manga: YuYu Hakusho Vol 2-4

[meganbmoore]

Hmm…so, does it mean that I’ve been hanging around fandom for too long when my reaction to two characters  first appearing is “oh, that’s the pairing I see so much at Fandom Secrets and Fanfic Rants”?

I figured Yusuke would be back in his body before long, but wasn’t expecting it to happen by volume two. I’m amused that, as soon as he was back in his body, this turned into a shounen fighting manga. I have to say, I’m not sure I’ve ever read a shounen action this immediately direct about romance. It took Samurai Deeper Kyo and Rurouni Kenshin about ten times as long each to get half this far. It’s actually slightly disconcerting.

On the “things that did not thrill Megan” front:

1. Of the three demon thieves, the pretty one just wanted to save his mother, the shrimpy-but-still-decent-looking one just wanted to be stronger, and the ugly one ate the souls of children. Guess which two also come back to be buddies pretty quickly. I am truly impressed by the subtlety.

2. The plot where the girl summoned a ghost to curse her more passive best friend because she was jealous of the friend having better scores than her. KEEP YOUR BAD SHOUJO PLOTS OUT OF MY SHOUNEN!!!! I DROP SHOUJO FOR SUCH OFFENSES!!! I don’t care if she regretted it and tried to save her friend. BAD SHOUJO PLOTS STILL INVADED MY SHOUNEN!!!

On the “WTF” side: The wooden swords in Kuwabara’s duel when they were seeing who’d get trained by the old lady master were possibly the most phallic thing I’ve ever seen in shounen. Well, except maybe for the 5000 or so times Akimine Kamijyo drew Kyo’s sword pointed at Yuya’s boobs or crotch.

On the “Tite Kubo is totally a fan of this series” front: Kurama’s weapons are a rose that purifies the air and a whip that appears to actually be a thorny vine.

Lots of fun, but I wish Botan did more. Or rather, that we saw her doing more.

 

Comments

[kitsune-no-ame.livejournal.com]

“Tite Kubo is totally a fan of this series”
Didn't know that, but I'm not surprised After all, the Bleach premises are just a huge rip-off
Note to self: Don't claim your unpopular opinion everywhere!

*cough*
In a nutshell: I heart this show to pieces, it's very nostalgic for me because it aired very early on French TV and I practically grew up with it. It's still one of my favorites. And Kurama and his naughty wip too of course

I hope you'll have fun with this!!
I for one am now tempted to rewatch my anime complete boxset...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, it's just a suspicion on my part as far as Tite Kubo goes. But considering Byakuya's SHOWER OF SAKURA PETALS, I think it might be a safe assumption. They're also both big on the totally-not-phallic-no-really-they-aren't swirds. Though YYH hasn't had many swords yet.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I think it's a pretty fair assumption. Yu Yu Hakusho is a Shonen Jump classic and ran for a long time. And the similarities will only get more obvious the more YYH you see. (I prefer the anime to the manga myself.)

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Or maybe Kubo Tite and Togashi are both fans of swishy aristocrats!

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

YYH is tied with Kenshin as my favorite shounen series from the 90s. I *think* that Togashi wanted to extend the Yusuke-ghost storyline a little longer, but his editors "encouraged" him to turn it into a fighting series. Supposedly there was tension at the end of the series too because he didn't want to push the story beyond its natural end like Toriyama did with Dragonball.

I really like Kyoko. She's a refreshing shounen love interest. And I love Kuwabara! I gave my first cat his given name.

I actually got a kick of out your #2 because Yusuke was so useless. How many shounen series completely sideline their main character like that?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kinda liked that element, I was just irritated at the most ovber used shoujo g/g cliche ever showing up.

And yeah, I really like Kyoko.

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

Oh good lord. Keiko. I really like Keiko. Yeah, I'm gonna blame that on my Maison Ikkoku re-read.