supposed ending, and by then I might not even like the idea I have there.

I guess that's not relevant. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that I never, ever, forgot about Don't Leave! I've thought about it a lot, even when I haven't been writing a single word. I've been reading every comment and message I received across the different platforms, and you know, smiling stupidly at my phone every time. I've totally missed the world of fanfiction! I've missed Bella, the ridiculous character I conjured up within the depths of pandemic-era isolation! I've missed sitting down at my laptop and tap-tapping away and sinking into this wonderful world Togashi made!

So here's what I'm going to say about the story. (This post just gets longer and longer, doesn't it? Sorry!)

As of right now, there is no next chapter.

I can't say when there might be a next chapter.

I can say that maybe, life-permitting, I'll post something in the fall, if I can squeeze in some time to rewatch HxH. I've just... forgotten a lot of the go story's intricacies that an author has to keep in mind to write a comprehensible fic.

That's what I have to say about Don't Leave! .

(and, to anyone who might be thinking of those other fics I wrote, which I highly doubt anyone is... I actually have a few chapters of them simmering in my docs somewhere. But I'm a bit embarrassed about it, so let's consider them dead for the moment, alright?)

Now that I've cleared that up, and some of my conscience along with it, I suppose I'll drop in a tiny life update for any curious souls. I've never disclosed much about myself and I'd like to consider myself awful cool and mysterious, but can I speed run certain vague life events from my past three years?

I... survived a car crash, travelled to new countries and places, moved, wrote a ton (fanfic and general fiction, all of it kind of ass), survived a fire, worked and toiled to the capitalist machine, had a couple mental breakdowns, conquered the mental health, lost it again, conquered again...

...and so on...

What's next for me?

I am hesitant of publishing anything else at the moment. I have a lot of fics I'd written just sitting in my files; everything from miscellaneous anime stuff to Harry Potter to this one reallllly odd story about isekai-ing into Minecraft, of all things. (I actually kind of like that one. Don't know if there's an audience for that kind of thing, though). My writing has absolutely improved since those admittedly rough early chapters of DL (I am ASTOUNDED it ever gained the little audience that it did) but there's still an anxiety I have about sharing my work. Silly, yes, but that's that.

For right now, I have the new DL chapter, I have this long-ass update post, and I have my genuine appreciation.

Much love to anyone who might still care. <3

Until next time?

Illegal Mushrooms

[hunting-songs]

GET TO KNOW ME ! Tagged by: @distortedkilling Tagging: You. alias/name : Birkenzeisig. Its my goal to make every socialmedia account I have named after a teeny, german bird. If people stutter speaking the birds name, I win. birthday: December 1991. height: 173cm= 5'8. Suffer under my high above stare. hobbies: Writing, drawing and Reading. I am not an interesting person. favorite color: Pink. I love pink tulips and roses. C: favorite book: Stephen Kings Duma Key and World War Z by Max Brooks. favorite song: At the moment? "Once upon a lie" by JT Music. last film/show: Last sundays Tatort. Listen. I am german and live with my grandmother. On sunday evenings Tatort it is, I am not discussing with the woman who sewed me partner princess-dresses for me and my puppets, when I was teeny. recent reads: pedagogical text discussing the adventages and disadventages of the methode of dectating texts to students in the try to school their orthography. Listen, I am really not an interesting person. inspiration: Three lowgerman fairytales- "Pape Döne", "The boneflute" (one german version of the twa sisters) and "The pied piper of Hamelin". Did you know that Hamel has a entry in their city chronicals about when the city lost their children? Its obviously was because of a sickness / a wave of migration in the 13th century, but yeh talk about fairytales forced into reality. I know that Togashi did used the Pied Piper for inspiration for Senritsu , which is obvious in her design, but he probably has no idea how neatly that character of his fits into the Pape Döne tale. story behind url: Senritsu is hunting songs, but the songs she is hunting are also haunting. c: Yehyeh, I am gonna see myself out, I know, stop making puns, yeh. Bad birkenzeisig, baaaaad.

[halt-kun]

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 214 Results

Back for some liveblogging

After a troublesome birth, the King is born

YES HIM

URGH not this scene

Shaiapouf’s wings may look good I’m not ready

POOF No head, no smoke nor mirror here ladies and gents

anyway

poor kid

At least they didn’t suffer

Even if you strike the heart, death is not instant 

poor kid

ASSHOLE

first you kill stuff and then waste food because of your bad taste

try cooking and using spices first

The royal guards are durable and would be hard to kill even for the King

provided they actually want to resist him killing them which I doubt

Using Gyo isn’t sufficient for all nen users too

Some of them can hide it by controlling their aura flow

Here is a taste of your own medicine

Bihorn is communist too, good to know, he and his comrads shall be safe if he behave, the revolution is nigh 

The chimera ants are also not british, as soon as their queen dies, they abscond : “no : long live King Charles here”

When have you invented misogyny ? Unless you’re terfs and you just don’t like the only cis women who could procreate here ? Like, you only like women with working wombs and if not, they need to be able to fight ?

I have always headcannoned that all of them becoming kings is gender affirming Zazan could become a King too even if it’s not what she chose, she’s truly a trans Queen (literally)

I’m not really up to date in my knowledge of ants. I think most soldiers are usually diploid females (two copies of their genomes like us : thanks mom and dad) like with bees, males are usually haploid.

Most chimera ants appear male and are apparently able to reproduce like the King so by insemination. That role is typically male but not always like in at least one species of mosquitos where female have an appendage that penetrates the male and basically absorbs the semen.

Anyway CA might have some complications due to foreign genetic interference and horizontal transfers might be the reason most of its species workers are male. maybe sometimes it fucks up and you get females or maybe they just appear to have female characteristics of other species.

Most ants should have intersex variations to considering they also have interspecies variations like Leol here who is a mix of a tiger and a lion. In his case sex determination should be quite complementary between different mammals from the same family. Maybe not

Sorry : that’s what doing a PhD on plants sex chromosomes does to you

be careful

though I’d love to get my hands on such a species to analyze 

must be very interesting how sex works in this individuals.

Then leave

especially mantis looking ant right there we’ll never see again

SEE

all of them can become Kings, I bet Zazan is an intersex queen and she chose to be a queen instead of a king

I mean Togashi likes to sprinkle gender non conformity here and there since his beginnings

his wife Naoko Takeuchi does this too

They can be clumsy at times but their attempts to have a diverse and human cast of characters always made me so happy 

I’m still sad Trouble quartet is not a thing

I mean a manga about crossdressing gay footballers (soccer players for our fellow statesians) by Togashi would be fire

Level E is pretty fun too, I definitely recommend it and it has one of the most fire openings out there

Yu Yu Hakusho is just sooooo good and proto HxH, you can see the influence from older nekketsu shounen like DB and Jojo’s but also how it influenced Naruto and Bleach (just the beginning is a bit slow but it builds up like Bleach, with short stories at the beginning ending up in a full tournament arc)

I love Colt

we never talk enough about him, he must have a nice hatsu too, I’d like to see it, we need more out of the box enhancers.

A flying enhancers is already quite an annoying opponent

I hope we see more of him in the future

THE BET

yes Morel bet safely on his own pupils, the safest bet considering Gon and Killua’s strength when he saw them

but Knov likes to take risks

AND THEY BOTH LOST HAHAHAHAHAAH

four of them, not five

That panel is so good too

It’s alright, we can trust Knuckle, he’s a dependable man

but you’re making me tear up Gon

I know how frustrating weakness can be, lack of control, lack of power over your life

CRYING I KNOW

Poor Killua

this means something even worse for him

he can relate too despite being very strong

he’s never been strong in a way that allows living your own life and following your own path

HIS PROMISE TO BISCUIT NOOOOOOO

Killua really tries

he’s gone so far but he has yet to reach a point where he’s confident in himself

it’s alright my boy, Gon also has to grow

You’re 13 damn it

I’m not sure I’ll be able to liveblog again today 

this ended up taking quite some time

Have a nice saturday !

[epicfranb]

THE SHIP ARC AT THE HUNTERS EXAM FROM 1999 HxH... this was more stressful than the entire chimera ant arc /hyperbole

More rambles under cut <3 (no heavy spoilers)

The trick tower arc really demonstrated Togashi's ability to CREATE CONFLICT, which is really important in a story, and i loved how even tho Tonpa was right there providing conflict for the generous price of free and being Fucking Annoying, the 4 MCs are all very different people with different personalities, goals and motivations, but most importantly different PRINCIPLES which was what created the more important conflicts.. cuz none of them are perfect people, they're gonna clash, they're gonna make stupid decisions, they're gonna disagree and they're gonna fight, and that's SO APPRECIATED bc in addition to adding stakes and tension, it also says a lot about the characters and makes the story fresh and interesting!!

it was SOOOO satisfying to see everyone work together, to see Kurapika's brain at work and how good of a leader he is, as well as how worried he was about Leorio and Gon's lives that he lost his literal will to live. Cuz even though they've known each other for only a few days, they've gone through so much together!!! And when Killua FEELS that Gon and Leorio are coming up, and he trusts his gut, WHICH ISN'T A THING HE DOES, IT'S A GON THING TO DO!!!!! And he tells Kurapika that Gon and Leorio are fine AND THERE'S LIFE AGAIN IN KURAPIKA'S EYES!!! And when he temporarily loses consciousness, Killua takes command cuz he's a smart cookie too, albeit more risky, and he DOES make a VERY risky decision, BUT IT ENDS UP WORKING AND JUST TJEJRSJIDDDARHDFKUSJDK :((( EVERYONE :(((((( I LOVE THIS ANIME

And then the moments between Pokkle and Ponzu (i had to look up their names lmao) that kinda show how they grew closer and makes the fact that they start dating later on so much more believable, they're so cute and how Pokkle is understandably anxious about everyone's lives depending on him, but Ponzu is there for him and it gives him strength aaaahhdhdjjdkkdknfndj :((((

Now something less relevant but i have to say it

Got a little carried away lol, but after all the fighting it was SO GODDAMN SATISFYING to see everyone care for each other and work together to avoid something as terrifying and uncontrollable as a NATURAL DISASTER and ofc it's something that a hunter must be prepared for AND THEY WERE!!!! BUNCHA KINGS AND QUEENS!!! (i really liked that sniper lady, i don't think she was in 2011, correct me if I'm wrong) and what surprises me most?? WAS THAT I ACTUALLY LIKE TONPA AFTER THIS ARC. No, ofc i still hate his guts. He's literally made to be hated by every living being. But in the ship arc, he started off being REALLY funny, and then was COOPERATIVE!!! Which is like, ofc he is, in the literal face of death, but after all of that, i appreciate him being there and pissing off the other characters and being a complete loser for the sake of creating conflict. I never look forward to seeing him again when i rewatch, but i appreciate his existence.

[fruiteggsaladit]

general consensus may or may not b that hiei doesn't and cannot cook but consider this: What if he Could and he Does.

Not because of Kurama, gtf out of here with that, I want a PROPER KOORIME ARC that isn't just "he lost the one precious thing he had and decided he'd go back to Hyouga for genocide; nvm once he heard the details he decided not to" Nobody talks abt Rui and so my mind is in two camps: mary-sue her by removing her suicidality and make her the Perfect Parental Figure, or have her be a deeply flawed character so deep she should have had her own manga.

I want her to fulfill the role Mukuro kind of fulfilled with Hiei but that she does the very dadly thing of Never Talking About Her Feelings unless through a very Traumatic Lens- wait no Mukuro does that too, anyways, I want her to parallel Hiei's belief that he needs to do something to make up for his existence. Except in Rui's case, it's not her own existence, but her actions that have made her irredeemable in her own eyes, and so "making up for it" is not the matter here, but making reparations instead, with the vague hope/expectation that her loved one(s) will abandon her after she's paid her debts.

Togashi being burnt out likely contributed to the very weak "the only way I can make up for Hina dying is making way for her cursed child (dude) to return here and kill us, starting with me", and her not even being able to kill herself on her own, instead begging 13/14-years-old-coded Hiei to do that for her. And prior to that, she had raised Yukina and eventually told her the truth about Hina and Hiei.

Also I'm sorry but the misogyny shines through in the story there too, with Hiei wanting to kill an entire race of female-coded beings he's never really known, but apparently doing nothing towards the bandits that adopted him? Not a canonical word is given about him retaliating at them for it, even though they abandoned him similarly as the Koorime did, because this time Hiei had actually known them. Its stated (by Mukuro, who as we all know is a reliable narrator and Togashi has never employed an unreliable narrator ever (lying)) that he is vengeful enough to desire death to those who abandoned him! Why make a point about genociding the Koorime and say nothing about the bandits...

RIGHT BUT THIS WAS ABOUT

_C O O K I N G_

I'm formerly big fan of Hiei-ifying Yukina to make her more interesting and less of a "perfect bean who's done nothing wrong", I've been coming around lately to Yukina-ifying Hiei?

Like, Hiei getting attached a very strongly once he's attached to someone; Going out of his way to do something for someone, even when they tell him he's being excessive (murder yes But nope that's the whole sentence; is this not equivalent to a shoujo protag exhausting herself to exhausting cleaning the house and doing the cleaning and the cooking, bc how else will she make up for the room she's taking in someone's life and home?); over-thinking himself into circles about whether or not his twin really wants him in her life...

Long concept short! Rui doesn't immediately trauma-dump Hiei and Hiei is entranced/angry with her bc HE remembers HER throwing him away and her being related to his mother in some way, but SHE doesn't? And they journey together in some way. And while Rui is choosing to stay alive, she's also not letting herself experience joys in life, especially with Yukina's absence. I'm fascinated by the concept that she embodies the journey Hiei is taking for himself, the whole-- preparing himself for saving Yukina, and once that is done, die? Wither away? -- very neat if she is doing the same, and Hiei is not introspective or reflective enough to clock that the idealised suicidality is something he intends once he leaves Hyouga. It's the hearing about a lost sister throws a wrench into that plan.

Fascinated w the idea of Hiei trying to endear her to open up by learning to cook from her and cooking for them both. Rui doesn't teach him, he watches her make it and learns from there.

Just, the preparation of food and the sharing of it. Learning how much spice someone likes and how that differs from your own, and how that isn't a matter of morals, it just is. And comparing that to how Hiei is never shown eating on-screen, or eating at all.

Hiei comparing this kind of service to what he considered a service to the bandits. But here it was through being methodical, previously it was almost reactionary. "I'm being helpful, why aren't you glad?" versus "She isn't opening up to me, I'm doing something not-right". Particularly the new state of no longer having the power levels he had prior to the Evil Eye surgery, would probably be a large reason why he becomes more introspective and careful, bc he can't afford not to be.

I just like the idea that Hiei can cook, but has an aversion to people knowing about it, esp. bc of something that happened in the past with Rui. That they did get close, but it wasn't enough for Rui to understand Hiei. Worse, that once she realised who he was, that it overrides what she's learned of him in their journey, and that her reaction to this is what makes Hiei eventually revert to the violence and the carelessness he exhibits with Kurama, until he is again betrayed in some respect, and finds yet again that he's overestimated how well the one he's begun to trust, trusts in him in return.

[arbustorum]

Even if Alluka was female still I hate her cuz she is pretty much a Deux ex Machina who appeared from none where and Killua never hinted anything about her until the shit hit the fan with dying Gon and everything. It was like if the editors have forced Togashi to resurrect Gon at gun point and he had drawn/wrote the first thing he could think about to bring him back to live and not traumatize the editors of Shone Jump. Which it sucks cuz it would have been dope that Alluka had been an actual character with proper development and not just some random lost sibling nobody knew about until the plot needed.

I wonder is she was actually female people on Tumblr would love her so much or if they would be calling her a Mary Sue or a Deux ex Machina (dunno, the husband of my cousin the whole election arc for trying to resurrect Gon at last minute with the shittiest excuse possible and he does not want to read the manga cuz he knows that currently it has more hiatus than plot LMAO).

yeah i feel similiarly. Also yep...you know they would also hate her if she was actually female. I think she would have been more interesting if they didnt act like killua suddenly cared about her or loved her all along. He literally only rescued her to save gon. Woulda been interesting to see killua using her just like his family does and that could have been some interesting character development.

[llycaons]

man but picking favorite tv shows was SO hard even though they have 5 slots. like I first put hxh and then I had to decide between that and yyh because having 2 togashi anime in my top five seemed narrow. and I had to be honest w myself bc hxh is techincally better but yyh is in many ways deeper in my heart. I love killua so much tho im sorry sweetheart I justhad this crush on kurama when I was 14. and rly connected to hiei. because. he's short. god I love him

anyway cql was easy, tho like mp100 this might be a flash-in-the-pan interest so who knows how long it'll last. three years was about my timeline for mp100 iirc but even tho I'm not as crazy about it doesn't mean I've lost interest or anything. and then I put we are lady parts because that show is so joyous and charming and feel-good and I adore it

and then there was an extra slot and I said, fuck it, iwtv was really good so I'll put it in the last slot

[i-heart-hxh]

this just came to me. now that gon is without nen, I wonder how would this affect hisoka's weird feelings(?) towards gon? like, would hisoka still be intrigued by gon? does he still see the potential in him? because I remember his reaction to kurolo when he found out the man couldn't use his nen.

Also, we know that hisoka knows from ilumi that gon nearly died, but I wonder if hisoka knows about gon's current state? and will they meet again in the future?

I've thought about this as well! It would be funny if Hisoka just dropped his obsession with Gon altogether because he doesn't have nen... However, if what happened with Chrollo is any indication, it seems more like Hisoka would be inclined to find a way for Gon to get his nen back, haha. Wouldn't it be interesting if that ends up being part of how Gon restores his nen? The situation with Chrollo was different, but anyway...

I sometimes think about what might happen if Gon truly, permanently has lost his potential--and I wouldn't entirely rule that out as a possibility. In that case, Hisoka might actually lose interest in him. Togashi does love his anticlimactic endings, it could happen.

However, with how important of a character Hisoka is, it would surprise me some if Togashi never gives us any closure to the possibility of a full on Gon vs Hisoka battle. Hisoka is on the Black Whale as well, and there's always the chance he won't make it out. I currently lean pretty heavily towards him surviving that because he already had such a recent fake death and I think Togashi more likely intends to keep him around for whatever else he has planned, including whatever Gon's final arc (?) might be, but it's hard to make any predictions because Togashi is notoriously unpredictable.

I'm guessing Hisoka doesn't know about Gon's nen currently--Gon is just on Whale Island now, so it's unlikely that Hisoka would find out.

Thanks for the ask, it's fun to think about what will come of this subplot! Because Hisoka himself is so unpredictable, I feel like it's extra difficult to guess what will happen with him.

[ging-is-a-boar]

Tell us more about the pregnancy stone theory

Okay, don't say I didn't warn you. (╥﹏╥)

My first exposure to this theory was this old post, and since then I've made a lot of jokes and memes about it, although I think it's actually a really valid theory.

If you haven't guessed, this theory relies on the existence of the Pregnancy Stones card in the Greed Island game (left). There are a lot of cards that aren't talked about in canon, and I feel like it's worth noting that this isn't the only card that has some interesting implications for gender in the game (right).

Someone on Reddit has made a really nice high-res downloadable set of all the G.I. cards for all your shitposting needs.

There's a lot of differing theories as to who the other dad is, including Razor and of course, Pariston (mostly because so much of his and Ging's time together is unknown and of course the "hehe they act like a divorced couple" parts of the Dark Continent arc).

But nowhere on the card does it state that sex/another person necessarily has to be involved.

By how it's described, one could carry the stone for a month, and boom! pregnant. I'm not sure if this implies the child would be a clone (as there's no second set of DNA involved) or if there's some kind of nen-based mechanism that's unexplained. Gon doesn't appear to be a clone of Ging, so if this theory is true, I would guess the latter. Gon being born of nen (or in some other unconventional way) could explain a lot of his innate ability.

Per the rules of the game (assuming Ging isn't exempt as the game's creator), you can take 3 cards from G.I. into the "real world" upon beating the game. The panda doll Ging uses as a stand-in in the Election Arc is almost certainly proof that Ging is using/has used at least one of the cards IRL. Note the phrase "they are excellent at taking care of human children"...

So basically, you don't just release a game with untested features, right? So somebody likely had to have used the card at some point. At the very least, the implication here is that cis males can, and at least once probably did get pregnant in HxH 'verse.

It's been said that it's possibly a Red Herring and/or a joke from Togashi (possibly because he'd get a kick out of seeing people propose this theory), but generally that's not how Togashi writes.

While this is not exactly "trans Ging theory" (as much as I wish it was), it would be a scenario in which a dude gave birth and it wasn't (at least so far) treated as a (transphobic) joke. Since obviously Togashi has never shyed away from writing queer characters and/or portraying gender in ways outside the "norm", even outside of HxH, I don't think this is necessary a stretch plot-wise.

Also, this part is very much my own opinion-- I don't see Ging getting a random woman pregnant (through a one night stand or something), much less having a long term partner. Elena describes him as "shy", "stubborn", and "weird", which of course aren't things that make a person "unlovable", I feel like they imply that he's not a lady's man, at the very least.

The tape recording scene doesn't eliminate this as a possibility. While Ging does say, "about your mother...", this isn't necessarily meant literally. Note that he intentionally pauses to gives Gon a moment to shut off the tape. From Ging's perspective, it's easy to see why he might not want to tell Gon about this (and why he thinks Gon might not want to know).

As for Ging's potential motivation for using the card-- I have yet to see anyone propose any reasonable explanation. Maybe it's as simple as "he lost a bet to (W)Dwun(e)" or something. That would be very Ging.

[hxhhasmysoul]

Wow, what an interesting username. As a big fan of HunterxHunter, can I ask your top favorite characters and top favorite moments from the series? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love those characters.....

Favourite characters:

Gon - for obvious reasons, he's just such an amazingly complex human character. He can be happy and super kind, but he also can lose his patience and yell when frustrated - and I;m not even talking about the Pitou situation. He has high emotional intelligence, though it's not perfect which is a very nice balanced characterisation. I love that from the very start his drive and determination are shown as a bit creepy, that he can get lost in them. And progressively, as the story goes he gets more lost in them.

Then there's the whole Chimera Ant arc... Togashi does a full on trauma study with Gon. His denial bordering on delusion, how he gets more and more tense. How he stops giving a shit about some stuff, like when he full on threatened Meleoron with death. How because of how severe the trauma is, he distances himself from everyone. While during the Hunter's Exam he sought others out to combat his depression. It's so interesting how we, as the audience, get progressively less and less insights into his mind. He becomes more closed off not only to Killua and the other people around him but to the audience as well.

Killua - I love him pretty much for the same reasons as I love Gon. There's just so much to him. I really like how he has limited resources of caring and he pours them into Gon, Alluka and Nanika mostly, and a little bit into others. I love it how the persona he created for himself as a defense mechanism hides his what he's really like, though at the same time the persona is also true to some extent. and with him we get the reverse than with Gon, as the story goes on we get more and more insight into his thoughts even though he does not share them as much with the other characters. And he loses his distance he. Initially he clearly is skeptical of people, but as the story goes on he broadens his circle of friends, even invites Ikalgo into it.

It's funny that during the Chimera Ant arc Killua becomes the main pov character. Even earlier it can be felt, Gon's very filtered through Killua's perception of him and that's a very interesting writing choice.

And I love all his outfits, it's such a cute detail.

Melody - I love her back story and her powers. I really hope she will get to do more in the current arc, now that she's not acting as Pikachu's support.

Leorio - he's both hilarious and very endearing. Another one putting up a front that is partially true. And I absolutely love how unique his goal is compared to the other characters. He genuinely wants to change the world, king. Togashi please please let us see more of him ;-;

Hisoka - he's so perfectly awful. He's terrifying and creepy. He's all about having fun and for him that's murder... I like villains who enjoy themselves.

Palm - she's complicated to like because Togashi really does her dirty with downplaying her seriously toxic situation with Knov and then "curing" her with the ant transformation. But she is an interesting character.

I also like Canary and Alluka and Nanika, though they have so little time, a lot of what I like about them are how I expanded on them in fics... So it's a little strange to write about them. I'm tentatively getting invested in Oito, Kachou and Fugetsu and other murder boat characters, but Togashi has such a large cast there that he's being stingy with individual characters.

Favourite moments:

All the moments when Gon and/or Killua are in a panel? Or the other characters I like?

Moments are really hard to pinpoint for me because I'm more into story lines, character develpment arcs... But I will try to mention a few:

I love Gon's impatience during Heaven's Arena arc.

I like the moment when they are captured by the Spiders. Gon yelling at the Spiders is just so intense. I also like it when Killua is like: that doesn't mean anything, to a poser Chrollo response.

I love Killua's pettiness on Greed Island.

I honestly can't talk about moments in Chimera Ant arc because to me it exists as a whole. But I really like the scenes between Meruem and Komugi.

I like the Cheadle moments when she gets frustrated by Ging or Pariston, I feel for her but these are so good.