The anime genre is full of hidden gems that tend to go overlooked. While that's normally acceptable, there's one series that deserves some recognition during Pride Month, and that's Yu Yu Hakusho.
Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files is among the lesser-known animes, but the series' cult following has kept it alive over the years. The show centers around Yusuke Yurameshi, a Spirit Detective who winds up in a whole heap of trouble after sacrificing his life to save a kid. The journey from there takes Yusuke through Spirit World, Demon World, and his own homeworld crammed right between them.
On one of his first missions, Yusuke and his friends encounter the Apparition Gang's elite group, The Triad. The first member to appear is Miyuki, a humanoid demon with a penchant for close-combat.
LGBTQ Characters In Yu Yu Hakusho
Following their introduction, Miyuki begins attacking the group. During the fight, however, Yusuke pulls a rather tasteless move to determine Miyuki's gender. He does so, and then the audience learns that she's a transgender woman.
What's fascinating is Yusuke's response. Instead of going easy on her, he begins pummelling Miyuki mercilessly. He slams her into a wall, throws her down a hallway in a not-so gentlemanly fashion, it's bad. Miyuki reacts to the brutal beating by accusing Yususke of only fighting so savagely because she's a freak to him. The freshman Spirit Detective, however, sees the situation differently.
The seemingly dimwitted Yusuke explains that he fought Miyuki the way he'd fight anyone else. Her gender didn't matter—that's why he fought so ferociously—to meet her on an even playing field.
While beating a trans woman into the ground isn't acceptable under any circumstances, Yusuke's point is a fair one. He shouldn't treat her any differently, and because they were in a combat situation, he did the right thing. Had Yusuke fought Miyuki differently based on her gender alone, it would've just reinforced the misconception that transgender individuals shouldn't get the same treatment as cisgender people.
In addition to featuring a transgender character—way before it became acceptable in society—Yu Yu Hakusho also introduced a few other characters who could be considered members of the LGBTQ community as well.
Yu Yu Hakusho's Ambiguous Array Of Characters
First up, there's Kurama. The half-human half-demon hybrid identified as a male, though his appearance came off as androgynous. In fact, on more than one occasion, background characters would note that they thought Kurama was a girl.
In a cartoon, it's difficult to determine gender, especially when the character designs are very similar. So when the emphasis is placed on something inconspicuous—like Kurama's appearance—there's a reason for it.
In Kurama's case, the writers likely called attention to his appearance to give the audience the impression that he's not as masculine as someone like Kuwabara. It's never explicitly said, but considering how many times Kurama gets mistaken for a girl, I'd say the producers intended to feature a full spectrum of characters who represent the LGBTQ community.
Were These Characters In The Closet?
The problem is, at the time of publication, even lesser-known animes like Yu Yu Hakusho couldn't outright feature gay characters. It was very taboo for anything entertainment-related to feature depictions of LGBTQ characters, so if the writers wanted to, they presumably had to keep character identities ambiguous.
The theory is still unproven, but there's been speculation over the years that Yu Yu Hakusho included more LGBTQ representation. One of the characters suspected of being gay is Koenma. His relationship with Jorge Saotome originated in a work setting, but by the end of the series, Koenma was calling his faithful companion by his proper name. Perhaps it was done out of comradery for a friend, or maybe not. Either way, their developing relationship seemed to hint at them being more than a prince and his ogre servant.
Koenma also had a variety of spirits and apparitions working for him, but for whatever reason, he kept Jorge around. And despite berating his incompetent servant constantly for his shoddy work, Koenma never replaced his ogre. He could have easily found a replacement to fill the spot, yet Jorge remained by Koenma's side throughout the entire series; makes one think why the prince of Spirit World would do such a thing.
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