#chapter 403

Intertextuality

I’m always surprised by the amount of intertextuality in the Succession Arc.

I’ve never really seen a shonen manga that makes "highbrow" references like this (for Anime, only Sonny Boy comes to mind). By highbrow, I mean media that is considered part of a more “serious” or “adult” culture. It’s just one of the ways I think Togashi is pushing the boundaries of shonen and knocking on the door of something more.

Halkenburg’s Illness

It seems Halkenburg’s illness is not the result of Balsamilco’s poison. He simply fainted after transferring his soul to Balsamilco’s body, entering a state similar to Sumidori.

Balsaburg is lying to Benjamin here, but it's sort of a half-truth. Technically, Halkenburg's condition is a result of his ability, just not in the way he described. (I also want to mention that Benjamin falsely believes Halkenburg is faking his illness to postpone the trial. This is yet another instance of a character coming to a reasonable but incorrect conclusion due to asymmetrical information. In my opinion, this is very difficult thing to write. Togashi has been doing it consistently since Welfin!)

However, the question still remains: how is Halkenburg going to die if he isn’t poisoned? Not to mention, how was he able to make sure his own soul was transferred into Balsamilco instead of someone else’s? There’s still a lot we don’t know about Halkenburg’s ability.

Unma is Halkenburg’s Biological Mother

Unma being Halkenburg’s mother was predicted by some fans. I stayed away from writing about it because it was a theory based solely on visual clues (not unlike the Sheila=Pariston theory), but I always accepted it as a possibility. Mostly, I’m just excited we are getting more characterization for the queens, who I think will play an increasingly important role in the Succession Contest.

Unma in particular has an imposing appearance and looks to be crazy tall!

Is it just me or is she almost twice the height of that maidservant?!

Nen Lessons

I’m also keeping an eye out for Sarahell, Camilla’s guard, who is planning on cursing Woble very soon!

But now it seems like he's on death's door. Which is what really threw me. We have other threads moving forward in this chapter. Kacho/Kaiser/Melody seem ready to strike quick and Zhang Lei is getting desperate to court Kurapika's nen expertise. But Halkenburg is the real story of this chapter.