#koenma week

[koenma-week]

We're -28 days away until the next Koenma Week! The prompts will be posted soon 👻👹✨

In the meantime have the stamps of the main header and the banners of 2023 and 2024!

[staerplatinum]

Finally!! For the first day of @koenma-week I'm posting the first chapter of Black Swan! (As mostly horror, all the trigger warnings are tagged before the story!)

[eikichi-supremacy]

If nothing else Koenma is a Kuwabara stan and I'm right there with him o7 (I need to write the kuwameshi fic that goes with this fr)

[spirit-detective-files]

Hiei's week approaches and soon we'll be done with whole Team Urameshi's weeks.

[britcision]

Not gonna lie, we’ve been watching YuYu Hakusho alongside the release of Delicious In Dungeon and uh

It’s been illuminating

Like on the one hand hoooooooboy you can taste the 90s animation techniques (and the Netflix version is somehow more strobey and seizure bait, and they’ve fucked random chunks of audio?? I have the dvds I can prove they’ve fucked around)

On the other hand… yeah, it really, really highlights what people have already been talking about with the Delicious In Dungeon - the pacing issues, especially with going shot for shot from the manga instead of embracing their own medium

Cuz I will stand by YuYu Hakusho being the best anime version of a manga I’ve ever seen. It’s true to the manga, but keeps up the pacing and fleshes things out by leaning more into the side characters, and particularly our audience surrogates, Koenma and George

The fights all pace well because we cut to the people watching them, so it’s not just repetitive punch punch punch shots (although we do get those)

Whereas this week’s episode of DunMeshi in particular…. Really suffered from skewed pacing on that fight

They had way too much time just standing around talking, both with the harpies and in between Falin’s attacks, and I’d bet even an anime-only fan could pick out which shots were literal panels in the anime because nothing moved to flow between them

Those shots of the separated groups especially; this is anime, not manga. Those people could have been moving, interacting, doing things instead of panning over a still

I get that it takes more time and money but this was a really significant fight and it does make me worry a little for season 2, because the red dragon fight also had some pacing problems (although to a much lesser degree) and season 2 is when the combat pops off

I really do appreciate them wanting to do a faithful interpretation of the manga and sticking close to Ryoko Kui’s vision, but anime is its own medium and by sticking too closely they’re not taking full advantage of that medium

You have more time to fill in an animated episode vs a manga chapter because your characters literally move and flow, and three panels of action happen in a second

They’ve been folding two or three chapters into each episode, but this week’s especially (ep 17) really played too close to that two chapter timeline, instead of taking out the important story beats and the time to fill and working out how to pace around that instead

(Funnily enough though, they actually nailed the exact same kinda pacing issue in the exact same episode for the Laios and Shuro fight; that one was fucking great, it was clear that action was ongoing even while we focused on other people, and it had good weight and emphasis despite being largely offscreen, just like the harpy fight should have been

I. Guess. They coulda put more work into that than the Falin fight? Cuz it’s a huge character moment but for fuck’s sake Chimera!Falin SHOULD be the bigger one! We the audience got hints but this was the REVEAL)

Honestly just… the 1000% disinterest in the harpy fight was jarring, and it leading immediately into the Falin fight that was basically stop motion without the time lapse didn’t help

Cutting to Marcille and Shuro on the shirt tear was fucking great though, chef’s kiss, someone out there is still watching over us, I just hope they work out a happy medium soon

I get that there’s lots of iconic and fantastic panels in the manga, I made a complete summary of every single chapter, but the anime shouldn’t be showing them as stills

The characters should be moving in between them, not snapping from one face to the next like a slide show

In a perfect world I’d also love some more little character asides and things a la YYH, but there just isn’t the same easy audience characters to cut to

But but but

Thistle reacting a la Koenma to some snippets of the bullshit in his dungeon would give me fucking LIFE he can’t be watching all the time for obvious plot reasons but I want him to find a veggie golem

I want him to see the kraken and find some leftovers and be searching for Delgal and plotting their dinner and wondering why he can smell something delicious and what is it and can he make that

Move the background stuff that got cut from the Tances’ episodes, cut to Namari and the twins hanging out and talking about leg guards, there’s SO MUCH supplemental material

It might be less one for one to the manga but it’d stop the weird dragging out and give us something more, something extra to appreciate the anime on its own merits

It’s nice to have an anime experience that is very close to reading the manga, but it’s something really special to have the anime shine and add to the experience on its own

Anyway next week is the shapeshifter and I’m so hype for that and wondering if they are gonna include just a smidge of meta knowledge since Kui did tell us whose impersonations are whose 👀

[thephooka]

How we got here from there

Or, the long journey of a longform long-running webcomic about a long man with long wings.

In the spirit of @feathernotes and @phantomarine who have been talking about just starting your webcomic and not worrying about being "ready", I was inspired to do a post about White Noise's origin! I'm a little limited by the fact that I either left behind or destroyed a lot of the art I have from prior to 2009, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Cringe Truth below the cut!

The Cringe Truth of White Noise is that it has its roots in a Pokemon x Yu Yu Hakusho x self-insert(s) roleplay thread I used to do with an internet friend I made on Neopets guild forums way back in 2002-ish. We would come home from school every day and RP over AIM, and then when we had to get offline, whoever left first would email the other one, and we would continue via email until we were back on AIM at the same time.

Liya was my self insert.

This isn't even remotely the earliest art of her, it's just the earliest I have on hand. I was drawing her for almost a decade by the time I drew this one. Imagine the earlier drawings as being like I traced over Sailor Moon characters that I printed out from deviantART and gave them a brown ponytail.

The funny thing is Liya really hasn't changed much from her original form! I also had loose brown curls that I kept in a ponytail 24/7 to the point that it showed when I had it down (which is why her hair is 'dented' like that). I did it because I was trans and didn't know it; she does it because she hasn't realized she can just cut it off and be butch yet.

Other characters that date back from this time period: Yoshi (originally an InuYasha/Rurouni Kenshin pastiche), Hawk (I don't remember when he got wings but they were white at first), Numair (named after the Tamora Pierce character and filling a Koenma kind of role), Helly (sort of--I had an elf character named Kamui who had the same temperament, and he was eventually transmuted into Helly) and...Kurogane.

I've never named Kurogane but he appears in the background of the comic a few times, as my own personal inside joke.

Vlad came along somewhere between this RP period and planning the comic, but I can't remember when or why. I don't have drawings from that time (~2004?) but he was the first character I drew when I got a tablet for the first time.

Everyone else came along later when I started actually planning out the comic.

All this said: the reason I started White Noise as a weekly webcomic is because I wanted to learn to draw better.

At the time I was in college majoring in animation, but I didn't feel like I was learning very much at all (the program was badly structured; I had more art history classes than anything else. It was a mess.) I was also working nights in order to feed myself, and so had a lot of downtime. I had this story rattling around in my head from my RP days, so I figured, why not just give it a go?

For posterity here's a photo of a chapter 1 panel in progress, back in 2011 with my typical college diet in the bg:

(Chapter 1 was originally pencil on paper, scanned in and colored in PS. I later re-drew it to make it fully digital to match with the rest of the comic.)

There's been a lot of talking about not waiting until you're 'ready' to start a webcomic, and I agree with that sentiment. Try framing it like this: making a comic every week for years and years will improve your art way more than any prep work you can do before starting the comic. It's like learning to swim. You can read about swimming all you want, but you're not going to really figure it out until you do it. If your early comics are bad, well, that's normal. It used to be an expected part of doing webcomics; I blame the shift into expecting webcomics to be polished from start to finish partly on commercialization in the space, but that's an angry rant for another time.

With this background, here's the collage I posted for WN's 10 year anniversary back in 2021:

And now we're here.

So do your webcomic. Put it on ComicFury or make a janky little site for it. Be okay with imperfect pages and be prepared to shout into the void for a while. Even if it's always a hobby, if it never makes you a dime or wins you any awards--that's fine! You'll be a lot happier if you learn not to worry about that stuff, and just make something that will help you grow and make you happy. We could do with a lot more work like that in the world imo.

[kazimakuwabara]

Feral 2

Summary: a continuation of "Feral." Koenma reminds Team Urameshi, that a demon is still a demon. Kurama is dangerous.

***

“It’ll wear off,” Koenma said, not unkindly about Kurama’s condition, but with not much concern. "He's fine."

The Youko was currently sitting with Hiei canoodled into his lap, his chin plopped on top of Hiei’s. Hiei, surprisingly, was quite relaxed and neutral about Kurama snuggling him and taking up his space. He didn’t even seem to mind when Kurama started rubbing his cheek against Hiei’s neck, yipping cheerfully as he scented him. To Yusuke and Kuwabara's amazement, it seemed that Hiei might have even been used to such behavior from the fox.

“I think it’s best to just let it run its course. We’re still analyzing what Kurama was injected with, but we’re already sure it’s temporary. It’ll be a week a best. We might as well just let it pass naturally,” Koenma said, smiling from a safe distance behind his desk. He tapped his chin, “Although, he should remain in the Makai. Close to you three. I don’t think he’d like it if you’re not close.”

“Pff, so we gotta give into fox-boy’s whims?” Yusuke asked, reaching over to ruffle Kurama’s ears.

Kurama all too happily leaned into the attention.

“Despite his friendly attitude… he is still a Kistsune. He's still, Youko Kurama. He’s dangerous,” Koenma insisted gravely. He nodded slowly, “It’s probably best you three stay nearby to help him keep calm.”

“You sayin’ that cuddle monster is dangerous?” Kuwabara chortled, wincing as Yukina’s hands glided over his back. She was healing his injuries, her cool hands doing their best to soothe away his pains.

“A demon is still a demon. And a demon with an animalistic nature is most dangerous… no matter how friendly they may seem,” Koenma intoned, his eyes serious.

“I’ve got to get your leg now Kazuma… this will be painful,” Yukina gently told Kuwabara, her face sympathetic as moved her hands down to Kuwabara’s leg.

Kuwabara nodded at her, flashing her an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry about it Yukina-chan!”

“Hard to imagine him dangerous!” Yusuke chattered, grinning as Kurama now leaned into his palm, moving his head in an attempt to get Yusuke to scratch his ears. “He’s so different like this! This isn’t how Youko Kurama acted, right?”

“Hardly,” Hiei snorted. “I think he has his Youko form, but his mind has regressed a little more to his fox state of old. The fox he was before a demon.”

“Exactly,” Koenma agreed. "If he was Youko Kurama, as he was when he was a criminal, I'm sure that would be a different flavor of danger. But we could at least talk to him, and convince him we're not his enemy. In this state, it's a bit more complicated."

There was an audible pop as Yukina pressed down on Kuwabara’s injured shin, her hands rapidly glowing as she fixed the fractured bones and torn muscles of his leg. Kuwabara let out a strangled cry, that trailed off into a hiss. His eyes closed in pain, and slammed his mouth shut as he tried to repress the painful grunt.

The growl that filled the room on top of Kuwabara's whimpering, was ferocious.

Several shouts went up as the Youko sprang from behind Hiei to snap at Yukina, his golden eyes glowing with a pale light. His softer, almost cheerful expression had completely vanished, as his jaw rippled with fierce anger. He had gone a shade paler at the sound of Kuwabara's muffled pain, and it made him look more like a charging ghoul as he sprang on all fours towards Kuwabara, and Yukina.

He rushed the ice maiden on all fours, growling and showing fangs as he moved wild and fast towards her. Yukina kept her calm, and simply backed up and away from Kuwabara, holding her hands out submissively with her hands full of her medical herbs.

Kurama crawled over Kuwabara when he reached him, positioning himself on all fours over the man. His chest was out, and his teeth were flashed as the fur of his ears and tail bristled, his face lowered as he stared at the perceived threat with anger. He snapped, emitting a low sound that was quite different from the high-pitched yipping he had been doing all day.

“Whoa,” Yusuke managed, slowly getting to his feet, “Holy shit!” Kurama had moved so fast, that neither he nor Hiei had been able to stop him.

“Kurama…” Kuwabara gently tried, very surprised by the Youko’s abrupt behavior flip.

Kurama pressed into Kuwabara, his gaze fixed on Yukina, who kept her head slightly bowed, her hands and the medicinal herbs still held out before her. He sniffed the air in her general direction before he settled around Kuwabara, a clawed hand cupping his head, and going to warp around the back. Kurama then tugged Kuwabara to him, shifting so that his body was a clear block between Yukina and Kuwabara, his tail twitching with irritation.

“Kurama, no,” Hiei said patiently, his voice firm. Slow but sure, Hiei walked to stand in front of Yukina, his red eyes fixing Kurama with a look. “She is helping Kuwabara. Do you smell?” Hiei kept his eyes on the angered fox, while he reached back and took up some of the medicinal herbs. He approached Kurama slowly, holding the dried herbs out.

“Do you see? Can you smell it?” Hiei prompted patiently. “She is helping. Do not snap at her. You will not harm her!”

Kurama sniffed the air again, a growl in the back of his throat and rumbling around the room look an ominous storm. There were a few more seconds of quiet tension, and then Kurama flopped against Kuwabara, taking the large man by surprise. Kuwabara fell on his back as the Youko stretched out on him, pinning Kuwabara beneath his arms as he nuzzled against Kuwabara’s face.

“Is he uh… good now?” Kuwabara asked, voice wobbly with tension.

“He’s fine. He’s protective of his pack. Maybe he doesn’t quite understand our words in the state,” Hiei sighed. He turned back to Yukina and returned the herbs. A faint smile touched his lips, “Sorry.”

“Oh, it’s fine… I think he knows I’m helping. He can surely smell it… but I don’t think he liked that I caused Kazuma further pain,” Yukina giggled, non-plussed by the fox demon��s behavior. “I got the biggest injuries sorted, so Kazuma should be okay.”

Yukina peeked over Hiei’s shoulder, and cupped a hand to her mouth, “I think for my safety though, you’ll have to let the rest heal up on its own!”

“No problem,” Kuwabara weakly laughed, gently patting Kurama’s sides as the Youko shot Yukina a mistrustful expression.

“Like I said. A demon is still a demon. No matter how friendly… he’s dangerous,” Koenma cautioned. “I think you three are going to be the best people to stick by him. To make sure he doesn’t maim someone he doesn’t remember…”

Yusuke nodded, “Yeah, I see your point now.”

Hiei approached Kurama who was still perched atop Kuwabara, keeping him pressed to the floor. He pat Kurama’s head, and Youko leaned against it, practically purring with delight.

“Do not snap at my sister,” Hiei warned in a quiet tone mingled with affection.

Kurama whined and exposed his throat to Hiei. Hiei sighed, and scratched him under his chin, “Though if he is going to snap at others… we should invite Yomi over.”

Yusuke perked up at the thought immediately, “Oh my God, can we please? I wanna see him maul that ear-fucker!”

“No, no, no! Don’t you cause trouble!” Koenma snapped.

Kurama snapped his head over at Koenma, his hackles raised once again. Pressing protectively over Kuwabara again, he growled.

Panicking Koenma held up his hands, “Now, now! Easy Kurama! Be a good boy! I’m not threatening your friends!”

Kuwabara chuckled, most of his nerves resettled, “This is going to be some week!”

[lemonhoarddragoness]

Yu Yu Hakusho: Hitan

I never expected you to love me, much less love me at my darkest, but when I was consumed; you saw the raw core of my being and to my surprise, you loved me for it.

A strange and unknown corruption is infecting the souls of the Renkai, transforming them into oozing sludge-like monsters with a violent temperaments. Those with human souls and bodies are barred entry to the Spirit World in order to stem the spread of the corruption, but not before the cheery ferry girl Botan is affected. Left with little choice and fewer resources, Prince Koenma enlists the fire demon Hiei to track down the missing ferry girl and to keep her safe until a cure can be found. While less then enthusiastic about the idea, Hiei agrees to the task. Hiei finds what he's looking for as he's standing in front of a towering, gaunt figure that radiates a sickening sludge and a bone rattling shriek. By all accounts, a monster, any other person would think. Hiei though, he knows monsters better than most, living amongst them most of his life- even considering himself one of them- and the creature before him is no monster. It's the ferry girl Botan. Connecting telepathically to the creature's thoughts he expects to find a sniveling, blubbering ferry girl's mind. Instead, he finds a hidden resistance steeled and hardened against the corruption in the center of the transformation. It's like nothing Hiei's felt from this woman before, nothing he's noticed, but then again he never took note of much regarding Botan. Resigned to a long wait and secretly plagued by a tinge of curiousity, Hiei opens the connection between their minds more and more frequently as time wears on. At first, Botan lashes out and fights off his presence, thinking it a cruel trick that one of her friends (she thinks them friends, Hiei initially scoffs) has some to her rescue. Eventually though, Botan realizes the truth and welcomes his visits. Minutes, hours, days bleed into one another with only the link tethering them. Hiei should grow weary, tired of it, but instead he finds himself opening it more and more frequently into her mind. There's a strength, a hidden side of Botan that enraptures his sensibilities. He tells himself once this is over, he'll forget it- forget her- but he can't. She should grow weary of holding back the darkness, of pushing back the corruption, but she's far stronger than he ever thought to give her credit for. Hiei finds he's been corrupted in a wholly different way, for which there is no cure. Hiei likes her, and eventually, through much tribulation, he realizes he is even capable of saying he loves Botan. They were never monsters, just lost souls searching for one and other.

Inspired by the annual HiBo week's 2024 prompt list: Monster 🖤💙🖤

[yyh4ever]

Yu Yu Hakusho Capsule Rubber Mascot 2

Yu Yu Hakusho Gashapon

After the first series, released by Bandai in December 2022, Yu Yu Hakusho Gashapon is back with this second lineup. Yukina and Kuwabara together are too cute! They included some characters of the Dark Tournament Saga this time: the Toguro Brothers, Karasu, Youko kurama, and Jin.

Official Site: gashapon.jp

Release Date: 3rd week of June 2023

Price (including tax): 300 yen

7 types: Yusuke Urameshi & Koenma; Hiei & Kurama; Kazuma Kuwabara & Yukina; Toguro Brothers; Karasu; Youko Kurama; Jin.

[spaztastic-headcannons]

Cooking with the Spirit Detectives

Yusuke does not like sharing his space when cooking.  He has a set way he learned to do things and while he likes to experiment and change things up to see what makes his ramen or other food better, he doesn’t want someone else in the kitchen while he does so.  Baking was another thing entirely, because he had to follow the directions of the other person with him. Whether it is Keiko or someone else, he doesn’t really bake much. 

He likes cooking, which is why he enjoys the quiet life that comes with owning a ramen stand, but he likes it more that there are people around he gets to cook for. Its something he learned from the Yukimuras when he was younger. His mom didn’t exactly do family dinners, and he didn’t want anything to do with her parties when she had them at home. But the Yukimuras talked to people, brought people together, and seemed to really enjoy it when it happened. 

It's why he likes his little ramen stand. He gets to bring in people to talk to, including friends and acquaintances from his adventure.  And when he decides to open up his own independent spirit detective agency, offering work for humans and apparitions in between Koenma calling him in, it brings in the clientele too.  He realized that for those in distress and needing help, the casual and comforting atmosphere of his stand helped them. It was a weird idea to be able to help others in such a different manner than he was used to.  

Kurama didn’t mind cooking and could find the joy in cooking with someone else. It was thanks to growing up with his mother, helping her cook that made him accustomed to working with and around another person in the kitchen. He wasn’t as passionate about it as others, he saw it as a necessary thing that everyone should know how to do. A basic life skill, if you will. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to cook up some delicious food.

It's homestyle cooking, made to fill you up and make you feel good throughout the day. While most of the recipes he had on rotation weren’t anything special, there was one dessert his mother used to make that Yusuke had bugged and bugged and bugged him to teach him for his ramen stand.  Eventually Kurama caved, realizing he liked the idea of his mother’s dessert making others as warm as it had when he was a child.

He's overall a bit above average in baking and cooking but doesn’t strive to be much better. He sees his attentions and skills needed elsewhere and is happy to leave the more difficult or intricate recipes to others.

Kuwabara knows how to cook, it was something Shizuru insisted he know how to do at a young age. And with her working to support the both of them, it became a necessity to feed himself while she was gone.  While he doesn’t mind the cooking and prefers when someone else does it instead, he loves baking.  During high school he had to take an elective and ended up in a home eco class where one of the sections was baking.  It had been a fun challenge with a sweet payoff and got him hooked. From there it became a stress relief thing when he got into college. (btw this is directly a headcanon I got from a fic on AO3 called “preheat to 360 ^degree sign^ F” by hobakshiik and fell in love with. I totally recommend it!)

He doesn’t necessarily do it more than for his own enjoyment and, again, stress relief, but it’s something his friends get the benefit of on a somewhat constant basis. During particularly tough weeks with work, him and Yusuke would trade goods.  Yusuke would pack up some good meals for Kuwabara and in exchange he’d get some rocking desserts to last him through the week (if he could practice some self-control rather than eating it in one or two sittings.)

Hiei can…cook? He knows how to hunt and to skin beasts to get to the edible meat below. It’d be wild if he didn’t know considering his history and loner nature.  But to call it cooking would be generous when often he’d roast it over a fire and be done with the whole thing.  No seasoning, salt, or anything else to enhance or change the flavor, as dragging around supplies like that seems a waste of space to deal with and other than knowing what’s poisonous and should not be eaten, he isn’t too concerned with foraging for herbs or the like. He leaves that to Kurama.

More often than not these days he mooched off of the other fools he associates with or from Mukuro’s halls. He still works with her in the demon world often enough he has a room in her moving palace, and lower demons to see to the more mundane chores like cooking.

So while he can survive on his own food, he does benefit from the skills of those around him, not that he’d ever admit that.

[lesbiangenkai]

okay so some more thoughts and initial impressions about the live action:

first of all i want to say overall i enjoyed it but this is absolutely a treat for fans and not something i would recommend for someone with no prior knowledge of the series. and it obviously suffers a lot from the limited amount of episodes. i don't know if it was a netflix decision or what, but an 8-10 episode season would've definitely taken this from "fun trip down memory lane" to "actual good series that can stand on its own".

however! the writers did a very very good job condensing the story into one arc that generally flowed together well. i would say the only time the pacing feels truly awkward is the genkai training, but with only 5 episodes there's just nothing else they could've done about that.

some changes that are really really good and work arguably better than the original:

hiei's intro being re-written so that his motivations and character make sense from the jump. i especially love the fight scene with yusuke where he refuses to even draw his sword because yusuke is too weak to bother with

KEIKO IS A REAL CHARACTER! she was a girl trapped in a shounen manga and now she gets to be a character in an ensemble cast and treated with some actual care. looping her into the yukina rescue was fantastic. she feels like a Final Girl and i love that for her

the whole cast was really good despite my reservations seeing the screenshots. kuwabara steals the show imo but the actor who plays yusuke is great. that IS my grumpy son. kurama is appropriately weird and i love the actor doing this stiff walk like he's in a body he's not 100% used to yet. hiei's hair is terrible but he's doing great. just the right level of disdain for everyone around him

SAKYO. alright listen. i love that sakyo's gambling is borderline a superpower for him. when he does the russian roulette gamble with only one empty chamber oh boy this guy is BONKERS!!

the fight scenes were all done really well. and especially with yusuke the way he thinks on his feet during a fight and using his environment was reflected well

downsides: obviously the genkai arc....its such a good arc with a powerful message and i wish it got the time and space it needed. ummm also i know everything was rushed BUT i wish they had that moment in the toguro fight where keiko has a meltdown especially in the LA watching kuwabara "die" in front of her knowing she is about to be next. it's just such a powerful moment in the show imo where she's watching this brutality unfold as yusuke is getting beaten and her mind is on a loop like "i was just scolding him about homework last week we're supposed to be in school we're supposed to be KIDS" i know why they didn't but still. still.

i really wish we got more moments with the characters hanging out or chatting or something. also adult koenma with the binky.....tbh either have koenma played by an actual kid OR just have him as an adult and drop the binky have him chewing on a lolipop or something idc but like. if we're not doing the baby bit there's no reason to have it they could have just dropped it. ALSO this is nitpicky but kuwabara's spirit sword not being yellow.....yes i was bothered by this. :((( i'd give this like a 8/10 overall tho, very very fun.

[koenma-week]

7 days, 7 different prompts to use for our favorite judge of death! You can do art, fanfiction, podfics, anything you want! Ratings can be from G to E. Word limit 70k, you can choose to split them into chapters or make a oneshot! Reminding that OCs are accepted, OC/Canon too. We want to see your creative ideas, you can also write two fanfics for one prompt! Leaving the prompts below, have fun! <3

Oct 14, Day 1: Hobbies Oct 15, Day 2: Genderbend Oct 16, Day 3: Festivity (Enma's regular memorial day is the 16th of every month. You can find more information in this useful page!) Oct 17, Day 4: Earth Oct 18, Day 5: True potential Oct 19, Day 6: Canon Divergence AU Oct 20, Day 7: Birthday!

[staerplatinum]

Reposting one of my favorite pieces I've drawn for them (it's even in the story) to post my entry for Koenma Week Day 6, Favorite Ship! I just... love my ships sleeping. Link to the story here <3

[antoniettap1303]

Yu yu hakusho live action: trailer,poster and cast are officially unveiled!

Hi! Yesterday was the second day of the Netflix geeked week, and along many news regarding their products, Netflix finally unveiled the rest of the cast,the trailer and the official poster for yu yu hakusho live action. But, let's get back to the begenning. Once Upon a time... who was one year ago, more precisely july, Netflix Japan choose to unveil the main characters of it's live action adaption of Yoshihiro Togashi's yu yu hakusho, who were: Takumi Kitamura ( yusuke Urameshi ), Jun Shison ( kurama/shuichi minamino), Kanata Hongo( hiei) and Shuhei Uesugi ( kazuma Kuwabara ). Since then, other news about the series were for the fans just a mirage. Until approximativley yesterday. Yes, since on november 6th, Netflix opened it's geeked week, where the platform reveals news, trailers and many more of it's series,movies and so on. And obivously, the geeked week was the perfect stage to finally reveal what the fans have been waiting for. And so.. it happened. Yesterday, during the live of the 2nd day of the geeked week,Netflix finally uncovered the official trailer of yu yu hakusho's live action, https://youtu.be/W_Y8BJbzFcQ?si=Ut3oTn1e4jfspxAM

the rest of the cast, who's: Sei Shiraishi(Keiko Yukimura),Kotone Furukawa (Botan),Ai Mikami(yukina),Hiroya Shimizu (Karasu),Keita Machida (Koenma),Meiko Kaji(Genkai),Goro Inagaki (Sakyo),Kenichi Takito (Elder Toguro) and Go Ayano (Younger Toguro), and also the live action poster:

Like many Times you've heard surely almost everywhere, the yu yu hakusho live action will be avaiable on Netflix on december 14th.

[oldassweeb]

YYH LA EP 4 THOUGHTS

!Spoilers Under Cut!

I'm not sure I like how they made the Dark tournament for the Black Black Club more intimate. There was something so charming about thousands of lower class demons coming to watch the blood shed that I liked a lot, but I understand why they made the change for this particular story line. I don't hate it at least.

I'm glad Sakyo is still so self aware of his own insanity. That rulet scene was really good and I kinda wish it was in the sorce material.

Koenma still having the binki even though we never see his toddler form is so funny to me. New HC that LA Koenma has an oral fixation. I wonder if they are going to keep the Mafuukan explanation for season 2.

I've made a decision. I like Koenma'snew office.

Would Yusuke be as upset about Genaki as he was in the original though? He knew her for less than a month. I mean maybe... he doesn't have many people close to him so it stands to reason he would get attached faster once he felt seen and accepted. Especially from someone in a mentor roll

The Kaiko/Yukina bonding is good. Sad we never got to see Kazuma's sister.

Wish we got the babysitting line from Hiei

The beautiful and emotionally maipulative Karasu imminently inviding Kuramas personal space to criticize his hair is so on brand! God, I love this creepy ass dynamic.

Bui looks so good and his giant battle axe feels very realistic in the way it was used.

Wait! Kurama can change at will in this universe! Oh sigh me the fuck up!!!!!!

Yukina's healing is beautiful. I didn't expect it to look like frosty winter air but I love it.

This Karasu hasn't seen the Kurama fight in this series before and yet he still anticipated Kurama's cleverness. Just goes to show how big of a stalker this guy is.

I need to know if Kurama still has the same reservations about his Youko form in the LA that he did in the sorce material. I need to get inside his head. Please creaters let me listen to his thoughts.

The Ojigi looks so fucking good! I still need a tattoo of that vulva looking carnivores plant.

His eyes are green in his Youko form?? Can someone confirm please?

Despite no longer having teal hair Bui is still just as hot

Go Kaiko!!!!! What a bad ass bitch. She is my favorite performance of this episode.

If Kurama can change at will, why does it drain so much of his energy? I need this to be explained more. Is it just because he's not used to it? Or is he still week from the attack that had him hiding in a human egg in the first place?

GOOD FIGHTS THIS EPISODE. I'm very happy.

Kaiko being all "wtf" after watching Kazuma meet Yukina is a fucking mood. And I guess Kazuma knows about Yukina and Hiei's relationship in this version..

The DotDF tattoo is fire. Best anime tattoo ever.

We don't get blong Karasu, but we did get those super gorgeous vampire nail gloves. (I need a pair)

I like how Sakyo is still able to manipulate Tarukane even after telling him he always wins.

The original Kuwabar would have been able to sense that monster so I'm a little sad he had Keiko open that door.

[britcision]

So, the YuYu Hakusho live adaptation

Well.

We got a real good anime adaptation, which is rare enough

And they did a good job with the costumes, aesthetics, and they did hit a lot of the fight scenes as close to the original as they could

They just… very obviously understood absolutely none of the actual messaging or what made those scenes impactful

Spoilers below for the original anime/manga and the live action

I understand they only had 5 episodes to get through the first season but I just finished episode 3 and I literally do not understand how they plan to get from here to the Dark Tournament

Genkai was introduced, trained Yusuke for 20 fucking days, trained Kuwabara as well and blatantly favoured him for 19 of those days including telling Botan to tell Koenma Yusuke’s a write off

(Do not fucking ask about Koenma he’s a cool teenager with a pacifier the entire time it is literally not even commented on)

Then oh Yusuke does his finger handstand for one entire night, pops off a spirit gun that Toguro notices

(Elder Toguro promptly shits himself in glee)

Genkai can magically tell they’ve noticed, nearly cries, and hands over the fucking spirit orb. Immediately. It just pops straight in, no big deal, no question, Yusuke wanders off for ramen and Toguro kills her

Not one Genkai fight scene. A lil moment of her fucking around and throwing walnuts at Yusuke, but not even breaking a sweat

Tarukane and Yukina were introduced right off the bat and Hiei’s stolen spirit treasure is a piddly little knife he used to make a teeny weeny cut and give himself a jagan eye so he can look for her, no evil machinations or transformation for this bitch

Yusuke and Hiei don’t even fight before Kurama calls them both bitches and they’ve already picked up Kuwabara to get on the boat for The Fucking Tournament Island which is apparently just Sakyo’s house

Oh yeah, because Sakyo told Tarukane episode ONE that he’s digging a hole to the demon world, sold him Yukina (so who should Hiei really be stabbing?), and has now invited Tarukane back to his place to be protected by Sakyo’s demons, the Toguros

The Black Black Club are fucking all there. In person. Just chilling. At Sakyo’s house on the tournament island and the Demon Triad are there but none of the tournament folks are but they’re on Sakyo’s boat? Minus Genkai? Who died about 30 minutes tops after her first appearance?

Oh, and we saw the demon triad and Toguro popping a giant beastie and Hiei running around with his knife and then immediately after the cut Yusuke just fucked off to Genkai’s to be instantly accepted as her pupil for a 20+ day training montage so who knows what the fuck Hiei and Tarukane were up to in the meantime, Tarukane fully left the mainland and apparently Hiei spent 3 weeks sitting on his thumb about it

I just. The saddest part is that I really, truly think the people making the adaptation thought they were being faithful to the original

The characters look so good, the costumes are incredible, the special effects are fucking fantastic

But every single moment of build up, of dramatic tension, of getting to know the characters and seeing them care about something is gone

Yusuke’s dramatic revelation that it’s time to get serious with his training isn’t Toguro levelling a parking block; it’s watching Kuwabara hit a rock with a wooden sword until his spirit sword happens

His whole motivation to get stronger is “well I can’t let Kuwabara beat me”, which even Genkai calls piss weak one day and then the next it’s fine, he’s ready to finish his training

(One thing I do like is the characters themselves occasionally dropping a “well what the fuck did that mean” about particularly egregious logic leaps, like Elder Toguro shapeshifting to impersonate Hiei and kidnap Keiko

Like

Do they not understand Hiei was a fan favourite just for being an evil little shithead in his first appearances who didn’t care about anybody except maybe Kurama?

Instead we have pre-reformed Hiei who only wants to save his sister uwu won’t even take a stab at properly fighting Yusuke before they’ve teamed up

Just let Hiei be a little shit

Just let him have a stupid grandiose plan that even je can later admit made no fucking sense

Let Yusuke shoot him in the ass and show some ingenuity under pressure)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m finishing out the season just to see where the fuck they’re going, but I thought I had a general idea for the first two episodes and now I just. I don’t know.

I think they’re gonna pansy out of giving me Jin

They’re not gonna do my goddamn flying demon uni-leprechaun

However if they do punch Sakyo and toss him into a pit at the end of this season I will not be mad, he’s gonna be Right There in punching range apparently because they’re not going to a tournament, they’re going to HIS FUCKING HOUSE

Oh and no Shizuru

No badass moments for Keiko (well I guess she did slap the face off Elder Toguro once that was great)

No Atsuko past the first episode

Botan is basically a semi-sadistic cheerleader

Genkai is dead

Because it’s not like anyone liked this show for actually having interesting and semi-independent female characters

Honestly I even had a couple moments of “maybe I’d like this better if they did a worse job”, because it’s so clearly made by people who really cared about the show, and worked to fit as much as they could into five episodes (fuck you Netflix)

But what they cared about was fight scenes

Not any of what actually made YYH interesting and compelling; no character growth, no relationships between rivals, between enemies to allies, between teacher and student

Not 30 seconds on the relationship between Toguro and Genkai, for all they lifted lines directly from the anime

He walks in and pops her, no big deal

Not even on screen

Puu does not exist

For a character who starts the show by fuckin dying, Yusuke really has not been pushed to his limits since

And to be fair, the things the show does well, it’s fucking nailing

Toguro’s muscle transformation? PERFECT. Understated, clear potential to become fucking ridiculous around 80%, classy as hell

Kurama’s rose whip? Incredible, 10/10, so fucking glad we’ve seen so much of it, super well done

Spirit gun and spirit sword? Fabulous, gorgeous, I am in love, only thing that would make it better would be shooting that asshole teacher in the head (not that Yusuke has been to school since the day he died except to sit on the roof)

It’s just… the edgelord version of the story. As truncated as possible, just event event event, without any patience or respect for character relationships or growth or that, y’know, you need to give your audience a reason to care

The good news is, at this point it’s pretty much no reason for them to do the fourth season just in general which would make Yoshihiro Tagashi very happy

Just in general, it’s… fine. It’s a little short action show with great special effects and some fantastic costuming and aesthetic

There’s something that sorta almost resembles a story

And as far as live adaptations go? We definitely for sure know it could be worse, especially with Netflix *stares in Death Note*

I just won’t be all that disappointed if they don’t get the second season they really really really needed