Inuyasha Manga: 301 Beyond the Gateway

In my experience, places that are THIS much of a pain to get into are rarely worth it. I mean, we already know the place is just full of bones and mist, and the two protagonists that have already been there are only really interested in going back for the shot at keeping a Shikon fragment away from Naraku. Seems to me like everyone involved in this breaking-and-entering scheme are in for a real drag, and that's putting it lightly. 

After all, the reality of the situation is becoming quite heavy enough without my own hand on the scale.

The crumbling youkai horde drops like the rock it is, while the shocked Inuyasha group gapes in disbelief, Miroku narrating the fact that the horde is turning to stone. He observes the rays of intense light shooting through the gaps in the youkai, and throws his arm up in front of Sango, shouting a warning to avoid letting it hit them, since that appears to be what is making everything so rapidly fossilize. Kagura starts to fall out of the sky, no doubt because her feather is quickly solidifying. Inuyasha throws his arms around Kagome as the rest of the horde falls and the light from the doorway to the world beyond is unobstructed, trying to protect her from becoming a statue as well.

Too bad naysayer Myouga isn't still around to hear the "I told you so" that he so richly deserves. 

Gozu and Mezu appear to still be moving around, unfortunately, walking out in front of the door, apparently to survey the weird destruction the door has wrought. Ponytail's glare lands on a rattled Kagura, who balks at his glower, and he takes the opportunity while he has her attention to ask if she wishes to pass or not. Kagura looks absolutely pissed.

Maybe you should be grateful these dudes are throwing some shade, Kagura. It seems to be the only thing keeping you from becoming stone. 

The gate shuts with a bang, and by the time it does, Gozu and Mezu are back on their pedestals, statues once again. While Inuyasha holds Kagome and they sit tight, in tense astonishment as they cautiously wait to see if the ordeal really is over, Miroku approaches Gozu and Mezu to confirm that they are indeed just massive inanimate carvings again. Sango steps forward to ask where Kagura got to, and Miroku says she must have escaped with as little concern as is possible. Kagome and Inuyasha are back on their feet again, the former wondering out loud if Hakudoushi knew that if you try to force your way past the gateway you'd be turned to stone; with special attention paid to the bits of rock that were once youkai littering the floor beneath them. Inuyasha suggests that Hakudoushi was probably using them and Kagura to test it. Who KNOWS where the kiddo learned that this might happen - I wonder if he employed that dude with the MASSIVE earlobes again, because he's the only guy I can imagine cared to talk about something this... removed from the interests of living people.

Hakudoushi is still hanging out on the edge of his angled cliff edge with a few hovering saimyoushou when he looks around at the sound of a step behind him. Kagura, looking haggard and in a trauma-fueled rage, calls him a bastard. Hakudoushi mockingly asks her what's up, and she asks a question I think she probably already knows the answer to: whether he gives a flying shit if she dies. He drawls that he had heard it was a gateway the living can't pass, but he didn't know exactly what that meant. Kagura scoffs through clenched teeth and as she slashes her fan at him, demands that the brat not fuck around with her. 

Hakudoushi's eyes shift into his periphery in a glare at Kagura, and she doubles over, dropping her fan when she clutches her chest where her heart should be. She falls to her knees in speechless agony, while Hakudoushi asks sardonically if her heart hurts, his dismembered parts swirling and reforming in a little protective bubble. He informs Kagura that Naraku is squeezing her heart right now, as if she isn't duly familiar with that sensation and can't figure out what it is in the moment, the little boysplaining shit. He adds, conspicuously, that this is from wherever Naraku is, which seems to strike Kagura, most likely by how keen he is on claiming that he doesn't know Naraku's location, or wouldn't tell her. 

Almost entirely reformed, Hakudoushi tells Kagura to remember that he and Naraku are connected, and she should think about that before she acts next time. She glowers at him as he adds that he's not someone the likes of her can kill. It only makes me very eager for the moment he IS killed, because it's no doubt going to be satisfying. 

Though the exclamation to Kagome is set over an image of that fire-country smoking volcano, we see our protagonists are no longer in the smokey, barren area, and have moved to a flowery site next to a stream. Kagome confirms to Miroku and Sango, sitting next to a campfire they built, from where she and Inuyasha are seated by the bank of the stream, that there's no doubt about it. She recalls the light beaming through the open gateway and what she saw from the other side of it.

Well, at least it's not in question now. 

Over a panel in which the massive skeleton of Inuyasha's father features heavily, Kagome concludes that SOMEWHERE in that world is indeed a Shikon shard. A little redundant, but fair, since Myouga pops back up on Inuyasha's shoulder to express his surprise that there really is a fragment in that place he insisted pretty hard couldn't have one. After identifying Myouga, Inuyasha squeezes the flea between his fingers, glaring and accusing the bastard of knowing about being turned to stone when Myouga asks in distress what he's doing. Myouga wails in response that he wouldn't have even gone with them if he'd known, and Inuyasha supposes that's true, but doesn't apologize, because fuck that old jerk, lol. Kagome hangs her head in the middle ground. 

From fireside, Sango says that since they now know there's a Shikon shard over there, the excursion to the gateway wasn't a complete waste of time. Miroku agrees, and adds that Hakudoushi and Naraku are both living beings themselves, and can't pass the gateway any easier than the rest of them. 

Good luck figuring out what that path was, because if there's one reason why that light from the gateway would turn intruders to stone, it's that rocks tell no tales. 

Cut to smoke wafting across a night sky. Dead villagers lay in the burning wreckage of their town. One of the bandits that presumably set it one fire, on foot next to another mounted on a horse, complains that the village was awfully poor. Another one one the other side of the horseman whines that there's no rice or booze. I'd tell them to cry me a river, but that would probably put out his lovely flames. The other guy says this seems like a pointless kill, as if they aren't ALL pointless, and the horseman suggests they leave. 

In the sky, a solid-looking pale cloud is approaching them, which the bandits notice with confusion. The cloud is made up of what look like a mass of odd pterosaur-like creatures, except with much smaller heads and beaks. The bandits think these might be birds, still hanging around in puzzlement. It was a bad idea. What they call "birds" are nearly man-sized and upon them in an instant, going straight for their necks, poking sharp beaks through their flesh to get at their screaming victims' blood. They suck the men dry of ALL their blood, practically MUMMIFYING them, as a curvaceous figure walks through the newest carnage advising the "birds" to not to fight because there are plenty of bodies to go around. 

There's a princess of demonic falconry? What is this, Adventure Time?

Anyway, Abi herself turns to the person identifying her in question, which is of course Naraku encased in one of his protective bubbles. 

Ugh, the entitlement is real.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Well, at least it kind of makes some sense why the chain on the gate would just be a regular chain; it appears to be less about making it difficult for folks to get in so much as an extra little latch on the secondary source of death to anyone who manages to get around the first. This checkpoint on the border is REALLY dedicated to making sure you're a proper resident before you go inside, and you gotta hand it to them - at least Gozu and Mezu are providing some legitimate pathways to residence. That's certainly more than you can say for the checkpoints on MY country's southern border.

I am a little confused about what counts as this light hitting you. It certainly looks like ALL of the named characters, including Kagura, got a dose of this Medusa-radiation, and Kagome was able to look directly at the doorway in order to see the Shikon shard on the other side. Kagura in particular ended up on the ground where she was SURROUNDED by the stonified horde she brought with her, her feather turned to rock beneath her, but she didn't lose more than part of her sleeve. The best explanation I can come up with is that she was shielded by the long-boys flying in front of her, who were exposed directly to the light and turned completely to stone while she was still technically behind them and not being hit in full. Perhaps even the big chunks of them surrounding her still put her in their shadow so she wasn't completely bathed in it? But it's a very flimsy explanation, and convenient for all the characters very clearly getting an unhealthy dose of that light all throughout the first half of the chapter. 

I'm not complaining too much - I like Kagura and want her to stick around, not least of all because I thought her confrontation with that little brat Hakudoushi was very badass of her and she continues to be a fun character to follow. Also, it reveals that Hakudoushi, being very much like Naraku, has clearly externalized his vulnerabilities, so Kagura's just serving a mini-version of her obviously hated master. Naraku doesn't want her around him in particular, but he still wants to use her in his service and considers her a useful pawn, at least for tiny Hakudoushi to play around with.

I don't know about Abi's character design. I kind of like her wild, feathered hair, but what's with those holed, incomplete gloves? Those wouldn't protect her from the sharp talons of her "birds", and they don't seem to serve much purpose beyond evoking the idea in a distant kind of way. It's just a strange design choice, and it would have been better if they'd been regular gloves. I couldn't say what RT was thinking with this, but it's kind of distracting in how it detracts from the rest of her appearance. 

I swear, her character design has been running out of steam pretty badly as of late.

YuYu Hakusho Manga: 001 Goodbye, Material World

*Sorry it's been a while!*

Don't panic - Madonna has not abandoned us mere mortals yet, although I very much expect to see this headline (or an approximation thereof) all over the internet the moment she does. No, another kind of main character altogether has bitten the dust, and in somewhat backwards fashion, this is the BEGINNING of his story.

I spent a good long while pondering over which manga I wanted to choose for my next project, so I apologize for that! There was an awful lot going down all at once for a little while and I was juggling a lot, so continuing with just Inuyasha for the time being was all I could manage. I'm excited to dive into the YuYu Hakusho manga, however, because it's one of my classic anime favorites, and I'm curious to see how the manga differs, because much like with Yu-Gi-Oh, I haven't read it yet. But unlike with Yu-Gi-Oh, I have seen the anime at least a little recently. I think my husband and I put it on for something to watch near the beginning of the year, since nothing coming out was catching our interest. 

And what put it back on my radar for consideration of the manga on the blog was a bit of disheartening news - Netflix has apparently decided to produce another live action, ripping this series screaming from its grave to do it. I didn't even hear of it until a mere DAY before its premier, which just goes to show how little they cared to advertise the thing. My guess is it's another tax-write-off one-season bore. I enjoyed what I saw of the One Piece live action, but that series is still very much active and POPULAR AS HELL, whereas I haven't seen a single soul outside of my husband and I talk about YuYu Hakusho lately. It'll bomb by design, and Netflix will collect their "Springtime for Hitler" hack money, as usual.

The capitalist machine keeps chugging along!

I am once more using my VIZ subscription to grab manga caps, so thankfully we should have some fairly good quality panels to gander at. But my, does Yusuke Urameshi not have tiny baby ankles or what??

The lounging youth above is in the following two panels lying on the pavement, head lying in a puddle of blood, while a crowd gathered around him shouts in concern and horror. The driver of a car parked right next to him insists he didn't see the kid, that he came out of nowhere. Another boy off to the side nervously whines that this doesn't look good at all. A man kneeling at his feet calls for someone to call an ambulance. 

Pro-tip: if anyone is ever in a situation like this and emergency services are needed, it's better to point to a SPECIFIC person and tell them SPECIFICALLY to call - because of the general shock of an emergency, sometimes people assume that services have already been called or that someone else is or will do it. If you're otherwise engaged in helping the injured party and can't do so yourself, definitely delegate, because being bossy can save precious seconds and lives. 

Just a public service announcement, in case anyone didn't know! :)

He seems to be taking it well, at least. Or, petulantly, maybe.

I spoke too soon; Yusuke's spirit looks down on the scene in confusion and growing concern, asking no one what the "hey" is going on, and observing that it looks like HIM down there on the pavement. The emergency personnel shout at everyone to move aside so they can get through, one of them diagnosing a small child crying nearby with nothing more than a few scratches, and the other gravely saying Yusuke is sadly a goner. Yusuke's spirit has descended to the level of the man examining his body and waves his hand, telling him to wait a minute, but he's ignored, the man talking about taking the little one with them just to double check his injuries. Yusuke runs on the air after the men carrying his body off on a stretcher, yelling at them to hold up, insisting whatever the body is, it's not him, and he's right behind them. He continues to be ignored, and after a moment of making what I assume is an annoyed face (he's been given whiskers and a curling smile as well as the more recognizable sweatdrop?), he pulls back his fist for a punch and shouts for them to listen up. 

His fist passes completely through the paramedic's helmet and head, and he's caught no attention whatsoever. He's spun upside down from the force of his failed punch, watching the ambulance scream away with his body inside, speechless for a moment. He squints, a finger jabbed at his own forehead as he wonders just what is happening to him. He tells himself to calm down and think about this, trying to reconstruct his day, which must have been strange to begin with because he went to school for the first time in ten days. 

Flashback to three hours before, at a school building like any other, where a pigtailed figure is stomping up a flight of stairs. At the top, on the roof and against a wall, Yusuke is sitting and absently smoking a cigarette, listening to a faint announcement for him to report to Mr. Takenaka in the student guidance room. He does NOT seem in any hurry to heed the call.

Dude, did you come to school just to smoke on the roof? Can't you do that, like, ANYWHERE?

Keiko yells at HIM to shut up, arguing that smoking kills and it's disgusting too, but is exasperated by the fact that he clearly thinks it makes him look cool. I mean, at 14, the primary motivation for doing MOST things is that you think it makes you look cool in some minuscule way. Keiko also criticizes his street shoes, asking if he can't behave himself better the few times that he DOES bother to come to school, and predicting he's going to flunk as it is given how much he plays hooky. Yusuke sits there with a squashed expression at the lecture that's being leveled at him, not saying anything as she continues. She reiterates that Mr. Takenaka is looking for him, and she's the "class officer", so she's the one going to get in trouble if he doesn't go and see him. Sounds like a... weird system of accountability, to be honest. Getting kids to police each other like this smacks of laziness at best and outright sadism at worst. Creepy.

Yusuke finally yells back at her that he gets it already, and his tongue is doing some impressive loop-de-loops and jagged Zim-like acrobatics, which is just the best. He stands and agrees reluctantly to go, expression full of disdain as he calls her a regular pain. As he follows her down a hallway, she snaps over her shoulder at him that she doesn't enjoy getting on his case like this, and she's been dealing with his crap since kindergarten. He mutters a sulky "jeez", looking the other way, and her ire spikes again, but she admits that there's no use and just urges him to get a move on. 

Totally out of nowhere, Yusuke reaches out a hand with clawed fingers. 

What the actual SHIT, dude? She gives you a frustrated lecture on your shitty behavior, so you punish her by violating her in the fucking corridor??? 

Yusuke hyuks it up as he saunters off with a bruised cheek and bloodied nose, Keiko yelling at him that he's an idiot and a pervert and he should just die already. Careful what you wish for, I guess. I GUESS. She's distracted a moment more by the shock and embarrassment, grinding her teeth in frustration while she gripes that this jerk hasn't grown up even a little bit. Then, after glowering down the hall, the fog of indignation finally clears and she realizes that he's disappeared again. 

Keiko stands with her fists clenched, rage building again, but around a corner behind her, a couple of girls call to her. She immediately diffuses, looking curiously around, to find a pigtailed girl and bespectacled girl asking her if it's over, both of them nervous. She asks them what they're doing over there, assuming they're not supposed to be in class right now or something, and they tell her that they were hiding from scary old Yusuke. Not that I blame them, if they're scared of getting their panties peeped by the creep.

Spectacles looks over at Pigtails and asks in wonder where Keiko gets the guts to talk to that kid, and Pigtails says it beats her, since there are plenty of TEACHERS who are scared of him. Keiko, who is still here so it's a little weird they're referring to her as if she's not, is surprised by this, claiming Yusuke is harmless despite his foul temper and vulgarity. With their conception of a dark and dangerous-looking Yusuke in the background, the girls recall the rumors they've heard of punks from high school and junior high alike wanting Yusuke dead, and three different gangs wanting his membership, or that he even has 2000 underlings to command around like a delinquent army. Keiko flaps her hand and dismisses this as nonsense. She does admit that he's antisocial, gets into a lot of fights, and that there are plenty of shady people that visit his house on a regular basis, which the girls basically take as confirmation of Yusuke's dark nature. But Keiko tells them that Yusuke barely knows how to control HIMSELF, let alone 2000 other bodies, and says he has very few friends. The girls are left speechless, and Keiko starts walking off, calling over her shoulder that it's really no wonder the guy is so badly misunderstood with all the wild rumors they're HELPING to spread. They look a little cowed and ashamed by this, half-heartedly trailing an excuse for their gossipy shit. Keiko is the master lecturer, it's no fucking wonder she's an honorary teacher, lol.

Again, an announcement sounds school-wide for Urameshi to report to the student guidance room, NOW. Yusuke is trotting along, complaining that Takenaka just won't give the fuck up, and swears that the guy's one joy in life is harassing him. He's coming upon a corner, around which he hears a conversation over a whopping 15,000 Yen that intrigues him. He comes out from around the corner to find two boys sitting against the wall smoking, just as he was on the roof. One of them holds the lighter for the other one while explaining that some punk tried to hassle him downtown, so he said he was Urameshi's cousin. The other one is impressed with how said punk just GAVE the first kid his wallet, which is clutched in the kid's fist, calling this pretty slick. The second kid exhales cigarette smoke and warns the first that he's dead meat if Urameshi finds out though. The first says he's not worried about it, because he's not the first kid that used that little trick, and it's become a bit of a survival skill among the weak but smart. 

This is when Yusuke walks right up to them, behind the first kid who is still mouthing off regarding what they say about idiots and scissors, all about how you use them, blah, blah. Yusuke is fully visible to the second kid, though, and he is trembling is utter TERROR. When the first notices this and looks around to find Yusuke hovering over them ominously, they both jump to their feet and flail at the jump scare. After a couple of exclamations of horror, the first kid immediately starts tearing up and warbling out a plea to not be hurt. Yusuke wordlessly slams his right palm on the wall next to the kid, bracing himself as he appears to ball his left hand into a fist.

Wow, that's a pretty small fee, in comparison to what the dude got for name-dropping.

The first kid flails some more, this time for his pockets, so he can put a single coin in Yusuke's palm. Yusuke flips his fee into the air, thanking the two boys and beginning to walk off, and leaving the both of them to sigh in relief that they're still ALIVE. But Yusuke doesn't go very far at all before a voice calls out to them from the opposite direction, demanding to know what's going on here. The two nameless boys identify a man in a pinstriped suit as Mr. Iwamoto, who has some deep hollows under his cheek bones that are heavily shadowed when he grumbles about Yusuke being there again, calling him "dirty scum". 

Yusuke ANSWERS to this title, turning to glare over his shoulder at Mr. Iwamoto. Iwamoto looks to the other two boys, though, asking them to tell him what Yusuke did to them, urging them to snitch because he can't do anything to them now that HE'S there. He voices his assumption that Yusuke took something from them, but the boys deny this, sweating under the increased scrutiny. Mr. Iwamoto makes even MORE assumptions, telling them not to be afraid of telling on Yusuke, offering his assurances that he doesn't look the other way like MOST of the teachers at the school, and he's committed to booting any scum he finds right out of the school. He's not committing to his metaphor very well, is he?

Yusuke's face is once again squashed in extreme annoyance, grumbling a question of whether Iwamoto is talking about HIM. The first boy says that Yusuke REALLY didn't do anything, while Iwamoto directs his sharp glare down at the ground, where there's a cigarette still smoking at the kid's feet. Iwamoto identifies it out loud and once more, this first kid is having a damn heart attack at the prospect of perhaps getting caught fucking around. But, as is typical of your standard asshole teacher who has it out for certain students, he mutters about how he's not surprised and immediately attributes this particular butt to Yusuke. Then he starts outright screaming at Yusuke that people like him who can't follow rules are pond scum and they don't belong in any school, let alone his. The two boys behind him wince. Yusuke tells the old guy to shut it, because he does what he wants, so Iwamoto yells at him to get out, and Yusuke starts walking again, saying he's already on his way. 

He's sauntering out of the gate, grousing about that Iwamoto grump and how much a load of shit that was, and lighting up another cigarette, when he takes a hit to the back of his head by yet another older man. He drops his cigarette and falls to his knees, so that must have been one hell of a HIT! He whines about it, beginning to ask who the hell had the balls, and immediately recoils when he sees who it is. 

Oh great, it's the person he's been avoiding all day. No wonder he's actually affected by his appearance and not the other hostile teacher. 

Mr. Takenaka holds up a pack of cigarettes and lighter - which he must have snatched straight from Yusuke's pocket, so mad respect - asking where he gets the NERVE to light up right outside the school. With a massive lump growing on the back of his head, Yusuke sulkily demands that Takenaka leave him alone. But Takenaka isn't giving up on having that little talk he's been so desperate to have with Yusuke all damn day. He grinds his knuckles into Yusuke's skull while he criticizes him for being absent ten straight days and then leaving before noon on the first day he decided to attend school, asking sarcastically if Yusuke thinks he's some sort of corporate president. Surly, Yusuke informs him that he's not "taking off" and was rather kicked out. Takenaka guesses, correctly, that Yusuke had a run-in with Mr. Iwamoto, but Yusuke says he didn't do nothin'. Shockingly, Takenaka says he's willing to listen to his story, and then starts to haul Yusuke off by his ear to WHERE he wants to hear it, the student guidance room, over a cup of tea. Yusuke yells at him to let him go, yelping that it hurts, very much NOT putting out the tough-guy persona he's somehow cultivated. Takenaka refuses to let go, certain he'll go skipping off the moment that his ear is released. Yusuke seems to go quiet, and when Takenaka looks over, inquiring if Yusuke hears him, he finds he's holding the ear of a weird, life-sized Yusuke DOLL. Where the fuck did THAT come from???

The real Yusuke is squatting on top of the wall around the school, waving at him, with smug laugher behind that squashed expression he so loves to put on. Takenaka is incensed that Yusuke would pull ninja stuff on him, but Yusuke is already off the wall and trotting off down the road, saying he'll be seeing Takenaka. SOMETIME, who knows. Takenaka yells after him that he'd better be in school tomorrow, but is distracted by the sound of the bell ringing on school grounds. 

Yusuke is once more hunched and irritated as he walks along, fists shoved in his pockets, mentally complaining that the one day he chose to go to school and everyone decides to chew his ear off. Or yank it off, as he acknowledges Takenaka tried to do. He's convinced he has better ways to waste his time. Like at home, what looks like a run-down kind of row of small motel-like apartments, one of them with a sign up displaying the names Atsuko and Yusuke Urameshi. 

Atsuko appears to be a young woman sitting in a black lacy number, cigarette in her lips and looking somewhat listless. 

Guessing she has a night job.

Suddenly she realizes that her son should be in school and asks him about it, and Yusuke casually tells her that he got pissed off so he ditched while putting the kettle on the stove. Atsuko scoffs that he's always doing this, and encourages him to just quit instead, because school isn't free - she herself had to earn tuition herself when she was his age. It's not a public good covered by taxes? Damn, never thought I would give the USA's broken school system a point. It certainly gives new dimension to Miss Kagome Higurashi's truancy issues too, doesn't it?

Atsuko groans about her head as she massages it, and Yusuke mutters that his day is complete for the new lecture she has bestowed upon him, pouring the hot water from the kettle into a cup. He's told by Atsuko that he can just move his lazy ass out if he's so opposed to lectures, having turned to lounge on her hip while watching TV. Yusuke makes another squashed face and makes half-hearted agreements to this, not long afterwards stomping out of the house again, complaining about what a rotten day this has been, and how he wants to kick something. He's certainly going to connect those flailing legs with SOMETHING, and he probably won't even have to try!

As he walks down the street, there are mutters surrounding him on both sides, a shopkeeper glaring at him while he passes with arms and legs spread out to guard his merchandise, another outright slamming the door until he's gone. That squashed expression is back again, he's now peeved about his reputation being so bad that he can't even go anywhere, because everyone blames ALL the shoplifting on him. He does admit to himself that it's MOSTLY him, so at least he has some level of self-awareness. 

Four other boys in what looks like the same school uniform surround him in every direction, and he hunches in a defensive pose, glowering over his shoulder at one in particular.

Damn kid, you look like you already got your ass beat today. Clearly he hasn't had enough yet.

And that suits Yusuke just fine. He gives Kuwabara something of a shadowed, predatory look and says he's got a really swell bad mood going, so this will work out great. He grinds his fist into Kuwabara's face, yelling for him to take that, then screams that he should take a few more rapid punches as well, which he doles out without care for a response. He delivers another blow as he soars past Kuwabara spitting blood in a squat, almost childlike form, and lands a distance away, a petulant but satisfied look on his somehow regressed face. Kuwabara's friends all recoil at his brutality, saying he's like a demon. 

Put a pin in that, I guess.

Hospital? Hospital.

Kuwabara's friends approach him, one of them suggesting that they just leave Urameshi alone from now on, but Kuwabara snaps at him to shut up, insisting that he'll beat Yusuke one day. He says he never lost a fight with anyone his age until he met Yusuke, and nothing else matters but beating that guy, to the point he declares he'll die trying if necessary. Dude should find a less destructive hobby. 

Or maybe this is something Yusuke is fantasizing about, because he walked away before this exchange was supposed to have taken place, and this IS his post-death recollection, after all. He's now recapping the lectures at school and home, and cleaning Kuwabara's clock as usual. He then comes at last to his fateful meeting with a kid. A ball bounces over and bumps against his foot, which he leans down to pick up as a plucky little boy in overalls trots up to him. 

Yusuke crouches down to glare at the kid and tells him seriously that he shouldn't be playing in this area, because there are WAY too many cars. The boy gives him a blank look in return, so after a prolonged frown in the silence between them, Yusuke lifts the ball to hide his face, lowering it to reveal a new funny expression. He does this a few times, showing him a brand new goofy face every time, but the kid appears totally unmoved, staring in blank confusion. Yusuke sweats under the scrutiny, unable to comprehend this non-response when the kiddos usually LOVE when he does this stupid crap. But he eventually settles on an act this one likes. 

Not sure WHAT it is you've got, buddy, but you sure got it.

He's still got the chopsticks up his nose when he crouches again and takes the ball out of his PANTS to hand back to the kid, telling him once more that it's way too dangerous here and urging him to go play somewhere else. The kid gives Yusuke another blank look as he walks off, and immediately starts kicking his ball down the road again. Yusuke looks back around to find, to his great annoyance, that the stupid boy didn't listen to a word he said.

One errant kick sends the ball bouncing away from the kid and rolling into the middle of the street, where both Yusuke and the boy stare at it for a moment. Yusuke calls out to the kid, who is starting to toddle after his ball, again, right into the street, though Yusuke is yelling at him to watch his shit and stay on the sidewalk. The boy is focused on getting that ball back, and is not only ignoring Yusuke, but also the car speeding right towards his ball, with a pair of chattering irresponsibles focusing more on the music from the speakers than the road. Yusuke calls the kid an idiot, rushing into the street and to meet him, screaming for him to stay back. The woman in the passenger seat of the car is the first to stop laughing and notice where they're headed, calling for the driver to watch out, who clenches his teeth as he hits the breaks a bit too late.

And we've come full circle, baby!

We don't see the car make impact with him (no GRAPHIC child death, thankfully), but we do get a "WHAM" sound effect with Yusuke's incorporeal form hanging cross-legged in the air in speechless contemplation of it. He looks down at the scene again, with its skid marks on the road and a crowd still gathered and a few more emergency personnel making gestures and holding the rest of the people back, recalling in his time that he was hit by that car. Just in case we, like him, didn't quite process that fully. Sweatdropping, he watches an officer talking to a woman in the crowd he's trying to control, telling her there's nothing they can do - it MAY be the woman from the passenger seat in the car, but I'm not entirely sure because it's just the back of her head, and the officer is faceless. 

Yusuke hunches over in the sky, at the inevitable point where he has to admit to himself that he died back there. He glares at his spectral finger in concentration, asking himself what it is he even is, trying out the "ghost" label in uncertainty. Behind and hovering slightly above where he is, a figure sitting side-saddle on a boat oar (think "witch's broom" here) and clad in a luxuriant kimono from what can be seen of their lower half, calls out "ding, ding, ding" like Yusuke is on a game show and won the grand prize. 

Way to kick this dude when he's down, girl.

She clarifies that this is something MOST people have trouble with, so she's not just calling him dumb; a good many can't grasp their own death after violent accidents like this, can't rest in peace, and become restless ghosts. Yusuke glowers at her wordlessly until he breaks his silence to ask who, or what, she even is. She introduces herself as Botan, a guide to the River Styx, and at his service. This just makes me want to listen to the band, because I haven't partaken in "Come Sail Away" for a REALLY long time. Botan says that she has a lot of different names, but they all basically mean "death" anyway. 

After Botan says it's nice to meet him, Yusuke gives her a blank stare for a couple of panels before he takes on a pinched kind of expression, asking her what it is she means by that. She's sweatdropping, but she tells him not to try staring down a messenger from the underworld. He, quite rightly, grouses about how he's just died, and he's not feeling too cool about it. Botan's cheery demeanor is coming across as very frustrating, and he asks why she's not dark and gloomy the way she's supposed to be, citing that "ding, ding, ding" from before as an example of how blatantly contrary to her role she is. 

A small pause later, Botan has taken out a book and is flipping through it with a giggle. She refers to is as a "grade book", and according to the information it has on Yusuke, he's exactly the way HE'S supposed to be. A quick glance shows her it's no wonder that he doesn't respect or fear her, and she starts listing off a long list of traits as if off a character sheet: 14 years old, crude, violent, impatient, reckless, sticky fingers, stupid brain - fights, extorts, smokes, drinks, gambles, has a reserved seat in the guidance counselor's office, and apparently this goes ON. Botan studies the book closely, calling Yusuke a real devil's delinquent, and says he's no loss to anyone. Damn, Yusuke isn't the ONLY one who woke up and chose violence today. He swells in his anger behind her, suggesting that they just move on, since he clearly can't do much otherwise. I imagine if he could, he'd try to take a look at her panties or something the way he did with Keiko. 

He asks off-handedly what happened to that kid he saved, and Botan seems skeptical that he even CARES. Uh, if he didn't, why would he have bothered to jump in front of that car in the first place? despite her dismissive comment, she says they can go and see how the kid made out.

His mother, who sure showed up late to the party, cries that this is such a relief for her to learn, but she does turn to the doctor to ask meekly about the boy who got him out of the way of the car. While the doctor delivers the bad news and the boy's mother repeats that Yusuke died to save her son Masaru in disbelief and horror, Yusuke's breathes a sigh of relief from outside the hospital window and mutters that it's good the kid is okay. Botan looks over at him smiling with a somewhat amused smile of her own, holding up her palms as though she's shrugging about how little she seems to understand about him. 

Yusuke looks over at her and says he's alright too, and he's got no regrets, so he invites her to take him to hell or wherever he's going. Seems rather cavalier about it, honestly. Botan looks on in surprise for a moment, then giggles behind her enormous sleeve, and Yusuke asks in renewed annoyance what's so funny. She tells him that he has the wrong idea, that she's not here to take him anywhere, but rather offer HIM the chance to take a test to COME BACK TO LIFE.

At last, Yusuke is rendered fully dumbfounded, repeating this phrase in utter perplexity. He recovers enough to ask what she's talking about, and she murmurs a question about how she should put this before launching into an explanation of how UNEXPECTED his death was. Apparently, even the Buddha was surprised that Yusuke would risk his life to save a child. Why have all these omniscient spirit beings who have a whole BOOK on this guy not noticed that he was already in the HABIT of risking his life on the reg? She doesn't give us a clue, but instead says that there's no place for Yusuke yet in Hell OR Heaven. He's clenching his teeth in irritation when he repeats that phrase back at her in question form again, then re-phrases to confirm if she REALLY means that him dying to save that kid wasn't on their schedule. 

She's flipping through the book again as she admits she wasn't going to tell him this, since it would be a MAJOR bummer for him, but that kid was supposed to escape the accident without so much as a scratch miraculously. Yusuke AGAIN is reduced to asking the previous thing he was told in question format, like a perpetually confused parrot. Botan says something vague about how the ball was supposed to act as a cushion or something, which sounds fake, but okay. Then she apologizes preemptively for saying something... insensitive.

Damn, Botan is savage. Get wrecked, Yusuke.

Yusuke raises a shaking fist and is looking like he's trying to cover for his urge to cry by setting his jaw and putting up a toxic facade, but Botan urges him to calm down in her very unnecessary glee, reminding him that death isn't always permanent. In his case, she's giving him the chance at that test she mentioned before. Yusuke's expression relaxes into a merely grumpy one, but he doesn't say anything in response, letting Botan ramble a little about how she's told this situation crops up every 100 years or so and she's as new to the idea as he is. That's... actually pretty frequent, although if it stays the same with the increasing population, I guess that it gets rarer as time goes on. Still...

Botan chats at Yusuke's back when he turns away from her, saying that he won't rest in peace in his current state, and she can't tell him what it consists of (some test it would be then), but he's got nothing to lose by taking it. She declares it isn't a bad deal, but after a moment of moody contemplation, Yusuke turns down this generous offer, much to Botan's confusion. 

Yusuke says he can't see anything wrong with being a ghost, asking what he would amount to if he came back to life anyway. Botan appears to be shrugging again, and utters a lone "gee" in response to this thoroughly defeatist attitude. He continues to put himself down HARD, but with a little ironic grin, when he tells her that he can't think of anyone he knows that will miss him, and they might even curse their rotten luck if he were to revive. He adds that his mom is still young, and at a scant 29, she should be able to find a decent guy without him around. This is downright DEPRESSING, kiddo. Botan marvels at his fatalistic talk at only 14 years old, but tells him that he doesn't have to decide right away. Flying off, she suggests he think about it while he attends his own wake, and he can give her a more concrete answer afterwards. Yusuke watches her disappear into the sky with wide, goofy eyeballs, as if he's downright appalled by her refusal to accept his answer now.

That's an unfortunate picture to have to use for your wake. Then again, I've never known obligatory pictures in adolescence to turn out too terribly well.

Yusuke's mom continues sitting against the wall, quietly looking lost while people walk past her to pay respects. Yusuke's spirit hovers cross-legged over a nearby rooftop, examining the scene from on high, and recognizes a few kids from school. At first, he's a bit warm at the laughter he hears at his FUNERAL, but he's slightly alarmed when he sees Keiko flanked by the nervous girls she was talking to in the hall, in inconsolable tears. He's in wide-eyed amazement, and this only increases when he hears some ruckus happening - someone urging someone they should forget some twisted thing, and another answering that they won't listen. 

It's Kuwabara, who seems to have recovered enough from the severe beating Yusuke gave him to give his friends a boatload of trouble holding him back. They are latched onto either side of him, failing to stop him stomping into the funeral, huffing and puffing. At first, Yusuke makes a noise of disgust at his appearance. 

Grief manifests in strange ways sometimes, I guess.

At last, Kuwabara's buddies manage to drag him off in the opposite direction, begging everyone else's leave for being such nuisances, rather polite for a pack of delinquents. Yusuke's spirit utters an uncomfortable laugh, muttering that Kuwabara is a brain case. 

Down below, Yusuke picks up on Mr. Iwamoto asking who those kids were, and he's answered by what I assume is another teacher that apparently Urameshi hung out with some of them in the past, and that they were all delinquents, OF COURSE. Can't be worse than having the terrible lank bowl haircut this dude has. Iwamoto immediately leans into his colleague's statement and complains that "their kind" don't respect anything. Unlike him, who showed up to the funeral of a student he harassed in order to drawl about how Urameshi at least died doing a good deed, and that this actually improves his precious school's reputation. So mourn, much respect. 

The other guy leans over and says behind his hand that he personally believes that Urameshi chased the little boy out into the street and just happened to get in the way of the car, to which dopey hypothesis Iwamoto scoffs and agrees. Yusuke grinds his spectral teeth at these creeps twisting the narrative around like that while they keep chuckling darkly. Did they mention how respectful they are? See, they're laughing at the DEAD CHILD quietly. 

Suddenly, the two man-children are yanked back by their shoulders. 

No no, Takenaka, you don't understand, they were being pieces of shit QUIETLY.

Yusuke watches Takenaka walk past the douchebags in a little bit of amazement. Takenaka bows to Yusuke's taken-aback mother, then moves over to kneel at the shrine with Yusuke's picture on it, silent at first. He eventually admits that he was surprised to hear Yusuke had saved that child, YUSUKE, of all people. Takenaka pauses, then mutters that he's somehow unable to bring himself to PRAISE Yusuke for it. Not that Yusuke needs praise, or anything.

Behind Takenaka, Atsuko says Yusuke's name in a numb way, but then seems to overcome her general shock to start wailing in grief for her son. So much for this being the beginning of the rest of her life like Yusuke supposed. He watches her, again in some kind of amazement. What a way to discover that some of the people in your life actually VALUED you. 

Then, who should walk in but little Masaru, led by the hand by his somber mother. They kneel at the shrine, mom raises her hands and bows her head in prayer position, and Masaru takes the cue to do the same. His mother tells him to pay his respects to the nice boy, Masaru agreeing and turning to Yusuke's picture to greet him, thanking him very much. The lack of response seems to confuse the little boy, while his mother goes to bow to Atsuko much like Takenaka did. Atsuko has her face buried in her knees, lost in sorrow. 

Yusuke has followed the boy and his mother out of his wake, watching them walk down the street and grousing about how the little twerp shouldn't thank him for anything, because he didn't do anything that DESERVED any thanks. Suddenly, Masaru turns to his mother to ask why the boy who saved him was in the box, if he was sleeping. His mother stutters that indeed, Yusuke was sleeping. 

How... how was this kid ALLOWED to hang around all by himself in the first place??? With his lack of awareness of danger and mortality, it's amazing he hadn't jumped down a manhole for fun by now.

Yusuke is once more gaping down at the living when Masaru concludes logically that if they came back when he's awake, they can thank him properly. As an aside, his mom has striped stockings in this panel, for some reason? Don't know what that's about. She can't speak for a moment, tears welling in her eyes, then she kneels down in front of Masaru to tell him haltingly that they CAN'T do what he's suggesting. He asks why, but his mom just hugs him tightly and repeats that they can't. Again, he expresses confusion about why they can't, and all she can really think to answer is that they JUST CAN'T. Lady, if you don't explain this properly to him, it's more than possible more people will die because of his ignorance, INCLUDING HIM. Just figure it out, please.

Yusuke calls for Botan and she appears next to his cross-legged form floating above the city, every bit as cheery and jaunty as before. At first, Yusuke is silent. 

Hell yeah you did.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Whew, it's been such a long time since I covered the very FIRST chapter of a manga, I forgot how long they can get! Since I can generally only get in recap for about four-to-six pages a day, and I'm working on another Yu-Gi-Oh post in the meantime, this one took me a minute to get through. I did very much enjoy myself, though, and I was really excited to start reviewing this series through the manga. This has always been one of my favorites, so I'm eager to comb over it like my other faves. 

One of the things I noted right away was how hilariously dynamic the facial expressions are in this one. Yu-Gi-Oh had its moments where Jonouchi or Honda were making faces, but for the most part their expressions were played straight. Same with Inuyasha, although you could say that one is even LESS adventurous with a range of facial expressions, which kind of makes the characters' same-face syndrome all the more pronounced. I don't know if this is going to be consistent throughout the series, but this FIRST chapter of YuYu Hakusho definitely beats both of them in terms of sheer creativity and humor for character faces. I delighted in the vast amount of goofy looks Yusuke had throughout the chapter, and it wasn't just him - just about everyone had a derpy face at some point, and that goes for Keiko as well! It's so rare to see female characters portrayed in a remotely unattractive way that this was really notable to me. Even in a time that is decidedly NOT funny, we got an extreme expression from a female character; Atsuko ulgy-cries at her son's funeral in her grief, so this is not JUST a comedy thing. Our mangaka, Yoshihiro Togashi (YT on this blog now, in keeping with prior patterns) is not afraid to give these characters some facial definition, at least at first, and I appreciate the SHIT out of that.

As for characterization, I feel like Yusuke's bad attitude and lack of values, even for himself, are pretty clear in the way they're presented. He just seems like a kid who is chronically pessimistic and sees no point in TRYING to have expectations anymore. We haven't gone into his past beyond the prior day leading up to his accident, but my guess would be that he became resolved to focusing solely on being a tough guy, possibly due to the need to defend himself or others from bullying/abuse of some kind, and it was too difficult to change course after a while because his reputation as a delinquent solidified quickly in the minds of people who didn't know him. The brief exchange between Keiko and the girls in the corridor demonstrates how the rumors around Yusuke's tough-guy persona have magnified a very routine, mundane picture of a typical punk. The way he actually is speaks to someone who is taking advantage of that exaggeration, but is not NEARLY so terrible as all that, which is why I don't see him trying to save a child as necessarily standing in opposition to how he really is.

But to have the power structures of the AFTERLIFE be blindsided by his behavior is a bit of a head-scratcher to me. They have a whole book listing all his personality, vices, sins, deeds, etc, and none of them, not even the BUDDHA, seems to have dared to imagine that he might risk his life for anyone. My dudes, he clearly doesn't VALUE his life or future, why wouldn't he throw it away to get a little boy out of the way of a speeding vehicle?? His immediate response to the offer to take a test that would let him come back to life was to turn it down, because in his own view his life wasn't going anywhere anyway, no one liked him, and he didn't see any downside to being a ghost. This isn't even a matter of him not being a bad kid (at least not as bad as he let people believe), it's a matter of him having GIVEN UP, and how fucking obvious that fact was! Like, you'd think spiritual beings would be able to pick up on that little detail, lol!

But I guess if they had considered the obvious, this little incident wouldn't have occurred, and we wouldn't have a story. 

Masaru seems to act in his capacity as a point of contrast to Yusuke, representing innocence (to a downright stupid degree), defenselessness, and inability to see cause and effect. He's not really capable of understanding Yusuke's warnings, and it even takes a few tries for Yusuke to connect with him through humor, though Yusuke implies that he's had more success with these goofy antics in the past. Not sure if this is an indication that Yusuke has gotten almost past the point where he can connect with his own youth and optimism due to his self-destructive behavior, but it's something to think about. I do hope that Masaru is put on an ACTUAL leash, or that someone is able to explain to him the concept of death soon, because he's a menace otherwise! I highly doubt that the clueless afterlife gears will choose his oblivious little butt for a random miracle again, so he's in serious danger next time. 

Also, after Yu-Gi-Oh's suspicious lack of adults, it's a little refreshing to see several of them playing a part in this first chapter of the series. Sure, they are all varying degrees of asshole, but Takenaka was kind of nice, and they all, for the most part, had their motivations for acting the way they did. Iwamoto being so preoccupied with appearances and the reputation of the school makes some sense, as I remember having a few teachers who were like that myself when I was in school. Not sure what to make of Atsuko, though. She seems hung-over, and I'm not sure what she does for a living if she's complaining about Yusuke's education costing some money. Perhaps there's an unpleasant implication here, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions or anything. 

In any case, this was a fun chapter, and besides feeling a little peeved by the sexual harassment Keiko got near the beginning (expected, of course, but still annoying), I was just tickled to be taking a look at this series. Can't wait to get into the next chapter!