Dalzollene

Dalzollene serves as the head of Neon Nostrade’s security unit under the mafia boss Light Nostrade.

He is not a professional Hunter but is a Nen user with a heavily trained body and a reputation for being able to withstand gunfire.

He has a rugged, intimidating appearance with a flattop haircut and distinctive gill‑like markings under his eyes.

Despite being the most senior member of the bodyguards, he often struggles with Neon’s tantrums and eccentricities.

His personality is impulsive and achievement‑oriented; he is driven by ambition and a desire for credit.

This sometimes leads him to take reckless actions, such as abandoning Neon’s immediate vicinity to go after members of the Phantom Troupe.

Dalzollene is first prominently featured during the Yorknew City (Yorkshin City) underground auction storyline.

There, he oversees Neon’s protection and later becomes involved in the pursuit and capture of the Phantom Troupe member Uvogin.

He is responsible for testing Kurapika’s abilities before approving him as one of Neon’s bodyguards.

Dalzollene recognizes Kurapika’s potential and grants him the qualification to join the escort group.

One of his defining lines, spoken to Kurapika, is:

“Do not imagine the enemy’s face. Anyone who approaches the boss is an enemy. Understood?”

This quote encapsulates his no‑nonsense, security‑first mindset.

Dalzollene is a straightforward, hot‑blooded man who acts quickly and often emotionally.

He places great value on results and glory, which sometimes clouds his judgment.

He is capable of extreme measures when he believes it will protect the Nostrade Family.

At one point, he executes a former partner who, due to careless assumptions, allowed the family to fall into chaos by being manipulated by the enemy.

After killing this ex‑partner, Dalzollene displays the corpse as a grotesque “object” and uses the situation to conduct a recruitment test for replacement members.

This shows both his ruthlessness and his practical, if brutal, approach to leadership.

His basic policy is to eliminate preconceptions and prioritize defense and counterattacks.

However, a key flaw in his approach is that he often neglects proactive information‑gathering and prevention.

He can be tactless and impulsive in battle situations.

For example, he rashly charges Uvogin with his sword right after witnessing him block an anti‑tank super bazooka with his bare body.

In the first anime adaptation, his personality is significantly softened and sharpened at the same time.

There he appears as a cold but highly reliable strategist who maintains calm judgment, senses the Troupe’s attack from afar, and quietly grieves for fallen comrades like Baise when others are not watching.

In that version, Dalzollene also shows more emotional depth and subtle care for his team.

He shakes with frustration when realizing, via Neon’s predictions, that the bodyguards who went to the underground auction have died.

He trusts Kurapika considerably in the first anime.

When Kurapika asks for permission to go outside to meet “someone” (Hisoka Morow), Dalzollene grants it on the single condition that Kurapika strictly return on time.

He even has a refined side: he is shown playing the piano, hinting at a more cultured background beneath his rough exterior.

These additions make him feel like a colder, more composed but ultimately dependable commander.

Dalzollene is the leader of Neon Nostrade’s escort team during the Yorknew City arc.

He coordinates security around Neon, especially during the underground auction where multiple mafia families gather.

When Kurapika joins Light Nostrade’s organization, Dalzollene is in charge of his qualification test.

He evaluates Kurapika’s combat and Nen ability and, impressed by his skills, approves him as a full bodyguard.

In the manga, Dalzollene’s role is closely tied to the Nostrade Family’s response to the Phantom Troupe.

After the Troupe attacks the underground auction, the mafia mobilizes, and Dalzollene’s team is drawn into the anti‑Troupe operations.

Dalzollene participates when Kurapika and the others capture Uvogin in the wilderness.

He is shocked when he sees Uvogin effortlessly slaughtering mafia members and the Shadow Beasts, showcasing just how outclassed ordinary Nen users can be by the Troupe’s top fighters.

After Uvogin is captured by Kurapika, Dalzollene is responsible for transferring him to the Mafia Community.

This responsibility becomes the direct lead‑up to his death.

When mafia “representatives” arrive at the hideout to receive Uvogin, Dalzollene fails to realize that they are Phantom Troupe members in disguise.

He lets them in, and this mistake leads to his assassination by Finks, who stabs him in the chest with a powerful hand strike from behind.

In the original manga continuity, Dalzollene dies on the spot from Finks’s blow.

His death is abrupt and underscores how deadly a single misjudgment can be in the world of the mafia and Nen combat.

Dalzollene is a Nen user, though his exact type is not revealed in the original work.

However, in a mobile game, he is classified as an Enhancement‑type Nen user, which matches his hot‑blooded, physically focused nature.

He specializes in using a sword as his main weapon.

His physical conditioning is exceptional, to the point that Light Nostrade describes his body as tough enough to withstand ten bullets.

During Uvogin’s interrogation, Dalzollene attempts to pierce Uvogin with his sword while reinforcing it with Nen (using “Ren” to boost the blade’s power).

Instead of injuring Uvogin, the sword simply snaps, emphasizing the absurd durability of Uvogin’s body compared with an ordinary enhancer.

At the time of his introduction, readers often mocked the statement that he could “take ten bullets” as unimpressive.

This was because the main benchmark for enhancement had been Uvogin, who could brush off not only rifle fire but even a bazooka blast with a casual “that hurts.”

Later in the series, however, Hunter × Hunter clarifies that even Nen users will usually suffer fatal wounds from a single bullet if they do not defend properly with techniques like “Ken” or “Ko.”

In this context, Dalzollene’s ability to endure ten bullets makes him surprisingly impressive among standard Nen users, leading to a retroactive bump in his reputation.

Similarly, this revaluation also highlights how effective Tonino’s defensive ability (“Under the Floor’s 11”) is, and just how extreme Uvogin’s feats truly are.

Dalzollene thus comes to be seen as a legitimately strong, frontline enhancer‑type among mafia‑aligned Nen users.

In the manga, Dalzollene’s death occurs when he attempts to hand Uvogin over to the Mafia Community.

Phantom Troupe members infiltrate the transaction by disguising themselves as mafia personnel.

Dalzollene fails to detect the deception and allows them into the base.

Finks then suddenly strikes from behind, driving his hand through Dalzollene’s chest and killing him instantly.

His death is both a tactical failure and a tragic end for a man who lived by rigid security principles.

The scene highlights the danger of neglecting information and intelligence‑gathering in favor of pure defense and reaction.

In the story’s tone, Dalzollene’s demise is more brutal than dramatic.

He dies without a grand speech or final flourish, underscoring the harsh, unforgiving nature of the mafia world in Hunter × Hunter.

The first anime adaptation of Hunter × Hunter significantly reworks Dalzollene’s character and role.

He becomes a colder, more calculating, and consistently cool‑headed leader rather than an impulsive hothead.

In this version, he stays by Neon Nostrade’s side at all times, even during the events around Uvogin’s capture.

As a result, he is not physically present when Kurapika captures Uvogin out in the wilderness.

The anime gives him sharper intuition; he senses the Phantom Troupe’s assault on the underground auction from afar.

He also privately rages over the deaths of Baise and others, expressing his anger only when his subordinates cannot see him.

When Uvogin is tortured, Dalzollene uses a special sword engraved with “divine characters” that supposedly assist Nen.

This sword does not break and manages to inflict a slight wound on Uvogin, although the damage is almost negligible and Uvogin derides it as “barely advanced by five millimeters with a dull blade.”

The anime also introduces a technique called “enhancement meditation” that Dalzollene performs to further harden his sword with Nen before striking.

This technique is notable because a similar kind of meditation later appears in the Chimera Ant arc, where Chairman Netero trains after realizing he cannot defeat Neferpitou as he is.

Dalzollene uses his analysis and reports to deduce that regular firearms are useless against Uvogin.

He therefore targets Uvogin’s left shoulder scar, where Uvogin’s “Ten” has loosened slightly, and manages to inflict a minor injury by exploiting this weak point.

Unlike the manga, Dalzollene does not die immediately from Finks’s hand strike in the first anime.

He is left mortally wounded but still alive long enough to contact Senritsu and help Neon and the others escape.

While attempting to stall Uvogin in his dying state, Dalzollene suffers additional trauma from hearing Uvogin’s enraged roar up close, causing blood to pour from both ears.

He tries to buy even a few more seconds for his allies, picking up his own sword to face Uvogin again.

Ultimately, Uvogin takes Dalzollene’s sword and kills him with it.

As an ironic touch, Dalzollene’s corpse is left with the blade driven vertically through his left shoulder, mirroring the wound he had tried to exploit earlier.

These changes turn Dalzollene into a more tragic, heroic figure in the first anime.

He becomes a leader who combines cold pragmatism with deep loyalty, willing to die painfully to secure his comrades’ escape.

In the second anime adaptation, Dalzollene is closer to his manga version but still receives some modifications.

One notable change is how he handles the subordinate he originally executed off‑screen in the manga.

In the original manga, Dalzollene had already killed the subordinate who caused trouble by falling for enemy manipulation.

In the second anime, however, this subordinate is kept alive and held in confinement until the time of the recruitment test with Kurapika and the others.

Dalzollene then uses this still‑living subordinate as part of the hiring test scenario.

This tweak emphasizes his ruthlessness and his willingness to use people as tools to evaluate new recruits, while also visually dramatizing his earlier decision.