These Two Hunter x Hunter Episodes Scored 9.9 on IMDb — Can You Name Them?
Fans mean it when they call Hunter x Hunter absolute cinema: two episodes from the 2011 run have surged to a near-mythic 9.9 on IMDb — not for victory laps or tidy endings, but for relentless, gut-twisting storytelling.
Every fandom throws around the words 'absolute cinema,' but Hunter x Hunter fans have receipts. Two episodes from the 2011 Madhouse series sit at a ridiculous 9.9 on IMDb, and here is the twist: neither of them is a feel-good victory lap. They are slow, brutal gut punches that poke at the edges of what shonen usually does. Let me walk you through why Episodes 126 and 131 earned those scores the hard way.
Episode 126: Zero x And x Rose — humanity vs. a god, and we hate the win
Right in the heart of the Chimera Ant arc, Isaac Netero throws down with Meruem in what looks like a classic boss fight but plays like a philosophy debate with fists. Netero brings prayer, discipline, and a lifetime of grit. Meruem brings logic, curiosity, and terrifying evolution. The 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva hits feel ritualistic, almost sacred, and yet they barely scratch the King.
The episode turns legendary when Netero unveils the Zero Hand, which looks like the final gambit... and then isn’t. The real checkmate is the Poor Man’s Rose, a miniature nuclear device Netero literally hid in his own body. That is the human trump card: not talent, not Nen, but the capacity to scorch the earth to claim a win.
Meruem survives the Zero Hand only to realize he has been cornered from the start. He has just begun to grasp compassion and the value of life when he runs headfirst into one of humanity’s ugliest inventions. For the first time, fear truly lands on him. It is chilling.
This isn’t triumph. Netero doesn’t win in any noble sense, and humanity does not come out looking heroic. The episode forces you to sit with an awful truth: pushed far enough, humans can be more terrifying than monsters. That’s why it hits so hard — and why it sits at 9.9.
Episode 131: Anger x And x Light — the day Gon stops being a kid
If Episode 126 shakes your faith in people, Episode 131 crushes it underfoot. When Neferpitou confirms Kite is gone for good, Gon doesn’t explode — he implodes. The transformation that follows is not a cool shonen power-up. It is a self-destruction. He trades his future, his potential, and maybe his humanity for one thing: the power to kill Neferpitou right now.
The result is horrifying. Neferpitou recognizing that Gon’s power rivals Meruem is not a compliment; it’s a bad omen. The fight is basically over before it starts, and it keeps going anyway — deliberately uncomfortable, because that’s the point. This isn’t justice. It’s a kid burning himself down to ash.
'I am a little happy,' Gon says after losing an arm, because now he is like Kite.
Neferpitou’s body still moving via Terpsichora even after death is the final shiver down the spine. That quiet, broken line from Gon is the knockout punch. Devastating, not cool — which is exactly why it also wears that 9.9.
Why these two sit at 9.9
Both episodes reject the usual shonen playbook. No clean wins. No moral pedestal. No comfort. One shows humanity ‘winning’ by becoming something awful. The other shows a child sacrificing everything to satisfy rage. Together, they are the peak of Hunter x Hunter’s writing — the moments where the show stops looking like a power fantasy and starts feeling like a mirror you don’t want to stare into for too long. Years later, people are still talking about them because you can’t really shake them off.
- Episode 126 — 'Zero x And x Rose' (April 23, 2014): Netero triggers the Poor Man’s Rose against Meruem. IMDb: 9.9
- Episode 131 — 'Anger x And x Light' (May 28, 2014): Gon gives up everything to kill Neferpitou. IMDb: 9.9
If Hunter x Hunter is remembered as more than just a great anime, it will be because of chapters like these. They don’t try to make you feel good; they make you feel everything. The 2011 series is streaming on Crunchyroll if you want to revisit the pain.