manga: YuYu Hakusho Vol 2-4
Hmm…so, does it mean that I’ve been hanging around fandom for too long when my reaction to two characters first appearing is “oh, that’s the pairing I see so much at Fandom Secrets and Fanfic Rants”?
I figured Yusuke would be back in his body before long, but wasn’t expecting it to happen by volume two. I’m amused that, as soon as he was back in his body, this turned into a shounen fighting manga. I have to say, I’m not sure I’ve ever read a shounen action this immediately direct about romance. It took Samurai Deeper Kyo and Rurouni Kenshin about ten times as long each to get half this far. It’s actually slightly disconcerting.
On the “things that did not thrill Megan” front:
1. Of the three demon thieves, the pretty one just wanted to save his mother, the shrimpy-but-still-decent-looking one just wanted to be stronger, and the ugly one ate the souls of children. Guess which two also come back to be buddies pretty quickly. I am truly impressed by the subtlety.
2. The plot where the girl summoned a ghost to curse her more passive best friend because she was jealous of the friend having better scores than her. KEEP YOUR BAD SHOUJO PLOTS OUT OF MY SHOUNEN!!!! I DROP SHOUJO FOR SUCH OFFENSES!!! I don’t care if she regretted it and tried to save her friend. BAD SHOUJO PLOTS STILL INVADED MY SHOUNEN!!!
On the “WTF” side: The wooden swords in Kuwabara’s duel when they were seeing who’d get trained by the old lady master were possibly the most phallic thing I’ve ever seen in shounen. Well, except maybe for the 5000 or so times Akimine Kamijyo drew Kyo’s sword pointed at Yuya’s boobs or crotch.
On the “Tite Kubo is totally a fan of this series” front: Kurama’s weapons are a rose that purifies the air and a whip that appears to actually be a thorny vine.
Lots of fun, but I wish Botan did more. Or rather, that we saw her doing more.