Every time I think about the way Gon handles things, especially in the chimera ant arc, I think about these two pages in chapter 3 and Gon’s words.
I think this scene is super interesting! A number of characters in the series come to the conclusion that Gon is dangerous – Illumi, Wing, Zepile, and Genthru come to mind. They consider him this way because he’s unpredictable; hyperfocused and determined but seemingly immoral. And at the very beginning of the series, here is Gon saying that in-the-moment feelings trump what’s “right” or “correct”. In retrospect, it’s really no wonder why the CA arc went down as it did. You can make the argument that Gon’s “morality” hinges upon his feelings. He is constantly acting in ways that serve to make himself feel good (guiltless) about his choices. We see this in his no-shortcuts attitude to challenge, his frankness and honesty, and the sense of obligation he feels towards others who get wrapped up in his problems.
That said… a tiny part of me has always felt uneasy because of this scene…When I first saw it, I thought, “well, at some point in the series, someone’s gotta choose between saving one life over another.” This whole scene plays out like really obvious foreshadowing, right? But as far as I can recall, that hasn’t happened yet. In the CA arc, Gon deals with guilt over Kite’s death, but the guilt has nothing to do with a choice between lives. We still haven’t seen Gon (or anyone else, I think?) in a situation where two people are in life-threatening danger and only one can be saved. I hope I’m just over-reacting to this, I don’t think my heart could take it if this actually happens someday…
Hey everyone, welcome to yet another addition of HXH translation meta with your old pal hunterxhell. This time, I’m taking a look at what I think is, hands-down, one of if not the most important scenes in HXH for understanding Killua and his feelings for Gon. In fact, I’m going to make the case that this scene proves that those feelings are romantic in nature. Unfortunately, the translation for this scene was absolutely butchered (it’s by far the worst translation in the series), so all of the meaning was lost, including the wonderful Killugon subtext.
In the tags I saw a few people mention the scene in the Yorknew arc where Gon and Killua are captured by the Phantom Troupe in response to my post, wondering if there was a connection to be made between the two.
I completely agree that there’s a connection, and it’s actually what I was planning to write about later as a follow-up. I was motivated to write something sooner when I saw this re-posted panel from the Yorknew arc:
So, to give more context here, there is just a general misunderstanding of the CA scene (”since it means nothing to you”) due to translation choices (the misunderstanding being that people thought Gon was criticizing Killua for not caring enough about the situation, versus the actuality that Gon was telling Killua to stay out of it). It’s a very big difference, and I think the distinction is important for understanding Gon’s character and his relationship with Killua.
For instance, in the scene above, Gon is also telling Killua to stay out of it: “I can [say I’ll die], but you can’t!” This scene and the one in the CA arc are foils. Gon will willingly involve himself in everyone else’s business; he will march to Zoldyck mansion and rescue Killua, he will ask Kurapika to let him help with taking out the Phantom Troupe. He will do these things for other people because he loves them. But he doesn’t let people do them for him!
That is why Gon is constantly thanking Killua for staying by his side (the scene at the beginning of the Greed Island arc comes to mind). Because he doesn’t think Killua has any need to, because Gon’s problems shouldn’t be Killua’s problems. But, Killua wants Gon’s problems to be his problems. That’s why he’s so happy when Gon says “It has to be Killua”. He genuinely doesn’t mind his hands being burnt, because in Killua’s mind, that is what true friendship is all about. And Killua is desperate to prove to himself that he can be and have the one thing his family deemed impossible — a friend.
Why does Gon put this wall up around him, then? Gon has trouble with guilt. It was his fault that the mama foxbear had to die. It was his fault that Kite had to die. He doesn’t want it to be his fault that Killua dies. That is the connection between this scene and the one in the CA arc.
So that’s why the scene in the CA arc is so painful. Because Gon, in his own way, is being a friend. He is telling Killua to stay out of the fight with Pitou because Gon intends to fight and not come back. He is planning to die, and he doesn’t want Killua to be there. After all, it’s his fault that Kite is dead, Killua has nothing to do with this.
And Killua? Killua knows what Gon is planning, he says so himself to Meleoron (in a scene with the most egregiously mistranslated line in the whole damn series, which will be getting its own post in the future, I promise. EDIT: post is here). This is important to note because Killua also went into the final battle intending to die. He wanted to die by Gon’s side. That’s why Gon telling him to stay out of it hurts him so much. Because he knows that Gon would do it for him, and that’s what friends do. It’s also the one thing he feels he can do for Gon in that moment, which is why being denied makes him feel so incredibly useless.
So, to recap, that’s why the iffy translation of Gon’s line during CA arc was so important to clarify. It wasn’t supposed to be something coming out of left-field. Gon and Killua have always been like this. They are both struggling with their own self-esteems in completely opposite ways, where Gon externalizes and Killua internalizes. When they attempt to prove their worth, Gon is too self-destructive and Killua too self-sacrificing. There’s a difference, and you see it in the moments where they think the other’s life is in danger.
Oh yeah, one more thing to keep in mind:
Gon concludes that Meruem must’ve hurt himself because he couldn’t forgive himself.
Killua concludes that Meruem must’ve hurt himself because Komugi is special to him.
Howdy folks, I’d like to talk about this scene a little bit as I’ve recently seen some meta and analyzation going around that I think was based too heavily on Crunchyroll’s translation — which is a little misleading, in my opinion.
It’s not wrong per se, and I actually like this translation in how it really packs an emotional punch. But the problem with it is that Gon isn’t really criticizing Killua here. He is ostracizing him.
What Gon is more closely saying here is, “Since it’s none of your business” (関係ないから / kankei nai kara). Specifically, Gon is telling Killua that there is no connection between him and Kite, making Killua an outsider to Gon’s conflict and quest for vengeance. (Why this affects Killua so profoundly warrants an entire post on its own so I won’t go into too much here, but essentially Gon just drew a metaphorical line in the sand between them with this comment.)
Additionally, Killua references this line a couple times after but you wouldn’t know it because the translation was inconsistent:
(In the hospital with Gon, inner-monologuing) “I get it, Kite saved your life, and he has no connection to me.”
(Before parting with Gon at the World Tree) “Well, after you told me you would defeat Pitou alone and that it was none of my business, I was pretty depressed!”
I have a feeling that Crunchyroll interpreted Gon’s line as “since this doesn’t concern you” and then from there warped it into “since it means nothing to you”. They probably realized they couldn’t use “since this means nothing to you” in these other situations and just adjusted the translation accordingly, but I digress. The main reason I wanted to bring attention to this translation was for three main reasons:
This scene was NOT about Gon accusing Killua of not caring enough. It was a scene about Gon creating a distance, both emotionally and physically, between himself and Killua.
What Gon is saying (or at least, how Killua interprets it) is that they are not close enough to warrant Killua involving himself in Gon’s affairs, and that is what causes Killua’s breakdown in front of Palm.
This line is referenced by Killua later with additional context surrounding his feelings on the matter, and that was somewhat lost in translation.
Anyway, I’d love to write straight-up meta analyzing the Killugon aspect of this, as well as a round-up of Japanese fan opinions on this scene, but I think I’ll save those for another day. (If I write them, I’ll link to them in this post, FYI.)
Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out — I love discussing these things with people!
I was browsing a Japanese HXH forum the other day and someone pointed out something REALLY interesting about the Zolydyck children’s names (besides the fact that their naming convention is just a game of shiritori, lol.)
If you give the names a reading in kanji, the meanings are very telling:
illumi / いるみ / 居る to exist (as a person)
milluki / みるき / 見る to watch, to look at it (ie “watching tv”, “looking at a computer screen”)
killua / きるあ / 斬る to kill
alluka / あるか / 有る to exist (as an object)
kalluto / かると / 刈る to cut, to clip, to shear
I’m… getting really emotional about Alluka’s name…….. and I’m so mad that it’s in direct contrast with Illumi’s…. that piece of shit.
Anyway I just found this very interesting and wanted to share it with everyone so you can be upset with me too!!
Also the last part of the name starts the next sibling’s name.
You are correct! This is what I referred to as a “shiritori naming convention” in my original post
– shiritori is a Japanese game where words are connected by the last syllable of the previous word.
From this we can we can be certain that, if Kikyo and Silva were to have another child all of a sudden, their name would start with “Tollu” (とる, meaning “to take”).
I’ve seen a lot of people laugh at how silly a naming convention this is, but actually, it’s very brillaint on Togashi’s part. In the Japanese fandom, it was clear from Kalluto’s introduction back in 1999 that there MUST be another sibling in the Zoldyck family and their name MUST be “Alluka”. (There was a lot of speculation on who this “Alluka” is and why we hadn’t met them yet.) I’ve also seen some people say that Alluka’s introduction was very sudden and plot-convenient, but it’s clear that her existence was planned for at least a decade in advance. Honestly, the whole thing is very clever.
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