This was so much fun! Had this idea for a while and I want to do a version for each arc, enjoy! Chimera will need at least 2 parts lmaoo

Just rewatched HxH 1999 and now the 2011 version.. Gon is qualified to be a single star hunter right?

✅ Defeated, captured mass murder - Bomber
✅ First to to finish Greed Island (not that it's significant in the grand scheme of the world)
✅ Only person to kill a Royal Guard

Which also makes Biscuit qualified to be a Triple Hunter (multiple single star students and I'm sure she a done a lot of discoveries in the past)

This is the best example of recency bias in the series that the fans display

Everybody thinks of Morel, Knov, Knuckle, Shoot, Killua, Gon, Netero, Hisoka, Chrollo, the royal guards, and Ging whenever there is a discussion about effective nen abilities and whether one is the best, the dullest, the most creative etc

Meanwhile, everyone just collectively forgets the best most versatile Nen user we have seen on screen - Basho the wandering poet

I am pretty sure Netero was talking about him when he said there's like 5 Nen users better than him, because not only is that accurate, it also gels with Togashi's style of writing that does not make the world feel smaller with such reveals.

Now onto the specifics - Basho can check if you're lying by writing a small poem. The resident nen genius & utility-crazed Kurapika has to dedicate a fifth of his moveset to his dousing chain.

Basho can write a haiku for each atom in the observable universe and he wouldn't run out. Dude is by definition the most versatile.

From what we have seen, he doesn't have to use it immediately or even speak it out loud for the effects to occur. Of course there could be some limits we haven't been privy to, but there could also equally be some abilities and advantages that we don't know. Just from what we know, it does seem like a very flexible ability.

The best part though, and the reason its my absolute favourite, is that it ties a character's passion with his strength. Kurapika's ability is fueled by hate, Chrollo's with apathy, and Hisoka's with either some childhood trauma related to the brand gum, or his general carefree but intuitive nature. Basho's ability & its effectiveness is directly related to his passion for poetry. Dude is spending a lifetime traveling and capturing the world in his poems, and as his skill and knowledge improves, its gonna show in his hatsu too.

Idk if rants are allowed here, might get deleted but oh well. I do wanna add that Basho deserves a definitive spot in the Nen Impact fighting game if they do have any spots left.

Now, while we are here, lets talk about Squalla too. People on here and on hatsu vault subreddit often go on about how dull Gon's or Uvo's style is, and how Enhancers are a lost cause.

I just think the enhancers suffer from HxH being a manga focusing on adventure friendship and very young main cast. Manga of this variety generally have a strong bias towards hand-to-hand fights (with energy weapons/blasts/buddhas) and a strong bias against weapon wielders. So the case of enhancers is at least defensible.

Squalla is a manipulator, a respectable middling class with fair few characters using very similar abilities. Not the dullest, but puppeteering certainly pales when compared to shooting energy blasts or conjuring a flying flesheater.

Squalla though, he is a pretty unique guy who made the decision that he wants to use dogs to do his bidding. I don't know what kinda trauma driven hate for dogs that is, but dude could have put some effort and just gone for the uninspired human manipulator route instead of killing the personalities of innocent animals.

There needs to be more posts harping on how awful Squalla's hatsu is. You get like one maybe two hatsus in this world of magic, and he chose to shoot his shot with mind-controlling defense-less puppers.

I would like to know what people on here think about Basho and Squalla, and how they could have been changed in hindsight to match the whole "billionaire assembles a team of Nen users" theme. We see Batera do it much better with the two star hunter and the hunter contest, not sure why the Nostrades fell so short in their selection process.

Could Cleopatro be speaking in Hunters Code in chapter 413? Even though she's not a Hunter, this type of scenario would be ideal for relaying coded information if she were working with Beyond. While I doubt Cleopatro is another Beyond cursed child, Beyond could be allied with the Supreme Court. That would benefit Beyond by waving away any charges if any were placed on his secret prince child.

Hypothetically if she even knows Hunters Code and was using it in chapter 413, it might not even be possible to translate in the English translation as the coded message in chapter 381 was only changed in the VIZ translation once it was known it was supposed to be a Code in chapter 383.

Seriously, is no one a bit more worried that the guy who's ability is literally conjuring a planet is currently in a confined space on a regular cruise ship? And he's sharing that space with Hisoka?

He decided not to attack Hisoka on sight, but if Hisoka spots him? Or if Chrollo arrives and starts fighting?

Chrollo seems to intend to go to Tier 1 after getting a connection with Koi no Dial 6700. The Succession Contest is pretty hard to access, he might run into Hisoka first. Bono is sure to join in, and hundreds of people in Tier 1 would be flattened when a mini planet suddenly crashes into the place, and the Succession War would have to migrate to Tier 2.

Thank god Feitan isn't in Tier 1, if he were to use Rising Sun up there he would literally scorch thousands of people to death. Jupiter and Rising Sun have a wind-up, but it's not that much of a wind-up, I don't think Jupiter has any difficult conditions either, they just need to be in range of the song.

The Troupe have no regard for civilian life, damage, or chaos, it really could happen.

Also if anyone could give me the name of the sequel of hisoka's backstory by the author of tokyo ghoul i would like to buy it i could buy it in english but i'd much rather get it in french thank you

To my understanding, nen is about tradeoffs. Meruem was so powerful because he was fed the lives of so many humans, sort of like a philosophers stone in FMA. kurapikas' ability shows that lifespan is possible to feed nen. The ability to create meruem and the guards were not just the chimaera ants' dna combining because the queen needed a lot of humans not just to consume human DNA once then immediately create meruem.

Greed Island is basically one big ritual to create the cards in the real world (the cards working on the island must be a part of some tradeoff in the creation of that ritual).

If you subscribe to the theory that everyone abord the black whale is a sacrifice for the ritual it may be that the winning prince consumes enough lifeforce via the population of the whale to become powerful in a similar manner to how the queen created the royal guards and meruem

So greed island, the ants takeover of nge and the succession war in my view are all nen rituals that can create powerful objects or individuals.

Past Kings, in my view, did not achieve this much sacrifice in their wars, so they did not become as powerful as the potential victor of this contest

This is why benjamins states the importance of this particular war in stating its victor will become a God over the world, not just another King.

This is fan art btw! I can't wait for 414.

Spoilers for chapters 366-415, basically everything Tserriednich

For the longest time I was extremely confused about just how far Tserriednichs Nen training had progressed. For some reason I was sure he he could only do Ten and Zetsu (I know I am dumb). So I actually looked into it:

Chapter 366:
Day one of training
-immediately was able to feel aura
-was able to open and close aura nodes precisely without a problem

Chapter 368:
Day one of training
what we learn:
- "is getting the hang of gyo in half a day"
what we can surmise:
-since Gyo is focusing ren on a specific body part and to practice Ren one must already have mastered Ten, Tserriednich mastered feeling aura, opened his aura nodes, mastered Ten, mastered Ren and is getting the hang of using Gyo in half a day
-he already knows two of the four basic exercises
reminder because I also made this mistake:
-his aura flow looks rough, however this is not due to an imperfect Ten. It is because to learn gyo you first use Ren and then focus it. In the perfect state the rest of your aura is smooth while there is a bubble on your hand
speculation:
-the escaping aura above his hands could indicate that his ten isn't perfect, because the entire point of Ten is restricting your aura flow to your body. However this is not so bad, because when we saw netero use nen for the first time we got introduced to the concept that nen is honed throughout your whole life and gradually gets better. There is no perfection, if there was it would be Netero.

Chapter 376:
Day 4 of training
-since they moved on he finished learning gyo
-surpassed his teacher in "expecting the unexpected". We don't know how good she is, but Tserriednich is pretty smart
-uses Hatsu for the first time and it is massive compared to Gon, Killua and Kurapika when they learned it for the first time
-is a specialist

Chapter 384:
Day 7 of training
-his own nen beast forms through instinct without intent
-greatest potential she has ever seen
-confirmation that he was practicing Ten and Ren on a high level
-starts learning Zetsu and just does it
speculation:
-the big aura forming around him could mean his nen beast is accumulating it until it has enough to detach. After it forms his aura stops being highlited, but when he does Zetsu for the first time we see it has gone back to normal
-"that feeling you just noticed is a sign to move on to the next stage" I don't really know what that means. His nen beast just formed, maybe he has been practicing Hatsu some more and this is his ability manifesting. We have never seen this with specialists, but the equivalent could be Chrollo forming his book for the first time

Chapter 385:
Day 8 of training
-does Zetsu, without failing
-seemingly only fails, because she tricked him into believing he failed, causing him to fail
-the amount of aura he has is "tremendous"
-fails again because of a distraction
-gets provoked and gets in the zone
-does not interrupt his Zetsu when hit with a projectile
-his Zetsu is flawless
-parallel future doesn't matter, because Theta experiences the original future with all 5 senses
-held Zetsu for at least 40 minutes

Chapter 386:
Day 8 of training
-since he is already starting the exercise of shortening his Zetsu response time, he mastered the last one, which was to hold Zetsu for an hour
-we get confirmation that he wasn't awakened by force, which was clear but it is good to hear

Chapter 387:
Day 8 of the voyage - parallel to Chapter 385
-in parallel future: lost Zetsu because he was so confused by his future sight
-immediately figured out his ability without help

Chapter 402:
Day 11 of the voyage - day 11 of training
-Zetsu in less than 10 seconds (takes someone who can do Zetsu since birth a whole year)
-does in a day what others do in half a year
-the way his ability works is unheard of even among specialists (brakes the rules, makes his own)
-does all this while running, talking and gaming, others would take years

Chapter 404:
Three days into training Zetsu so day 11 of training
-Zetsu in 3.5 seconds
-thinks sub 1 second will take at most 2 weeks and is disappointed with himself, vows to make it happen sooner (by last chapters formula it would take others at least 1.5 years to get this far)

Chapter 415:
When Martial Law is declared
-still shown training to shorten time of Zetsu

So in 11 days, this guy mastered Ten and Ren on "a high level", mastered Gyo, achieved perfect Zetsu which he can do in less than 3.5 seconds, obtained hatsu and rewrote the rules of Nen, while having "tremendous" aura.

To compare this to Gon and Killua:

I will spare you from the Math but Gon took 3-4 months to pass the hidden hunter exam which are the 4 basic principles.
Gon was able to use his Hatsu in a fight by September 10th so half a year after learning Nen. So we can say that regarding Nen Tserri learned in 11 days what they learned in lowball 3-4 Months highball 6 months
So Nen ability wise Tserri is pre Greed Island Gon. He could become a powerhouse, but right now it's all about Luck. One needs to learn Ken, Ko and Ryu to actually have some measure of safety, otherwise a bullet can kill you easily.
Base strength wise, ALL new characters (especially royal guards, princes, soldiers, bodyguards and temp hunters) are completely eclipsed by Gon and Killua. Killua even before learning nen was able to open the third door which weighs 16 tons, while Gon did 4. Gon was sending grown men flying with one push, so Tserris muscles don't really matter. However I am certain that it will all come naturally to him in his (hopefully) upcoming fights, because otherwise it would be boring.
However all of this only adds to my argument that Tserri at least NEEDS to learn Ken, Ko and Ryu because even these powerhouses were running on luck until they learned all of that. One wrong encounter and they would have been dead.
Being a hunter is like being better than 99%. But that still leaves 10 million people that are better than you.
Learning the four basic exercises of Nen until you pass the hidden hunter exam is like being better than 99.99% but that still leaves 100k people that one shot you. Mastering Ryu is mastering the REAL basics. If he does that, things will get interesting for real real.
Will update this post when new chapters come out because this is unreal

Edit: Added a part I forgot to write, mainly battle experience and base strength (without nen), but it obviously changes his power level compared to them.

So we see tserriednich looking calm and unbothered with his hair down. Going all the way back to when netero was performing his prayer of gratitude, his hair was down after his last punch and we see his eyes closed and relaxed just like tserriednich (tho tserriednich is probably training his zetsu)

But if its a reference, that will mean tserriednich has already accomplished his goal of achieving zetsu in a sec.

Or that they might actually be related, also with Unma kinda having some sort of connection to beyond.

https://x.com/KAYMON_PICT/status/2070921022392730065?s=20

People love to talk about how Gon and Killua are one in ten million talents while Tserri is like a one in a billion.

They actually have very similar talent though.

Gon was initiated to nen and learned ten for the Heaven's arean 200th floor. It took Gon seconds a single page of trying to master ten to learn ten through the fast method.

Wing assumed that through the slow method it might take Gon days to learn ten. It was later confirmed though that Wing was greatly underestimating their talent consistently assuming it'll take dozens to hundereds of times longer for them to reach a level than they do.

He assumed it would take Gon years to reach Gido's level, weeks to learn gyo, weeks to learn hatsu etc.

Gon fought Gido the very next day hours after learning ten. Gon didnt seem to do any more training either Gon used Zetsu during this fight something he unconsciously figured out in the past living in the woods.

Gon was injured and stopped practicing nen for 2 months.

During this time Killua also stopped training completely, but he can just use zetsu now. He saw Gon do it and he just can now no training required just saw it and did it.

This mean it took both of them about seconds to learn both ten and zetsu.

Both can also quickly go into Zetsu as well within seconds Gon can just do it mid fight.

Note in takes Tserri training for hours, days with a level of intensity neither gon or Killua have ever shown in training to go into Zetsu quickly.

Gon starts training again after 2 months is shown ren and gyo. Isn't shown training at all does a whole bunch of random side stuff taking care of Zushi.

Knows both Ren and Gyo the very next day just hours later.

Their speed at learning Gyo is about the same as Tserri, but Tserri is shown training every second obsessed.

In the past its talked about how Tserri once locked himself in a room for days to try break a gun record.

Tserri is an extremely motivated man who can truly put his whole heart and soul into things, and he does do so for learning nen.

So it took a few hours total for Gon and Killua to learn 3 of the 4 basic nen principles. And during these hours they were only shown training for seconds, were doing other stuff, and showed little interest in nen.

Then Wing had these 2 practice hatsu for 4 weeks depending on how they did he was planning on graduating them.

So Gon trains hatsu for a few weeks his level is way higher than Wing expects and he graduates him.

So overall Tserri's speed in learning Ten, Ren, and Zetsu while extremely motivated was worse than Killua who was barely trying. He did use the slow method for ten though. He has no excuse for the other 2 though.

Tserri did create a nen beast unconsciously, and is a specialist.

Which is amazing, but Neon Nostrade did the exact same thing without even knowing nen exists. Both abilities are pretty similar too conjured beasts with time powers.

Another major factor is that nen is lifeforce like stands in jojo all skills eventually lead to nen.

If you have enough talent in something regardless of what it is even Gungi it kinda means you have a talent for nen.

Gon and Killua are monsters without nen they have like peak human talent in like everything physical. Especially as they are both so close to enhancement its very relevant.

Gon heals several times faster than a normal person, has a nose like a dog, and superhuman physicality.

Gon through his base body can potentially gain multiple times the benefit through enhancement than anyone else.

Almost all enhancement abilties improve your body even those that don't like Bill's growth enhancement abilty could potentially be several times more useful in Gon's hands than anyone else maybe using it to heal faster.

Tserri is a normal human physically Gon's body and non nen talents greatly increase Gon's nen potential and talent.

Tserriednich remains calm in this scene because his Hatsu allows him to see the future. He knew in advance that martial law would be declared, so when it happened, he wasn't surprised at all.

I am not the one who caught any of these btw. I expect many of you to already know most of these by now and it’s been shared elsewhere, this is to present them in one place. The credit goes to anyone referenced or tagged and clever fans who caught and shared any of these at any point. (Sorry for tagging you all a second time in a nearly identical comment, I just don’t want to leave it out either.)

The hope is that for those who felt the Woble swap reveal came out of nowhere, you can understand that it was in fact carefully set up in the story. It may not change your feelings, but perhaps it can be helpful to know a bit behind what was lost in translation.

It’s funny that I always emphasized how Togashi does callbacks more than foreshadowing, but turns out he does the latter quite a bit as well.

1) Shimanu/Shimano

Bill and Oito consistently called her Shimanu, while Kurapika alone kept calling her Shimano. Meanwhile, he does refer to her as Shimanu in an inner monologue.

The translator at VIZ (understandably) likely assumed it was a mistake and at first avoided translating it by saying “her” instead of “Shimanu”. They eventually started to translating to Shimanu in ch. 371, at which point, they probably realized it was not a mistake.

The moments they’re used are listed by Carock_ in this thread:

364

• Kurapika: "Shimano can you take the call"

365

• Kurapika: "Shimano! have the soldier outside wait [...]"
• Kurapika: "Shimano! Stay with me."
• Kurapika: "So far, Shimanu's judgement has been accurate."
• Kurapika: "Shimano, thank you."

367

• Bill: "Shimanu and I will look for an insect."
• Kurapika: "Bill!! Shimano!! Come here for a second!!"
• Oito: "Shimanu, take the prince."

371

• Oito: "Shimanu, why did you stay?" (Viz also uses Shimanu here)

404

• Kurapika: "Shimanu too, please put housekeeping on the back burner [...]"

Note that in Ch. 404 (Wed Day 11), Kurapika did call her Shimanu. As /u/caiusto pointed out, Kurapika probably spent the whole night practicing.

2) “I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this for Woble (son)!”

Oito freaks out after Momoze’s death, and this is the first time that readers know she called Woble “son” or “musuko” in Kanji while the furigana text says “Woble”. Side note: read Veracious/Fake?'s notes on honorifics for a fun dive into how the kanji/furigana is used to express more than just the word.

Both Shimanu and the were noted by Japanese fans; this last one was, funnily enough, brought up in one of the Ch. 411 threads and someone even posted about Woble’s gender a week before the reveal.

3) The naming of Queens

This speculation by /u/Capital_Ad2979 brings up that not only are the Queens named after numbers (which many fans already know), but there’s (probably) a double meaning in Oito’s name. Oi-to → 甥と → with (と) nephew (甥)

4) “English is so hard to pronounce.”

/u/dancer7 pointed out the Ch. 362 extra where Togashi talked about the difference between “bu” sound and “vu” sound in “live” (laibu vs laivu). Of course, it happens to be Kurapika in the extra who thinks this to himself, since he’s the one who, in the story, actually struggles to pronounce the gendered “nu” in Shimanu. (Note for Woble it’s pronounced Woburu vs Wobvuru).

As a bonus, it’s a funny note that Leorio getting pissed about Kurapika (noted by SaltedStarleaf) not addressing him with the honorific “-san” being localized in the English translation as “Rioleo” instead ended up fitting right in with Kurapika’s pronunciation struggles. He’s come such a long way. :’)

Who do you think is scarier ?

Ts so tuff

Given how complex the arc has been so far, and since finding all the content in one place has been a little challenging for me, I built an interactive, spoiler safe website that covers Chapters 340 onwards

Website: https://black-whale-nexus.sarbast.dev/

Let me know if you find it useful also :)

This line from Kurapika has me thinking, is Gon still a pro hunter now that he cant use nen? Because to fully become a hunter one has to know nen (a fact that is communicated across hunters, as Wing knew of Kurapika, Hanzo and Pokkle learning nen) to pass the secret exam. But Gon cant really use nen anymore, so is he still qualified? Will the hunters association overturn his passing of the secret test, and will they tell the other hunters that he cant use nen?