One of my favorite tidbits of HxH is the fact that Gon and Killua became friends because Gon talked to him during the exam and just “Hey we’re the same age! That’s a good reason to be friends let’s do that! :D”
And since Gon came from a small island and is friendly to a fault, it kinda makes sense for him to suggest it. I bet on Whale Island people more or less just made friends with those close in age due to limited options.
But what cracks me up is Killua. Killua “raised from age 2 to commit cold-blooded murder, extensively trained in the art of throat-slitting, shamed out of emotion and friendship despite his desire for human connection” Zoldyck was just like “:)??? :D?????”
The Zoldycks tried.
actually, i think it’s better than this because killua was the one who approached gon first!
hxh 1999 reversed it and made gon the one who introduced himself first (and then made killua refuse to introduce himself in return… wtf) …. which is a change i really don’t like and think mischaracterized killua a whole lot. like, this kid is desperate for a friend!! he is trying really hard to make a friend!! let him make a friend, you cowards!!
My memory is bad but this addition is good.
Killua-serial-introducing-himself-to-everyone but he got it right the very first time with Gon
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.
the best part of the musical was when leorio sees a pile of a bones and is like “what are those????” and kurapika has to explain to him that those are human bones, reblog with your favorite part of the musical
My favorite part was Grandpa Zeno doing sweet backflips and the Butler Secret Handshake Dance
…also the super adorable Gon and Killua song where they sung about each other
honorable mentions: killugon tickle fight, kurapika covering up leorio’s dick, illumi dancing for the hell of it, and silva giving gon killua’s hand in marriage
Just a simple PSA that I am finally trying to plan this!
Tentative date is Sunday, February 12th at 6:00pm EST. I figured it would make sense to plan this near v-day because the musical is essentially about Gon proving himself worthy of Killua’s hand in marriage to Killua’s parents ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I will post more info soon… Day will most likely remain Feb 12th but the time could change. I might make a poll to see when is best for most people.
Ahaha, I’ve… gone off on 99 a few times on this blog before. I wish I could point you to some of those posts, because I don’t want to sound like a broken record to everyone following who’s lived through my griping about 99 in the past lol, but yeah, I also dropped it. It’s no surprise but I’m really not a fan of the original anime.
There’s definitely some merits to it, but I think it really depends on what your interests are and what enjoyment you derive out of the series. For example, there’s much more filler, usually comedic in nature, so that appeals to some people. There’s also more Leorio and Kurapika, plus added subtext between them, so some people enjoy it for that. It also adapts the first chapter of the manga (somewhat faithfully) where as HXH 2011 totally skipped over it, so that’s also a plus.
My main grievance is that the characters were reduced to OOC tropes in order to neatly fit into typical shounen cookie-cutter molds. I’ve given this example numerous times, but the first phase of the hunter exam is just not adapted well at all and the characters really suffer for it. In the manga and in 2011, Killua introduces himself to Gon first. As we later learn, Killua is desperate to make a friend, and this desperation is what Illumi takes advantage of when manipulating Killua at the end of the exam. However, for some reason, the writers of 99 chose to make Killua more aloof and “cool” and therefore had Gon introduce himself to Killua instead, and even made Killua refuse to introduce himself in response. This small change has MAJOR consequences for our understandings of these characters!
Gon was also reduced to a plucky, innocent shounen protag. While he obviously has moments like that in the manga and 2011, all of his interesting moments where he displays gray morality and cunning were inexplicably removed. One example is how, instead of taking Ponzu’s badge after she passes out, 99 had Leorio do it instead. Again, a small moment with major implications. All of these small moments matter, as Gon’s atypical sense of morality and justice are crucial to his character and also what makes him much more interesting and unique compared to other shounen protags.
I also want to clarify that I am not anti-filler or against any and all changes to the manga – they just need to be thoughtful and consistent from a world building and character development perspective. For anyone who’s only seen 2011 and hasn’t read the manga – did you know that the penalty time spent in trick tower was entirely anime-original filler? It fits perfectly within the narrative, so chances are, it probably didn’t scream “DISCLAIMER: this is original filler” to you. The penalty scene in Trick Tower is an example of GOOD filler because it’s actually purposeful and enhances our understanding of the characters – we have Tonpa call out Leorio’s failings when gambling against Leroute, and Leorio reflecting on it as well, which contributes to the tensions between them at the end of the exam phase. The tension is also heightened by all the idle time spent in the penalty room – it gives you a sense of just how much time was lost. Just skipping over it, like what happened in the manga, makes it seem insignificant.
Sorry for the long post, but I think this basically sums up my feelings on 99 and why I regard 2011 as the superior adaptation. I’ve heard other people on this blog comment that the hunter exam is handled poorly in 99 but that York New is handled well. I haven’t seen the 1999 adaptation of the Yorknew Arc so I can’t really comment on that but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it.
I really love looking at how the art style and direction of HXH 2011 evolved over the course of four years… I’m sure the budget increased with the success it garnered and that had something (er, a lot) to do with it, but like, it’s still impressive to me that not only were 148 episodes drawn and animated consistently well, but that it consistently kept getting better too??
Just look at the subtle changes in color and shading between the first and last arcs, especially in the eyes. It’s just… REALLY cool and I can’t help but feel that the staff who worked on this series loved it very much.
on the topic of that last point, hunter x hunter 2011 is very interesting bc it was clearly a labor of love on so many levels. megumi han and mariya ise, gon and killua’s voice actresses respectively, grew up with the manga and their roles were like their absolute dream roles to be cast in. i heard that yuzu is fans of the manga and reread it in preparation for writing the ending themes that they did (and the lyrics are def relevant too), and a bunch of the animators were still posting fanart for the series on twitter well after it finished airing. and that’s just that i know of off the top of my head…it’s just one of those things where throughout the whole experience you can just kind of tell there was a ton of love and passion put into it, and it just makes the whole thing so much better as an experence, if that makes sense
remember when gon had to spend a week on an island knowing full-well that he could be murdered by another person at ANY moment and his first order of business was to strip naked and hand-wash all of his clothes?
okay so you mean to tell me that the most powerful nen user in the world couldn’t tell that illumi is a manipulator who used his nen to manipulate killua?? i know illumi’s needle was hella subtle and all but a 12 year old child with no concept of aura was able to call this from the get-go, step up your game old man
THIS IS WHAT GETS ME HONESTLY.
you could argue “netero didn’t want to reveal nen to them”. and you know what? that’s probably the in-universe reason. but that just is more of a condemnation of netero’s behavior here.
an adult man has put the “natural order” of his test and the whole “secret test” part of it (which is already shot to death, more than one applicant already knows nen) over the mental and physical safety of a 12 (11 in the manga) year old boy.
an adult man who has the authority to put a stop to it permanently, who is both physically and socially powerful enough to save a child from being abused and mind controlled by his parents and family. an adult man who, even if he wasn’t intimately acquainted with killua’s family, had more than enough evidence to put together that nen had been used and therefore his test had been compromised. netero had all of the information he needed to put the pieces together, and was strong enough and important enough to put an end to it.
the first openings for both 1999 and 2011 make me laugh a lot because you totally get this vibe that hxh is about gon, killua, kurapika, and leorio – a group of unlikely friends – going on a bunch of random adventures and taking down the Bad Guy of the Week while they’re at it and like… that doesn’t happen. that never happens. in the entire series the only time they travel as a group of four is when they leave killua’s house, lmao
TRANSLATION NOTE: This is referencing dialogue from 343. Ging says that Pariston is “totally out” once Pariston admits that destroying things he loves makes him happy. “Out” is a phrase often used in social situations to literally call someone out who is behaving questionably. In this comic, Pariston is being called out and he defends himself by calling Ging out instead, on account of being a terrible dad.
TRANSLATION NOTE: I just wanna give @rabbitsteaparty a shout-out because I was like “what’s the best way to translate Gon’s noises here??” and ‘boo hoo’ never occurred to me, haha.
TRANSLATION NOTE: This is referencing dialogue from chapter 347. Pariston says it’s “unheard of” for someone like Ging to call other people out on having a bad temper. Ging defends himself by saying that his reputation for having a “bad temper” is just an accumulation of tiny moments of recklessness. Sorry the comic doesn’t really make sense, I really didn’t know how to capture this. Ging is literally saying “Your usage of ‘unheard of’ seems incorrect” and Pariston is literally saying, “Huh? It doesn’t mean ‘a person who behaves recklessly’?” (I tried to simplify it to make a connect between “doing something unheard of” and “doing something reckless”.)
For all the shit I give other translators I’m really not that much better myself, ahahaha. I hope at least the general ideas were conveyed!!
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