Story arcs
The Chimera Ant storyline is exactly as WTF as the fans have always said — & it’s also so much more
Here are some very out-of-context things that happen in the Chimera Ant arc of the 2011 anime Hunter x Hunter, which is now streaming on Netflix. An octopus named Ikalgo decides he’s the BFF of one of the main characters. A woman whose nguồn involves wrapping her very long hair around herself fights a kid in a dictator’s mansion. A nuclear blast culminates in a resurrection scene that doesn’t feel lượt thích someone coming back from the dead, so much as it resembles a cannibalistic orgy. (You really have lớn see it khổng lồ believe it.) The protagonists meet a leader who apparently spent, like, two years standing in one place và punching the air ten thousand times a day. A mutant ant harnesses the power to whisk his opponents to lớn a pocket dimension, and he uses it to force them to lớn play tag with him. There’s this absolute brick house of a man, whose power is basically vaping. Và that’s just scratching the barest surface.
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Hunter x Hunter’s Chimera Ant arc is the most infamous storyline in all six seasons of the show, to lớn the point where even anime fans who’ve never watched the series may have heard of it, because it’s so divisive. Some people love it và say it’s the greatest thing to happen lớn anime. Others despise it with a burning passion. It makes up almost half the series, clocking in at 61 episodes. And it’s exactly as batshit as promised — perhaps even more, if that’s possible.
Twice now, I’ve watched people try lớn explain this arc to someone who barely watches anime, and both times, I wanted to evaporate on the spot out of embarrassment for how completely unhinged the story sounded. Making it that far into Hunter x Hunter requires a high tolerance for totally out-there plot elements, but Chimera Ant really tests that limit. I am saying this as someone who adores Hunter x Hunter, who wrote a 35,000-word fanfic for it, who cosplayed her favorite character, who bought a clock with the main characters on it.
When most Hunter x Hunter fans reach the midpoint of the Chimera Ant story, they’re hit with a burning desire khổng lồ explain the sheer what-the-fuckery khổng lồ someone, khổng lồ explain how this gory, absolutely wacky plot works cohesively, even though some of the individual pieces are so wild that they are embarrassing to discuss out loud. It’s basically a rite of passage to explain this emotionally taxing arc to lớn people who’ve never seen the show. Unfortunately, since I watched the series in quarantine, I never actually got a chance to undergo this sacred rite. But with the Chimera Ant arc finally added to Netflix, it is now my time.
<Ed. Note: This post contains a lot of spoilers for Hunter x Hunter, particularly season 5.>
Hunter x Hunter takes place in a world where Hunters, licensed individuals with superior fighting skills & the ability khổng lồ wield the in-universe magic system (“Nen”), trek across the world seeking treasure, glory, và other dangerous things. The main character, Gon, is a typical wide-eyed, big-hearted anime protagonist, whose one goal in life is lớn be a strong Hunter just lượt thích his father. His best buddy, Killua, is the middle son of a family of famous assassins, but he just wants khổng lồ chill with Gon, và doesn’t care about joining the family legacy. (There are other characters, but this arc is mostly about these two, so I won’t wax poetic about my absolute fave, Kurapika.)
The arc kicks off when Gon và Killua encounter Kite, a Hunter who specializes in handling dangerous wildlife. He was also Gon’s father’s protégé, and once, when Gon was very little, Kite saved him from being attacked by a wild animal. Kite’s latest mission involves investigating a possible infestation of Chimera Ants, & because Gon just helps out everyone, he volunteers to lớn join Kite’s quest.
The series uses “ant” in the loosest sense of the word here. Sure, the Queen Chimera Ant looks pretty much like a giant ant, and her first sets of offspring are bug-like. But these creatures are called Chimera Ants because they take on the hybrid appearance of whatever the Queen last ate. At first, she just devours regular animals, but then she discovers that humans make tasty treats — & after eating them, she produces powerful offspring that definitely look lượt thích DeviantArt fursonas. Pretty soon, her children start becoming stronger & more powerful, và then also start hungering for human flesh. So they start hunting more and more people, destroying entire villages and killing humans in increasingly horrific ways, lượt thích gunning them dead with powerful streams of water, or probing their brains for information.
This sounds like a recipe for riot, except that this particular arc takes place in a country ruled by an eco-terrorist group that has forbidden any contact with or technology imported from the rest of the world, so no one knows what the hell is going on. The corruption of this government và how it suppresses its citizens is, like, a D-plot at best.
Eventually, the ants realize if they eat Hunters, they can wield Nen, making them even more powerful. The Queen keeps eating humans & giving birth to new rounds of soldier ants, each successive generation increasing in status, until she finally births the Royal Guard — three elite, powerful ants — & then ultimately, the King, the most powerful ant of them all.
While this is all going on, Gon, Killua, and Kite make it deeper và deeper into ant territory, with the intention of taking out the ants before the King is born. But they are attacked by Neferpitou, one of the King’s incredibly powerful Royal Guard. Kite tells Gon và Killua lớn run, because they aren’t strong enough to fight Neferpitou. They make it to lớn safety, but that particular episode ends with Neferpitou happily sitting under a tree with Kite’s severed head — which eventually gets stitched back onto his body.
Gon and Killua meet up with the leader of the Hunter Association, Netero, and two top hunters, Morel and Knov. The three adults are planning to lớn take down the ants — & forbid Gon và Killua from coming until they’ve properly trained & can best Knov and Morel’s apprentices in battle. While the ant plot goes on, Gon & Killua essentially have a long training arc, getting khổng lồ know the apprentices — Knuckle, who hides his soft side under his tough exterior; Shoot, a coward; và Palm, who has an obsessive crush on her mentor, Knov. The training tests Gon và Killua’s relationship. Gon has the personal desire lớn retrieve Kite, và wants lớn become as strong as he can in order to bởi vì so. Killua, meanwhile, just wants khổng lồ be by Gon’s side — but he’s realizing that isn’t as easy as he thought it might be, considering Gon’s martyrlike tendencies.
While that’s going on, the Ants move lớn another country — this one also ruled by a dictator, though the new place is less ecoterrorist và anti-tech, và more stereotypically ruled by a despotic, wealthy tyrant suppressing the lower class. The Royal Guard and King ants take over the palace, keeping the human ruler alive so they can use him as a puppet, and hatch a plan lớn invite all the unsuspecting citizens to lớn the palace on a national holiday, so they can sort out which ones they want khổng lồ eat, & which ones they want to transform into Ant soldiers (which they figure out they can do).
They have to wait a little, in order lớn mobilize their forces và corral the entire population, so the Ant King decides lớn bide his time by mastering every board game in existence, because why not? He challenges the đứng top players of each trò chơi in the world, growing bored & restless —- until he meets a frail, blind woman who plays the fictional military strategy trò chơi Gungi better than anyone. The King can’t beat her, và he starts to lớn realize that there is more than one way to be strong, and that humanity has value beyond being a tasty treat.
Gon, Killua, Netero, Morel, Knov, Knuckle, Shoot, and Palm hatch a plan lớn infiltrate the palace & take down the Ants. The arc basically culminates in this epic showdown, which not only tests our heroes, but the villains as well. This represents a turning point for Gon và Killua’s relationship, as Gon throws himself into getting Kite back, no matter what the cost — even if that means pushing Killua away. Meanwhile, the Ant King begins lớn question his purpose, which ruffles his Royal Guard, who split over whether they should honor his new goals, or remind him about what matters. Oh, và also, there are some pretty damn epic fights, though the last chunk of episodes does that anime thing where one 20-minute episode spans about two minutes within the show.
The Chimera Ant arc is A Lot. It is So Much. It is Many Things, All Taken to the Most Extreme. Hunter x Hunter doesn’t shy away from the nitty gritty: One arc sees the gang rescuing Killua from his abusive assassin family, while another has Kurapika infiltrating the mafia khổng lồ avenge his fallen clan. But the dark plot elements of the Chimera Ant arc sink a lot deeper than the previous storylines. Most of the previous arcs have enough balance between drama và lighthearted moments to keep the characters going. This arc, however, represents a point of no return for some of the characters — it is the end of Gon & Killua’s story, essentially.
But the Chimera Ant arc isn’t a drag because of its length và content. It’s incredibly well-crafted, really tapping into the series’ deepest emotions. It is the darkest arc of the anime, và it’s certainly the goriest. It giao dịch with themes of what it means to lớn be human, of finding strength in unexpected places, of the limits of friendship & loyalty, & the possibility of getting lost in the need for vengeance. It has gorgeous and intriguing fight scenes, và compelling characters. And it really tests the bond between Gon and Killua. Somewhere along the line, it evolves into a poignant, tender love story. & even though it’s mix in a fantasy world, it integrates real-life political issues like totalitarian governments and Japan’s lingering nuclear trauma.
Even a few months after watching this arc, & even after (finally!) explaining all of this, I still have mixed feelings about it — I don’t love it, but I can’t deny how evocative it is. The final scenes of Chimera Ant are gut-punching, & absolutely worth the 61-episode build up. They could not exist without that many dedicated episodes, or with the amount of blood, despair, & brutal murder, which definitely threw me off intially. It ricocheted me to epic highs & deep lows. I did, indeed, blast through it at lightning tốc độ — not just because I was warned to, but because I had to lớn know what happened next.
It is the culmination of Gon và Killua’s story, và it really pushes the limits of the Hunter x Hunter universe, even though none of the other major characters appear in it. Và it sets up the series’ final episodes, which are a bittersweet denouement, a marked change from the gung-ho excitement the series begins with. Hunter x Hunter is a journey, & not all of it is happy. But Gon and Killua end up in places that make sense — even if that can only happen after 61 episodes of fighting murderous, mutated ant-people.
The last two seasons of Hunter x Hunter — which include the Chimera Ant arc — are now available on Netflix. The full series is also available on Crunchyroll và Funimation.
