Yu Yu Hakusho

[Dr. Insomniac]

You just happened to be born a bad joke.

At least I have a punch line, unlike you.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, does anyone besides Talon have any actual thoughts on the #3 entry that I just posted?

Guess its not a popular choice....

Anyways, I'll try to do another one tonight if I have the time.

[gunswordfist]

I agree that Genkai getting revived cheapens her death but that closeup of her dead got to me the last time I watched it.

[Avaitor]

It's another classic, but idk what else to say, you nailed it in your entry.

[gunswordfist]

Interesting insight on how Yusuke felt when he attacked Toguro. I was wondering why he didn't tap into his emotional power or however you'd put it but yeah, that was just pure rage.

Also, the last time I watched that episode, it was kind of obvious that Toguro was sad after he killed Genkai. At least that's what I thought.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, so I just remembered that I had started a top 10 list and still hadn't finished off the final 2 entries (for all 2 of you who even care....wishful thinking on my part to assume its even that much, I know ). So let's get them both out of the way, shall we:

2. Kurama's Anger, Gourmet's Guest (Episode #084)



So, if you remember from my #10 entry, I noted how that episode foreshadowed to just how much more cruel Kurama could be when he's provoked badly enough, and this is the episode that comes to fruition. In the episode before this, Yusuke and company were in the middle of a competition with Game Master, a young child who's psychic ability was to basically make virtual reality sort of game experiences in a real world setting, with real world consequences for losing. In this case, the losers of this competition would forfeit their life, and of course his own rules applied to him as well. To make a long story short, Yusuke's team tied with Game Master's score, and it came down to a game between him and Kurama, which turned into a deadly mind game (literally). Since the fate of the world was kind of at stake, here, Kurama had be the bad guy for a change and be as cold-hearted as possible. This included messing with Game Master's psyche so he was distracted during the game. He did this by putting immense pressure on him as he constantly reminded the kid of his mortality and how he would die if he lost the game. And of course, he's just a little kid, not a well-trained adult who can withstand these kinds of mind games, so of course he chokes under the pressure and dies. Kurama doesn't say anything after that, but you can tell the immense about of guilt he's feeling for doing what he had to do, and how furious he is and Sensui and the rest of his remaining psychics for using a little kid and forcing him into that kind of situation where he had to make such dark decision.

Now, all of this was just in the last episode, so from the very beginning of this episode, Kurama is so enraged to the point of even making Yusuke weary of what he says around Kurama. Of course this is Kurama, so the scary thing is that he still remains dead calm, and when he's silent and angry that can't be good for the next person who stands in his way. It turns out that person is Gourmet....except its not, its actually Elder Toguro, who was supposed to have died in the Dark Tournament except....well, I'll just spare you the details since its kind of complicated and contrived, but it can be overlooked for how damn good the rest of this episode is.

I know that some of you may raise your eyebrows at my choice of putting this particular episode so high on my list, but before you do, I say go watch it again. Take notice to how Kurama's character is portrayed here. You actually learn just how layered his character is in this episode despite it not containing any exposition of his past or anything like that. Its just how he reacts to a troubling situation. In a generic shonen series, he'd probably just get really angry, yell a lot, defeat the next enemy, and return back to normal. But this is Kurama we're talking about. He keeps his calm, strategizes, and then basically uses his wits to trap Elder Toguro into a punishment worse than death. I won't spoil for you what exactly he does or how it happens, as the execution of that scene is pretty awesome, but suffice it to say that while Elder Toguro was known from the beginning to be the most perverse and sadistic villain of the entire series, Kurama ironically subjects him to one of the most twisted and torturous punishments possible. Its funny in how Elder Toguro took pride in the fact that he can't die, yet at the end Kurama uses that very gift and turns it into a curse. This also does a good job of cementing in why Kurama is my favorite character in the entire series. He can be the post pleasant and polite member of the main group. Yet he can also be the most cold-hearted of them and can even be downright scary depending on his mental state. Kurama is a demon that you just don't want to piss off, and if this episode doesn't tell you why, then nothing else will. I just love how polarizing his character is, and that's without even bringing up his alternate state of being as Yoko Kurama. This is easily his darkest moment in the series (and arguably the darkest moment of the series itself), and really highlights Togashi's writing talent and how unique his characters are compared to other shonen series.

1. Sensui's Fall (Episode #077)



If you know me, it really shouldn't surprise you that this is my favorite episode. I was considering whether I should put an episode that had a bit more of everything the series had to offer, like its humor and the great characterization and chemistry among the main characters of the series, but really I just can't deny that this is the episode I re-watch the most, and its basically my favorite of the entire series. Why is that? Well, it exemplifies what Togashi excels at, and that's writing great villains. And YYH always stood out to me from the beginning for how well crafted its villains were. This episode itself was a real turning point of the Chapter Black arc, as well, as it cements in how psychologically disturbed Sensui is, and at the time when I was used to the typical villains who followed nothing more than DBZ logic of wanting to be the strongest or taking over planets or whatnot, this was really something special that I honestly hadn't seen before. I know it has been done before, but it holds a special place for me since it was the first time I saw in an animated show how there could be so much more to a villain. This kind of stuff was true in Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and other older cartoons, but I didn't discover that about either of those series until I watched them back just a few years ago, so YYH is the first time I really got exposed to this kind of thing.

Either way, Sensui was and still is an excellent villain, and this episode explains why he's such a fascinating character. The episode features Koenma coming down to Earth to finally spill the beans about Sensui's identity as Yusuke's predecessor as Spirit Detective, which was a detail that he had been hiding until that point until he was absolutely sure of who they were dealing with (they hadn't confirmed that Sensui was Black Angel until just now by this point in the series). The majority of the episode then features Koenma narrating Sensui's basic back-story, and you get to learn about how he was recruited for his rare spiritual gifts since he was just a boy. The problem, as Koenma points out, were just how strong his "righteous" beliefs were. He gladly accepted his duty as Spirit Detective and he was a damn talented agent, being very physically fit and highly skilled, not to mention far more sophisticated and intelligent than Yusuke ever was. The interesting thing here is that this came with a price. Sensui believed strongly in black and white principles. There was either good or evil, Clear right or clear wrong, with absolutely nothing in-between. In a way I can't help but feel that this was sort of Togashi's way of pointing out how shallow many shonen villains AND heroes were at the time, even if they were awesome and classic characters.

Once again, without spoiling anything, Sensui's beliefs and perception of good and evil became totally distorted during a certain incident where, as Koenma put it, he was exposed to "truckloads of gray," during a certain mission. Suddenly Sensui came to the realization that the humans he had sworn to protect could be just as dirty and underhanded as the demons he killed on a daily basis, if not more so. To any normal person they could sort out for themselves that there are good people in this world and there are bad people, and seeing some bad people doesn't mean that all people are bad, and vice versa. They would also have realized that in the world of YYH, not all demons have to be evil just because they are of a different species that were just labeled with that stereotypical connotation. But if you didn't get it by now, without having to flat-out tell you like some other anime would, Koenma is basically telling you that Sensui is and always was fucking crazy. His ideologies were flat-out unrealistic, the type a young kid who has yet to experience the world would have. His beliefs were the only thing that kept him mentally stable, and once those were shattered, he of course had a complete psychological breakdown, which lead to his eventual disappearance, but as Koenma points out, mysteriously the Chapter Black tape disappeared with him as well, leaving a constant worry that he would eventually return for the worse in the back of Koenma's mind (which of course bothers Koenma because Sensui and his consequent breakdown and turn to the dark side were all his responsibility as the one who recruited him).

Another great thing about this episode is that it tells you so much about Yusuke as well. Watch it again and think about it. Why would Koenma pick a punk like Yusuke to be the next Spirit Detective when it was clearly shown very early on in the series that there were plenty of other humans with spirit powers, many of who were more intelligent than Yusuke and even more skilled at the time who very well could have been likely candidates to fill in the role. The thing is, Yusuke has a heart and all that mushy shit, but he also doesn't think too much. This was never established as a reason for picking Yusuke in the beginning of the series, but this episode is so damn good that it manages to make sense of that anyways and it doesn't feel like a plot-hole or written out of nowhere at all. Yusuke himself was always sort of a morally gray character. Sure, he'd do what was right most of the time, and he was a bit weary of taking a human life himself as seen in the episode "Sleep, Doctor, Sleep," but it was also established that he'd kill if he had to, and that he realized from early on that their are slimy and sleezy humans and that not all demons were evil. He's the type of character who would also do what it takes to win even if it was not in the noblest of ways, though he would prefer the honorable way if he had a choice. The point is, Yusuke was a street punk before he became a Spirit Detective. He himself was seen as a delinquent by society and partook in fights and took pride in the fact that he wasn't a typical goody-goody like mostly everyone else his age was. In other words, he was a good guy with a MUCH more mentally stable state of mind than Sensui ever was, and thus was a better candidate. This episode is so damn good that it tells you so much about the hero in contrast to the villain without directly comparing either of them and just being a back-story for the villain.

Really, for anyone who says that YYH is nothing but DBZ-style fights and just another generic shonen, they just don't know what the hell they are talking about. I can fully admit that this show is far from the perfect masterpiece that I used to think it was, but I also know that its still a legitimately great show and that I don't just love it out of nostalgia. To me, its the quint-essential shonen anime to watch and no other episode exemplifies its brilliance more than this one for me.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's interesting if you compare and contrast the two Toguro Bros. and where they ended up in the end. Younger Toguro dies and goes to purgatory where he awaits immense torture for his evil actions... but he has repented and he does have a chance to escape it. Elder Toguro by contrast will never know death, but will instead know eternal hell until the end of time with no hope for redemption. He called his brother down for being weak, but who really got the better deal in the end?

I liked Sensui's Fall because it showed that Sensui who was a simplistic black and white character as a young spirit detective had no idea of what true good and evil actually was. Sort of like a kid in a police academy who has no idea about corrupted cops. The only issues with Sensui was that he didn't actually learn from this experience that good and evil is not based on simple appearance but is a lot more complex in how the two operate. Instead he just figured that it meant that really the demons were good and humans were the bad guys because it was the easiest solution to deal with instead of the truth that good and evil are not always so obvious to the naked eye. It is interesting that such a complicated villain, who was a genius, was brought down by such shallowness in that his emotional (and spiritual) maturity was so underdeveloped compared to his knowledge.

In contrast, Yusuke knew a bad guy from a good guy from day one because of how he was brought up but was fully able to admit when he was on the wrong track. Sensui was probably always told he was right (because he was a genius) and at some point actually believed it, which is what lead to his downfall.

I agree with you, I really enjoyed both episodes.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's interesting if you compare and contrast the two Toguro Bros. and where they ended up in the end. Younger Toguro dies and goes to purgatory where he awaits immense torture for his evil actions... but he has repented and he does have a chance to escape it. Elder Toguro by contrast will never know death, but will instead know eternal hell until the end of time with no hope for redemption. He called his brother down for being weak, but who really got the better deal in the end?

That's a great point, and its also worth noting that in the end, Younger Toguro can come to terms with his fate because he "chose" it and accepted it. It was his choice to go into purgatory (Koenma wanted to go easy on him), just like before that it was his choice to abandon his humanity and become the type of demon that he became. It may have been Elder Toguro's own choice to become a demon as well, but he was so twisted and corrupt that he convinced himself that the power he had attained made him undisputedly great, taking pride in the fact that he had an immortal body. Yet in the end, when coming face to face with Kurama and meeting his fate, the very thing he took so much pride in turned out to be the worst possible thing that could happen to him, and he had no choice in the matter thanks to his overconfidence in how great he thought he was. Its a story of 2 brothers making the same bad choice, but one of them made a choice to redeem themselves, and he would suffer for thousands of years but his sentence had a definite limit to it, and when he was done his soul could rest in peace. The other brother reveled in his bad choice and would end up suffering for the rest of eternity for it.

I liked Sensui's Fall because it showed that Sensui who was a simplistic black and white character as a young spirit detective had no idea of what true good and evil actually was.

I never like to say that something is commentary as I myself am not usually into that sort of thing, but I really can't help but feel that this was actually Togashi's way of critisizing the generic shonen good guy morals. That isn't necessarily just for stuff at the time, but rather in general, as there have always been classic shonen and generic titles. There are a lot of them, however, where the heroes are far too idealistic and since its fantasy, everything usually falls within their ideology, but Togashi knows that such a thing is just not realistic or believable, even in a fantasy world. Thus Sensui, who was initially brought up as a genius hero made to believe that he was perfect and everything he stood for was right, ended up completely breaking down when he was finally forced to come to terms with just how complex the matter of good and evil really was. In a way I really do wish we got to see more of Sensui's story exposed in this arc, yet at the same time this single episode really does tell you more than enough about him, because in the end of the day he was a really shallow person before hsi breakdown. After that he took the easy way out and blamed humanity, and sought out his vengeance against his own entire race, yet I always feel that in the back of his mind he knew that this way of thinking was wrong as well, but it was simply "easier" to ignore that and follow this new ideology of his.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's interesting if you compare and contrast the two Toguro Bros. and where they ended up in the end. Younger Toguro dies and goes to purgatory where he awaits immense torture for his evil actions... but he has repented and he does have a chance to escape it. Elder Toguro by contrast will never know death, but will instead know eternal hell until the end of time with no hope for redemption. He called his brother down for being weak, but who really got the better deal in the end?

That's a great point, and its also worth noting that in the end, Younger Toguro can come to terms with his fate because he "chose" it and accepted it. It was his choice to go into purgatory (Koenma wanted to go easy on him), just like before that it was his choice to abandon his humanity and become the type of demon that he became. It may have been Elder Toguro's own choice to become a demon as well, but he was so twisted and corrupt that he convinced himself that the power he had attained made him undisputedly great, taking pride in the fact that he had an immortal body. Yet in the end, when coming face to face with Kurama and meeting his fate, the very thing he took so much pride in turned out to be the worst possible thing that could happen to him, and he had no choice in the matter thanks to his overconfidence in how great he thought he was. Its a story of 2 brothers making the same bad choice, but one of them made a choice to redeem themselves, and he would suffer for thousands of years but his sentence had a definite limit to it, and when he was done his soul could rest in piece. The other brother reveled in his bad choice and would end up suffering for the rest of eternity for it.

Younger Toguro was fully willing to admit his bad choices, sins, crimes, extreme pride and greed, and fully pay for them. He readily admitted his choices were what lead him to the evil existence he lead, and that it was his responsibility to pay for it. You do have to wonder if someone like Sensui would have understood any of Toguro's actions, because unlike him Toguro knew the difference between good and evil. The difference was that Toguro legitimately believed that evil was stronger and chose accordingly. But it wasn't until he realized that all his corrupted strength was crushed by a boy with pure resolve that he was able to understand that he was wrong the whole time and Genkai was right. In fact, Elder Toguro's fate is similar to what Younger Toguro would have suffered if he didn't die proving again that he had made the wrong choice when he acquired his body.

I liked Sensui's Fall because it showed that Sensui who was a simplistic black and white character as a young spirit detective had no idea of what true good and evil actually was.

I never like to say that something is commentary as I myself am not usually into that sort of thing, but I really can't help but feel that this was actually Togashi's way of critisizing the generic shonen good guy morals. That isn't necessarily just for stuff at the time, but rather in general, as there have always been classic shonen and generic titles. There are a lot of them, however, where the heroes are far too idealistic and since its fantasy, everything usually falls within their ideology, but Togashi knows that such a thing is just not realistic or believable, even in a fantasy world. Thus Sensui, who was initially brought up as a genius hero made to believe that he was perfect and everything he stood for was right, ended up completely breaking down when he was finally forced to come to terms with just how complex the matter of good and evil really was. In a way I really do wish we got to see more of Sensui's story exposed in this arc, yet at the same time this single episode really does tell you more than enough about him, because in the end of the day he was a really shallow person before hsi breakdown. After that he took the easy way out and blamed humanity, and sought out his vengeance against his own entire race, yet I always feel that in the back of his mind he knew that this way of thinking was wrong as well, but it was simply "easier" to ignore that and follow this new ideology of his.

Yep, even in stories and legends characters are fallible because they have to be. Stories are a reflection of our world, and our world has evil and good in all its many forms. A shonen hero mentality is not healthy in our world, so it only stands to reason that it wouldn't be in YYH's world. Of course in the manga, Togashi lost his mind in the Three Kings arc trying to infuse unrealistic amounts of grey into everything that the anime had to remove (everything involving killing Koenma got stupid with the brainwashing and whatnot), but before all that he had it down right. But, unlike the end of the manga, I think he made the point better in Chapter Black that understanding good and evil takes more than a (spirit) gun and a badge. It first comes with knowing yourself. Sensui obviously had no idea who he was, hence the personalities.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Younger Toguro was fully willing to admit his bad choices, sins, crimes, extreme pride and greed, and fully pay for them. He readily admitted his choices were what lead him to the evil existence he lead, and that it was his responsibility to pay for it. You do have to wonder if someone like Sensui would have understood any of Toguro's actions, because unlike him Toguro knew the difference between good and evil. The difference was that Toguro legitimately believed that evil was stronger and chose accordingly. But it wasn't until he realized that all his corrupted strength was crushed by a boy with pure resolve that he was able to understand that he was wrong the whole time and Genkai was right. In fact, Elder Toguro's fate is similar to what Younger Toguro would have suffered if he didn't die proving again that he had made the wrong choice when he acquired his body.

You also really have to appreciate what Togashi did there. Essentially, he used 2 brothers who initially chose the same path but showed how the end results could differ so much for both, with one deciding to redeem himself with the right choice and the other continuing to follow his mistake. Its one of those really rewarding elements about the series as it doesn't necessarily hit you right away, but its really interesting to think about when you do come to realize it.

Yep, even in stories and legends characters are fallible because they have to be. Stories are a reflection of our world, and our world has evil and good in all its many forms. A shonen hero mentality is not healthy in our world, so it only stands to reason that it wouldn't be in YYH's world.

And that's always one of the things that drew me into YYH's world, and to a certain extent the world of HXH as well. Togashi has always had a clear understanding that there is no such thing as a perfect being. I have always loved how his characters are not portrayed as right by following what they believe is idealistic. They are right by just trying to be the best they can possibly be as people. Yusuke's problem in the beginning of the series was wandering around aimlessly through life and having a lot of power (relative to his peers), but not really using it for anything other than to have some fun getting into fights. As the series progresses, he develops into a more mature character who does find ways to use his power against evil, but it doesn't just become a matter of his power solves everything. In just about every episode I put into this list, you can see that point demonstrated. In Sleep, Doctor, Sleep, he has the power to stop Doctor easily, but he is conflicted when it comes to his resolve, taking the time to question whether its right to kill Doctor or not since he's only been killing demons up to that point. He eventually decides for himself that the lives of the thousands of people that Doctor put in jeopardy outweigh the life of a single misguided human in the end, and that he can't just expect to get out of that situation, especially that one, without getting his hands dirty from time to time. Of course in this case he gets lucky and everything turns out alright, but he was clearly willing to take a life to save many others. This sort of thing actually came to fruition with Kurama in his confrontation with Game Master. It seems so evil to take a child's life, yet if he didn't get past Game Master then he and the rest of the group couldn't stop Sensui and his plan would go through and the entire world would basically be doomed. Sometimes in order to do the right thing you have to do things that are really hard and seem wrong, but unfortunately the real world doesn't give you easy choices very often, and what's right and wrong can seem really skewed at times.

Other shonen protagonists have this mentality that there is always a better way to win, accomplish a goal, or basically do the right thing without anyone getting hurt, and hey, it'd be awesome if things could work out like that, but its just flat-out not true, and I really respect that Togashi can see that. There is just no such thing as a perfecting being either, which is what Sensui thought he was, and thought humanity in general was, until his breakdown. The idea of an infalliable being who is the best at everything he does, knows what's best for everyone, and can find a way to create a perfect world is just something that flat-out doesn't exist no matter how strongly they or others believe it. I feel that this was one of the main points that Togashi got across with Meruem in the Chimera Ant arc of HXH, who was built up as the ultimate being but was still flawed and made mistakes in the end.

Of course in the manga, Togashi lost his mind in the Three Kings arc trying to infuse unrealistic amounts of grey into everything that the anime had to remove (everything involving killing Koenma got stupid with the brainwashing and whatnot), but before all that he had it down right.

As far as I'm concerned, the anime's version of that is canon and Togashi's version was just a badly done story-board that got fixed for the better. Fuck what Jacob T. Paschal said. The anime can be canon if its material makes sense and is generally better than the manga. That's the version I choose to go with, and it certainly ain't perfect by a long shot, but its a valiant effort from the anime crew, its entertaining to watch, and its a hell of a lot better than the pitiful excuse for an ending that Togashi gave us. To be fair, though, I really do believe that he wanted to end the series with the Chapter Black arc, and if that's true that I would agree with him, as to me that would've been the perfect ending to the series. Yusuke had already matured at that point, the other characters had come to terms with who they were and their place in world, and as far as I'm concerned you just flat-out can't top the Chapter Black arc from a quality stand-point, so it was pointless to continue the series past that point in the first place, IMO.

But, unlike the end of the manga, I think he made the point better in Chapter Black that understanding good and evil takes more than a (spirit) gun and a badge. It first comes with knowing yourself. Sensui obviously had no idea who he was, hence the personalities.

That really reminds me that I still do wish that we could've gotten more on Sensui's backs-story. On the one hand its kind of good to leave it somewhat mysterious and the episode we got told us a lot without going overboard on exposition (something a lot of current shonen writers could learn a lot from), but at the same time Sensui is just such a damn interesting character and while he would have been more shallow in his youth, his background is still interesting as hell to follow. A part of me really wants to know more about the circumstances of his initial relationship with Koenma and how he was brought up as a Spirit Detective, and the period of time during his disappearance, which would be the development he went through after his breakdown and how he ended up becoming the awesome and more nuanced villain that we got in the Chapter Black arc. That's also a side of Sensui that I didn't talk a lot about in that write-up of Sensui's Fall, because it wasn't about that, but while he was a shallow character in his upbringing, he sure as hell wasn't shallow as a full-fledged villain in the CB arc, with a new heir of confidence and cockiness to him in his new-found "understanding" of the world, his place in it, and his personal goal for disposing of the human race.

[Spark Of Spirit]

And that's always one of the things that drew me into YYH's world, and to a certain extent the world of HXH as well. Togashi has always had a clear understanding that there is no such thing as a perfect being. I have always loved how his characters are not portrayed as right by following what they believe is idealistic. They are right by just trying to be the best they can possibly be as people. Yusuke's problem in the beginning of the series was wandering around aimlessly through life and having a lot of power (relative to his peers), but not really using it for anything other than to have some fun getting into fights. As the series progresses, he develops into a more mature character who does find ways to use his power against evil, but it doesn't just become a matter of his power solves everything. In just about every episode I put into this list, you can see that point demonstrated. In Sleep, Doctor, Sleep, he has the power to stop Doctor easily, but he is conflicted when it comes to his resolve, taking the time to question whether its right to kill Doctor or not since he's only been killing demons up to that point. He eventually decides for himself that the lives of the thousands of people that Doctor put in jeopardy outweigh the life of a single misguided human in the end, and that he can't just expect to get out of that situation, especially that one, without getting his hands dirty from time to time. Of course in this case he gets lucky and everything turns out alright, but he was clearly willing to take a life to save many others. This sort of thing actually came to fruition with Kurama in his confrontation with Game Master. It seems so evil to take a child's life, yet if he didn't get past Game Master then he and the rest of the group couldn't stop Sensui and his plan would go through and the entire world would basically be doomed. Sometimes in order to do the right thing you have to do things that are really hard and seem wrong, but unfortunately the real world doesn't give you easy choices very often, and what's right and wrong can seem really skewed at times.

Other shonen protagonists have this mentality that there is always a better way to win, accomplish a goal, or basically do the right thing without anyone getting hurt, and hey, it'd be awesome if things could work out like that, but its just flat-out not true, and I really respect that Togashi can see that. There is just no such thing as a perfecting being either, which is what Sensui thought he was, and thought humanity in general was, until his breakdown. The idea of an infalliable being who is the best at everything he does, knows what's best for everyone, and can find a way to create a perfect world is just something that flat-out doesn't exist no matter how strongly they or others believe it. I feel that this was one of the main points that Togashi got across with Meruem in the Chimera Ant arc of HXH, who was built up as the ultimate being but was still flawed and made mistakes in the end.

Yep, ain't none of us created perfect, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from our mistakes and grow. Yusuke made a lot of mistakes, but he grew and tried to better himself in more than just strength. The same with the other three, really. This is a big and confusing world we were given, and it's up to us to not get overwhelmed by it and lose ourselves to our vices. The world of YYH is the same, that we have limits (something Hiei refused to believe until later) and at a certain point growth comes from somewhere else other than strength which eventually fails and fades like youth. Growth comes from realizing how empty power and money really are in the long run, and that those who refuse to admit it end up like Tarukane and the council, Sakyo, the saint beasts, Rando, the Toguro Bros. and their henchmen, and Sensui (though most of his followers were saved before it was too late) and his right hand man. I especially liked that YYH didn't rely on the whole "maybe the good guys aren't really good guys" thing that most shonen tries to pull now- outside of some good guys that had shallow motives (like King Enma's special force) but despite dumb motives were not evil but misguided. The line between good and evil was never blurred, but instead explored, and I think that really worked to the story's favor.

That was actually why I really liked the last arc in the anime because they paid special attention to Hiei on this. At a certain point, Hiei was done. The vicious demon that spent his life trying to gain power for revenge and pure greed seemed pure evil, but after meeting Kurama who was more than he could understand, then Yusuke who was a human that was not much different from him, and finally Kuwabara who was everything Hiei hated in humans... until he realized he didn't actually hate him at all. Hiei was a cold-blooded killer for much of his life until he was forced to reign it in during Chapter Black and during the Three Kings arc finally understood that the power he was looking for meant nothing and he no longer felt anything from killing anymore- if he ever did. In fact, he had begun to hate it and what he became and began questioning why he was even doing what he was doing. This is why I don't mind that there was never a war in the story, because my favorite part of Hiei's growth would have been lost if he just went back to being a blind killer again.

In fact, this is one of the things that began to annoy me with One Piece. Straw hats arrive in new town, tyrant villain oppresses everyone, Straw hats become Jesus and the bad guys are defeated while the townsfolk are typically okay by the end. Not to say it wasn't well written at times, but there isn't much good or evil in that in more than a superficial level that doesn't explore much of anything. I really enjoy exploring the differences between pure good and evil, but there are reasons for both beyond only motivations. Not to say that characters like say, Goku, were deeper than Luffy, but Goku typically did good because the bad guys did evil to him first or he needed something. There were typically multiple motivations related to the narrative due to Goku's naivety but he did want to do the right thing on top of it and to be fair good vs. evil only really came into play during Red Ribbon and King Piccolo both of which had different motivations for doing what they did and for antagonizing Goku. Luffy typically did things because he wanted to and little else. From what I read anyway.

That really reminds me that I still do wish that we could've gotten more on Sensui's backs-story. On the one hand its kind of good to leave it somewhat mysterious and the episode we got told us a lot without going overboard on exposition (something a lot of current shonen writers could learn a lot from), but at the same time Sensui is just such a damn interesting character and while he would have been more shallow in his youth, his background is still interesting as hell to follow. A part of me really wants to know more about the circumstances of his initial relationship with Koenma and how he was brought up as a Spirit Detective, and the period of time during his disappearance, which would be the development he went through after his breakdown and how he ended up becoming the awesome and more nuanced villain that we got in the Chapter Black arc. That's also a side of Sensui that I didn't talk a lot about in that write-up of Sensui's Fall, because it wasn't about that, but while he was a shallow character in his upbringing, he sure as hell wasn't shallow as a full-fledged villain in the CB arc, with a new heir of confidence and cockiness to him in his new-found "understanding" of the world, his place in it, and his personal goal for disposing of the human race.

Someone should make a Sensui OVA detailing some of his early cases leading to Chapter Black. 

But yeah, I think he got the point off fine. Sensui was a genius who was given everything in life and thought he was above everyone else to judge what was right and wrong despite not knowing what was right and wrong. This base emotion was how Sensui grew into the twisted mind he was by the end of Chapter Black. Him being taken away so he "wouldn't be judged" was further proof of that, he literally thought he was above other human beings and deserved to not be judged like everyone else is.

I will say that outside of Yomi/Kurama and Hiei, Three Kings doesn't really have many themes underneath it. I think it mostly serves as a wrap up to the story (an epilogue) for the characters in the anime and closing their character arcs. Yusuke and Kuwabara already reached the end by Chapter Black's end, in my opinion, but Hiei and Kurama (to an extent) needed a bit more to fill them out and the Three Kings did that job well in the anime. Yusuke even realized that after Chapter Black he no longer cared about fighting anymore and just wanted to be with the people he loved, something that Hiei could only learn in the Three Kings. Three Kings as a whole is mostly just closure and little else besides wrapping up loose ends, despite some interesting characters they aren't the focus, to the whole story. It probably would have gone off smoother if Togashi didn't get lazy.

But HxH I originally thought it was about the importance of family as Gon searched for his father in a cruel and crazy world and found out what family really was. That seemed to be enforced in York Shin when he tried to have Kurapika give up his quest for revenge and in the Chimera Ant arc with Meruem and the little girl and Gon and Killua getting a big brother with Knuckle. That seemed to be the theme, until Gon found his father. Now I have no idea what the theme is anymore and I don't think Togashi knows either.

As you all can tell, I really like stories! 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Damn, that's a handful of a post right there!

You made a lot of good discussion points in your post, though I can't address them all right now, so I'll respond to most of it tomorrow. That said, There were 3 points in your post I wanted to respond to.

In regard to Hiei I completely agree with you. To be honest I feel that Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama had all fully completed their character arcs by that point. Kurama was great in the Three Kings arc as well, but his character honestly didn't develop any further from that point. He had already reached the end of his development. His purpose in that arc was really more to finally come to terms with the sins of his past, which is to say that while he accepted it and had moved on with his new life living as a if he were a human with his mother and new family, He still had a loose-end to tie with an old ally he had betrayed in the past. That didn't necessarily need to be written into the story, but it was still an interesting part of the Three Kings arc and was more about him resolving his relationship to Yomi, and it was really more about Yomi's growth and full development, even though he was only a character just introduced in that arc in the first place. As for Hiei, though, he was the only character who clearly had yet to have his character arc concluded. His episodes in the Three Kings arc were easily its best (and were in my top 10 favorite episodes from YYH). Its just so satisfying to see him make a complete 180 from the character he was in the beginning of the series in such a convincing way. Most shonen would have a bad character turn good like that and just be that way in an instant after being beaten by the hero. In YYH, though, Togashi took his time, and Hiei was still a violent and cold character even after he joined Yusuke's group, but he slowly and subtly calmed down and became a much more mature and more subdued character over time. The final arc also firmly established his relationship to Yukina and how a lot of his change had to do with the fact that he was ashamed of his former self when thinking about the sister he had to protect and care about. The reason he never revealed his identity to Yukina is because he did not want his sister to know that her long-lost brother was the pitiful demon Hiei eventually considered himself to be, though he did finally grow into a much stronger character by the end. As for Yukina, though, it was heavily implied that she could tell that Hiei was her brother, but never revealed that she knew that since she could sense that Hiei did not yet want to reveal that to her until he became a bettee person....or demon, I suppose.

As for your point on One Piece, yeah, that has bugged the hell out of me with the most recent arcs. Its basically come down to what you just described, and that ticks me off to no end. It does execute that type of arc rather well in some cases, and it does still have some entertaining arcs beyond Skypiea, but I agree, I got so fed-up with the series because of how stale that formula got. It tries to throw in corruption and other gray areas into the mix, but it all comes off as really shallow in the end. One Piece his hardly the worst offender of this, though. I believe you know a certain other manga which I initially had a casual enjoyment of as an entertaining martial arts series before getting extremely annoyed with its dull as fuck gary-sue main character and completely 1-dimensional villains. Now that manga just drives me up the fucking wall with how pitifully shallow and boring it has become. The author of that series is clearly not the least bit wise to the world, or if he is then he just doesn't care to write a decent story because that's the prime example of what I was talking about with how a shonen series can write around the ideologies of the good guys to make it so that everything fits their lopsided logic, even though that's utter bull-shit and doesn't send a good message to kids at all since nothing goes as perfect in the real world as it goes in that series.

As for your point about HXH, putting the fact that Gon has already found his father aside, its interesting to read your take on the HXH series and its central theme. To be honest, I never thought about it that way, but it does sort of make sense when looking at it from that angle. To be honest, though, I could never label HXH as having a central theme, but rather it had differing themes that changed by arc, and in some cases certain arcs had multiple themes being juggled. Here's how I generally always viewed it divided up by arc:

Spoiler

Hunter Exams- The central theme is to use your wits to survive the perils of the world. That's just a broad way to describe what this arc is all about. Many of these issues are brought up in certain events throughout the arc. Messages tend to be that things are not always what they seem, so be careful who you trust (and never trust strangers, which is the obvious child lesson here), where you go, and always consider your options. Always be weary of your surroundings, and don't just blindly jump into things. Pick your friends carefully, as you need to find people who you could trust your life with, and while that's risky its a necessity to work as a team to survive the challenges that life presents you, or in this case just the Hunter Exams. its essentially an arc with the theme of being smart about what you do.

Zoldyck Family- The central theme is basically family, upbringing, and choosing your own path in life. In this arc, Killua returns to his family because his brother convinces him that he's too dangerous to be around his friends, and that he doesn't need friends. His family has raised him to be a cold blooded assassin just like all of them are, yet Killua has clearly expressed that while he doesn't mind killing, he detests the idea of having his purpose in life chosen by his family. You have the basic plot in the forefront of Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio trying to get Killua back, but what this arc really comes down to in the end is Killua and his growth as a character. He realizes that he has his own interests in life, and while he has his duty to his family, they ultimately cannot choose his fate for him. His father realizes Killua's dilemma and encourages him to follow his own path in life and lets him go back with his friends with his blessing, and that concludes the first part of Killua's development.

Heavens Arena- The central theme is working hard to get good at something (i.e. training as far as this arc goes), and also not trying to be too hasty and jump ahead of yourself just so that you can get better at something faster, as that will lead to disasterous results (which is the mistake that Gon initially makes in this arc). Not much else to say other than that, as its a pretty basic kind of arc.

Yorknew City- The central theme here is choosing between friendship and your own personal goals, and what's more important. Yeah, I know that sounds REALLY generic on the outset, but Togashi is MASTERFUL in his execution of this arc, so its not like how any other shonen arc would do this. This is not Gon's story for this arc, as Kurapika becomes the main character of this one, so its his story. He is finally on the way to attaining vengeance against the Phantom Troupe and he has attained the power to do so through some very rough means. The interesting is that you can tell that he hates having to become a killer himself, but he feels so much hatred towards the Phantom Troupe that he feels like needs to do it. Luckily he has Melody on his team as bodyguards for the Nostrade family. She befriends him and helps calm his down and prevents him from making some very rash decisions that could have cost him his life during certain parts of the arc. Once he meets up again with Gon, Killua, and Leorio, he has a choice to ignore them or let them get involved, which at first he is against until he realizes how committed his friends are to helping him. Its at this point he realizes that he has it very good to have friends that he can trust and rely on to have his back, and that brings back a lighter side of him. He is still committed to go through with his vengeance, but once Gon and Killua get captured by the Spiders, he has a choice to kill the leader and sink in his revenge at the cost of Gon and Killua's lives, or to put a hold on his revenge-quest for the sake of his friends. He chooses his friends in the end, and while he still wishes to hunt down the rest of the Spiders, he is completely content with the decision that he made, as he realized what was more important to him in the end.

Greed Island- The central theme of this arc is really nothing more than recycled elements from both the Hunter Exams and Heavens Arena arcs, except done with much weaker execution here. Yeah, as you can tell, I'm not really a fan of this arc, but that's basically the gist of its theme, which had already been done before in this series, and better.

Chimera Ant- This arc was so grand in scale that it of course had multiple themes going on, which I end up dividing by individual characters:

-Gon's theme was consequences for your actions and decisions. He made a bad decision to accompany Kaito into the dangerous areas of the forest where the chimera ants were, despite his better judgement. This of course ended up in enemies way too strong for him and Killua to handle and Kaito having to protect them, which ultimately cost Kaito his life. This brought about so much guilt to Gon yet as the naive kid he was he believed there was still a solution until he realizes the cold and bitter truth in that Kaito could not be restored the way he was and it was Gon's fault for persisting to accompany him. His theme was coming to terms with his faults and realizing that he has to be extremely careful of the decisions that he makes in the future, as they will all bear heavy consequences on the people that he loves.

-Killua's theme was coming to terms with your current limitations and trying to better yourself. He wanted to protect Gon as best he could and up until that point he was just about strong enough to do so, but when they came face to face with enemies that were way stronger than either of them could hope to be, Killua realized that he had to be smarter and more careful about his actions. He had to become stronger, of course, but he had to break past his limitations in other ways and be smarter as well, and had to realize that there would always be people better and stronger than him and that he also can't be a big protective older-brother sort of figure to Gon all the time. He also had to come to terms with letting Gon grow on his own, that is, and also had to learn to place trust in others, in this case Knuckle who decided to help Gon and Killua become stronger.

-The Royal Guards' theme was the cost of blind loyalty and devotion to their leader. They just supported Meruem no matter what because that's all they were created to do, and they did only what they thought was best for him. This developed in a bad way in Pufu's case into something that was not in the King's best interests, yet he still followed through with it because he believed it to be right. He cared about nothing but his King's well-being, but sometimes you might not know what's best for someone and your blind devotion to them could end up playing to negative effect in the end, whether you realize it or not.

-Meruem's theme was, as I expressed earlier, realizing that you cannot be perfect, and to another extent it was also a mixture of the themes of leadership and growing up/coming of age. In regards to the former theme, Meruem thought he was above everyone else in everything. He was born as the ultimate being. Yet the first step in realizing that this was not true was when he met Komugi, who was better than him at the fictional game of Gungi. No matter how hard he tried he could never beat her, even though he had mastered every other game known to man and had beat every world expert at it. This opened his eyes to the fact that he could never be the best at everything, and even stuff that he was great at didn't make him the best as their would always be someone else who could surpass him at that. It made him realize that he was not a perfect being at all. In regards to the latter theme, he started out with the mentality of an immature child. He did everything on a whim or an impulse, abused his authority to get whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it, and just flat-out had no concept of how the world really worked. As time went on, and after coming to that realization with Komugi, his mentality started to develop and he became a bit more mature but was still very naive. He had decided that he would indeed become a ruler and would make a perfect world, but his "selection" process of eliminating every weak human and harvesting only the strong and fit ones was unrealistic and completely misguided. He then further developed and wanted a world of complete equality, but this was also extremely unrealistic and something only a naive youth would think is possible. Finally, after coming to terms with his mortality as he was slowly dying from the poison from Netro, he realized that big things like being a ruler and creating such a perfect society didn't matter to him at all. All he cared about were the people close to him throughout his short life-span, and what he enjoyed doing the most. He payed his respects to his loyal guards as all 3 of them were dead before he was, and returned to Komugi to play a final game as that was what he enjoyed doing the most. He ended up dying at her side. I have to say, despite my problems with this character and this arc in general, I really loved that ending. No big epic battle past the fight with Netero. Even after realizing he was poisoned and dying, Meruem could have decided to be a brat, kill everyone else (since he was still healthy enough to do so at the time), and take everyone along with him. But he didn't. He had matured by that point and it no longer mattered to him. He said it was their victory and left to be with the person who was most important to him. I know you didn't care much for this arc yourself, Desensitized, but I think that even you agreed that this was a good ending to the arc (at least at the time).

I can't really say much about HXH after that because its still in the middle of an arc, and I have no idea what its current theme is, myself.

[close]

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I'll just talk about HxH here and I'll head out myself. I like the discussion but it's late! So I'll just explain how I came to the theme in my reading.

I always thought that was the theme of HxH ever since the very beginning when his aunt outright said that Gon's father was a selfish man not worth looking for and that she wished he would stay home with her. But Gon felt he had to leave because he had to find his father. He needed to understand why he left him alone. As he went out into the crazy world he kept it inside that no matter what he needed to find his father. He met Killua (who had no real family despite having a large one) and the two bonded almost instantly. Leorio became something like an uncle to the group as he opened up more as the story went on and through the Hunter Exam arc they needed each other to survive and eventually it changed into more than that. Kurapika wanted revenge on the Ryodan for killing his own family but in the process did not understand that he already found a new one as Gon tried to constantly remind him throughout his hunt.

Heck, even the Ryodan found a bond with each other, even if its warped, in a world where they felt outcast.

Need I remind you of the start of the Chimera Ant arc when Gon lost someone close to him? It took the irresponsible and goofy Knuckle to knock sense into Gon and Killua who wanted blood and little more, and in the process grew up himself to the point where he basically kept everyone alive by arc's end which is not something that would have happened around his first appearance where he barely cared about anyone else. Meruem was pretty obvious as the little girl basically single-handedly changed his whole world-view by seeing something more in him than power and evil. Not to mention many of the other ants that realized they were more than the monsters they thought they were, they were more than beasts.

I didn't really mention Greed Island, because that was mostly plot oriented. IMO, there wasn't much there at all beneath the surface.

The voting arc simply seemed to be about Pariston wanting to prove that good would triumph over evil, and he was thankful that it did.

Anyway, that's basically what I got out of the arcs. It's probably not 100% accurate, but just what grabbed me.

[gunswordfist]

I knew your favorite was Sensui's Fall once you described what your favorite episode was or wasn't like. I was pleasantly surprised by said episode when I rewatched it (uncut this time. Probably the most important episode to be like that) this summer while actually paying attention to Chapter Black this time around.

I still need to finish my uncut run of this arc. Hopefully my brother who's visiting today brings his computer with the episodes I was watching. He's the one who got me into the show (and Lupin) I'm right past Sensui's Fall so I'll pay extra attention to everything surrounding the upcoming Kurama episode.

[gunswordfist]

Hmm, once I think about it, Kurama didn't really need to develop through the events of the story to become a better/happier person. What I mean is, if Koenma didn't make him work under him, he would have just gone on and be happy with his mother. The only thing that could have gotten in the way of that, character wise, is if he still wanted to be Yoko. I kind of think that was just added into the DT arc to make him more interesting. He seemed to be done with trying to transform back by the time Yusuke met him.