How Did Hisoka Revive Himself In Hunter X Hunter? Explaining His New Nen Abilities!

Warning: The following article contains major spoilers from Hunter X Hunter manga. Read ahead at your own discretion!

Hisoka vs Chrollo during the succession war arc in the Hunter X Hunter manga is one of THE most anticipated and HYPE battles and for good reason.

This fight was built up RIGHT FROM THE YORKNEW CITY ARC where Hisoka joined the Phantom Troupe just to get a chance to fight their leader, Chrollo.

But when he learnt that Chrollo’s Nen is sealed by Kurapika through Judgment Chain, he was FLABBERGASTED!

And LEFT THE GROUP ENTIRELY, cuz the boss wandered off his own.

He then spent the NEXT ARC finding an exorcist to remove the curse binding his heart. Bro even teamed up with Gon and the others for an amusing, and in parts, sexual Dodgeball match of all things.

After finally getting his powers back, you’d think Chrollo would appear to take revenge on Kurapika but instead he was MIA for THREE. FREAKIN. ARCS.

He shows up out of nowhere in the Heavens area ring, standing in front of his fated opponent – Hisoka.

The fight was nothing short of INSANE but the ending was EVEN MORE CRAZY!

Chrollo was overpowered in the beginning but, his sheer genius helped him bait Hisoka into a trap and later blew him to bits!

How did Chrollo kill Hisoka?

Chrollo managed to trick Hisoka by giving him false information about his technique, baiting him into thinking he’s weak and then landing a lethal blow with a bizarre explosion through other people?!

Chrollo says to Hisoka that he could use only 2 techniques simultaneously but in reality, he’s been using 3 abilities in combination, thanks to his technique Sun and Moon affecting his puppets.

He effectively tricked Hisoka into thinking this was a game of 2D chess while actually playing 3D chess.

So what’s been happening is that Chrollo has impressed the mark of the sun on his left palm and the mark of the moon on the right, dubbing it “The sun and moon: Paired Destruction”

When he rubs both the marks on each other, they explode and in Chapter 351, he stated that he marked the judge’s left hand and back with both of the marks in each place.

The original owner of this Nen ability that Chrollo stole from, is actually dead.

After that, a swarm of fighters ran towards Hisoka to take him down but the clown held on for a while using bungee gum.

He thought he had Chrollo under his thumb, but in reality, Chrollo was the real puppeteer, literally and figuratively, as he summoned 200 people to blow his hand, leg, and ultimately, his entire body.

(HxH Chapter 357)

Right before the final explosion, Hisoka accepted his inevitable fate but was unusually calm because HE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AFTERWARDS.

Hisoka’s death was a moment that changed Hunter x Hunter forever!

It evoked a wide spectrum of emotions, from utter despair to intense fury, and completely transformed our understanding of the narrative.

Did Hisoka actually die in Hunter X Hunter?

Nope. This man cheated death and resurrected himself.

(HxH Chapter 357)

How did Hisoka bring himself back to life?

Hisoka accomplished this amazing feat by using Post-Mortem Nen to bring his heart and other organs back to life.

In the world of Hunter X Hunter, emotion and desire are the core essence of what gives meaning to the living parts of living things.

Therefore, Nen is the manifestation of one’s life energy.

It is a constant aura that flows through all of life, whether people know it or not. The aura is affected by one’s mental state, as emotions and desires give it reason.

In Chapter 46, Wing demonstrated this. Through his Zetsu stance alone, imbued with the desire to kill Gon and Killua, he was able to make Killua jump across the room like a scared cat.

(HxH Chapter 46)

In a similar vein, Kurapika finds purpose in the tragic annihilation of his clan, enabling him to develop a Hatsu of such potency that it allows him to alter his Nen affinity, becoming a specialist.

Hisoka harnessed this same principle of intense emotion and willpower to resurrect himself following his defeat at the hands of Chrollo.

In the critical moment when Chrollo’s trap seemed inescapable, Hisoka followed Chrollo’s instructions precisely.

(HxH Chapter 352)

So, Hisoka used his creativity to play at his Nen’s strength by commanding his bungee gum to spring back to life once he was dead, which allowed it to pump his heart and lungs.

Hisoka also made sure that he didn’t die from the explosion but through suffocation, so this CPR had a higher chance of success.

In our own real world, people can be resurrected long after their hearts have stopped working. Some hypothermia patients have even been revived after 45 minutes of cardiac arrest.

In the world of Hunter X Hunter, this feat required great mastery over Nen. If he died any other way, Hisoka would be dead for good. For instance, let’s say he got decapitated, and then Bungee Gum would not have revived him.

Hisoka’s thirst is like an addiction, the more extreme an opponent is, the next high has to be an even greater challenge.

But the world only has a limited number of elite hunters who can go toe-to-toe with Hisoka.

Just look at how he dismantled Gotou the butler in minutes, he even stated that star-rated hunters are too weak to give him a challenge, which led to Illumi claiming that even the Zodiacs would struggle against Hisoka.

His orgasmic thoughts, which nearly caused him to burst into a nut because Chrollo was always one step ahead of him in chapter 352, demonstrate how much Hisoka wants to taste the depth of flavor the Chrollo fruit yielded.

Hisoka, at that moment, in the air, trapped between puppets and bombs, channeled all his lust for devouring Chrollo into his bungee gum.

However, his resurrection doesn’t mean the battle is over.

Both Chrollo and Hisoka make it clear in chapter 351, before the fight even starts, that this is a deathmatch. Until someone dies, there can be no winner.

Chrollo affirms that you can use any means necessary to compensate for your strengths and weaknesses.

He took advantage of the crowd and the judge in the arena by stealing skills from his friends.

Accordingly, Hisoka’s strategy of using death and resurrection to avoid defeat is acceptable.

His subsequent actions prove this.

According to him, this encounter showed him that it’s difficult to fight a tier-one opponent under optimal conditions.

The arena wasn’t Chrollo’s only ideal setting.

Having high-class pals like Shalnark and Kortopi that Hatsu could borrow from was also helpful.

That’s why he uses the phrase “having a team” to illustrate how to make up for shortcomings in his speaking.

When he says he asked his pals for help, he means it.

Killing them was Hisoka’s first objective after his resurrection for that same reason.

Because there is a price to pay for being alive, and there is no price higher than death—the ultimate end to all desires—the nen after death is magnified to an enormous degree.

So, Hisoka is toast at this point.

With bungee gum, he can imitate various body parts, and texture surprise now more accurately resembles his skin than before.

Despite his mastery of transmutation, the postmortem Nen Hisoka allows him to tap into the full potential of augmentation and conjuration.

He has shown that his Hatsu has several uses in a short period of time.

Even though he recently had Machi restore his arm during the fight with Kastro, he miraculously created new limbs after his resurrection. When compared, his use of Nen is clearly superior.

Now that he has perfected the skill of facial and body part reproduction, Hisoka can no longer manipulate the words in future prophecies or use texture surprise to mimic skin tone.

Since these applications are more powerful, Hisoka ultimately bet his life on them, just as he had in the York New City arc, but this time he lived to see the outcome and was rewarded.