Hunter X Hunter Art Why Are We Full of Rage

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Explaining Hunter 10 Hunter's wildest arc is a rite of passage

The Bubble Pismire storyline is exactly as WTF equally the fans have always said — and it's too so much more

By Aug 11, 2021, 7:00pm EDT

Here are some very out-of-context things that happen in the Chimera Ant arc of the 2011 anime Hunter x Hunter, which is now streaming on Netflix. An octopus named Ikalgo decides he'south the BFF of i of the main characters. A woman whose ability involves wrapping her very long hair around herself fights a child in a dictator's mansion. A nuclear smash culminates in a resurrection scene that doesn't feel like someone coming dorsum from the expressionless, so much every bit it resembles a cannibalistic orgy. (You really have to run into information technology to believe it.) The protagonists meet a leader who plainly spent, like, two years standing in one place and punching the air 10 1000 times a day. A mutant ant harnesses the power to whisk his opponents to a pocket dimension, and he uses it to strength them to play tag with him. At that place'south this accented brick house of a human, whose power is basically vaping. And that'south simply scratching the barest surface.

Hunter x Hunter'southward Chimera Ant arc is the most infamous storyline in all six seasons of the show, to the point where even anime fans who've never watched the series may have heard of it, because information technology's and then divisive. Some people honey it and say it's the greatest affair to happen to anime. Others despise it with a burning passion. It makes up almost half the series, clocking in at 61 episodes. And information technology's exactly as batshit as promised — perhaps fifty-fifty more than, if that'due south possible.

Twice now, I've watched people try to explicate this arc to someone who barely watches anime, and both times, I wanted to evaporate on the spot out of embarrassment for how completely unhinged the story sounded. Making it that far into Hunter x Hunter requires a loftier tolerance for totally out-at that place plot elements, just Chimera Pismire really tests that limit. I am proverb this as someone who adores Hunter x Hunter, who wrote a 35,000-word fanfic for it, who cosplayed her favorite character, who bought a clock with the main characters on information technology.

When most Hunter x Hunter fans accomplish the midpoint of the Chimera Ant story, they're striking with a burning desire to explain the sheer what-the-fuckery to someone, to explain how this gory, absolutely wacky plot works cohesively, even though some of the private pieces are so wild that they are embarrassing to discuss out loud. It's basically a rite of passage to explain this emotionally taxing arc to people who've never seen the bear witness. Unfortunately, since I watched the series in quarantine, I never actually got a take a chance to undergo this sacred rite. Only with the Bubble Ant arc finally added to Netflix, it is now my time.

[Ed. annotation: This post contains a lot of spoilers for Hunter ten Hunter, particularly flavor 5.]

Kite, my beloved

Image: Madhouse

Hunter ten Hunter takes place in a world where Hunters, licensed individuals with superior fighting skills and the power to wield the in-universe magic system ("Nen"), trek across the earth seeking treasure, glory, and other dangerous things. The main character, Gon, is a typical wide-eyed, big-hearted anime protagonist, whose one goal in life is to be a stiff Hunter just like his father. His best buddy, Killua, is the centre son of a family of famous assassins, but he merely wants to chill with Gon, and doesn't intendance about joining the family unit legacy. (At that place are other characters, but this arc is by and large about these two, so I won't wax poetic about my absolute fave, Kurapika.)

The arc kicks off when Gon and Killua encounter Kite, a Hunter who specializes in treatment dangerous wildlife. He was likewise Gon'southward male parent's protégé, and one time, when Gon was very piddling, Kite saved him from being attacked past a wild animate being. Kite's latest mission involves investigating a possible infestation of Chimera Ants, and because Gon just helps out everyone, he volunteers to join Kite's quest.

The series uses "ant" in the loosest sense of the give-and-take here. Sure, the Queen Bubble Emmet looks pretty much like a giant ant, and her starting time sets of offspring are issues-like. But these creatures are called Chimera Ants because they take on the hybrid advent of whatsoever the Queen last ate. At first, she but devours regular animals, but and then she discovers that humans make tasty treats — and afterward eating them, she produces powerful offspring that definitely look like DeviantArt fursonas. Pretty soon, her children start condign stronger and more powerful, and then also outset hungering for human flesh. Then they kickoff hunting more and more people, destroying unabridged villages and killing humans in increasingly horrific ways, like gunning them dead with powerful streams of water, or probing their brains for information.

This sounds like a recipe for riot, except that this detail arc takes place in a country ruled by an eco-terrorist group that has forbidden whatsoever contact with or applied science imported from the residual of the globe, so no ane knows what the hell is going on. The abuse of this government and how it suppresses its citizens is, like, a D-plot at all-time.

Eventually, the ants realize if they eat Hunters, they can wield Nen, making them fifty-fifty more powerful. The Queen keeps eating humans and giving nascency to new rounds of soldier ants, each successive generation increasing in condition, until she finally births the Majestic Baby-sit — 3 elite, powerful ants — and and then ultimately, the Rex, the most powerful ant of them all.

While this is all going on, Gon, Killua, and Kite brand it deeper and deeper into ant territory, with the intention of taking out the ants before the King is born. Merely they are attacked by Neferpitou, 1 of the King'southward incredibly powerful Purple Baby-sit. Kite tells Gon and Killua to run, because they aren't strong enough to fight Neferpitou. They go far to prophylactic, but that particular episode ends with Neferpitou happily sitting under a tree with Kite'southward severed head — which eventually gets stitched back onto his body.

Gon and Killua come across up with the leader of the Hunter Clan, Netero, and two top hunters, Morel and Knov. The three adults are planning to take downward the ants — and forbid Gon and Killua from coming until they've properly trained and can best Knov and Morel's apprentices in boxing. While the ant plot goes on, Gon and Killua essentially have a long training arc, getting to know the apprentices — Knuckle, who hides his soft side under his tough outside; Shoot, a coward; and Palm, who has an obsessive trounce on her mentor, Knov. The grooming tests Gon and Killua'south human relationship. Gon has the personal desire to recollect Kite, and wants to get as stiff as he tin can in gild to do so. Killua, meanwhile, just wants to be by Gon'southward side — but he'south realizing that isn't equally easy as he thought it might be, considering Gon's martyrlike tendencies.

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While that's going on, the Ants move to another land — this 1 likewise ruled by a dictator, though the new identify is less ecoterrorist and anti-tech, and more than stereotypically ruled by a despotic, wealthy tyrant suppressing the lower class. The Majestic Baby-sit and King ants take over the palace, keeping the human ruler alive so they tin can use him as a puppet, and hatch a programme to invite all the unsuspecting citizens to the palace on a national holiday, and then they can sort out which ones they want to swallow, and which ones they want to transform into Ant soldiers (which they figure out they can do).

They have to wait a little, in guild to mobilize their forces and corral the entire population, so the Ant Rex decides to bide his fourth dimension past mastering every lath game in existence, because why not? He challenges the top players of each game in the globe, growing bored and restless —- until he meets a frail, blind woman who plays the fictional military strategy game Gungi ameliorate than anyone. The King can't beat her, and he starts to realize that at that place is more one way to be strong, and that humanity has value beyond being a tasty treat.

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Gon, Killua, Netero, Morel, Knov, Knuckle, Shoot, and Palm hatch a plan to infiltrate the palace and take down the Ants. The arc basically culminates in this epic showdown, which not only tests our heroes, simply the villains as well. This represents a turning signal for Gon and Killua's relationship, as Gon throws himself into getting Kite dorsum, no thing what the cost — even if that ways pushing Killua away. Meanwhile, the Ant King begins to question his purpose, which ruffles his Royal Guard, who separate over whether they should honor his new goals, or remind him about what matters. Oh, and likewise, at that place are some pretty damn epic fights, though the terminal chunk of episodes does that anime thing where one twenty-minute episode spans nigh 2 minutes within the show.

The Chimera Ant arc is A Lot. Information technology is So Much. It is Many Things, All Taken to the Most Extreme. Hunter x Hunter doesn't shy away from the nitty gritty: 1 arc sees the gang rescuing Killua from his calumniating assassin family, while another has Kurapika infiltrating the mafia to avenge his fallen clan. But the dark plot elements of the Chimera Ant arc sink a lot deeper than the previous storylines. Nearly of the previous arcs have enough balance between drama and lighthearted moments to keep the characters going. This arc, however, represents a bespeak of no return for some of the characters — it is the end of Gon and Killua'southward story, essentially.

But the Chimera Pismire arc isn't a elevate because of its length and content. It's incredibly well-crafted, really borer into the series' deepest emotions. It is the darkest arc of the anime, and it's certainly the goriest. It deals with themes of what information technology ways to be homo, of finding forcefulness in unexpected places, of the limits of friendship and loyalty, and the possibility of getting lost in the need for vengeance. It has gorgeous and intriguing fight scenes, and compelling characters. And it actually tests the bond between Gon and Killua. Somewhere along the line, it evolves into a poignant, tender love story. And fifty-fifty though it's prepare in a fantasy earth, it integrates real-life political issues like totalitarian governments and Japan's lingering nuclear trauma.

Image: Madhouse

Even a few months subsequently watching this arc, and even after (finally!) explaining all of this, I still have mixed feelings about it — I don't love it, but I can't deny how evocative it is. The terminal scenes of Chimera Ant are gut-punching, and admittedly worth the 61-episode build upwardly. They could not exist without that many defended episodes, or with the corporeality of claret, despair, and vicious murder, which definitely threw me off intially. It ricocheted me to epic highs and deep lows. I did, indeed, blast through information technology at lightning speed — not only considering I was warned to, simply because I had to know what happened adjacent.

It is the culmination of Gon and Killua'southward story, and it really pushes the limits of the Hunter 10 Hunter universe, even though none of the other major characters appear in it. And information technology sets up the serial' final episodes, which are a bloodshot denouement, a marked change from the gung-ho excitement the series begins with. Hunter 10 Hunter is a journey, and non all of it is happy. But Gon and Killua terminate up in places that make sense — fifty-fifty if that tin only happen later on 61 episodes of fighting murderous, mutated ant-people.

The last two seasons of Hunter x Hunter — which include the Chimera Ant arc — are now available on Netflix. The full series is also available on Crunchyroll and Funimation.

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/22619955/hunter-x-hunter-chimera-ant-fans-netflix

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