#noko hxh

[cocogum]

Togashi planned different endings for HxH.

The fourth one surprised people.

Recently, there have been news regarding Togashi on his health and what would become of HxH in the near future, so he wrote his answers on a talk show for an interview. From the small leaks and sneak peeks that people were able to gather and collect from the ongoing interview, we got to know a bit more about Togashi’s thought process as well as what he had planned for some scenes to go about but later changed.

These sneak peeks and leaks were later translated by these same fans and got shown on Reddit. You can find some of the translated questions and answers HERE!

But while this was going on, what really caught the fans’ attention about this interview (that we got of for now), were the possible endings Togashi had in mind. Since his health and back weren’t doing so good, Togashi figured he could at least give us some information on the possible endings of HxH he had planned. Of course, his answer was in Japanese but thankfully, some fans (like @pewpiece on Twitter) were able to take some parts and pieces of the explanation and translate it for us.

This is what Togashi said:

According to what the translation is saying, Togashi has planned THREE possible endings for HxH and has also estimated how good the ending would impact the fans.

Ending A (the first one), seems to look rather fine. This ending is deemed to be satisfactory by 50% and unsatisfactory by 20%.

Ending B (the second one), looks like it’ll have an equally mixed reaction. This ending is deemed to be satisfactory by 50% and unsatisfactory by 50%.

Ending C (the third one), looks like it’ll have the worst reactions between them all. This ending is deemed to be satisfactory by only 10% and extremely unsatisfactory by 90%. (Ending C is very likely that it’ll receive negative remarks but Togashi kept that one possible ending around because he personally liked it.)

Despite the fact that he had made three ending possibilities for HxH, he still plans on keeping them on the side to think about a bigger ending that could be better and bigger than the three he had made up: “I want to think to the utmost extent about an ending to the point where I might not choose any of these three and create what I find most enjoyable, which is my ideal and goal.” -Togashi on paragraph 2.

He also mentioned, however, that if he doesn’t find a better ending than these three before his time runs out, he’ll resort using the fourth ending as the true ending.

Yes, there’s a fourth ending that he hasn’t estimated the satisfactory and unsatisfactory rate of. Apparently, he had planned a fourth ending but scrapped it. It’s called the “Ending D” (or the fourth ending) and was the reason why people are starting to talk about this interview (at least from my end).

Curiously, Ending D was the one that had been talked about more by Togashi. Since he didn’t give any estimation on the satisfactory and unsatisfactory rate, he decided to tell us a bit on what it would be about.

To summarize it, here’s what it’s about:

Gon ends up marrying Noko, the only other kid on Whale Island, and they end up having kids. Now, Gon and Noko are grandparents and we get introduced to their granddaughter named Jin who was currently following the Freecss tradition: taking out the Lake Lord fish and share it with the other Whale Island residents. She ends up catching the fish and proudly goes up to her mother to tell her that she will not leave the island to become a hunter (insinuating that this must be a requirement once you capture the Lake Lord fish) and she’d rather stay here to inherit her parents’ place instead. Jin then goes to the shop from Mito’s days to cut up the fish all while thinking about how her mother will never understand how she’s saddened by the fact that being a hunter meant making the people that you love worry for you. Jin complains about how grandpa Gon is unaware of how his hunter stories make grandma Noko sad which is why Jin has decided that she’ll never become a hunter. Then, just as she had finished thinking about her resolve, a chubby little boy (holding a plant for some reason) enters the shop to which Jin seems to act very comfortable with. She tells him that she had caught the Lake Lord fish and they are both happy as they begin cooking it together.

This ending is odd because of three major key points.

1) This ending sounds way too much like a shonen anime ending where it’s a childhood love story like so many main pairings have gone through in the past. Plenty of people would be complaining (and even stating) that this ending is fake since Togashi would never write something this basic but you have to understand that he DID write something like this back when he was working on his old work Yu Yu Hakusho. The main character Yusuke returns after his adventures to get married to his childhood friend Keiko.

2) The way Togashi worded the ending at the end of it.

“The son of one of them, the daughter of another, and the grandchild of another live in different places, exchanging smiles. They might be the children of that character and the grandchildren of that character.” - last paragraph

This specific chunk of paragraph sounds a bit confusing at first read since Togashi doesn’t name any of these people and doesn’t address or clarify who is who. All we know, is that the “children of that character” and “the grandchildren of that character” is Gon when Togashi says “that character” since it has been established that his granddaughter Jin, the little boy with the plant, and the two kids’ parents are aware of who Gon is. However, we get confused yet again once it says “the son of one of them” and “the daughter of another” implying that “one of them” and “another” is not just Gon. This all seems a bit confusing but Togashi does have a habit of remaining ambiguous and vague when he explains in interviews.

3) The last line of the translation ends with “In the background, a figure watches the scene.” Who’s the figure you ask? No one knows.

Nonetheless, what we do know now, is that Ending D should NOT be ignored.

Many fans have already concluded that it shouldn’t be taken seriously because Togashi ‘scrapped’ it out but you have to understand that he had kept it around and WILL use it if time runs out for him and he doesn’t manage to find a better ending than the three he already has.

This is why the Ending D, also known as the fourth ending, should also be known as the default ending.

So if Togashi can’t continue anymore, this could be the true ending for HxH.

Keep in mind that this is Gon’s ending too.

We have no idea what he has in store for Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio not to mention Hisoka and the Phantom Troupe.

———————————————————————

Btw I can’t believe I’m seeing this cuz I once talked about Noko like two years ago and said how I wished that she could have more scenes or anything remotely interesting about her AND NOW WE GET THIS!!!?!! Damn.

this is the post I was talking about her if ur wondering.

I’m sure other ppl must’ve wondered about her too at some point cuz why would Togashi include the fact that she’s also the only other kid on Whale Island if ur not gonna do anything about that fact???

@thelovelyghostwriter

@itsmyara

@cautionworks

[s0ftand0nly]

Whale island residents

[bifrutas-tropical]

they will never make me hate u noko hunter x hunter

[your-favourite-plague]

This girl caused the havoc while having almost no canon presence, what a queen

I'm sorry, I have no control when inspiration hits

[i-heart-hxh]

November 5th Togashi tweet!!

[delphi333]

sorry noko 🙏🙏

[toadxhunter]

So, regarding that ending

I want to deliver an interesting nugget. I'm being led to believe by translators in the r/HunterxHunter discord server (no longer associated with the reddit cause reasons) that the Japanese audience reaction has been more positive generally? I mean, obv it's entirely possible the Japanese fanbase has just as many if not more 'dudebros' who are just eating it up uncritically. I however am interested in the possibility that our rough translation is making it somehow even worse? Apparently, if the translators are to be believed in there, the image out right now was translated using chatGPT. So if it feels like it reads janky to anyone else, there's that. Said translators in there, (that mostly work on manga scanlations) are working on a hand translated version, so I'll share it when it's out! In the meantime, someone scalped this together somehow, it's the original Japanese text of Togashi's Letter to the program. Go nuts!

池のほとりで釣り竿を握り微動だにしない少女。突然竿が大きくしなり、少女が叫ぶ。彼女の名前はギン。ギン「来た来た来たァァ!!」池の主を担ぎ、得意気にギンは1人の女性の前に立ち言い放つ。ギン「約束通り主を釣ったよ!!お母さん!!」さらに女性に近づき小さな声でギンは続ける。 「これでもう二度と私にハンターになれとか言わないでしょ…！」仕方なくうなずく女性。ギンは主を担ぎながら去って行く。 母親「主を釣り上げることで狩猟（ハント）に目覚めてくれると思ったんだけど…ねぇ？」女性が隣の夫に同意を求める。父親「島から一生出ないで店を継ぐ…。それが現在（いま）のギンの希望なんだ。尊重してやろう���」。 女性はまだ不満気だ。母親「まぁ、途中で気が変わるかも知れないしね。全くあなたもギンに何でそんなに…って、そりゃミト大ばあばとノウコばばの血筋よねェ…。」どうやらミトとノウコが血縁関係にないことを女性は知らないらしい。夫は静かにほほ笑む。あきらめきれず、女性は続ける。 母親「でも！ゴンじいは有名なハンターだったんだし…！あの娘（コ）だっていつかはきっと島を」　ギン「出ないからねッッ!!」姿すら見えなくなった森の奥から、両親のやりとりが聞こえるはずもないのに叫び返す娘。父親は楽しそうにつぶやく。父親「お見通しだね」 場面が変わり、ミトのころから続くお店。主はきれいにさばかれ全ての部位が下ごしらえされている。作業をしながらギンの独白。ギン（お母さんはわかっていない…）（じいがハンター時代の思い出を楽しそうに話す時、大ばぁばがさり気なく席を外していること） （ノウコばばの相槌が全て誰かからの伝言で、ばばがじじのそばにいられなかった寂しさを控えめに滲ませていること）包丁を持つ手でまな板を強くたたく。（私はまっぴらだ!!）（誰かの帰りを何ヶ月も何年も心が締め付けられる想いをしながら待つのも!!自分が誰かを待たせるのも!!）（私は…） 扉が開く音。のんびりとした穏やかな声が響く。小太りの少年が植物を抱え入ってくる。少年「山菜とったよ～　おおっすげ～本当に主を釣ったんだ！」「よ～し島民全員にふるまおうぜっっ」 ギン（私はずっと…ずっと一緒にいたい人と）　少年「皆の喜ぶ顔が目に浮かぶぅ」「さあ、始めよ～」　ギン（ずっと一緒にいる!!）「うんっっ!!」満面の笑顔で料理を作る2人。 島から一羽の鳥が飛び立つ。大空を鳥が舞う。鳥の下にはどこかの街。様々な人々。誰かの息子、誰かの娘、誰かの孫が色々な場所で暮らし、誰かと笑顔で交している。それはあのキャラの子どもや、あのキャラの孫かも知れない。鳥が空の彼方へ飛び去る。それを見送っている誰かの後ろ姿。　完

[aalizzwells-catlady]

I personally will be blocking every Gon x Noko shippers I've seen because why are y'all loving the ending D so much when Togashi himself scrapped it for a reason, he also said in other ending Gon will not marry anyone (even Killua and Noko) so fvck all of them, they literally just ship Gon x Noko because of their hatred towards Killugon and blaming their shippers for hating the ending D (where most of HxH fans in general hated the ending D and wanted the ending C as well because that's what Togashi wants).

[cuchufletapl]

Thinking about how Whale Island must have a miniscule population if there are only two kids. No teenagers either (because we can assume Gon would've hung out with them if there were). Just two minors in the entire village ("town" feels too generous a word to call it). I bet there are no more than a hundred people settled there.

[lauretra]

mmmm I disagree. I feel like in general people are seeing this as a “happy ending” for Gon when in reality it is a tragic ending. Gon returns to his island and retires and gets married, but his wife is unhappy, and he becomes just like Ging, he has kids and then leave them behind.

It's an unsatisfying ending to the arcs we've seen from him, where he's clearly not a character like Ging. Noko looks like she doesn't approve of Gon's path as a hunter, but Gon remembers those moments with joy. Even, it is no coincidence that Gon's granddaughter decides to always be with her friend and not separate from them, it is very reminiscent of Gon and Killua's promise under the stars, there’s a clearly parallelism there. It is as if the end were a tragedy, in fact, Gon cannot be forever with that person with whom he promised never to separate.

Obviously we don't know the circumstances of how Gon and Noko started to be together, because we don't know anything about her, nor do we know if Gon really likes her. But it's sad, for me, to see that Gon can't overcome himself. In that sense, I do think that the ending is intentional and subversive with other shonen endings in general: Gon is not happy with his family like Naruto is with his. Noko is not happy with Gon's job like Hinata is with Naruto's. Gon did not manage to escape the vicious circle of being like Ging, his granddaughter does.

okay I've been dramatic and jokey, now for my actual stance:

1. The fact that there are different endings ranked by popularity sounds exactly like Togashi.

2. I think it is unlikely HxH will ever be completed. I genuinely believe Togashi keeps falling in love with his characters and that's making it hard to write. It's not a complaint, I fucking love it, but the lobster with machine guns for hands has a heartwarming arc about learning he can accept love. Come on. Get real. Grow up. He loves those bitches and it makes the writing sing.

3. Ending D, where Gon has 2.5 kids and marries a girl from his hometown with 0 lines, is more of an epilogue than a conclusion to any arc. In my opinion, this was "planned out" from chapter 1. As a thematic loop, it's a closed circle; Gon goes out, seeking to understand about what makes hunters great. In the end, he becomes great and returns home to share what he learned.

4. Ending D can logically follow almost any story for the next several years: If the Black Whale explodes in a fireball and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it's not logically inconsistant for the story to jump to Gon retired on whale island. The same can be said for finding Don Freecs, Kurapika dying and failing, Kurapika dying and succeeding, or any other rational continuation of the current story arc. Gon isn't in the story, cutting to him for the end is bascally free.

5. I believe the ending is written this way because Togashi wants Gon to be happy. Most other good, well closed endings involve multiple complex interactions of many characters, several major character deaths, and some of them involve Gon Still being unhappy. In the case where Gon moves back home and gets heterosexually, monogomously married after "finishing his arc", he quickly, cleanly becomes "happy".

[cocogum]

I just realized two things:

Gon has also mentioned Noko in the Chimera Ant arc when he made a promise to Palm. Apparently, the anime HASN’T shown Gon say this, but the manga did.

We see Gon saying how, besides Mito, the only other person who he pinky promises to like this is with Noko. That would mean that everytime he pinky promises to her, he has to seal the promise with a kiss by pressing their thumbs together. If this isn’t the cutest shit ever, when it comes to hxh details, then I don’t know what is.

I wonder what kind of promises he makes for her 👀

[icharchivist]

Icha help what is going on with hxh and its multiple endings, the tag is just confusing me even more, I feel like the whole classroom passed a note and I'm the only one who didn't read it, did Togashi play Who Wanna Be A Millionaire and lost because that's what I'm getting.

oh i'm so sorry i have to be the one to break this news to you

you rn:

so a couple of days ago Togashi was at an event in which he answered some questions from an interview and everything. In this interview, he was asked about the hxh's ending.

Here's what he replied.

the long story short is that he mentioned that he had 3 ending planned for hxh, all of which he calculates would be meet with different level of satisfaction from fans. His favorite ending is Ending C, but he feels like fans will dislike it the most.

However he also added that to give a picture of the possible endings, he's going to share Ending D, which is an ending he disregarded and would not make canon, but then he added "but if i die before i can finish hxh you can imagine this one to be canon"

Ending D is the cliché type of ending from shounen manga where you cut to Gon's daughter, Jin (get it, because Ging, Jin) who is fishing the god of the lake on Whale's Island for Grandma Mito and Noko, her mother (? a brand new character at least.) We learn her father, Gon, has left as an hunter and Jin wonders why her father is living this life, meanwhile "a figure" (probably Gon) is observing this scene from afar.

So as you can imagine, fans have been Losing It™ to say the least. News outlet has been saying THIS is the true hxh ending and now everyone is mad. Homophobic fans have been extremely eager to spam this ending to the replies of anyone talking about Killugon since because "actually Togashi planned on Gon to have a child" and all of that jazz. It's been a riot. On fire. People have been disappointed. Other heartbroken.

... because everyone is acting like it's going to be the actual ending.

While the interview was literally "here's the ending i disregarded but hey, if i die you can use this one in your head"

Like i said personally i think Togashi is trolling and making fun of the fans who are already burying him. It seems too cliché to be serious, and the fact it's not an ending that is considered makes me think it was never that serious to share to start with.

But fans gonna be fans and the fandom has been on fire ever since this interview came out.

And once people calmed down about this ending, people have been theorizing about the others three teased ending and what would Togashi means about "endings fans would find disappointing" and all of that. So that's where we're at right now.

so welcome to this dumpfire, enjoy your stay!

[your-favourite-plague]

The tragicomedy of people being like "Actually I'm GLAD that hxh leak ending is weird, I never liked this show, and I'm happy people who do are disappointed now." Wow, ok you cartoon villain, do you trip people up or throw children's ice-cream on the ground? Because you do sound like that, being salty that others dare to enjoy something you don't.

🕸

But honestly, I'm not really affected by these leaks. For a few reasons (assuming that is real leak, because now with the amount of misinfo I'm confused at this point)

That's a scraped idea from who knows when. Maybe from the times when Gon was supposed to fail the Hunter Exam? Maybe that was random though Togashi had at yesterday's breakfast? Also, have you never brainstorm anything? Were all of your ideas a flash of genius? Kinda doubt it.

Is he even serious? Saying "ending C would have 90% dissatisfaction rate, and in ending D Gon marries Noko" feels like a joke tbh

Asking for the ending spoilers within itself is kinda weird. Basically being like "Yeah, yeah, you fight your health issues to write this series, cool, but just skip everything already and give us an ending" or "Oh, you write at your own pace? But what if you die without giving us closure???" feels... rude? (but idk, as someone with chronic pains I'm the least objective person while discussing Togashi's condition) Imo giving cliché shonen ending is a quite appropriate answer for that

tl;dr LET HIM COOK

(and there's possibility not all ideas will be up to your taste, that's not the end of the world too)

[i-heart-hxh]

I think what scares me about ending D is that by leaving Gon, Killua has opened up a place at Gon’s side that could be filled in his absence. Like what if Noko becomes closer to Gon while Killua is gone? That’s what scares me and I don’t think Killua has thought of this or if he has, he’s accepted it (which hurts just as much, I hate the idea of him being “over” Gon). And how would Killua even react if he met Gon again and saw someone else at Gon’s side. He can’t be mad considering he’s the one that left.

Hi!

So, I think a good thing to keep in mind is that HxH is not real events happening to real people. The characters aren't going about their lives in actuality with the "danger" of things going in some unexpected direction, they're living out a story that has been pre-determined to whatever degree Togashi has planned it out. As much as I dig into the character psychology and such, I think this is worth remembering. Stories are created with intention.

Togashi already "spoiled" the scrapped idea of Gon ending with Noko, so I personally see it as extremely unlikely this is an idea he intends to continue to use. It's possible Noko will appear while Gon is on Whale Island, but at the same time they've never been portrayed in the series as being particularly close, and if Togashi has no intention of ending it with them together I don't see why he'd bother with giving her more than some sort of cameo. Ending D aside, which is separate from the series itself as something that was rejected, she hasn't been given any important role in within the story so far.

I think it's unlikely Togashi still has some real role planned for her at this time. The series has spent so much time and focus on Gon and Killua's relationship, and there is a lot still unresolved between the two of them. The audience of HxH has been clamoring to see them again for over a decade now, and I feel like focusing on Noko all the sudden just seems like a random diversion that I don't think Togashi has the time/energy to deal with at this point. However, as usual, I can't speak for Togashi himself, and HxH can be quite unpredictable so I can't say anything for certain. These are just my best guesses based on the set of circumstances we have currently. I personally don't think it's worth worrying about Noko currently, however.

[delphi333]

it would b goofy asf if gon married this little thing

[toadxhunter]

The little girl from ending D might not be the child of Gon and Noko, and they may not be married either?

Someone I share a discord server with shared this post from a Japanese twitter user. The auto-translate is a bit rough but it seems they are saying they don't think this Jen/Gin character is Gon's and Noko's kid, nor do they think they're married? They are seemingly making an argument based off the text of the letter for this, but again it's hard to understand the auto-translate. This is what we're working with 1/2

2/2

I'm pretty sure the message that is coming through here is essentially "Mito and Noko aren't related / connected by blood ties - therefore Gon isn't married to Noko" gonna be honest a lot of this is tough for me to make sense of. Here is the Japanese if anyone would like to give it a crack!

ハンター結末パターンD熱かった！

(本日放送のイワクラ吉住の番組)

色々解釈あるけど、ギン父はゴンとノウコの子供じゃないだろうな。

ノウコはポストミトさんで、フリークス一族が連れてくる子供の育ての親。ギンは運命を断ち切った。

ギンが島から出たがらないことを、母親はミトとノウコの血筋だと言っている。

その流れを受け、『ミトとノウコが血縁関係にない事を女性は知らない』と書かれているので、ギンはこの2人とは血が繋がっていない。

つまりゴンとノウコも結婚していない。