Many people already know Hunter x Hunter Vol. 34 sold 868,650 copies in Japan in the first week, but here’s how it compares with everything else that came out in June.
Ohh yeah, this is a loaded question, lol, but I totally hear where you’re coming from. To a certain extent, we do need to consider the world a story takes place in before we can make judgement calls/compare it to our own real-world standards. I actually think Homestuck is a good example of this – it’s a story where almost every character does something awful at some point but the narrative doesn’t treat these actions equally – some awful things are comedic and without consequence, others are serious and with lasting ramifications on the plot, so how are we as audience supposed pass judgement here?
I think HXH’s narrative is much more clean-cut and cohesive, but there are still elements of dark humor where bizarre/terrible things are treated as mundane and normalized. I think the Zoldyck family is the prime example of this:
Killua is grounded. Being grounded is a very normal concept. Why is he grounded? Because he stabbed his mom and brother and then ran away from home – a very NOT NORMAL concept.
Killua’s parents have high hopes for him and it stresses him out – a very normal concept. What do they have high hopes for? That Killua will be the greatest professional murderer of all time. Not normal!
Killua’s mom cries because she’s so proud of him, a normal concept. Specifically, she cries happily whenever Killua does something like a cold-blooded killer. Not normal.
Killua’s parents are very strict and put him through rigorous training, which is also pretty normal – makes you think of parents that send their kids to lots of after-school programs and private tutors. What is his training? He is literally tortured and some of his assignments are life-threatening. NOT!!! NORMAL!!!
All of these terrible things (and much more) are treated pretty flippantly at first, and even Killua himself seems accepting of it– until he learns it’s not normal. It’s worth mentioning that IRL many abuse victims don’t realize that they are abuse victims, but in the context of fiction we do need indicators from the author on how we’re supposed to interpret what’s going on. Was Togashi purely just going for dark comedy by subverting a typical nuclear family situation, or was he intentionally writing their actions as abusive? I’m going to argue the latter, that he was actively aware and writing an abusive family dynamic, the key point being that the narrative repeatedly condemns the actions of the Zoldyck family.
Killua becomes aware that none of what he’s been through is normal. Even early on in the series he says that he wishes he could just be a normal kid, but I don’t think it becomes clear to him just how fucked up things are until he’s able to remove Illumi’s needle, which was strongly implied to have been messing with his judgement towards his family’s actions. This is important!! If Togashi wanted us to think the Zoldycks’s behavior is acceptable, Killua would never question it. Regardless of what the family says, regardless of how much they say they love Killua, we’re supposed to be taking Killua’s point of view here.
Additionally, we have more context than just the Zoldyck family and their interaction with Killua. There are NUMEROUS characters in the HXH who are able to infer that Killua was put through cruel and unusual training by his family just by witnessing his abilities. Bisky, who is one of the most skilled hunters in the world and whose judgement we greatly trust as an audience, even thinks to herself she doesn’t know how Killua can smile. Tsezguerra is able to infer the same from a brief demonstration of Killua’s hatsu. Even Netero, who is no saint himself, thinks Killua shouldn’t be able to use “dark arts”. And then, more obviously, Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio, who strongly voice their concerns. Togashi didn’t need to include any of these thoughts or feelings, but he did because he was making a point!
I’m also gonna twist things for a second. Imagine if there was a non-abusive Zoldyck family, what would that look like? To be honest, I think the ‘dark humor’ aspect is only strengthened when you go to the opposite extreme. Imagine the family being the image of a perfect, rich, happy, suburban nuclear fantasy. You know, the kind of family that wears matching sweaters and gets together for every holiday. Everyone is always smiling, the family is incredibly polite and generous. The family is sickly sweet and supportive with each other. But they are professional murderers. They all sit together at the dining table and discuss their latest kills over dinner. Silva takes their giant guard dog Mike on walks around the neighborhood. Kikyo wags her finger at Killua because he got blood on his clothes again.
Gon is welcomed with open arms when he goes to see Killua, and Illumi and Zeno embarrass Killua by telling Gon funny stories about Killua’s first attempts at killing. And instead of locking Alluka up and treating her like a monster, Kikyo and Silva are just incredibly misguided in their attempts to help her and learn to ultimately accept Nanika as family.
The point I’m trying to make with that last paragraph is that a number of elements about the family could have been retained while making their actions non-abusive. They are not abusive purely because of their profession – MOST characters in the HXH are murderers! The difference is their pattern of behavior, where they intentionally mistreat, manipulate, gas light, and hurt (emotionally and physically) on a repeated basis with very little to no remorse.
So, to more succinctly answer your question, I don’t really think anything that the Zoldyck family does is considered normal or reasonable by HXH universe standards. There’s a strong message from Togashi that we’re supposed to condemn their actions throughout the entire series, and the bottom line is, if he really didn’t intend for them to be abusive then he wouldn’t have written them as abusive.
I just wanted to make a little (lol) post while all the princes are still alive. Once the arc is over
I’ll come back and see how accurate I was in my speculation. (Behind a cut
because it got looooong.)
1. Benjamin is
the first prince, and the most physically intimidating out of all the princes. He
has a vicious personal army, a creepy nen beast, and a strong desire to
obliterate all of his siblings. He will probably be one of the final princes in
the battle if things go well for him. However, I kind of want him to be the
first one to die, just to show that physical strength isn’t everything, but
Togashi already kind of did that with Uvogin, so we’ll see if he does it again.
(Also the nen beasts can possibly decimate his army if none of them know about
nen).
2. Camilla is the
second prince, and we don’t really have much information about her as of this
moment (Chapter 362). Tsubeppa calls her greedy, and she has a boob shaped
jellyfish for a nen beast, but we don’t know much else. However, Tsubeppa and
Queen Oito both named her as one of the princes who would be fighting hard for
the throne, so hopefully she will hold her own when the war gets under way.
3. Zhang Lei is
the third prince, and like Camilla, not much has been revealed about him yet.
Also like Camilla, Tsubeppa and Queen Oito acknowledge him as a threat in the
succession war. I’ll wait to learn a little about him and Camilla before I
really make any solid predictions. (He has one of the more aesthetically
pleasing nen beasts, so that is a plus.)
4. Tserriednich, the fourth prince, has been set up as the most terrifying prince in the succession war, brutally
murdering two women in his first appearance, and making macabre art out of
another woman’s skin in his second. Prince Tserriednich believes he is an extraordinary
individual living among swine, and he would be the worst person to win the
succession war. The less said about his nen beast, the better.
He is also the owner of several of the Scarlet Eyes, even appearing to have a severed head of one of the Kurta clan among his collections, so Kurapika will be targeting him in addition to all the princes.
Unless something
completely unexpected happens, he will definitely be one of the final princes
fighting for the crown.
5. Tsubeppa is
the fifth prince, and the last of the five mentioned to be seriously fighting
for the throne. She tries to make an alliance with Tserriednich in chapter 362,
and considers her other elder siblings completely inadequate to rule. She does
seem to dismiss the younger princes as contenders for the throne, so that could
be the one blind spot that could come back to haunt her in the future. Her nen
beast also looks pretty fierce, so I think her chances to last in the war are pretty good.
6. Tyson is the
sixth prince, and honestly I don’t think she will last very long. She probably
won’t be the first one out, but from what we have seen of her, I don’t like her
chances. Tserriednich mentions her in chapter 348 only to talk about how
protective she is with her handsome bodyguards. Tsubeppa doesn’t believe she
has any desire to be king either. She does express some interest in being king
him chapter 358, but I’m still not sure how serious she is about it at the
moment. Her nen beast manifests as a bunch of small frog-like creatures (or
possibly the thing giving birth to them in chapter 362?), and we haven’t seen
them display any special powers as of yet (and her bodyguards seem to be more
like personal man servants than actual guards). Kurapika’s old teacher Izunavi/Mizuken has also enlisted as
one of her bodyguards, so we will see if he makes a difference in terms of her
survival, or just gets mowed down in the crossfire.
7. Lusurus is the
seventh prince, and he is also probably going to be one of the first to die.
Like Tyson, Tsubeppa mentions him as one of the princes uninterested in being
king and doesn’t consider him a threat. Which is interesting, since Lusurus
mentioned in 362 that he will be targeting her first, so we will have to see
who comes off better in that encounter. Nevertheless, Tserriednich clearly considers
Lusurus a moron, after all of his bodyguards fail the Hunter Organization
screening in chapter 348. Lusurus’ nen beast might be the least impressive one I
have seen so far, and it is also pretty arrogant of him to assume only he has
bodyguards with knowledge of nen and that it will give him an advantage against
the others, so. I guess we’ll see how that ends. As a last note, Basho is his bodyguard at the request
of Kurapika, and I do not like his chances of survival as a result. Good luck
Basho, don’t die.
8. Harkenburg is the
eighth prince, and while he would probably be the best king if he won, he will
definitely be the first or one of the first to die. He doesn’t wish to
participate in the succession war, and according to Kurapika in chapter 350, he
wishes to make some radical changes to the Kakin nation if he becomes king. He
doesn’t get along with most of his family as a result, although he does have a
surprisingly close relationship with Prince Tserriednich. However, I have no
doubt Tserriednich will double-cross him the first chance he gets, since he
considers himself so above everyone else. Queen Oito also says that if he wins
the war he will probably give asylum to the Princes left alive who don’t want
to be king, and he is their best shot at surviving. So obviously that paints a
bigger target on his back as well! The death off all his bodyguards only
furthers my certainty that he will die soon. The only thing giving him a chance
of survival is his nen beast, which looks properly menacing. Good luck, you
poor doomed bastard.
9. Okay, if Harkenburg doesn’t die
first, it will definitely be the 9th prince, Sale-Sale. I mean, seriously. Look at him. He
visibly shows no desire to be king, and only seems to be interested him women
and partying (his nen beast seems to be in perfect agreement on that front). So
yeah, he’s dead for sure.
10. Kacho the
tenth and Fuugetsu the eleventh might
be my favorite princes so far!!! And I really, really don’t want them to be
knocked out of the race so soon. I name them together since they seem to be the
only two princes working together explicitly at this point, so it’s just easier
to talk about them as a team. I can’t say how well they will fare against the
adults at this point, but I want to believe they will hold their own. Okay,
honestly, Kacho will probably be the one to survive the first volley, since
Fuugetsu seems like a sweet girl who is just going along with what her sister
says so she doesn’t get murdered. (I don’t know if Kacho is actually planning
to let Fuu live in the end either, but I am waiting to see if she will keep her
deal or not). I don’t think any of the older princes will expect the younger
princes to be threats and it might give Kacho a leg up here. She’s obviously
smart enough to realize she can’t beat the other princes without help, so I
don’t think arrogance will hinder her too much. Okay, I don’t really have any
basis to think she will do well, but come on! She’s a mean girl who pretends to
be sweet and is actually devious and I want her to succeed so badly! Please
don’t kill her and her sister off too fast Togashi, I love them. 😦 Also Melody is Kacho’s bodyguard, so if she
dies Melody might die, and I don’t want to see that happen. Please don’t kill
her Togashi I’m begging you.
11. Momoze!!!
The twelfth prince is my other favorite! Oh my goodness, I love Momoze. She
seems like a sweet girl who likes to knit, but her nen beast can manipulate
others and already killed three people. All while being an adorable mouse
thing. I love it. I believe she’s also planning to kill her mother and little
brother as of chapter 361, but her wording was ambiguous enough that I could be
mistaken. It’s important to note that Momoze’s mother did take some of her
bodyguards as extra protection for prince Marayam, and Hanzo was among them. I mention it mostly because he may get caught
in her assault on Marayam (or be the agent of it?) as a result. Otherwise, I
think she has potential to last in the war, and I definitely don’t want her to
be one of the first to die because she is so much younger.
12. Marayam is the
thirteenth prince, and he might be in trouble. He has the least protection
besides Woble and Momoze, and we haven’t seen if his nen beast is strong enough
to protect him. However, he does have one thing going for him. Biscuit is his bodyguard! She is one of
the strongest nen users in the Hunter Organization and will definitely be able
to hold her own against any of the nen beasts (hopefully). So with her on his
side, Marayam definitely has a chance of surviving. (Unless Momoze takes
control of her and uses her to kill Marayam.) (Please don’t kill Biscuit Togashi;
I won’t forgive you if you do.)
13. And finally, Woble, the fourteenth prince! I…have no idea what will happen to
Woble at this point. Kurapika being her bodyguard doesn’t actually comfort me at
all. I’m honestly unsure if Togashi would really kill a baby just to make
Kurapika sad and guilty. Her mother Oito might be in more danger than her as an
adult, although maybe I just want Kurapika to be forced to take care of a baby
all by himself. It would definitely be interesting to see her live (or even
win) despite all the disadvantages she has at this point. But people might be
expecting her to win since she has Kurapika as a bodyguard, so it would be more
unexpected to just kill her off? I don’t know. We haven’t even seen her nen
beast yet, and it could potentially be strong enough to help her survive.
Maybe. I’ll just be waiting to see what happens. (Just to be clear, I’m not in favor of
murdering the baby, but Togashi is a cruel man and I don’t trust him).
So that’s everything I have so far! I don’t know if it was so much predicting as summarizing everything we know about the princes so far, but I’m too tired to write more. I might go back and add links to sources later, but for now I’m just gonna drop this and run since it is way too long already.
“what if we take giger’s obsessions, mix in some junji ito body horror, add a dash of the broodmother from dragon age,and toss in some hieronymous bosch for good measure. and heels.”why togashi why
the catbus as designed by edward elric
WORSHIP ME
nah man it’s chill
worst pinata ever
if an ogre and cousin it had a baby
a giant adorable mouse that will probably turn out to be evil too idek togashi
i’ve given some of these a lot of thought, because body horror isn’t usually for show but for some metaphorical impact on a persons’ thoughts or personality.
i think the strongest one i can actually pull, (from what we know already) is the fourth’s princes’ nen beast. From what we know in previous chapters, we know that the fourth prince has no respect for women or really, values them as a species. they are more like livestock or fodder to him.
the nen beast reflects that. if he could see it, this is how he would see women. nothing more than a pretty face and use for other, practical means (i mean, his are more sinister, but i digress, it’s all for the purpose of how he values them)
and like, the horse creature is good looking–that’s the point. it looks good and if the fourth prince had a woman around his arm they would look good.
but this panel (below) tells a lot about the relationship with women. there is another, smaller crying women hidden under the other, which can imply the sinister detail of the relations the prince has with women (and i think that’s pretty fuckin neato)
I completely agree! I freaking love what togashi did with the nen beasts, and how closely they relate to and reflect on these people’s personalities. not that nen didn’t before, but since nen is shaped by the users at least mostly consciously, there is a less immediate-reflection-of-the-self as these are.
especially the fourth prince. (and I’m going to bet the ogre might be more of a protective guardian? but watch me be super wrong on that), but I’d also bet that the 6th and 8th have a lot to do with how they control/manipulate people (quietly and overtly, which also seems to line up with the brief glimpses of their personalities and their beasts), and the straight-up mouth-heavy but blind alien-from-alien we have for the first prince as someone who is used to consuming but is also possibly blindsided by the things around him because he’s so used to being on top. iunno.
image-wise, there’s also this completely visceral feeling of horror with tserriednich’s beast, not least because when it opens its mouth it becomes a junji ito straight out of uzumaki or that evil walking fish manga. all it needs is a DRR DRR DRR. it’s just. really terribly unsettling as well as indicative of all the stuff you mentioned.
I might joke about it a lot, but I sincerely love togashi’s massive adoration for all things hr giger and junji ito and his willingness to throw all of it in the pot. even when we get stuff like…all the nen beasts.
also I love theta, even if she just rocketed up to the top of my to-be-killed-or-worse-because-togashi-feeds-on-tears list
Camilla(2): is that another boob monster? Oh wait, it’s a jellyfish
Benjamin(1): okay that’s terrifying. not bad for the first prince.
Luzor(7): okay, i don’t know what this thing is, but it might be the least interesting out of all of them.
Tyson(6): they’re cute, but what is spewing them out?
Saresare(8): oh god, is that…cum? you know, it’s probably just drool, but still. Ew. Why togashi.
Tserriednich, take 2: holy shit, I take back what I said, it’s exactly as horrifying as I thought it would be. Oh god.
Okay, so, not a lot happened here to advance the plot, but we had a bunch of good exposition about how the parasite beasts work! And we got to see most of their designs, which are a mix between cool, gross, and horrifying. Lovely.
Mostly things are still being set up, but it looks like Harkenburg’s bodyguards have been compromised. Exciting! I’m really looking forward to how this succession war plays out.
I really like what we have seen of Theta so far, and I sympathize with her dilemma. Tserriednich should absolutely have never known about nen, but now that he does, she has no choice but to teach him. Because if she doesn’t… well i don’t want to imagine what would happen to her if she refused. it would be horrible, no doubt about it.
i might make a few more posts speculating about the succession war in the future, but for now that’s all i got. can’t wait to see what happens next week!
someone from MS who scanlates for HXH reached out and said they saw the discussion earlier about the translation corrections. they wanted to remain anonymous but they wanted to say that they continually update and improve the translations as soon as they can – usually translations aren’t finalized until tuesday the next week, so they recommended re-reading the previous chapter before reading the new one.
anyway i want to totally apologize on my end for contributing any grief. these people love hxh and it’s incredibly difficult to scanlate yet they work on it ASAP for the whole fandom’s sake and we totally owe them one.
KittyLurk's Tumblr Backup 