Part 4 of Yu Yu Hakusho

Part 4 of Yu Yu Hakusho

Raizen: Yusuke’s Problem

https://1anime.to/episode/159091-yu-yu-hakusho-episode-98-english-dub - 17:15 to 21:42

https://1anime.to/episode/159096-yu-yu-hakusho-episode-103-english-dub - beginning to 22:15

In the end of the last video I showed in the previous reflection, three demons from Demon World showed up to find Yusuke, and bring him back to Demon World with them.  After Yusuke talks to his friends about this, he accompanies these demons to Demon World to help him answer his identity problem, although it creates new problems for him to solve (the basic analysis video also talked about this, but I also go into more detail about it).  Before getting into these new problems, I will first focus on his identity problem, as well as resolution of it.

In the first video, Yusuke meets Raizen, his ancestral father, who was the one who helped Yusuke finish Sensui.  Yusuke not only denies that Raizen is his dad, but also gets mad at Raizen for interfering with his fight, even though Raizen tells, and shows, Yusuke he did it to help him because he needed it.  Yusuke is still mad when he hears this, and sees what Raizen can do, but he thinks he can solve this “problem” with fighting, which is how he likes to solve his problems, and express himself.  Even though this clearly doesn’t work, Yusuke still tries to do it anyway.  I think this is because fighting is how he expresses himself.  Yusuke wanted to fight his own battles.  He didn’t need a father to help him before, and he doesn’t need one now, but he has one anyway that can help him.

This help is seen in the beginning of the second video.  While Yusuke is training with the demons who brought him to Demon World, Raizen is on his throne, thinking about what he’s doing, which he explains to Yusuke after Yusuke challenges him again.  Yusuke doesn’t understand what Raizen is doing, as well as what else has happened to him, and wants an explanation from Raizen about what he’s doing so Yusuke can tell him why he thinks it’s wrong.  However, when Yusuke gets this explanation, he realizes that there’s nothing wrong about it at all.   Raizen loved a woman (we never get her name) that he didn’t think he was worthy of, although this is the woman who gives birth to Yusuke.  Raizen never got another chance to see her again in this life since she died soon after they met in childbirth, so the only way they could meet again was for Raizen to die too.  Not eating another human again after this is what helped Raizen appreciate her more before he could see her again.  Love makes people do crazy things, and this is true even for demons like Raizen.   Yusuke should understand what Raizen is doing since he’s in love too (he proposes to Keiko before he leaves for Demon World).  Yusuke now understands more about himself, including what his father is doing.

However, this video doesn’t end with this conversation.  Raizen also tells Yusuke about the problem of ruling Demon World.  In addition to Raizen, there are also two other rulers of Demon World.  While one of them, Mocurrow, wants to keep Demon World the way it is, the other, Yomi, doesn’t, even though he says he does, so Raizen suggests Yusuke help Mocurrow.  When Yusuke asks Raizen why he’s telling him this now, it’s because it’s Yusuke’s problem now, and with that, he dies.  When Yusuke goes back to Raizen’s demon disciples to tell them, he then gets the main one (Hokushin) to take him to Yomi so he can talk to him about this (Yomi and Mocurrow already know Raizen is dead, and have their own plans - Kurama also helps Yomi and Hiei helps Mocurrow).

When dealing with your problems, they can be both solved and bring about new problems for you to face.  This is seen here with Yusuke, and the new problems he’s presented with are solved in the next part of this reflection.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1. When dealing with your own problems, are they both solved and bring about new problems for you?  Explain.
2. How do you solve these new problems?

The Demon World Tournament: Yusuke’s Solution

https://1anime.to/episode/159097-yu-yu-hakusho-episode-104-english-dub - 7:05 to 22:15

https://1anime.to/episode/159104-yu-yu-hakusho-episode-111-english-dub - 6:15 to 21:42

After Yusuke learns more about what happened to him when fighting Sensui, he’s presented with the new problem of his inheritance.  In the manga, this problem is resolved with a war between Yusuke, Mocurrow, and Yomi, as well as the people who help them, but in the anime, this problem is resolved in a different way.  This different way is seen in Yusuke’s solution to this problem, which will be seen in this reflection.

I start the first video of this reflection with Yusuke’s conversation with Yomi about his solution to the problem of ruling Demon World.  Since Yusuke knows he isn’t fit to rule even if he’s Raizen’s heir, he figures coming up with a new way of deciding the only ruler of Demon World is with a tournament.  Whoever wins this tournament will be the only one to rule all of Demon World.  Yusuke also figures this could happen every three or four years like a presidential election, but with fighting instead of the usual democratic process.  This solution is more like meritocracy since the ruler would be decided by ability, in this case fighting ability, but the point is that Yusuke would be introducing something new to Demon World that’s eventually agreed upon by both Yomi and Mocurrow (Yomi agrees then because Mocurrow does, as well as Kurama and his, and Yusuke’s, friends from the Dark Tournament).

After this meeting with Yomi, Yusuke is seen in the rest of this video talking with Raizen’s disciples about his plan.  While they are talking about the idea of competing as individuals, and how that works, Raizen’s old friends show up.  At first, it seems they’ve just come to pay their respects to their departed old friend, which makes Yusuke appreciate Raizen more for not really knowing him (he acknowledges Raizen as his father now), but then they tell Yusuke that they’ll also compete in this tournament to honor Raizen.  Yomi also finds out about this, and questions fighting as an individual to simply prove himself as a fighter, or to come up with his own plan for winning, which wouldn’t be guaranteed, but he decides to fight as an individual, which we see in the second video.  

In the second video, we see Yusuke is about to fight Yomi.  Before this fight, Mocurrow (now revealed as a female) and Hiei have a conversation about Yusuke’s chances of winning this fight.  Mocurrow doesn’t understand why Yusuke would want to fight Yomi if he can’t win, but Hiei does understand.  And so does Kurama.  They realize that Yusuke isn’t fighting for himself, but also for his friends, which once again Genkai reminds him of.  When Yusuke realizes this, he has a power up due to this, but interestingly enough, he doesn’t beat Yomi with this power up.  Usually, the main character is expected to win a fight with this power up, but Yusuke doesn’t.  I think this is due to the fact that Yusuke wants demons to learn why they are fighting, not fight just for the sake of fighting.  Besides, Yusuke didn’t think he would win this tournament anyway, and plans to return to his friends back on Earth, which we see in the next video.

In the second video, we also see Yusuke visiting the grave of Raizen before he goes back to Earth.  Yusuke tells Raizen that he has solved the problem of ruling Demon World, even if it isn’t him as ruler (one of Raizen’s old friends wins).  Raizen figures Yusuke would need more training in order to win the chance to be ruler, but he knows Yusuke plans to do something else before this training, which he wants Yusuke to do in order to go back to Keiko.  Raizen knows what Yusuke wants to do since it’s what he wanted too.  We don’t see Yusuke going back to Earth to Keiko and his other friends (including Kurama, who like Hiei, also lost when realizing what’s more important), but that’s what this series ends with.  The ending described in the basic analysis video happens in the manga.  The anime ends with Yusuke reuniting with his friends on Earth after being away from them while he was in Demon World.  We don’t know what happens after this.  

The ending of Yu Yu Hakusho is open ended.  We don’t know if Yusuke will go back to Demon World to train for the next tournament, or if there will even be a next tournament, but what we do know now is that Yusuke had his own plan of what to do for both himself and Demon World after the first Demon World Tournament.  Yusuke’s plan was his solution.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1. Do ever come up with solutions to problems that are part of your plan?
2. What about solutions to problems that not only change you, but also others?