Hisoka Morow

* Anime
* Manga

*For the original character of the **Hunter x Hunter** franchise, see Hisoka Morow.*

***Hisoka Morow*** ヒソカ＝モロウ (*hisoka morou*) is a character in *The Ultimate Universe.* He is one of the major antagonists in the Hunter x Hunter franchise.

## Appearance

Hisoka's appearance is similar to that of a magician or jester. He is very tall and has light skin and a very muscular physique. His attire is usually adorned with various suit symbols (♦/♦ ♣/♣ ♥/♥ ♠/♠) on the front and back torso, and he changes outfits in each story arc. He wears face paint of a star (★) on his right cheek and a teardrop (💧) on his left cheek, and like his attire, in the 2011 anime, his face paint also occasionally changes colors. During the Greed Island arc, Hisoka wears the Greed Island Ring on his left middle finger. And in the 13th Hunter Chairman Election arc, Hisoka wears a pair of earrings with ornamental hearts. Hisoka has long, pointed nails, giving his hands a claw-like appearance, hinting at his sinister nature.

In his first appearance in the 1999 anime series, Hisoka's hair is blue. After a revamp of the show, it was replaced with a red or almost neon pink color to be in accordance with the manga. In the 2011 anime, Hisoka has red hair and light amber eyes. In the manga, during the Yorknew City arc, Hisoka dyes his hair light green. These dynamic variations in appearance illustrate the complexity of his character.

## Personality

Hisoka is portrayed as entirely self-serving, self-absorbed, and selfish; he does whatever he likes as long as it pleases him in some way. His insatiable love for spilling the blood of powerful fighters in combat and his enjoyment of extreme pain while doing so fuels his seemingly sadomasochistic desires. In order for them to grow to their full potential (so as to improve the pleasure of killing them later), Hisoka allows the main protagonists to live in situations wherein he is easily able to kill them. Likewise, he grows excited to meet new people he deems worthy of fighting or anyone with the potential to be a good fighter and entertain him in the future. The thrill of fighting strong Nen users in tactical battles and near-death experiences is an orgasmic experience for him. It is likely one of the reasons why he goes out of his way to find new toys to play with. If they break, he either loses interest or kills them before going out to find more potential prey.

With his manipulative and self-centered nature, Hisoka is essentially a murderous sociopath. While he does like Gon, Killua, and many others, he has stated that for him, what is valuable one day could easily become trash the next, and he will not hesitate to kill anyone should they not meet his standards. He does not care for what has happened in the past, as he is only interested in what could be amusing to him in the future or present. While Hisoka's nature tends to be malevolent, he isn't an indiscriminate killer. He has no problems killing anyone regardless of age or sex; however, he only kills people who are in his way or those he deems "worthy". As such, his character is more simply amoral than flat out evil. He even assists the protagonists if there is "fun" in doing so or if it will make them stronger leading to a more entertaining fight in the future. Above all else, Hisoka cares only about having fun and a good challenge which may or may not involve killing people. He has a nasty habit of skipping out on Spider meetings. He also can be a whimsical liar and has a tendency to freak out or play cruel jokes on his victims. Just witnessing their uncomfortable expressions because of him getting under their skin pleases him. His chaotic nature is inherent in everything he does and makes him dangerously unpredictable.

Hisoka has displayed a morbid attraction to fight powerful fighters, or people with Nen who have the potential to become strong, which is expressed through barely repressible murderous tendencies; neither age nor gender do seem to influence his desire to fight them. He has expressed a desire to fight or kill random victims just to satiate his bloodlust. After his defeat at the hands of Chrollo, Hisoka's sociopathic nature has taken itself to worse heights by vowing to kill all the members of the Phantom Troupe even if they were defenseless and claiming he will no longer let his opponents fight in their preferred conditions. However, he did temporarily spare Machi, who has been an implied interest of Hisoka's as a potential opponent he likes to flirt with or as a romantic interest, although he stated it was so she could warn the Troupe of his intentions.

Hisoka often exhibits androgynous characteristics throughout the series, manifested in his wearing of "women's" shoes and using an alluring speech style typically reserved for females in Japanese. In the manga, he ends nearly every sentence with a suit symbol.

Despite his calm and composed personality, he can express his emotion comically in some situations. An example is when Gon becomes honest and rather innocent about his question of why Hisoka was in Greed Island. Another example is his stunned face when he learns he could not fight Chrollo after Kurapika's **Judgment Chain**.

## History

Hisoka’s father was a Chemist from southwest England, known for his erratic behavior and creating bizarre experiments. Though it’s unclear what his backstory is, it’s said that his family became poor when he was younger and the only thing he loved was his favorite chewing gum brand (Bungee Gum) that when his family didn’t have enough to eat, he would chew on it continuously until it lost it’s flavor which caused his “chewing gum addiction”.

Hisoka joined the Phantom Troupe under false pretenses at some point after the Kurta massacre, and about two years before the events in Yorknew City, after defeating the previous #4. Around the same time, he "initiated" Kastro to Nen at the Heavens Arena, sensing potential in him. He then took part in the 286th Hunter Exam, during which he murdered 20 examinees. He was disqualified for almost killing an examiner during his first attempt.

## Abilities

Hisoka is a Hunter, and a powerful fighter. His nen type is transmutation, and his ability is called *Bungee Gum.* Bungee Gum allows Hisoka to make his nen the consistency of both rubber and gum, so it can stick at times and bounce off at times. He uses this in combination with his other magical and physical skills to misdirect and overwhelm his opponents.

Hisoka is a brutal fighter who is obsessed with winning. He is even more obsessed with opponents he deems worthy of a fight, and will often sacrifice his wellbeing in the pursuit of a good battle.

### Strategy

***Hisoka Morow***

Hisoka mostly appears to battle in the Heavens Arena (battling other opponents). The best strategy to win him is to bring fighters that don't use physical attacks (Yukiko, Yosuke, Naoto, Teddie, Yukari, Mitsuru, Aerith, Cloud, Yusuke, Morgana, Koromaru or Aigis) however Kanji, Chie, Akihiko, Shinjiro, Ken, Ryuji, Akechi or Tifa are not recommended as he will absorb the physical attacks. (Do not bring Gon to your party as there is a 100% chance that he will all of your party altogether)

Make sure to use Power-charged attacks (Agi, Garu, Bufu and Mazio) for Persona characters (Magic-up Materia and Vitality) for Final Fantasy 7 characters.

For the Persona Protagonists (Make The Persona 3 Protagonist use Eligor or Rangda with Defense skills, The Persona 4 Protagonist should use Tam Lin or Kali with Agi, Bufu and Deathbound for Kali).

If you choose Persona 4 characters, Rise will be a huge help with slightly increasing your attacks and defending your party (but be careful with using her as Hisoka has an infatuation with her so make sure you use her when your brave enough to beat him). And make sure to have Yukiko in your party especially if she already equips Amaterasu or Sumeo-Okami (because of her Salvation and Burning petals for severe fire damage).

For persona characters don't use All-Out Attacks and instead focus on using your Personas on Magic damage. This battle is slightly similar to beating Extreme Vessel in Persona 4.

## Relationships

* ***Machi Komachine***- she had been an implied interest of Hisoka's as a potential opponent he likes to flirt with or as a romantic interest, although he stated it was so she could warn the Troupe of his intentions.
* ***Rise Kujikawa***- She is another interest of Hisoka due to her strength and because of this he tries “killing” her multiple times by threatening to sabotage the Investigation team, He also continuously flirts to the point where it makes her uncomfortable. Hisoka did have the opportunity to kiss her to make her love him so he could kill her later, Rise falls for his trap multiple times. (It could be said that Rise is possibly his “true love interest”)

## Etymology

* 「密か」(ひそか hisoka means in secret or private).
* His surname Morrow has different spellings in different localizations (Morou, Morow, Morrow) however it’s unclear what the origin of his surname comes from, Morrow is generally an Irish Surname, it’s an evangelized form of *Mac Murchadha* which means Sea Warrior in Gaelic and has been variously spelt as (Morow, Morro, Morwe, Murrow, and Morrewe) (It could possibly mean Hisoka’s Irish or possibly English descent given that also in the English dub he inhibits an accent most common in parts of South Western England.

Morou (or 諸-もろ) could also mean (various, or many things) in Japanese.

## Trivia

* It is said that he named both of his techniques after a candy brand and a chewing gum brand he liked when he was a kid, implying that they may have been named "Texture Surprise" and "Bungee Gum" respectively.
	+ He is also a “Gum Addict” as he chews gum all the time and chews when he’s bored.

* The texture surprise candy he liked as a child has a demon figure on the cover, resembling Black Frost (Jack Frost’s Counterpart) in the Shin Megami Tensei games.
* He doesn’t like trimming his fingernails, instead he files his nails down to make them sharper.
* He shares the same voice actor as Yu Narukami, The protagonist of Persona 4.
* He is attracted to people who are stronger than him and unlike most people, he doesn’t care about other people’s physical appearances.

## Gallery

2011 anime design1999 anime designManga designYoung HisokaHisoka in the manga
## References

1. ↑ https://hunterxhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Hisoka\_Morow Hisoka Morow, HxH wiki