Continuing drawing hxh characters based solely on the descriptions of them from Media Club Plus by @friends-table. These are the Shadow Beasts, animal-like nen users of the 10 Mafia Dons.
Because of how many of them there are, and the fact that they all kind of belong together, I opted to put them all in one post.
Bunch of images below
Owl
Jack: Um…okay. The Phantom Troupe have learned that one of the Shadow Beasts, a man called the Owl—who has gray skin, wears sunglasses and a shirt—came to check out the vault before the auction. He walked in.Keith: How did they find this out, by the way?
Jack: Oh, they tortured a man to death. [laughs quietly]
Keith: I have the line about this. This is one of my favorite lines in these episodes. So, they're talking to Chrollo. Uvo tells Chrollo, “Feitan tortured him, so we know he wasn't lying when he said [Sylvia laughs] that he didn't know where Owl went,” and then it cuts to a closeup on Feitan who says, “He had the worst luck of anyone today.” [Jack laughs quietly] Terrifying.
Jack: Great.
Keith: Horrible.
Jack: Absolute horrible monsters. Yeah, so the Owl goes in, or Owl goes in, and the vault is full, and then he leaves with nothing in his pockets, and the vault [Keith: Yeah.] is completely empty. And Chrollo summises that he probably has a similar Nen power to Shizuku, right?
Sylvia: Shizuku, yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: Which is smart thinking, and it’s very interesting that the way the world works is such that it’s like, Chrollo’s response isn't so much, “How could this mystery have happened?” and instead is like, “Oh, okay, a particular kind of Nen user. We'll have to get to the bottom of that.”
Worm
Jack: [...] at this point, Melody hears another heartbeat. Oh, and we have been told that the Shadow Beasts are coming. They have been dispatched, so it’s not exactly a surprise when they arrive.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Jack: But they turn and see the best freak in a while, and that’s saying something.
Dre: It’s the freakiest freak, that’s for sure.
Sylvia: I called him this earlier, but he does have a poop head. Like, straight up.
Dre: Oh yeah, he’s just a poop emoji.
Sylvia: He comes out of the ground, and he’s a little turd.
Jack: He’s a weird little turd. He is called: Worm.
Keith: Worm. His name is Worm. [Sylvia laughs] He is like what if—
Dre: Oh worm?
Keith: He is like what if a worm. [laughs]
Jack: Yeah. He pops up, and he just talks. I don't know what this guy’s deal is. I don't know if he’s like a demon. I don't know if he is a human who has made himself look like this through Nen. I don't know if he is a human who has experienced some sort of massive bodily trauma like Melody has, but he digs under the ground, and then, out of the shadows— [Sylvia laughs]
Keith: Hey, maybe we'll have time to learn.
Austin: No one here for Worm? No one’s out here talking about Worm?
Dre: I do like Worm’s little tummy.
Keith: I like Worm…
Sylvia: No, I don't like Worm.
Keith: I like that Worm is dedicated to his job.
Austin: Mm.
Dre: Mm.
Keith: He’s first on the scene.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: He’s last to go out, and he’s, you know, he’s warning his friends, like, “Hey, send the rest of the Shadow Beasts.” It didn't help, but.
Sylvia: I'm sorry for what I'm gonna say, but Worm, to me, when I look at Worm, my brain goes: Mr. Hankey from South Park.
Austin: Oh, I see.
Dre: No, I can see that.
Sylvia: It’s mostly the head shape, but it’s unfortunate.
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: And it really drags the character down. Which is their ability, I guess.
Keith: This is not a comparison I have. I don't— I've never—
Sylvia: It’s just a little poo.
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: I can see it.
Rabid Dog
Jack: Maybe we will. Togashi just— Togashi, uh, excited by the wild audience reaction to Worm, gets overexcited and promptly introduces Rabid Dog, a Shadow Beast who looks like a human with sharp teeth and spiky hair. [Keith laughs]
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: The way it works is [Leech's] power really only works if Rabid Dog can get to you first.
Keith: Right.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Because Rabid Dog is just run fast bite hard.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: They're friends, and I think that he’s communicated that to Rabid Dog, Austin, and Rabid Dog has said like, “Look, buddy. You know, it means a lot that you'd say that, but I can't do what I do without you, you know?”
Austin: Right, right.
Jack: “I have to bite them, but I couldn't—” I think they know that they're tight.
Sylvia: That’s beautiful.
Leech
Jack: Leech, a sort of short weird Shadow Beast. [laughs quietly] He just looks like a kind of creepy guy.
Dre: He just looks like a guy.
Keith: We'll figure out a little bit more about Leech.
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: My favorite of the Shadow Beasts is Leech, who is a Junji Ito character.
Dre: Ah.
Austin: [sighs] It’s so gross. It’s so gross!
Keith: Leech is gross.
Sylvia: It’s so grody.
Dre: It’s probably the grossest thing we have seen yet in this show.
Jack: Yeah. Yeah. He’s— and he is shot like a Junji Ito character as well, that way that Ito will, you know, fill frames with people’s faces. There's this overwhelming sort of weight of flesh and eyes and horror.
Austin: Uh, weighted people do not do well in these episodes, let me tell you. If you wanted a show that doesn't treat, uh, bodily roundness as grotesque, you got the wrong show.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: In any way. Not a single larger character in this show has been treated well.
Austin: I guess Melody is sort of round? But…
Keith: Yeah, Melody. Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: But even Melody is like, [Austin: Yes.] Melody’s body has been shattered as a result of a pact with the Devil.
Dre: Yeah, she’s a result of maiming from the Devil.
Austin: Yes, exactly. Yeah.
Jack: But yeah, Leech bites you and injects a bunch of leeches into you through his saliva.
Austin: Ugh.
Sylvia: Ugh. [chuckles]
Jack: Which will hatch inside you.
Keith: Yes, and surely kill you from the pain.
Jack: Yep. Surely. This sort of—
Austin: Unless you drink a lot of beer.
Jack: Unless you drink a lot of beer and pee all the time.
Dre: Uh huh.
Jack: I kept waiting for the leeches to be, like, a problem for Uvo, but [Sylvia: No.] it is a very funny joke that the problem for Uvo is the chain bastard, not, you know.
Keith: Right, Uvo has one problem. [Austin chuckles]
Jack: Then we have— oh, Dre, who is your favorite? Have they been mentioned already?
Dre: Uh, it’s porcupine man.
Jack: Yeah. Porcupine’s great.
Austin: Yeah, it’s hard to beat Porcupine.
Keith: Leech is too much of a freak. I don't—
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: I don't love the horrible slug tongue. I don't like to see it. I think—
Austin: Well, and it’s gross because it—
Jack: I thought Leech was great.
Dre: I have a question. What exactly is Leech’s, like, Nen power? Because he said he, like, breeds the leeches, so it’s not like these are Nen leeches. They're real leeches.
Austin: No, but—
Sylvia: Maybe it’s the tongue thing?
Dre: Yeah, is it like…
Keith: Having a body that can store leeches in it?
Dre: Yeah, is it like he’s—
Sylvia: That’s probably it.
Austin: It’s the tongue, right?
Dre: He used Nen to create his weird tongue organ thing?
Austin: Oh, I hate this.
Keith: Yeah, maybe the tongue changes, 'cause he doesn't look like he has that tongue in his face the whole time.
Dre: That’s true.
Sylvia: Of all the things I expected us to, like, linger on, this wasn't one of them. [Jack laughs]
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: Well, we don't have to. It’s nasty.
Austin: I do appreciate it in the sense that’s like, yeah, Nen is gross. Nen can get gross.
Keith: Nen is gross. It’s weird.
Austin: We don't all get, like, cool chain bastard powers.
Keith: Right.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: It’s so cut and dry when you're looking at the chart, but then you get in [Austin: Right.] the real world, and there's Worm and Leech.
Porcupine
Jack: And then Porcupine, who looks like a guy with a single weird eyebrow in the middle of his face.Dre: Yeah, it’s Krillin.
Jack: They all introduce themselves. Yeah, it kind of is Krillin, that little mafia baby.
Keith: The English dub sounds like Krillin too. I don't…
Jack: Huh.
Dre: Oh, yeah, he kinda does.
Jack: He’s kind of, um…he’s kind of a little apologetic. He’s sort of like, “Hi, uh…hi. I'm, uh…I’m Porcupine. You guys can call me Porcupine.” And they get ready to fight. Kurapika is kind of excited to see them fight. He has one of those sort of little, [gasps] sort of expressions as they begin to head down, and the episode ends as everybody moves in to attack.
Jack: No. Not at all. No, I'm just moving the pieces around. [Sylvia laughs] And there is a moment towards the start of this fight where we get some genuine threat, who are real nasty pieces of work.
Dre: They are awful.
Sylvia: They are such nasty little freaks.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Jack: They are creepy.
Austin: Who’s everyone’s favorite of this first set?
Sylvia: Porcupine.
Austin: What’s Porcupine’s ability? Describe—
Sylvia: Porcupine’s ability is that he—
Austin: And what’s Porcupine look like?
Sylvia: One, Porcupine is a little bald man, looks completely hairless.
Keith: Porcupine looks like Krillin.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: He does look like Krillin!
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: Like if Krillin aged poorly.
Dre: He looks like Krillin had a real rough go of things, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah. [quiet laughter]
Keith: A Krillin that would get shot down by Android 18.
Sylvia: Yeah. Oh, definitely.
Austin: Krillin who goes to the mafia instead of becoming a cop.
Sylvia: Mafia baby!
Austin: Mafia baby.
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Keith: This is the true mafia baby.
Dre: It all comes back.
Austin: True mafia baby.
Sylvia: And Porcupine’s ability is: surprise, I do have hair, and I can shoot it out of my body, and it’s very sharp, and also I can control it at will.
Jack: Great.
Keith: So he can stab but also make it bouncy.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Make it, like, dense and block things.
Austin: Sorry, I just saw 1999 Porcupine.
Jack: Oh, yeah?
Sylvia: Please.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: I think he has a little— you know who he’s got a little bit in him is Charlie Brown. [Keith laughs]
Dre: Oh, yeah.
Sylvia: Porcupine had hoes.
Austin: Porcupine had hoes.
Dre: Yeah, Porcupine had hoes.
Keith: He has Charlie Brown hair.
Austin: He does have Charlie Brown ho— hair. [chuckles] And Charlie Brown hoes.
Dre: I like his little shirt.
Keith: And he looks like Charlie Brown, the world’s most depressed nine-year-old. This looks like the adult that Charlie Brown would grow up into.
Austin: Yes.
Sylvia: Does this make Rabid Dog Snoopy? [Keith and Jack laugh]
Dre: [imitates Peanuts theme song]
[Austin and Dre laugh]
Jack: Porcupine has a really great mannerism where he ends all his sentences with a little confirmation for himself.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Dre: Yup. Yup.
Jack: You know, he says things like, “I can manipulate my body hair, you see?” or “I can manipulate my body hair, yup, yup.”
Austin: Yup.
Sylvia: The voice actor does a really nice cute, like, hum thing.
Jack: Yeah.
Sylvia: Like a little, like, “mm-hmm” after everything.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: And I think translating it to “yup” is a really good affectation. [laughs quietly]
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Jack: There's a really good punchline to this, where as he realizes that his goose has been cooked and he is about to die, he’s like, “My hair will protect me from this. Yup, yup, yup.”
Austin: Aw.
Jack: And then he just gets got completely.
Other Shadow Beasts
Jack: The entire rest of the Shadow Beasts [Keith: Yeah.] get killed primarily off screen, with the exception of one person.
Keith: No new names and, like, one new— one line.
Austin: Well…as I said before we started recording, I was going to add some new names [Keith: Okay.] to the “to discuss this episode” list of names.
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: Which you've explained this, presumably. You've explained that you've added this big list of names, to listeners in the previous episode?
Keith: I think it’s come up on, like—
Sylvia: I'm pretty sure.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Okay. You have a list of, like, 20 names of people or 12 names or something of characters who’ve come up this arc. Well, guess what? The Hunter × Hunter wiki has guesses [Dre: Uh huh?] at the other names of the Shadow Beasts. [Keith and Jack laugh]
Sylvia: I love it.
Austin: Because none of them get introduced.
Keith: Great.
Austin: And they are: Fish??
Keith: [laughs] I love the question mark. Double question marks.
Austin: Double question marks. Hedgehog?? Which is weird, because we already got Porcupine.
Keith: We already have Porcupine.
Dre: Mm-hmm. [Jack laughs quietly]
Austin: Mule?? And I don't think Mule is right at all. I think Mule is way off.
Dre: Is that what the kids are doing?
Keith: I don't think Hedgehog is right either.
Dre: Isn’t that what the looksmaxxing kids are doing? They're muling?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're muling. Frog?? and Bat?? I think Bat might be right.
Keith: Bat is right.
Sylvia: Bat’s correct.
Keith: You see bat wings.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah, that’s probably right.
Keith: You see the wings.
Austin: You see the wings.
Sylvia: I think Frog is also correct, just based on the hands, you know?
Austin: Oh, yeah.
Sylvia: Like, I get that one.
Austin: Those are big frog hands.
Keith: It has kind of a froggy look.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Mm.
Sylvia: Sure.
Austin: It is kind of a froggy look. It is kind of a froggy look.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: These Shadow Beasts are destroyed with a real— well, the first four are destroyed [Austin: Yeah.] with a real kind of verve, and I think I'd like to start there, as we go from—
Keith: You want to— oh, sorry, the first four. Right, yes, gotcha.
Jack: And the mafia are going to respond by calling in the Ten Dons. Ring the bell. Togashi’s bringing in a new squad of freaks in silhouettes. [Sylvia laughs] We see them all.
Keith: I love the rules of these Ten Dons, because it’s like, okay, there’s 10 dons. They meet once a year.
Jack: They rule each of the districts of the world.
Keith: They rule— they've divided the world into 10 mafia zones.
Sylvia: And we see the world map.
Dre: And we see the world for the first time, right?
Keith: We see the world map. Yeah, we see the world map for the first time.
Jack: We'll get to that. We'll get to that.
Keith: Each of the 10 mafia zones are ruled by one of the Ten Dons, and each of the Ten Dons has a special little Nen guy named a Shadow Beast!
Keith: Like, we can be fully exposition into a season, like, okay, I know all the pieces. We've got the Phantom Troupe. We've got Kurapika undercover. We've got the video game stuff. Like, we're gonna do this. And then, all of a sudden, you know, 80% of the way through the episode, [Jack laughs] it’s like, “By the way, have you heard of the ten Shadow Beasts?” and then one minute later, it’s like, “Hi, it’s us, the ten Shadow Beasts.” [Dre laughs]
Shoutouts to the Friends at the Table Transcription team for their work, which made my job easier with this one: https://sites.google.com/view/fatttranscripts/more/media-club-plus