Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Problem with Kurama ❯ Chapter 1
[ A - All Readers ]
By: Tsu-chanB 
A diatribe on the myriad ways Kurama's character has been twisted throughout fanfiction.
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 06.08.2009 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 954 | Status: Completed
A diatribe on the myriad ways Kurama's character has been twisted throughout fanfiction.
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 06.08.2009 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 954 | Status: Completed
BEFORE YOU READ: These are my OPINIONS. There are no facts past the first paragraph as I am writing about a fictional character with no real basis in fact. This is all speculation from over four years in dealing with fanfiction. I repeat, these are opinions, my personal view/take on it. Please don't flame me. I will consider your opinions if you choose to share them, but calling me bad names and writing put downs is just terribly rude and highly ineffective. Read at your own discretion and be prepared to be offended.
The Problem with Kurama
Yu Yu Hakusho was ranked the 15th best anime of all time in a 2006 poll by TV Asahi of Japan. The manga has sold over 50 million copies worldwide and has garnered a rather large fan base. All this to say: Yu Yu Hakusho is popular as hell in the anime world and its characters are fairly well known. On fanfiction. net alone the story count for this series reaches over 22,000. And in the world of fanfiction Kurama and Hiei usually take precedence over most of the other characters, especially in the romance section.
So what is the problem with Kurama? Well, let's start by looking at what makes him so appealing to all those squealing fangirls/fanfic writers.
Kurama is an interesting character most notably because he is essentially two (or three) people in one body. Because of this, he has a little bit of something most every girl wants in a guy. He can be the sweet and loving gentleman in the form of Shuichi Minamino; the witty, intelligent, and loyal friend as Kurama; and the total badass by way of Youko Kurama. This allows for a complex and multi-faceted personality that can be appreciated by many simply because it makes him more real and believable.
Something dangerous happens, however, when one mixes his varied character with the daydreaming abilities of his female fan base. As authors these girls (and sometimes guys) hold a very special power over the fictional fox: they can make him into anything they want. Because that's the power of a writer. You are creating people and you can make them do, make them be, anything you set them to on paper (or the internet in this case). This is especially dangerous, though, when you are using someone already in existence as your subject.
The worst thing about it is that the majority don't really care. They think it's great as long as there's a recognizable portion of his personality intact, however twisted it may be, and plenty of romance, drama, or comedy. I've compiled a list of the most common Kurama aberrations and why they are not AT ALL like the character created by Togashi.
The Pansy
This Kurama is the extreme version of Shuichi. I will admit he is a momma's boy, but why not since Shiori changed his outlook on humanity? The pansy takes this several steps further and says `since Kurama's so nice to his mom, he should be a really nice guy to everyone.' This is not so. Kurama does love his friends, but these are people he knows, people he has fought alongside and trusts. It can also be said that he is polite and respectable. This is because he's smart. He thinks about these things, about the repercussions of his actions. If he were to make a bad name for himself, he would tarnish his mother's reputation and far be it from him to want to disappoint her. He is also kind because it serves him. People are more willing to help you when you are nice to them; it's a fact. Kurama is analytical to a fault. He would want to leave the option open in case he ever needed that person's help.
The pansy, however, takes his kindness to a ridiculous level. This Kurama wants to help everyone, wants to make everyone happy. His enemies walk all over him. He is always catering to the love interest, no matter the cost to him. He is the knight in shining armor and all around people-pleaser. I am describing the extreme case. There are varying intensities of this syndrome, but I think you get the drift. This Kurama is employed by girls wanting the perfect gentleman, who will always do everything for them. The real Kurama is a lot smarter, and I'm sorry, quite a bit more selfish than that.
The Pervert
I honestly have no idea where this personality came from. Kurama never once showed an interest in women in the anime series and only briefly in the manga. I'm guessing it has something to do with his joking, playful personality and the fact that he's a fox, which supports that playfulness. Some people have taken that to mean that, somewhere in there, he's really a closet pervert who gets satisfaction from sharing that, rather playfully, with his love interest or by an inner monologue with Youko about all the hot girls around. And I'm not calling him a saint and saying he never thinks about girls because I'm sure he does. What I mean is when an author makes spouting out perverted or crass comments what he's all about. I don't have much else to say about this except it's completely out of character and based solely on the fan's wishful thinking.
The Slut
I do not read fanfiction with a rating of NC-17, or M depending on what site I'm on. I used to, so I know a bit about how Kurama was portrayed in these fics. I no longer read these fics for three specific reasons: one, I became a Christian and I just don't feel comfortable with it anymore; two, the sex scenes were often horribly formulaic and once you read one it was like you read all of them; three, it's just completely unnecessary to the plot, no matter what that plot may be (unless it's PWP, then it's just self explanatory). You can say it's relevant to understanding the plot or characters, but I've found that implications can be more powerful than descriptions if done correctly.
The premise of the slut is that Kurama, usually Youko, will sleep with anything with boobs. This is completely unfounded. As I mentioned earlier, he had no real interest in women. Secondly, he plays life like a game of chess. Kurama has already thought things five steps ahead. He weighs all the pros and cons before he makes a decision. If it's a woman he doesn't know, he wouldn't sleep with her because of the danger it could put him in. As Youko he was very well known and probably had a large bounty on his head. The vulnerability of sex would allow a woman to catch him off guard, kill him, and collect a reward. For him, everyone was an enemy. As Shuichi, he wouldn't sleep around for the sake of his mother's reputation. If the girl, or girls, ever caught up with him again and revealed such a fact, people would have opinions about Shiori's parenting skills. Now, this is only concerning the high school fics. After that it's a possibility, but I just don't see him doing that. (Don't forget about STDs)
Going back to Youko, you may say that the woman he slept with was one he knew. In that case, he wouldn't sleep with her because of the possibility of having children. With any other woman, he wouldn't care, but if he knew the girl and cared about her this would make him feel responsible and obligated to care for them. Children presented a liability, especially in his profession. For that matter, caring about a woman presented a liability. He would get emotionally attached and someone would take advantage of that.
The Cheater
This Kurama is known for his willingness to run off on his stable love interest for a sister or close friend of hers. The Kurama created by Togashi is not only more loyal than this, he's more mercilessly honest. If he didn't think he wanted to be with his first love anymore, he would just tell her. We see an example of this honesty in the very beginning of the series. Right after Yusuke's fight with Hiei when they're all sitting in the warehouse Kurama says something to the effect of “And here we thought you were a brilliant strategist.” He is basically implying that Yusuke's more of an idiot than he thought; brutal honesty.
You could use the `he doesn't want to hurt her feelings' bit, but a clean break would definitely cause less pain.
The Emo
I cried when Kurama killed Amanuma. No, really. I cried. For the next few days I couldn't think about it without tearing up. And it wasn't so much because the kid died, it was more over the fact that Kurama had to do it and the way he did it. He had to revert back to his old ways and be a cold hearted, conniving bastard to ensure he won that game, against a kid no less. And you could tell he hated it.
The emo version of Kurama takes that attitude he had, the depressing sort of self disgust, and makes that what he's all about. Now, Kurama has done some bad things in his life and he knows it. But what makes him cool, in my opinion, is that he doesn't wallow in it. He realizes it and changes. The emo, however, spends his time moping around and probably tries to commit suicide because he's such a horrible, awful person who doesn't deserve to live. Sorry, but Kurama's a lot more proactive than that. If he sees something that needs to change in himself he looks at it, studies the different paths he could take from it, and chooses the best road.
The Split Personality
The Shuichi/Youko relationship is a hard one to pin down. I'm not going to delve too deeply into my theories about it because I could make that into a whole different essay. I will say that I don't think they communicate telepathically as it is presented in some fanfics. I think they are the same people and the more demonic, Youko side of him influences the emotions and decisions of the human Shuichi until the two eventually meet somewhere in the middle and kind of sync up into one full personality. It's hard to explain, but I think I'll just leave it at that.
The rest of this rant will focus more on different things that happen in the Yu Yu Hakusho fandom and in the fanfiction world in general. I thought it relevant, so I'm adding it to the bottom.
Fangirls and the Fanclubs
You see these in the high school fics, the crazy Shuichi Minamino fanclub bitches always trying to get his attention for a date or something less innocent. They cause trouble for the lead female character because Kurama has shown an interest in her, yada yada yada. No mention of this was ever given in the series, though you do see two giggling girls conversing with Kurama at school in the anime at the beginning of the Sensui arc. This scene was not present in the manga. I honestly think some of that may have sprouted from the Prince Yuki fanclub of Fruits Basket. The idea probably just spread itself around the fanfiction world.
Cannon Females
Maya and Keiko take the lead in Yu Yu Hakusho as `most bashed', although Kuwabara is right up there with them even if not for the same reasons. Maya was turned into a slut and Keiko into a bitch to `free up' Yusuke and Kurama from their cannon romances. It's not really necessary for Maya, seeing that Kurama already refused her and there are many more tactful ways to have Yusuke and Keiko part ways if you're really that dead set on giving him to someone else. Bashing is completely unnecessary and I don't really get why people do it.
Marking
I really think this is something created in fanfiction that just spread itself around. Apparently, the premise of marking is that it's the demon's form of a ring to show that the girl's taken. It is usually done with a bite on the neck. I don't get it. They're not frickin' vampires and this . . . thing, engagement, whatever, is in fanfics of series that don't even really have demons! I read Gaara do it in a Naruto fic and was kinda like, wtf? I know he houses a demon and all that, but that's quite a bit of a stretch. Anyway, I don't think I need to say that's nowhere in any anime I've seen. If you've seen it, please let me know where. (Not Hellsing or Vampire Knight, they don't count!)
This actually leads me to my next point . . .
Transference (or The Fanfiction Phenomenon)
An author's ability as a writer is derived from experience. Influences from books, music, day to day life, movies, everything, goes into what a writer puts out. So, naturally, the same thing happens when someone reads a lot of fanfiction and starts writing fanfiction of their own. They sometimes see something one author did, think it's cool, and try to integrate it into their own story. This happens again and again until it's almost cannon. You see it in the marking bit, but more often you see it in how a character is portrayed. I know I've read fanfiction for animes I haven't seen and taken my opinion of the characters from what authors wrote of them. I learned that Roy Mustang of Full Metal Alchemist is apparently a womanizer even though I have never seen the show and know next to nothing of its plot. This is okay, as long as I don't try to write something about that character because I don't know what else he's like, what the author is portraying differently than the cannon. This also happens when people do know the series but read more fanfiction than watch the show or read the manga. Their view is skewed and so is their output, so the OOCness multiplies.
Alternate Universe
For the most part, this is just fun. A writer takes a solid base of a character and uses their name and some of their traits, but throws them in a whole new situation. Often times it's fun to see where the character you know and love ends up when given different motivations or a different past. And the author doesn't have to worry about cannon because it's a moot point. These can go badly too, but there's less of a risk of making people upset about people being out of character. Kurama can be a perverted womanizer in an AU fic if, say, he grew up a model (cause we all know he could be one XD) instead of in a normal home with Shiori. Personally, I don't read too many AU fics. I like them on occasion, but they're not necessarily my favorite.
There you have it. These are most all of the things that I either don't understand or find annoying about fanfiction in the Yu Yu Hakusho/Kurama section. I have used extreme cases and I'm not really as nit-picky as I sound. I understand this is all for fun and that most authors are using these characters as platforms for improving their writing or creating their own characters. That's just fine and dandy. What I'm really talking about is the blatant disregard for all semblance of the original character, the destruction of that poor man's dignity in a young author's attempt to communicate something about their own life or what they dream about.
Essentially, the problem with Kurama is that he's too much of a good thing. He has a lot going for him in terms of personality and character and people have noticed it. A lot of really good authors have found exploring his motives and personality fun, but a lot more really bad (or really young) authors have found a good use for him as a crutch for the story they want to tell.
Well, that's all I had to say. Obviously I spend WAY too much time in animeland. :)
The Problem with Kurama
Yu Yu Hakusho was ranked the 15th best anime of all time in a 2006 poll by TV Asahi of Japan. The manga has sold over 50 million copies worldwide and has garnered a rather large fan base. All this to say: Yu Yu Hakusho is popular as hell in the anime world and its characters are fairly well known. On fanfiction. net alone the story count for this series reaches over 22,000. And in the world of fanfiction Kurama and Hiei usually take precedence over most of the other characters, especially in the romance section.
So what is the problem with Kurama? Well, let's start by looking at what makes him so appealing to all those squealing fangirls/fanfic writers.
Kurama is an interesting character most notably because he is essentially two (or three) people in one body. Because of this, he has a little bit of something most every girl wants in a guy. He can be the sweet and loving gentleman in the form of Shuichi Minamino; the witty, intelligent, and loyal friend as Kurama; and the total badass by way of Youko Kurama. This allows for a complex and multi-faceted personality that can be appreciated by many simply because it makes him more real and believable.
Something dangerous happens, however, when one mixes his varied character with the daydreaming abilities of his female fan base. As authors these girls (and sometimes guys) hold a very special power over the fictional fox: they can make him into anything they want. Because that's the power of a writer. You are creating people and you can make them do, make them be, anything you set them to on paper (or the internet in this case). This is especially dangerous, though, when you are using someone already in existence as your subject.
The worst thing about it is that the majority don't really care. They think it's great as long as there's a recognizable portion of his personality intact, however twisted it may be, and plenty of romance, drama, or comedy. I've compiled a list of the most common Kurama aberrations and why they are not AT ALL like the character created by Togashi.
The Pansy
This Kurama is the extreme version of Shuichi. I will admit he is a momma's boy, but why not since Shiori changed his outlook on humanity? The pansy takes this several steps further and says `since Kurama's so nice to his mom, he should be a really nice guy to everyone.' This is not so. Kurama does love his friends, but these are people he knows, people he has fought alongside and trusts. It can also be said that he is polite and respectable. This is because he's smart. He thinks about these things, about the repercussions of his actions. If he were to make a bad name for himself, he would tarnish his mother's reputation and far be it from him to want to disappoint her. He is also kind because it serves him. People are more willing to help you when you are nice to them; it's a fact. Kurama is analytical to a fault. He would want to leave the option open in case he ever needed that person's help.
The pansy, however, takes his kindness to a ridiculous level. This Kurama wants to help everyone, wants to make everyone happy. His enemies walk all over him. He is always catering to the love interest, no matter the cost to him. He is the knight in shining armor and all around people-pleaser. I am describing the extreme case. There are varying intensities of this syndrome, but I think you get the drift. This Kurama is employed by girls wanting the perfect gentleman, who will always do everything for them. The real Kurama is a lot smarter, and I'm sorry, quite a bit more selfish than that.
The Pervert
I honestly have no idea where this personality came from. Kurama never once showed an interest in women in the anime series and only briefly in the manga. I'm guessing it has something to do with his joking, playful personality and the fact that he's a fox, which supports that playfulness. Some people have taken that to mean that, somewhere in there, he's really a closet pervert who gets satisfaction from sharing that, rather playfully, with his love interest or by an inner monologue with Youko about all the hot girls around. And I'm not calling him a saint and saying he never thinks about girls because I'm sure he does. What I mean is when an author makes spouting out perverted or crass comments what he's all about. I don't have much else to say about this except it's completely out of character and based solely on the fan's wishful thinking.
The Slut
I do not read fanfiction with a rating of NC-17, or M depending on what site I'm on. I used to, so I know a bit about how Kurama was portrayed in these fics. I no longer read these fics for three specific reasons: one, I became a Christian and I just don't feel comfortable with it anymore; two, the sex scenes were often horribly formulaic and once you read one it was like you read all of them; three, it's just completely unnecessary to the plot, no matter what that plot may be (unless it's PWP, then it's just self explanatory). You can say it's relevant to understanding the plot or characters, but I've found that implications can be more powerful than descriptions if done correctly.
The premise of the slut is that Kurama, usually Youko, will sleep with anything with boobs. This is completely unfounded. As I mentioned earlier, he had no real interest in women. Secondly, he plays life like a game of chess. Kurama has already thought things five steps ahead. He weighs all the pros and cons before he makes a decision. If it's a woman he doesn't know, he wouldn't sleep with her because of the danger it could put him in. As Youko he was very well known and probably had a large bounty on his head. The vulnerability of sex would allow a woman to catch him off guard, kill him, and collect a reward. For him, everyone was an enemy. As Shuichi, he wouldn't sleep around for the sake of his mother's reputation. If the girl, or girls, ever caught up with him again and revealed such a fact, people would have opinions about Shiori's parenting skills. Now, this is only concerning the high school fics. After that it's a possibility, but I just don't see him doing that. (Don't forget about STDs)
Going back to Youko, you may say that the woman he slept with was one he knew. In that case, he wouldn't sleep with her because of the possibility of having children. With any other woman, he wouldn't care, but if he knew the girl and cared about her this would make him feel responsible and obligated to care for them. Children presented a liability, especially in his profession. For that matter, caring about a woman presented a liability. He would get emotionally attached and someone would take advantage of that.
The Cheater
This Kurama is known for his willingness to run off on his stable love interest for a sister or close friend of hers. The Kurama created by Togashi is not only more loyal than this, he's more mercilessly honest. If he didn't think he wanted to be with his first love anymore, he would just tell her. We see an example of this honesty in the very beginning of the series. Right after Yusuke's fight with Hiei when they're all sitting in the warehouse Kurama says something to the effect of “And here we thought you were a brilliant strategist.” He is basically implying that Yusuke's more of an idiot than he thought; brutal honesty.
You could use the `he doesn't want to hurt her feelings' bit, but a clean break would definitely cause less pain.
The Emo
I cried when Kurama killed Amanuma. No, really. I cried. For the next few days I couldn't think about it without tearing up. And it wasn't so much because the kid died, it was more over the fact that Kurama had to do it and the way he did it. He had to revert back to his old ways and be a cold hearted, conniving bastard to ensure he won that game, against a kid no less. And you could tell he hated it.
The emo version of Kurama takes that attitude he had, the depressing sort of self disgust, and makes that what he's all about. Now, Kurama has done some bad things in his life and he knows it. But what makes him cool, in my opinion, is that he doesn't wallow in it. He realizes it and changes. The emo, however, spends his time moping around and probably tries to commit suicide because he's such a horrible, awful person who doesn't deserve to live. Sorry, but Kurama's a lot more proactive than that. If he sees something that needs to change in himself he looks at it, studies the different paths he could take from it, and chooses the best road.
The Split Personality
The Shuichi/Youko relationship is a hard one to pin down. I'm not going to delve too deeply into my theories about it because I could make that into a whole different essay. I will say that I don't think they communicate telepathically as it is presented in some fanfics. I think they are the same people and the more demonic, Youko side of him influences the emotions and decisions of the human Shuichi until the two eventually meet somewhere in the middle and kind of sync up into one full personality. It's hard to explain, but I think I'll just leave it at that.
The rest of this rant will focus more on different things that happen in the Yu Yu Hakusho fandom and in the fanfiction world in general. I thought it relevant, so I'm adding it to the bottom.
Fangirls and the Fanclubs
You see these in the high school fics, the crazy Shuichi Minamino fanclub bitches always trying to get his attention for a date or something less innocent. They cause trouble for the lead female character because Kurama has shown an interest in her, yada yada yada. No mention of this was ever given in the series, though you do see two giggling girls conversing with Kurama at school in the anime at the beginning of the Sensui arc. This scene was not present in the manga. I honestly think some of that may have sprouted from the Prince Yuki fanclub of Fruits Basket. The idea probably just spread itself around the fanfiction world.
Cannon Females
Maya and Keiko take the lead in Yu Yu Hakusho as `most bashed', although Kuwabara is right up there with them even if not for the same reasons. Maya was turned into a slut and Keiko into a bitch to `free up' Yusuke and Kurama from their cannon romances. It's not really necessary for Maya, seeing that Kurama already refused her and there are many more tactful ways to have Yusuke and Keiko part ways if you're really that dead set on giving him to someone else. Bashing is completely unnecessary and I don't really get why people do it.
Marking
I really think this is something created in fanfiction that just spread itself around. Apparently, the premise of marking is that it's the demon's form of a ring to show that the girl's taken. It is usually done with a bite on the neck. I don't get it. They're not frickin' vampires and this . . . thing, engagement, whatever, is in fanfics of series that don't even really have demons! I read Gaara do it in a Naruto fic and was kinda like, wtf? I know he houses a demon and all that, but that's quite a bit of a stretch. Anyway, I don't think I need to say that's nowhere in any anime I've seen. If you've seen it, please let me know where. (Not Hellsing or Vampire Knight, they don't count!)
This actually leads me to my next point . . .
Transference (or The Fanfiction Phenomenon)
An author's ability as a writer is derived from experience. Influences from books, music, day to day life, movies, everything, goes into what a writer puts out. So, naturally, the same thing happens when someone reads a lot of fanfiction and starts writing fanfiction of their own. They sometimes see something one author did, think it's cool, and try to integrate it into their own story. This happens again and again until it's almost cannon. You see it in the marking bit, but more often you see it in how a character is portrayed. I know I've read fanfiction for animes I haven't seen and taken my opinion of the characters from what authors wrote of them. I learned that Roy Mustang of Full Metal Alchemist is apparently a womanizer even though I have never seen the show and know next to nothing of its plot. This is okay, as long as I don't try to write something about that character because I don't know what else he's like, what the author is portraying differently than the cannon. This also happens when people do know the series but read more fanfiction than watch the show or read the manga. Their view is skewed and so is their output, so the OOCness multiplies.
Alternate Universe
For the most part, this is just fun. A writer takes a solid base of a character and uses their name and some of their traits, but throws them in a whole new situation. Often times it's fun to see where the character you know and love ends up when given different motivations or a different past. And the author doesn't have to worry about cannon because it's a moot point. These can go badly too, but there's less of a risk of making people upset about people being out of character. Kurama can be a perverted womanizer in an AU fic if, say, he grew up a model (cause we all know he could be one XD) instead of in a normal home with Shiori. Personally, I don't read too many AU fics. I like them on occasion, but they're not necessarily my favorite.
There you have it. These are most all of the things that I either don't understand or find annoying about fanfiction in the Yu Yu Hakusho/Kurama section. I have used extreme cases and I'm not really as nit-picky as I sound. I understand this is all for fun and that most authors are using these characters as platforms for improving their writing or creating their own characters. That's just fine and dandy. What I'm really talking about is the blatant disregard for all semblance of the original character, the destruction of that poor man's dignity in a young author's attempt to communicate something about their own life or what they dream about.
Essentially, the problem with Kurama is that he's too much of a good thing. He has a lot going for him in terms of personality and character and people have noticed it. A lot of really good authors have found exploring his motives and personality fun, but a lot more really bad (or really young) authors have found a good use for him as a crutch for the story they want to tell.
Well, that's all I had to say. Obviously I spend WAY too much time in animeland. :)
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