Yusuke Urameshi
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-->Yusuke Urameshi (浦飯幽助 Urameshi Yūsuke) is one of the main four characters of the popular anime and manga series YuYu Hakusho created by Yoshihiro Togashi.
His seiyū is Nozomu Sasaki. His English Voice Actor in the FUNimation dub is Justin Cook. In the English version of the first movie he is voiced by Jonathan Fahn and the English version of he is voiced by Rik Nagel. In the Hebrew dub, Yusuke Urameshi's name is changed to 'YuYu Hakusho' (The name of the show), and he is voiced by Guy Roshiniak.
Yusuke, who is 14 at the start of the manga, is the toughest pupil in his school, Sarayashiki Junior High School, and is the rival, of Kazuma Kuwabara, the second toughest pupil. He picks fights with children his age. In addition, in the manga, Yusuke smokes, gambles, and drinks alcohol.
One day, he is hit and killed by an automobile while pushing a child out of the way from the car. He learns that the Underworld does not know what to do with him since he wasn't supposed to die then. He is given the opportunity to return to life, but initially declines.
After seeing people at his funeral mourn for him, including his mother, Atsuko Urameshi, his favorite teacher, Mr. Takenaka (Mr. Takanaka in the English anime), his rival Kazuma Kuwabara, and his best friend Keiko Yukimura (Kayko Yukimura in the English anime), he decides to return to life because his friends and family need him. In order for him to be revived, he has to hatch an underworld egg which feeds off his soul energy. Because of this, the creature that hatches from it will be a physical manifestation of his soul.
The condition that he has to fulfill is to help the Underworld fight yōkai who are causing trouble. Therefore, he becomes a Spirit Detective (Reikai Tantei, or Spirit Realm Detective in the original Japanese). He is guided by Botan, the ferrywoman of the Sanzu River.
Yusuke must face powerful yōkai and make rash decisions, but with his friends Kurama, Hiei and Kuwabara on his side, he succeeds. He becomes the apprentice to the aged fighter Genkai, and soon after is invited to the Dark Tournament (Ankoku Būtsukai or Black Martial Arts Tournament in the original Japanese) by Younger Toguro, a powerful yōkai of the Toguro Brothers that he fought against previously in his fourth mission. Towards the end of the tournament, Genkai gives him most of her Reiki so Yusuke can stand a chance against Younger Toguro. It is revealed that Toguro was Genkai's partner from a previous tournament. After suffering a mortal wound, Genkai, with the last of her strength, explains that when they won the tournament fifty years ago, Toguro, who was once human, had his body become a yōkai's in order to preserve his strength and youth. Before dying, Genkai warns Yusuke not to become like Toguro. Yusuke becomes furious with Toguro over his master's death and vows to defeat him. Yusuke wages the final battle with Toguro and emerges victorious.
In the Chapter Black Saga, Yusuke awakens his yōkai blood after he is killed (again), this time by Shinobu Sensui. It is revealed that he is a Mazoku, or a descendant of a Yōkai Clan (the Amazaku demons in the English anime), his ancestor Raizen having conceived a child with a human woman. Raizen made it so that when the stars reach a certain alignment, and his descendant is worthy of awakening, they would become a yōkai. It was Yusuke's first death that awoke his potential, and awoke his hidden reiki powers. It was his subsequent missions afterwards, especially his fight against the younger Toguro, that helped begin to awaken his dormant yōkai blood. However, in the end, it was his death at the hands of Sensui that pushed his change over the edge and completely changed him, allowing demonic kinship symbols to emerge all over his body. He is then possessed by his anscestor Raizen to help control his new-found power and as a result Raizen through Yusuke's body kills Sensui.
In the Three Kings saga, Yusuke is removed from his position as Spirit Detective because he is considered too dangerous for the Human Realm. The Great Emperor Enma (King Yama in the English anime) wants Yusuke dead so that he does not become as dangerous as Sensui. Even going to the home of former Spirit Detective Kuroko Sutou does not help much, since she partly agrees with Enma's judgement after Hokushin, Raizen's second-in-command shows up demanding that Yusuke come to the Demon Realm to help Raizen because Raizen is dying. Yusuke agrees to do so since Raizen interrupted his match against Sensui. He has everyone meet at Genkai's temple for a farewell and promises Keiko that he will return in three years time. After meeting Raizen, he learns that Raizen is dying because he needs to eat humans to survive, which he gave up after he met female doctor and Yusuke's ancestor. Yusuke fights him, but loses to him quite easily; then learns that Mukuro and Yomi are just as strong as the current, and weak, Raizen.
After a year of training Yusuke, Raizen dies, but reveals to Yusuke that if he had eaten humans he would have already been the strongest yōkai. Yusuke chooses to hold a tournament, since he knows he is incapable of ruling Raizen's territory. During his match against Yomi, Yusuke realizes he has been fighting all this time for someone to defeat him, after fighting and defeating powerful men such as Toguro and Sensui, whom previously were also looking for someone to defeat them as well. Yusuke is narrowly defeated by Yomi, because Shura cheers his father on. Afterwards Yusuke disappears for the next few years and reunites with his old friends and Keiko at Genkai's temple.
His realationship with Keiko is very strong, and most likely that they have loved each other for a very long time. After all, Yusuke is coming back just for Keiko, and Keiko is willing to wait for him, "forever."
Attacks
Here a list of all of Yusuke's attacks.
- Rei Gan (霊丸 Translated as Spirit Sphere, or Spirit Gun in the English anime); Yusuke tends to give English names to his attacks, so Rei Gan becomes Raygun (レイガン). This is Yusuke's most common attack. He concentrates his Reiki into his right index finger and releases it as a projectile. It can be from a small shot to a full-sized cannon blast. Its only weakness is that Yusuke can only use it a certain number of times per day. At first he can only use it once per day, but by the beginning of the Dark Tournament (Ankoku Būtsukai), after much training under Genkai, Yusuke can use it four times per day, which is his maximum limit. After he is reborn as a yōkai, Yusuke's Reiki is replaced by Youki, and as such, his Rei Gun becomes the You Gan (Demon Gun in the English version). The only difference is that the color is red instead of blue because it is used with Youki instead of Reiki (this coloring is only seen in Yusuke's battle against Yomi). In the anime version, during the battle against Yomi, Yusuke learns to mix his Reiki and Youki together and fire his Rei/You Gun so many times that his yōkai kinship symbols and Youki disappear, leaving only his Reiki, which becomes Seikouki.
- Rei Kō Ha(霊光波 Translated as Spirit Light Wave) is often referred to as Shottogan, which translates into Shotgun, as it's called in the English anime and manga. The technique is taught to him by Genkai. Yusuke gathers Reiki into his fist to form a ball and releases light pellets from it. While the technique is not as powerful as the Rei Gan, a few advantages it has is that the shots are wide spread, which makes it highly effective against quick or invisible opponents or large numbers of weak enemies. It is used only a couple of times in the series and the movies.
- Renshā (連射 Translated as Double Blast or Rei Gun Rapid-Fire) known as the Spirit Gun Double in the English Dub. It is used once during the Dark Tournament against Chu of Team Rokuyukai (Jolly Devil Six in the English manga) in the last match of the first round. It is where Yusuke fires his last two Rei Gun Shots one right after another.
- Rei Kō Dan (霊光弾 Translated as Spirit Light Bullet) is known as Spirit Wave in the English Dub and Aura Blast in the English manga. It is used once during the Dark Tournament. In one of Yusuke's matches he faces Jin, a powerful demon ninja Wind Tamer from Team Mashotsukai. Jin has a serious advantage over Yusuke, since his wind can block or redirect Yusuke's attacks, even at point-blank range. The starting pose of the Rei Kō Dan looks like the Rei Kō Ha, but Yusuke punches with Reiki around his arm like a bullet. If used as a long range attack it is not as powerful as it is as a close range strike. However, it would still be ten times as powerful as a fully powered Rei Gan attack at point-blank range. The reason Genkai did not want to directly teach it to Yusuke in the beginning is that the attack takes a much greater toll on one's body than a full powered Rei Gan (Spirit Gun).
- Chō Rei Gan (超霊丸 Translated as Mega Spirit Gun) is called Spirit Gun Mega in the anime. A fully empowered Yusuke with no spirit shackles holding him back uses it against Toguro in the last fight of the Dark Tournament saga. He gathers most, if not all, of his spirit energy, forms it into a large sphere of energy, and shoots it. Due to Toguro "killing" Kuwabara, Yusuke's spirit energy hits its peak, holding nothing back in his rage over his friend's death. In the middle of the battle, Yusuke uses his Mega and is still able to stand up afterwards.
- Sei Kō Ki (Translated as Holy Light Energy) is known as Sacred Energy in the English Dub. During his fight against Yomi, Yusuke, remembering all of his friends supporting him, is able to mix his body's Yōki (demon energy) and Reiki (spirit energy) together to be able to generate his own version of Seikouki, different from the version that was previously used by Sensui. It is just as powerful but hard to maintain for more than a few hours, more than enough time for Yusuke's battle with Yomi in the final arc of the anime.
Cultural references
- The Philippines dub of Yusuke's given name is "Eugene".
- "Urameshi" is a word that is said by dead spirits, and the Yū in Yusuke's name means "ghost." 浦飯 literally means "shore rice" and 幽助 means "ghost help."
- Yū from Yusuke and Rei from Reigun make Yūrei, another Japanese word for ghost.
- Yusuke has several songs on the soundtrack. By himself: "All Right!", "Akatsuki no Chikai ~Rising Sun~", "Dead or Alive ~Toushin~", "FIRE", "Kokoro o Tsunaide", "TOUGH", and "Tsukanoma no Sunset". With Keiko Yukimura: "Omoide o Tsubasa ni Shite". With Kurama, Hiei, and Kazuma Kuwabara: "Bokutachi no Kisetsu", "Hikari no Naka de", and "Yasashisa wa Nemuranai". There are also remixes of "Unbalance na Kiss o Shite" and "Taiyou ga Mata Kagayaku Toki" with him singing.
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