17 Disturbing 'Hunter x Hunter' Moments That Are Much More Brutal In The Manga

A lot of small side characters meet their end during the difficult Hunter Exam, and Geretta was one of them. It’s incredibly bad luck that he ended up being Hisoka’s target during the Fourth Phase of the exam, considering Hisoka is on this list many times for his gory scenes.

Anime-only fans know of Geretta’s death with Hisoka dropping his limp body in front of Gon. This is an altered version from the manga, where Hisoka actually shows up carrying Geretta’s head in his hands and blood dripping from the neck. 

Hisoka is one of the more questionable characters of Hunter x Hunter, so seeing him pull a card out of his own arm isn’t out of place. However, the mid-battle act was a little more tame in the anime than in the original manga panel.

Overall, the series of events were kept the same: Hisoka asks Kastro to think of a card, does a series of steps involving adding and subtracting values, and then pulls the resulting card out of his arm. In the anime, the trick is only highlighted with a few scratches and blood spots, but more sparkles and pizzazz than anything else. The manga version is more graphic and makes sure to highlight all the gross sound effects you can imagine that comes with reaching into your arm. 

The Heavens Arena Arc has multiple censored manga-to-anime scenes, but this could be considered the biggest change of them all. After using his Tiger Bite Fist Nen ability to rip off Hisoka’s arm mid-fight, Kastro declares that he’s going to hit his opponent with another ability thereafter. Instead of showing any sort of fear, Hisoka decides to taunt Kastro. In the manga, he does this by taking a bite into the flesh of his now cut-off arm.

Obviously, this grosses out a lot of characters in the stands, and probably would’ve done the same to the anime audience so it’s no surprise they switched it up. The adaptation shows Hisoka simply twirling his limb like a basketball instead. It’s nowhere close to how gory the original storyline was, but maybe that’s for the best.

Most fans spotlight the Hunter Exam Arc when pointing out notable changes from manga to anime, and this edit is one of them. After the First Phase of the exam is finished, the examiner is accused of being a fraud. To dispel the accuser, Hisoka throws his cards at them, ultimately ending their life.

Although the manga shows the cards cutting straight through the person’s face, it seems the animators decided to change the scene for anime audiences. Instead of having the cards pierce flesh directly, they opted to have them hit the person’s body and completely remove any visuals of the cards hitting their face. We only get to see the person’s back as they’re hit with the last few cards and collapse.

The Chimera Ant Arc isn’t known for censoring much - it’s pretty brutal even on-screen. However, there’s a few instances where the anime adaptation omitted some of the grosser details for TV audiences. 

When the Ants arrive at the Royal Palace grounds of East Gorteau, the supreme leader is there, but he’s more annoyed than threatened. The man barely gets a word out as they quickly end him and move on to wiping out the guards. The only indication we get that he’s deceased is the quick shot of his body lying in blood near the top of the scene’s frame, whereas in the manga, you can’t ignore how barbaric his death is. The panel itself is censored, but you can still see his body ripped open with all his organs spilling out.  

Following his match against Kastro, Hisoka is left with two severed arms. Machi is introduced to the series to help sew his limbs back together with her Nen Stitches ability. Like a lot of the scenes during the early part of the show, most of this sequence is highlighted with shiny outlines and some bloody scratches, but not much else.

Had the anime stayed true to the manga in their portrayal, we would have gotten a much more grisly spectacle. Originally, an insane amount of detail was shown from Hisoka’s severed limbs, down to the bone, flesh, and blood. While animating it would have been a testament to the studio’s talent, we can understand why this specific scene wasn’t exactly television appropriate.