HxH Analysis Post

See also: 

2011 Anime vs Manga Differences, Part 1

2011 Anime vs Manga Differences, Part 2

I want to do something for Valentine’s Day, but I don’t really do romance for anime. There’s also not much canon romantic couples in anime that I genuinely like (maybe Eremika) but that’s it. Perhaps another time.

I have yet to recommend a proper romance movie. However, I do like this particular movie that was released on Valentine’s Day - The Silence of the Lambs.

This is not an analysis post, but an introductory post to recommend this movie.

Sources:

 The Silence of the Lambs

The real-life model for Thomas Harris’ serial-killer expert psychs out the O.J., Ramsey and Dahmer cases – and David Byrne, too. By David Bowman

Fanwork scan depicting all references in Tokyo Ghoul 

Tokyo Ghoul and Red Dragon metaphor parallel

Death’s Head Hawkmoth

Jonathan Demme And Untold ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ Tales: Hannibal, Clarice, Tally, Hackman, And A Discarded Scary Ending

Why the Hannibal TV Series Couldn’t Adapt The Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs TV Series Clarice Is Not Allowed to Mention Hannibal

Since Neon's birthday is not stated, I will just make this. I have several answers to this. Perhaps I will make a post on this.

I'm also interested to know your reasonings!

One of my first thoughts when Steal Chain was revealed was, “a dolphin on a cross is a weirdly specific symbol, there must be some kinda meaning behind it”. I looked into it on and off, and found three areas where the symbolism of a dolphin in Christianity can be applied to Kurapika’s situation.

Persecuted Christians In Christianity, a dolphin on its own is comparable to the symbol of the fish which is commonly used today.  During times when Christians were a persecuted group, symbols such as the fish or dolphin were used to safely profess one’s faith. We can see a parallel here between the early Christians and the Kurta, who were also a persecuted minority, forced to live in secrecy. Although Kurapika is shown to use Christian iconography in his shrine, there’s no way to know if this means anything to him personally or if it’s just a stylistic choice. The dolphin on the cross also carries a more applicable symbolism…

Carrier of Lost Souls In early myth (attributed to the Greeks, Romans, or pagans depending on the source), dolphins were given the role of carrying souls to the afterlife upon their backs. Christians adopted this mythology, leading to the symbol of a dolphin upon the cross – symbolizing Christ, who carries souls to heaven. This is probably the most important symbol in regards to Steal Chain. The ability allows Kurapika to suck out someone else’s nen ability and aura, to the extent of putting his target into zetsu (chp. 361). A person’s aura may be called their soul, and the hatsu they create even more so given its personal nature. Here too, the dolphin guards the soul when it is outside the owner’s body. It seems likely that the image of the dolphin as the ferryman of the soul is the reason behind Kurapika’s choice to include it as part of Steal Chain. However, there may be a more meta reason for the symbol as well…

St. Brendan’s Cross A cross adorned with dolphins is also a symbol commonly associated with the Irish Saint Brendan. St. Brendan is most famous for setting out on a great sea voyage to find the land of paradise, bringing 14 monks with him. Kurapika too is headed on a sea voyage toward the Dark Continent (portrayed by the king of Kakin to be a kind of paradise), and he is traveling with 14 princes. But there’s more – the legend goes that an angel told St. Brendan he would celebrate Easter on the back of a great whale. St. Brendan and his group had camped upon an island and started their celebrations when the island began to shake. They escaped to their boats just as the “island” sank into the sea – it had been a giant whale all along. We all know where Kurapika is right now, and I don’t think the similarities between the legend of St. Brendan and Kurapika’s voyage on the Black Whale are coincidental. It’s this kind of obscure symbolism that really has me shaking my head about the level of planning Togashi must put into things. Whether or not this legend will have more influence on the plot of the DC arc is yet to be seen.

Of course, this is just my analysis and you’re free to disagree! I’ve cited some sources below the cut. 

Gon has also mentioned Noko in the Chimera Ant arc when he made a promise to Palm. Apparently, the anime HASN’T shown Gon say this, but the manga did.

We see Gon saying how, besides Mito, the only other person who he pinky promises to like this is with Noko. That would mean that everytime he pinky promises to her, he has to seal the promise with a kiss by pressing their thumbs together. If this isn’t the cutest shit ever when in comes to hxh details, then I don’t know what is.

The fourth one surprised people.

Recently, there have been news regarding Togashi on his health and what would become of HxH in the near future, so he wrote his answers on a talk show for an interview. From the small leaks and sneak peeks that people were able to gather and collect from the ongoing interview, we got to know a bit more about Togashi’s thought process as well as what he had planned for some scenes to go about but later changed.

These sneak peeks and leaks were later translated by these same fans and got shown on Reddit. You can find some of the translated questions and answers HERE!

But while this was going on, what really caught the fans’ attention about this interview (that we got of for now), were the possible endings Togashi had in mind. Since his health and back weren’t doing so good, Togashi figured he could at least give us some information on the possible endings of HxH he had planned. Of course, his answer was in Japanese but thankfully, some fans (like @pewpiece on Twitter) were able to take some parts and pieces of the explanation and translate it for us.

This is what Togashi said:

According to what the translation is saying, Togashi has planned THREE possible endings for HxH and has also estimated how good the ending would impact the fans.

Ending A (the first one), seems to look rather fine. This ending is deemed to be satisfactory by 50% and unsatisfactory by 20%.

Ending B (the second one), looks like it’ll have an equally mixed reaction. This ending is deemed to be satisfactory by 50% and unsatisfactory by 50%.

Ending C (the third one), looks like it’ll have the worst reactions between them all. This ending is deemed to be satisfactory by only 10% and extremely unsatisfactory by 90%. (Ending C is very likely that it’ll receive negative remarks but Togashi kept that one possible ending around because he personally liked it.)

Despite the fact that he had made three ending possibilities for HxH, he still plans on keeping them on the side to think about a bigger ending that could be better and bigger than the three he had made up: “I want to think to the utmost extent about an ending to the point where I might not choose any of these three and create what I find most enjoyable, which is my ideal and goal.” -Togashi on paragraph 2.

He also mentioned, however, that if he doesn’t find a better ending than these three before his time runs out, he’ll resort using the fourth ending as the true ending.

Yes, there’s a fourth ending that he hasn’t estimated the satisfactory and unsatisfactory rate of. Apparently, he had planned a fourth ending but scrapped it. It’s called the “Ending D” (or the fourth ending) and was the reason why people are starting to talk about this interview (at least from my end).

Curiously, Ending D was the one that had been talked about more by Togashi. Since he didn’t give any estimation on the satisfactory and unsatisfactory rate, he decided to tell us a bit on what it would be about.

To summarize it, here’s what it’s about:

Gon ends up marrying Noko, the only other kid on Whale Island, and they end up having kids. Now, Gon and Noko are grandparents and we get introduced to their granddaughter named Jin who was currently following the Freecss tradition: taking out the Lake Lord fish and share it with the other Whale Island residents. She ends up catching the fish and proudly goes up to her mother to tell her that she will not leave the island to become a hunter (insinuating that this must be a requirement once you capture the Lake Lord fish) and she’d rather stay here to inherit her parents’ place instead. Jin then goes to the shop from Mito’s days to cut up the fish all while thinking about how her mother will never understand how she’s saddened by the fact that being a hunter meant making the people that you love worry for you. Jin complains about how grandpa Gon is unaware of how his hunter stories make grandma Noko sad which is why Jin has decided that she’ll never become a hunter. Then, just as she had finished thinking about her resolve, a chubby little boy (holding a plant for some reason) enters the shop to which Jin seems to act very comfortable with. She tells him that she had caught the Lake Lord fish and they are both happy as they begin cooking it together.

This ending is odd because of three major key points.

1) This ending sounds way too much like a shonen anime ending where it’s a childhood love story like so many main pairings have gone through in the past. Plenty of people would be complaining (and even stating) that this ending is fake since Togashi would never write something this basic but you have to understand that he DID write something like this back when he was working on his old work Yu Yu Hakusho. The main character Yusuke returns after his adventures to get married to his childhood friend Keiko.

2) The way Togashi worded the ending at the end of it.

“The son of one of them, the daughter of another, and the grandchild of another live in different places, exchanging smiles. They might be the children of that character and the grandchildren of that character.” - last paragraph

This specific chunk of paragraph sounds a bit confusing at first read since Togashi doesn’t name any of these people and doesn’t address or clarify who is who. All we know, is that the “children of that character” and “the grandchildren of that character” is Gon when Togashi says “that character” since it has been established that his granddaughter Jin, the little boy with the plant, and the two kids’ parents are aware of who Gon is. However, we get confused yet again once it says “the son of one of them” and “the daughter of another” implying that “one of them” and “another” is not just Gon. This all seems a bit confusing but Togashi does have a habit of remaining ambiguous and vague when he explains in interviews.

3) The last line of the translation ends with “In the background, a figure watches the scene.” Who’s the figure you ask? No one knows.

Nonetheless, what we do know now, is that Ending D should NOT be ignored.

Many fans have already concluded that it shouldn’t be taken seriously because Togashi ‘scrapped’ it out but you have to understand that he had kept it around and WILL use it if time runs out for him and he doesn’t manage to find a better ending than the three he already has.

This is why the Ending D, also known as the fourth ending, should also be known as the default ending.

So if Togashi can’t continue anymore, this could be the true ending for HxH.

Keep in mind that this is Gon’s ending too.

We have no idea what he has in store for Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio not to mention Hisoka and the Phantom Troupe.

At the end of the day, these sneak peeks are all pretty much suspicious but plausible. I just tried to dissect the infos to have a better understanding of what we all just read.

———————————————————————

Btw I can’t believe I’m seeing this cuz I once talked about Noko like two years ago and said how I wished that she could have more scenes or anything remotely interesting about her AND NOW WE GET THIS!!!?!! Damn.

this is the post I was talking about her if ur wondering.

I’m sure other ppl must’ve wondered about her too at some point cuz why would Togashi include the fact that she’s also the only other kid on Whale Island if ur not gonna do anything about that fact???

@thelovelyghostwriter

@itsmyara

I am aware that this is wishful thinking but I would truly like to see more of Noko.

I’ve had this small obsession with this character for as long as I’ve discovered her and I know it might sound silly but let me explain my reasoning.

This girl has been mentioned by Gon and Togashi at least two times in the manga.

The first one was in chapter 1 where Togashi presented her as a background character.

While the second one, was when Gon mentioned her to Killua when he returned to Whale Island.

And since then, she has never been mentioned again.

I barely even looked at the background when I was reading chapter 1 for the first time.

When I heard that her first appearance was in the oldest chapter, it caught me off guard.

And so, it made me want to take a look again at volume 1 just to see if Togashi really added her and surprisingly, he did which made me happy because although he drew her as a simple doodle, he acknowledged her existence at the very beginning of the story even if she didn’t have to be there.

The anime did the same as well!

They included her even though her expression and physical appearance are far from what the manga shows.

In the manga, she smiles while in the anime, she appears to be saddened by the fact that Gon was leaving making her the only child on the island.

As for her anime counterpart, her physical appearance looks awfully a lot like another orange-haired woman we know who didn’t want a certain other Freecss to leave her alone on the island.

The first time I read the manga, I thought that there might’ve been a reason as to why she was included when she didn’t appear a single time since then.

I held onto the belief that Noko might make another appearance in the near future given the fact that she’s the only other kid on Whale Island besides Gon.

So her existence can’t be too much of a coincidence if she represents a small percentage of some kind.

But my expectations suddenly crashed when I met the Shadow beasts who were assigned by one of the Ten dons to defeat Uvogin.

They appeared so suddenly that I thought they could have stood a chance against him and since they were said to be pretty good at what they did.

But I was severely wrong as soon as I realized that they got all terminated by Uvogin as quickly as they made their appearances.

Saying that the Shadow Beasts’ existence was anticlimactic is not even cutting it short.

This taught me that even if their names were present, that didn’t mean that they would have a long impact on the story. Or even one memorable at all.

The same could be said for Noko.

Just because she’s present, it doesn’t mean that she could be useful or even relevant to the story like Mito or Abe.

And so, I forgot about the possibility of her being something more than a simple vague background character.

Not until Gon returned to Whale Island again that is.

And what seems to be different this time?

None of his friends are with him!

This means Noko could become a potential character for the reasons below:

1. Since Gon has to do at least two years of school homework, this means that he’ll be spending more time at Whale Island. These two could spend more time catching up together.

2. She could come off as a supporting character for Gon just like Mito and Abe.

3. If she does get shown again, we could potentially get a little insight on who she is as well as what she has been doing on the island while Gon was away.

I began being hopeful for her potential reappearance again because Togashi doesn’t always make things by accident or by pure coincidence.

A mutual of mine sent me this tweet. Not the official translation though?

So in "Ending D", which didn't become one of the three candidates for his Endings...

Togashi thought of Gon and Noko having a grandchild named Jin. This also means that Gon became a famous hunter.

By the way, if you forgot who is Noko, here she is:

She is the only kid around the same age as Gon on Whale Island. She appeared in the first episode only when Gon was leaving the island.

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 105 (Raw)

"A red-eyed customer will visit your store. Half of them is angel, and the other is the god of death. Presumably they are hoping that you will sell the moon's secrets to them. They ought to be especially pleased about that of the frost moon.

On a hot day, with the mediation of the said customer, the two of you, the man of a reversed cross and you, are probably to be left alone together. The false fourth moon will be torn away from the calendar. With this, those that remain will become 6."

I'm gonna put it here to remind us all of Hisoka's real fortune.

We all know how Shalnark ended up dead according to the fortune he received back in Yorknew arc. Now everyone is paying attention at Shizuku's fortune and making predictions. One of the most popular of these theories is how Shizuku will die around merchandise covered in black, which are brought by the Kakin mafia or one of the princes, if I remember correctly.

So now, I shall make my own predictions on what will happen in the future HxH chapters. But this time it will be based on Hisoka's real fortune.

WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN'T READ HUNTER x HUNTER CHAPTERS 349 TO 400, ESPECIALLY 391 TO 400, DO NOT INTERACT OR READ FURTHER. Keep in mind that this is unedited, and you are bound to read some cringey parts at some point.

I want to do something for Valentine’s Day, but I don’t really do romance for anime. There’s also not much canon romantic couples in anime that I genuinely like (maybe Eremika) but that’s it. Perhaps another time.

I have yet to recommend a proper romance movie. However, I do like this particular movie that was released on Valentine’s Day - The Silence of the Lambs.

This is not an analysis post, but an introductory post to recommend this movie.

Sources:

 The Silence of the Lambs

The real-life model for Thomas Harris’ serial-killer expert psychs out the O.J., Ramsey and Dahmer cases – and David Byrne, too. By David Bowman

Fanwork scan depicting all references in Tokyo Ghoul 

Tokyo Ghoul and Red Dragon metaphor parallel

Death’s Head Hawkmoth

Jonathan Demme And Untold ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ Tales: Hannibal, Clarice, Tally, Hackman, And A Discarded Scary Ending

Why the Hannibal TV Series Couldn’t Adapt The Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs TV Series Clarice Is Not Allowed to Mention Hannibal