Respect: An Anime Character Essay

Kuwabara Kazuma (Yu Yu Hakusho)

"Whenever a show revolves around a group of heroes, it's inevitable that one or two of the characters will be chosen by the fans as being the best in the group and someone else is going to be given the shaft" Danyal. This statement is probably one of the truest statements I've ever read when it comes to not only Japanese animated shows, but any show in general. Think about it: Dragon ball-Z, Street Fighter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, I mean the list goes on and on.

In the case of Yu Yu Hakusho, the characters placed on this proverbial pedestal are Hiei and Kurama (and in some cases Yusuke, but these are the two I've seen more shrines, pics, and fan-fics based on), and the character who's treated like the red-headed step-child (no pun intended) literally, is Kazuma Kuwabara. Now, when I read bash-fics online or read fans opinions of the show, there's always a reason why Kuwabara is being hated on. Some I feel are reasonable, and I'll address those reasons first, then some are just downright stupid and based on ignorance, and those I'll get to last. But before I address these reasons, let me make one thing clear; I am NOT trying to convert Hiei, Kurama, or Yusuke fanatics to the side of Kuwabara.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and if you like a character more than another than you just do (also for the record, my favorite character is indeed Kuwabara). The purpose of this essay is two-fold: 1) to help those who despise Kuwabara gain a new found respect for him, 2) to also teach not only anime fans, but fans of any tv show with such a premise, that we should learn to look at a character deeply before dismissing them because they don't happen to live up to our ideals. Now onto the reasons of why most YYH fans dislike Kuwabara the way they do:

1)Kuwabara is weak- most YYH fans think Kuwabara is just plain weak, and some Kuwabara fans even agree that he is the weakest of the four characters. I however, disagree somewhat with that. It's true Kuwabara is the weakest out of all of his teammates, that I will concede. Well, before you start gloating and hating on the guy some more, here me out first, then come to your own conclusion. I'm not saying Kuwabara is definitely the strongest of the four, not saying that at all. What I am saying, is that while his attacks may not pack as much power as say Hiei's dragon of the darkness flame, or Yusuke&Genkai's spirit wave, his attacks are powerful and quite lethal.

Just because his attacks may not seem as powerful or look as cool as the attacks I just named (and various other attacks in the show as well), that still doesn't make Kuwabara the weakest. You also have to keep in mind two facts when stating comments on his strength. First off is that unlike Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei, Kuwabara is entirely human. He isn't a full blooded demon (Hiei), he doesn't have any demon relation or ancestry (Yusuke), nor a demon form from a past life that he can change into (Kurama). He is strictly human, and a human teenager at that. And for a human teenager, it is a wide known fact to anyone who paid any attention to the dialogue in the series that he is quite powerful for someone his age. In fact, when comparing his strength to others outside of the team, Kuwabara has greater reiki than most demons that appear in the series, such as Byakko, Rinku, Risho, etc. He only lost to Rinku because of a cheap ring out that Rinku had to take because he wouldn't have been able to keep fighting if the match had gone on any longer (even Zeru made this exact comment).

Well what about Genkai or Sensui? They aren't demons or demon-related in anyway! This is a valid point, one that many Kuwabara haters like to bring up. However, you also have to remember that 1)Genkai is 60 years his senior, for all of you people out there who don't know what that means, it means she's 60 years older than him. Even Sensui was also older than him by at least what, 10 years, meaning he too has had much more experience.

Not only that, but Genkai went through a lot of training in most of her younger years to master all of her techniques and abilities. Sensui was gifted with incredible talent from birth, much like Kuwabara according to Koenma (this should be kept in mind, as it means Kuwabara has the remote possibility to become just as strong), and he too had training to master his powers and techniques. Kuwabara has had no real training to master or increase his abilities, unlike Yusuke, so again it's quite biased and unfair to compare his strength to theirs.

It's also been my experience that when it comes to animated shows such as this, the most powerful beings in a fighting series are either of demon origin or are aliens. But yet throughout the show Kuwabara has been able to keep up with these guys every step of the way despite having such disadvantages. In my opinion, Kuwabara is one of the many characters in anime shows that would seem to be neglected by the shows creator(s). Sad as it may be, it's a fact that some characters that are considered weak, are mainly thus because in the series (and manga), those characters are neglected by the shows creators.

Prime example, Dragon ball Z; Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, each of these characters were given special training (or in Goku's case) learned techniques that some of the characters (Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien) were just left out of. See what I'm saying? It's simply poor character development that can lead to some characters looking inadequate compared to others. Don't believe, me, watch the rest of YYH, and by the time the show has ended, you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, as I was saying, despite these disadvantages, Kuwabara has been able to not only keep up with these guys, but has also been able to take on some of the most dangerous demons in the series, and not only survive, but in some cases win. This brings me to my next point, Kuwabara is also the only one of the four that has had NO real training. While it is true that Kurama helped train him before the Dark Tournament, that training was on limited time, and was obviously not as tough as the training Yusuke went through with Genkai at that time. So what does this mean kiddies: that all of the power and strength he has, he's gotten it on his own. What Kuwabara has is what he was born with and what little he's trained for.

Also some people think he's weak because he loses some of his fights. Here's a common fact of life people, everyone loses sooner or later. No one ever dies with a perfect winning streak. So he's lost some fights, but he's never died in the series. One certainly can't say the same of, say Yusuke, who has died not once but TWICE in the series. Most of his losses in the series happened during the Dark Tournament, the only exception being his lost to Rando during Genkai's tournament early in the series. Not only that, but Kuwabara also fought more fights in the Dark Tournament than the rest of his teammates. And 3 of his 4 losses were due to cheap ring outs, the only other one being because of his sense of honor (in that he refused to fight his opponent because they were not fighting of their own free will).

Also, while it is true that he is weaker than the other four in reiki, it is quite possible that he is physically the strongest of the four, this means not counting reiki (or spirit energy). Want proof, in the 2nd YYH movie Poltergeist Report, Kuwabara fights with a demon lord named Majari, who serves as one of Yakumo's (a god who ruled the Netherworld) personal guards. In this fight, Kuwabara tricks Majari, who has the ability to copy his opponent's techniques, into exhausting all of his energy along with his own. Then he defeats the demon with ONE BLOW, in fact it is assumed he killed the demon, as Yakumo makes the comment that "Majari is gone" when the fight is over. This means he not only fought a demon to a stand still, he also killed him with one punch.

Want more proof of his strength? Fine, in one of his fights during the Dark Tournament, he defeated the demon Risho, a shinobi master of earth, while suffering broken ribs and other injuries that not only should've prevented him from standing, but could've killed him as well. So, with this information, it is highly argumentative that he is physically the strongest amongst the group. Now since we've covered physical strength, let's talk about his reiki (spirit energy).

Again, although he is not as strong as a lot of other fighters in the series, he does have a lot of reiki (even early on in the series) and has the potential to become much stronger. Both Genkai and Koenma at different points in the series have remarked on his strength and potential. In the episode where Kuwabara and his three high school buddies go to a concert, Genkai tells an oblivious Yusuke the real reason why Kuwabara "lost" his powers.

Kuwabara himself believed that he had lost his powers temporarily due to his use of the Tamashi no Ken (the Trial Sword, the sword he used in the Dark Tournament finals). However, Genkai knew that his powers were merely going through changes in order to deal with Sensui's upcoming plans, and that when he regained them he would become much stronger. Genkai tells this to Yusuke, and also makes the comment that he has a much stronger reikan (or spirit awareness) than even herself, he just doesn't have the level of mastery she has.

The next day when Kuwabara awakens from his sleep after regaining his reiki and unleashing the Jigen Tou, the others sit with Koenma who reveals the history of Sensui. In this episode, as stated above, he says that Sensui was gifted with incredible reikan (spirit awareness) from birth, much like Kuwabara only Sensui's was more potent. Again this means that given time and the proper training, Kuwabara himself could become as strong as the rest of his teammates, or even as strong as Sensui himself. So, keep all of these facts in mind before thinking of Kuwabara as weak, because it only shows your ignorance of the series.

2)Kuwabara is stupid- another common criticism that I disagree on. It's a known fact that most of the world's best fighters aren't exactly rocket scientists outside the ring. While it is a known fact that Kuwabara definitely isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, his fights have shown that when it comes to fighting, Kuwabara knows more than he lets on. This is very obvious in his battles with Rando, the Saint Beast Byakko, he and Yusuke's fight with the Toguro brothers, and his fight with Elder Toguro. In his fight with Rando, he shows that he is capable of thinking quickly during a battle and uses his newly acquired spirit sword to send Rando's fireballs right back at him.

In his fight with Byakko, he turns Byakko's strength (which was to absorb the reiki his opponents use) into his weakness, by stuffing the demon with so much of his reiki that it causes Byakko to implode. And when he fought him again in Byakko's lair, he uses his sword as a javelin to vault himself a great distance towards the beast, catching him off guard. He does the same thing in his fight with Rinku, when he again uses his sword as a vault and a spring to not only survive a fall from near skyscraper heights, but to also propel himself right at his opponent, putting himself in the perfect position to get a very good shot in on his opponent.

In he and Yusuke's first fight with the Toguro brothers, it was HIS idea to use the rei-gun to propel him and his reiken straight at Toguro, because he knew neither he nor Yusuke were fast enough to deliver a finishing blow to Toguro. And in his fight with Elder Toguro, he realized that slicing elder Toguro up would get him nowhere because of elder Toguro's regeneration ability, so he manipulated his spirit energy (which was being channeled through the trial sword) into a circular object, creating a new attack (the spirit flyswatter) which allowed him to strike all of Toguro's body simultaneously and giving him the victory. Even in the movies (particularly the second one) he shows that he's a very intelligent fighter (read above about his fight with Majari). So while he may not be the smartest guy in the series, he's definitely smart enough to handle himself in a fight, and in a show like this one that's really as smart as you need to be.

Now for the ignorant reasons that people have for disliking Kuwabara, and when I heard some of these I felt sorry for the people who gave these poor excuses. These are some of the most ignorant and/or pathetic excuses I've ever heard for not liking somebody, almost as sad as racial discrimination. Anyway, I'll make these short simply because they don't require (nor do they deserve) any lengthy argument:

1)Kuwabara is ugly-Newsflash for those who are dumb enough to say this, A)It's a cartoon people! If you have nothing better to do than judge a cartoon character based on the way they look, then all I have to say is someone needs to get a life or get laid BAD! B)YYH is an action/adventure anime, not a beauty contest! While I do admit his hairstyle is questionable, this show isn't about looks, nor is it about who is the best looking. Because to be honest, anyone with 3 eyes in they head (Hiei) or is assumed to be female because they appear feminine (Kurama in the manga), are not what I'd consider very good-looking either (well that last one I would consider TOO good looking). That's all I'm saying on this one.

2)Kuwabara is loud and annoying- Ok, now this one is probably the only one of these with some validity to it. Yes Kuwabara is loud, and annoying, and at times is full of himself (a trait he and Yusuke share right there), but what you've got to understand is that's his character. He's the comic relief of the show for crying out loud, like Steve Urkel from Family Matters. And I know we all remember how annoying he was, even more than Kuwabara IMO. Hell even Yusuke can be loud and obnoxious from time to time, Keiko likes to point that out whenever she's angry with him. So let's cut the guy a little slack on that one ok?

3)His love for Yukina- Yes, believe it or not, a lot of Hiei fanatics were pissed that Kuwabara fell for Yukina. Not only that, but towards the end of the show, their love was solidified. People, the funny thing about life, is that it's not without a sense of irony. In this case, it's ironic(and hilarious) that Kuwabara happen to fall in love with Hiei's younger sister, Yukina. Come on, no one saw that one coming, and when she began to show feelings for him, all I could say was whoa, their family get-together are gonna be a hell of lot more interesting. Another saying is about love, that a person can't help who they love, they're not supposed to (got that from a movie, LOL).

Let's be serious for a second, the guy has shown multiple times that he's completely and utterly devoted to her, and will do anything see her happy. He was even one of the first people to agree to helping her find her missing brother (after the other girls of course). If anything, that made me respect his character even more, because he listened to his emotions and had the guts to follow his heart, even when she showed no signs of understanding or reciprocating his feelings. And that to me, says a lot about a man's character. If more people in the world had the courage to do that, then there wouldn't be so many people unhappy with their relationships.

The point I'm trying to make is this, that Kuwabara isn't the smartest, isn't the most powerful person in the series, and can be a bit arrogant and annoying from time to time, but that doesn't make him the weakest or most hated character in the series. A character like Kuwabara may not be perfect in every way, but in the YYH world, he's the closest thing there is to a real person. Kuwabara is a man who fights not for prestige, but for honor and love, and is brave and selfless even in the face of extreme danger. He's a man willing to risk his life for the sake of those he cares for (not saying the others won't do the same), and he's not afraid to show his emotions or to use them.

He's a good fighter and more importantly, a gentle person with a big heart, and he deserves the credit he's due. Hopefully, I've persuaded some of you to not only look at Kuwabara in a whole new light, but also not to dismiss a character because they're not as ideal as you'd want them to be. Because trust me, in this world, we all have our faults, and nobody is perfect.

Ishimaru Amon