| “ | Fifteen years ago the spirit fox, Yoko Kurama was thought to have been killed while escaping from a botched burglary. In desperation, he hid himself in your world using a human body to slowly recover his energy. He thought no one would find him. I did. |
„ |
| ~ Hiei |
Yoko Kurama is the villainious alter-ego of Shūichi Minamino A.K.A. "Kurama" in Yoshiro Togashi's manga and anime Yu Yu Hakusho. He was a famed thief of demon world who dwelt in it's deeper corners and is a fiend of legend. Yoko Kurama was fatally wounded during a robbery and his solution to hide and recover was to shed his physical form before it fully died and quickly possess a human fetus as a new body. Though as Shūichi Minamino, or just "Kurama" as the Spirit World knows him, he is an asset to their demonic crimes unit, he is still a core part of Kurama, one Kurama considers the source of his darker nature before coming to understand love, empathy and conscience being raised as a human.
He was voiced by Shigeru Nakahara in Japanese, John Burgmeier in English and Gloria García in Spanish.
History[]
Scourge of Demon World[]
Demon World is a wild realm of vicious unchecked demons. Spirit World is an extension of Demon World but specifically where souls go when they die. Overseers of spirit world have gradually extended Spirit World's boarders to encompassed more and more of Demon World. Spirit World's King - Enma, has treaties with the lords of Demon World where he shall never tame too much of Demon Worlds' territory, and in exchange the lords of Demon World will never attempt open invasion, but the treaty is tenuous as unaffiliated demons keep trying to sneak into or are summoned into Human-World to prey on it's people, and Enma is constantly taking bits and pieces of Demon World's no-man's-land to structure into Spirit World. Enma never goes too far into the depths of Demon World as they still hold dangers that even the divine guardians of souls dare not tread into lightly.
It is in these depths that Yoko Kurama lurked, and he was certainly one of the more potent dangers of the realm - more for his cunning and ruthlessness than outright power. Yoko Kurama regularly stole from the sorts of demon lord that Enma otherwise avoided, he swiped precious artifacts and massive treasure hoards from the wealthier lords of his realm. Yoko Kurama at first was a lone burglar but over time attracted aspiring demon thieves, and before he knew it, he had a cabal of bandits. Yoko Kurama was known to be merciless and efficient, he had a very dim view of thieves under him that could not follow orders, he rarely gave any blunderers a second chance and when he did it was only ever for talent he wanted to keep in his service - however even then, such problem prodigies were still disciplined for deliberately disobeying his words.
Finally bored with his usual targets, Yoko Kurama decided he would steal from the gradually expanding Spirit World, as King Enma was said to be in possession of some powerful artifacts and the mere notion of Spirit World's fortified nature made the notion of committing a grand-theft against it irresistible to Yoko Kurama. Yoko Kurama was however spotted during the theft. In his attempt to flee f rom Spirit World Special Forces he was greatly injured, Yoko Kurama could feel his life-force fading so he projected from his body as a spirit. Special Forces killed the body so his spirit could not last for long outside of it and pursued the his spirit fox-form. In his spirit form, Yoko Kurama could feel his life-force fading without a body, he was so weak he was able to slip through the Spirit World's kekkai (barrier) around Human-World, meant to keep out titanic demons at the cost of allowing small demons to slip through. Whether Yoko Kurama was too weak to possess a normal human by then, or he deliberately avoided one so Spirit World didn't find him is unknown; What he did do however was possess a fetus in a pregnant woman to prevent from fading away. Spirit World found no trace of Yoko Kurama once he had passed the Ki-Kai barrier, and so it was presumed his spirit was torn to bits trying to pass through it. The Spirit Fox's ruse worked, he was presumed dead and he could recover in a physical body as his powers returned. Once born the baby was named Shūichi by his body's mother, Shiori Minamino. Though "Shūichi" was his legal birth-name, he identified as "Kurama" to what few demons and ghosts became aware of him.
Reincarnation[]
Kurama fully recalls his time as Yoko Kurama - he only had a brief period where he could not recall his true nature as an infant, by the time he was a toddler he could recall being Yoko Kurama though was still internalizing his true-nature due to a human brain that could only process so-much data even with his demonic physiology slowly boosting his new body.
One day while attempting to snatch a cookie, the stool he was standing on tipped, and "Shūichi" fell. Shiori saw the accident as it was happening and leapt to save him. Kurama states he was not worried as by then his human body had taken on a demonic nature to where a simple fall would not have hurt him even as a toddler, however the cookie-jar shattered and the pieces slit Shiori's wrests leading to extensive nerve damage from that day onward. Kurama states that seeing the woman illogically leaping to save him at great cost to herself and just being happy he was alright even as she bled was the first time he began to process what "love" was. He committed to staying with Shiori after that and protecting her. Kurama had kept a low profile growing up, but he was eventually tracked down by the demon Hiei, who was planning a major heist of the very vault Kurama had tried to rob before it had gone awry and forced him to possess the fetus of Shūichi Minamino in the first place. Hiei enticed Kurama with an artifact called The Forlorn Hope, a mirror that could grant it's wielder any-wish, as this was at a time Shiori's nerve damage was becoming fatal and she was in the hospital, Kurama agreed.
The Spirit World's detective, Yusuke Urameshi, was sent to retrieve the items by King Enma's son Koenma, before his father found out about the robbery. In pursuit of the Forlorn Hope, Yusuke is encountered by Kurama who wants just a few days and then tells Yusuke he can simply have the mirror back. When returning to report the deal, Yusuke's superiors tell him the mirror can only grant wishes under the full-moon, which the wait syncs up with. But further more the mirror is supposed to be worthless as the name comes from the fact that granting the wish sucks the life-force from the user's body killing them - hence Kurama's plan is made clear to sacrifice his own life to save his human mother's. Yusuke finds Kurama just in time to be part of the wish and the mirror grants Kurama's it but rather than sucking out his life-force since both he an Yusuke were making contact with the mirror at the time, each has half their life-force drained, allowing both to recover, but just feel extremely winded. As of that moment Kurama remained an enthusiastic spirit-world asset on condition he could keep helping Yusuke specifically.
Full Revival[]
Spirit World is forced to participate by having representatives in the Dark Tournament, a festival for demons to fight each-other with enough human criminal lords and spirit-world higher-ups sponsoring it to grant the winner's any wish, no matter how outlandish, those running it always find some way to accommodate. Spirit World dislikes the notion but it is important diplomatically to be involved with the demons and human-criminals/mystics granting passage to the human-world in order to remain in-the-know about such scoundrels. The Dark Tournament Yusuke is involved in has him blackmailed by the demonic hit-man Younger Toguro to participate or else Toguro will dispense with the pretense of sport and simply kill Yusuke and any human friends or family he finds along the way. Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke's friend Kazuma Kuwabara and his mentor Genkai are all offered spots on the team, with Koemna as the team-owner. A match with the demon - Ura Urashima proves very significant for Kurama and more so for Yoko Kurama. Ura Urashima has a box with gas inside that reverts any who inhale it to their youth, the more the inhale the further back they go. Ura Urashima's plan in facing Kurama was to reduce him to nothing by exposing him to so much mist in a field he had set up Kurama simply gets unborn, and it works, though not in the way he hoped, and Kurama reverts to Yoko Kurama.
In his restored state Yoko Kurama is not only restored to full power, but his original mind-set- cold, sadistic, murderous and utterly ruthless. Ura Urashima is killed, but even after the field fades and the mist disperses, Kurama's identity as Yoko Kurama has fully re-emerged; And Shūichi must wrestle with who he was, who he is and who he could be. Kurama begins to refer to "Yoko Kurama" as all his dark inclinations and his past life's ruthless nature, still part of him however much he tries to ignore it, as almost a separate person. For the first time in his life he does not feel like Yoko Kurama is something he grew out of, and more like an addictive other's self he could very easily embrace if he chose to, coming with great power but also a lose of self.
Unfinished Business With Yomi[]
During the last arc of the series, Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama are all contacted by lords of the deepest depths of Demon World. Yusuke is contacted by his ancestral father - Raizen, Hiei is contacted by the most openly evil of the three lords - Mukuro and Kurama by the most ambitious of the three - an old acquaintance of his - Yomi. Raizen is dying an wishes Yusuke to come pass on his power to, Mukuro and Yomi sense it and want right-hands to gain the edge on the other - Mukuro seeking to maintain the Demon world's default anarchy, and Yomi looking to organize it with Raizen gone by overpowering Mukuro and turning it from a divided realm into a great demonic empire under his rule. Of the three, Spirit World considers Yomi the most dangerous to them, Raizen has a soft spot for humans, Mukuro while cruel is not concerned with human or Spirit World and bothering with either would be beneath Mukuro's notice, but Yomi has goals of conquest and there is no reason to think once he had Demon World as a empire he would continue to honor pacts with Spirit World made when the realm was divided; This leads to Koemna secretly encouraging both to accept the invitation to work from behind the scenes for Spirit and human worlds' interests. While both have their own goals they agree to the assignment but both make it clear they may not be back.
Kurama has a reason to bother with Yomi other than for the sake of spirit world, he knew him as Yoko Kurama - Yomi was once a bandit in Yoko Kurama's cabal - he retired after he was permanently blinded by a demonic hitman. Yomi is cordial accepting Kurama, though all his minions scoff at Kurama's presence there - sensing his demonic nature but his very clearly human body seems frail and putrid to them. Yomi explains the political situation he is in and wants Kurama back at his side to help him get the edge on Mukuro once Raizen dies; But Yomi also has something to show Kurama - he caught the demonic hit-man who blinded him all those years ago. Yomi's other senses have grown to super-demon levels since being blinded, and he senses Kurama's heart and breath radically alter when he hears Yomi has the hit-man, and draws attention to the notion. Yomi says after years of torture the hit-man seems finally ready to break and wants Kurama to be there to witness it while considering Yomi's offer. Broken and badly wounded the hit-man is willing to tell Yomi anything if only he let's him die, Yomi has but one question - who hired him to attack Yomi and leave him alive and stranded once blinded. The hit-man admits, it was Yoko Kurama the Spirit Fox. In a rage Yomi murders the hit-man with his bare-hands, but then calms down and says he already heavily suspected. Yomi says he was young, brash and regularlly disobeyed orders and gambled with their thieves' lives, he'd have done the same thing, or likely worse to someone like his younger-self, but he then restates his request to Kurama, making it clear, that if Kurama refuses to help Yomi, Yomi will start holding Yoko Kurama's actions against him in his current life. Kurama agrees and is turned into Yomi's right-hand. When Yomi's previous right-hand, Shachi, tries to black-mail Kurama with his new-step-brother's life by having a minion possess him and hold him hostage unless Kurama bows out of Yomi's service, Yoko Kurama's personality re-emerges and he begins a subversion campaign to buy out the possessor demon and those around Shachi before killing him outright once Shachi goes to finish matters himself. Hearing the conflict from well across the palace - Yomi declares with Shachi's death and not even slowing down once his step-brother was in trouble, that Yoko Kurama is back.
Yusuke decides with his ancestral father's death to hold a new version of the Dark Tournament to see who gets to be king of demon world - the demons working for each lord all opting to take their shot to be the new king instead of backing one of the three. Yusuke using the sport as a method to avoid all out war while appealing to the demon lords' ambitions and the common demons' base aggressions. During the tournament, Kurama wrestles with becoming Yoko Kurama again. He states he could not possibly maintain the three aspects of his psyche' - Yoko Kurama, Shūichi Minamino and Kurama. A ruthless demon, a repentant demonic human and an ordinary human boy - one has to go; And Yomi is counting on it being Shūichi Minamino - though if it is Kurama, there will no longer be any filter and Yoko will quickly dominate the remaining humanity. In the end, Kurama nearly resorts to using Yoko Kurama in his final match, but does not, instead relying on his skill and wit to win instead of Yoko Kurama's raw power. Yomi is outraged, but Kurama states he has still done as Yomi asked, his darker inclinations had simply not gotten the better of him. With this match Kurama denounces his ties to Yoko Kurama, and will soon set aside the identity of Kurama once Spirit World no longer needs him, he shall from that point on be Shūichi Minamino first and foremost.
Personality[]
In his past life, Yoko Kurama was one of the most ruthless demons ever to exist. Though he was merciless, he had little desire for conquest or domination, theft was it's own reward and Yoko Kurama applied his talents subverting demon world despots for it's own sake. Yomi was cruel as well - and the two got along until Yoko Kurama saw Yomi was disobedient and hot-headed, leading to him getting trapped. Yoko Kurama busted Yomi out of lock-up but was very disappointed Yomi had risked his and his cohorts lives in the first place, when Yoko Kurama had explicitly told him the risk was too great, Though Yomi suspected Yoko Kurama had forgiven him, what Yoko Kurama was actually doing was testing him by setting up a rumor of a similar raid opportunity and letting Yomi walk into a trap with his hit-man waiting for him - leaving him blinded and stranded, that time with no one coming for him. Kurama is a hard-core pragmatist, he will ignore morals, honor and ethics if it means he can benefit, going as far as to kill a child, hold family members of opponents hostage or ignore pride to act childish just to beat an opponent - indications of mild sociopathy - traces of Yoko Kurama who is implied to have been an outright sociopath - only recovered from such due to reincarnation. Yoko Kurama is every dark inclination Kurama has, every desire to abandon morality and go back to practical morally blind actions. However even at his darkest Kurama cannot conceive of letting his mother suffer. Yoko Kurama, if anything wants to keep the only woman who ever showed him kindness safe, and while the Shūichi side of him wants to do so through guile, Yoko Kurama can, and will, murder everything that even slightly endangers her if guile fails. The Yoko Kurama side of himself is something that has come to be bathed in self-hatred. Kurama fully remembers what he was, how easy it is to be Yoko Kurama again, but has a new life to process that against and sees it as a flawed yet enticingly effective mind-set.
Possession vs Merger[]
Never test how far Kurama can go over moral lines.
It is important to realize though Yoko Kurama possessed the fetus set to be Shūichi Minamino, there is no separate soul repressed or vying for control of his body. The fetus Yoko Kurama possessed had no soul - it was merely a series of proteins forming in Shiroi's womb - it's brain not even being formed at the time Yoko Kurama possessed it. Spirit World did not notice the possession due to the fetus not developing or being assigned it's own soul yet, and so Kurama's birth had gone completely under the radar of a bureaucracy that otherwise keeps hard track of reincarnated spirits; Shūichi was just presumed a new soul that had formed before Spirit World had time to assign a soul set to be reincarnated. There are no duel consciousnesses in Kurama, he references Yoko Kurama metaphorically as a second personality, but in truth he knows both Yoko Kurama, Kurama and Shūichi Minamino are all the same person; However his psyche cannot process all three and Yoko Kurama's awakening at the hands of Ura Urashima ignites something of an internal conflict in himself, as he processes the sort of sociopath he was, with the human he was raised as, and the conscientious but still pragmatic demon he actually is. Yoko Kurama is similar to the original Mr. Hyde in this regard - a side of one's self to be repressed because it could cause problems but not a full separate personality, merely metaphorically so in that it is addictive once indulged. Kurama's denouncement of Yoko Kurama at the end of the series is him finally coming to terms with his human side and demon side and deciding his humanity is the only part of himself he wants to live with.
Trivia[]
- Kurama is a creature of Shintoism folklore - a nine-tailed fox. A trickster spirit until it is cornered and then becomes savage.
- "Yoko" is Japanese for "good"/"correct"/"improved" as a reference for an improvement to something else. This means his full name is roughly "Superior Fox Spirit".
- In the Philippine dub of the anime - Kurama is female.
- Kurama had a human father, but he is inexplicably deceased by his teen years. As said-father is seen in flashbacks when Kurama was still an infant but nowhere to be mentioned when Kurama bonded with Shiori, it is presumed Mr. Minamino died some time when Shūichi was a toddler. And Shiori is explicitly stated to be a single mother by the time Kurama is fourteen.
- When Yoko Kurama's influence is upon Shūichi, he does not go into a rage but rather enters a state of where he disregards his morality and empathetic nature for the sake of calculated pragmatism, such as when he proceeds to torture the parasite spirit possessing his new step-brother, allowed the young Tsukihito Amanuma die, or murdered Sadao Makihara for standing in his way just after Amanuma's death.
- Yoko Kurama is symbolic of borderline psychosis, where someone realizes they are unwell but cannot deny the allure of shutting off their inhibitions and devolving to things such as murder at its most conivent application, before reverting back to their normal psyche.
- Yoko Kurama never harbored an interest for wealth, so it is presumed that he stole treasures and artifacts from demon lords merely out of amusement or simply collected the loot as trophies.
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 Villains
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Saint Beasts Team Toguro Sensui Seven Black Book Club Meikai Gods Sei-Sei Shinto Others |