Hunter x Hunter (2011) Episode 131 Discussion

MrAM said:
Wow.

HunterxHunter seems to have a hard time not being unbelievably great. This episode totally blew me away. The animation, the art, the music…just phenomenal. The CA arc has given us so many incredible episodes, and this is yet another one, cementing its already established status as the greatest action shonen arc ever written (and animated.)

This wasn’t much of a fight, as others have pointed out. Pitou never stood a chance. You could chalk it up to Togashi being up to his usual tricks, doing what nobody expects, but I think there’s more to it than that; the entire confrontation between Pitou and Gon was never meant to be a fight in the conventional sense. It was always about what this meant for Gon, and Pitou as well. Netero vs. Meruem was very much the same, except that it ended up being a bit longer. Having Gon engage in an epic brawl with Pitou would have been pretty great entertainment, but it would have muddied and distorted the significance of this confrontation. Gon’s victory was never supposed to be celebrated, and I love how somber this episode felt. It was terrifying, awe-inspiring, and horrific. Gon’s defeat of his enemy was brutal and filled with carnage, and his actual transformation left him looking like a complete monster, a label that was previously applied to Pitou.

Let’s talk about Gon first. He finally snaps in this episode, and as I understand it, did something similar to Kurapika to gain the large amount of nen he did. He becomes an adult and utterly annihilates Pitou. This marks Gon’s ultimate loss of innocence, after it being built to for so long. Even if he survives this encounter and makes a full recovery, h will never be the same. He can be cheerful, happy Gon all he wants, but in the end he can’t escape his actions. He’s officially joined the ranks of Killua, Kurapika, and in a sense many of the adults he’s met throughout the series; a person who has suffered profound loss and ruthlessly killed others, whether out of vengeance or other reasons.

Now, Gon has already slowly but surely losing his pure hearted goodness throughout the arc since its start, mostly through the harsh and brutal things he witnessed. Kite in many ways was training Gon to become more mature. When Gons saw a Chimera Ant crush a human’s head in episode 82, Kite instructs him not to look away from the violence when Gon attempts to. Throughout Gon’s journey with Kite, the older Hunter told Gon to fight with the intent to kill, and indeed that’s what Gon did, though it isn’t clear if he actually killed ant Ants before this point. Regardless of whether he did, the unrestrained brutality of what he does here is what marks the end of Gon’s childhood.

Gon’s actions are motivated mostly by vengeance, and in his killing of Pitou, he follows Kite’s directions to the letter. Remember what Kite told him back in episode 82, after Gon slices through the body of the Ant he’s fighting?

“You must crush the head.”

Crush the head he did. Aside from Gon’s first kick, all of his attacks were directed at Pitou’s face, until it was completely destroyed. Gon wasn’t satisfied with merely killing Pitou; he kept beating her, over and over, in a scene was disturbing and not victorious. This cold, murderous defeat, one motivated by hatred of both Pitou and Gon himself, is what sets this apart from anything else Gon has done. He gives it his all, sacrificing whatever it took to crush Pitou. Gon has always been willing to go the extra mile to stubbornly achieve what he wants. He almost got himself killed in the Hunter exam, he sacrificed his hand in the fight with the Bomber, etc.

What Togashi did with Gon’s power-up is exceedingly clever, and makes it unlike any I’ve seen in any shonen ever. Aside from transformation being akin to that of a beast instead of a hero, and Gon seeming to be the monster in the “duel” instead of Pitou, it symbolizes Gon’s loss of innocence and transition into adulthood. It’s very literal- Gon commits the act that the series has been building to as an actual adult, a representation of his current mental state. Clever, Togashi, clever.
And…the arm! Again! I looked over all the incidents involving loss of arms again and realized that they all were the left arm, except Kite, who lost his right arm. Pitou here did the same as she did to Kite, even in death; she sliced off Gon’s right arm. This completes the parallel between Gon vs. Pitou, and Netero vs. The King. Also, interestingly , Gon lost his arm as Killua dove to protect him, while Kite lost his arm as he dove to protect Killua and Gon. Also, the humans have always been the ones losing arms, while the Chimera Ants lost their own arms through their own actions and willingness, and in both cases (the King and Pitou) it was as an act of submission, while in the case of the humans (Kite, Netero, Gon) it was in the midst of battle. Interesting…

Now all four combatants have lost their arms at some point. This is important for Pitou especially, because what she does here serves to contrast with her encounter with Kite. At that time, she was acting out of hostile playfulness, toying with a human because she liked it and the thrill of battle. Here, her pure devotion to her king is so powerful that it is quite literally undying, and she slices Gon’s arm out of loyalty, not callous malice. It highlights the difference between her and Gon in this fight, and what each is fighting for. There’s a parallel in Gon and Netero’s final attacks as well. Netero’s Zero hand drained his life force, much as Gon is draining his own to achieve his power. The conclusion of the two fights are similar as well, from what can be inferred from the way this episode ended, though I expect Gon to alive. There’s a clever parallel there as well, assuming I’m correct. In Netero vs. the King, one was severely injured (the King) and one died (Netero). Here, one was also severely injured (Gon) and one died (Pitou). Note that the ones severely injured are the protagonist and antagonist of the arc, and the pure genius of it all that it is not really obvious who is who. Something else: this arc has been about the maturation of a child, in both Gon and the King’s story. The way their stories unfold differ, and in that the difference between them is emphasized. I’m astounded by the continuous parallels that Togashi stablished between Gon and the King without ever having them actually meet each other.

A masterpiece of an episode, this is. Chilling, disturbing, and hauntingly beautiful. Bravo, Togashi and Madhouse. The anime world’s better with you in it.

Also, R.I.P. Pitou, my favorite of the Royal Guards and one of my favorites of the series cast in general.

peeyaj said:

Read at your own risk:

peeyaj said:
One of the best episodes of HxH. Truly, this is amazing.

Read at your own risk:

beaniesaige said:
So beautifully done! My heart sank in my chest.

alexpersona said:
Lol, didn't even know what you were talking about when you said read at your own risk but then shuryukan confirmed that it was manga spoilers, fml ;-;

sheidesu said:
WTH WTH WTH WTH... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE... Hunter x Hunter 2011 Episode 131 was freaking weird and sad and exciting and the feeeeeeeeels asdfghjkl... BRILLIANT!

link9us said:


Calm down, your going to have an orgasm lol

Raidol said:
It sucks that Pitou's life ended so quickly, I mean after all the teasing that this fight would happen, she didn't deserve to be 1 hit killed so quickly :(

shuryukan said:
I cried.......this was so intense ;_;

one of the best episodes ever!

:l...
"THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE."

shuryukan said:

Fun fact, rai-kun <3
Pitou is a guy.

penguindrum264 said:
Damn that episode was awesome. Pitou's devotion for the king even after death was actually kind of admirable.
Sucks that Killua saw this, he's probably confused, scared, and in anguish after seeing Gon like this.
It also sucks that Gon lost an arm, so he'll probably have a disadvantage now and he probably is a bit weaker after that last attack.
Though Gon is probably stronger than Netero and pre-nuke Meruem, it looks like post-nuke Meruem still is quite stronger than Gon from the preview.
Hopefully the next episode doesn't end up focusing mostly on the side characters because I want to see Gon fight Mereum already.

11/10

Valaskjalf said:
So gon used his life force to power up and become as strong as the king.

Yeah... the author already used that plot device in Yu Yu Hakusho.

noonealive said:
i was checking some youtube comments and i found this one to be pretty interesting.

"I remember many many episodes back, Gon specifically inquired about nen restrictions and contracts, so it's not like it just came up out of the blue. Gon, in this case, is using "everything" meaning he must be drawing huge reserves from his own life force. It's also mentioned that the stronger your emotion and resolve, the more powerful you become upon activating the ability. We've seen something similar to this very recently...

Anyone remember how Netero trains himself up to a bulky body he didn't have earlier in the series? "Zero Hand?" That's a nen-contracted technique. He poured all his nen into one attack, subsequently weakening and aging his body tremendously."

i didn't think to much of Netero's bulkiness and it relating to zero hand. MrAM kinda pointed this out as well.

Candor said:
Btw there'll probably be a Hunter x Hunter chapter tomorrow/today.

Core1019 said:
Quite possibly the best episode of anime I've ever seen. Godlike!!

penguindrum264 said:

Hopefully the next episode doesn't end up focusing mostly on the side characters because I want to see Gon fight Mereum already.

11/10

Humza_96 said:
I wouldn't say that it's an ass pull or random power up. The reason why I didn't like it is because it just looks so lame. Gon turning into a 30 year old man was a massive letdown after how awesome he looked with the white eye and black shadowy figure.

Then again this happens in quite a few anime. 1st Bleach when Ichigos final form turns him into a goth. Than Naruto turning even gayer than normal. And now Gon skipping puberty. Maybe it's a result of trying too hard to surpass DBZs Super Saiyan transformation.

dvice said:
Can anyone tell me what chapter/volume of the manga this is adapted from?

or this arc at least?

Thank you in advance.