Hunter x Hunter: The Chimera Ant Royal Guards, Explained

Among the countless anime projects that have graced our screens since anime has existed, very few anime matches or even exceed the level and sheer quality of world-building that the Hunter X Hunter series possesses. This is in addition to having contenders for some of the best anime arcs of all time, specifically the Chimera Ant Arc. A stand-out arc in the series, which then leads into the focus of this piece: The Chimera Ant Royal Guards.

A significant part of the antagonizing force of the Chimera Ant arc, the Chimera Ant royal guards are the personal elite unit of the Ant Queen, second in authority only to the Queen in the colony. However, aside from being extremely powerful and arrogant, only little about them regarding their purpose, duties, and how their creation differs from the regular chimera ants is understood by fans. In this regard, here’s what is to know about the royal guards,

Who or What Are The Chimera Ants Royal Guards?

In base form, the Royal Guards are chimera ants, essentially dangerous insects whose designated level of danger is quarantine level one. They are usually found on the Dark Continent. Also, like regular chimera ants, the Royal Guards are born through Phagogenesis, a process that basically means reproduction through devouring. By eating other creatures, the Ant Queen can impart specific traits and features of the creature she has ingested onto the next generation of chimera ants the Queen gives birth to. Due to this, there are always large differences in different generations of Chimera Ants, down to feeding incompatibilities or even genetics. The Royal Guards, however, are born genetically stronger than the regular soldier ants due to their positions in the hierarchy and are typically capable of using Nen instinctively right after hatching.

Usually, no more than three in number, the Royal Guards are entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the colony’s leader, the Ant King Mereum and acting as his advisors as directed by the previous Ant Queen. The three Royal Guards are Neferipitou, Shaiapouf, and Menthuthuyoupi. Each Royal Guard represents a different type of loyalty towards Meruem. Neferipitou’s loyalty comes from complete obedience to the person that is the Ant King, Meruem, regardless of how different he is from the expectation of the Ant King that was expected. Shaiapouf is more loyal to his idea of how the Ant King should be and the project laid out by the previous Ant Queen rather than the person of the Ant King. Finally, Menthuthuyoupi is loyal and devoted to both the person of the Ant King, Meruem, and the Ant King undauntedly and unquestionably, as he is indifferent to anything else.

Most importantly, although the Chimera Ant arc is not the longest in the series, the Royal Guard and Meruem were among the most fearsome forces, with the Guards amassing over a kill score of over five hundred thousand human deaths. Neferipitou carries an overbearing weight here, with the death responsibility of over 478,594 civilians and an additional 12,905 soldiers, including Kite. Shaiapouf, albeit indirectly, is also responsible for around 46,613 deaths of the civilians of East Gorteau, who died of bodily failure after he terminated his hypnosis over them. Surprisingly, despite the death count his colleagues carry, Menthuthuyoupi, through the series, was never confirmed to have killed a single person.

The Royal Guards In The Hierarchy of The Chimera Ants

The Immediate Guard Force

The Royal Guards of the Chimera Ants possess quite the authority and influence in the colony, which is not unusual, given their title. However, the title makes it necessary to lay out the chain of command among the Chimera Ants.

The Chimera Ant colony operates a military-like hierarchy structure, with its tip being the Ant Queen. The Queen hunts for her food herself until she produces sufficient soldier chimera ants, who then hunt bigger prey for her until she spawns stronger soldiers. Simultaneously, the Ant Queen searches for a suitable nest, where she can nest and reproduce a horde of Construction ants responsible for building the nest.

The Queen continues to produce more soldiers, after which she will divide them into three ranks, according to their order of strength and authority; the few stronger ants become the Squadron Leaders, and the regular soldier majority become either Peons, that is, combat soldiers or Drudges, which are chore soldiers. Any remaining Ant seemingly strong enough becomes an Officer, just above the Peons and Drudges in rank but below the Squadron Leaders. Next, the Queen produces an elite unit, the Royal Guards, who rank above the Squadron Leaders and are just beneath the Queen in rank and authority.

However, unlike the rest of the chimera ants, the Royal Guards are only created to protect and serve the Queen’s ultimate progeny, the King, Meruem. Once the King is born, the Royal Guard’s loyalty to the Queen is instantly severed and reattached to the newborn King, in this case, Meruem.

The Chimera Ant Royal Guards In Close View

Neferipitou, Shaiapouf, and Menthuthuyoupi

Having carefully explained the creation process, purpose, and standing of the Royal Guards within the colony, it has become even more imperative to dive into the character details of the Royal Guards, their persons, relationships, and their impacts on the overall storyline. Among the three Guards, Neferipitou, without question, directly contributes the most to the arc’s narrative, while Menthuthuyoupi does really next to nothing notable before his demise. Therefore, what will now follow is a deep dive into these contributions and the persons of the character.

The firstborn of the Chimera Ant King’s Royal Guards, Neferipitou was a cat-like humanoid chimera and a main villain of the Chimera Ant arc. Nicknamed Pitou, Neferipitou was very loyal to Meruem as the Ant King and took its duty to protect and serve the Ant King. While Pitou was mostly cheery and cute, they had an extremely cruel and terrifying personality, as Pitou was more or less superior to most Hunters, with even Isaac Netero wondering at some point who was stronger between the cat and himself. Unlike the other Royal Guards, Neferipitou understood Meruem’s preference for taking on new interests even though it prevented the King from acting as he had been programmed. Most notably, Neferipitou was responsible for the selection process that took over 400,000 human lives while also being responsible for driving Gon to the edge of rage, having killed his mentor, Kite. The latter act further led to Gon taking a murderous adult form, ultimately leading to Pitou’s gruesome and satisfying death, at the cost of Gon never using Nen again.

The one that came after Neferipitou, Shaiapouf, was a butterfly-humanoid chimera ant and the second in the order of the Three Royal Guards. Another main antagonist of the chimera ant arc, Shaiapouf, out of the three, bore the most resemblance to a human and seemed the most rational and coolheaded, often emphasizing the logic of things. However, just like the other guards, Shaiapouf was immensely devoted and loyal to the Ant King to the point of obsession, which caused him to lose his logic on occasion and made him actually the most irrational of the three Guards. Further, his irrationality ultimately led to his death from the Miniature Rose’s poison, which led to the deaths of over 46,000 civilians from bodily failure after Shaiapouf’s connection was cut off.

The last in the order of the Royal Guards is Menthuthuyoupi. The most conspicuous among the three, Menthuthuyoupi, was the youngest and the least human-looking. Massive in his appearance due to his muscles with a dark red skin tone. Of the three, Menthuthuyoupi was the most straightforward, with an unbending loyalty and devotion to the Ant King, Meruem. Menthuthuyoupi had no emotion or even ego, which made him both a blessing and a burden due to his simplicity. However, during his battle with Shoot, Morel, and Knuckle, his personality began to evolve due to the intensity of their battle and the emotions it evoked in him, to the point where he achieved his ‘Rage Incarnate’ form. He ended up dying due to the poison of the ‘Miniature Rose’ of Netero’s sacrifice.

What Does the Selection Process Represent To The Royal Guard?

The Sorting

The Sorting is less a project and more of a mission of the Royal Guards and supposedly the first step towards world domination, and was supposed to be swiftly followed by the main phase of the selection process, the Unification. The Sorting was developed to produce soldiers to serve under Meruem and the Royal Guards. It entailed manipulating human and having them control their own Nen aura, essentially forcing their Nen to awaken or die.

Those who survive are placed in a special cocoon engineered by Shaiapouf and turned into human-Chimera Ant hybrids. The Unification is the second and most important phase, which requires an army of 50,000 Nen-using hybrids that survive the Sorting. In the series, the Sorting occurs in the Royal Palace of East Gorteau, which leads to Neferipitou and Shaiapouf committing mass genocide. However, the unification fails due to Meruem’s doubts combined with the poison from the Poor Man’s Rose used by Netero.