YuYu Hakusho #13-20

YuYu Hakusho #13-20

Originally released in 1991

Written by Yoshihiro Togashi

Art by Yoshihiro Togashi

Yusuke Urameshi is dead, but he's doing whatever he can to fix that.  With the help of his guide Botan, he's trying to do good deeds as a ghost in order to earn the right to return to his body.  However, the first two chapters that I'm reading focus more on his sort-of girlfriend Keiko and their budding relationship. (Yusuke isn't exactly the type to talk about his feelings, let alone admit them, and the two are very different, with Keiko being polite and studious while Yusuke's a delinquent)

When an arsonist tries to burn down Yusuke's family home with Yusuke's body (stuck between life and death) still inside, Keiko risks life and limb to save Yusuke.  Yusuke can possess specific people (if they're spiritually sensitive or unconscious), but nobody like that is nearby, so he's forced to sacrifice his accumulated good deeds in order to get Keiko out of the burning building safely.

Chapters 15 and 16 focus on Yusuke trying to give a classmate a boost in confidence; the classmate in question is passionate about boxing, but his timid nature and tendency to get bullied means he's not very good at it.

The underworld decides that, if Yusuke is successful in his goal here, he can get his body back; it's a little sudden after the previous chapter emphasized that he was starting from scratch, but losing all of his points to save Keiko serves as a way to establish how he values her life even more than his own.

Togashi does a great job with contrasting Yusuke and his friend, with Yusuke's voice in his head helping him to overcome his negative self-talk.  In contrast to his friend, who's regularly picked on, Yusuke seems unafraid of anything and doesn't hesitate to get into the action. (though this attitude comes with negative consequences in the short term)

Chapter 17 has Yusuke finally return to his body, with the caveats that it has to be done on a specific day (otherwise, he has to wait fifty years for his next chance) and it involves a transfer of energy from the living.  The only way this can be done is mouth-to-mouth, so Keiko's the only plausible option.

Maybe it's because I'm used to his appearance from later in the manga, but upon being revived, Yusuke is drawn much younger-looking than what I'm used to.  I get that age in art varies heavily depending on the artist (Jotaro Kujo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is 17 years old in his first few appearances, but he looks like he's pushing 30), and the context might differ compared to the usual tone of the series (he's at peace here, and his revival is definitely meant to be a romantic scene), but it highlights that he's still just a kid.

When Yusuke is revived, Koenma hints that his troubles are only just beginning, which is expanded on in chapter 18. A demon has possessed a student from a rival school and is blackmailing Kuwabara, but Yusuke's intervention helps to save Kuwabara's adorable pet cat.

By thwarting this demon, Yusuke has proved his capabilities as a spirit detective, serving as King Enma Jr.'s (or Koenma for short) agent in the mortal realm. (whether he wants to or not)  His death is brushed under the rug as far as school is concerned thanks to his mom's criminal connections (she's a neglectful alcoholic, but apparently she's blackmailing the Yakuza).

Part of the job involves Yusuke being gradually given seven underworld items, like a lens that lets the user see through walls.  I can't remember if this concept is dropped entirely as the series goes on and becomes more about fighting than detective work; it's treated as being important here, but it doesn't come up in the Dark Tournament arc, which is the arc that I'm most familiar with as far as this series goes.

When a teacher with a grudge tries to frame Yusuke for theft, Yusuke uses the lens to prove that he took the items.  Unable to strike the teacher directly, Koenma teaches Yusuke how to use what becomes Yusuke's signature move, the Rei Gun, to speed things along and help Koenma deal with an emergency.

A trio of thieves have stolen dark artifacts with the apparent intent to cause chaos on Earth.  Two of these characters will be familiar to fans of the series - Hiei and Kurama.  There's a third demon with them, Goki, who's much larger and comes across as a brute.  He comes across as being the Nappa to Hiei's Vegeta, and much like Nappa, with Hiei being shorter and less impressive looking but much more powerful and relevant.

As it turns out, Yusuke has a time limit of one week to get the artifacts back, since that's when King Enma comes back from a business trip, and those three artifacts as his favourites.  Kurama isn't as keen as the other two when it comes to their plan; he needs the Mirror of Darkness for his own purposes, and tries to leave as soon as he gets the opportunity.

Yusuke tracks the demons down and chooses this moment to reveal himself.  Hiei leaves Goki to deal with Yusuke, and Goki is much larger than any other demon that Yusuke's had to deal with.

I don't want to get too deep into this arc, so this seems like as good of a place as any to stop. (I can't remember if Kurama gets a fight, but Hiei definitely does, and I'm not sure how long it is)  I read a few of these chapters (19 and 20) in Shonen Jump when it was a physical magazine in North America, but it's been a while, and I hadn't read the earlier ones, so it was fun to go back to this series and revisit its roots. (I could skip to a point beyond the Dark Tournament arc, but I figured it's best to see how this manga started out)