YuYu Hakusho Manga: 002 Test for Resurrection!!

How about that! I would often make fun of the multiple exclamation marks in the Yu-Gi-Oh chapter titles, and I didn't think I would miss them, but this title really hit me with that nostalgia bug for when I was riffing off them. What a strange thing to strike me! But I suppose it's the little things that you end up remembering with the most fondness. Nevertheless, it is rather strange that I should be reminded so strongly of the manga I've only just finished a few months ago by one so VERY different in tone and content. It's a very odd feeling, like it's been forever and a moment ago all at once. How does time work?

Uh-oh, that "however" is looking a little ominous...

In the next panel, Yusuke has one hand in his pocket as though he's trying to act casual while his other hand has gripped the end of Botan's flying oar, dragging him along behind her as she flies off. He asks where they're going now, and she tells him they're going to the Afterlife. I thought they were specifically trying to set up a test so he WOULDN'T go there, but whatevz. Botan tells him they're going to meet the person there who will explain the test to him. Yusuke raises an irritated fist, which I guess he didn't need to use to hang onto Botan's oar in the first place, and argues that if this guy wants to talk to him so badly then he should meet Yusuke where he's at. He asks who this armchair test proctor is anyway, and Botan answers that it's King Enma, the Lord of Hell (TM). Through nervous clenched teeth, Yusuke begins to protest, but Botan has already twisted in her seat to warn Mr. Rude behind her that he'd better be nice, or the king might just forget all about the test and drop him straight into Hell. 

Yusuke is so THRILLED about this prospect that he tries to fly the other way again, suggesting that they just forget the whole thing then and he can just go home. Botan grabs him by his sleeve to restrain him as they enter a growing spiral of clouds, demanding that he stop being an idiot, pointing out the entrance to the afterlife, and telling him to hang on. 

It really does look like it goes from here to eternity. 

They end up on a raised path, sheer on both sides and looking like it's a cliff path with all of the excess carved away underneath, leading in snake-like curves up to a massive outer wall and gate with a pagoda roof topping the central pillar. Yusuke marvels at how big this place appears, Botan calling to whatever guards there may be that it's her and they're coming in. She must have her own key. Meanwhile, Yusuke is considering this King Enma guy (introduced as the dude who judges mortals and sends them to either Heaven or Hell in Japanese mythology), imagining him as a big, bearded, burly man with lower fangs jutting out from his broad jaw, and supposes that he'd be screwed if he tried to fight him. Or, at least, this is his initial thought, until he starts strategizing; he begins to put together a possible plan of landing a quick jab on his mug, then pull a sleeper hold while he's stunned. 

Yes, Yusuke really IS planning to fight GOD right now. He even rounds out his strategy with the idea that he can use his left hand to grab King Enma's TESTICLES to hold him helpless, stroking his chin in malevolent glee. I'm not sure how much of this Botan overhears or understands, but it's enough that her eyes are wide when she turns around and asks him what he's mumbling about behind her. 

When she reaches a door, there's a keypad/call button next to it, and she presses it to announce that she's brought in Yusuke Urameshi, immediately receiving a response to come in. The moment the door cracks open for their entry, there's a cacophony of noise, tapping, stomping, ringing, rumbling, and shouting, which just gets louder when Yusuke and Botan step inside. They have walked straight into what looks like a busy crowd of ogres, horns and teeth and pointed ears galore, scrambling this way and that. They yell at each other about "Gen on block two in critical condition", "he's early??", and giving each other rushed directions. Yusuke asks in alarm if this is some sort of stock exchange, then looks around when someone answers with a suggestion that it's quite a sight. Yusuke is bewildered by what he sees, while Botan snaps to attention and greets His Majesty with deference. 

Talk about defying expectations.

Yusuke has a hearty laugh at the small child who has greeted him, and when Botan asks what he's giggling about, Yusuke points at what he calls a "shrimpboat" to ask if that's really Enma. He says that he was really freaking out about meeting this king of theirs, only to be in disbelief that this is all there is to the guy. With a supremely annoyed expression (sweatdrop and popping vein combined), the small toddler says that he's actually King Enma JR., which should have been obvious by the label on his hat. He informs Yusuke that he's called Koenma by some so-called wits, but he's also 50 times older than the bad-tempered teen, and so warns him not to get too uppity. Immediately, Yusuke smarms that Koenma looks like he's barely out of diapers and earns a smack to the back of the head from Botan for it, but he doesn't seem to react at all. 

Koenma demands to be revered and bowed down to, but an ogre drops stacks of paper on the desk for him to sign, interrupting his attempt at intimidation. He sighs and complains that it never ends, then draws his guests' attention back to the fact that they're busy as HELL down here, heh, so he's going to get to the point. Koenma reaches into a pocket, and pulls something out to show Yusuke and Botan, introducing it as the test Yusuke must face.

But we don't get to see it.

Wow, this comic can stop on a DIME, can't it? Ouch. Whiplash.

Keiko's friends watch her walk away from them in awkward silence, her posture not exactly reflecting cheer. The bespectacled one eventually says that Keiko puts on a good act, and the tall blonde agrees, commenting on how long Keiko and Yusuke had been friends and how suddenly the guy had died. They seem to have had a change of perspective on the two of them since we first saw them in the last chapter. At the very least their opinions seem to have softened on Yusuke.

Meanwhile, Keiko is dwelling HARD on the last thing she said to Yusuke as he teetered away from her after she slapped him: "Just die, why don't you". Yeah, that would stick in my head like glue too. She goes somewhere that she's thanked for stopping by, and she responds with an affirmative and promise that she'll be back tomorrow. Yusuke's mother Atsuko stands outside the door and advises Keiko to stay strong, and observes the girl brightly, TOO brightly, state that she will and wish her good night, only to slouch in her grief again as she's walking away. 

Back inside the house, Atsuko clinks some ice cubes around in her tumbler glass, telling the absent Yusuke that Keiko is really heartbroken. She takes a sip from the glass and jabs a finger at Yusuke's picture, calling him a charmer fondly. I'M NOT CRYING, YOU'RE CRYING. Atsuko tries to recall the last time she saw Keiko like that, and remembers a time some years ago in the dead of winter when Yusuke fell in a river and came down with a fever. 

Flashback to a littler Yusuke bundled under a blanket on a futon with a steaming towel on his head, a bead of snot poking out of his nose and a frustrated, furious expression on his face. He coughs while Atsuko and Keiko sit by his side, the former good-naturedly calling her son an idiot. Keiko sniffs, a tear in her eye, and Atsuko tells her not to worry, advising her to go home before it gets dark. The little girl shakes her head vigorously, intending to stay until Yusuke's fever breaks, because she blames herself for Yusuke falling the the river in the first place. 

So he's always been a little pervert, huh?

Atsuko is seeing mini-Keiko out, assuring her that mini-Yuksuke will be fine by the next day. Keiko doesn't seem super sure, but she's going home as instructed, while Yusuke lays there with his steaming forehead and snotty nostrils, looking absolutely miserable. Indeed, the next day, Atsuko asks Yusuke if he's SURE he wants to go to school, since he's still burning up. She complains that he usually takes ANY excuse to skip school, so it's kind of unusual that he would be so insistent. He's flushed and has ropes of snot hanging from his nose as he tells his mother that if he stays home, Keiko will just stop by like the previous day. Atsuko gives him a bewildered look, and he further explains that he doesn't want to see THAT LOOK on Keiko's face again. 

Keiko meets them at the door while Atsuko continues to give her son a wide-eyed stare and he greets her simply. She seems very happy that he's up and about, asking if he's feeling better, and he lies that he's good as new, snot ropes swinging. Atsuko watches them turn to go, Keiko stating firmly that she won't waste her time worrying anymore and Yusuke muttering that she's asking for him sticking a snotty finger in her hair while her back is turned (his forefinger is poised and ready in one of the snot ropes for the task). His mother chuckles in amusement at how macho he's behaving despite how small he is. Hopefully she's referring to his powering through an illness so as not to worry his little girlfriend and NOT his tendency to exact petty revenge on said girlfriend when she states her intentions to just that end. They might be two sides of the same toxic masculine coin, though. 

In the present day, Atsuko sniffles into her hand, still talking to her dearly departed son; she says Keiko isn't just SAD this time, but DEVASTATED. She's certain that nothing would bring Keiko more joy now than for Yusuke to reappear to pull one of his nasty little pranks on her. Atsuko asks the gone Yusuke how he could DO this to Keiko, then leans on the table in front of her, sobbing. A soft thumping sound comes from inside Yusuke's coffin. 

Meanwhile, back in the afterworld...

Well, probably not going to get an Easter chick from it. 

Koenma says that it's the Spirit World beast egg. He tells Yusuke that he doesn't have to sit on the thing or anything, but he does have to keep it with him at all times. When Yusuke asks how long it takes to hatch, Koenma elicits an outburst of disbelief from Yusuke by casually stating that it USUALLY takes about 120 years. Yeah, that would probably defeat the entire purpose of the thing, for sure. Koenma tells him to relax, that his is a SPECIAL case, so he should have a little patience. Later, as Yusuke and Botan are hanging out in the sky above the mortal world, the former tossing the egg up and down to the latter's silent distress, Koenma's final words that Yusuke's heart has already started beating and it's up to Yusuke how his soul returns to his body hang over them.

Yusuke incredulously repeats the summary of his situation, that he comes back to life when the animal hatches from the egg, then turns to Botan to tell her he doesn't get it, and doesn't see how this is much of a TEST. He asks her if she knows, and she responds a little TOO quickly that she has no idea. 

Oh the dramatic irony. 

Koenma further explained that being a ghost, Yusuke is pure human soul, so that's the reason the beast will develop quickly, and it won't be long before the creature emerges to show them precisely where they are. Botan asked if Yusuke won't be let back into his body if the beast comes out a monster, but Koenma said that he'll let Yusuke reclaim his body, so that's what will happen. But Koenma did speculate that both Yusuke and his body would probz be made a quick meal by the monster in that scenario. Devoured by one's own son - like the opposite of Saturn. 

As present Botan thinks nervously that they'll just have to see what happens, Yusuke smacks a fist into his other palm, remembering something pretty important: if nobody knows his heart has started beating again, they'll just go ahead and cremate him the next day. A worthy thing to be anxious about, but he knows so little of the real depth of his problems... Yusuke asks if he can tell someone living about the situation, and Botan tells him it's indeed possible.

Sounds... EASY?

Cut back to Atsuko's place, and a bottle shattering a window. She's sitting there yelling at her deceased son for being an idiot, being such a tough guy and a bad-ass, and then promptly dying in traffic. She calls this a wimp's death and yells that she didn't raise no wimp, all as she's banging yet ANOTHER booze bottle on the little altar like a drumming primate. Hoo, boy, she is just TEARING through those stages of grief. 

While Atsuko mumbles into another glass of alcohol that he's a moron, Yusuke's spirit floats behind her with the flat assessment that it's no good. Botan asks why, because she's pretty sure that in this state, Atsuko will pass out any minute, but Yusuke informs her that his mother once went on like this for three days straight, and he's betting that she's going for a new record at this rate. Sheesh, hate to know what set her on the three-day bender before. Must have been one hell of a breakup. 

Yusuke admits that he doesn't like it, but he's starting to think that Keiko might be his only shot. He zooms on over to her place, which he muses on not having been at in a while, sticking his head in through a large window into a narrow bedroom. Inside are a neatly organized desk, some stuffed animals, and a bed in which Keiko is slumbering. Yusuke is in some awe at how much cutesier her room has gotten since he was last there, even if he considers her to have gone the mean and nasty route, glaring at her sleeping form in the bed. 

Suddenly, in the dim light of her room, he's struck by the sight of a tear rolling down her cheek. Once again, he seems bewildered by the fact that she's CRYING. In the haze of her dreams, she's apologizing to him.

Guilt is a helluva thing, I gotta say.

Keiko is laying there slumbering in despair when a weight compresses her on her bedspread and she hums in discomfort. It's Yusuke's spirit, sitting cross-legged on her abdomen, strangely NOT lighter than air like he has been so far, and glaring down at her with his signature annoyance. Keiko mumbles in her sleep while Yusuke tells her how it is - that she's getting all depressed over nothing, that he's not fragile enough to be killed by words, that his soul has got business in the afterlife but he's coming back after that and if she needs proof of that, she should open his casket and listen to his heart. Keiko murmurs some more, and Yusuke adds that she should tell his boozy mom that he's actually alive. Supposing awkwardly that this is all he wanted to tell her, he reiterates gently that she should get a grip, because it'll all be okay. 

I was wondering why Botan wasn't around, but this explains it. Yusuke would NEVER live this romantic gesture down. 

Keiko sits bolt upright in bed, calling Yusuke's name, and spends a moment in confused silence as she fully regains her lucidity. She lifts a trembling hand to touch her cheek where Yusuke had wiped away her tears in her dream and finds that they've been wiped away for real. Don't know why that couldn't have just been the pillow, but who am I to suggest alternatives to a grieving girl? Keiko decides that it wasn't just a dream, and next we see her, she's run all the way to Atsuko's place in the middle of the night, calling for her to open up. 

When Atsuko has made it to the door, she seems pretty shell-shocked, saying Keiko's name as if she doesn't quite believe it's her. Keiko says Atsuko isn't going to believe this, but tries to get it out anyway that she saw Yusuke, her words all coming out in a jumble. Atsuko hears Yusuke's name in there and points over her own shoulder into the house, maintaining that expression of pure wide-eyed shock. Keiko asks her what's wrong, and Atsuko stutters that she opened her son's casket to bop him on his stupid head one last time, and saw there was color in his face. Keiko gapes in blank awe as Atsuko adds that she heard Yusuke's heart beating. Tearfully, Atsuko declares that Yusuke is alive. 

Hospital? Hospital.

Yusuke looks on the touching scene thoughtfully, expressing some amazement that they're glad he's actually alive. He admits that he can't say when he'll revive entirely yet, almost apologetically. Then, as if out of reflex against the discomfort of seeing his mother and Keiko so vulnerably happy that he's alive, he says it might be funny for him to break the egg on purpose so he fails his test and never returns to life. Botan is less than amused, sarcastically pondering the word "funny" and wondering if he's going to pass this test.

Basically just a clone of Yusuke, then? 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Koenma is a fun character, especially in opposition to Yusuke, who of course CAN'T bring himself to respect let alone revere someone who looks like a literal baby. It immediately brings down Yusuke's guard, makes it hard for him to take this seriously, but also serves the purpose of taking the fight out of him. He was SO READY to actually fight the ruler of the afterlife because that's how he's used to handling conflict with people who are a threat to him - but a toddler isn't a threat. It puts him in a much more relaxed frame of mind when he feels like he's not grappling for dominance over his soul, which will inevitably put him in a more relaxed frame of mind over his test. That could either be a help or a hindrance, depending on how he feels about behaving with something as fragile as an egg in his pocket, so we'll just have to see how this goes. 

The full nature of egg test itself was made known to Yusuke in the anime as far as I remember. I'm not sure exactly which I prefer, because I think both paths of the narrative have a bit of value. If he knows, that adds pressure for him to be on his best behavior, which he can try to improve consciously to have a genuine shot at EARNING his way back to his body, a little like with one of my other favorite shows, "The Good Place" (which I had to start watching again because reacquainting myself with this series put me back in the mood for that one, lol!). But if he DOESN'T know, like with the comic here, Koenma and the egg can get a much more honest picture of how he functions without the motivation to not be a jerk. Since he surprised them all so thoroughly with his sacrificing his life to save a kid in the street, you almost get the impression that Koenma and other powers in the afterlife are trying to determine if Yusuke is just an asshole out of social habit, or if his self-sacrificial behavior was a fluke. Some insecurity with the systemic categorizations of people is implied here, but I'm not sure how much stock to put in it yet. Time will tell.

I was surprised to see that the scene we switched to in the middle of Yusuke receiving his test from Koenma was helpfully illustrative, despite how abrupt it was. We get yet another instance of Keiko feeling guilty over something that happened to Yusuke, and his adverse reaction to the expression of that guilt. The current situation is just a more pronounced version of that, so we get another important layer of motivation for Yusuke's future efforts, which is making sure that Keiko doesn't make that FACE again. He's showing that he's HIGHLY sensitive to Keiko's and his mother's emotions, and it's a source of anxiety to him if he thinks he's made them upset, but in order to deal with that in a way that doesn't make him vulnerable, he'll pull the classic move of dismissing and trivializing the whole situation with jokes and pranks. I appreciate the emotional and behavioral complexity of our protagonist, even if I think the return to the living world and flashback was a bit like slamming on the brakes, narrative-wise.

It was just a tad disappointing that there wasn't much of a struggle to get the dream communication thing to work - Yusuke having trouble picking up how to communicate through dreams would have added a little more urgency to the situation, especially since Atsuko ended up finding out by accident in the end. I recall there being a little more tension in this exercise in the anime, but I don't think Yusuke had much difficulty getting the hang of it there either, and I really believe an added struggle would have been a benefit to the story here. After all, Yusuke has been established as a character that doesn't communicate well in any language but physical violence, so he just doesn't seem like he would get the hang of getting into peoples' dreams well at first.

Also, I was just a TAD disappointed that Botan wasn't hovering over Yusuke while he was trying to connect with Keiko. The cock-block would have been a little funny, and it would probably add to the struggle that was missing altogether here. But that one is a bit less of a gripe, because I have to admit, I just want to see Yusuke squirm some more. What can I say? I love it when the darlings are tortured, as a writing nerd first and foremost. 

I would NEVER pass this test.