<p>Preface: I don't know anything about <em>Hunter x Hunter</em>, so I have no idea what language Feitan is "actually" speaking in the context of the show. It is entirely possible (as far as I know) that Feitan speaks Chinese, and that the captions are supposed to represent some variant of Chinese that exists in-show or whatnot.</p>

<p>That said: the captions that accompany Feitan's speech are most likely <strong>not a real language</strong>. I know Japanese well enough to tell you it's not Japanese; a bit of gruntwork in Chinese and Vietnamese character dictionaries suggests it isn't either of those; and if it isn't Chinese, it can't be Korean hanja either, since hanja are mostly identical to Chinese hanzi. It's <em>possible</em> that the script there is a more esoteric derivative of hanzi, e.g. Sawndip, but I doubt that's the case. </p>

<p>As evidence of this, we observe that the captions contain the character 々, found only in Japanese, as well as a number of other probably-untypeable characters, which are not found in Japanese. Since the language must be 1.) Japanese; and 2.) not Japanese, we are forced to conclude that language is not a language at all. </p>

<p>That said, the characters in the caption are very <em>evocative</em> of hanzi (particularly insofar as they appear to be built from standard Chinese radicals), and were probably consciously designed to appear Chinese while not actually being Chinese. Note that some of the characters that appear <em>are</em> real characters in Chinese - in particular, 了, 下, and 乃. The rest don't seem to be, though.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-26T12:25:27.653Z
2014-03-26T12:25:27.653Z
senshin
<p>He speaks normal Japanese.. But backwards. You can see this clearly at 17:12 where the Japanese subtitles say "どうした" (do u shi ta) and he says "tashiudo" (ta shi u do) which is what you would get if you read the hiragana backwards.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-11T08:37:51.990Z
This is only in the anime, though, probably because they needed some way to pronounce it for the VAs. In the manga you only have the made-up characters without any indication as to how to read them.
VVayfarer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-13T23:40:00.117Z
2015-03-14T22:42:24.160Z
2015-03-14T22:42:24.160Z
copy
<p>Yeah, it's definitely not purely Chinese, Chinese is my mother tongue and I've never even seen some of these characters before. They do have the characteristics of kanji and Chinese characters but I'm pretty sure the creator wanted to make an entirely new language.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-14T11:31:29.627Z
2021-02-14T11:37:00.117Z
2021-02-14T11:37:00.117Z
soleo.__
<p>It's 100% Feitan talking backwards. If you don't believe, you can watch the English dub aswell if you do not understand japanese at all. I can clearly tell you it's not Chinese because I'm Chinese myself. In the English dub version, you can clearly hear them talking backwards.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-26T04:42:23.443Z
2021-02-14T11:37:04.897Z
2021-02-14T11:37:04.897Z
GGP
<p>The characters on the right are gibberish that is written to look like Chinese. As many have said, some characters used are viable in Japanese, some viable in Modern Chinese, possibly some viable as obscure ancient Chinese not sure, but mostly it's constructed from legitimate parts to form gibberish. It's the equivalent of writing "angsk ville ast, arg be yous being may kis dangeroust stranger ous" Kind of looks like English with some viable parts to anyone who doesn't know English, but is generally gibberish. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-02T12:09:17.607Z
2014-11-02T12:09:17.607Z
David
<p>I believe he is speaking inverted Japanese, and the text on the right is Japanese kanji. I'm Chinese, and I can read Chinese characters, so hopefully, my brain isn't exploding and I'm right. :)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-08T21:12:45.060Z
Do you maybe have a way to confirm it, or some definite confirmation instead of hopefully :) ?
Dimitri mx
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-08T18:54:51.440Z
2014-01-08T18:54:51.440Z
Person
<p>According to <a href="http://hunterxhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Feitan" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the <em>Hunter x Hunter</em> Wiki</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Feitan's first language is Chinese; he speaks in sentence fragments in Japanese while switching to his native tongue when angered.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Given this, and the text is written in either Japanese kanji or Chinese (as <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/users/93/kuwaly">@kuwaly</a> beat me to pointing out), and the fact that there is a Japanese translation provided, I'm going to conclude that the text is written in Chinese. (There may be some fragments of Japanese, but I somewhat doubt that.)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-16T02:49:48.920Z
Feitan is not speaking chinese, he is just talking backwards in Japan. I have checked the fight multiple times and he is not speaking chinese
lolgirl345
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-02T20:00:14.303Z
@monkry Yes, indeed. The reason I didn't want to say conclusively that it was not Japanese is because you *can* form some sentences with kanji only. It just makes more sense for it to be Chinese here.
Cattua
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-05T00:09:47.840Z
I don't think this answer is quite correct. It would be nice if we could get someone who really knows Chinese over here, but as near as I can tell, only 了, 下, and 乃 are valid characters in either Traditional or Simplified, making it unlikely that this is actual Chinese. (There's also 々, which is found only in Japanese, confusing things further.) A lot of the components of the characters are real, but it looks they're put together in a way that doesn't occur in Chinese (or Japanese).
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-05T00:19:25.500Z
@senshin That may be a result of the "sentence fragments" part. Further inspection may be needed, though.
Cattua
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-05T00:27:11.623Z
@Eric Well, sure, that would explain it if it was mixed Chinese/Japanese, but this looks more like a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, and some _other_ language, too. It could be one of the other hanzi derivatives like Vietnamese script or something, or maybe just a made-up set of characters.
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-22T23:35:49.453Z
2013-09-22T23:35:49.453Z
2017-04-13T12:54:49.090Z
Cattua
<p>In <em>Hunter x Hunter</em>, episode 97, Feitan activates his nen ability.</p>

<p>What language is the vertical text on the right?</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/BNZGT.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/BNZGT.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/5v8vF.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/5v8vF.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/q82Oy.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/q82Oy.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<hunter-x-hunter>
What language does Feitan speak when activating Pain Packer?
# What language does Feitan speak when activating Pain Packer?
Posted by: username_0 on 2013-09-22
In *Hunter x Hunter*, episode 97, Feitan activates his nen ability.

What language is the vertical text on the right?

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/BNZGT.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/BNZGT.png)[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/5v8vF.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/5v8vF.png)[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/q82Oy.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/q82Oy.png)
**Tags:** hunter-x-hunter
---
## 7 answers
### Answer by username_9 on 2013-09-22. Score: 6 | Accepted answer
According to [the *Hunter x Hunter* Wiki](http://hunterxhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Feitan):

> Feitan's first language is Chinese; he speaks in sentence fragments in Japanese while switching to his native tongue when angered.

Given this, and the text is written in either Japanese kanji or Chinese (as [@kuwaly](https://anime.stackexchange.com/users/93/kuwaly) beat me to pointing out), and the fact that there is a Japanese translation provided, I'm going to conclude that the text is written in Chinese. (There may be some fragments of Japanese, but I somewhat doubt that.)
> **Comments:**
> **username_9** (2013-10-02): @monkry Yes, indeed. The reason I didn't want to say conclusively that it was not Japanese is because you *can* form some sentences with kanji only. It just makes more sense for it to be Chinese here.  
> **username_1** (2014-01-05): I don't think this answer is quite correct. It would be nice if we could get someone who really knows Chinese over here, but as near as I can tell, only 了, 下, and 乃 are valid characters in either Traditional or Simplified, making it unlikely that this is actual Chinese. (There's also 々, which is found only in Japanese, confusing things further.) A lot of the components of the characters are real, but it looks they're put together in a way that doesn't occur in Chinese (or Japanese).  
> **username_9** (2014-01-05): @senshin That may be a result of the "sentence fragments" part. Further inspection may be needed, though.  
> **username_1** (2014-01-05): @Eric Well, sure, that would explain it if it was mixed Chinese/Japanese, but this looks more like a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, and some _other_ language, too. It could be one of the other hanzi derivatives like Vietnamese script or something, or maybe just a made-up set of characters.  
> **username_10** (2020-04-16): Feitan is not speaking chinese, he is just talking backwards in Japan. I have checked the fight multiple times and he is not speaking chinese  
---
### Answer by username_1 on 2014-03-26. Score: 6
Preface: I don't know anything about *Hunter x Hunter*, so I have no idea what language Feitan is "actually" speaking in the context of the show. It is entirely possible (as far as I know) that Feitan speaks Chinese, and that the captions are supposed to represent some variant of Chinese that exists in-show or whatnot.

That said: the captions that accompany Feitan's speech are most likely **not a real language**. I know Japanese well enough to tell you it's not Japanese; a bit of gruntwork in Chinese and Vietnamese character dictionaries suggests it isn't either of those; and if it isn't Chinese, it can't be Korean hanja either, since hanja are mostly identical to Chinese hanzi. It's *possible* that the script there is a more esoteric derivative of hanzi, e.g. Sawndip, but I doubt that's the case.

As evidence of this, we observe that the captions contain the character 々, found only in Japanese, as well as a number of other probably-untypeable characters, which are not found in Japanese. Since the language must be 1.) Japanese; and 2.) not Japanese, we are forced to conclude that language is not a language at all.

That said, the characters in the caption are very *evocative* of hanzi (particularly insofar as they appear to be built from standard Chinese radicals), and were probably consciously designed to appear Chinese while not actually being Chinese. Note that some of the characters that appear *are* real characters in Chinese - in particular, 了, 下, and 乃. The rest don't seem to be, though.
---
### Answer by username_2 on 2015-03-13. Score: 4
He speaks normal Japanese.. But backwards. You can see this clearly at 17:12 where the Japanese subtitles say "どうした" (do u shi ta) and he says "tashiudo" (ta shi u do) which is what you would get if you read the hiragana backwards.
> **Comments:**
> **username_3** (2019-12-11): This is only in the anime, though, probably because they needed some way to pronounce it for the VAs. In the manga you only have the made-up characters without any indication as to how to read them.  
---
### Answer by username_4 on 2021-02-14. Score: 0
Yeah, it's definitely not purely Chinese, Chinese is my mother tongue and I've never even seen some of these characters before. They do have the characteristics of kanji and Chinese characters but I'm pretty sure the creator wanted to make an entirely new language.
---
### Answer by username_5 on 2018-06-26. Score: 0
It's 100% Feitan talking backwards. If you don't believe, you can watch the English dub aswell if you do not understand japanese at all. I can clearly tell you it's not Chinese because I'm Chinese myself. In the English dub version, you can clearly hear them talking backwards.
---
### Answer by username_6 on 2014-11-02. Score: 0
The characters on the right are gibberish that is written to look like Chinese. As many have said, some characters used are viable in Japanese, some viable in Modern Chinese, possibly some viable as obscure ancient Chinese not sure, but mostly it's constructed from legitimate parts to form gibberish. It's the equivalent of writing "angsk ville ast, arg be yous being may kis dangeroust stranger ous" Kind of looks like English with some viable parts to anyone who doesn't know English, but is generally gibberish.
---
### Answer by username_7 on 2014-01-08. Score: -1
I believe he is speaking inverted Japanese, and the text on the right is Japanese kanji. I'm Chinese, and I can read Chinese characters, so hopefully, my brain isn't exploding and I'm right. :)
> **Comments:**
> **username_8** (2014-01-08): Do you maybe have a way to confirm it, or some definite confirmation instead of hopefully :) ?  
---
