Hunter x Hunteris an exciting and impressive adventure fantasy anime that delves deep into the worlds of hunting, assassination, and the supernatural. Death is a common theme in the anime, and it often serves as a catalyst for the story’s protagonist and antagonist.
There are a lot of deaths in the anime, but some of them hit closer to home and leave viewers, as well as characters feeling crushed and heartbroken. Deaths inHunter x Hunterare not for the faint of heart, as they often surprise viewers and leave them reeling from the sudden loss of beloved heroes and antagonists as well as defenseless bystanders.
Updated June 26, 2025, by Oluwatokiloba Folami:The Hunter x Hunter anime series is one show that portrays a lot of deaths despite its use of child protagonists. Many of these deaths have been on-screen, with some devastating to witness to fans and characters alike.Deaths like that of Meruemand Komugi were definitely not for the faint of heart, particularly with how it unfolded. However, aside from even the central characters, many others have had deaths that would be hard to imagine even after witnessing it. While these deaths have been gruesome, to say the least, they served to push forward the central narrative of the Hunter x Hunter anime series.
21Rammot
Killua’s Rebirth Through Rammot’s Demise
This Chimera Ant was one that underwent a series of evolutions, even being the first ant to use Nen. He was a sadistic individual who even dreamed of becoming king, but the appearance of Neferpitou and the other Royal guards quickly made him give up on that dream.
Unlike various deaths in theHunter x Hunteranime series, Rammot’s death was devastating only to his person. For fans, it was simply the rebirth of Killua. Initially, Killua ran away from Rammotdue to the needle Illumi placedin him that made him run away from anything that could even prove to be a challenge. But after successfully removing it, Killua easily beheaded a self-absorbent Rammot and then crushed his skull.
20Squala
A Lover’s Hope Silenced By Death
Squala was a member of the Nostrade’s bodyguards, and while he could use Nen, he wasn’t a professional hunter. As a bodyguard, he has grown tired of the cutthroat life and was set to quit and leave the city with Eliza, his lover, which made his death all the more regrettable when he died.
Being in the bodyguard line of work and getting involvedwith the mafia and the Phantom Troupe, Squala realized he was going to die and resigned himself to it. However, right before he died, it was revealed the Phantom Troupe knew about his lover even after he had denied it, and he flew into panic and rage. Unfortunately, before he could do anything about it, his head was cleanly sliced off.
19Porcupine
Killed By A Scream Of Death
As a member of the Shadow Beasts, an elite guard of the Ten Mafia Dons, Porcupine was by no means weak, which ironically led to his unique death. After Porcupine initially faced Uvogin in battle, the Phantom Troupe member used his devastating punches to try to end his life, but it was by no means effective.
As a porcupine, he could use his needling body hairs to attach himself to others and then make them strong and sharp enough to penetrate others or make them soft enough to absorb blows. This was a fail-safe approach to defending himself. That is until Uvogin decided to scream at him while he was attached to the Phantom Troupe member, leaving Porcupine bleeding from all orifices, leading to his death.
18Gyro’s Father
A Traumatizing But Well-Deserved Death
To Gyro and various fans, Gyro’s father may have died a well-deserved death, but it was by no means pretty. All of the portrayal of Gyro’s father was done through a flashback, and fans were privy to how he had abused Gyro his whole life in various ways.
After countless days of trying to convince himself that he meant something to his father, Gyro was left to the hard, cold truth when he was being bullied and his father happened to pass by, merely glancing at him and walking away, leaving him to be beaten up by his bullies. Enraged and in realization of the truth, Gyro went home and killed his father by cracking the back of his skull open with a hammer.
17Pike
Death By Fatal Blood Drainage
During the Chimera Ant arc when the Phantom Troupe confronted Zazan in Meteor City, a showdown betweenPikeand Shizuoka occurred. The battle in itself was fought with more intelligence than sheer power. However, Shizuku proved to be not only intelligent but horrifying.
As a spider-likeChimera Ant officer, Pike’s ability to create webs puts Shizuku in a bad spot. However, the Phantom Troupe member managed to give Pike twenty-nine wounds and then sucked out blood from them all using her conjured vacuum cleaner, Blinky. As Pike was unable to cover all his wounds at once, blood continually flowed out of him until he turned into nothing but a dried-up corpse. His death in itself seemed more numb than painful. However, getting turned into a mummy in real-time is undeniably terrifying.
16Cheetu
Lightning Fast, But Instantly Killed
With howCheetuand Morel’s battle progressed, fans expected none to come out on top as they were unable to do anything to the other. However, Morel won simply by surviving after their last battle, which ended in a draw. Cheetu sped off to get another ability from Shaiapouf. However, on reaching Morel, he was unable to access him and decided to use Zeno Zoldyck as a warm-up.
Zeno tried talking to him, but Cheetu was uninterested in what Zeno had to say and only focused on battling Zeno. Before the battle even had a chance to begin, Silva Zoldyck appeared from the sky, crushing Cheetu’s body in one fell swoop. For all he had done and planned, the Chimera Ant died unaware of the cause of his death like an insignificant creature. Truly an eye-opener.
15Kastro
Straying From His Nen Category Cost Him His Life
The different categories of Nen users in theHunter x Hunteranime series always seem to practice based on their Nen category and never seem to explore other categories.Well, all charactersexceptKastro, who died as a result of using both conjuration and manipulation abilities despite being an enhancer.
In his rematch against Hisoka at Heaven’s Arena, Kastro held the upper hand for a while, but by the time Hisoka figured out how his doppelgänger trick worked, the match was over. Hisoka simply got Kastro into a space where he was unable to use his doppelgänger to attack and killed him with cards. Ordinarily, this would be an attack Kastro would be capable of blocking with Nen. But by learning to conjure and manipulate nen techniques rather than enhancers, he overloaded his memory and forgot how to do the basics with nen.
14Shaiapouf
His Love For Meruem Ultimately Bore No Fruit Except Regret
Poufwas undoubtedly the Royal Guard who loved the King the most. However, his excessive love turned into one that fit his ideals of a king and a dominator, and not the love-stricken king Meruem turned out to be.
Pouf’s death was not grand. It was from the poison spread by the Miniature Rose. In a crowd of humans, Pouf silently passed after getting mentally broken by Meruem’s words who wanted and accepted Komugi as well as allowed Welfin to live. With this, the King took on a roundabout turn from who Pouf wanted him to be, making him (Pouf) feel like a failure of a Royal Guard.
13Zazan
Getting Incinerated Is A Harrowing Way To Die
The Chimera Ant Queen gave birth to many powerful Chimera Ants. The stronger Chimera Ants became Squadron Leaders who went their separate ways after the Chimera Ant Queen died. One of the more powerful Squadron leaders,Zazan, went to Meteor City to form her colony.
There, sheencountered members of the Phantom Troupewho got to Meteor City shortly after she established her colony. Of the Phantom Troupe members, Zazan only faced Feitan. However, he proved to be more than enough as he incinerated her with his abilities Pain Packer and Rising Sun despite her undergoing a mutation that caused her to grow even stronger than she already was.
12Johness
This Serial Killer Dies A Swift But Gruesome Death
Unlike many other characters whose deaths greatly impacted the series, Johness’s death had little significance as he was only a minor character; however, his death was more gruesome than many others.
As a character,Johnesswas convicted of having killed over 146 people with each of his victims having a body that was torn into at least 50 pieces. With these numbers, Johness was sentenced to prison for over 900 years and had to face KIllua in the Trick Tower ofthe 287th Hunter Exam. Although relatively strong, Johness was a mere amateur who had his heart plucked out by Killua before he could do anything.
