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@@rhiannn3416 definitely not upsetting but still weird and warranted a question in my eye since the same emojis were used before and you’d need to hold your finger on an emoji to change the color so I don’t see your rapid clicking theory being the case 🫠
Idk why it was so unexpected, we’ve seen that the HxH world has plenty of modern tech including cell phones and guns, but ending an epic anime hand to hand battle with an actual nuclear bomb is so fucking creative 😭😂
Super poetic too, as genius as Meruem was he never expected someone to blow up the Gungi board. Our infinite potential for evolution is due to our willingness to break rules - like we literally had to defy a law of physics to create the nuke lol. It's so good!
"It's a tomb, your tomb" "An insect should not talk down to humans" "Ant King, you believe I can't pray with a single arm? A prayer comes from the heart" "Meruem, King of Ants, you understand nothing... of humanity's infinite potential for evolution!" "It was the first time the King had felt fear" "If there is a hell, I'll see you there" "I see... you had me in checkmate, from the start"
The better translation should be “infinite potential of malice”. It is a wording game since the original script in Japanese can mean both “malice” and “evolution”.
Meruem truly didn’t understand humans, yes an individual like Netero can train for decades and become one of the strongest humans with nen, but all that effort and power doesn’t even compare to a low budget mass produced bomb, humans are far more lethal and insane than the ants, we would’ve carpet bombed that entire country with bombs 10x stronger than this one if we needed to win, there really was never a way for the ants to actually defeat humanity because they don’t know how far we’ll go and how much we’ll evolve to win.
Even sending in the Hunter Association to deal with the Chimera Ants was just to sidestep the political ramifications of invading East Gorteau since if things got messy it would be their fault instead.
It is important to underline the fact that the bomb used was "low budget" and "massively produced" meaning, in short, that humanity has by the point of the series far surpassed the capabilities of even the strongest nen users. Lola touches on that at 26:49 as she very correctly mentions that the ants basically never stood a chance even if no hunters existed whatsoever.
Remember, the leg and arm he lost were the same he refused to use while playing keepaway with the volleyball against Killua and Gon on the airship, hunter's exam.
@@maybeitsyou1317 I mean, for one this achieves nothing. Which arm or leg is used then and now is completely irrelevant to the story and situation. The same way having a character wear a black shirt does not foreshadow another character wearing a black shirt. It's pointless. Second, it's literally 50/50. Both situations require one arm and one leg. So yes, 50% chance its coincidence. Saying it's foreshadowing claims that when tagashi wrote the bloon fight, he already chose which arm based on... an arbitrary choice years later. yea right
bro if you are actually knowing how the author make this subtle detail, it is no need to tell now cause we are still far from the finale of the chimera arc.
28:40 "you are not more evil than us, we have the capacity to be as evil" damn this was a satisfying discussion, so happy you nailed it. even without knowing the other translation of netero saying "you understand nothing of humanity's infinite potential for evolution/malice" you still picked up on the double meaning yourselves, and of how that evolution goes hand in hand with our capacity for malice. they really never stood a chance. the chimera ants were just big frogs in a small pond, and the king realized in that moment that lakes and oceans exist.
I've watched that final scene probably a hundred times by now, and yet it still never fails to give me absolute chills each and every time. "You don't understand anything... about humanity's infinite potential for evolution (malice)!" The fact that the original Manga line included both words, implying that humanity's evolution is intrinsically linked to their malice, as it is our endless malice that has allowed us to evolve beyond any other creature on Earth and keeps us on top despite other predators being physically superior, and in turn, we use our evolution (science & knowledge) to create the most efficient and effective methods to kill and eradicate threats, feeding into our malice. Humanity always wins because there is no low humanity isn't willing to sink to in order to survive.
Indeed, both words matter. A lot of people watch the dub, which uses "bottomless malice," and don't understand the theme of evolution throughout the entire arc and how, for human societies, evolution and dominance is driven by the development malicious technologies. It especially makes sense for Japan, given how they were defeated by malicious nuclear technology in WW2.
I think it's a testament to how well these two understand this series that they reached this exact same conclusion, without knowing that that's how it was written.
Netero doing the form of a heart with his hands. He was using a shirt with "heart" written on it. "Do you think i can not pray with one arm?, a prayer comes from the heart". Netero reach his potential when he learned that "gratitude" was the answer, just as in life.
In the manga, Netero says the word “Malice” with “Evolution” furigana. King of Ants, Meruem. You know nothing of humanity’s infinite potential for 悪意(シンカ)！ Malice (evolution)!
@@ronaldgonzalezmedina8482 the malice was shown with Netero dropping a damn bomb on Meruem. Better they used evoluton rather than malice as we can see the malice easier than we would think "oh we are so evolved".
**Back during the hunters exam** Killua: Can't you see he's been using only his left hand and his right foot all this time? Netero: And I thought I was being discrete
something that really endeared me to this arc is the fact that, I just could not guess how things would develop at every step of the way. in other shows you could somewhat guess and maybe recognize some tropes, I remember just being floored by some twists and turns. Nothing really goes like what you think it would, its such an unique arc for me. I think i have read similar stories but none quite as this one.
Fr. There is no way you can predict this. This whole arc is peak shounens (and peak anime in general) and such a breath of fresh air compared to many many shounens which more than not follow a very similar formula. Hxh has always been special in the way that it follows the "shounens formula" but with togashi's own personal twist. He imbues the common tropes with fleshed out characters and a meaningful storyline that will avert your expectations and turn your upside down. Really love it. And I love that "the power of friendship" just isn't a thing here. Yes they are incredibly good friendships here. But their friendships don't magically grant them superpowers. And, spoilers: Just look what happened to Gon
Fun fact: The Hiroshima atomic bomb created an explosion that reached the 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Celsius near the hypocenter. In the place equivalent to where Meruem was, near the bomb, it reached almost a million degrees celsius. There is no living being (or dead, because it disintegrates) that survives that. What Meruem felt coming from Netero was not Nen, it was pure 悪意 (akui) : malice.
@@Ukyo14. and you'll see it wasnt a nuke lol. a nuke is not low budget nor compact, and it was never once defined as a nuke, instead being defined as a normal bomb, because it isnt a nuke.
Togashi is a legend for ending this super epic battle between two very powerful characters in a world with a very cool and intricate power system, with a bomb. Like yeah yeah, nen is cool and all, but here's a fucking nuke!
spoiler . . . . . . and then it ends with extiniction level threats to which humanity has no answers too and the dark continent. which is another reverrsal on the reader who thought technology had surpassed all the supernatural.
It's mind-blowing when you think about Netero's Zero hand ability, how he created it : since it requires his entire aura he can only use it one time as his ultimate attack before he dies, so his opponent would be the last and he already knew that he would be grateful and only feel "indiscriminate love" towards whoever that person will be, so he used his heart t-shirt as a symbol of that mindset, prepared to die and give it his all... but it wasn't enough to kill Meruem...and the bomb was designed to be activated when his heart dies, like he's giving up on love, gratitude has 'failed', and now only the result of humanity's malice can handle it and Netero is giving up, accepting that he's going to hell after that...damn... I'm sure he hated it when Meruem came out alright bc then he knew there was no other choice... I believe if Zero hand was enough there would be a way to remove the bomb and he would die the normal way
Netero knew the King was stronger. He implanted the nuke for a reason. If he implanted it, but then killed the King without it, well now he can no longer live in civilization.
"Fuck this intricate power system I made, we got nukes. And even the cheapest, lowest quality ones are so much stronger." is such a big dick play from a writing standpoint
I mean it makes sense from every point of view because even the strongest enhancer we've seen are not even mountain level, yet a nuclear bomb can wipe out an entire city. HxH characters are crazy powerful but still pretty grounded.
Yeah but the thing is, only nuclear bombs are the only weapons so far that are stronger than the strongest nen users. Regular weapons such as guns are not nearly as effective against actually skilled nen users like when Uvogin was able to tank all the bullets and even a fucking rocket launcher back in Yorknew or even if they're not as durable as a master enhancer like Uvo, they can still dodge them or like what Kurapika did where he caught the bullets using his chains.
Love seeing your reactions. Always very expressive, but not forced. There are people who think reaction videos have no value; but to me, it’s a new way to enjoy my favorite anime/shows. Thank you! ❤
This will always be one of my favorite moments in fiction, the entire battle and how no matter how powerful you are in this world, a low budget bomb can finish you off. It's masterful at showing us the true potential for evolution/evil of humanity.
One of the greatest anime episode and anime fight of all time. Up there in top 5 and will stand there forever. The art was just so beautiful. The pace, the music, the animation, the voice actors, the exchange of words, all the writing, all still holds up til dis day Netero's power is so different because it came first from gratitude that resulted in all of this purity and love. "Prayer comes from the heart" is literally the pinnacle of individual strength
He said that years ago. Then months ago. Then weeks ago. Then days ago. Don't listen to that guy. Just be happy when a chapter drops. Otherwise you will live in perpetual dissapointment.
@@maybeitsyou1317I mean didn't he release a couple of chapters like a year or two ago? And also it seems he has decided to focus on it somewhat recently, it seems out of contemplating his mortality. I just hope he proceeds at a healthy pace.
@@GoldenLeafsMovies I hope he writes a damn novel. Have a really important (and good) drawing every 8 pages or so. Maybe then we will see the end to this story.
What I really love about this is that even if we have people that could use abilities to blast, make extremely strong punches, shoot from their fingers or even create a miniature sun, what ultimately is considered the greatest menace is mass destruction weapons, like true human cruelty nonetheless. It's tremendously poetic to see that at the end the message is "we prefer to destroy absolutely everything including ourselves before kneeling down to ants".
Definitely the ants. If not for Netero, well cavillation is absolutely doomed. In the real world, whoever or whatever it is that is a threat to your species, is the monster.
Fun fact: Togashi actually used a character in the manga that can be read both as “Malice” and “Evolution” - so Netero says “you understand nothing of humanity’s infinite potential for malice/evolution.” Both being equal in what it meant for Meruem’s fate.
28:43 Lola has absolutely nailed it. What an episode! This is definitely the kind of episode that sticks in your head for a long, long, long time. Now you are part of the unfortunate group that can never watch this episode for the first time again.
This is one your best reactions ever. And this whole show is a masterpiece, this episode being the climax in my opinion. Don't underestimate the human race, ant.
I love how in the end they display the king's point of view of Netero. He see him having an evil dark aura and a skull representing death as if he is doing what Pitou did to Gon and Killua with her nen aura, but at that point Netero hand no nen left. It was the fact that the defeated man didn't look defeated and basically told him "you are going to die now" it was that alone that made him feel fear. It wasn't nen it was the human malice.
So incredibly thankful you watched the version with the CORRECT English subs. I think it's Netflix which paid amateurs to make their own in-house subs for everything they host, and instead of "checkmate from the start" they have "you had me defeated from the start", completely missing the point. Many such examples in hxh, and so many others on Netflix.
Netero stopped/detonated his own heart beat and make nuclear self-explosion with devil smile on his face. Netero said and proved "the essence of human evolution is bottomless malice within human heart". His dying gloat and destructive power with his evil intent in the battle Netero vs Meruem is the best anime power up ever.
"King of Ants, you believe I cannot pray with a single arm?" gives me CHILLS every time I hear it. I say this to myself every once in a while when I feel like some task is too difficult for me 😅
Yea, the moment they implanted the bomb in Netero, he had no choice but to go through with this mission. Could you imagine if his heart stopped one day from him being old? There goes an entire city and plenty of dead citizens.
So glad to see you girls love this ep. the genuine "oh come on" feeling you girls had as Netero kept doing the most inhumane feats of strenght imaginable only to be b eaten by the king was really cute, it's rare to see you girls frustrated by a fight ^^ , since the days of i think Season 3 of AOT ? Netero is legit such a great character, he's on screen for so little and yet he represents so much of humankind, both the humanity and devotion (his true peak of power being born of gratitude for martial arts and his ability to empathize with the king) and the worst (he's best friend with an assasin and planned to win by using the worst weapon one could bring). He's legit peak badass old man anime trope.
Not quite. The word you hear Netero say, "shinka", is just "evolution". But in the manga Togashi uses the separate word "malice" as furigana (which is usually next to kanji just to show how to read it) for the double meaning in that scene, like a second english word written in small-print above the first. For the record, "malice" is "akui".
Netero implanted the poor man's rose before the attack on the king for the situation that if he couldn't beat him he would use it. He pretty much knew he was set up against a threat that was way higher then they classified it before but his ego wouldn't have let him to back down or bring more high skilled Hunters with him so he brought it in case to show that he would still accomplish his mission.
Absolutely on the first watch the Evolution line fills you with pride until you realize it's true connotation. Although eveb after that I felt good haha
I just realized that Netero was even professional enough to have his fight happen inside an area designated as a weapons testing ground (something we can infer other countries are aware of, considering Netero knew about it). Because of this, an explosion of the caliber of the bomb he was carrying 1 wouldn't kill everyone inside and around the palace and 2 wouldn't be seen as suspicious by foreign entities and thus further complicating the situation inside East Gorteau.
I came across this at the Home, I love them!😍 I hadn't seen them in ages, and now they're all grown up. They bring back memories of when they used to react to the series The 100 ❤❤️
I remember that in the manga there is a double meaning/transalation in the last words of netero about the human potential, it was about the evil/evolution of mankind and I think it has a total sense... specially using the miniature rose and all the context about that is used in dictatorships and is a low budget bomb, but still totally destructive and poisonous
" if there's a hell, i'll see you there" - is more like a heartfelt wish to me. Netero wants to see Meruem again, that much. 😂😂😂 for me it's Netero saying : i wish i did not have to do this, so my wish is wherever i go after this, you will be there. how ridiculously romantic is that. also it reminds me of a little conversation Killua and Gon has at the end credits of an episode. Gon asked Killua what he wants to be in his next life ( incarnation). Killua said : what about you Gon? then Gon said : in my next life, i want to be Me, and meet You again. ❤❤❤ Also a call back to Goku wishing that Buu would reincarnate so he can fight Buu again, and Buu did, he became the little kid Uub, a country pumpkin with a heart of gold, just like baby Goku was. then the end of Dragon Ball ( classic manga version), the real ending of DG, is Goku ditching everything behind, flying away with Uub, hoping and ecstatic to train Uub to become the strongest warrior, the next savior of the planet!!! ❤❤❤ How incredibly romantic 😍 ❤️ 💕 💖 ♥️
"the bomb was both low budget and compact. it was fairly common between dictatorships" this line hits so heavy considering how much meruem was underestimating humans and basically considering them as mere livestock, but a common low budget nuke was all it took to kill him. most of humanity dont even know of his existence by now. thats what netero meant when he said "dont underestimate humans, meruem" because we may not be individually superior, but our collective efforts toward the evolution of our race is what makes us the most dominant species on earth.
when people ask me how can I say that this version is better than the 99 version without ever having seen it (the 99 one I mean). it's because in that version stops before chimeras's saga, thus losing masterpieces such as this episode for example. and the best is yet to come🤩🤩
This anime is extremely good, it simply ends this episode by giving a history lesson. his scene as Netero saying that yes, on paper, ants are superior in every way. But humans have survived for literally thousands of years by beating animals that could easily gore, tear or crush us. He is saying that humans, over thousands of years of existence, have developed this ultra-refined survival instinct and that although Meruem is all-powerful, he is naive in understanding the lengths humans will go to in order to survive. He is a Lord over 100 years old who knows humanity, he knows what humans are capable of if necessary, the same evil that comes from our wisdom is the same evil that causes us to be defeated by ourselves, our " ego that corrupts/cuts ties" which Meruem himself mentions. It's true, but that's one of the reasons we have so many developments resulting from wars. What can also be understood is that even though Netero was a creature of the highest level in the "human" lineup, he was no match for the ant King and both were no match for this very low-cost bomb, created for destructive purposes. Mention for the "pink" bomb, which actually only has that nickname due to comparison, a song and other things... In fact, its real name is Little Boy, the bomb used in Hiroshima during the war period. This bomb had 15kt of power, which is something "small" compared to the power of the current ones that were registered and declared by their countries (remembering that there are possibly other bombs of a higher level that were not shown because just their sample would cause panic throughout the world , because the biggest bomb ever recorded today is already causing a lot of controversy due to the fact that it has the power to destroy an entire State, if I'm not mistaken it is a "100m tsar". Imagine someone saying that there is one measuring 1000 mt or more, it is practically an entire continent disappearing, and the problem becomes much bigger due to the impact on nature that this will cause and reflect in other places, waves, volcanoes, earthquakes, temperatures, in short what is possible end of humanity. 'Littleboy' was used at a time when Japan was ruled by a communist regime. The bombs were created precisely out of fear of cruel ideologies that will cause the end of the world, also with a longer shelf life, but with many scars in history, an immeasurable cruelty. However, unfortunately, as our evolution increased, many scientists learned how to create a bomb of this level, and each country began to create their own, and the problem with this is who is sitting in the chair who can make the decision. Unfortunately, people lacking intelligence and some of them fearful, have the privilege of this place and may make this terrible decision one day.
that last sentence I see now yes... I see... you had me in checkmate from the start. Holy hell fire the look on you 2 face wonderful I felt the same way love your vids love your discussions dont ever change.
When I was watching this show with friends who had already watched it, I saw that Meruem was indestructible and said something like “wtf? How are they gonna defeat these ants? Kill them with fire? Bomb them to death?” It was a passing comment for me so I didn’t even remember saying that. When this episode happened, my friend said I’d predicted it lol
@21:26 Milena admitting that they couldn't predict this show is the highest compliment I can offer Togashi-sensei. He's a master of his craft who sits alone like Meruem at the top of storytelling. This stuff is just majestic and this arc is nowhere near its peak lol.
If netero was like 50 years younger or if even the king hadn't played all these strategy/tactical games, his mind wouldn't have been developed enough to figure out how to stop Netero
I think this arc is so poetic. I think the Ants might be a parallel for the Japanese Empire going up against the United States in World War II. At the time, the Japanese military was particularly ruthless in its conquests in East and Southeast Asia, including the less developed Korea (East Gorteau), and influcted great atrocities on local populations. The soldiers were also extremely loyal and treated the Japanese Emperor like a deity, who they were willing to die for, just like who King was viewed by the other Ants. At one point, they probably did think the loyal Japanese military could easily dominate the more individual, "less devoted" American soldiers in warfare, just like Mereum thought of humans. Yet, the use of nuclear bombs showed that Japan had underestimated the American's "infinite potential for [technological] evolution" driven by the "malice" of military interests and global geopolitics, which later continued throughout the Cold War and beyond. I'm not sure the details are exactly right, but I do think Japan in World War II definitely inspired arc (especially considering how Japanese monster fiction like Godzilla fiction emerged right after WW2).
Togashi took us on a simple trip to our real world, as if he was saying Hunter's World and the power in it cannot keep up with our current technological development, as a bomb known to our real world was enough to end the most powerful villain in the story.
When I first watched HxH, I finished it all in 3 days, I watched this episode 2 hours before my work shift was supposed to start, I was then late for work because I got too hooked and watched a bunch more! HxH is fucking amazing, I hope Togashi gets better health wise so he could do more of the manga and we get more manga/anime. HxH is also by far one of the best anime I've personally ever seen!
Netero vs Meruem is an easy contender for the greatest fight in all of anime. Its definitely my choice for that title. If you go all the way back to when Netero played keep away with the ball on the airship with Gon & Killua during the Hunter's Exam, he prevents himself from using one arm and one leg to make it fair, the same arm and leg he lost in his fight with the King. Unreal detail/foreshadowing. Also, there are two different translations for the line Netero speaks to Meruem right before he dies. "You have no idea of humanity's infinite potential for evolution" (used in this ep) however i personally prefer the other translation: "You know nothing of the bottomless malice within the human heart." IMO this translation speaks more to the horrifying destruction capable of being caused by a nuke, a weapon so terrifying that one would have to give up their own humanity to use on other people.
Translation note: When Netero says "evolution" in the manga, he uses the kanji word for "malice", but the furigana (small characters that show how read a kanji) spells out "evolution" in Japanese. So Netero is really saying "Never underestimate humanity's potential for evolution and malice."
The bomb description is the cherry ontop imo. The peak of animal evolution got killed by a budget bomb used by assholes in small dictatorships. Netero didn't have to go there. Humans could've nuked the whole island with a better bomb since the start
I'm glad you finally made it to this episode! Just personally, "A prayer comes from the heart" is probably my favorite line and moment in any piece of media I've consumed. "You know nothing of humanity’s infinite potential for malice" is second. I love how HxH portrays humanity and our world, despite not being set in the real world. Togashi really created something special.
If you look back at the first time Meruem saw Guanyin, in his eyes you see a reflection of Guanyin, and it looks like a nuclear bomb. I don't remember if the reflection was in the Manga or not, but it's a really cool detail a friend pointed out that I didn't catch after many many watches.
