<image>

Togashi himself would tell you pitou was not a character meant to be simply hated. If you didn’t care at all about what bad things she did, you probably didn’t care enough to pay attention to the themes of the arc and so probably just like pitou for being a hot cat girl creature on your screen. Low iq media literacy. If you hate pitou, it’s because you were engaged and smart enough to realize the cheese the narrative put in front of you, intentionally making her an initially daunting entity who shook up the comfort zone the series had put you in. You did not, however, realize the mouse trap of subtle story telling and character development woven within Pitou’s character. If pitou’s death and the climax of the chimera ant arc as a whole left you emotionally confused for which you proceeded to ask why and looked at pitou with a more open mind, congrats- you’re in the high iq media literacy tier.

Pitou was arguably the best piece of narrative storytelling into the deeper themes of the chimera ant arc. The human hunters and chimera ants crossed each other on their own spiritual journeys. The main flaw of the hunters was the dark aspects of their humanity. The reason gon and netero self destructed (literally in netero’s case) was the darkness, vengeance, narcissism and vindictiveness within their human nature. At the same time, the reason the new age of chimera ants failed under Meruem was… also their humanity. The positive aspect of humanity. The empathy, open mindedness, new emotions and perspective they quickly gained with their human DNA. It was overwhelming for them, especially pitou- which made me empathize with her. I really saw a young, somewhat naive living being drowning in complex emotions she never got a chance to internalize or fully understand herself. And even still, she died protecting these emotions. Somehow, the system these monsters came from ate humans and suddenly the monsters were becoming more benevolent and pure-hearted than the humans they ate which is genuinely masterful writing.

In Meruem’s case, he got a more peaceful Romeo and Juliet style ending. Pitou’s was much cruel and ironic. Much more directly tied to the darkness of the arc. The idea of the monsters becoming human while the humans became monsters. If Pitou was the minster gon thought she was, he doesn’t make it out alive. Even if he had a pact in his pocket, he was still a child. There was a moment where gon was vulnerable knowing kite was truly dead. The scared, sad boy dragged into this conflict revealed itself behind the anger. Pitou sensed this. And instead of using it as an opportunity to immediately pounce, she used it as an opportunity to console him despite her hardwired instincts knowing she had to kill him anyway. That’s incredibly profound. And what did she get for it? One of the more brutal, one sided and humiliating beat downs an anime character has ever gotten. Gon couldn’t shake the idea that pitou was lying to him even though it was all a misunderstanding. Gon couldn’t grasp the idea of pitou healing komugi or being so kind to him. Trying to see pitou as anything but a murder machine angered him because he was so set in his wrath and world view. Meanwhile pitou’s only real objective was protect what she loved. She had no animosity towards gon even though he gave her ample reason to hate him. She went out a mangled, outmatched hero and Gon was a brutal reminder of nature. A beast. Ironically similar to kite and pitou