Pokkle

Pokkle (ポックル) was known as examinee #53 during the 287th Hunter Examination. Which turned out to be his second attempt at the Hunter Exam. He later becomes a Beast Hunter.

Background
Not much about his past is known. Not even about his family or his birthday for that matter.

Personality
Pokkle is described as being a very self confident person about his abilities, but at the same time he is also very cautious. He immediately understands when he is in real danger, and always has a reserve plan. Depicted as fairly skilled in his own right, Pokkle has a strong drive, but is not exceptionally talented at it when compared to other characters. He also seems to have a lot of pride, and was disappointed that he became a Hunter only due to his opponent refusing to fight him.

Appearance

 * 1999

Pokkle is an archer with orange pants, a orange shirt, and a red vest. With shoulder length brown hair, and a dark purple cap covering it, he has a quiver of arrows across his back. He also has a purple belt and red neckerchief.
 * 2011

Pokkle is an archer with white pants, a white shirt, and a red vest. With shoulder length brown hair, and a light purple cap covering it, he has a quiver of arrows across his back. He also has a yellow neckerchief, and purple belt.

Abilities
Pokkle had all the benefits granted by his status as a Hunter. In the Hunter Exam, he proved to be an accomplished archer, which, together with his use of paralyzing arrows and skills in stealth, allowed him to defeat his target and pass the fourth phase. He also managed to survive for a while after being captured by the Chimera Ants, hiding in a pile of bones, until he was eventually found by Neferpitou. Pokkle is resistant to poison to some degree, as he quickly recovered from Zazan's powerful neurotoxin long enough to use the antidote hidden in his tooth, while her victims usually sleep for a month.[13] He seems to be an expert in paralyzing substances, weaponizing them[5] and possessing and antidote capable of countering the effects of the poison of a Squadron Leader.[13]

Advanced Agility
Having passed the amended second phase of the Hunter Exam, Pokkle proved more nimble than many other applicants.[15]

Advanced Stamina
Pokkle was able to run for more than 80 km on different terrains during the first phase of the Hunter Exam.[16]

Hand-to-Hand Combatant
Pokkle assaulted Pike with a flurry of punches.[12]

Proficient Archer
During the Hunter Exam, Pokkle employed a bow and arrows as his weapons of choice.[5] With his Nen ability, he was able to score headshots on multiple Chimera Ants.[11][12]

Hunter Exam Arc
Pokkle is one of the 24 examinees to pass the 3rd Phase of the Hunter Exam within the Trick Tower. Outside of the Trick Tower, Lippo—the examiner of the phase—informs the examinees the next phase of the exam will be a manhunt held on Zevil Island and all of the examinees will be the hunters and prey. The targets will be decided through a lottery. During the 4th Phase of the Hunter Exam, Gon spots Pokkle stalking examinee #105 Kyu in a field of grass. Pokkle ambushes Kyu with his bow and arrow but merely scratches him. Kyu tries to retaliate against Pokkle, but succumbs to paralyzation and faints on the ground. Pokkle then takes Kyu's badge and explains that he had used a poison-laced arrow to paralyze him.

At the end of the 4th Phase, Pokkle joins the 9 other examinees to move onto the Final Phase and later is interviewed by Netero. He states that examinee #404 Kurapika caught his attention the most and he doesn't want to fight examinee #44 Hisoka. At an undisclosed location, Netero reveals that the final exam will be a 1 on 1 duel that's arranged on a pyramid chart. The first duel held was with Gon vs Hanzo and as the duel progresses; Pokkle notes that 3 hours have passed with no winner decided. When Pokkle finally fights Hanzo, he easily surrenders because Hanzo showed no mercy. Pokkle passes the Hunter Exam due to Killua conceding the match to Pokkle.

Mid-conversation during the discussion whether Illumi's Hunter License should be revoked, Pokkle finds suspicious during Kurapika's, Hisoka mentions something to Kurapika and forfeits. After the discussion Pokkle apologizes to Kurapika for his suspicions, claiming the end of the exam seemed anti climactic and admitted that he was dissatisfied with his own "default" win. He gives his home code to Kurapika, Leorio, and Gon before departing to become a successful Hunter of Fantastic Beasts after obtaining his license.

Heaven's Arena arc
During Gon and Killua's training in the Heaven's Arena, Wing reveals that Pokkle learned Nen after the Hunter Exam. Pokkle apparently had problems learning Ren.

Chimera Ant arc
During the Chimera Ant crisis, Pokkle leads a small expedition group consisting of Ponzu, Pekuba, and Balda in NGL. He kills at least one of Zazan's underlings, who is later examined by Peggy. Pokkle and his colleagues happen to stumble upon a gun-wielding Ant murdering humans with his pistols. Pokkle and group observe this from afar and safe distance. After asking a lightly injured Ponzu how she is, he concludes that they do not stand a chance against the Chimera Ants by themselves.[11] Ponzu attempts to contact the other five Hunter groups they had built a network with, to no avail, so Pokkle speculates that they have died. Therefore he decides to retreat out of NGL and contact the Hunter Association about the problem at hand. At that moment Pekuba panics and gets ambushed by a tunneling Chimera Ant that chops off his head in a single swipe.

Pokkle in a fit of rage takes action and attacks the Chimera Ant with his Red Arrow Nen ability setting its head a flare. He then tells Ponzu and Balda to run, as a bald human faced-spider Chimera Ant named Pike approached the group while scaling a wall. Pokkle tries to retaliate, by shooting his Orange Arrow at Pike, who easily catches it. Pokkle becomes nervous at that fact that Pike caught his fastest arrow so easily. Pike then shoots out a web aimed at Pokkle who dodges it but hits Balda. He then retracts his web, and bites off a chunk of Balda's head killing him. Pike regrets his actions Pokkle shoots 2 more arrows at the Chimera Ant, who easily catches both of them. Enraged Pokkle charges and throws enhanced punches at Pike and the moment he was about to shoot another arrow at point blank range, he became paralyzed by being injected with a neurotoxin through Zazan's tail. Pokkle was then captured alive and brought to the Chimera Ants' nest.

Thanks to an antidote serum hidden in his mouth, Pokkle regains his ability to move and manages to hide underneath a pile of leftover skulls from the Queen's food. Though he realizes that he must escape somehow as he is at his limits, Neferpitou appears, smelling Pokkle hiding in the pile of bones.[13] Later, Neferpitou lobotomizes and probes Pokkle's brain to manipulate him into telling the Chimera Ants the specifics about Nen and how to discover which Nen category each Nen user belongs to. After divulging the information, Pokkle is butchered and killed by Pig to be eaten by the Chimera Ant Queen.

Knownable Relatives

 * Unnamed Mother
 * Unnamed Father

Trivia

 * Pokkle is the first graduated from the 287th Hunter Exam to have died so far.
 * Pokkle bears a physical resemblance to Genkai of YuYu Hakusho.
 * His Rainbow is also similar to Suzaku's "Prism Storm of Torment", a technique of a YuYu Hakusho character.
 * His Red Arrow is made of fire-based energy as Sailor Mars's "Mars Flame Sniper" in Sailor Moon. The authoress of Sailor Moon is Naoko Takeuchi, wife of Yoshihiro Togashi, author of Hunter × Hunter.
 * In the first character popularity poll for Hunter × Hunter, Pokkle ranked 12th with 156 votes; 18th in the second poll with 74 votes; and 11th in the third poll with 355 votes.
 * In the Nippon Animation anime adaptation, Pokkle was first introduced during the first phase of the exam in the Milsy Wetlands. In this version, he is substitute for Cherry in the scene where Kurapika and Leorio attempt to escape Hisoka's rampage in the swamp.
 * In the bonus phase of the exam, from the 1999 anime adaptation, he was shown to be a knowledgeable mechanic by fixing the old battleship's steam turbine engine.
 * The 2011 anime expands Pokkle's appearances during the Chimera Ant arc: he is first seen with Ponzu and his friends in a park discussing the attack of giant insects in NGL. At one point, he saves Ponzu from two Peons chasing her with his aura arrows.
 * The 2011 anime omits the scene where Pokkle is butchered and killed by Pig. Possibly due for it being to gruesome and grotesque to be viewed on television.

Voice Actors

 * Japanese : Yuki Tamaki (1999 series), Yukitoshi Tokumoto (2011 series)
 * English : Graden Gant (1999 series), Bobby Thong (2011 series)