Neato.

Well then, my theory. I'm not going to bother trying to guess the specifics of the pesterings, but ultimately Killua is somehow going to have to sacrifice his friendship with Gon to save his life (or maybe something more esoteric like his freedom or whatever). I mean this has been hinted at and teased for quite awhile but now there is a way to force him to do so without turning him into a dickhead.

As for the elections, I think Pariston is going to worm his way in, one way or the other. I think Ging will do something that will stop him from having a complete victory (as it were) but I'm not sure I see why Togashi would be showing us all of this if weren't for some massive shake up in the Hunter society. (Ging would just step down anyway so there's no point from a storytelling perspective to do so) Oh yeah, Gon will probably lose his licence.

As for Alluka, I think there is some hints of demonic possession or similar scenario, as the ability doesn't seem to be Nen related, which opens up a whole different dimension to the Hunter world (perhaps literally). I'm not sure if I welcome the idea though.

It seems to me that the "real" Alluka doesn't actually have the same Nen ability as the "fake" one. The "real" one very nicely put forth a pestering that Killua DIE, and yet he didn't. It's still an unknown whether this version can grant any wishes, but I doubt it. Probably, it's a split-personality thing, and only the "fake" version has any Nen abilities at all.

On that note, I'm curious as to Alluka's past. For instance, it was implied that he escaped the Zoldyck family because Illumi and Kalluto were looking for him (her? Perhaps one version is male, the other female??). It was said that Alluka has no fighting abilities to speak of, and considering how Killua literally had to beat his way out of there, injuring Milluki and his mother... I don't see how that happened. How the hell do you let a walking, talking death-bringer out of your sight? Was it intentional?

But here's what we do know. Kalluto went looking for Alluka, and found his way to the Genei Ryodan, and sometime later returned, and so did Alluka. So I think we can guess that he found Alluka with them and brought him back. However, this would imply that the Ryodan used Alluka's ability to remove Kurapika's Judgment Chain from Kuroro.

Of course, that's a pretty heavy wish. What kind of pestering did Alluka have after that? Yeesh...


I could care less about the elections. I don't like politics in real life, and I certainly don't like it in manga. I'll be happy when that entire business it done with. I mean, come on! We're discussing a character that can grant ANY WISH at extreme later cost, the possible death of the two main characters, a wish of such caliber that it might result in pesterings which could kill thousands (including, pretty much, EVERY CHARACTER WE KNOW IN THE SERIES!), and God knows whatever else... and you keep cutting away to an ELECTION?! I'm sorry if I'm having trouble giving a shit!

>>68202
Watch as the election turns out to be the most important bit at the end.

> Kalluto went looking for Alluka, and found his way to the Genei Ryodan, and sometime later returned, and so did Alluka.
Where did it say that, besides they already found the nen removal guy in Greed Island. I think you're getting ahead of yourself, when they refer to "brother" you can't be certain which one.

>and you keep cutting away to an ELECTION?! I'm sorry if I'm having trouble giving a shit!

It doesn't help that there is not a single person on the election committee the audience actually know. The sections with the election committee is like whole other fucking manga.

>>68202
So you don't like worldbuilding? You don't like seeing Ging? You don't want to know who takes Netero's place?


Nobody "likes" politics per say, but it's important, don't be an ignorant pleb.

I don't like the Zodiacs though, their designs are shitty and the personalities are dull.

>>68206
>Worldbuilding

Very little of that going on here, chief.

>Seeing Ging

He's a douche, but we always knew that. He's also...pretty boring.

>>68206

>See who takes Netero's place

I couldn't possibly care less.

>>68206
>I don't like the Zodiacs though, their designs are shitty and the personalities are dull.

It's mostly this that makes me not give a shit about the election.

Where the hell did the zodiacs come from?

Besides, there was an earlier zodiac group, certainly lessens the impact of this one.

>The sections with the election committee is like whole other fucking manga.

This, THIS! A thousand times this! Thank you for putting a phrase to the feeling I'm getting every time it cuts away from the characters I actually care about, to inform me what's happening with this silly little committee.

You know what would be interesting? If they quit the political posturing and started FIGHTING! I mean, Ging is there, and they are all high-level Hunters, so you gotta think they all have wicked awesome Nen abilities. Because some of them are physically... weird looking, I'd imagine they have WERID abilities, kind of like those Injuu (who all got rather comically destroyed by Ubogin, but who are we kidding, that man was EPIC and it's so unfair he got killed so early) or something like that.

That would get me interested, because HxH is, after all, a manga about FIGHTING. Would it interest me for them to suddenly start playing a perfectly ordinary soccer game? No! If I wanted to see that, I would go read a manga about playing soccer.

It would be a lot more HxH-like if they were to hold some kind of fighting competition to decide who gets to be leader of the Hunter organization (INB4 Togashi already did that in YYH). Why does it have to be someone like Pariston who is good at... politics? Netero sure as hell wasn't! He just went around generally being a total badass, and got Mr. Potato Head to do the paperwork for him, I'd imagine. I mean, shouldn't the leader be someone who is good with Nen? Wouldn't that sort of thing be best decided by beating the holy fuck out of each other in as spectacular a way as possible?

Especially Ging. All I'm interested in right now is seeing what the man is capable of, besides being a jerk and a terrible excuse for a father.

Also man, Ging's appearance in this arc is a gigantic anticlimax. I didn't even realize who he was until someone pointed out that he should probably be at the hospital.

Something I found intersting:

In the manga, when Leorio and Kurapica face Hisoka in the swamp, there is a third man there (an unimportant character) who suggests they retreat by running in separate directions. He is later seen dead (pinned to a tree) after having been killed by Hisoka.

In the original anime, this character is nowhere to be found, and it's instead Pokkuru (a minor character, much later seen getting killed and then brainwashed by Pitou to teach other Chimera Ants about using Nen) who suggests the retreat strategy.

In the new anime, they scrap the idea of the third man altogether, and instead have Kurapica suggest running away.


So why is this? Why do anime directors choose to make totally-unimportant minor changes to the manga's canon? Does anyone have any insights into the psychology of this?

More important is that Hisoka starts randomly killing people in the fog in the manga and first anime while in the remake, Hisoka is defending himself from people who picked a fight with him.

New director has done nothing worth commending other than the new cast members.

>Latest episode.

Awww, they skipped the entire sushi-making portion. That was my favorite freaking part. It was so hilarious! I'm sad now...


>USE SOAP WHEN YOU WASH YOUR HANDS!

Um... okay, sure thing Gon.

>>68266
>Awww, they skipped the entire sushi-making portion.

Good, that shit was retarded.

>>68266
I shall wait till they arrive to the Chimer ants arc then. The original is one of my favourites animes ever.

>>68282

That will be like... two years from now...

>>68284
Then i shall wait two years.

...okay, so where the heck is the new chapter??

Also, is it just me, or is there some kind of weird thing going on with most the Zaoldyck boys being dressed up as girls? Milluki doesn't have it because he's a nasty fat slob, but all the rest do, even eldest Illumi. Why?!

Did their mother REALLY want a daughter to the point of total delusion? Was the reason Killua beat the shit outta her (and leave the family) because she tried to dress HIM up as a girl, too? If Killua dressed up as a girl, would Gon date him?

It's just weird.

>>68401
Androgyny/gender-bending is the manga-ka's bread and fucking butter. I don't think I can name all the times he's done this kind of thing in HxH, and don't even get me started on Yu Yu Hakusho.
And then there's the whole deal with characters like Hisoka and Palm, and their inappropriate affection for 12 year old boys...

>>68403
Yeah, didn't he try to even make a series based entirely on gender bending once? I remember reading him talking about that in an author's note. And then there's Level E...

Man likes him some girls who are boys and boys who are girls.

http://mangastream.com/read/hunter_x_hunter/76466254/1

>>68425

Okay, goddamn it, is Alluka a boy? A girl? A "girl" as Killua put it? Togashi is just trolling us at this point.

I'm actually beginning to think it might REALLY switch genders depending whether it's Alluka or "Nanika".

(Does anyone know why the translation was delayed two days? I saw the raw; it came out as predicted, as did the other Jump regulars.)

Damn, this has gotten hardcore interesting real fast. Also, Killua being a good big brother makes me smile.

>>68426
I could believe Alluka is a girl and Nanika is a boy. Considering Killua's treatment of Alluka vs. his family's, Killua probably knows better.

I still have NO idea what's going on

>>68429
What is there not to get other than Togashi's gender ambiguities?

>>68433

What I'm wondering is why the family and Killua are having such a disagreement, here. It's obviously best for everyone involved if Killua and Alluka have an extremely-powerful escort to get to Gon's location, so everybody should be happy with the arrangement. Why does Killua want to do things on his own??

Also, another thing I was recently wondering. It was pretty well stated that the Zaoldycks aren't particularly secretive about who they are or what they do. It was said that pictures of them go for millions of jeni or whatever. So... how come nobody ever recognizes Killua?

Because if they DON'T, then I don't see what the danger would be of letting Killua and Alluka out on their own. They won't be specifically targetted by powerful groups for ransom or whatever, and Killua can easily fight off the common bandit or mugger.

Also, is it just me, or do you get the distinct impression that that terrifying new butler lady is Bisuke's mother...?

>>68444
>What I'm wondering is why the family and Killua are having such a disagreement, here. It's obviously best for everyone involved if Killua and Alluka have an extremely-powerful escort to get to Gon's location, so everybody should be happy with the arrangement. Why does Killua want to do things on his own??
Because he wants to save Alluka from his family

>Also, another thing I was recently wondering. It was pretty well stated that the Zaoldycks aren't particularly secretive about who they are or what they do. It was said that pictures of them go for millions of jeni or whatever. So... how come nobody ever recognizes Killua?
Because most people don't know he's a member of the family? They aren't secretive but people still don't know who they are, they live in a fortified mountain after all. Remember when those TOP ASSASSINS were hired to kill the Genei Ryodan? Even they didn't recognise the Zoaldycks, it's just a peculiarity.

>Because if they DON'T, then I don't see what the danger would be of letting Killua and Alluka out on their own. They won't be specifically targetted by powerful groups for ransom or whatever, and Killua can easily fight off the common bandit or mugger.
Because they don't want anyone knowing what Alluka can do, "she" is like a secret weapon. Above all else the Zoaldycks are cautious, they wouldn't want the Hunter's organization to attack them or whatever.

>Also, is it just me, or do you get the distinct impression that that terrifying new butler lady is Bisuke's mother...?
Could be the other way around, did they ever mention how old Bisuke is?

>>68444
I figured pictures of them went for millions of jeni because no one knew what they looked like. Hence why they would pay for them in the first place, so they could find out. Like when Tom Cruise and his wife had that baby.

Today's episode followed the manga to a freaking T... I was really impressed, not to mention surprised.

Also, shirtless Killua murdering people is always a good thing! I'm sure Hisoka was around the corner fapping to the sight...

>>68446
>Could be the other way around, did they ever mention how old Bisuke is?
I'm pretty sure Biskue is, like, 57. So probably not.

>>68426
Really switching genders is one option. Also, aren't the Zoldycks supposed to "only have sons"? Maybe they just don't acknowledge their daughters as such. (Also, maybe they usually aren't letting their daughters live unless they show potential like this one) (Or maybe they don't usually let daughters live BECAUSE they show potential like this one)

Alright, Morau, that was pretty cool of you.

And this was pretty satisfying.

Ok i just gave up and reread the whole thing

i get whats happening now

god how long did chimera ant take

i think i like greed island the most

>>68676

How

Greed Island was so fucking boring, it was seriously just Gon and Killua training while a bunch of assholes nobody cares about fart around with game mechanics that will never be important again in the background

>>68678
But it was soooo cool.

And that's how you make the election interesting.

Fuck yeah Leorio

>>68205
LEORIO COMING IN ADDRESSES ALL OF MY ISSUES WITH THE ELECTION.

LEORIO 2012.

Leorio! Holy shit he's the greatest.

Also, his nen ain't too shabby. I wonder if they're straight portals or black holes or what.

And Gin for world's shittiest father. But we knew that already.

(Oh hey, Hanzo got another vote.)

Leorio's triumphant return to the manga!!!

I wonder what the heck was up with than ability? The punch from the black hole came AFTER Leorio had already finished punching, so it was like a completely different fist rather than his own transported. So, materialization? I thought he was put in the databooks as transformation? (Hisoka would clearly classify him as reinforcement...)

Either way, I can see how that would be a useful skill for a doctor. No need for the "open" part of open-heart surgery if you can just materialize your hands in the chest cavity.

Leorio for President, 2012. If your father is a dick, he will punch him in the face. This is a campaign I can get behind.

>>68689

>Chapter still not released
I know it's harder to translate than most jump, and the hiatuses make scanlators shy away and so on but come on

I read the Chinese scans of the chapter and shit gets real.

>>68690
I like the cut of your jib.

http://mangastream.com/read/hunter_x_hunter/29465071/1

>>68865
And in the chapter, a fine selection of crazyface.

Also, this guy looks cool. I hope he pops up as relevant some time later.

>>68866
Yeah there's some crazy people I want to see at some point later on, like that M. Bison lookalike.

Illumi and Hisoka shenanigans are awesome.

Also
>Pariston Hill
tee hee
>Leorio PALADAKNIGHT
Woah

>>68868
Might as well be named Leorio Heisagoodguy.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Moral's last name is supposed to be McCartney, because McCarnathy is just... weird. So many characters, my mind spins. I can't believe Pariston is actually a triple-star hunter! He looks so much more like a boring paper-pusher than anyone who could legitimately kick someone's ass. I bet he's Manipulation.

(How in the hell did we get over 300 chapters into a manga without finding out one of the four major character's last name?? Paladaknight? Seriously??! Togashi just does fuck-whatever he feels like, these days.)

The Zaoldyck family is about twenty levels of fucked up, though... The only loving feelings are between three pairs, and everyone else is either business or obsession or frank animosity.

>>68883
We didn't know because frankly he's gotten very little development. Even his backstory is barebones as fuck. Gon, Killua and Kurapica have stuff happen to them and do things that matter to them. We don't see Leorio studying or whatever, he just shows up from time to time.

>>68883
Oh, the Zoldyck family has a lot of love. It's incredibly messed up, twisted and convoluted love, but it's familial affection all the same. It's actually amazing how fucked up the family is, given how level headed and reasonable Silva and Zeno are. I mean, for assassins.

Oh Hisoka, so funny

>>68889
Well, I'd actually debate that Silva is just good at hiding his crazy.

This chapter was pretty awesome.

>>68883
Remind me please, but what the fuck is that toad thing that has the caption "Basically Untouched"?

I pretty much have no clue who that is.

>>98908

That's Maha, who is Zeno's grandfather... which would make him something like 100 years old by now (interestingly, we've never seen Zeno's father. Perhaps he was killed?). He's been vaguely referenced a few times and I think went along with Illumi in the Yorkshin arc to kill the godfathers.

Seriously though, Zaoldyck men must rigorously produce children at the age of 20, every generation, to have a guy that many generations back still around...

Maha-100
??- 80
Zeno- 60
Silva- 40
Illumi - 20

You've got 8 years, Killua... get with the program. We're already behind schedule!

>>68908
He is the great grandfather.

http://mangastream.com/read/hunter_x_hunter/44614653/1

Hisoka, once again proving that Bungee Gum is one of those most useful and versatile nen abilities in the entire series.

Gotoh ;_;

His ability reminded me of Steel Ball Run

Oh god this page!

>>69033
Cute and creepily codependent!

>>69034
Pretty much par for the course with the Zeldycks brothers then.

>>69026
God, I seriously can't emphasize how much Hisoka makes any chapter ten times more exciting for me to read.

Damn Killua's going full yandere.

>>69266
Killua? He's probably the most sensible person in this entire situation now that Gotoh's exited the scene.

Oh, Hisoka. You so fly.

Man, 328 was fucking cool.

>>69268

>>69274

Killua is just murderously protective of whomever he loves. Considering his upbringing, that might be one of the only ways he understands to show his affection. I can understand that.

I find myself wondering, though. When did Killua ever get the time to learn how to fly a blimp?

>>69274
In comparison!

>>69274
It's kinda annoying to me that we've never heard of Alluka in the least bit even after all the time that we've spent with Killua. You'd think with how far he's going for her, that she'd be foreshadowed a bit more.

>>69283

Yes, well, HunterxHunter has never been that well-constructed a story.

>>69290

Yeah, it's not One Piece or anything like that... *rolls eyes*

>>69290
Yeah, I love it to pieces but I agree. Hellm even nen itself was just kinda stuck in there with no precedent.

>>69295

You are correct, One Piece is much better constructed. But more relevantly, HxH is just a bad story with some nifty actions scenes from time to time. It starts practically in media res in an obnoxious Test arc, and then immediately segues into an awful training/tournament arc. It's something like a hundred and some chapters in before it develops anything to maintain interest that isn't Hisoka. Supposedly main characters vanish for hundreds of chapters. And ten we have the ant arc, which started out with a ton of promise but turned into a horror show by the end...

Well yeah, I don't exactly read HxH for how well crafted it is, I read it because it's really experimental in both it's writing and art. Considering how bland and generic YYH is, it's quite the difference.

>>69283
All the care Killua had for Alluka was apparently suppressed by the same needle Illumi implanted on him that prevented him from facing stronger opponents. And Alluka was there in the Zoldyeck family photo.

Alluka's introduction might've been sudden in the story, but you can tell that it's something that Togashi had been planning from the start.

See the pattern:
>Illumi
>Milluki
>Killua
>Alluka
>Kalluto

>>69308
Fuck me, I never realized any of that.

Course, I still think Alluka could have been better built up to, but still, that's pretty intricate.

>Yes, well, HunterxHunter has never been that well-constructed a story.
>But more relevantly, HxH is just a bad story with some nifty actions scenes from time to time.
>Considering how bland and generic YYH is
>even nen itself was just kinda stuck in there with no precedent.

Am I on Bizarro-/jam/?

>>69313
>opinions aren't unanimous
Say it ain't so!

>>69308

I'm not saying that he didn't have it planned but the fact that suddenly Alluka is the most important thing to Killua when we hadn't even heard of him until a month or two ago means that he kind of botched it.

>>69298

Maybe I'm lacking perspective, since I just read it in one go last year, but it's always struck me as very standard shonen.

>>69314
I don't know, calling YYH bland & generic seems something a bit far-fetched to me. Especially since it's anything but (starting with the Sensui arc).

>>69315
>Maybe I'm lacking perspective, since I just read it in one go last year, but it's always struck me as very standard shonen.
Oh it very much is a standard shonen, but it's the way he plays with it that makes it different. For example, Gon isn't just the never give up shonen protag, he's a kid who's stubborn as fuck. It's little but it makes a difference. Or you have the big bads introduced, and yet the entire arc revolves around Killua and Gon running away from them rather than fighting. Hell Kurapica with his ability specifically designed to counter them only kills one of them.

The biggest difference though, is that everything is governed by some slightly anarchic set of rules, which makes things a little more interesting as they have to think outside the box. ie Nen, Hunter Exam, Greed Island, etc

On the art side it goes from bog standard post Dragon Ball shonen (Gon) to a more realisticly stylized (Leorio) in character design alone. The art style can shift from panel to panel, for example in Chimera Ant arc he would have panels talking about war and such where it looked more like a seinen than a shonen (with true black and white rather than greyscale), sometimes his panels look like they came out of a sketchbook, other times they look like crayon doodles on a napkin and sometimes he has those oddly detailed close ups of peoples faces like Illumi recently. One page that did that made me laugh because it was detailed creepy Palm next to moronic plain Sailor Moon lookalike Biske.

I'm not saying it all works, just that it's interesting how Togashi plays with it.

>>69319
My bad, Kurapica actually kills two, forgot about Pakunoda.

I'm not sure how to qualify the storyline of HxH next to other works, because it's not really all that similar. It takes a lot of chances that other manga simply don't, though I will say calling it a simple shounen series is totally unfair.

If you want to stick it in the same classification, though, I think it's the best shounen series in publication right now. For me, this has a lot to do with that (easily-learned Nen abilities aside) it always struck me as very REAL. Even though the world map is different and they have a different written language and all that, I always got the feeling that this stuff could be literally happening on our world. I don't get that feeling with other shounen series; those always seem more like a fantasy world, something that takes place on another version of Earth, one that is not necessarily ours.

I can't really define that feeling, either, but I do know that the new anime just hasn't been able to capture it at all. It just feels so shiny and cartoony in comparison to the gritty realism of the manga and original anime (which is kind of my opinion of ALL digitally-colored animation versus traditional, cel-shaded animation) so I'm constantly being reminded that I'm watching something fictional. Manga/first-anime HxH always had more of a documentary feel to it, for me. Like I said, it seems like it could have really happened in some very dark corner of the world right under our noses.

Also, I really like it that the protagonists AREN'T the top tier of power in their world, and for the most part, not even freaking close! You don't see that very often in shounen. It kind of makes sense (back to that realism aspect) that the little kids who are the new fish in the pond aren't going to magically gain superpowers that exceed those of their elders just because they happen to be the main characters.

It's kind of like how Naruto was in the very first arc, when he finally goes out on a real mission, fresh out of ninja-school, thinking he's pretty fly having just learned an awesome forbidden technique. Then he runs into Zabuza, a "real" ninja, and very quickly figures out that he isn't worth SHIT next to that and he's gonna die. Well, that's out the window because Naruto is now in the top tier, himself (after beating Pein) but even before then, he was never really in a "supporting" role. It was like Kishimoto had to come up with contrivances about how the jounin were always out on OTHER missions, which is why the weak-by-comparison main characters had to do very important things to keep in front-and-center where the action was.

Togashi never has to do that. The Chimera Ant arc was brilliant in its execution, seeing how Gon and Killua were there mostly as an advanced distraction/delay team so someone light-years above their power could take on the REAL main villian. Even when Gon got his super-powerup, it didn't go the typical shounen route of him using this new power for beating the main villian, either. He used it to pretty much pointless effect, seeing how the Rose's poison probably would have claimed Pitou, too (had he gone to Meryem's side with the others). That's something you just don't see happen very often, especially this late in a manga — by now, usually the main characters (youth or not) are going toe-to-toe with the biggest contenders of the world.

>>69325
>Chimera Ant arc was brilliant in its execution

Haha oh my god no. That was awful.

>>69326
Having done a recent reread, I thought that the Chimera arc wasn't really all that bad when read all in one go, and in many ways it was pretty great.
It was just horrible to read through with all the hiatuses.

Assuming it's not on hiatus anymore, can HunterxHunter replace Bleach in the big three nao? :[

>>69327

It wasn't awful all the way through, but it turned into a real clusterfuck towards the end.

I like the Chimera Ant Arc, but it had issues.

Hiatuses, the issue of Palm being absent and then suddenly relevant with no buildup, the excessive amount of time we had to spend listening to the fucking butterfly bodyguard's thoughts. Same goes for all the monologues from the god damn wolf chimera. Interesting characters definitely, I actually really liked the wolf one, but it got to the point where I didn't feel like I reading anything new.

Prior to the palace invasion it was kinda aimless, too. Boring for a bit, but it didn't last long.

Still, I think the primary reason most people don't like the Chimera Arc is because of all the hiatuses. I really don't feel like any of the flaws I listed really crippled the arc the way the hiatuses did.

>>69325
>If you want to stick it in the same classification, though, I think it's the best shounen series in publication right now. For me, this has a lot to do with that (easily-learned Nen abilities aside) it always struck me as very REAL. Even though the world map is different and they have a different written language and all that, I always got the feeling that this stuff could be literally happening on our world. I don't get that feeling with other shounen series; those always seem more like a fantasy world, something that takes place on another version of Earth, one that is not necessarily ours.

Do you have any idea how much I agree with everything in this statement?

I don't think any other series gives us as much depth to a world as Hunter x Hunter. This is probably a strange opinion, but one of my favorite arcs was the antique buying-selling portion of the manga. Barely related to anything else Gon had been doing and mostly useless knowledge for any future encounters, but the detail that Togashi puts into it and the scenarios he comes up with are simply flat-out fascinating. Even in something as ordinary (for a shonen) as antiquities, there is a surprising amount of depth to be found with stories to be told.

I don't think any other shonen manga could do that.

>>69328
The big 3 is just a popularity thing, where Bleach has faltered for years. Hell Toriko is far more popular these days. So yeah sure why not.

>>69325
>>69331
>I always got the feeling that this stuff could be literally happening on our world
I think this goes back to what I was saying about rules. And yet the world is still crazy and governed by people's whims. For example, we understand how important being a Hunter is because despite all the shit you have to go through to become one, the privileges make the risk worth the reward. Or with Nen, abilities might have a limit of some kind, but they are still worth having. Or to bring it full circle, Killua's family has a shitload of rules and yet Killua still finds a way to say fuck that.

In other shonen people are basically allowed to do what they want regardless of the consequences, whereas in HxH they have to convince them that it's for the best.

>>69325
>For me, this has a lot to do with that (easily-learned Nen abilities aside) it always struck me as very REAL. Even though the world map is different and they have a different written language and all that, I always got the feeling that this stuff could be literally happening on our world.

You are delusional, the HxH world is just as ridiculous as any other Shonen world. It's just ridiculous in the direction of cynicism instead of fantasy.

>>69329
>Ant arc is a clusterfuck
But it wasn't even all that confusing. Humanoid-ants discover how to use nen. They instinctively start building their colony. The entire situation could have been averted if the committee had just sent out an army of hunters to stop them, but only a handful of hunters got sent because Pariston is a dick and won't let the gang have backup, so Netero himself had to go fix everything.

Ant Arc was long, yeah, but the only clusterfuck in it was Gon making a restriction on himself to kill Pitou, and even that is actually in character for him because he's kind of simple minded and selfish.

>>69335

Clusterfucks need not be confusing. It just got really, really dumb and unsatisfying. Do I really have to remind you of the breastfeeding scene?