☆ Rereading Yu Yu Hakusho - Dark Tournament Saga - Part 2 ☆

10/16/2024

Humans, Demons, and Dives

The scene with Shizuru and Botan grieving for Genkai is a favorite. It recalls the underutilized fact that Shizuru has the same sixth sense that her brother Kuwabara does, which justified his falling into the plot. It does make you wonder about the storytelling challenges that come with having one of your cast members be the kawaii grim reaper. Way later from now, we'll see (in like, one panel) that Botan isn't the only spirit guide, but I'm pretty sure that's the only introduction of this idea in the manga. It's not really a flaw or anything, but it's amusing nonetheless.

Sakyo gets a stealth mention after Hiei mentions he wishes the Dark Tournament backers would drop dead. We're then shown Sakyo smiling, it's classy. Sakyo offers himself as the unnecessary fifth on Team Toguro, but largely goes uncommented on. Hiei's battle with Bui has always been one of my favorites. After Kurama's dramatic back and forth with Karasu, it's fun to see Hiei pretty much get a one-sided win. He gets that moe moment I mentioned last time, and even passes out. The withering of Hiei's cold, killer exterior is at its best here, and I don't think he loses any appeal for it. It makes me like him more, personally! But in the next two arcs they'll play around a bit more with Hiei being a bit of a rogue force. I don't think those play as well as this stuff, but it's also hard to imagine Hiei changing too much.

On the topic of humanizing, we see that Younger Toguro actively dismays his older brother's mocking of his history with Genkai. We've seen before that Toguro can be a more gentle soul with certain things, and while the Genkai situation enraged one side of him, another lamented how it got to this point. It's an understandably sensitive subject for him, after everything comes out.

After Kuwabara's fight with older Toguro, Sakyo makes another bet and tells his life story to younger Toguro. Sakyo pretty plainly admits that there's not really a reason he is like this, but he is self aware that he's completely depraved, and believes his latest bet won't kill him either. We're going to see a few shades of this in our next big villain too, but with more tragic elements thrown in. I can't help but feel like there was a missed opportunity to do it here. It would have been a great time to revisit some of that "nature of humanity" stuff the story hasn't built on in a minute, although you may find something else profound in Sakyo just being a messed up guy.

It's a shame Kuwabara couldn't really land the kill on older Toguro, but younger punching him hard enough to blow his body apart, miles away, is so awesome that I can let it slide. I also love that Toguro's aura alone starts killing people in the audience. If that's not hype, I don't know what is!

Best Battle

Maybe it goes without saying, but having re-read everything, I'm confident that this truly is the best fight in the series. Everything I believe Togashi has learned about weaving the fighting and comebacks with drama is here. The whole tournament is fun, of course, but obviously there's more at stake here than ever before. The artwork stays consistently amazing, which is something I can't say for our next saga, unfortunately.

If Yusuke were to lose here, it would validate Toguro's choice to give up time, give up humanity, and become as powerful as possible. That's it. Power over all else. Genkai's death would be for naught, if her way of passing things on to the next generation proves to be the lesser ideal...

Or at least, that's how I see it. Genkai is also a tough teacher, who possesses(?) Pu and flies in to chastise Yusuke for being week. She demands that Toguro kill one of Yusuke's friends to motivate him. I don't know how I feel about this. I never have. Why does Genkai have to show up and suggest this? Toguro himself could have worked up to it. He says he was considering it as a last resort, so why have Genkai? Kuwarabara, the best character, is a natural fit to "die" here, especially after wishing for Yusuke to win.

Some of that is small picture, though. Big picture, it's right on point with the theme and messaging we've gotten the entire arc. Toguro abandoned everything, happiness, friendship, and love for strength. Yusuke is not gonna do any of that shit. Until later. Kind of. We'll get there when we get there.

Death and Wishes

After the battle, Sakyo decides to try and take everyone with him, putting the stadium into self-destruct mode and smoking a cig. Lamenting that he couldn't unleash doom on humanity. Everyone escapes in chibi form, and, well... we did it! I enjoy Keiko getting not one, but two good Smash Attacks on Yusuke. Coming right after the fight with the insanely powerful Toguro, it reads even funnier here. But the important stuff comes next.

In the Underworld, Toguro and Koenma go over the fate of his soul. Toguro accepts (nearly) eternal punishment, despite Koenma offering otherwise. Fifty years ago, Toguro was invited to the Dark Tournament by a demon called Kairen, who ended up slaughtering Toguro's pupils. In the aftermath, Toguro is scared, but joins the tournament with Genkai. After winning, Toguro wished for his demonhood. The parallel is drawn for the reader, and (Scary Warning!) Kairen looks almost exactly like Toguro would. Toguro invited Yusuke and company to the Dark Tournament fifty years later, and would have simply killed them if they didn't agree.

Koenma and the attendant even comment that it seems contradictory. Toguro got revenge and chose to become that which had so badly scared him forever. Toguro was a good guy, but the guilt of getting his students killed never left him. The path of endless power was his path because it was torture. Knowing that, watching Togruo silently walk to his fate is chilling. This is the only way he can ease his guilt.

Genkai pleads at the last minute for Toguro to forgive himself and let go of his guilt. But he can't. Toguro tells Genkai that she's still needed, and that Yusuke, most of all, needs her. He asks to be forgotten, and apologizes for being a pain. In a natural and realistic display of a deep relationship that's true to the character, Genkai calls Toguro stupid.

The series is going to pull this again, later. Where the full scope of a villain's origin, sympathies, are unveiled in the aftermath, or very close to it. But I don't think it hits this high ever again. It works really well, for having so many elements thrown in this one chapter. None of this changes Toguro's character, it informs it and expands upon it. This is where the later arcs will whiff a bit. But it's seamless to think that this is the same Toguro who told us he loved animals, told Yukina to be strong, and also kicked a guy's head clean off.

Before we get out of the arc, our next villain is teased as carrying on Sakyo's plan. Talk about longevity! We met Sakyo a long time ago, in Yu Yu Hakusho's breakneck pacing, anyway. But he leaves an echo of sorts through the remainder of the series. Evil tends to do that, doesn't it?

Genkai

The next chapter (113, "Welcome To Our Territory!" in Viz Volume 13) is part of the next saga, technically, but let's talk about Genkai now. It's revealed to us that Toguro had the idea to take Genkai's body and preserve it (How? The panel shows Toguro giving her physical body to Koenma in the underworld. He's wearing the same outfit. Where WAS her body?) just in case she could be revived. It also sounds like Koenma is the wish granter, or at the least could simply choose to revive Genkai. I'm sure there's paperwork involved, or something, but it's never mentioned. Now I wonder, though, who was granting wishes in the Dark Tournament? Who turned Toguro into a demon? The human financiers? The logistics of all this are not clear, but some of it isn't really important, either.

It's weird, because it's not like this series is a stranger to resurrection. It's what the first arc was all about! It's also not a stranger to changing some rules, making exceptions, and just plain doing whatever when it comes to revivals, visits, possessions, everything. But this isn't the early days of the series finding itself and changing gears (something I still hold it does extremely well), this is a hundred chapters in. This is not the time to be handwaving stuff like major character deaths!

As I mentioned previously, I feel that Genkai could have stayed dead, but revisiting those feelings, I don't feel as strongly about it. While she does find a way to come back and teach Yusuke and friends a little bit, and offers a little wisdom, she sits out the vast majority of the rest of the series. Why wouldn't she, though? Her story is effectively complete. At the end, they have to basically repeat the drama of her death the first time, which feels really sloppy, though almost everything does by that point. Even before that, though, it feels like this deflates the stakes of the Dark Tournament. Everybody got off scot-free, more or less. Kuwabara didn't die, Genkai didn't die, only our villains. I don't think it's a perfect tonal fit, but you might feel differently.

On the other hand, it doesn't feel wrong when Toguro suggests that it's probably what Yusuke would have wished for, if the Dark Tournament didn't fall apart. Is that a good wish, though? Genkai, for as much as she ribbed and chastised Yusuke and Toguro both, seemed to be a pretty firm believer that her time was up. She might have regretted not taking a pupil or inheritor sooner, but all the same, why yank her back to the living now? Does Yusuke really need her now? Toguro suggests so, and that's a touching scene, but the events in the series definitely suggest otherwise.

Concluding Thoughts

The Dark Tournament is sick as hell. It builds to some remarkable moments, and it gets there with style and fun. It never wastes any time, and keeps series themes in the undercurrent while all the flashy, awesome fights go on. The drama works (except maybe, a little, at the very very end), and I think it's more or less rightfully Yu Yu Hakusho's most popular arc. It's hard not to think of it as the high point, when the Spirit Detective arc gradually introduced all these elements for the Dark Tournament to run with. The next arc, Chapter Black, will ground things again, for a while at least. Taken that way, and thought of in pure adrenaline, the Dark Tournament, is peak.

Next time, Yusuke is kidnapped, and we get back to basics.

URAMESHI!!

- James