Recap
Gon is overcome with grief over Kite’s death, causing him to push his body to its limits to take down Pitou.
Euri’s thoughts
There’s very little of Pouf in this episode, which certainly makes for a nice change. He’s a fantastic bastard of a character, but it’s about time that the tide turned in favour of the good guys for the first time in a while. What I didn’t realise at first is that while it’s likely Killua was going to leave the palace and assist Gon after Palm notices the situation he’s in, it’s Pouf’s conversation with them in this episode that really gets him moving. This intervention may very well have saved Gon’s life, due to Killua pushing Gon out of the way of an attack a little later on. After all of the awful things he’s been up to, it feels good to see him unknowingly assist the hunters.
But let’s get to what really matters. Quite simply, Hunter x Hunter #131 is one of the finest shounen anime episodes I’ve had the pleasure of seeing. This wasn’t just Gon winning a fight with an extremely capable enemy; it was the complete and utter destruction of that enemy in the name of revenge. This wasn’t a Dragon Ball Z episode where the enemy is destroyed with determination and the support of friends; it was an anger-fuelled, heart wrenching display of a young boy losing restraint. Gon tosses aside his self-imposed limits in the name of sheer power, because getting revenge is worth forfeiting his life for. Kite was killed and defiled by Neferpitou, and Gon is the only one that can do anything about it. He accepts the cost it will have on his body to guarantee success in this fight, with no concern for the superior King and his ambitions.
This show definitely doesn’t shy away from violence in general, but this episode takes it to a new level. Pitou is beaten and thrown around like a rag doll, with plenty of blood spatter and even broken teeth for good measure. Watching Gon repeatedly punching an immobile and near-death Pitou in the face was absolutely brutal, but it was the perfect way of summing up just how Gon is feeling over Kite’s death. Pitou’s Terpsichora ability was frightening from the outset, but seeing it use her broken body to continue the fight after her death was horrifying. As I mentioned before, it was lucky that Killua was nearby as that would surely have been a fatal blow on Gon, and he certainly wasn’t planning to dodge it if he’d even seen it coming.
Killua’s appearance adds some gravity to the scene, as his internal monologue explains the severity of Gon’s situation. We certainly knew that Gon’s new appearance was far from a temporary transformation, or some kind of switch that was flipped and can be flipped back. No, Gon is using up his own life force, accelerating his growth to the point where he has aged many years, where his body has developed to a point where he can contend with Pitou. Killua is quite obviously in distress at the sight of his best friend throwing his life away, and while he’ll be crucial in resolving this situation, just how will he do it? Even when/if that happens, what does this mean for Gon? Will he revert to his child form, or will he have to live like this for the remainder of his life? Will he transform like Bisky in order to continue living like a child? After all, it’s not like he’s matured mentally as much as his body has.
Hurry up, Tuesday.
Random observations
- Not only can Dr. Blythe heal wounds, but it also does a spectacular job of sewing Pitou’s sleeve back together.
- I can’t work out what my favourite moment in a shounen show is: this episode, or when Luffy punches an important person (One Piece spoilers, of course).
- I took way too many screenshots of the episode and spent way too much time deciding which three to use.
The Glorio Blog 
been waiting a long time for this all i can say is YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
I don’t think this level of perfection can be matched
Madhouse you guys are da best!!! dat Gon-san with that FALCON KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!
I dunno if anyone else watching remembers, but Phinks was right when he said nen does not disappear after death and can get stronger. Because that’s pretty much what happened with Neferpitou’s Terpsichora, damn was that creepy..
It sucks how Gon pretty much gave up everything to destroy Pitou the way he did but that was his intention all along.
“I don’t care what happens to me now. I need all the power I’ll ever have.”
Gon’s limits and vows are:
to activate it:
His extreme state of malice, rage, and despair. The nen contract was similar to Feitan’s rage-condition, but the threshold difference is nothing alike.
After its use, he vowed to give up:
His nen
His genetic inborn talent
His future – Time with Killua, chance to meet Ging, and everything else conceivable
There’s something else, but that’s a manga spoiler.
eternal suffering must be a real bitch, 10/10 will definitely watch again
this show just keeps un trucking along. Kick ass. Really I did not expect Gon to go to such lengths. Poor Kill, he’s gonna be as broken as Gon.
This has been on my mind for a bit: How is it possible Gon thought Kaitou was still alive? It seems everyone thought it. Yet when gon arrived he’s conviniantly dead? And not only that but he falls over like a tree trunk, what the fuck was he doing the whole other time?
Is this a case of his Nen hanging around after he dies out of rage? How the fuck can’t the hunters know he was dead?
I think everyone knew that he was dead, even Gon, but he was just holding onto the slim hope that Pitou could do something about it. People like Killua certainly knew, but couldn’t bring themselves to talk about it and break Gon in the process.
As for his collapse, this was due to Pitou releasing Terpsichora’s control over him. It’s the same ability that was being used on random guards to fight Morel and his smoke clones. Pitou only released Kite from that ability as acknowledgement for Gon not attacking while healing Komugi.
Nen definitely hangs around after death – it was brought up earlier in the show by Feitan (I think) and is proven when Terpsichora uses Pitou. As for whether any of Kite’s nen is still in play…that’s hard to say, but I don’t think that’s the case.
Hope that helps!
“Nen definitely hangs around after death – it was brought up earlier in the show by Feitan (I think)”
Not Feitan, more like Phinks. In ch 120 He pretty much says to Gon and Killua, “Nen doesn’t necessarily disappear after death. In some cases, it even becomes stronger.” so by activating Terpsichora before dying, it reanimated Pitou’s corpse to “finish the job”, instead of just disappearing. We see it first hand in this episode.