Killua Zoldyck (Japanese: キルア=ゾルディック, Hepburn: Kirua Zorudikku) is a fictional character from Hunter × Hunter, a manga series written by Yoshihiro Togashi. Killua is a skilled and rebellious twelve-year-old boy from the world's most notorious assassin family, the Zoldyck family. Bored and tired of killing, he meets Hunter × Hunter's young protagonist, Gon Freecss, during the first portion of an examination for people who wish to become "Hunters". Aiming to escape his family and his past, Killua joins Gon's quest to find his missing father, and they work together to become stronger fighters. As the story goes on, they become inseparable friends. Killua has also featured as a character in two films and several video games. Killua was one of the first characters created in the making of Hunter × Hunter. Togashi created Killua to fill the role of Gon's friend, and much of the relationship between the two characters was inspired by the protagonist's personality and young age. In creating Killua, Togashi was also inspired by several anime and manga works that he enjoyed. In anime adaptations of the manga, Killua has been voiced by Kanako Mitsuhashi and Mariya Ise in Japanese and Annika Odegard and Cristina Vee in English. Killua became a popular character and an inspiration to both other manga artists, some of whom based characters on Killua, and readers who went on to do cosplay. Critics have praised his characterization, particularly the character arc in which he overcomes his brooding personality and becomes devoted to Gon. He has often been recognized as one of the best characters in the series.
Creation After creating the protagonist of the manga Hunter x Hunter, Gon Freecss, manga author Yoshihiro Togashi conceived two important characters: a friend and a villain of Gon. Killua was set to be Gon's friend, while the character Hisoka Morow would be Gon's antagonist. Togashi made Killua the same age as Gon in order to make the friendship between the two characters natural. He developed a rough sense of Killua's circumstances, such as that he would have superhuman physical abilities and be from a family of assassins, then designed Killua's appearance to fit his circumstances and background. Finally, Togashi wrote Killua interacting with Gon and the series' other two main characters, Leorio and Kurapika, and from this developed Killua's personality. Both Killua and Hiei from YuYu Hakusho were inspired by characters from the manga Patalliro! by Mineo Maya; Patalliro! was an influence on Togashi's work, as he read it and other yaoi works while working to write shōnen manga. When deciding on his appearance, Togashi referred to multiple works he has enjoyed seeing. In the case of Killua, around the time that he was deciding what number child of the assassin family he would be, thoughts of Kuroyume's shōnen manga, Atsushi Kamijo, Multiple Personality Detective Psycho, among others, came to mind, and these led to his appearance. In the full-body illustration when he first appeared, there's a part where the outline is interrupted by light, and the artist made subtle references to Kamijō and Shou Tajima. In the first animated adaptation of Hunter x Hunter by Nippon Animation, the staff was catching up to the printed adaptation and thus planned their own original ending. In this original scenario, Killua and Gon split after their friend Kurapika's death while facing criminals, and there is a timeskip of seven years until the final episode. In the final episode, a now adult Killua returns to Gon's home in Whale Island alongside his father under a job that would result in him killing Gon in the process. Upon being notified of this scenario, Togashi rejected the story, and the 1999 television series instead ended with Kurapika's reunion with his friends, which is followed in original video animations that follow the manga instead.
Casting
Killua is voiced by Kanako Mitsuhashi in the 1999 series and Mariya Ise in the 2011 series in Japanese. For the English dubs, Annika Odegard voices him in the 1999 series, and Cristina Vee in the 2011 series. Mitsuhashi said she found the work challenging, especially during the Greed Island Final original video animations, but still found it enjoyable to work beside Biscuit Krueger's actress, Chieko Higuchi, during this anime production, especially since their mentor developed a mother relationship with the two protagonists. Ise's performance was met with a positive response by Togashi himself on his Twitter account based on how carefully she portrayed Killua's sensitive side, much to her own surprise. She enjoyed the anime since her childhood, often cosplaying as Gon or the Naruto title character Naruto Uzumaki, but is not sure if she might get a chance to portray Killua again due to the manga taking a focus on other characters as Killua and Gon stopped being the focus of the series in the Dark Continent story arc. Cristina Vee said that while Killua comes across as a happy child, he has a notable dark side as a result of the family that raised him. The actress was unaware of the series until she was cast to play Killua, which piqued her interest in the story. She originally auditioned for three characters, Gon, Killua, and Kurapika, and was accepted for Killua. She often saw cosplayers of Killua and Gon at fan conventions, attracted especially because the cosplayers were always duos.
Appearances
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