Hisoka from HUNTER×HUNTER is, by any sane measure, a dangerous man.
He gets an unhealthy thrill out of fighting strong opponents. He watches promising kids like "unripe fruit" and plans to hunt them down once they've grown enough. Normally, he's exactly the type of person you should never go near.
But line up what he does from the Heavens Arena arc through the Greed Island arc, and a different side shows up.
For all his perversion, isn't he oddly a good senior to Gon?
At Heavens Arena, he basically keeps them safe by saying "not yet"
When Gon and Killua reached the 200th floor of Heavens Arena, they still knew nothing about Nen, the power of controlling your life energy.
If they'd gone on like that, Nen users could have given them a brutal "welcome" and might even have left them unable to fight again. So Hisoka stepped in front of the two and used the pressure of his Nen to stop them from going any further.
It looks like obstruction, but what he's really doing is quite educational.
- He stops them because they aren't strong enough yet
- He gives them a clear task: learn Nen
- Once they meet the minimum standard, he lets them through
- Afterward, he checks on their growth by fighting them for real
Seen as a teacher, he has clear pass criteria and rarely moves the goalposts.
His real goal is "to have a fun fight with them someday," so his ethics are completely wrecked. But judged purely as a training method, it holds together.
In Greed Island, he turns into a genuinely reliable ally
Hisoka gets even weirder in the Greed Island arc.
He's closer to an enemy by nature, yet when Gon and the others invite him, he joins the dodgeball game against Razor and works as a perfectly normal team member.
And the quality of his work is high.
- He catches Razor's balls
- He controls the ball's path with Bungee Gum
- He doesn't drop out even when his fingers are broken
- He understands Gon's stubborn wish to win in a "perfect" way
- In the end, he locks in the victory with a rebound
Take the scene where Gon, Killua, and Hisoka work together to stop Razor's ball, and it's a textbook shonen manga team of friends.
The only catch is that they plan to try to kill each other later. For now, they've already played a life-or-death ball game together.
He even gives a Bungee Gum lecture, like a coach
In the Greed Island arc, Hisoka himself even gives a Bungee Gum lecture, with a live demonstration.
He explains that Bungee Gum is an ability that "has the properties of both rubber and gum," and then shows how to use it in an actual fight on the spot.
- Stick it to the ball
- Absorb the impact
- Use its stretchiness
- Change the ball's path
- Bounce it back at the opponent
Ability explanation, demonstration, application, and a successful example: the whole package is there.
At Heavens Arena it's "learn Nen, then come back." In Greed Island it's "watch my ability and learn from it." And at the end, "once you've grown, come fight your teacher."
His teaching philosophy is strangely consistent, at least.
Hisoka is a passionate coach whose ethics have completely vanished.
Is "Gon-san" Gon at his peak?
Hisoka wants Gon to grow a lot more and ripen fully before they fight.
So is "Gon-san" (the grown-up Gon form) that finished version?
It's worth separating the two.
Gon-san isn't Gon becoming an adult through ordinary training. It's an abnormal form in which he forced out, only temporarily, power he would have gained in the future, by making a binding vow with heavy conditions.
He got enough power to overwhelm Pitou in speed and output and destroy him one-sidedly, but in exchange he threw away nearly the rest of his life and his Nen ability.
So the "completed Gon" Hisoka is waiting for is quite likely not the same as Gon-san.
What Hisoka probably wants is a Gon like this:
- His body and aura are fully grown
- He has gathered real combat experience
- He has Nen skill and the ability to apply it
- He can engage in mind games and tactics
- He has enough composure to enjoy a fight to the death
Gon-san, on the other hand, is closer to an emergency demolition mode, with output pushed to the limit just to beat Pitou.
It's less that the unripe fruit Hisoka was raising has ripened, and more that the whole tree suddenly went nuclear.
Hisoka versus Gon-san: surely Gon-san wins?
The story never compares them directly, so I can't say for sure, but going by how they're drawn, it's natural to see Gon-san as far stronger.
Hisoka's strength isn't just raw aura.
- His inventive use of Bungee Gum
- His eye for reading an opponent's ability
- His judgment in using the battlefield
- Psychological warfare with lies and taunts
- A fighting sense that builds a path to victory even while taking damage
Still, Gon-san moved at a speed Pitou couldn't keep up with, and even his ordinary attacks did fatal damage.
If the gap in basic power and speed is too large, the fight could be over before Hisoka can even put a plan together.
What Hisoka ideally wants isn't simply someone overwhelmingly stronger than himself.
It's an opponent who could kill him too, but whose win or loss can still be swayed by ingenuity and mind games.
In that sense, Gon-san may even be too strong, and might not make the kind of game Hisoka likes.
Is the strength Hisoka truly wants to hunt "Chrollo-level"?
Considering that the finished product Hisoka has been obsessed with for the longest time is Chrollo, the answer is pretty close to "yes."
Chrollo isn't just strong in a straight fight. He can match Hisoka in combining abilities, preparing, designing the battlefield, and psychological warfare.
In their match at Heavens Arena, Chrollo used several abilities and a huge crowd of spectators to set up a sure way to kill Hisoka.
On the result alone, it was a total win for Chrollo. But the fact that someone like Chrollo prepared that much is itself proof that he couldn't take Hisoka lightly.
The opponent Hisoka is looking for probably meets these conditions:
- As strong as himself, or stronger
- Has complex abilities that are rewarding to figure out
- One mistake means his own death
- Still leaves room to win through mind games
- Fighting them is deeply thrilling in itself
Chrollo meets these conditions almost perfectly.
Illumi is also highly rated by Hisoka and is surely a target for the hunt. But Chrollo is a special "fully ripe" one even among them.
Gon and Killua are the long-term investments, valued for their potential. Chrollo is the finished dish he wants to eat right now.
A pervert and a great coach, both at once
What makes Hisoka interesting is that his perverted desires and his rationality as a trainer live side by side without contradiction.
A normal villain crushes a dangerous talent while it's still immature.
Hisoka does the opposite.
- Protect them while they're immature
- Make them learn the basics
- Let them build real combat experience
- Show them his own ability as teaching material
- Wait until they've grown to their best
- Hunt them in the end
He seems to wish for his students' success, but his final goal is a fight to the death with them.
He's devoted to teaching, and the only thing about it that's totally criminal is the purpose.
Even so, Hisoka in the Greed Island arc is undeniably dependable. From Gon's point of view, too, he's someone whose character can't be trusted but whose abilities and combat judgment can.
Basic training at Heavens Arena, hands-on coaching in Greed Island, and a graduation exam that is a fight to the death with the teacher himself.
Hisoka really is a total creep.
And at the same time, he's an all-too-excellent coach.
