Hunter X Hunter 352 – Troublesome

Well – aren’t these pleasant young men?

The WSJ quotes from Togashi-sensei are growing ever-more grim, but the chapters keep on coming for now. Enjoy every sandwich.

It appears that Togashi intends to stick with the battle royale at Heaven’s Arena, at least for a while. Optimistically, perhaps this means we’ll get cutaways to Gon and/or Killua too – we’ll see. For now the orgy of plot fanservice continues, as Chrollo and Hisoka continue their epic showdown. Though in typical H x H fashion, this chapter was mostly Chrollo talking in great detail about how he’s going to kill Hisoka.

Make no mistake, there’s surely important stuff Spider #1 is neglecting to share, but what he does choose to tell Hisoka is impressive enough. It can only be taken as a sign of supreme confidence, I think, but it seems very possible that confidence could be Chrollo’s undoing. As Hisoka himself says, nothing gets him off like taking down a cocky opponent who asks “How could this have happened?” as Hisoka “shatters their knees”. On paper we certainly need to give the advantage to Chrollo based on what we know of respective Nen abilities. But I would still give Hisoka the check-mark in the “intangibles” box.

I think the most fascinating thing Chrollo revealed in his dissertation was that he retains some abilities in his book even after the original owner is dead – which loops us back (to what, “York Shin”?) to the discussion of Nen remaining and growing stronger even after its possessor has died. If Chrollo is telling the truth the scope of his power seems almost limitless – yet I still can’t shake the belief that he’s going to lose this match. And who’s to say, after all, that we’ve seen all the power that Hisoka has on offer? I think it’s likely no one has yet challenged him enough in a fight that mattered to get him to show his cards. And that, my friends, is a pretty scary thought – even scarier than Chrollo 2.0.

Now in wintermint!