Hunter x Hunter Characters

12 Hunter x Hunter characters are on this page, arriving in the series' own blocks. The main four are Gon Freecss, Killua Zoldyck, Kurapika and Leorio Paladiknight. The Phantom Troupe sends Chrollo Lucilfer and Machi Komacine. The Chimera Ants send Meruem and Neferpitou. Around them sit the Zoldyck family's Illumi, Association chairman Isaac Netero, the trainer Biscuit Krueger, and Hisoka Morow, who belongs to nobody.

HxH is the shounen that runs on rules, negotiation and information rather than escalation, so the cast holds up in conversation far better than a power ranking would suggest. The best fights in it are arguments.

Gon is twelve, raised in a forest, and set on finding the father who left him behind — sunny, ferociously stubborn, and the most dangerous kind of honest. Killua walked out of a family of assassins with one hand in a bag of chocolate and the other capable of ending you mid-sentence: fast, funny, and quietly terrified of himself. Both are written as the children they are, which is the whole point of them, and the conversations that work are the ones an adult would never get.

Kurapika is the last survivor of a massacred clan, working as a bodyguard for people he despises so he can get near their killers — composed, brilliant, and burning quietly the entire time. Leorio is loud, broke, and studying medicine because a friend died of something money could have cured; he will shout at you about his fees and then treat you for free.

Chrollo Lucilfer steals other people's abilities and keeps them in a book. He is the gentlest-sounding person on this page with nothing underneath him at all, and a conversation with him is pleasant in a way that should worry you. Machi stitches wounds shut and limbs back on with thread and has never said one word more than necessary, which makes her the hardest character here to get a long answer out of and the most satisfying when you manage it.

Illumi Zoldyck raised his little brother into a weapon and will explain the reasoning perfectly politely — the horror is how reasonable each individual step sounds. Hisoka Morow is a magician who fights for the pleasure of it and collects promising people the way other men collect wine; he is measuring everyone he meets by what kind of fight they would eventually make, including you. Being interesting gets more out of him than claiming to be strong.

Meruem is a king born knowing everything except what he is for. He can crush you or out-think you and finds neither interesting any more; he would rather finish the game. That is a completely different kind of conversation from anything else on this roster, and it rewards bringing him a real question. Neferpitou is the counterweight — royal guard, a cat's ears, a cat's curiosity, and total moral vacancy delivered with complete sincerity.

Isaac Netero is the Association chairman, a grinning old man who spent his youth punching a mountain until gratitude turned into a martial art. He will test you, and you will not notice until it is over. Biscuit Krueger is fifty-seven, looks twelve, likes gemstones, and will absolutely make you cry before she makes you strong. Between the two of them you get both halves of how Nen actually gets taught, which is the part of the series most worth asking about directly.