#mari kitayama

[saint-miroir]

Anime V Magazine (05/1997) cover featuring artwork from Yakumotatsu. Illustrated by Mari Kitayama.

[qwertbrosmasters]

Ichigo is the first character to appear in my fan comic, and Satoshi Ishino has by far, or had, the best character art in TMM 2002, to get his Style right, I followed Ishino and redrew the character designs by Mari Kitayama.

[all-things-kurama]

this hiei panel of him checking kuruma's butt - official content published in WSJ (by Mari Kitayama)

[yyh4ever]

Hi, happy 2024 🎉, I have a question that I have been debating with a friend. Kurama being Shuichi, will he die at the same time as the other humans? (that is, due to old age) Or instead will that only be the end of his human life and he will become Youko once again? abandoning Shuichi's appearance. I would like to know because he makes me very curious.

Hello, happy 2024! I wish I could give you a straight answer, but Togashi didn't discuss the life spam of Shuuichi during the series. In a special feature in Weekly Shounen JUMP #3-4, 1994, it is said that every time Kurama reverts back to Youko, the life force of Shuuichi Minamino is fairly reduced.

That being said, I don't think he'll live as Minamino for too long. At some point, his human life will end and he will become Youko once again.

He also says he intends to continue living as Shuuichi Minamino in the Human World as long as he can (unless something goes wrong). I believe he'll make sure his stepfather company thrives, and will assure his stepbrother a bright future. Then, he'll probably go back to the Demon World or shapeshift into human form. I don't think he thinks too hard about the future. Kurama is also a resourceful person, he'll come up with something.

Mari Kitayama, anime character designer, drew this comics strip:

In her opinion, Kurama and Yusuke won't age over time. But, if we take into account what "Kurama" (Togashi) said in the WSJ, I guess he'll eventually disappear.

Really, this matter is open to interpretation.

[xtsundere-princess]

Oh my! Poor Kurama...

[animarchive]

Fushigi Yuugi - illustration by Mari Kitayama (Animedia, 09/1995)

[yyh-revival]

To bolster your point; maririn/ Mari Kitayama, is a doujinshi artist who was one of the animators. She created Kurama x Hiei doujinshi… https://yyh-revival.blogspot.com/search/label/maririn?m=0

The animators were Kurahi shippers and you can’t change my mind: exhibit A

Enthusiastic reading-too-much-Kurahi-but-not-really into the animation~

From episodes 68 & 69, “Setting the Trap” and “The Power of Taboo”

So anyone creative that writes or draws or what have you can tell you that everything actually is intentional, and by that I mean, every word you pick to write and every design or illustration you make is a choice. We make choices, we decide, and then those things are up for interpretation.

All of that is to say: I think these animators were kurahi shippers or something man, there's an interesting visual in these two episodes that happens repeatedly. pls don’t judge me for my intense meta bullshit that’s about occur lol

When Kaito is about to take Hiei’s soul, he looks down at him, and we see a violet colored flash in his glasses.

After he takes his soul, it’s encased in that same shade of purple. We know from earlier episodes and later on when their souls are returned that souls don’t have a color, they’re just white/translucent, so that means Kaito color-coded the souls by his own volition. Purple for Hiei, blue for Botan, and yellow for Kuwabara.

What’s interesting is…this purple color/flashes of purple light don’t go away. They’re present during Kurama’s battle of wits with Kaito and their negotiation of the terms.

Now someone might say, “well Hiei’s soul is positioned on the rightmost side and the purple visually stands out better, it makes sense it would show, it doesn’t mean anything.” And perhaps they’re right, but I don’t think so.

Again, these things are intentional choices, regardless of whether or not what they mean is agreed upon. They chose to make Hiei’s that color, they chose to position it to the side, and they chose to use it for this visual effect.

Most important to note: this visual choice is only done for Hiei’s color, purple. There’s no ambient light in the room and it’s the exact same color, ergo very intentionally done. They don’t rotate between colors, they never show flashes of blue or yellow or all three—it’s only purple.

⬆️ here for example. Arguably we should be able to see the blue and yellow reflected in his glasses, too. But we don’t. Just that fuchsia color. Just Hiei’s soul.

So what does it mean (to me)?

I think it means that Hiei is most important to him, and somehow Kaito has clocked that. Hiei’s soul is the one reflected in Kaito’s glasses while they negotiate the rules of their game.

And it’s only reflected/shown in his eyes when he’s looking at kurama (other than Hiei prior to the soul stealing!), not anywhere in the room, which is what makes me think that Kaito knows how significant the relationship between Kurama and Hiei is. He (literally in a visual sense) can see it. These flashes happen the most/almost exclusively during this scene—as if he’s dangling Hiei’s soul specifically to bait Kurama into playing his game.

It’s symbolic of how meaningful the relationship is to him, because it’s shown like it’s the bargaining chip to make the game happen. When he taunts Kurama that he still hasn’t made his choice, the reflection is there again. The significance is only emphasized by the fact that it doesn’t happen with anyone else’s soul/color.

Additionally, I like that Kaito’s hand is hovering over Hiei’s soul when Kurama threatens to erase him from reality. I don’t think this is strong evidence or anything, but it compliments my theory here quite nicely lol.

Bonus (aka this doesn’t really have evidentiary support but hey it rolls with this pretty well): look at how mad Kurama is after Hiei’s soul is taken. Angry husband.

TLDR: they knew wtf they were doing with this man YOU CANT MAKE ME BELIEVE OTHERWISE

[yyh-revival]

“Rain,” by Maririn (Mari Kitayama)

Kurama and Hiei are the only ones awake on a rainy night, and Kurama's in a mood to reminisce.

Kurama x Hiei. Sweet, rather poetic. Rated PG

NOW HERE

[demifiendrsa]

Yu Yu Hakusho TV anime 25th anniversary Botan illustration by Yu Yu Hakusho anime character designer Mari Kitayama.

[kursed-arcana]

[kurayamineko]

[shizukais]

Yu Yu Hakusho: Shikishi Art Board Pierrot's 30th Anniversary. Art by Kitayama Mari [2008]

[yyh4ever]

Blu-ray BOX 30th Anniversary Benefits

To celebrate the Yu Yu Hakusho 30th Anniversary, for each purchase of one of the old 25th Anniversary Blu-ray BOX (2018), you will receive a new and exclusive shikishi drawn by Mari Kitayama.

Campaign period:

1st period: November 1st to November 30th, 2022 (Yusuke & Kuwabara shikishi)

2nd period: December 1st to December 27th, 2022 (Kurama & Hiei shikishi)

Check the campaign stores on: V-storage

In 2018, four shikishi also drawn by Kitayama were given as benefit:

For the American audience, a new "Yu Yu Hakusho - 30th Anniversary Box Set - Blu-Ray" is also being sold, and it includes the OVAs ("Two Shots" and "All or Nothing") dubbed in english.

Pre-order: Crunchyroll

[milkbreadtoast]

wanted to share my fav gayest official art of kurama and hiei

(edit: added some more)

[animegirlscharacters-blog]

The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie: The Girl Who Summons The Stars this Summer 2017.

[whetstonefires]

ur correct re: kurama yuyuhakusho's hair color! according to the wiki, togashi intended his color scheme to be black hair/blue uniform, but was convinced otherwise by the head of character art for the anime adaptation (mari kitayama) so there'd be more visual contrast between the members of the main team. THE MORE U KNOW ~

HAHAHA INTUITION VALIDATED. Thank you! 😂💗

And yeah, the thing about Kurama’s original design is it wasn’t intended to fit into a set. Not only was it not conceptualized as a team book, unless you count Botan + Yuusuke, Kurama was very clearly intended as a one-off character.

Goki was the awful one Yuusuke managed to kill by pushing himself to the brink physically, Hiei allows him to opportunity to win through guile, and Kurama is the one where he gets to have another

But then he and Hiei turn up again for ‘probation,’ the latter redesigned as less of a lunatic and his and Yuusuke’s character arcs slotting together like a couple of legos, and bam. Main cast. Top of the popularity vote. Team book, let’s go have a literally pointless tournament arc. How did Togashi make this shit work, the madman.

Also Togashi was clearly really fond of cool colors for that series at first, on account of it started out as a ghost story. I think he prefers them in general and to use reds as accents that pop?