I was thinking about the six different nen types in Hunter X Hunter and which zodiac signs they might correspond to. This guide is just for fun. You can check your natal chart to see which nen type you might be based on your astrological placements.

If you don’t know, nen is just spirit or aura. In the manga Hunter X Hunter, characters are able to use their spirits or nens to do certain things through training. You first learn ten (the art of binding your spirit to your body) and then zetsu (the art of closing your aura within your body). Then, you learn ren (the art of releasing your spirit and making it flow) and hatsu (the art of acting using your spirit in an idiosyncratic way).



There are six different types of hatsus or actions that you can take using your spirit. These are: 強化 (enhance), ​​変化 (transmute), 具現 (conjure), ​​操作 (manipulate), 放出 (emit), and 特殊 (specialize).

According to Hisoka, there may be also some personality traits associated with each type of hatsu:

強化

Enhancers typically strengthen themselves using their spirits and they don’t really need to develop hatsus that have any conditions. Instead, enhancers just strengthen actions that they are already used to taking with their bodies like punching or kicking. Not all enhancers are jocks. Palm, who is a lovesick woman who enhances her ability to see by developing second sight, is also an enhancer. Komugi who is kind of Palm’s foil is similar, she is blind so she developed her powers of second sight.

According to Hisoka, enhancers are simple and straightforward. Highly determined. The character 強 just means strong or dominant.

If I were to compare enhancement to an astrological planet, I would choose the straightforward Sun. The Sun shines so it is. The astrological Sun represents a very basic fact of existence and helps you see yourself as you are. Enhancement basically just strengthens people based on who they already are or their truth. Uvogin already liked to brawl so he strengthened his physical body. Palm and Komugi want to see who people truly are so they both developed their abilities of second sight.

Is your Sun very strong in your chart? Is it in the ninth house or an angular house? Or in Aries or Leo? If so, maybe you are an enhancer as well!

特殊

Specialists are the hardest to pin down in Hunter X Hunter because only 1% of all nen users are specialists. Both manipulators and conjurers have the ability to become specialists. Of course, Hisoka, who has a crush on specialist Chrollo, describes them as individualistic and charismatic.

But what are specialists truly?

Specialists are people who have faced some special life circumstances. Chrollo and Pakunouda, both specialists, grew up in Meteor City where they saw their friends get trafficked or cut up. Kurapika is a specialist whose entire village was genocided.

When specialists use their spirits, they have to deal with a lot of self imposed restrictions. Kurapika has a dagger pointing at his own heart. Chrollo has to keep his book open and ends up killing people who he seduces. Pakunouda’s ability was probably born out of nostalgia and the desire to share memories and empathy with people who trust her enough to let her shoot them.

It’s worth it to note that specialists are the opposite of enhancers. While enhancers don’t need to impose any special conditions on themselves, specialists have to. If enhancement is about accepting who you truly are, then specialization is about restricting who you can be. That’s what it means to be exceptional.

Who is someone who does not really belong, who’s special abilities are created out of that lack of belonging, who deals with a lot of self imposing restrictions? I think it’s actually the planets that are in fall.

My guess is that Chrollo is probably a Cancer Mars, swallowing and clinging to his many legged spider pack because, even though he’s an infamous villain, he’s also too conflict avoidant to confront even Leorio in the train station. Chrollo collects but doesn’t want to fight. Pakunouda is probably a Mercury in Pisces, sharing her nostalgia but always afraid of being silenced. Kurapika is probably a Scorpio Moon, someone who lost his home and stakes his life on vengeance.

Do you have any planets that are in fall in your chart? If you do, maybe you have some specialist tendencies.

変化

According to Hisoka, transmuters are whimsical liars. The word 変 actually just means to change or transform or transmute. It’s actually the same character as the first character in hentai, meaning pervert. I think Togashi was making a joke about because he made Hisoka, who is a transmuter, a pervert.

As a personality, we see transmuters have the ability to change the situation that they find themselves in. To change the people around them, transmuters rely on changing themselves. Bisky is a coach who literally transforms or changes the people who she trains. Her ability is literally to change her own body. Hisoka is always changing sides, pretending to be a Phantom Troupe member or not. Killua is also a transmuter and we see him grow the most emotionally throughout the series. Youpi also changes himself and his own motives by the end of the chimera ant arc.

As an action, transmutation is mostly about changing the quality of your spirit based on the influences of other people. You can make yourself more sticky or flexible like Hisoka. You can make yourself more willing to withstand pain like Killua. You can make yourself cuter and smaller like Bisky or you can let yourself blow up like Youpi. Transmutation is the power of letting other people or outside circumstances shape you spiritually.

Since transmutation is about the act of changing the self, I would actually assign it the power of Mercury and the Moon. Both Mercury and the Moon are associated with changeability, the Moon being the planet who changes its own body every few days and Mercury being the planet to change its phase a few times a year. Hisoka, who is again a transmuter, is also a Gemini. Killua is our other transmuter and he is a Cancer. These two main characters are the two characters who represent transmutation the most to the audience. Mercury and the Moon—changing your mind and changing your heart.

Killua’s emotional growth is unparalleled in Hunter X Hunter because he comes at life willing to change himself for the people who he loves. That makes him grow fast.

Is Mercury or Moon strong in your chart? Are you a Cancer Moon or a Mercury in Virgo? Are you a transmuter type?

操作

I find manipulation really interesting as a concept because the English word definitely carries a lot of negative connotations. The word that Togashi uses for manipulation is 操 which just means something like manage. 操 can be negative or positive but is mostly neutral.

As a negative, 操 type people can be very overbearing but, as a positive trait, they are also just very caring. In fact, f you say that you do not have 操 in your heart, then you are saying that you are a bit careless as a person. 操 is something that parents should do for their children because it’s the act of worrying over someone or caring about them. When dating, you might say that you are someone who likes to 操 to convey that you are someone who likes to take of the little things in life like remembering birthdays or preparing snacks for other people. When you date someone, you might ask yourself if they are someone who likes to 操 or not as a way of asking yourself if they’re considerate or will go out of their way to take care of people. But a negatively 操 person is always up in other people’s business and neglecting their own.

Manipulation is literally the opposite of transmutation because transmuters are being changed spiritually by their environments. Manipulators are trying to take care of or change their environments and other people. They like to manage other people’s spiritual lives.

As expected, all of the manipulators in Hunter X Hunter are pretty overbearing. Illumi is excessively overbearing, literally controlling Killua’s mind. He is also always calling Hisoka during the Hunter Exam to ask him if he got enough badges yet or to tell him that phase one is almost done. Milluki and Killua’s mom are also manipulators who are more concerned about Killua than themselves. Shaiapouf is another overbearing worrywort who is always buzzing around trying to take care of every situation. His weakness is that he divides himself up into too many cells because he’s literally spread too thin. Shalnark, too, is the troupe member who is always helping other members like Chrollo or Uvogin. He’s helping Chrollo do research or worrying over Uvogin when he goes to fight Kurapika. Shalnark is a classic 操 type personality who does a lot of work for and cares a lot for other people.

If I were to assign manipulation an astrological power, it would probably be Venus. Venus is the planet of discernment and making ethical choices. Venusian people, just like manipulation nen users, are the types to really get into other people’s business because they just love and care so much.

What do you think? Is your Venus very strong in your chart? Are you a Venus in Pisces or do you have Venus in the first house? Could you have some manipulation type nen abilities?

放出

In Hisoka’s personality type system which he made up, emitters are impulsive and not very detail oriented. That sounds about right because emission is about acting from a distance. Emitters are people who can use their spirits to cause things to happen at a long distance from their physical bodies.

The word 放 means to release and 出 means to exit. The emitters who we meet in the manga are very carefree types of people. Silvo admits that he has never talked with his children as a father and he lets Killua leave. Leorio, another emitter, has a storyline that is largely about grieving his friend who got sick and died and letting that friend go. Another emitter, Meruem, has to learn to let go of his identity as the ant king so that he can die together with the girl who he loves.

Emission makes me think of both Mars and Jupiter. Mars makes us let go of things because it literally removes things from our lives but Jupiter is about distance and growing larger than your loss. Are you a Jupiterian or a Martian? Do you have Jupiter in the tenth house or Mars in the first? Maybe you have some emitter abilities!

具現

As a spiritual power, conjuration is about manifesting objects using the power of your spiritual imagination. Kurapika, who is also a conjurer, can conjure up chains. Shizuku can conjure up Blinky who is a vacuum cleaner.

Conjuration is the opposite of emission. If emission is about letting go, then conjuration is about holding things inside. According to Shizuku who is a conjurer, conjurers have to develop very elaborate and strong imaginations inside of themselves before they are able to conjure up their objects. Kurapika had to touch chains, taste them, smell them, until chains were stored up inside of himself, before he was able to conjure them. You get the sense that all conjurers have something that they repress and that this act of repression is what allows them to use their inner imagination. This is probably why Hisoka describes conjurers as highstrung.

All of the conjurers who we meet tend to be a bit delusional or not very tethered to the physical world. Shizuku is very forgetful and Kurapika forgets his friends only to pursue his emotional quest. Kind of like specialization, conjurers also seem to deal with a lot of self imposed conditions because they are limited by their imaginative logic.

I would compare conjuration to Saturn. Conjuration is about closing yourself off to the outside world so much that your imagined reality becomes reality. Do you have a strong Saturn in your chart? A Saturn in Capricorn or Aquarius or a Saturn sitting in the first house? Might you have some conjuration related abilities?