Recap

Meruem continues to regain his memories en-route to the palace, while Killua convincingly protects Komugi from Pouf.

Euri’s thoughts

Pouf is a magnificent bastard, isn’t he? Not only is he sadistic ant-butterfly that is fixated on eradicating the human race, but he’s even capable of pulling faces that’d put Lelouch and Light to shame. Sure, his character is incredibly unlikeable, but I also think that his obsession with disposing of Komugi before Meruem remembers her makes up for the incredibly lame tear-fuelled revival of what was the King’s charred corpse. Not that I want him to succeed, of course, but seeing him squirm uncontrollably while Meruem approaches the palace goes some way towards making up for it.

Something that took me completely by surprise was just how calm and rational Meruem is now. His revival and the addition of wings give him the aura of a transcended being, very similar in fact to the Cell transformations in Dragon Ball Z without the extravagance. When Youpi explains the reason why he knows how Knuckle’s APR ability works, Meruem accepts his reasoning without any form of resistance. If this happened before the King met Komugi, there’s no question whatsoever about Youpi being executed on the spot. What I want to know is that if he somehow remembers what happened during his fight with Netero, will he perhaps cease to be hostile? Even if he stopped fighting, would the hunters allow him to go free?

Killua’s powers are teased once again, but we still don’t get to see him in a proper fight. Now that Youpi isn’t a threat, Killua could be the one fighting Pouf later on, which seems like quite the favourable match up if blasting Pouf’s face off with lightning is anything to go by. Gon still seems to have Neferpitou taken care of, which just leaves Meruem to deal with. Hopefully there’s another bomb kicking about, because I don’t think the hunters in the palace have even a small chance of beating him as they are.

Random observations

• Killing all of the mini-Poufs will be tough, but perhaps if Killua glows brighter he’ll act like a supercharged bug zapper.
• Meruem and Youpi are doing a great job of flying without moving their wings.
• There’s something awfully dark about not being able to destroy the APR goblin.