YuYu Hakusho Manga: 010 The Forbidden Games!!

Damn, and just after the Olympics too! Not that I want to comment much on THAT rat's nest of a controversy farm. It's always a drama-fest, mind you, but this year's Olympic Games seemed to really take the drama to a whole new level of superfluous. Hopefully no one is getting SUED over these forbidden games like in recent IRL events, because I don't think I have enough snark to cover it. Might have to reach into my reserves...

That kid whose name was like an afterthought? 

After a short note from YT explaining that Shota was a bullied boy who was depressed over the death of his old dog, and encouraging readers unfamiliar with this story to go back to chapter 4 in Shonen Jump #3 (over a doodle of the editor pictured kicking YT in the head and telling him to keep drawing), we get a look at a smiling Shota chatting with his former bullies/new friends. Yusuke reckons Shota looks like he's doing alright, but Botan's normal chipper smile is absent when she says she doesn't know about that. Yusuke argues that one needs to just LOOK at Shota to see how much happier he is. Botan says this is precisely the problem - she sees a dark shadow lingering behind him despite his smiles, and that's always a bit of a concern for her.

The title spread is laid out behind this, with a large illustration of a little girl in what looks like a frilly nightgown, her hand held out toward Yusuke kneeling protectively over an unconscious Shota and sweating it up under the overbearing figure. It's an... interesting image. 

Cut to Shota walking along next to his friends, who are still chatting and laughing to each other, but he's got a blank expression as he looks up and to his left. His gaze is fixed on a window of the house they're passing. 

The concern increases...

In response to a hysterical conclusion that Shota has been possessed by a ghost, presumably from Yusuke, there's a delicate statement that actually, it's more like the ghost LIKES Shota. Botan elaborates that ghosts tend to looks to nice kids for empathy, and while Shota has found the courage to deal with life, he now has to deal with a new threat from the afterlife. An irritated Yusuke points out that the goofy look on Shota's face when he waved indicates that he doesn't feel threatened at all, and Botan agrees with a nervous laugh, the implication of him having a little crush on his ghost friend written in the panel too, just in case you didn't get it from the subtext. 

Night falls, Shota is asleep in bed, and a strange black circle hovers next to him. A voice calls his name, suggesting that they play, then a hand shoots through the black portal and pulls his spirit from his body with a series of unsettling screeches, the voice continuing to insist he come and play. This is some horror classic Poltergeist shit.

At least she brought some toys.

Yusuke is lurking outside the house in the air, recapping Shota's leaving his body in his sleep to go play with this girl in his dreams, and asks Botan what the harm is in this - it doesn't seem overtly threatening, because clearly, he has never seen horror classic Poltergeist. Botan answers that there isn't a lot of harm here, if one has a sixth sense, but asserts that Shota doesn't have that, and is just a "normal" kid. Putting "sixth sense" kind of phenomena on a pedestal as though it is only experienced by "special" people aside, Botan asserts that this means the ghost is FORCING the soul/body separation. She adds that this is damaging him, like a knife to his body, except it causes no pain, and his body is going to fail eventually if it keeps going. Very concerning. 

Now that he's fully informed, Yusuke is all on fire to help Shota again, which Botan encourages as precisely what they're here FOR. To put a stop to stuff that's bad for the victim, even if the victim themself thinks it's fine, or even nice. Gee, I wonder if this attitude should be applied to other real life issues that disproportionately affect children. I feel like there are quite a few, actually.

With Botan's fresh encouragement to go forth and help, Yusuke fazes through the window into the room where Shota and his new "friend" are playing, and immediately tells Shota he should get back in his body post haste. Shota, clearly not recognizing him from their last encounter (that false mustache Yusuke wore did a lot of heavy-lifting, didn't it?), asks Yusuke who he might be, and the little girl snaps at him to go away, asserting they're just having fun. Yusuke claps back at her that Shota doesn't belong here - he's perishable goods. Not sure I'm stoked about this metaphor painting him as a product rather than a person, but fair enough.

Bold of you to assume that this matters AT ALL to someone like Yusuke. He practically made being mean and hated his JOB in life. 

Predictably, this rhetoric breezes right past Yusuke, who invites her to hate him all she wants, grabbing Shota's hand to drag him back to his body. Shota yanks his wrist out of Yusuke's grip, asserting he's staying with Sayaka (a NAME, this early on?? Oh happy day!), citing the fact that she has no one else to play with as the reason. Yusuke starts to say Shota's name, but Shota cuts him off to explain that Sayaka has told him she's always been alone, and she just wants a friend. He's already determined for that to be him.

Yusuke lays a hand on Shota's shoulder, trying to reason to him that, while it's great that he's Sayaka's friend, his body can't really take this sustained separation from his little soul. Meanwhile, Sayaka's hands crackle behind Yusuke's back, and he glances into his periphery as Sayaka tells him yet again to leave them alone and go away, with far more force of tone AND energy from her extended hand.

He didn't really think it would be THAT easy, did he?

After a couple of transition panels that are not much more than overlapping shapes and darkness, Yusuke grunts and opens his eyes to broad daylight. Botan welcomes him back again, because apparently he's been out for A COUPLE OF DAYS. Damn, that little brat packs quite a punch, doesn't she? Yusuke is incensed that the little girl totally OWNED him, but I'm more incredulous over the claim that ghosts can be unconscious. Weird.

Shuddering in his shame, Yusuke moans that he's never lost a fight before, even when he's been caught off guard, and this was just a little girl. Yeah, a little girl with crazy laser powers. Botan reminds him that his loss here isn't the issue, and explains that the power of ghosts lies in their feelings rather than their size, and their emotions are the source of their strength - after all, you can't have a physical advantage over someone without a physical body. 

Botan draws Yusuke's attention back to their REAL problem, which is Shota, who is currently on his way out of the house when his mom calls to him and asks if he's alright, since he's looking a bit thin. No doubt his own mother would know how much she's been feeding him, so the problem can't be on her end. Shota assures her that he's fine, but he trembles dangerously on his feet, and his mother shouts his name again. She insists he IS sick, and that she has to check him for a fever, asking if he hurts anywhere and ignoring his repetition that he's fine. Botan says it's his new confidence that's part of what's blinding to his growing bodily weakness, adding that she doubts he remembers his nightly play dates, so he's utterly in the dark about what's going on. She worries that nothing will stop Sayaka from dragging Shota into the spirit world at this point. 

Yusuke asks if Sayaka's feelings are REALLY that strong. I don't know, why don't you consult the lack of memory you have over the last couple of days when she blasted your sorry ass into oblivion? 

Botan says that her parents didn't know how to cope with their terminally ill daughter, so they were hardly ever home, over an image of little Sayaka asking a dumpy housekeeper snacking and laughing at a TV show where mommy and daddy were. The housekeeper answers carelessly that they told her they were working late. In the next panel, Sayaka is watching a few kids playing in the street and mutters that they're lucky. She's lying in bed crying in another panel, wishing she could run away and play with friends too. Botan and Yusuke float there in speechless discomfort for a moment, and I wonder if this is playing out for them like a movie or something. 

The end of the story here is predictable - Sayaka died and stayed by that window, wishing for what she never had in life, which is exactly where Shota spotted her. Sweatdropping profusely, Yusuke mumbles that psychic or not, Shota's a sensitive kid, which is how that girl hooked him and is now trying to drag him into heaven. But Botan corrects him, because the danger is so much more dire than just that: apparently, Sayaka's longing for company has intensified to resentment, and she's downright hazardous at this point. If she drags someone else down with her like this, trying to enter heaven for either of them would be impossible, and they'll instead be lost in a realm of darkness, a purgatory where light never enters. Botan shares the opinion that it's probably WORSE than Hell, and the illustration of this eventuality shows the two kids floating helplessly in black, so I can believe it. 

So, with this information, Yusuke is more determined than ever to stop the worst-case-scenario at all costs. But Botan is looking serious when she reminds him that he's experienced the power spawned by her loneliness, and he could be pulled in with them if he makes even ONE wrong move. She asks how he could honestly begin to stop Sayaka at THIS point. Damn, Botan, I didn't peg you for someone who would just kind of give up on your JOB when the stakes are this high, but that sure is the vibe you're putting out, girl!

After a pause, Yusuke grins and reminds her in turn of how she said his loss "isn't the issue". He said he would take care of Shota, and that's precisely what Yusuke intends to do. Botan seems genuinely shocked that Yusuke is so devoted to this cause, but she really shouldn't be right now. She's known since the beginning that this kid is a risk-taker at his CORE. Yusuke declares that he and Sayaka will settle this thing tonight. 

As Shota and Sayaka skip around in his spirit-flight astral-projection dreams, she asks him for a favor. But before we get to what THAT might be, we get one of those character profile panels for Botan. Her birthday, age, and blood type are all listed as unknown, but her hobby is "floating around in the sky". Thanks, panel, that information definitely needed to be reiterated, lol.

Back to the plot. Sayaka explains to Shota that she has to go someplace far away soon, and she asks if he'll come with her when she does. Shota repeats the phrase "far away" in question, so Sayaka flat-out tells him that it's Heaven she's talking about. She says she's afraid to go by herself, but she won't be scared anymore if he's with her. Shota is understandably... confused and a little frightened.

It just hit him that he might have been in bad company, huh?

Sayaka grabs his wrist to try to get him to come along with her, but he protests that he's still alive. Everybody's always trying to yank this kid places, I swear. Sayaka argues that they're going to HEAVEN, though, and it's going to be better than any place he could possibly be on Earth, pulling him up and nearer her scary portal, and promising it'll be GREAT. GREATly distressing, I'll warrant. 

Someone else calls for Sayaka to wait, causing her to pause in her murder plans. Botan and Yusuke have arrived, the former's hair flying as she informs Sayaka seriously that the kids can't go to Heaven without a proper guide. Yusuke affirms this, and calls for her to let go of Shota, while Botan tries to explain that Sayaka will only get lost forever (probably) if she tries to get to Heaven right now. Sayaka merely responds with a cold stare and expresses her determination to stop the mean boy trying to stop HER without holding back. 

Feeling a concerning background hum, Botan turns to Yusuke and warns him that Sayaka MEANS it. Though he's sweating, he insists that he means it too, and he can't back down now because no matter what she throws at him, this is about Shota's soul. Meanwhile, it seems like Sayaka is gearing up for another big laser - her nightgown is whipping around her legs, and then she suddenly appears right in front of Yusuke, much to his shock. Throwing back her glowing hand, she promises to use it to blast him to the end of the universe. 

Botan yells Yusuke's name, Shota begs Sayaka to stop, but...

Well, this is awkward.

Botan holds up a finger in revelation, declaring that what must have happened was all these nights of playing with Shota eased Sayaka's loneliness and malice. Sayaka gapes in impotent astonishment, and a PROFUSELY sweating Yusuke sighs with relief through a dumb grin that there won't be a blast to the end of the universe after all. 

There's a commotion as Yusuke yells at Sayaka not to be stubborn and demands she hand Shota over, but she's thrown her arms around Shota's neck and refused. She insists on bringing Shota to heaven with her, not going without him and not letting him go. With a surge of boldness in the wake of Sayaka's failure to laser him, he declares she's being a very naughty girl. He asks if she knows what happens to kids who misbehave like this, and she shrieks in protest.

Uhhhhhhhhh...

I should be reading THIS over and over instead of Sherlock Holmes, FFS.

While Shota looks on with his hands over his mouth and eyes wide in awkward horror, Botan lets out some uncomfortable laughter over the swatting sounds, apologizing for how harsh Yusuke is all the time. Harsh and weird, for sure.

Sayaka starts bawling that she's sorry, citing her crippling loneliness for her behavior. Fists pressed over her eyes to stem the flood of tears (and no longer slung over Yusuke's knee, thank GOODNESS), she cries that no one ever cared enough to stay with her, even when she was in pain and wanted company. With a sympathetic look, Shota trots back over to her, telling her not to cry. He says he can't go with her yet, but promises that when he DOES go, they'll be friends forever. That's a nice thought for half a second, until you realize that if he dies seventy or eighty years hence, it's going to be a real awkward friendship. 

Oh well, it's already pretty awkward. 

Sayaka asks if he's serious, and he says he promises, holding out a pinky to seal the deal. Yusuke seems to be working through some of the implications of this as well, and asks Botan if Shota is even going to REMEMBER his promise when he wakes up. Botan laughs again, just as uncomfortably as before, and says she'll remind him when the time comes. Great. That'll be fun. Botan then bends down to assure Sayaka that time passes very quickly in Heaven.

Yusuke ruffles her hair a little and asks if she'd like to play a bit with him before she goes to Heaven herself, since HE'S already something of a ghost himself. Kind of. He sweeps her up onto his shoulders, reiterating the offer to hang out with her and have fun until she's comfortable heading off to where she needs to be. Sayaka seems to be taken aback by this suggestion, as Botan starts yelling at Yusuke that Sayaka was all ready to go before this, and Yusuke asks what the hurry is, asserting that Heaven can wait. He says that though he doesn't know what it's like, he thinks Heaven might lack something if you can't bring any happy memories with you, such as playing with friends. Yusuke repeats that he is totally cool with giving her more of what she was getting with Shota, presumably so Shota can get some actual rest. 

Botan relents when Yusuke asserts that he's sure, and then Sayaka starts weeping again. Yusuke asks her what's wrong now, because he didn't think he spanked her SO hard that she should be tender "back there" still. Ugh, maybe don't draw more attention to that, okay comic?

These two exactly opposite things make her happier than she's ever been. 

Cut to someone calling Shota's name. He sits up in bed, looking quizzical, his worried mother thanking goodness that he's awake. She says she was really worried, because he was moaning in his sleep before becoming oddly still and quiet. I would think the latter part is rather normal for sleep, but then again, he has been looking pretty ill lately, so I can't blame Mom for being extra anxious about it. 

Shota tells her that he was having a dream that he can't QUITE recall, the vague outline of Sayaka in her frilly nightgown in his mind as he describes how the dream was kinda scary, but also fun, and a little sad. Yeah, I've had those before. Oh, shit, I hope I didn't make a promise to be best friends with a ghost after I eventually kick the bucket, lol!

We get a transition panel to Shota later walking along the street, past the house where he saw Sayaka before. He's noticed that she hasn't shown up lately, and wonders if she moved away or something. Guess he's assuming his friends were goofing with him when they told him that the house was empty before. Someone calls to Shota behind him, a girl with short, fair hair, asking him what he was looking at. He gives her a wide, nervous grin and stutters to the girl, whom he calls Shiori, that he was looking at nothing, nothing at all! She suggests they hurry to school, and he follows her dutifully, as Yusuke watches from up high. Yusuke scoffs that kids are so fickle, before he gives us a little update on Sayaka.

That'll learn ya to offer kindness to children! Wait...

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Just to get it out of the way, I found that spanking scene pretty uncomfortable, but that's mostly my own over-sensitive alarm system working on overdrive. I have had to be CAREFUL in the past engaging with manga and anime involving little girl children interacting with boys and men many years their senior, and it's reflex by now to cringe at scenes that might have an almost fetishistic interpretation. I don't believe that was the intention of this scene, but my skin crawled regardless, which just goes to show how thoroughly this industry has broken me, lol!

Is there something in the Japanese zeitgeist that ascribes particular tendencies toward violence to small girl ghosts? I feel like there are a lot of stories out there in which a young girl dies and is predisposed to strong negative emotion, especially malice. In this one, Sayaka is fairly easily cured of her negative bent, but in a lot of them, the murderous rage is so strong as to have a pretty large body count. If a reader has any more information on this, I'm very curious, because I've noticed a pattern and it's something of a mystery to me. 

Sayaka seems fairly typical in this regard - a sad, lonely death, followed by a grasp at bringing others with her into her isolated atmosphere of anger and despair. As I said, Sayaka was at least able to be snapped out of it though, in the form of being treated like a normal child. The implication here is that she wasn't just lonely in the sense that she wanted the company of and to play with other children of her own age, but also in the sense that she had no elder presence in her life. Her parents being MIA during her extended hospice robbed her of a sense of protection, guidance, and general comfort. It's only when Yusuke shows up to discipline her, challenge her intentions to harm another, that her attitude can truly turn around. 

It's also interesting that immediately after the discipline, Yusuke makes the immediate effort to show her care and attention, offering her an empathetic solution to her continuing isolation. Botan is annoyed at this, but I think Yusuke has a point here - even though Sayaka's active negativity is curbed, she could still do with a lot more attention to her emotional needs before she's TRULY ready to go off to Heaven by herself. She was so starved for it in her life that it seems unlikely that she would be satisfied with just a few days with Shota, no matter how sensitive to her he is. 

Though it DOES appear that Yusuke is already kind of fed up with his self-appointed role of emotional-support-spirit.