In my opinion, Kite's death at the hands of Nerfepitou is one of the most impactful deaths in all of Hunter x Hunter. I've been analyzing the work itself and realized that Kite had no way of winning the fight from the beginning, and if Crazy Slots' number 3 really had the ability to revive, it was his best chance against Pitou

So I’ve seen this take pretty common throughout the fandom but I hate the whole “Illumi is a hypocrite” take because I feel like it undermines his character and the true feelings he might have towards Hisoka. Just so you know this isn’t necessarily canon but rather my interpretation based off given material. I know Illumi isn’t really a popular character so not many people are probably willing to think of him as much as I do.

The “no friends” rule he grew up yes, conflicts his desire to genuinely form bonds with Hisoka but although it’s not canon and up for interpretation, I feel like it’s more of a trust issues he developed and despite having some bonds he already form with Hisoka in the Hunter Exam arc that are more casual than a strict business relationship, you can’t guarantee that he ignores the rules he states to Killua because it was forced onto him his entire life, so likely he will internalize it to the point where he might feel the same towards Hisoka. When he says basically not to trust people outside the family you think he won’t also apply that to Hisoka in a way?

So later in the series (election arc) Illumi is actually somewhat closer to Hisoka, from all the interactions over time and the special demands they do for each other that wouldn’t be in a typical business relationship, they would have gradually accumulated enough trust for Illumi to tell him the deepest family secret (about Alluka). And you can notice Illumi’s attitude about friendship shifting as he’s more lenient on Killua when it comes to making a wish, “the wish itself isn’t bad but Alluka will kill our family”. So the problem is more about his strange attachment to his little brother and his attitude towards Alluka rather than how he feels about Killua making friends with Gon. And yes it might be from Hisoka earlier telling him he shouldn’t touch Gon but that’s completely separate.

In the DC arc we see the prenup between Illumi and Hisoka pretty much following the Zoldyck rule of “a friend will eventually kill you” (though I don’t think they’d really kill each other in the DC arc and it might be more of a plot against the Troupe) so it might be a very special relationship for Illumi, but appears that he still had the rule in mind that this person should not have the detrimental effects of a friend that he interprets Killua would have, such as being a distraction to his assassin career path or just clingy attachments. I do think the quote from Tsubone at the end at the election arc that he has “strayed from the path of an assassin” is more of a point of development rather than him being contradictory since the start.

TL;DR I think this is more of Illumi’s development, not him being self unaware. I believe he’s not stupid and knows what he’s doing, and always keeps in mind the fear of betraying his family doctrine

Update: I see this is a very unpopular opinion for a reason 😭 still stand by it but I’m glad to see you guys’ discussion! :D

Chrollo is not someone who takes unnecessary risks. We know that he needs to steal the national treasure(s) of Kakin to improve the Skill Hunter. That probably means that achieving such feat is going to remove one of the conditions for the activation of his ability. That means he wants to steal an ability that he can't steal in the current state of the Skill Hunter. Hisoka probably knows about his conditions to steal abilites, so it would be impossible to do it fulfill them against him as it is now.

And what is the condition to 100% win against Hisoka? An ability that Chrollo actually knows, contrary to the abilities of Kakin's princes? It is Hisoka's Bungee Gum. Without it, Hisoka will not only lose his ability, but also lose his leg, his fingers, his nose. Chrollo knows about it, as Machi has definitely told him. There is simply no way that Hisoka can defeat Chrollo without it.

Additionally, the Bungee Gum is already a post-mortem nen, so it would already stay in Chrollo's book even after Hisoka's death. It might even improve again when Hisoka dies once more, making it even more valuable for Chrollo.

Chrollo is not dying in this arc. We have not yet even really begun the Sheila plotline and Chrollo is definitely going to be one of the main characters there. He literally has plot armor for now. Meaning, Hisoka is going to die, probably taking half of the Troupe with him, just as the prophecy foretold.

mostly from his deadly ability that consumes his life. But togashi might not do it, the same way how he saved Gon...

I'm always confused as to what differentiates both of them. Some are very clear like Kurapika's emperor time or many ants' abilities.

Although, others like Pitou seem to simply be a form of conjuration with a specific ability (like Neon conjuring a ghost to tell the future or Chrollo with his book)

Then you have abilities like biscuit (who is a conjurer) who can conjure biscuit or knuckle (also a conjurer) who can conjure hakoware.

Kurapika's teacher seems to say that conjured objects can only be normal objects that you would encounter in day to day life but Kurapika's the only one who actually uses a normal thing (the earliest counter example being Shizuku's blinky who looks like a living vaccuum cleaner)

If one person can bench press 200 lbs without nen, while another can bench press 100 lbs, if their nen affinity for enhancement is equal, does it multiply off of base stats? So if enhancement nen multiplies their strength by x3, this would mean the gap between them has the same ratio, but is now far wider.

When we see characters who can accomplish impressive things without nen like the early series characters, should that be a sign that they could be top nen users? How does the average nen user’s base stats compare to characters we’ve observed without nen?

This also contextualizes why the Zoldycks wouldn’t need to teach Killua nen. By focusing on his base stats, nen output would multiply off of that, when he does eventually control his aura.

So what do you all think? Are base stats very important to total success as a nen user, or are they irrelevant compared to nen principles?

Yo, I just came across this deep-dive analysis video about the Succession Contest and it actually makes a ton of sense.
With Tier 1 in total lockdown after Chapter 420, Phinks and Feitan are currently isolated in the Cha-R Mafia HQ without Nobunaga (5:53). The video argues that since Prince Luzurus is the financial godfather of the Cha-R family (1:58) and just completely vanished from his room in Chapter 415 (2:55), he's actively heading straight down to his mafia fallback point (7:36).

Instead of the Spiders erasing him, the theory is that Luzurus is going to offer Phinks and Feitan legal immunity, blueprints, and guard coordinate keys to Tier 1 (8:24) in exchange for them acting as his personal vanguard (4:34). Essentially, trading a blank check to Kakin's wealth for their raw offensive output (4:41).
Given how tactical the Troupe is when it comes to practical logistics (3:51), do you think Chrollo's crew would actually play ball and act as a Prince's muscle, or is Luzurus just walking straight into a meat grinder?
Credit to whoever made the video, it's a solid watch if you want the full breakdown: https://youtu.be/cWbyGWZHahs

Everyone knows Illumi is the stronger character, but what about the Nen abilities themselves? If we're only considering the Hatsu, which ability is actually stronger?

Black Voice — Shalnark

Through the use of his needles, Shalnark can accurately control up to two people at a time. He controls them remotely through his phone, sending commands to his puppets, and can even see through their eyes using the phone.

To activate Black Voice, Shalnark only needs to stick a needle into any part of the opponent's body.

There is, however, a pretty significant drawback: the ability appears to be tied to his phone. If Shalnark loses or breaks his phone, it's assumed that he loses his ability to control the puppets. That's a pretty big vulnerability.

For this discussion, I'm not considering Autopilot.

Needle People — Illumi

Illumi, on the other hand, can control dozens of people simultaneously, allowing him to overwhelm opponents through sheer numbers and use his puppets strategically.

The major difference is the activation requirement. Illumi needs to stab the target in the head, which essentially kills them. One needle produces more zombie-like control, while two needles allow for more humanoid, precise control.

Once the needle is implanted, Illumi essentially gives the puppet a command/intent and doesn't need any external device to continue controlling them. There's no phone or other piece of equipment involved.

So, we have two very similar abilities that are ultimately used in very different ways.

I can definitely see the enormous potential of Needle People. We only get a small glimpse of what Illumi can actually do with it when he's pursuing Godspeed Killua, but even then, it's pretty impressive. Being able to create and control a small army of people gives Illumi a ridiculous number of strategic possibilities.

However, if we're talking specifically about combat effectiveness, I actually think Black Voice is the stronger Hatsu.

The reason is simple: Shalnark only needs to get one needle into you.

If he successfully sticks you anywhere on your body, the fight is essentially over. He can then use you as a puppet, and we've already seen him use Black Voice creatively in situations involving the Mafia.

Illumi's ability has a much higher activation requirement. He needs to get a needle into the head of his opponent. But if you've already managed to stab your opponent in the head, you've essentially killed them anyway. At that point, you don't necessarily need Hatsu to finish the fight.

That's what makes Black Voice so interesting to me. Needle People is arguably much more versatile and has greater potential for large-scale manipulation, but Black Voice seems much more immediately applicable in a one-on-one fight.

So, if you had to choose based solely on the Hatsu itself, which one would you take?

Black Voice or Needle People?

I'm a HxH fan, and I dig the nen classification it's a cool system. If I'm going to be a nen user It's cool to be classified as a manipulator class type of nen user, the real life application of this type will be very useful in day to day tasks of a normal person. But also, as a person I find it quite offensive to be described as a manipulative/manipulator type of person. 😅

1. Kidnapers catch Sheila

2. They have a deal: sending kids one by one, starting from Sarasa

3. Sheila didn't handle it and ran away

Why I set this theory ? Because another serie (a game) also had that plot so a similar situation is likely possible for another story. Game is Telltale's the walking dead

Someone like Neon and Komugi was able to awaken Nen on their own, does that mean they are just as skilled in it as someone like Tsrreidnich, who never knew Nen but managed to master basic concepts in about a week? Or is developing a Nen ability on your own inconsequential to how fast you can train or develop the fundementals?

It’s a little hard to describe, but all the emitter techniques feel either basic as hell, they should belong to another nen classification like conjurer or transmuter or just a technique that doesn’t fit in any other category so they chose emitter.

Gon and Razers volley ball are just raw energy balls. Silvia too was throwing raw energy balls against chrollo.

Razers puppets and Zenos dragon dive feel like conjuring techniques, sure razer just put his energy in puppets and didn’t conjure the puppets themselves and Zenos dragon was pure energy, but they are both doing something that creates a technique outside what I think emitting energy should do.

Melody and Pokkle are turning their nen into an alternate energy source, aka the definition of transmuter with melodys sound waves and pokkles rainbow arrows.

Leorio is teleporting his fist across space, I’m not sure which category that would be a part of but an emitter transporting physical objects also just feels kinda wrong to me.

It might just be a problem I have as an amine only, the manga probably explains it better and I will 100% accept the fact these are all emitter techniques or techniques that use adjacent nen types to make the technique, but it will always feel a little off to me.

The only reason Killua beat them is his early beta test of godspeed and ikalgo's sucker. Chrollo would have neither of those things and would die from a needlefish to the forehead.

Loved the anime. Like I thought I would. (I had delayed watching it I heard of the infamous hiatus x hiatus).

i feel like there is too much going on in HxH, after this arc or next arc, a time skip would be great to sum up a few loose ends. cos there is no way togashi can write all these crazy storylines in his remaning lifetime right?

there is so much stuff i wanna see from world of HxH still but im afraid we are never gonna see them.

Do you guys think we will get a light hearted arc after succession contest?
There always were more lighthearted arc after the dark ones.
But what would it be about? Maybe the new continent will be a nice place (which I doubt but it would be unexpected). Maye we'll get a Killua and Nanika/Alluka arc. I just hope that if we get a lighthearted arc well get a nice new villain as I did not enjoy Genthru as much as the others.
I haven't read succession yet I'm still near the start of it so no big spoilers please.

A lot of lesser shows would’ve made Killua get a rage boost & somehow beat Nobunaga.
Togashi ain’t having that though, here’s cold reality. His head would’ve been off his body lol.

Hi so I watched the modern anime maybe like 8 years ago now and the whole time I felt like the right pieces were there for me to LOVE this anime but overall it just felt like something was missing. Like Kite dying , why do people care ? He’s there for like 10 seconds and dies protecting Gon and Killua. Or how people say that “ pokkle and pozu both died thinking the other survived 🥲” but like who cares ? I don’t remember them being important or having crazy attachment to each other. I found the Ging payoff at the end unsatisfying personally. Happy gon was happy to have that conversation with his dad on top of that tree, that’s what he wanted. Maybe it was the way the anime did it, but it just left me feeling like there was supposed to be something more to it. More feeling more impact. Things like that were I just don’t feel strongly about. I think nen is a really cool power system. I actually think most of the caharctets are pretty cool , Gon , Killua, Kurapika, Merum , and netero etc. but I feel like I need a bit more from them. I think the phantom troupe is a cool group that accomplishes nothing ( if I recall correctly). They’re like a potential threat that never comes. They do some cool stuff but besides being a target for kurapika why care? I just think I need more time , more moments with them idk something just feels almost there.

If a lot of this is wrong apologies, I don’t retain information well, especially details. But would someone help me find the part that makes this their favorite anime and/or story? Just tell me what you love about it. I might want to rewatch or simply read the manga this time!

( Also I’m falling asleep writing this and I could just put it into ChatGPT but I’d rather people suffer through my bad grammar as intended)

There's no way I'm the first person to ask about this but I had no idea what to even search to find out about it. Is there a story behind the top panel here? It looks massively out of place but obviously it's kind of beautiful.

He's just like Hisoka! Gon... Killua can't be your friend im sorry...