Hunter Hunter is one of my favorite anime series. [any] Where some titles focus more
on world building, and capturing fans attention with massive expanses of exotic lands and
extensive lore, Hunter Hunter instead emphasises character development and stresses the emphasis
on their relationships and how characters progress together in relation to the narrative
of the story.
In this video I will be talking about some of the best unsung redemption character arcs
in Hunter Hunter. I’ll be talking about Ikalgo, Welfin and Koala.
Ikalgo
memories of Ikalgo’s past life, depict him as a soldier of NGL, serving alongside his
friends Bloster and Welfin, until they all tragically fell during the ant invasion. Ikalgo
was soon reborn as a chimera ant with loyalty to the queen, working in Leol’s squad as
an expert sniper.
Uncharacteristically for a character who’s nen has taken the form of a gun, he isn’t
the cold hearted killer you would expect him to be. Instead while fighting the hunters
for the sake of his queen, he aims for non-lethal blows, captilising on his flea bullets to
weaken his enemies by blood loss. He exudes only confidence in his marksman skills from
his screen debut, that is, only until he is matched with Killua, and severly underestimates
the young silver haired assassin.
Killu and Ikalgo fight and banter for a while, and as Killua takes the upper hand, he actually
ends up saving Ikalgo’s life, stating that if they had met on different terms, they could
have been friends and that he was a cool guy.
This shakes Ikalgo to the core, relieving him of his insecurities rooted in wishing
he had been born a squid and not an octopus, and yearning to be a cool guy. On a slight
tangent, this is pretty significant for Killua, marking the first instance of him building
a freindship outside of Gon’s company, which is great growth for a character so deeply
rooted with a history of isolation.
Back to the scene, Killua is bleeding out and with Ikalgo’s new resolve, he decides
to rescue Killua, turning his back on the queen and running as a traitor.
He agrees to join the extemrination team and with a shakey rescue plan in plaace, and a
turn of events that forces Ikalgo to improvise, he manages to incapacitate Bloster and fufil
his objective for the mission.
Ikalgo being a strategist, knew the optimal choice to make would be putting a bullet in
Bloster’s head, but he couldn’t do it. He ended up embracing kindness that ants dont
typically show and breaking down into tears. This decission was not from compassion towards
his enemies, but from regaining his humanity, and it was the disservice to his friends that
was tearing him up.
Although there are scenes later in the arc with Ikalgo helping to take down the king,
it’s this moment that stands out, with him balling his eyes out, wrestling with the thought
of murdering a former ally in cold blood, for the sake of saving his new friends that
he believes are ultimately acting for the greater good.
Lastly, Ikalgo is attacked by Welfin, and knowing that Welfin is there to get information
to assist in the capture of the extermination team, Ikalgo doesn’t hesitate. He fires
instantly, completely disregarding his own safety where his sole motivation is ensuring
the greatest chance of survival possible for Killua and friends. He mentions that “it’s
easty to pull the trigger for the sake of your friends if it’s only his life on the
line”. And nothing signifies friendship more than taking a handful of black brain
invading centipedes for your pals.
This spectacle actually inspires Welfin and sparks the beginning of his redemption arc.
Welfin’s charecter doesn’t transition through a traditional redemptioion arc in
the sence of evil to good, black to white. More so straddling the grey areas in between
with a shift in his alleigenane from monsterous ants, to the more relatable sense of humanity
he later develops.
Welfins tragic backstory begins with memories of physical abuse at the hands of his father,
and a life of poverty, strung out on the streets, A sorrowful, lonely existence, Untill he met
gyro.
Welfin notes that gyro was the one person who could turn his tears to laughter. He was
the one light in Welfin’s gloomy world.
Welfins alignment starts to shift, similarly to a lot of the ants, when they stop acting
for the good of the ant species, and instead for their own personal motivations. This is
a common theme, especially for ants that begin to claw back memories of their former lives
and slowly become more humanised. Unfortunately for welfin, this ultimately works against
him as he sets his sights for the king’s throne, only to be dragged back to reality,
in realisation of the unfathomable gap in power between himself and Meruem.
And back to reality he fell. Welfins overwhelming depair is excellently displayed by a single
realisation and reaction. The king eyes up Welfin as a delicious aura filled morsel,
and in reaction to this, within a split second, true terror forces every every hair on Welfins
head to eject from his scalp, leaving him in a trembling mess.
Fortunately, Welfin uttered the one word that would save his life, and trigger Meruem to
remember everything. [Komugi].
This scene leads into the peak of Welfin’s character change. Meruem, thankful for triggering
the restoration of his memories, spares Welfin, granting him a new lease on life, all Welfin
has to do is walk away.
But he doesn’t. And not because he has been shot in both legs. But because he is overcome
with emotion. Internally struggling that the monster standing before him has all the qualities
deserving of a king - overwhelming power, inciting fear with just a glance, yet has
a sense of compassion and empathy, still, Meruem would never be Welfin’s king. And
this internalised thought wells up in Welfin until he erupts.
Welfin has cast aside desire to rule the chimera ants, his instinctive nature of self preservation,
and is overcome with just burning passion to proclaim where his true loyalty lies, with
the only persona he truely cares for: Gyro.
The last of the redeemed chimera ant trio we’re covering in this video, is the once
hitman, later reborn, fluffly lilac coloured killing machine, Koala.
Prior to Koala’s ant transformation, he led a seemingly irredeemable life as a hitman.
As with many characters through the series, Koala’s nen abilities are a portayal of
his background and personality. Where Gon’s rock paper scissor attacks are manifested
from his playful innocent nature, Koala’s nen abilities are routed down a darker path,
mimicking his favorite killing tool, the gun. Koala is able to spit liquid he ingests from
his gourd, with lethal stopping power, and precise accuracy to land a headshot killing
blow to every combatant seen unlucky enough to face him throughout hunter x hunter. Subtely
gruesome, you can see the water pretrude from the eyes, ears and nose of his victims after
it penetrates their skull, desperately seeking an exit. This is a fucking great way of showing
a gorey scene without the use of blood, overacted screams of anguish from victims, or other
obvious tropes.
Despite Koalas dark past, his character progresses as he develops a sense of morality, after
a stern lecture from Mele-oron after a scene of sensless, gratutious violence during capture
of their human prey.
Koala is later seen during the chairman election arc, apologising to ktie, who has been reborn
into a body resembling the red headed girl Koala had gunned down in the chimera ant arc.
Koala agoniseses over his regrets of the attrocities he commited in his previous life - marking
a just how far his charecter has come. Kite forgives Koala, and offers to be his pillar
of support vowing to kill Koala if he ever loses his reslove to lead a life he can truley
be proud of. The scene ends with a Koala integrated into the group of Kite’s amateur hunter
team, and they look towards the horrizon.
Koalas redemption arc actually fits one of the over-arching themes for Hunter x Hunter
in that it draws parallels to Killua. Namely in Killua’s journey to break away from his
career as an assassin, in an attempt to end the cycle of killing, in a pursuit of his
own self worth and happiness.
And that’s it. Personally, i think Meruem has the best redemption arc in hunter hunter,
or at least the greatest transition to discovering a sense of humanity within himself amongst
all of the ants, but we’ll save that for another video.
Thanks for listening, if you’d like me to make more videos like this on Hunter Hunter,
please like, comment and subscibe, and let me know what you’d like me to discuss next.
Cheers.