is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the manga and anime series YuYu Hakusho, created by Yoshihiro Togashi. Yusuke is a junior high school delinquent who dies while saving a child from a car accident. After seeing the grief his friends suffer following his death, Yusuke's soul works for the Underworld's detective of paranormal events in the Human World, eventually reviving in the process. He begins his work in the Human World but ends up traveling to the Underworld and then eventually to the Demon World. In each case he undertakes, Yusuke meets several new enemies and allies. He forms multiple alliances across his journey while developing supernatural abilities due to harnessing their Reiki, one's own aura or life energy.
Yusuke was created by Togashi under the concept of a complex individual who goes from slice-of-life stories to action scenes. For the latter, Yusuke was given new allies, which both Togashi and the editors from the manga magazine noted helped to improve the series's popularity. He has been voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in Japanese. In the English dubs, Justin Cook, Jonathan Fahn, and Rik Nagel voice the character. He is called Eugene in the Philippine version of the anime. When adapting to anime, director Noriyuki Abe drew parallels with his design to both yankī delinquents and tokusatsu figures, due to the multiple colors the leads have. Takumi Kitamura portrayed him in the live-action mini-series, aiming to give him a more modern take, finding delinquent figures dated.
Critical response to Yusuke's character has been positive due to his character arc from a delinquent to a more caring figure, with praise also being given to how he handles enemies. Special attention was given to his arc in the series's finale. The character's popularity led him to appear in polls of both the series and anime in general. The performances of both Cook and Kitamura were also the subject of praise by the media.
Creation
YuYu Hakusho manga author Yoshihiro Togashi created Yusuke Urameshi. With regard to the main protagonist, Togashi claimed the personality must be clearly defined from the beginning before the comrades could be added, so it is more difficult. This was mostly due to the author's desire to create antagonists who might stand out more than Yusuke. Nevertheless, he believes that after YuYu Hakusho he became unable to write like this. In contrast to Yusuke, Togashi would write the protagonist Gon Freecss in Hunter × Hunter with the concept of a more simplified character due to the series's length. Togashi did not give much thought to the names of the characters. He came up with them by skimming through a dictionary and combining kanji characters he found appealing. The author said the name Yusuke Urameshi is "practically a joke." Viz Media explained that the "Yu" is written with the kanji for "ghost", and "Urameshiii..." is a phrase typically said by wailing ghosts.
The manga's shift from occult detective fiction to the martial arts genre after Yusuke's death and revival in the early chapters was planned by Togashi from the beginning. He took this idea from the series Kinnikuman, which began largely as a comedy before concentrating more on action. For the Four Holy Beasts story arc, Togashi made four enemies "on impulse", but the only humans were Yusuke and Kazuma Kuwabara. When it became clear that they were not strong enough to take on two demons each, Hiei and Kurama appeared on the scene, making their introductions as protagonists. In further enhancing Yusuke's role as a fighter, Togashi created the elder martial artist Genkai, who would act as his mentor, which he considered to be a common pattern in storytelling. He further developed this throughout a competition where Yusuke would be given the rights to become Genkai's student by defeating a demon in the same moment.
Though Kurama and Hiei would go on to improve the series's popularity, the editors from Weekly Shonen Jump still saw Yusuke as another reason for the series's success. Togashi intended to establish the main characters and familiarize the reader with them before placing them in tense, physical conflicts. Early examples of Togashi's problems with drawing the series involved Yusuke's first fight in the Dark Tournament arc against Chu when the series was almost canceled. There were many instances where he would create nearly entire manuscripts by himself, such as Yusuke's meeting with demon predecessor Raizen and the battle between Kurama and Karasu. Togashi expressed problems when drawing the final fight between Yusuke and former detective Shinobu Sensui due to his decaying health.
When animating the manga series, director Noriyuki Abe took notes from Togashi's illustrations; he found Yusuke and Kuwabara having opposite school uniforms despite being from the same school weird. He asked the editorial for the manga and they found it suitable. The visual helped to make Yusuke and Kuwabara look like the yankī delinquent stereotype seen in other works. When Kurama and Hiei joined the main cast, the anime staff liked the contrasting colors the protagonists have, linking them to popular tokusatsu series. The team also decided to tone down the appearances of Yusuke's mother when it came to seeing her son fight. For the ending, they ended up shaping the end according to the manga while interspersing an original screenplay, summarizing it in a structure in which Yusuke returned after a few years, in contrast to the manga, where he immediately returns alongside Kurama.
Casting
Yusuke is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in Japanese. His performance appealed to Togashi due to how he developed his identity. Before the anime adaptation of YuYu Hakusho started, Sasaki had been a fan of the series and wanted to do the role of the lead thanks to how Togashi drew him. He also liked the personality Yusuke is given, as he always says what is in his mind, enough to admire him. As a result, he considers the character as a fitting leader, considering he always attracts other characters and makes good chemistry with comrade Kurama, who he noted was appealing in his own way. Nevertheless, Sasaki said that voicing Yusuke is challenging, as he is constantly yelling in most of his scenes. Sasaki and fellow voice actor Yuri Amano debuted in the same period, which made them befriend each other when they worked together, which they also found hilarious since their characters, Yusuke and Keiko, are in love. Nevertheless, Sasaki also found the scene where Toguro kills Genkai sad, to the point it affected the mood of the voice actors the day that episode was recorded. He also found Toguro as a menacing figure, especially when hearing recordings of Tessho Genda.
For the English dub, Justin Cook voices Yusuke in the television series and first film in the Funimation dubs. Cook was a fan of YuYu Hakusho before being given the role of the protagonist, who he always cared about. Originally, he was not being cast for the role but was just the voice director instead. The producers had a hard time deciding who would voice the lead until one of them found Cook to be suitable for the role, which excited the actor. He considered Yusuke unique thanks to his friendly side despite being a delinquent, which allows him to relate to the audiences. Cook enjoyed Yusuke's characterization as a caring teenager with several friends despite initially being seen as a delinquent. He especially enjoyed Yusuke and Keiko's interactions in the anime. Besides Cook, other actors have voiced Yusuke in other works: Darren Pleavin did it for the Animax Asia dub of the television series, Rik Nagel voiced him in the second film by the Central Park Media dub, and Jonathan Fahn took the role for the first film and the Anime Works dub as "Jonathan Charles".
In the stage play of the series, Yusuke was portrayed by Tsubasa Sakiyama. Before this work, Sakiyama mostly played quiet characters, and Yusuke stood out due to his delinquent attitude and cool mannerisms, which he studied on YouTube. For the Netflix live-action series, Takumi Kitamura portrays Yusuke. Kitamura said he studied and took aspects from both the manga and anime, such as the way Yusuke walks and how much of a stride he has. He remarked how a delinquent character like Yusuke could come off as outdated, so he had to put some "modern twists" on the character. Kitamura also noted how there is a slight age difference from the original, as Yusuke is aged up from a junior high school student to a high school senior.
Appearances In YuYu Hakusho Yusuke Urameshi is a fourteen-year-old delinquent who attends Sarayashiki Junior High School. Yusuke bears affection for his childhood friend Keiko Yukimura, who initially takes a role as Yusuke's conscience, making sure he comes to class and behaves, and later becomes his romantic interest. Yusuke's alcoholic mother, Atsuko, raised him as a single parent after conceiving him as a young teen. His poor school attendance, constant fighting, and bad habits have earned him the fear of his classmates and the disdain of his teachers and neighbors. This all changes when Yusuke is struck and killed by a car while saving a small child who has wandered into the road. The Underworld ("Spirit World" in the English anime) has him permitted to return to his body and resume his life. However, while doing so, it is revealed that Yusuke has a particularly strong aura, or spirit energy, and Underworld head Koenma recruits him as an Underworld Detective. Yusuke is charged with investigating supernatural phenomena in the Human World that have connections to the Underworld.
Upon having him revived, Koenma teaches Yusuke the , an aura energy blast fired as a projectile out of his right index finger as though his hand were a gun and his finger the barrel, effective against demons. At first, he is only able to muster a single shot per day, but after training under the martial artist Genkai, he can fire multiple shots per day, as well as develop minor variations on the technique, such as the "shotgun" variant wherein Yusuke fires a spray of miniature spirit guns at once using his fist instead of his finger. Yusuke's case sends him on a rescue mission, where he meets Toguro, a human turned into a demon. To test his strength, Toguro invites Yusuke to the Dark Tournament, an event put on by corrupt, rich humans in which teams of demons, and occasionally humans, fight fierce battles for the chance to receive any wish they desire. Team Urameshi, consisting of Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and a disguised Genkai, traverses through the strenuous early rounds to face Team Toguro in the finals and win the tournament.