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koalatysleep · 11 months ago

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Kuwameshi: the 'undercover' love story in Yu Yu Hakusho

This Christmas season, I binged watched the entire Yu Yu Hakusho anime series on Netflix (I was hit with a strong yearning for more content after binge watching the live action), and Kuwameshi became my OTP even though I started off shipping Yusuke with Keiko.

I must say the anime is a remarkably progressive work of art given that it was created as a Shonen manga in the 90's. I love love love love the entire series!! Right off the bat, the series subverts gender tropes, heteronormative romance stereotypes, and the sleeping beauty fairytale with Yusuke in the position of sleeping beauty, Keiko in the role of Prince Charming who literally brings him back to life with a kiss, and Kuwabara as the real love interest and knight in shining armor who continually saves and inspires Yusuke throughout the series.

Instead of a sleeping beauty that passively waits to be saved, Yusuke is actively making choices that ultimately helps to save himself, by first deciding to return to life, then by taking on the emotional work of helping Kuwabara study for the test, and saving Keiko by sacrificing his spirit realm egg and his chance to return to life.

The fact that Keiko was saving Yusuke, while Yusuke was saving both Keiko (from the fire) and Kuwabara (from the evil machinations of that despicable teacher), and Kuwabara was also saving Keiko (from thugs and then the fire) and Yusuke (by being one of the reasons Yusuke was moved to choose life over death and then from the fire) was an extremely refreshing change from the stereotypical heteronormative romance where the male character is doing all the saving, while the female love interest is just a passive character without much agency or ability to contribute, and no other character seems to have much of an impact on the romantic pair. Here we have 3 fiercely independent characters who are all actively helping themselves while saving each other in a holy trifecta of character development goodness.

When Yusuke's body was in danger in the burning house, I love the scene where Keiko shook off the bystanders holding her back with a fierce determination that we come to associate with Yusuke in life-or-death fights, sprang into quick-thinking action by dumping a bucket of water over herself, and ran headlong into the fire and mortal peril, all to save Yusuke.

Yusuke and Keiko would have been my ride or die OTP if the series had continued developing her character and the story along these lines, but even during this arc of reviving Yusuke where the main focus was on Yusuke and Keiko as a romantic pair, the seeds for Kuwabara as Yusuke's 'undercover' love interest are already being planted.

In fact, Togashi's authorial intent for Yusuke and Kuwabara as the central love story in the entire YYH series can be seen in their name designs itself!

Yusuke is written in 2 characters - the 1st character means Spirit/Soul, and the 2nd character means Assistance/Help.

Kazuma means True Harmony. So put together, Yusuke and Kazuma means Souls in True Harmony who help each other. And isn't that the very essence of our heroes right there? ❤️🌈

It's only after Yusuke possesses Kuwabara's body in Episode 2 that he got the help he needed to clearly communicate to Keiko to save his body from cremation. When you watch the episode, Yusuke and Kuwabara literally spoke with their 2 voices overlapping as one in multiple scenes! It's especially obvious in the sunset scene when they finally get to tell Keiko to save Yusuke. Yusuke and Kuwabara are literally Two Souls in One Body!

This symbolizes how Kuwabara truly desires for Yusuke to return to life, as much as Yusuke himself, and foreshadows how Kuwabara goes on to stand with Yusuke as One Soul in Two Bodies throughout the rest of the series. I haven't even meta-screamed about the homoerotic subtext of Yusuke possessing Kuwabara's body! 🤣🤣🤣

We further see how Kuwabara is in True Harmony with Yusuke when Kuwa takes it upon himself to look out for Keiko on Yusuke's behalf when he thought Yusuke was permanently dead! Kuwa literally stepped in on spirit Yusuke's behalf to beat off the thugs bothering Keiko, and then puts his own life at risk to save Keiko from the house fire!

No one asked or expected Kuwa to do this, he looks out for Keiko simply because he knows how important Keiko was to Yusuke, and taking care of the people Yusuke loved is how Kuwa keeps a piece of Yusuke alive! Like, it boggles my mind how deeply Kuwa loves & values Yusuke to the extent that people important to Yusuke is by default important to Kuwa even after Yusuke's death! 🥹🥹🥹 If this isn't True Love (True Harmony), what is? Like, I know real-life married couples who do less for each other! I've meta-ed screamed a bit more about how truly, madly, deeply Kuwa is in love with Yusuke even before canon began, link to that other meta is at the end of this one!

And then of course we have the all-important Episode 3 where Botan literally tells us Yusuke and Kuwabara are so emotionally in sync (True Harmony) with each other that Kuwabara can sense Yusuke's feelings even though Yusuke is a spirit! Their connection even this early on literally transcends the boundaries between life and death! And it's only when spirit Yusuke started following Kuwabara around that Yusuke grew as a person, by learning about Okubo's family situation and deciding to help. This is a large reason why Puu's egg absorbed good energy to develop into lovable goofy Puu!

Yusuke is so moved by Kuwabara's honorable character and determination to help Okubo, that we see Yusuke doing the stereotypically 'female' emotional work of helping Kuwabara study for the test even though Yusuke himself hates studying. It's actually such a huge thing that Yusuke not only does this on his own free will without anyone nagging him into it, he actually looks like he's enjoying helping Kuwabara study! Yusuke has such massive character growth just by helping Kuwa! Look at how happy Yusuke looks! I just love how Kuwa is such a positive influence on Yusuke, because Kuwa inspires and emotionally resonates with Yusuke so deeply! Compare this to how Keiko wasn't able to get Yusuke to study despite all her nagging (which actually inadvertently makes Yusuke feel worse about himself, link to another meta post about this at the end of this one), and you see how Kuwa is Yusuke's True Love Interest who's in True Harmony with Yusuke!

And of coz, Their entire study dream-date is so romantic!! The way Yusuke's hand lingers on Kuwabara's shoulder when he first finds Kuwabara asleep over his desk, and the way this shot (Yusuke's gaze) lingers on Kuwabara's bruised and exhausted face clue us into Yusuke's burgeoning romantic feelings for Kuwabara!

The romantic coding of this scene is further confirmed through the soft lighting, the tender background music, Kuwabara's romantic candy colored galaxy in his dreamscape, and how soft and tender Yusuke's voice is when he whispers to Kuwabara back in Kuwa's bedroom. When morning dawns, the romantic background music segues into a scene of two lovebirds on a branch accompanied by birdsong, and this becomes our visual & audio analogy for Kuwameshi romance later throughout the series!

I personally think it's not a coincidence that Yusuke was carrying Puu's egg on him when he possessed Kuwabara's body and when he followed Kuwabara around as a spirit, and that the egg developed into a bird creature Puu who later becomes a majestic phoenix, but you'll have to read my fic The Good Fight to see what I mean! 😜

Then we get the laugh-out-loud hilarity of Yusuke possessing the body of the knocked-out-girl to beat off the thugs who were about to waylay Kuwabara on his way to the test 🤣🤣🤣! i roll on the floor with laughter every time! Apart from the sheer comedic genius, we also see that Yusuke did not hesitate to literally 'become' a girl to help Kuwabara! We see how emotionally invested Yusuke is in Kuwabara's success, because Yusuke is moved by Kuwabara's heart and grit!

I mean honestly this whole episode of Yusuke doing the 'female emotional work' of supporting Kuwabara is really amazing. I would have loved more episodes like this throughout the series where we get to see more of Yusuke developing his emotional muscle without any life-or-death fights!

Immediately after the revival arc is done, the story goes on to subvert heteronormative expectations even further - one of the first things Yusuke does after coming back to life is to save Kuwabara's cat in a really really sweet gesture. Yusuke punching the lights out of the thug holding the cat hostage, and then turning around in slow motion to reveal his identity is a typical hero's entrance when they save their love interest. The way that Yusuke cradles Kuwabara's cat with such gentleness and care while kicking the living shit out of the thug who had grabbed Kuwabara around the waist, and then returning the cat to Kuwabara in the midst of fighting is seriously swoon worthy !

I mean, if Yusuke had done this for a female character or even a 'good-looking' male character, it would have been universally interpreted as a clear romantic narrative, but because Kuwabara is not female and also not conventionally 'good looking', this flies under the radar, which is how the story can clearly depict Kuwabara as Yusuke's romantic love interest from here on out without anyone being the wiser.

I mean!! Throughout the rest of the series, Kuwa-chan literally spurs Yusuke on to greater heights than Yusuke would have attained himself, because Yusuke cares so deeply about what Kuwabara thinks about him, and living up to Kuwabara's faith in him! This is Yusuke we're talking about, he doesn't give a shit what others think if he doesn't respect them, so the fact that he wants Kuwabara to think highly of him speaks volumes about how highly he admires, values and respects Kuwabara in return!

During Genkai's succession arc, our heroes were literally on an Arcade Date!! Look at our boys putting their best selves forward to impress each other! 🤩😆 The way they're drawn so beautifully in such heroic frames tells us just how much they want to impress each other! If this isn't courting behavior, what is?

Look at how impressed Yusuke is at Kuwabara's high score in the punching game, and how he pretends otherwise! 😆

OMG they way they totally ignored all the onlookers as they gleefully try to outdo each other and show off for each other is SO CUTE!!!!!

I personally think Yusuke was in such a bad mood with the bat demon coz Yusuke was in a hurry to get back to Kuwabara! When he finally made it there and explained what took so long, his eyes were on Kuwabara the entire time!!! And look at how Yusuke is peacocking in front of Kuwabara when he explains how he's faster than the bat demon! 🤣

It's also because Kuwabara asked Genkai to wait that Yusuke was selected despite exceeding the time. Kuwa had zero doubt that Yusuke would make it! His belief in Yusuke is absolute! The scene where the boys forgot themselves and hugged each other in their excitement is chef's kiss! Look at Yusuke throwing himself bodily at Kuwabara! OMG I just love how Kuwabara makes Yusuke forget all about pretending not to care or appearing aloof (which is part of Yusuke's emotional armor) and brings out Yusuke's True Self!

Yusuke had so much fun with Kuwabara, he literally forgot all about his mission to find Rando, to the extent that even Koenma remarked on this! 🤣

Seriously the anime puts so much effort into the little details like these unconscious body language tells and non-verbal cues, it's really amazing!!! When Yusuke later tried to get Kuwabara to retire the fight against Rando to protect Kuwabara, Yusuke (who was still shocky from his fights) literally pulled Kuwabara close with a hand on Kuwabara's chest and another nearly on Kuwabara's neck! These are not platonic personal space boundaries, it's Yusuke's unconscious body language cluing us into his romantic feelings for Kuwabara! Look at how close Yusuke is to Kuwabara!

During the fight with Rando, it's also because Yusuke was so emotionally impacted by Kuwabara's serious injuries that Yusuke was able to tap into a new level of power! I was honestly surprised by this when I first watched the anime before I clued into the Kuwameshi subtext, given how cool and collected Yusuke was when Hiei almost turned Keiko into a demon!

And the unconscious Kuwabara was still cheering Yusuke on! When Yusuke was on the verge of being eaten alive by the demonic fish, Kuwabara's spirit even left his body to go save Yusuke, and Kuwabara knew just the right words to say to Yusuke to spur him on! Souls in True Harmony who help each other!

Cheering on the male character in spirit is literally what female love interests do in anime, and it's usually a one-sided depiction of the female shouting the male character's name in a paroxysm of emotion without the male character actually hearing or interacting with her, so this trope is again nicely subverted here coz Kuwabara is literally a spirit who can have two-way dialogue with Yusuke, and he's obviously a badass himself, which is why he can reach Yusuke as a spirit to begin with. Genkai approves!

As the series progress, we see more of Yusuke and Kuwabara's body language cluing us into their romantic feelings for each other. During their chocolate shake date, they were mirror images of each other when Keiko crashed their conversation and Yusuke covers up what they're really talking about with the movie excuse. When Yusuke was making his excuses to run out on Keiko, he again places his hand on Kuwabara's chest when he asks Kuwabara to come with him, then Yusuke pulls him along by the wrist 😍😍❤️❤️.

You can see in all these interactions that Kuwabara's attention is on Yusuke almost all the time, especially when Botan's explaining the 4 saints beast situation to them! Kuwa literally did not take his eyes off Yusuke even though Botan's the one speaking! This is despite Kuwabara supposedly having a 'crush' on Botan, but we will have to leave the explanation for this for another meta! ;P

I digress! To me, Yusuke running out on Keiko with Kuwabara and forgetting he left Keiko at the movie theatre clearly signals authorial intent to focus on Kuwabara and Yusuke's relationship, rather than Keiko and Yusuke's. At the end of the 4 saint beasts arc when Yusuke exhausted his lifeforce to defeat Suzaku, it was Kuwabara who brought Yusuke back to life by transferring his remaining life-force to Yusuke despite knowing this is akin to suicide, similar to how Keiko saved Yusuke from the fire despite mortal peril to herself at the start of the series. This time, Yusuke wakes up in Kuwabara's bed after Kuwabara has taken care of Yusuke for 3 days, to the sound of birdsong!!!! And from here on out, Keiko is relegated to a side character without further character development of her own or much contribution to Yusuke's personal growth.

When Toguro wanted to devastate Yusuke into unlocking his true power by killing someone Yusuke loves, he chose Kuwabara above all others, even though Keiko was in the audience. It's very telling that Toguro tried to kill Yusuke's metaphorical heart by ripping out Kuwabara's actual heart!! Kuwabara is Yusuke's heart! The subtext is main text!

Kuwabara chose to meet his death courageously even though he knew he had no chance of surviving, showing Yusuke once again the difference between true strength vs just power. The intensity of Yusuke's resulting grief and utter devastation at Kuwabara's death changed the very essence of Yusuke's reiki. The intensity of Yusuke's emotions is the reason why Yusuke rejected Toguro's "power above all else" motto, it's the reason why Yusuke understood the difference between true strength vs just power.

Some things can only be learnt through experience, and Genkai knew this was a hard lesson Yusuke needed to experience for himself before he could learn the difference. (She also knew Toguro still had some shreds of goodness deep down and wouldn't kill Kuwabara straight out).

Yusuke himself said he used to secretly admire and aspire to Toguro's power even as he was scared shitless, before Yusuke's eyes were opened to the immeasurable worth and value of love and friendship, the things that Toguro gave up in his blind pursuit of power. Yusuke lost his fear of Toguro after that, he stopped admiring Toguro after that, he pitied Toguro instead. Yusuke was able to gain this emotional maturity through the grief & devastation of losing Kuwabara. And because of that, he was able to defeat Toguro. Talk about the Power of Love! Kuwabara really is the Warrior of Love! Even when he's not physically fighting, he inspires Yusuke to new levels of both emotional maturity and physical strength through Love.

I mean honestly, at this point in the story, Kuwabara had clearly taken center stage as the love interest for Yusuke, one who actively plays a role in Yusuke's personal growth and emotional motivation, one who is strong enough that Yusuke can be honest about his spirit realm duties and his full self with.

It's a bit of a shame that the story didn't develop Keiko into a more interesting kickass female character like Botan, who's independent and capable of taking care of herself, and whose contributions to the story is not just restricted to that of a romantic love interest. It would have been nice to see Keiko realizing that she and Yusuke are better suited to be found family and lifelong friends rather than romantic partners. It's a pity especially since Keiko got off to such a strong start by saving Yusuke so courageously from the fire. After this point however, the story relegated Keiko to the stereotypical female 'love interest' who's just passively waiting on the sidelines for Yusuke to return.

But given that Yukina is also a similar stereotypical female 'love interest' for Kuwabara, one who's written out of the narrative almost as soon as she's introduced, and thus I also don't find Kuwabara and Yukina convincing as a romantic couple, I wonder whether the author deliberately chose to under-develop Keiko and Yukina's characters and to protray them as rather helpless, one-note and bland, in order to highlight the real love story he's trying to tell between Yusuke and Kuwabara. (Togashi even said in a Q+A that his least favorite character is Keiko, coz she's a typical manga character.)

If I were trying to tell a non-heteronormative love story aimed at teens in conservative 90's Japan, hiding Kuwabara and Yusuke's love story in plain sight, under the cover of them both having female 'love interests' is probably one of the ways to do it while still getting published in Shonen Jump.

It's clearly contrasting Kuwabara and Yusuke's extremely compelling romantic subtext with the very bland and unconvincing heteronormative pairings. It leaves it up to the audience to notice for themselves which pairings they find more compelling to root for, and perhaps in so doing, the story subverts a conservative audience into unknowingly supporting a non-heteronormative couple of Yusuke and Kuwabara 🤣

Togashi also said in his letter to fans that he ended the manga for three reasons, one of which is that he has exhausted the character directions he can explore within the publication bounds of Shonen Jump.

I wonder whether a sexual romantic relationship between Yusuke and Kuwabara (the sex is hinted at in this bonus canon content) is one of the directions Togashi couldn't explore within the publication bounds of Shonen Jump 🤣. (But that's okay Togashi, thank you so much for giving us the rich Kuwameshi subtext in canon, we'll take it from here to explore these directions for you 🤣🤣).

When I first read part of the manga casually as a kid, all the subtext flew right over my head of coz, but now when I watch it as an adult who understands just how much queer love stories were not allowed any expressions in the 90's, I really love Kuwabara and Yusuke as each other's true love interest.

The development of their relationship can also be read as a natural progression of their characters growing closer together than Yusuke and Keiko can, due to Yusuke having to keep Keiko in the dark about spirit realm activities to protect her from it, and Keiko just being so different from Yusuke that she inadvertently makes Yusuke feel worse about himself. This is apparent in Episode 1 itself, when Keiko inadvertently triggers Yusuke's self-worth issues when she berated Yusuke quite thoroughly to apply himself to school - she immediately assumed he must have done something wrong for Takenaka-sensei to be looking for him (when actually Takenaka just wanted to proactively counsel Yusuke!) and she outright says if he doesn't go soon he'll drag her down and she'll get a scolding as the class monitor as well. This is when Yusuke flips her skirt, not because he is romantically interested in her or is pervy, but because he just wants to stop her words which were quite hurtful for him coz it confirms all his worst fears about himself!

Keiko also can't understand why Yusuke enjoys challenging good fights, whereas Kuwabara can and in fact enjoys those fights himself. So perhaps Keiko and Yusuke drifting apart as a romantic pairing once the revival arc is done is also a natural state of things.

In any case, by the time the dark tournament is over in episode 67, it's Kuwabara that Yusuke seeks out for an early lunch at school, it's Kuwabara who Yusuke riles up by poking him in the ass 🤣🤣, similar to how Yusuke used to flip Keiko's skirt, except Yusuke's jabbing Kuwabara in the ass when he's in a good mood and wants an excuse to be close to Kuwabara! I haven't even screamed about the HILARIOUS homoerotic subtext of Yusuke jabbing Kuwabara in the ass just as Kuwabara's thinking about becoming "a real man" for Yukina! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Look at our boys taking the opportunity to physically be as close as they secretly want to be with each other, under the guise of rough-housing and bickering! Yusuke's full-on hugging Kuwabara in the second frame, and he's got his leg over Kuwabara's shoulder in the third!! 😍😍❤️❤️Once again they totally ignore their audience and focus just on each other, to the extent they didn't even realize the class bell had run and Takenaka-sensei and the entire class is looking at them! 🤣

This scene of Yusuke seeking out Kuwabara for lunch in a good mood and needling him for food is SO CUTE and so sweet! Coz it's Yusuke's way of asking for Kuwabara's attention. It's Yusuke's way of saying he wants to spend time with Kuwabara, he wants Kuwabara to be the one to take care of him (by feeding him), and when Kuwabara reacts with outrage instead (coz he is still in denial about his feelings for Yusuke at this point), Yusuke immediately reacts with hurt defensiveness. Even so, they still have such a great time with each other! It's very relatable and very sweet! Haven't you ever just riled up your crush and teased them mercilessly coz you wanted the excuse to be close to them? I also love that Yusuke is actively seeking out Kuwabara to do normal mundane things like eat lunch together, he must have realized at some subconcious level that Kuwa-chan is his OTP!

We even get Kuwabara's friends and Botan wondering whether Kuwabara and Yusuke were a bickering married couple in a previous life, so the subtext is more or less already the main text by this point.

Then we see Kuwabara catching up with Yusuke after school and Yusuke sharing his feelings of ennui with Kuwabara, who brought Yusuke right out of it with ease 🤣🤣 it's these seemingly little things like Yusuke opening up about his feelings to Kuwabara, Kuwabara keeping Yusuke grounded, and Kuwabara talking about his loss of reiki with total ease with Yusuke and being worried that Yusuke was going through the same that shows the deep emotional connection and deep trust between these two.

Of course, then Yusuke gets abducted and we see Puu flying straight to Kuwabara for help, so again the story subverts the typical heteronormative romance by having both Kuwabara and Yusuke continually inspire, save and rely on each other as true equals in their partnership. No one is the wilting flower, no one is just passively waiting to be saved, and both are simultaneously both the protector and the protectee. Just as Genkai told Yusuke to never forget why he became strong and who he became strong for, they are truly the main reason why the other became so strong!

Speaking of abduction, the tables gets turned later on when Kuwabara is the one who gets abducted and Yusuke goes after Sensui on a bicycle(🤣🤣!) like a man possessed. I mean seriously, even before I clued into Kuwameshi, I thought Yusuke looks like a man who's singlemindedly saving the love of his life! And then of course, Kuwabara experiences the devastation of Yusuke's death, similar to how Yusuke experienced the devastation of Kuwabara's death during the dark tournament, and we get that precious glimpse into Kuwabara's feelings for Yusuke all along! It was never about winning Yusuke in fights, all his challenges were just an excuse to be with Yusuke! His heart gets so excited when he's with Yusuke! He was over the moon when Yusuke called him by name the first time! He did it all - Genkai's succession trials, Rando fight, Byakko fight, yukina rescue mission, Dark Tournament, facing down Toguro - all of it, for Yusuke!!!! Screams! Can it get more romantic than that?!? This not only reveals Kuwabara's heart, it also reveals authorial intent for the Kuwameshi love story from the beginning!

And then of course Kuwabara chooses to avenge Yusuke even if it means his own death and the destruction of the entire human realm! Kuwabara, the warrier for love, truth and justice, protector of the weak, literally chose to burn down the whole world to avenge Yusuke, and follow Yusuke into death! That's how much Yusuke means to Kuwabara! The entire world literally means nothing to Kuwabara if Yusuke isn't there! So for me, I fully believe Yusuke and Kuwabara are the real love story here!

If you love the delicious Kuwameshi subtext as much as me, come scream about it with me in my Kuwameshi meta series on AO3, and my Kuwameshi Alternate Canon Fic The Good Fight on AO3! Most chapters have End Notes with more meta about canon that inspired that chapter! There's just way too much meta to put all into one post here!

If you'd like to read more meta on when Kuwabara fell in love with Yusuke, here's one you may enjoy!

If you'd like to read meta on when Yusuke fell in love with Kuwabara, here's one!