Hey everyone, today I wanted to
do some analysis on a character from Hunter x Hunter who I think
might be a bit underappreciated. Now I'm aware that this character
is a fan favorite and I think lots of people do truly love her presence in
the series, but I don't think everyone fully appreciates how essential she is to
Hunter x Hunter - especially to its ending. Today I'll be talking about Alluka Zoldyck, one
of my absolute favorite characters in Hunter x Hunter, and why I believe she completes the
anime both in terms of the plot and thematically. Notice how I said "anime" specifically -
I won't really be talking about the manga after the anime in this video since I don't think
it's necessary for discussing Alluka's character (and also she's only in one arc in the
entire series and that arc's animated). While Alluka's presence is extremely
important in both the manga and the anime, I feel that she was more necessary to
provide closure at the anime's ending point. It seems like Togashi was really trying to
wrap things up at that point in the manga, at least for the characters of Gon and Killua. I'll get into that as I discuss
her character in more detail, but for now I'll just say that she ties up
a lot of loose ends and that leaves us with as good of an ending as we could possibly get
for an anime with incomplete source material. With all that being said, let's talk about
why Alluka completes Hunter x Hunter. But before we start the video I have a
pop quiz for you all - in this famous moment from Hunter x Hunter,
what was Alluka fawning over? Of course, the correct answer is
the like and subscribe buttons, and who wouldn't have the same reaction? If you want to be just as happy
as Alluka is then I'd strongly recommend hitting both of those buttons right now. In all seriousness though, thank you
so much for almost 1000 subscribers. My goal for last month was just 50 subs so I really can't overstate how
grateful I am to all of you. All right, let's get into the video already. So my last character analysis
was a video on Chrollo Lucilfer, and while I still think that's a good video what I forgot to include before the analysis was
an actual description of who Chrollo is. So for this video let's rectify
that mistake: who is Alluka Zoldyck? Alluka is the second youngest child
of the infamous Zoldyck family. While the Zoldycks are generally
known as assassins who are also extremely proficient Nen users,
Alluka is a bit of an exception. The Zoldycks isolated Alluka from the rest of
the world since she was a young child due to her inexplicable powers: she was somehow
possessed by a creature dubbed Nanika, meaning "Something" in English, who has
the ability to grant seemingly any wish. These wishes can cause quite dire consequences
depending on their difficulty though, so Alluka has generally been kept away from
others in order to mitigate these risks. Now I have no idea if this wish granting power is
Nen based at all, but because Nanika originated from the Dark Continent I'm willing to guess
that it could be another type of power entirely. Aside from Nanika and her strange powers, the most intriguing and controversial aspect
of Alluka's character is actually her gender. Judging from her clothes and general
appearance, and also the fact that Killua always refers to her as his sister, most
people would assume that Alluka is female. However the rest of her family seems
to refer to her as "brother" or "him", although sometimes the use of third-person
pronouns in Japanese is a bit more vague than in English so the disparity
of how Killua refers to Alluka versus how their family refers to her is more
pronounced in English translations. Personally I'm of the belief that Alluka is
a trans girl, and because she seems to want to be referred to as female that's exactly how
I'm going to address her throughout this video. If you want more info on Alluka's
gender I'd recommend watching this video (I'll link it in the top corner). It's from one of my favorite channels on
YouTube, and it features a much more in-depth discussion on that particular aspect of Alluka's
character than I'm going to give in this video. So while I do really appreciate Alluka's
character design and the intricacies of her gender, her gender identity I guess, along with
the sort of dual personality and abilities she has due to Nanika's presence, I don't think these
things alone make her an intriguing character. Obviously character design is super
important, but characters truly shine once we actually get to witness their
development and growth as people over time, and also when we get to see how they interact
with and impact the larger world around them. I think pretty much any character can be great in a vacuum provided they have an
intriguing design or backstory, but characters only become truly amazing once we
see how the author implements them into the plot. Of course we get to witness these things from a huge amount of characters in Hunter x
Hunter because Togashi is a genius, and Alluka is no exception - otherwise
I wouldn't be making this video. Before I talk about how Alluka completes Hunter
x Hunter as a story, let's talk about the depth that she brings to Hunter x Hunter's world
and the characters that she interacts with. In a very broad sense, I feel like she really
helps lead the series down a darker path and helps to set a more serious tone
in preparation for what's to come. Okay, maybe that sounds slightly ridiculous if
you take into account all the cute or hilarious moments she has during her short tenure in
the series, but I'm being completely serious. Hunter x Hunter is one of those
Shonen series that progressively gets much darker in tone as the story goes on. I'd say the first six parts of JoJo's
Bizarre Adventure are another example of that happening - not counting the other
two parts because they're actually Seinen. The difference in tone between the
Hunter Exam and the Succession War, for example, is astronomical,
and there are so many little bridges within the story that lead
us toward this gradual shift in tone. Alluka's introduction comes
right after the Chimera Ant arc, and in some ways she manages to be
even more terrifying than the ants. I'm not talking about her general demeanor
of course - I'm referring to the fact that she possesses powers that defy all logic and rules
that we've encountered so far in Hunter x Hunter. Like I said before, I'm not even sure if
these powers are related to Nen whatsoever, and even by Chapter 390 we still have no further
explanation on their origins or true nature. I feel like the introduction of Nanika was actually Hunter x Hunter's first
foray into the genre of horror, and this is absolutely perfect setup for the
bleak and constantly tense Succession War arc. Honestly, reading through the manga chapter in
which Nanika's powers are explained with examples feels like reading through a Junji Ito story
- the way that every rule is explained with a different example, the butlers are sacrificed just
so that the Zoldycks can experiment with Nanika, really seems to emulate a story
like Smashed or maybe even Uzumaki. Practically, and a bit more specifically, Alluka just leads us into the concept
of the Dark Continent quite well. Of course we learn that her powers somehow
originated from the Dark Continent, and this creates a brand new mystery
that causes her story arc to be a good segue into the Dark Continent
Expedition and the Succession War. While a shift in tone and the introduction of
an important concept like the Dark Continent are both incredibly important to the
story and world of Hunter x Hunter, I don't want to simply focus on the practical
purposes that Alluka serves in the narrative. Sure, I think that she drives the plot forward,
but I believe that what a character brings thematically to a work of fiction is much
more indicative of who they truly are. I feel like Alluka's character and
story arc are just all about acceptance: what does accepting someone for
who they truly are actually entail? What is unconditional love and
what does loving and accepting a member of your family actually look like? Alluka's story is really a
sad one at first, as we see time and time again how her family never
truly accepts or respects her as a person. Her parents tend to view her as a dangerous
possession that needs to be kept under lock and key, which is exactly why she's been locked
up in the Zoldyck estate for so long; Illumi views her as a means to gain more power; Milluki just
wants to use her to wish for gaming systems or computers; [ __ ] I'm like 95 percent sure that
Kalluto never mentions Alluka in any capacity. Even Killua ends up leaving Alluka to her
isolation for an extended period of time, and although he does have the sneaking
suspicion that Illumi's needle was the reason for this he's still ashamed of himself for
not prioritizing Alluka and leaving her there. While we know the Zoldycks aren't
exactly the most selfless and loving family in the whole world, their treatment of Alluka is demonstrably worse than their
treatment of anybody else in the family. Although I, I guess Killua did get whipped
that one time, so, like, that wasn't great. Oh and he was electrocuted and poisoned. You know what maybe they just
don't like their kids that much. Even people outside of the Zoldyck family
tend to treat Alluka like a mere object: Gotoh refers to her as "valuables" at one point, and, while observing Killua and Illumi's
confrontation, Hisoka only really thinks of how he could use Alluka and her potential
death to fulfill his selfish desires. Hisoka sees everyone like that though, so maybe that's just indicative
of the type of person he is. Alluka's gender is an additional factor
in this lack of acceptance from others. Killua is really the only Zoldyck who
respects that she identifies as female, and he's seen correcting others on the matter. Even if her family didn't view her as an
object, it's hard for me to believe that you can truly accept someone without accepting their
identity and what they wish to be referred to as, and I have the sneaking suspicion
that Alluka would feel the same way. Unfortunately this is a parallel to the real
world, and it shows how trans people can really be ostracized by their own families, the
people who should be there for them most. Fortunately though, we do get to see
a happy ending to Alluka's story. While there are so many people who demonize Alluka and either want nothing to do with her
or simply want to use her for their own ends, Killua is someone who truly
loves and accepts her as a person. At one point during Illumi's pursuit of the two, Alluka asks Killua if things would
be better if she didn't exist. This shows how hurt Alluka actually is by the
events around her and the way people view her, but she seems to recover from this doubt
instantly due to Killua's reassurance. I feel like we could all inherit a little
bit of Alluka's philosophy: yeah it sucks that not everyone in the world is going to like
us, and it sucks that the people who we want to love us sometimes don't feel the same, but it's
really not necessary for everyone to love you. At the end of the day, having even one person
who truly loves you for who you are is more than enough to be happy, and i think Alluka realizes
this and truly appreciates Killua's presence. And isn't it funny how Killua,
the one who truly accepts Alluka, is the only one capable of accessing her powers
without consequence, while the people who would love to use Alluka for their own means
aren't able to abuse her powers at all. This bond doesn't mean that Killua and
Alluka's relationship is perfect though, but once again this is just a
reflection of the real world. While Killua is much more accepting of both
Alluka's gender and Nanika than the rest of the family, he still doesn't fully accept
Nanika as an unchangeable aspect of Alluka. Killua believes that he's doing a good thing
by telling Nanika to never come out again after she heals Gon, but Alluka reprimands
him and demands that he accept Nanika as well. This is what true unconditional
love and acceptance is: Alluka can't change the fact that Nanika
exists within her, nor does she want to, so Killua must accept Nanika
if he truly loves Alluka. Love isn't just accepting what's convenient
about others and simply ignoring everything else, it's so much more than that, and this beautiful
exchange between these two is a perfect example. This has to be one of the most
heartwarming moments in the whole series, I'm pretty sure I cry every time I watch
it, and it's just an amazing way to wrap up Alluka's character arc and the main
theme that she introduced to the story. Just absolutely incredible writing from Togashi. Just a tiny thing before we
move on from this section: something that I love about how Hunter x
Hunter works thematically is that so many characters and their abilities are direct
parallels of Nen and its restrictions. I talked about that idea at
length in my Chrollo analysis, and I think the same idea applies with Alluka. Again, I don't really think Alluka's abilities
are Nen-based, but the way that her demands become greater and greater, increasing proportionally
with how demanding the previous wish was, is a direct parallel to how Nen's power increases based
on limitations or other special circumstances. Such as literally dying. Nanika being unable to heal
things without touching them is also a parallel to Nen limitations,
which is a nice little detail I found And now we've gotten to the crux of this video:
how does Alluka complete Hunter x Hunter? Just like when I was discussing
what she brings to Hunter x Hunter, there are both thematic and
practical answers to this question. Let's start with the practical, since I think
it's probably the most obvious answer of the two. Of course Alluka is the entire reason that Gon
is able to be healed and complete a story arc after his complete mental and physical
breakdown during his fight with Pitou, and this is most likely the main reason
that Togashi introduced her to the story. Obviously Togashi is amazing
at crafting multi-dimensional characters with amazing arcs of personal growth, but at the end of the day characters
need to serve a purpose within the plot. Alluka is why we're actually able to see
Gon achieve his goal of meeting his father, and without her we're basically left with nothing. We'd have the absolute most depressing
ending we could possibly get to what was otherwise an incredibly beautiful
and compelling plot so far. It's kind of crazy how a character who's
around for less than 10 episodes in total is able to alter the plot so dramatically, and even though they're completely different
characters with different roles this is another aspect of Alluka that actually
reminds me of my analysis of Chrollo. I really don't think a character's amount of
screen time is as meaningful or integral as we might believe it is, and Alluka is just
another example of a character who means so much to Hunter x Hunter while still only existing
on screen for a relatively short amount of time. So healing Gon is a pretty easy way to
show that Alluka completes Hunter x Hunter, and obviously her impact on the plot
and Gon's life is super important, but that's so obvious that there's not
really any analysis needed on my part there. What's probably just as obvious, but has even
more meaning to the story as a whole, is how Alluka truly completes Killua's character arc. Killua was already a great character long
before Alluka's introduction to the series: he has a cool design, unique personality,
intriguing backstory, and a great bond with Gon. Oh also he uses [ __ ] lightning that's so cool. Anyways, while Killua has tons of moments of
great character development, there was always one thing missing from his
character when compared to Gon. Killua was missing a true
purpose and goal of his own. For most of the series Killua was essentially following Gon and just supporting
him in his goal of finding Ging. Now that's completely fine, I think
Killua had a good reason for doing so, and part of his reason for following Gon around
was to find a goal and purpose for himself. With Gon being out of commission
during the 13th chairman election, and with illumi's needle being removed
previously, Killua experiences true independence, possibly for the first time ever, right
after the Chimera Ant arc's conclusion. This is the perfect time for him
to gain his own purpose in life, and Alluka is the person that gives him that. Killua learns how important
Alluka truly is to him, and, after finally accepting Nanika as an
unalterable part of Alluka's being, he even decides to travel solely with
Alluka instead of staying with Gon. Of course Gon is still incredibly important to
Killua as a friend, but Alluka is the reason that one of Hunter x Hunter's main characters is
able to have a true, overarching purpose in life. I think it's interesting how the end of both Gon
and Killua's character arcs are so interwoven, and Alluka is really the glue that
brings these two parallels together. Alluka is the main reason why Gon is actually
able to achieve his goal of meeting Ging, and, interestingly enough, Gon
would have never achieved this goal without the existence of the person
who gave Killua a true purpose in life. Killua needed to have an actual goal before
Gon could finally achieve his own, and Alluka is the person who truly completes both of their
character arcs - at the exact same time in fact. I also really love how the most important
scene for Alluka's character arc - her demanding that Killua accept both herself
and Nanika - runs pretty much parallel with Ging finally accepting and
acknowledging Gon as his son. I think Alluka and Gon are both examples of people
who can love and care for another person without lingering on that person's past mistakes, and
the interactions between both Killua and Alluka, and later Ging and Gon - they're just so
meaningful to watch with this in mind. I really just love Alluka's character - she's
not in the story for a whole lot of time, but I think the impact she makes during her
short stint is absolutely impossible to ignore. She brings new ideas to the world of
Hunter x Hunter, but at the same time she closes off what are arguably the two
most important character arcs in the story. I genuinely believe Alluka is
the character that completes Hunter x Hunter both thematically and practically, and I could not imagine a satisfactory conclusion
for the anime that doesn't involve her. I love the anime's ending so much, and that makes me appreciate Alluka's
character so much more than I otherwise would. Thanks so much for watching this video! I really love doing these character analyses,
and I have so many more planned for the future. Please let me know what you
thought in the comments, maybe leave a suggestion for a future
video, and I'll see you all next time. See ya. [music]
