[YYH] Not Just Another Lovestreuck Bishounen: Yaminade no Itsuki
Title: Not Just Another Love-struck Bishounen
Subject: Yaminade no Itsuki, Yuu Yuu Hakusho
Author: Sir Psycho Sexy (akai_senshi)
Website: http://www.geocities.com/kr652000
NOTES: Spoilers ahoy for the Sensui Saga. Also discusses homosexual love and some distressing psychological themes.
Background on Itsuki
Itsuki is a yaminade, a very rare species of demon (he’s the last surviving one, in the manga) with the power to control various attributes of subspace and/or darkness. He has six extra “shadow hands” that he controls independently of his physical body; he controls a lesser demon called a “Ura-otoko”; and he has been shown to travel from place to place by means of the subspace dimension he controls. He is also the person who does Sensui’s “dirty work” in opening up the tunnel between Ningenkai and Makai, because of his abilities. He met Sensui (his future lover and obsessive interest) when the then-teenaged Sensui was about to kill him for simply being a demon. As Sensui asked if he had any last words, Itsuki said that he would like to live for one more day, so he could see the last episode of his favorite television program. As it so happened, this was Sensui’s favorite show as well, and the two of them started a relationship, first as Tantei partners, then as lovers. Itsuki was with Sensui on the day he went insane (due to the Black Black Club’s torturing of demons), and has been faithfully by his side ever since, even after Sensui died, and Itsuki carried him off into the Ura-otoko, as per his request.
First Impressions
I met Itsuki in the fourteenth volume of the Japanese manga. I knew he was part of a canonical yaoi pairing, but I was honestly more intrigued with Sensui than with him at first, probably because of his pretty-boy appearance. By the middle of the arc, however, he had most definitely won me over with his complex personality and his intelligence. This was bolstered further by watching the anime adaptation. I enjoyed both the Japanese (Tsujitani Kouji) and English (nom-de-plume: “Jerome 56”) voice actors’ work very much, and I felt that they both brought out more aspects of Itsuki that I liked: his stoicism, more of his intellect, and all of the contradictory personality traits that I will analyze in the next section. By the time YYH was over, Itsuki ranked second only to Sensui as my favorite character, and I adored the way they played off of each other not only as a couple, but as individual characters
Silence Makes a Sound: His Personality in a Nutshell
Itsuki’s personality can be summed up in one word: “Zenlike”. In this I not only allude to his outward composure and practice of sitting zazen (in a traditional Zen meditation position), but his often-self-contradictory personality traits. He is passive-aggressive; he appears weak, but it inwardly very strong; he is manipulative, but so good at disguising it that he appears naïve; he wants to protect Sensui and keep his mind pure, but at the same time, let him fall for his own enjoyment; he is controlling, Sensui’s puppet master, yet appears not to have a jealous bone in his entire body, and keeps the strings well-hidden. He also tells the most false of lies while imparting everyone around him with the truth of truths, or his definition of the “truth” as he sees it (the fact that he and Sensui are lovers is given away more by their actions towards one another than by anything Itsuki has ever said, contrary to the opinions of many, who complain that the English dub removed this information for the J version) His character design is such that you underestimate who he is when you first look at him. Many people think that Itsuki will wind up as the stereotypical yaoi uke, simply by his outward demeanor and his pretty-boy looks. Upon getting further with him and seeing his brand of non-violent violence and mind-screwing, you realize that this is no longer the case, and, depending on where you are in fandom, you come to like him even more than you originally did, or hate him altogether.
Itsuki’s character is, in fact, so contradictory, so full of opposite traits that assemble into a bizarre Gestalt, that the “translation” from the Japanese manga to the Japanese anime to the English dub of the anime has come full circle, so that Manga!Itsuki is ironically more authentically represented in the dub (which is a “copy” of the Japanese) than in the Japanese anime itself. This may be due to some research on the part of the ADR writers, but I tend to think that that is simply Itsuki’s nature as a character: to bring around two completely different, opposing things and make them into a cohesive unit.
In short, Itsuki’s personality is the answer to the old koan: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Perchance it goes even beyond that, to the realm of absolute psychosis where eight hands clapping are absolutely silent, while everything without a mouth speaks.
Love in Black and White
The most enduring part of Itsuki’s behavior, and the thing that is the most likely to make fans remember him, is his love for Sensui. This seems very much selfless devotion on the surface of things, but once you plunge deeper into Itsuki’s reasoning, it turns much darker. In other words, Itsuki’s love for Sensui is like both of their characters: whiter than white and blacker than black at the same time.
When one looks closely at Itsuki’s behavior towards Sensui, one not only sees the obvious devotion, but also a pathological level of masochism, which is similar to the level of sadism shown by another YYH villain, Karasu. It can be noticed in his body language (the half-pain, half-pleasure screech he makes when the teenaged Sensui knocks him down for the first time; his posture when talking about Kazuya, Sensui’s most brutal personality), and in his way of thought. Itsuki is so masochistic that he seems not to have a sense of self-preservation around Sensui for the most part- his request to see the TV program may simply have been a chance for him to know who exactly will be killing him, and to enjoy this knowledge as he dies, as well as a form of manipulation to get Sensui to hurt him again if he were kept alive. This manipulation (and ultimately futile counter-manipulation by Sensui) forms a large part of their relationship, so that Itsuki gets what he wants (pain, among other things) without seeming like he wanted it at all. This leads to the first self-contradiction regarding the nature of Itsuki’s love for Sensui: Itsuki is so selfless in regards to his lover precisely because he is so selfish.
A case in point: the infamous “fuck-you” speech, in which Itsuki articulates his love for Sensui and his contempt of Reikai:
English Dub (used because of the clarity of thought):
Itsuki - “I won’t let you. Shinobu’s dead. You got the end you desired, so don’t you think he deserves the same? He devoted the last ten years to refuting everything you believe in. He didn’t live by your standard and he certainly didn’t want to die by them. So I won’t let you take him to spirit world, for you to judge him in your way. See… being defeated by the Ma-zoku was precisely the cathartic jolt he needed to resolve his inner turmoil and pay off his guilt. He finally conquered those six personalities and emerged as Shinobu, his original, untainted self. So in a way, he’s already been redeemed and doesn’t need you people to do it for him.”
Koenma - “Where will you take him?”
Itsuki - “Somewhere his soul won’t be subjected to your overbearing scorn and judgment. Where it will be safe from hypocritical administrators who train a boy to be a killer and then hunt him down for being one as a man. You people do not deserve Shinobu’s soul. Your spirit world will have to create another enemy so you can keep on fighting as that is, after all, what you do. But Shinobu and I grow weary of that. We are going to spend the rest of eternity together in solitude and in peace.”
Note how he speaks for Shinobu (which is different from the J version of the anime, in which he says that it was Shinobu’s will not to go to Reikai when he died- however, one could argue that, even in the J version, Itsuki is speaking for Shinobu, using his version of the “truth”). Also note that, as pointed out in the previous section, he is using violent non-violence, in that he does not fight or use violent actions (he actually retreats), but his words are laden with anger and contempt, but still spoken in a calm tone of voice.
The second self-contradiction in his love for Sensui has to do with Sensui’s supposed “purity” in his eyes. This is the way in which he has to get around something that is so deeply sexual in order to make it seem merely platonic love- he emphasizes Sensui’s personality instead of his looks to other people; however, he does let his guard down in the manga to let us see that it is indeed sexual, in the metaphor that he uses for Sensui’s fall (he says it’s like showing a little girl who only knows about the cabbage patch and the stork the most perverse, indecent pornography; this was censored in the anime to the “ink and paper” metaphor).
In short, Itsuki’s love is like Itsuki himself: a bundle of perverse contradictions which are bound together in the same unit.
Conclusion
Itsuki is indeed a unique character with many facets (so many, in fact, that not even I could possibly have noticed them all), instead of the common portrayal of him as Sensui’s lovestruck little bitch. I think that Togashi took the ubiquitous archetype of the devoted lover common in BL (and also common in women in het stories), and made it into something interesting, and informed it by adding his own psychological perspective to it. Even the most devoted of lovers has a dark side, and I think that Itsuki is the perfect example of something benign converted into something dangerous and threatening, to the other characters in the fantasy world as well as to the readers in the real world. Therein the interest in him lies; he is not just another lovestruck bishounen, not just another stereotype unique to male/male relationships in manga and anime. Itsuki is, like it or not, a fully realized character who forces you to either love or hate him, but not just ignore him- ironically the only part about him that isn’t a blending of opposites.
Itsuki Resources and Fanworks
Never Ending Dreams Also on this site is the Itsuki fanlisting.
Enjoy the Silence: One of the oldest Itsuki shrines still in existence.
Comforably Numb: A Itsuki/Sensui FST
itsusen_comm
yyh_villians
Fanfics- Others’
(Most of these are yaoi/BL.)
Shadows of Purity by HColleen. Chosen because this fic, above all others, shows off Itsuki’s intellect. As she says, it’s where Itsuki pwns Kurama.
Little Wishes by greynonentity. I think this fic shows off his love and his thought processes well.
Picture Perfect by ruxi. She captures Itsuki-ness well here.
Fanfics by Me- PORN/NC-17 WARNING
Familiarization
Dangerous Encounters- In which Itsuki’s masochistic side is all too apparent.
Memento and Last Rites- part of my shortfic collection called “Tidbits”. May contain some squick.
Subject: Yaminade no Itsuki, Yuu Yuu Hakusho
Author: Sir Psycho Sexy (akai_senshi)
Website: http://www.geocities.com/kr652000
NOTES: Spoilers ahoy for the Sensui Saga. Also discusses homosexual love and some distressing psychological themes.
Background on Itsuki
Itsuki is a yaminade, a very rare species of demon (he’s the last surviving one, in the manga) with the power to control various attributes of subspace and/or darkness. He has six extra “shadow hands” that he controls independently of his physical body; he controls a lesser demon called a “Ura-otoko”; and he has been shown to travel from place to place by means of the subspace dimension he controls. He is also the person who does Sensui’s “dirty work” in opening up the tunnel between Ningenkai and Makai, because of his abilities. He met Sensui (his future lover and obsessive interest) when the then-teenaged Sensui was about to kill him for simply being a demon. As Sensui asked if he had any last words, Itsuki said that he would like to live for one more day, so he could see the last episode of his favorite television program. As it so happened, this was Sensui’s favorite show as well, and the two of them started a relationship, first as Tantei partners, then as lovers. Itsuki was with Sensui on the day he went insane (due to the Black Black Club’s torturing of demons), and has been faithfully by his side ever since, even after Sensui died, and Itsuki carried him off into the Ura-otoko, as per his request.
First Impressions
I met Itsuki in the fourteenth volume of the Japanese manga. I knew he was part of a canonical yaoi pairing, but I was honestly more intrigued with Sensui than with him at first, probably because of his pretty-boy appearance. By the middle of the arc, however, he had most definitely won me over with his complex personality and his intelligence. This was bolstered further by watching the anime adaptation. I enjoyed both the Japanese (Tsujitani Kouji) and English (nom-de-plume: “Jerome 56”) voice actors’ work very much, and I felt that they both brought out more aspects of Itsuki that I liked: his stoicism, more of his intellect, and all of the contradictory personality traits that I will analyze in the next section. By the time YYH was over, Itsuki ranked second only to Sensui as my favorite character, and I adored the way they played off of each other not only as a couple, but as individual characters
Silence Makes a Sound: His Personality in a Nutshell
Itsuki’s personality can be summed up in one word: “Zenlike”. In this I not only allude to his outward composure and practice of sitting zazen (in a traditional Zen meditation position), but his often-self-contradictory personality traits. He is passive-aggressive; he appears weak, but it inwardly very strong; he is manipulative, but so good at disguising it that he appears naïve; he wants to protect Sensui and keep his mind pure, but at the same time, let him fall for his own enjoyment; he is controlling, Sensui’s puppet master, yet appears not to have a jealous bone in his entire body, and keeps the strings well-hidden. He also tells the most false of lies while imparting everyone around him with the truth of truths, or his definition of the “truth” as he sees it (the fact that he and Sensui are lovers is given away more by their actions towards one another than by anything Itsuki has ever said, contrary to the opinions of many, who complain that the English dub removed this information for the J version) His character design is such that you underestimate who he is when you first look at him. Many people think that Itsuki will wind up as the stereotypical yaoi uke, simply by his outward demeanor and his pretty-boy looks. Upon getting further with him and seeing his brand of non-violent violence and mind-screwing, you realize that this is no longer the case, and, depending on where you are in fandom, you come to like him even more than you originally did, or hate him altogether.
Itsuki’s character is, in fact, so contradictory, so full of opposite traits that assemble into a bizarre Gestalt, that the “translation” from the Japanese manga to the Japanese anime to the English dub of the anime has come full circle, so that Manga!Itsuki is ironically more authentically represented in the dub (which is a “copy” of the Japanese) than in the Japanese anime itself. This may be due to some research on the part of the ADR writers, but I tend to think that that is simply Itsuki’s nature as a character: to bring around two completely different, opposing things and make them into a cohesive unit.
In short, Itsuki’s personality is the answer to the old koan: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Perchance it goes even beyond that, to the realm of absolute psychosis where eight hands clapping are absolutely silent, while everything without a mouth speaks.
Love in Black and White
The most enduring part of Itsuki’s behavior, and the thing that is the most likely to make fans remember him, is his love for Sensui. This seems very much selfless devotion on the surface of things, but once you plunge deeper into Itsuki’s reasoning, it turns much darker. In other words, Itsuki’s love for Sensui is like both of their characters: whiter than white and blacker than black at the same time.
When one looks closely at Itsuki’s behavior towards Sensui, one not only sees the obvious devotion, but also a pathological level of masochism, which is similar to the level of sadism shown by another YYH villain, Karasu. It can be noticed in his body language (the half-pain, half-pleasure screech he makes when the teenaged Sensui knocks him down for the first time; his posture when talking about Kazuya, Sensui’s most brutal personality), and in his way of thought. Itsuki is so masochistic that he seems not to have a sense of self-preservation around Sensui for the most part- his request to see the TV program may simply have been a chance for him to know who exactly will be killing him, and to enjoy this knowledge as he dies, as well as a form of manipulation to get Sensui to hurt him again if he were kept alive. This manipulation (and ultimately futile counter-manipulation by Sensui) forms a large part of their relationship, so that Itsuki gets what he wants (pain, among other things) without seeming like he wanted it at all. This leads to the first self-contradiction regarding the nature of Itsuki’s love for Sensui: Itsuki is so selfless in regards to his lover precisely because he is so selfish.
A case in point: the infamous “fuck-you” speech, in which Itsuki articulates his love for Sensui and his contempt of Reikai:
English Dub (used because of the clarity of thought):
Itsuki - “I won’t let you. Shinobu’s dead. You got the end you desired, so don’t you think he deserves the same? He devoted the last ten years to refuting everything you believe in. He didn’t live by your standard and he certainly didn’t want to die by them. So I won’t let you take him to spirit world, for you to judge him in your way. See… being defeated by the Ma-zoku was precisely the cathartic jolt he needed to resolve his inner turmoil and pay off his guilt. He finally conquered those six personalities and emerged as Shinobu, his original, untainted self. So in a way, he’s already been redeemed and doesn’t need you people to do it for him.”
Koenma - “Where will you take him?”
Itsuki - “Somewhere his soul won’t be subjected to your overbearing scorn and judgment. Where it will be safe from hypocritical administrators who train a boy to be a killer and then hunt him down for being one as a man. You people do not deserve Shinobu’s soul. Your spirit world will have to create another enemy so you can keep on fighting as that is, after all, what you do. But Shinobu and I grow weary of that. We are going to spend the rest of eternity together in solitude and in peace.”
Note how he speaks for Shinobu (which is different from the J version of the anime, in which he says that it was Shinobu’s will not to go to Reikai when he died- however, one could argue that, even in the J version, Itsuki is speaking for Shinobu, using his version of the “truth”). Also note that, as pointed out in the previous section, he is using violent non-violence, in that he does not fight or use violent actions (he actually retreats), but his words are laden with anger and contempt, but still spoken in a calm tone of voice.
The second self-contradiction in his love for Sensui has to do with Sensui’s supposed “purity” in his eyes. This is the way in which he has to get around something that is so deeply sexual in order to make it seem merely platonic love- he emphasizes Sensui’s personality instead of his looks to other people; however, he does let his guard down in the manga to let us see that it is indeed sexual, in the metaphor that he uses for Sensui’s fall (he says it’s like showing a little girl who only knows about the cabbage patch and the stork the most perverse, indecent pornography; this was censored in the anime to the “ink and paper” metaphor).
In short, Itsuki’s love is like Itsuki himself: a bundle of perverse contradictions which are bound together in the same unit.
Conclusion
Itsuki is indeed a unique character with many facets (so many, in fact, that not even I could possibly have noticed them all), instead of the common portrayal of him as Sensui’s lovestruck little bitch. I think that Togashi took the ubiquitous archetype of the devoted lover common in BL (and also common in women in het stories), and made it into something interesting, and informed it by adding his own psychological perspective to it. Even the most devoted of lovers has a dark side, and I think that Itsuki is the perfect example of something benign converted into something dangerous and threatening, to the other characters in the fantasy world as well as to the readers in the real world. Therein the interest in him lies; he is not just another lovestruck bishounen, not just another stereotype unique to male/male relationships in manga and anime. Itsuki is, like it or not, a fully realized character who forces you to either love or hate him, but not just ignore him- ironically the only part about him that isn’t a blending of opposites.
Itsuki Resources and Fanworks
Never Ending Dreams Also on this site is the Itsuki fanlisting.
Enjoy the Silence: One of the oldest Itsuki shrines still in existence.
Comforably Numb: A Itsuki/Sensui FST
itsusen_comm
yyh_villians
Fanfics- Others’
(Most of these are yaoi/BL.)
Shadows of Purity by HColleen. Chosen because this fic, above all others, shows off Itsuki’s intellect. As she says, it’s where Itsuki pwns Kurama.
Little Wishes by greynonentity. I think this fic shows off his love and his thought processes well.
Picture Perfect by ruxi. She captures Itsuki-ness well here.
Fanfics by Me- PORN/NC-17 WARNING
Familiarization
Dangerous Encounters- In which Itsuki’s masochistic side is all too apparent.
Memento and Last Rites- part of my shortfic collection called “Tidbits”. May contain some squick.