☆ Rereading Yu Yu Hakusho - Chapter Black Saga - Part 1 ☆

11/11/2024

While the Dark Tournament might be Yu Yu Hakusho's most popular arc, I've found that a significant number of fans will stick up for Chapter Black as the best arc in the series. On a good day, I'm inclined to agree! Chapter Black, at its best, combines the stylish and unique fighting from the Dark Tournament with the human drama and home-town adventure of Spirit Detective's best. There's a wise, somewhat soft resetting of powers (for a little, at least), with the introduction of some new characters and their Territories. This is the arc that begins to really open up this theme of demon-human relations and the natures of both species that the series has quietly been building in the background.

This is also the arc, unfortunately, that plants the seeds of the series' downfall. It's not entirely its fault. Thanks to this interview with Togashi after the series ended*, we can pretty much pinpoint the exact moment it goes to hell, which is juuust as it's beginning to wrap. We all know the final arc is rushed and messy, but Chapter starts going really, really fast. The escalation of the pacing filled me with dread on this retrospective read, as I began to recall where it was all going. Which, in Yu Yu Hakusho's case, is down the drain. And it's sad. Togashi was exhausted. He was trying to get out. I have nothing but sympathy and respect for him. I'd still like to talk about the story as it is printed and my experience rereading it today.

The Disappearance of Yusuke Urameshi

Having Yusuke be kidnapped has to be the best pace-breaker that anyone could come up with. After an arc that was pretty tightly focused on him, having him run into some punks his age and seemingly lose ignites a ton of intrigue. We've never seen Yusuke lose to some school-age guys, so it immediately ignites mystery and intrigue. Who could scrap with Yusuke at this point? Even Yusuke laments that it seems like no one could challenge him at this point. We know that's not the case, but I think it's a bit of a wink to readers that we're gonna have to get into something a bit different.

This is where we meet The New Characters, that is a band of three (and a half, kinda) who will become allies. They are...

• Yuu Kaito - A somewhat introverted, studious type, with the Territory "Taboo". He's my favorite, and I will tell you why shortly.


• Mitsunari Yanagisawa - Just call him Yangaisawa. He has the Territory "Copy", which seemingly transforms him into a true 1-to-1 copy of whoever he touches, except their personality. He's still himself on the inside, but has access to memories and abilities(?!). The limits of Copy are vague, if there are any real ones, but it's very powerful.


• Asato Kido - Have fun mixing up Kido and Kaito. They don't look anything alike, thankfully. Kido has the Territory "Shadow", he can manipulate his own shadow to affect things in the physical world, and paralyze others by stepping on their shadows. Not too shabby.


• Honorary 4th - Shigeru Murota with the Territory "Wiretap", basically telepathy. Not that interesting, and he's not in the series for very long at all.


• Only the first three of these characters made it into the awesome group shot in the second anime opening. Let that speak for itself.

One of the biggest crimes, for me, is that all of these guys are criminally underutilized, particularly in the back half, but it's a tricky situation. They are there for some pretty major stuff, and contribute to the general first half(ish) of the arc, when the gang is still facing off against the Sensui Seven. After that, they might as well not be there. As much as I like them, it's not terribly necessary to have a "next generation of heroes" in this series at this point. They're also not martial arts fighters, which means they are somewhat limited in use depending on the situation. They are much more normal people than our quartet, which is still an extremely solid cast that doesn't need any particular shakeup.

Had the series gone on longer, I think there is some possibility they could have had another major role. I just really like them, which lines up with how much I love Jojo's Stands.

In the interview I linked above, Togashi and interviewers have a laugh agreeing Territories are pretty obviously inspired by Stands. Could you blame anyone though? Stands are awesome. They can look like and do almost anything, and reflect the personality of their users. It seems like readers weren't fooled either, but this is harmless fun and inspiration as far as I'm concerned.

Kaito

You can skip this part if you want.

Kaito's Taboo power is absolutely insane. He's also a really likable character. This is my scrimblo, and I get to write about him.

I love his character design; it's about as ordinary and unassuming as you can get. Even Yanagisawa and Kido have some fun delinquent haircuts. But Kaito? He's just some guy. This is what makes it all the more fun when he's making all those nonchalant faces and stealing people's souls. He's very matter-of-fact and stoney in this scene, but we'll see him laugh and lighten up a bit as the condition to lose to Kurama. So in a way, he's kind of cute.

Like I mentioned above, he's not like a super smug nerd or anything. He's extremely cooperative and helpful during the battle with Game Master. He even gets copied by Yanagisawa's Territory in order to score some extra points. I love that!

Taboo is also an extremely strong ability. The only real weakness is its pitiful range of ten meters. The whole set-up is that they're in Kaito's Territory as soon as they enter the house. Honestly, it kind of seems like you could stand in the corner and escape it. But otherwise? What is anyone supposed to do about this to beat him? Kaito can arbitrarily set the rule that Taboo follows, and he doesn't have to disclose what it is. His Territory also seems to negate all violence done within it as a bonus feature. How? How do you do beat him? If this wasn't a plot by Genkai to where they could conceivably win, what was the plan here? They even note as such that if they Territory users were playing for keeps, it'd have been over way sooner.

Could Kaito have washed Toguro? It's not impossible. While it's hard to say exactly (I'm terrible with measurements and scale), I'm pretty sure that the arena in the Dark Tournament is significantly larger than Kaito's Territory can cover. We saw no shortage of ranged attacks from various combatants, so anyone watching the tournament might have figured out to not stand too close to Kaito. We're also not sure about the limits of Taboo's anti-violence skill. If someone threw, say, a giant axe at Kaito from outside his Territory, what happens? Does the axe get deflected because it entered the Territory? If that was the case, then I don't see how 90% of the Dark Tournament entrants could possibly contend.

Someone Will Die...Of Fun!

After this little introduction adventure, which turns out to be a training plot by Genkai, we're introduced to the real conflict. Someone is widening a hole that goes into the demon plane. This is bad, of course, and it's having the side effect of unleashing invisible demon bugs(?) and giving some humans Territories. You may remember that there was a bug invasion back in the Spirit Detective arc. Here though, it's really not clear what's up with the swarm this time. They don't seem to do anything in particular, and you don't see them that often, even though they're supposed to be everywhere in the city where the portal is being opened. I'm not even sure what to say about it. There's even a Territory user (Doctor) who has an unrelated ability to infect people with mosquito-like things. The Swarm will get mentioned again, briefly, but it's hard not to think of it as the first dropped plot point.

The overall setup here is really good, otherwise. We know just a little more than our heroes do, as we get some brief peeks at Sensui and Itsuki. With a good pace, we're introduced and teased with the other members of Sensui's troupe and their powers. You may have seen Yusuke fight Doctor in that one insanely awesome anime clip. Yanagisawa comes in clutch in a great way, and the vibe is exciting.

You may have preempted this, but yes, I do enjoy the special emphasis on Kuwabara that plays into the arc. I think the way it plays out later is decently clever, but mostly, I'm just very partial to the idea that Kuwabara's ability has some extra utility and coolness factor.

After the incident with Seaman, we get some info on the eponymous Chapter Black. Well, Viz went with "Black Chapter", but we'll go with what the original Japanese and pretty much everyone calls it. Chapter Black is a videotape (yes, it's literally a cassette) that shows thousands(!) of hours of humanity's worst. Today, we call it YouTube, but the psychological effects of seeing this video seem to vary, but generally it seems to throw your average viewer into despair, shame, guilt, all powerful emotions. The idea of seeing various atrocities and having someone actually feel something might seem kind of quaint today, but I think it's a neat story element. Sensui has shown it to make his recruits. It probably could have been some stock brainwashing tape and had the story play out mostly the same, so I give props here. It ties in much better with a lot of coming reveals...

On the other hand, it seems like a huge waste and a bit of a tease that none of our main characters see the video for themselves. I've wondered if the plan was to have, say, Kuwabara see it and use his Dimensional Sword for Sensui willingly. What actually happens is fine, but again, a bit of a missed opportunity. I imagine it would have been pretty damn challenging, and possibly divisive with the audience. Either the see it and ultimately shrug it off, or agree with the villains, even temporarily, so maybe it was for the best.

Sensui's Saga

Speaking of coming reveals, Kurama (!) let's on that Koenma knows more than he's letting on (!!), and Yusuke demands the full story on Sensui. This is so interesting. This is the first time we've really seen a 'fallible' Spirit World, and it adds an interesting layer of depth. Have they been hiding other stuff from Yusuke? From everyone? Hm!

Sensui was once a Spirit Detective, exactly like Yusuke. He was somewhat of a justiciar. All demons are evil, and should be destroyed. In a mission to bust one of Sakyo's (!!!) schemes, Sensui and Itsuki both came upon a grusome scene. Humans torturing, maiming demons for their own pleasure. Kuwabara recalls that there was a similar vibe when they fought Tarukune and rescued Yukina, something that Sakyo had a large hand in as well. CONTINUITY WINS!

This is such a great backstory. It flips so much on its head and puts Yu Yu Hakusho's strongest themes on display. This is what I'm talking about! It's easy for any reader to assume that Tarukune, Sakyo, and every Dark Tournament organizer that got killed by Toguro were some bad apples. Of course there are nasty human criminals and evildoers. We saw Kuwabara comfort Yukina and reassure her (and us) that humans aren't all bad. And they're not, we know that. But now, with this new context of Yusuke's very predecessor doing a 180 after seeing just how bad humans can be, it makes us wonder, even if briefly, if we're missing something. Sensui is still a villain of course, what he's trying to do is let all the demons in to kill everybody. But there's thematic depth here, the seeds planted by previous arcs are blossoming, and it owns.

Togashi is fucking cooking.

In what seems awfully premature, Sensui himself (and one ally, Sniper) appear and announce that the portal will be finished in just two more days. Earlier it was two weeks, then Koenma called and explained it was actually one week, and now it's down to two days. This is exact same silliness happened in the Spirit Detective Saga too, with Yusuke's revival and all the rules surrounding that. It's amusing to see that come back along with so much of that earlier style.

Pretty much everything to this point is great. But some seams start to show as we continue...

*Once again, I can't figure out exactly where this was published, or when. If you've got one, please let me know so I can update this! Also, wow. Way to diss Keiko, Togashi. That explains a lot, at least.

- Jane