Review of Hunter x Hunter

From my analysis of the Chimera Ant arc, originally posted on instagram: The Palace Invasion that takes place during the Chimera Ant arc of Hunter X Hunter may be the most ambitious and downright crazy thing that has ever happened in anime/manga history. The idea to have about 30 episodes of the anime take place over the course of around 5 minutes in the show sounds like a terrible idea but Togashi was somehow able to pull it off. Pulling off such a feat can only be described as genius. The amount of character development that happens during this period is astonishing. To give some examples,Pitou goes from a creature who only sees humans as prey to one that is able to recognise the value of human life, all before her/his own life is cut tragically short. Youpi goes from a monster that only sees humans as weaklings to a compassionate person capable of recognising the effort that the humans are putting in to fight and even respect them for it. There are far more masterful developments in character in this 5 minute time period but frankly there’s just not enough space to write about them. The Palace Invasion is also a great study in chaos theory as every little thing that happens has a massive effect on everyone involved. It may not sound like it, but watching Killua turn around for a split second was incredibly stressful as it had been established that time was of the essence and even the smallest change in plans could have negative consequences on the entire operation. The fact that Togashi was able to construct all of these scenarios and how they would affect each other so well is unbelievable. Not to mention the fight between Netero and Meruem, to even argue that this isn’t the greatest fight in anime history is stupid. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the whole fight is the moment in which Netero chooses not to converse with Meruem before the fight out of fear that they might actually come to an understanding. I wish I could write more but unfortunately Instagram has a word limit. I hope that I have expressed why this aspect of the Chimera Ant arc is so great. (Continued in part 2)

Meruem is the Chimera Ant arc’s main villain and my favourite character in the entire series. The character arc that Meruem goes through is perhaps the best in anime/manga history and is the backbone for the entire arc. When Meruem is first introduced he is a ruthless leader who believes that he is destined to rule the world and therefor has absolutely no value for anyone else’s life. It is safe to say that Meruem had absolutely no redeeming qualities and was the personification of evil upon his introduction. However, this all changes when the young blind girl Komugi is introduced. At first Meruem sees her only as an opponent to play board games with to kill time but without realising eventually comes to value her life. A brilliant scene that shows this is the scene in which Meruem has decided to kill her to reaffirm his own power, however when he comes across her being attacked by a bird he rushes to her rescue. This scene is beautiful as it not only confirms that Meruem does in fact care about Komugi but presents him in a light that had never been scene up to that point, one of compassion and humanity. Togashi did an excellent job painting Meruem in such a humane light when he was born to be the complete opposite. Meruem’s care for Komugi escalates to the point in which it completely changes his outlook on the world. Through Komugi, Meruem was able see the value in human life. Meruem’s fight with Netero further cements these thoughts that he had been having. Despite being a human, Netero had been able to reach such power that he was able to harm him. This causes Meruem to respect someone’s fighting ability for the first time, thus also recognising the potential for human evolution. It is this tremendous amount of character development that makes it all the more heartbreaking to see Meruem meet his end. Despite being heartbreaking, it is beautiful in a way as Meruem is able to spend his final moments with the one that he cherishes the most, Komugi. I have said it many times, but Togashi is truly a genuis. To progress Meruem’s character from a ruthless monster to the most human character in the entire arc is absolutely brilliant. (Continued in part 3)

The portrayal of humanity in the Chimera Ant arc is perhaps the most thought provoking part of the entire arc and plays a big part in making it the masterpiece that it is. Throughout the arc, the human characters seem to slowly lose their humanity while the ants become more and more human. This is mostly shown through the parallel character arcs of Meruem and Gon. I have discussed Meruem at length in a previous post so this part will be focused mostly on Gon. Gon starts of as perhaps the most compassionate and human character in the entire anime but due to the horrific things he has to endure, he changes into more of a monster than any of the ants. This change paints humanity in a very negative light as even the most human character of all is easily emotionally broken and brought down to the level of the inhuman ants. All the while, the ants are portrayed in an increasingly positive light, this is shown mostly through Meruem’s character arc but also when Pitou has to stop Gon from succumbing to his rage and killing both her and the injured human that she is treating. In this moment, Gon is willing to kill an innocent human purely because he lacks the humanity that he once had. This negative portrayal of humanity is also present in Meruem’s fight with Netero. Despite this fight being between a monster and a human, it is genuinely hard to want either of them to win, this is due to the humanity that Meruem has developed. As I have said before, my favourite moment of this entire fight is the moment in which Netero chooses not to converse with Meruem out of fear that they might come to an understanding. Meruem only wishes to have a discussion with Netero and even says that he can only be defeated with words. Netero recognises that Meruem has now become more human than most humans and therefor decides to try and kill him before he has the chance the actually think about his actions. This in turns makes not only Meruem look like the more human one, but the Chimera ant species as a whole. There are countless scenes in which Meruem’s character arc portrays humanity in extremely negative ways but I believe I have made my point. (Continued in part 4)

In closing, the Chimera Ant arc of Hunter X Hunter is possibly my favourite arc in anime/manga history. If you disagree then that’s fine, but I consider it a masterpiece. The purpose of these posts was to have somewhere to direct people to when they asked why I loved the arc so much. I feel as though I have made my thoughts on the Chimera Ant arc very clear and probably don’t need to make another post about it ever again. Let me know if you liked the posts and whether you would be interested in me doing something similar in the future (a multiple part series on an anime). Thanks. (Chimera Ant arc score: 10/10)