Yoshihiro Togashi

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The ending of the chapter was kind of weird, or rather the last image was kind of weird. I can't tell if it meant that Werefin's fate is already sealed (in that he's going to be a dead duck....errrr....wolf right at the start of the next chapter), or if he's in "deep-shit" zone right now with a slimmer of a chance to talk his way out of it. By the looks of it he can no longer talk his way out of his situation, and Meruem can already tell that he has turned traitor, and knowing Togashi's writing style he will mercilessly kill off characters like that, so I'm pretty sure that Werefin is already as good as dead. Still, I'm really anticipating the next chapter to see if that's really how things turn out, since this series is full of unpredictable twists and deviations from expected norms and conventions for this type of story-line. Its a true testament to Togashi's skill as a mangaka, even if his quality is very inconsistent these days.

If I have one complaint about this chapter, its that it spent too long going back into Poufu's psyche and thought process. Togashi has already done that extensively enough before, and it was interesting the first time he did it, but at this point it just feels a bit redundant. I did still like this chapter for going deeper into analyzing what Werefin was thinking in his current life-or-death situation, though. I'd really like to get back to Gon and Killua as soon as possible, though. I mean, seriously, Gon is pretty fucked up right now, both emotionally and physically (he just lost his fucking right arm and can't even use Nen now), and Killua isn't going to be enough to protect him, so I wonder how they'll deal with their current situation.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I don't like when he goes into the certain Ants' psyche, because I don't find Meruem's underlings very interesting characters, but I suppose it's necessary at this point because Pouf won't be around much longer.

But yeah, it would be nice to see what the hell is going on with Gon and Killua since they're pretty much the only good guys left who can do anything.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't like when he goes into the certain Ants' psyche, because I don't find Meruem's underlings very interesting characters, but I suppose it's necessary at this point because Pouf won't be around much longer.

Eh, I disagree with you there. The Ants are very interesting, IMO (the main ones who get development, that is). Its also really nice to see him go into the pscyhe of the villains rather than just the good guys (another great way of deviating from shonen norms). So, yeah, I personally love that aspect of this arc, which for me is among its only few major redeeming qualities.

That said I just feel that its really just repetitive to delve into Poufu's psyche again since we learn nothing new about him or anything else from it.

But yeah, it would be nice to see what the hell is going on with Gon and Killua since they're pretty much the only good guys left who can do anything.

Well, among them Killua is the only one who can do anything, since Gon is pretty fucked up right now. He's not even in any shape to walk straight let alone get into an actual fight.

Also don't forget about Palm and Ikalgo. If we've learned anything from HXH at this point (even if this arc kind of goes against it most of the time), just being powerful doesn't mean everything. Both of those characters are still physically fine and can at least try and do something strategy-wise to delay Meruem from capturing anyone else until he dies from the toxin.

Really I think these chapters are surprisingly more interesting than I expected them to be. I expected a lackluster ending to a mixed bag of an overly-long arc, but overall I'm pretty happey with the recent 2 chapters that we got. They are nowhere close to being as great as the series is during its high points, but they are easily good enough to be high points of interesting writing in this particular arc, which may not be saying much but at the very least its keeping me interested in reading the manga.

I just hope that after this arc is over Togasih can return to proper form and get this series back on track. The first thing he better do in the next arc is to bring Leorio and Kurapika back. I don't care how he has to do it, but he better find a way to write them back into the story.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I do like most of the Ants as characters, but not the "strong" ones like Pouf. I'd rather see more of Werefin or Ikalgo than him or his cronies, they're way more interesting as characters, IMO.

Nonetheless, it doesn't look like there's much left of this arc, which is a great thing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, Werefin actually managed to live, but WTF was up with that first page with his head getting bitten off? I suppose that was all supposed to be in his head, of what he thought would happen to him in the next instant.

Anyways, kind of a slow chapter but it was still interesting to see the King's reaction to having his memories of Komugi come back. I can honestly say that I can't really predict what he's going to do next, now; or rather, I do know that he's going to be looking for Komugi wherever they hid her, but I'm not sure what he plans to do after he finds her. That itself has me a bit interested, but I still hope that this arc is over really soon since it just feels like its been going on for way too long.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It looks like the king has awakened to his humanity. I'm wondering how exactly this is going to end but I'm not seeing how it's going to go down. Pouf is obviously going to die soon judging from Youpi and that Pitou is already dead, so... are there really any bad guys left at this point?

[Spark Of Spirit]

So I think that's the arc... Like, seriously.

Obviously, we still need to see Gon and Killua and their group, but I feel pretty safe in knowing that the Chimera Ant arc has finally met its end.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, its pretty much over. It may be an anti-climactic ending but it kind of needed to be since Togashi had been making this arc go on for way too long. I actually feel that he made the right decision in ending it as quickly as possible (even if he had to resort to his bad habits of rushing things towards the end), since this arc would have totally gone to shit for good if he kept it alive any longer. I think now he has complete freedom to bring the series to a fresh new start with a brand new arc. I'm actually really excited to see what he comes up with, now that he has a much more clear palette to work from.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This chapter was mostly a good epilogue chapter but the ending kind of confused me.

Also, I'm wondering how exactly Killua plans to save Gon. Part of me is hoping (even though I know that its unlikely), that he would get Leorio (maybe if only because he's training to be a doctor) to come to his side, but that wouldn't really make sense since he's not a top of the line doctor or anything. I guess I'm just really desperate for any excuse to see Leorio re-introduced into the story at this point in time.

At any rate, I wonder what will happen for Gon after he recovers. He lost an arm so I'm wondering if he'll get some sort of mechanical replacement or stay with just 1 arm for the rest of his life (I hope that Togashi doesn't cop out, though, and have his totally recover from being dismembered since it would be a great change of pace to have a shonen hero with permanent damage done to his body like that). I also wonder how he's going to be able to use Nen now that he supposedly can't use it again (though, in this regard Togashi's kind of going to have to find a way to give him that ability back if the wants to continue the story in the long-run).

At any rate, as usual Killua is the most interesting character in this series for me. Its really interesting to see what he's going through with his best friend nearing a state of death, and to see someone as cool-headed as him look so helpless really does make me feel for him a bit, especially since he was established to be so empty and devoid of expressing many emotions before meeting Gon (which basically changed and developed his character A LOT since they've become friends).

Overall, I'm liking the post-arc stuff. Its not super-exciting material or anything like that (its an epilogue, after all), but its basically as interesting as you can make post-arc chapters. I basically like to see what the characters are going through and how the story is generally setting things up for future events to come in the world of HXH.

One thing I'm interested in learning more about is Jairo. Togashi specifically took the time to explain this villain in the middle of the Chimera arc for almost no apparent reason except to note that he will eventually be important to the story and that its also signficant for some reason whether he meets Gon or not, and and even stresses the importance of the time that they meet. Obviously he's had something planned up for years, especially since he fucking wrote those parts of the Chimera arc around the time Jairo was introduced years ago before going on hiatus a million fucking times, so I can't wait to see how that part of the story develops later on as things take their course throughout the rest of this series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think Gon has been written out of the story for now. I don't see him coming back for a long, long time... but he'll probably be back to normal when he does. Togashi is still writing shonen, after all.

As for Killua, I do agree with you. He's changed a lot since the emotionless killer he was at the start of the story, going so far as to even spare Ikalgo when he would have killed him without question in the early arcs. I'm not sure what he meant by him "saving" Gon when he also mentioned that doctors were important in saving him, too... But, maybe he meant he's going to find Jin for him? I'm not sure.

Either way, this is an easy excuse to get Leorio back into the story, so if he doesn't return, I'll be annoyed. 

Oh yeah, and Knuckle lived. Which is sweet.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Considering that Gon is this story's main character, I can't see him being gone from the story for too long, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get an entire new arc centered around Killua as the main character for it (much like how Kurapika became the main character for the York Shin City arc), or even another character entirely. I myself would have no qualms with getting an arc that features either Leorio or Knuckle as the main character (or even both, which would be exponentially more awesome).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been re-reading the Chimera arc from the beginning to refresh my memory of the entire arc. I have to say that while I knew that Togashi generally got away with a lot, for some reason I'm still shocked as to just how much Shonen Jump let him get away with in this manga. There is actually a scene in which Meruem slaughters the corrupt ruler of East Goruto, and then discovers a whole gathering of nude women who you could only assume served as the guy's personal sexual entertainment of sorts, huddled in fear of Meruem and begging for their lives before he brings up how humans are no different in how they slaughter pigs and cows and other animals without giving a crap about them squealing for their lives (being that Meruem himself initially sees humans as nothing more than a rich source of meat for himself).

I'm not even saying that its really a good thing, since there are a lot of points where I just feel that Togashi just goes too far with some things. I mean, even if he was allowed to get away with some stuff, I don't really think he should have had to constantly go that far with some themes that he was trying to portray. I mean the scene in which Meruem kills 2 innocent farmers and then their daughter cries at the site of their mutilated bodies before Meruem mercilessly kills her as well was more disturbing than anything else, IMO. I get that Togashi wanted to show how cruel he was, with the whole idea being that he was born with the firm understanding that he was superior to all and how he could not initially even begin to comprehend the thoughts and feelings of other living beings. Also, to be fair it does make for some interesting development on his part as he slowly becomes a more 3-dimensional character and consequently less of a villain and more of a tragic figure doomed to live a despised existence. However, I don't think that Togashi had to go nearly as far as he did with Meruem's initial brutality to demonstrate that point.

I mean, OK, I get it: initially he has absolutely no feelings so he would do things that the readers would consider shocking just to show how he does such actions without any remorse, but IMO if Togashi just implied some of the merciless things he did, or showed maybe one disturbing scene to demonstrate the point rather than going all out, then it would have been a more effective form of story-telling. I personally just feel that Togashi going too far to physically demonstrate this point made the initial parts involving Meruem harder to read than it should have been, and not for the right reasons.

I would like to stress that I point this out because I do find the core concept of this arc and behind Meruem's existence (as well as the rest of the Chimera Ants in general) to be great and highly intriguing. I just feel that Togashi would have done better off to handle the subject matter in a more subtle manner than he did. As it stands, I'm surprised that HXH didn't cause any sort of controversy among parents in Japan at what Togashi was able to get away with before. To be fair, I do think that later on he at least learned from his mistake and greatly toned down the violence and shock value of the beginning portions of the arc. That isn't to say that HXH isn't still violent after that point, but rather that it no longer felt violent just for the sake of being violent.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, my main problem was how seinen and gory the beginning of the arc was. I mean, the manga has been brutal before, but never this over the top and brainless about it. It only starts to get bearable once Meruem takes the capital and from there it's pretty good.

But that first part of that arc? Jesus, not only is it a blood bath, but it's far too over the top, and not even in a good way. Meruem eating that kid's brains was where I almost gave up, but thankfully it improves a lot after that moment. But all that pointless death of established characters (I wouldn't have minded Kaito dying, but as I said it was not executed well as I still don't find Meruem's lackeys good characters at all) to add shock value, and even making the entire previous arc totally meaningless... Yeah, the arc did not start off well at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I disagree with you about the Royal Guards. They served their purpose just fine as characters. They weren't supposed to be likeable, so if you hated them then that's the point: in that Togashi "intended" for you and everyone else to hate them. The whole purpose of their being was to demonstrate the negative effects of unhealthy devotion to a leader or higher power. And even then they could have been kept completely 1-dimensional characters and it would have been understandable, but Togashi still fleshed them out by having them develop their own personalities and a sense of individuality over time, to the point where they stopped blindly following everything the King said in terms of doing what "they" felt was best for the King (this was especially a strong case with Pufu). In this regard, I think they were very interesting characters to analyze throughout the arc. Yeah, I hated all of them, but that was kind of the whole point. Lackeys who screw over other people for the benefit of someone who they falsely think of as a god are never likeable, but they can make interesting characters if you delve into their psyche and I personally felt that Togashi did a good job of that.

I think we can both at least agree, though, that the lesser soldier ants that had more personality and much less loyalty to Meruem (with many of them eventually resolving to betray him and instead pursue their own goals) were certainly much more interesting characters than the main villains of this arc. That much is certain, and to be honest I feel that they also highly contributed to making this an enjoyable arc. I think that the high point of this arc for me was the development of Gon and Killua, and also the inclusion of new characters such as Knuckle and Marou (I can never get the spelling on his name down since so many translators spell it differently).

[Spark Of Spirit]

No, I didn't like them because I don't like characters that appear out of nowhere and are more powerful than established villains and heroes without a good explanation. I mean, even low level grunts were more powerful than most Nen users, and that just rubbed me wrong. It would have helped had they had actual personality, but they were totally boring. Youpi was fun to hate at times (but he didn't really do a whole lot outside of that awesome fight), Pouf's scheming was fun (but he needed something else to me)... And you already know I dislike Pitou totally for being irritating on top of having no personality.

But I do agree that the other Chimera Ants were good characters. Werefin, Ikalgo, and the rest were all likable both as bad guys and as good guys. Cheetu was a good brainless meathead (or speedhead?), and Leo was a good love to hate character, that actually had a fitting end to his schemes.

But the start of the arc did kill a lot for me looking back. I couldn't get into Knuckle's introduction because of the overwhelming sense of death up to that point, even though the character is awesome.

That said, as a whole I did enjoy the arc. It had a lot of great ideas, went on far too long, and had a lot of great moments. But somehow I doubt Togashi will ever do an arc like this again (for better or worse) so at the very least we can savor how unique it was.