YuYu Hakusho — Main Villains / Characters

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Spirit Detective Saga Villains

Case 00: The Appointment as Spirit Detective

Jyaki

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a01_02.png

^{Click to see his demon form}

Species: Demon
Powers: Demonic Possession

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN; Sakamoto), Carlos Moreno (EN; Jyaki) Marco Balzarotti (IT)

A five-count demon criminal marking Yusuke's first encounter as a Spirit Detective. He possessed a student from Kasanegafuchi Junior High to commit crimes, which includes setting Kuwabara's pet cat, Eikichi as a hostage, and blackmailing Kuwabara to do what he wants.

Arc Villain: Of the Appointment as Spirit Detective arc.
The Corrupter: He is able to take control of others' minds and influence their dark side into committing evil deeds.
Demonic Possession: His specialty.
Horned Humanoid: Jyaki has a pair of horns which also manifest on the hosts he possesses (though only those with Spiritual awareness can see them).
The Imp: He is so small that Yusuke could hold him in his hand.
Orifice Evacuation: Jyaki is shown escaping the possessed punk's body via his mouth.
Starter Villain: He is the very first demon that Yusuke encounters upon being resurrected.

Case 01: Retrieval of the Three Artifacts of Darkness

Goki

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a02_01.png

^{Click to see his demon form}

"Do you know what the best spices for a soul are? Some fear, and a dash of pain!"

Species: Soul-Sucking Oni
Powers: Invulnerable Skin / Soul Eating

Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto (JP), Jeremy Inman (EN), Riccardo Lombardo (IT)

A collaborator with Hiei and Kurama to steal the Artifacts of Darkness from the Spirit World Vault.

Adaptational Heroism: In the stage play, his role in the plot was fused with that of Jorge Saotome. After getting killed by Yusuke, a much humbler Goki is seen working as Koenma's beleaguered assistant in the afterlife.
The Brute: Serves this role for Hiei and Kurama.
Child Eater: Or then at least eats their souls, which he says tastes like candy.
Death by Irony: Gouki who eats souls for a living is defeated by taking a blast of spirit energy into the mouth.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Goki's soul-eating tastes (that of little children) are rather close to the edge of pedophilia.
Dumb Muscle: This brings about his own undoing.
Horned Humanoid: He has a set of five of horns on his head.
Lack of Empathy: Especially when it comes to eating children's souls.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Nothing Yusuke could do at the time could penetrate his skin. Goki's mouth and insides on the other hand...
Serial Killer: He was said to have committed six murders prior to taking part in the heist.
Soul Eating: He feeds on souls, preferably of children, and stole the Orb of Baast to make it easier to extract them from people.
Underestimating Badassery: Upon seeing Kurama, he snidely dismisses him as not being the great Yoko Kurama he has heard of. Kurama then quickly cuts down several trees around him and Goki bites his tongue back after that.
Wake-Up Call Boss: After spending the series up to this point effortlessly flattening his fellow delinquents and apprehending Jyaki with similar ease, Goki comes along and hands Yusuke his ass to show both him and the audience that the fights won't be so easy from here on out.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He is seemingly killed by Yusuke's enchanted Spirit Gun blast, but it is stated that he was arrested after his defeat, which suggests his survival. However, some demons are later shown getting arrested and facing punishment after death (i.e. Toguro), so Botan may have meant he was arrested post-mortem. Even if he survived, in chapter 170 Kurama states that many of the D-Class demons that were brainwashed and later arrested by Spirit World were executed, which would probably include Goki.

Case 02: The Prevention of Rando—Protection Order over The House of Genkai

Rando / Shaolin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a03_02.png

^{Click to see him as Shaolin}

"This has always been the hardest part, choosing which technique to destroy my opponent."

Species: Demon
Power: Has 99 Different Powers

Voiced by: You Inoue (JP, anime), Junko Minagawa (JP, video games), Eric Vale (EN), Ariadna Jiménez (Spain), Nicola Bartolini Carassi (IT)

Rando is a demon who attempts to win over the succession rights to Genkai's martial art: "Reikou Hadouken (Spirit Wave)" by disguising himself as a monk named Shaolin so as to not draw attention to himself; and serves as the main antagonist in Yusuke's second case. He has killed 99 masters and obtained their techniques prior to Genkai, and plans to win the tournament to make Genkai's martial art the 100th technique in his arsenal.

1-Dimensional Thinking: He tries to run from Yusuke's fall by running vertically to the collapsing detective, earning him an elbow to the back. It seemingly never occurred to him to instead run horizontally and take cover in the tall swamp grass while Yusuke was in healing. Granted, Botan or Genkai probably would've caught him regardless, but Randō still didn't do himself any favors.
Arc Villain: Of the Disciple Selection Trials arc.
Arachnid Appearance and Attire: Rando seems to be a Spider Demon. He has a spider-shaped mark on his face, and one of his techniques makes the victims of it small enough to be less of a threat, which is similar to how spiders trap their prey in a web before eating them and is able to produce thread to bind his foes.
Awesome, but Impractical: His Shrinking Curse is basically an instant win if it hits, but requires an absurdly long chant to use and can be defeated by earplugs. It can even be reflected back to the user if the technique is used with no one else around to hear the chant.
Awesomeness by Analysis: He learns how to replicate Yusuke's Spirit Gun just by seeing it once.
Bond Villain Stupidity: He had Yusuke dead to rights several times, but wasted his advantage by toying with him just to feed his ego and play with his techniques.
Evil Redhead: Has bright-red hair and has been killing spiritually aware people for decades, or maybe a couple of centuries, to gain their techniques.
Fatal Flaw: As Genkai notes, he is so obsessed with the collecting new techniques that he doesn't bother to learn their weaknesses and how they can backfire let alone refine them.
Hoist by His Own Petard: The Shrinking curse backfires on him.
Instant Expert: Learns the Spirit Gun after seeing it only once.
Kick the Dog: After using the Shrinking Curse on Kuwabara, he ruthlessly breaks Kuwabara's arms, legs, and ribs. Yusuke flies into an Unstoppable Rage in response, pointing out to Rando that there was no reason whatsoever for him to do so.
Larynx Dissonance: In Japanese only, where he has female voices. His having a higher voice while in disguise makes sense given how young said Shorin supposedly is, but he retains the voice in his true form as well, albeit rougher with an unhinged delivery.
Laser-Guided Karma: He uses the Shrinking Curse on Kuwabara and breaks his arm. He's defeated due to said curse backfiring on him due to a stroke of luck on Yusuke's part followed by an elbow drop from Yusuke.
Made of Iron: If nothing else, the main is resilient. He took a full-on assault from Yusuke in his Shaolin form and a direct hit from Yusuke's Spirit Gun, getting up both times and was still ready to fight (though the latter did weaken him). To be fair, this was before Yusuke was properly trained in his spirit powers, but still...
Master of None: Rando's obsession with learning new techniques gave him a wide and varied move pool, but it also meant that he never bothered to learn how to use any of the techniques in his collection to their full potential. He tried to compensate for it by combining them, but he only used basic combinations that sacrificed synergy and practicality for theatrics.
Near-Villain Victory: Despite Yusuke's Heroic Second Wind, he barely manages to withstand his Spirit Gun (though it does weaken him) while Yusuke is too spent to fight back further. The only reason he loses is Yusuke's dumb luck and his own arrogance. Instead of just killing Yusuke when he had the chance, he tries to use the shrinking curse on him to so he can slowly break him in his shrunken state like he did Kuwabara. Unfortunately for him, the curse requires its target to be able to clearly hear its incantation to work. Since Yusuke just so happened to have his ears clogged by moss thanks to his previous falls into the swamp, he couldn't make out any of it. Without anyone else in range to hear it, the curse acted on the only other valid target around at the moment: Rando himself. Genkai chides him for using the technique without even knowing all the mechanics and Yusuke finishes the now-shrunken villain off with a simple elbow drop.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: His scores on the tests are barely high enough to pass, but he turns out to be the strongest opponent Yusuke faces in the competition to become Genkai's student. He was deliberately underperforming in the earlier rounds to make his opponents underestimate him until it was too late.
Playing with Fire: One of his stolen abilities.
Power Copying: Steals other martial arts masters' techniques.
Psychopathic Manchild: More obvious in the Japanese version.
Sadist: Though he loves stealing powers, Rando claims what he loves best is the fear he instills in his enemies.
Shark Pool: Hangs Yusuke over a pond of piranha-like fishes.
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: He was stupefied when it was revealed Yusuke avoided shrinkage via swamp algae clogging his ears from earlier.

Case 03: Disintegration of The Four Saint Beasts

The Four Beasts are four demons who rule a part of the Underworld called City of Apparitions and the antagonists for Yusuke's third case. The beasts share their names with the four symbols of Chinese astrology. In the English anime adaptation, they are known as the Saint Beasts.

In General

Bishōnen Line: The stronger the Beast, the more human they are.
Elemental Powers: Genbu can control the stones that make up his body, Seiryuu can manipulate ice and Suzaku is able to use lightning. Byakko has an association with flame, as his arena is flooded with lava and his voice, can turn targets to ash. That said, he can also absorb energy, animate his hair into henchmen, and -- in the manga only -- fly around like a popped balloon after absorbing too much energy and exploding.
The Four Gods: Each of them has an obvious design theme that makes them related to that specific god.
Four Is Death: Four members in all and they all end up dead by the arc's conclusion.
Knight of Cerebus: The first enemies that have their own teammates killed, and to be killed through determination rather than dumb luck.
Monstrosity Equals Weakness and Bishōnen Line: The Four Saint Beasts become less beastly and more saint-like as they grow in power. From weakest to strongest, the group is made up of a tortoise demon made of rock, a slightly-more-humanoid tiger-man, a human-looking guy with blue skin and a vaguely reptilian face, and finally, a full-on Bishounen whose only demonic features are his antennae.

Genbu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a04.png

"Why don't you all attack me at once? Then the last one left won't be lonely."

Species: Demon
Powers: Stone Body / Stone Manipulation

Voiced by: Yutaka Shimaka (JP), Chris Forbis (EN), Joaquín Gómez (Spain), Mario Zucca (IT)

A rock demon with the power to move through stone as though it were part of his body.

The Brute: Fights with one trick through brute force. Kurama is able to survive his first volley and defeat him immediately after, as there's no variation to his attacks.
Dishing Out Dirt: More like made of dirt.
Elemental Embodiment: He's more of a golem.
The Four Gods: The Black Tortoise, with some embellishments to make him more reptilian, and a bit like a gargoyle.
Home Field Advantage: Genbu can use his powers over earth to meld with the stone that composes the castle and move freely through it. The other Saint Beasts tolerate his idiocy due to his ability to come and go as he pleases by melding with the walls of their castle.
Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Looks like a turtle Kaju with a troll face, but had the second swiftest defeat.
Pulling Themselves Together: Even when his rocks are destroyed, he can reconstitute... until Kurama jacks his brain and he reassembles upside down.
Rock Monster: He's composed of rock, and can melt into any rock surface. He can also control his rock body at will and is fond of attacking by turning his body into a swarm of rocks and flying toward his opponent.
Smug Snake: Believes he's going to win and that his power has no flaws, leading him to plead with his opponent not to kill him.
Tag Along Kid: A sinister subversion. The reason the other Saint Beasts tolerate him is that he can communicate with the demons; they would've been the Three Saint Beasts a long time ago if that wasn't the case.

Byakko

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a05_02.png

"Humans! I will rip you apart and eat you myself!"

Species: Demon
Powers: Energy Absorption / Summon Beasts / Tiger Scream

Voiced by: Takeshi Watabe (JP), Andrew Chandler (EN), Rodrigo Miranda (Latin America, TV series), Giovanni Battezzato (IT)

An anthropomorphic white tiger who can turn pieces of his hair into lesser beasts, absorb aura energy, and fire sonic blasts from his mouth.

Advertised Extra: He is shown predominately in the opening credits chasing after Keiko and Botan, with who he never interacts within the show proper, before being blasted by Yusuke's spirit gun. This version of the opening lasts long before and after his death and extends until the beginning of the Chapter Black Saga.
Alas, Poor Villain: The story takes a moment to focus on Byakko's shock and horror when he is betrayed and executed by Seiryuu for failing to beat his opponent. Despite being an arrogant man-eating demon.
Balloon Belly: He gets a rather large gut when absorbing enough energy.
Et Tu, Brute?: He is genuinely shocked when Seiryu decides to kill him for his failures.
Evil Sounds Deep: Though not as gravelly as Genbu, Byakko's own pipes are suitably growly and menacing. He even weaponizes it.
Fair-Play Villain: He's straightforward compared to hide and seek Genbu, ruthless Seiryuu and wicked Suzaku.
Feed It with Fire: He can absorb spirit energy, becoming bigger in the process.
The Four Gods: Represents the White Tiger.
Genius Bruiser: Although he is just muscle like Genbu, he employs a lot more moves and wit.
Made of Iron: He survives falling into lava, but is grievously injured.
Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Averted in that he's more physically durable than Seiryuu.
Panthera Awesome: A white tiger man.
Primal Fear: He's a white tiger man who delights in eating humans and describes himself as a true beast who desires to break out into the human world so he can fulfill his hunger. So much so that Team Urameshi is already fearful when they hear his furious roaring before laying eyes on him, and are briefly taken aback when they do.
Rasputinian Death: Falls from a great height, falls from a great height into lava, but is then ultimately only killed by being frozen and shattered.
Smug Super: He views himself highly with justified reason, seeing that he has a powerful Super-Scream attack that is legendary in the Demon World, and due to this reason, he didn't even try to come and face Kuwabara, choosing to have his hairs face him instead.
Super-Scream: His "Tiger Scream" disintegrates anything it hits.
Sympathy for the Devil: You must be doing something right, when Hiei feels sorry for you.
Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: His eyes have yellow sclera.

Seiryuu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a06.png

"It is not wise to insult your executioner."

Species: Demon
Main Powers: Ice Manipulation

Voiced by: Mitsuo Senda (JP), Justin Cook (EN), Guillermo Rojas (Latin America, TV series), Guido Gutta (IT)

A demon with enhanced speed and control over ice.

Anti-Climax: Non-video game version. The fight between Kuwabara and Byakko is a bit of a marathon that spans several episodes before he's finally defeated. Hiei puts Seiryuu down in the space of about five minutes, most of which was Hiei dodging his attacks to toy with him. Once Hiei closed the gap, it was a Single-Stroke Battle. The battle is even shorter in the manga, where Hiei kills him with his first attack.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Even looks like a martial artist.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Cut into many pieces by Hiei almost instantly.
The Dragon: To Suzaku, which is fitting.
Evil Counterpart: To Hiei, both being cold, unfeeling killers with a dragon motif, only Seiryuu had ice powers to counter Hiei's fire one.
The Four Gods: He'd be the dragon...though he's just a big blue-skinned man with a dragon outfit. Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged so lampshades this.
Karmic Death: His Curb-Stomp Battle at the hands Hiei is quite satisfying when you remember he killed Byakko for failing to win his battle, and unlike Byakko, Seiryuu didn't put up a good fight.
An Ice Person: Fragile enough to the point that one blow is enough to defeat, and one can do it through ice punches
Kick the Dog: Killing Byakko for failing, the fact that he tried asking for help and was genuinely shocked at the betrayal makes it worse.
Single-Stroke Battle: Hiei kills him in 16 slices.
Smug Snake: Confident, but too sure of his technique. He would probably be more of a threat if Hiei didn't happen to be an ice apparition.
You Are Already Dead: In the anime, Hiei slices him to pieces, then has a brief conversation with him before his wounds become apparent. A scene from Seiryuu's perspective splits in half mid-sentence as he realizes this.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: To Byakko, and anyone who is of no further use to the Saint Beasts.

Suzaku

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a07.png

"You should feel most fortunate, Yusuke. Not everyone's girlfriend gets to star in a horror movie."

Species: Demon
Powers: Lightning Manipulation / Prism of Seven

Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN), Carlos Lladó (Spain), Víctor Covarrubias (Latin America, TV series), Simone D'Andrea (IT)

The leader of the Four Beasts. A demon who uses lightning to attack, he is able to split himself into seven separate, yet equally powerful bodies, and can endlessly regenerate his power by reabsorbing the copies.

Arch-Enemy: He's one of Yusuke's most personal enemies alongside Younger Toguro and Shinobu Sensui.

Beauty Is Bad: Easily the most conventionally attractive of the Saint Beasts (see Bishonen below), but also the most destructive and cruel.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Suzaku is a massive sadist who sits on his chair while his clones electrocute Yusuke, six on one.
Doppelgänger Attack: Like mentioned above, seven clones, each just as strong as him.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In the English dub, when Yusuke resorts to using his life force as backup spirit energy, Suzaku ponders what he could possibly "profit" from saving Keiko through an Heroic Sacrifice. He only figures it out after he's dying by Yusuke's hands.
Faux Affably Evil: Is infinitely more pleasant, polite, and serene than his allies. However, this politeness and calm persona is a facade to mask his utterly sadistic love of tormenting and torturing others for the sheer, near childlike glee of it all. Such as how he mercilessly tortures Yusuke and forces him to watch while his mind controlled minions were about to kill Keiko and Botan; all the while enjoying himself like he is watching his favorite horror film.
The Four Gods: He'd be the Phoenix, especially since he can revive himself multiple times and has a bird for a companion.
Genre Savvy: His scheme (especially regarding Keiko) is set up like a B-grade horror movie. That isn't lost on him in the slightest.
Graceful Loser: He takes his defeat by Yusuke's hands well (at least in the dub), satisfied with understanding where Yusuke's strength came from.
Manipulative Bastard: Figuratively to the other Saint Beasts, and literally with his flute. And emotionally towards Yusuke. Yusuke even says "You think you can control me, don't you?" To which Suzaku just smirks.
Morality Pet: Murugu, though she's as gleefully sadistic as he is, she's still the only thing he's shown to care for.
Musical Assassin: Uses the Makai Whistle to control insects, but never uses it in combat for obvious reasons.
Night of the Living Mooks: His cultivated humans, and the humans under the control of his insects.
Shock and Awe: Uses lightning-based arrows to shock his enemies to death.
Wake-Up Call Boss: He was the first enemy Yusuke faced that was capable of threatening a large number of people and competent enough that his usual trickery and luck wouldn't be enough to let him win. Yusuke had to drain his spirit energy to near-fatal lows to dig up enough strength to kill him.

Intermission

Half-Breed Demons

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a24.png

Not!Kuwabara: "To make your name in this world is a hard job indeed!"
Not!Yusuke: "For half demons like us who have a registered name and citizenship in the Human Realm."

Species: Demon-Human hybrids
Powers: None

Adapted Out: They don't appear in the anime.
Big Bad Wannabe: They want the credit for killing the Spirit Detective, but are really just dimwitted street thugs with delusions of grandeur.
Criminal Doppelgänger: Their Human forms have a strong resemblance to Yusuke and Kuwabara.
Evil Redhead: Not!Kuwabara.
Glory Seekers: They seek to bring about Yusuke and Kuwabara's demises in order to make a name for themselves.
Half-Human Hybrid: As their de facto name shows, they are Demon-Human hybrids.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: They're technically demons, but are so pitifully weak and have such small-minded goals that they're only any kind of threat when the heroes are so exhausted that they can barely move.
Mundanger: Double Subversion. While they have Demon ancestry, they are incapable of doing any sort of supernatural abilities and thus have to rely on their own wits and an army of low level Demon-Human hybrids cohorts.
No Name Given: Their names are never revealed.
Opportunistic Bastards: They attempted to take advantage of Yusuke and Kuwabara's weakened states from having fought against the Saint Beasts to frame them for sneak attacks so that other gangs will seek to fight and potentially kill them.
Time for Plan B: In the event that things went awry (which they did once Kurama exposed their ruse), they had recruited an army of fellow half breeds to aid them. However, Hiei already took them out leaving them at the mercy of the angry mob. Cue Oh, Crap!.

The Black Book Club & Team Toguro

Case 04: The Retrieval of Yukina

Gonzo Tarukane

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a08.png

Species: Human

Voiced by: Kenichi Ogata (JP), Brad Jackson (EN), Carlos Becerril (Latin America, TV series), Maurizio Scattorin (IT)

The Founder of the Black Book Club.

Adaptation Origin Connection: While he's connected to the Black Book Club in all versions of this series, in the JP anime and original manga he's just another member of the group with no significant importance other than being Sakyo's pawn and the one who Team Urameshi is in opposition towards. The anime's English Dub changes this by having him be the founder of the BBC, which ends up making him pretty important character despite not being around for long.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Begs Hiei to spare his life when cornered, and tries offering to use Yukina's tears to make them both rich. It ends horribly for him.
Arc Villain: Of the Retrieval of Yukina arc.
Asshole Victim: Thanks, Sakyo and Toguro, for giving him what he deserved. Even the other Black Book Club members don't care about his demise and even mocked him shortly before his death, in contrast to their horrified and pissed reactions to finding out about Butajiri's demise.
Big Bad Wannabe: While he is dangerous thanks to his wealth and his connections (being the founder of the Black Book Club, and hiring various demons and humans to do his dirty work), he overestimates his chances of winning a bet against Sakyo, loses everything when Younger Toguro is defeated, and doesn't compare well to most of the antagonists in the series. The reveal that the Toguro Bros were actually working for Sakyo the whole time also means Tarukane's plan was doomed from the start.
Bioweapon Beast: One of the beasts of his zoo was bio-engineered from various predators by the military, who he uses to test Younger Toguro's strength.
Collector of the Strange: He has a personal zoo of demons in his possession.
Cruel Mercy: Hiei spares his life at Yukina's request, but only after beating him to a bloody pulp and leaving him dirt poor with no money or any way of gaining it. Though Sakyo and Younger Toguro cut it short by murdering Tarukane shortly after Team Urameshi leaves the mansion.
Depraved Dwarf: He's shorter than even Hiei and Yukina, and is one of the most depraved humans in the series.
The Don: Though Oyabun might be more appropriate given his Japanese nationality. To emphasize this, in the Filipino Dub his name was changed to "Don Paquito''.
Evil Old Folks: Appears to be fairly old going off his appearance, and is rotten to the core.
Fat Bastard: Is rotund and also a evil man who tortures demons for fun and profit.
Fatal Flaw: His massive Greed is ultimately his undoing, as not only does his torture of Yukina for her Pearl Tears lead to Team Urameshi storming his mansion to save her, but Sakyo was also able to correctly predict that he'd use the Toguro Brothers to wage bets against the Black Book Club, which Sakyo takes advantage of to rig the bet in his favor instead, leading to Tarukane losing his entire fortune.
Gonk: Discussed in this exchange when the Heroes see an image of him for the first time. Sakyo also refers to him as a "little eyesore".
Kuwabara: He's too ugly to be a Human.
Yusuke: He's too ugly to be anything.
Greed: His ultimate motive seems to be acquiring as much money as possible, even when he's already incredibly rich as is.
Hate Sink: Tarukane is easily one of the most hateable antagonists in the series, due to being a cruel bastard who tortures Yukina for her pearl tears despite already being filthy rich, and being an annoying and overconfident asshole. The anime's english dub even further adds to this by having him be the founder of the Black Book Club and thus being both being directly and indirectly responsible for the terrible atrocities that group has committed. His death is brutal but very well-earned.
Humiliation Conga: His entire plan fails miserably. He keeps losing money to Sakyo, who then proceeds to bet his and Tarukane's entire fortunes on whether Yusuke and Kuwabara can defeat the Toguro Brothers. They emerge victorious after an intense and hard fight, and the other Black Book Club members proceed to cruelly mock, laugh at and kick him out of the group despite him being the one who founded the BBC to begin with. His back-up plan to run off with Yukina and keep torturing her for her pearl tears is ruined when Hiei shows up and kills his guards. Tarukane is reduced to trying to beg and bribe Hiei, which results in Hiei beating him to within an inch of his life. Tarukane goes insane at the loss of his fortune and breaks down laughing shortly before being executed by Toguro. To make matters worse, it's revealed that the Toguro Brothers were secretly working for Sakyo the entire time and intentionally threw the match so he would gain Tarukane's money.
Jerkass: Is a greedy and selfish asshole who cares about no one but himself and tortures demons for profit. He's also a massive prick to everyone except for the Toguro Brothers, and he attempts to trick his fellow Black Book Club members into betting money on a partially rigged match.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Suffers a pretty brutal one at Hiei's hands once the latter catches up to him.
Off with His Head!: Younger Toguro kicks his head clean off.
Sadist: He's not as blatant about it as Elder Toguro, but he's shown to greatly enjoy torturing Yukina far beyond just making money off her. Him founding the BBC in the dub also hints at this, given the group's original purpose was torturing demons to death for fun.
Smug Snake: He's incredibly overconfident in his abilities and thinks he can use Team Urameshi storming his mansion as a chance to trick the BBC into betting money against them. Unfortunately for him, Sakyo was counting on this and had already contacted and hired the Toguro Bros to rig the bet in his favor, dooming Tarukane's plan before it even started.
Undignified Death: After already losing his fortune and getting bloodily beaten by Hiei, Tarukane is reduced to insanely laughing about his newfound poverty, and then is killed by Younger Toguro kicking his head clean off his shoulders. Making it even more humiliating is that Sakyo orders his death as a mere afterthought to his and the Toguro's current conversation.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His founding of the Black Book Club ends up having far reaching consequences past what he had originally intended. Not only does it cement Sakyo's rise to power, but Sensui's Start of Darkness was kickstarted by seeing the BBC torture several demons to death. The end result is several deaths of both humans and demons alike, including Tarukane himself and the entire BBC, and the world almost being overrun by demons twice thanks to Sakyo and Sensui's separate plans to open a portal to the demon world.
Villainous Breakdown: Progressively starts to lose it as he keeps losing his money to Sakyo, and is left in shock when he loses his entire fortune. He eventually goes insane after Hiei pummels his face and ruins his back-up plan, laughing to himself that he's just "a street bum" seconds before Toguro kills him.
Villainous Legacy: Though he isn't around for long and only appears in the Spirit Detective Saga for a few chapters/episodes, his actions via the founding of the Black Book Club and its Demon trafficking operation puts into motion much of the series and also leads Sensui to believe that Humans must be destroyed.

The Demon Triad

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a11_01.png

[Miyuki] Voiced by: Ako Mayama ^note (JP), Peggy Paterson (EN), Patrizia Scianca (IT)
[Inmaki] Voiced by: Akio Nojima (JP), E. Bailey (EN), Giuseppe Calvetti (IT)
[Gokumonki] Voiced by: Yutaka Shimaka (JP), Jeremy Inman (EN), Sante Calogero (IT)

The Three highest ranking subordinates of the Toguro brother's Apparition Gang.

Barbarian Longhair: Gokumonki sports this hairstyle. Also has a mustache.
The Brute: Gokumonki provides this role for the trio.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Despite their reputation, they provide very little challenge for the protagonists; all three of them are beaten within a single episode. Heck, Miyuki and Gokumonki get laid out in one hit in the manga before they can even do anything. The anime expands on their fights a bit as at least needing a little effort from the heroes.
Death by Adaptation: The anime gives the impression that they were killed by Yusuke and Kuwabara, however the manga showed them as still being alive. They are shown during a flashback to give Genkai her invitation to the Dark Tournament, though the anime replaces them with a group of three hood cladded individuals (And the Funimation dub also takes this further by having the female messenger voiced by Laura Bailey instead of Miyuki's actress Peggy Paterson).
Dumb Muscle: Whereas his comrades used more strategic fighting styles, Gokumonki simply relied on brute force and using Botan as a human shield.
Evil Redhead: Gokumonki has red hair, which is fitting given that his source of inspiration, Sun Wukong, is frequently depicted with red or blonde hair.
Horned Humanoid: Miyuki has a single horn while Gokumonki has three.
Invisibility: Inmaki has this ability via an invisibility cloak. However, it is negated by him having to fight the duo in the narrow hallway's of Tarukane's mansion.
Magic Hair: Miyuki, at least in the anime, can turn strands of her hair into whips.
Manipulative Bastard: Miyuki in the edited for daytime version by Funimation (so as to avoid having to making clear her transgender status and thus potentially getting into any conflicts with the FCC) has her exploiting male opponents' sensibilities in regards to fighting against women and feigning exaggerated moments of pain in order to get them to lower their guard.
Monkey King Lite: Gokumonki is based on Sun Wukong. Notably, he has red hair, welds an elongated weapon (though he uses a club instead of a staff, and his name even contains "Goku" in it (of which is the Japanese version of his name).
Shout-Out: The members of the Triad are loosely based on the main characters of the Classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. Miyuki is based on Xuanzang (with her being a transgender woman being a reference for many Japanese produced works to make Xuanzang equivalents female), Inmaki is very loosely based on Sha Wujing and Zhu Bajie, and Gokumonki is based on Sun Wukong. The fact that they are named as being a "Triad" certainly reinforces the Chinese influences in their theming.
Super-Speed: Another of Inmaki's abilities.
The Triads and the Tongs: Invoked with one of them, Miyuki, being garbed in Chinese style attire and referring to themselves as "the Demon Triad".
Wolverine Claws: Inmaki uses these as his weapons of choice. Considering that one of the characters he is based on, Zhu Bajie, frequently wields a rake that has been modified for use as a weapon in Journey to the West, Inmaki's claws are likely an allusion to that.
The Worf Effect: All three of them are easily taken care of by Yusuke (though Kuwabara helped a little), to show how much more powerful he had become.

Case 05: The Participation of the Dark Tournament

Sakyo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a12.png

"My brothers all took honest, white-collar jobs, with wives and kids. If I had their lives, I'd kill myself. Luckily, their fate was not meant for me. I was too smart."

Species: Human

Voiced by: Nobuyuki Furuta (JP), Eric Vale (EN), Kike Caraballo (Spain), Guido Cavalleri/ Patrizio Prata (IT)

Sakyo is the wealthy owner of Team Toguro and a member of the underground Black Book Club. While he appears to be calm and charismatic, he is a sociopath who grew up torturing and killing animals and people. He has an affinity and knack for gambling, occasionally putting his own life on the line just for the thrill of it. He accumulates a vast fortune for which he plans to open a portal to the demon world, for no other reason than to just see what happens. For a short while, he was the closest that Shizuru had to a romantic interest, as he took a liking to her and opens up to her about his train of thoughts.

Adaptational Nice Guy: Although his actions remain the same, the anime made Sakyo out to be a character you can almost sympathize with, especially when he dies, as he is presented as a man with deep existential troubles yet also a sense of honor who strikes somewhat of a bond with Shizuru. The manga, on the other hand, portrays him as just a very rich businessman with very sick hobbies who even laughs mad before dying.
Affably Evil: He's very polite and gentlemanly for a villain, especially towards Shizuru.
Ax-Crazy: In his younger days, he enjoyed dissecting animals, and eventually humans. Present-time, however, he seems to have moved on from that particular sin.
Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Is ultimately the one who takes down Gonzo Tarukane and the rest of the Black Book Club after Koenma previously failed to do so years ago, through ordering Younger Toguro to kill them all and also stealing Tarukane's fortune.
Bad People Abuse Animals: He spent his teenage years torturing animals before eventually moving on to do the same to humans and demons. He eventually moved on to gambling as his greatest passion.
Big Bad Duumvirate: He forms this with Younger Toguro. Sakyo's a rich businessman who hires Younger Toguro and his plans upon winning the Dark Tournament provide an existential threat to the world, however Younger Toguro is far more physically dangerous than him and is more involved with Team Urameshi on a personal level, wanting to find someone who can actually challenge him and kill him.
Bored with Insanity: Sort of — he eventually became bored with personal killing and torturing, and found gambling to be his truest pleasure.
Card-Carrying Villain: Freely admits that he doesn't have a Freudian Excuse and is just rotten to the core for no reason.
The Chessmaster: The entire Dark Tournament is his gambit to open a portal to Demon World out of curiosity. However, he is Out-Gambitted by his Dragon-in-Chief Toguro, who had his own plans in letting himself be killed by Yusuke. His plans are fulfilled posthumously by Sensui, but that latter's reasonings and plans aren't connected to Sakyo's beyond Sensui's Face–Heel Turn being prompted via his mansion being the start of his villainy to begin with.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Gambling on the torture and destruction of demons, and organizing a tournament for this reason, just to earn more money...
Deadpan Snarker: A villainous example, he often gives indirect and subtle jabs to his fellow Black Book Club members.
Dating Catwoman: The anime toys with it, as he and Shizuru get attracted to each other pretty fast in the few moments they share during the tournament. The event of his death impedes it from advancing further.
Dub Text: Even though the original Japanese Sakyo was still a sociopath, he remembered his happy childhood with a warm fondness, and genuinely loved his family ("My parents were decent and kind people; it was what you could call an ideal family") and blamed nobody but himself for how he turned out, the English dub added a lot of changes to his narration, making him hate his parents and swearing he would kill himself if he became a white-collar worker.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- It is a poor taste for a gambler to cheat, and Sakyo does NOT tolerate poor taste gracefully.
- Sakyo's also noticeably disapproving of Elder Toguro's cruelty, though more because of how pointless it is.
  Sakyo: Your brother's quite the fool.
  Younger Toguro: Yes, it's a bad habit of his.
- On the receiving end from the rest of the Black Book Club members after revealing his plan to open a permanent gateway between the human and demon worlds. Even they're horrified at the potential slaughter and destruction that would result from it.
Evil Versus Evil: He ends up frequently coming into conflict with the other Black Book Club members due to conflicting goals and them getting in his way, and eventually he has Toguro kill them all. The situation with Tarukane in particular stands out, as it's strongly implied that they've always hated each other and that this is part of the reason why he goes out of his way to have the Toguro brothers ruin his life and kill him, whereas he ultimately only kills the other BBC members because they got in the way of his plans.
Eviler than Thou: He pulls this on the rest of the Black Book Club when he reveals he wants to open a gateway between the human and demon worlds, risking the apocalypse just for the fun of it. His fellow club members, who aren't above torturing and murdering demons for fun and profit, are appropriately horrified then murdered by Younger Toguro on Sakyo's orders.
Face Death with Dignity: In the anime, he gives a small smile at Shizuru when it's time for him to fulfill his word and give his life away. Quite different from the manga, where he dies striking a grimace and laughing like a maniac.
Fiction 500: He is able to stake the equivalent of Japan's entire national budget like it was pocket change when betting on the victory of Yusuke and Kuwabara over the Toguro brothers with Torukane Gonzo... but then again, he KNEW Toguro would throw the fight for him and more importantly LIVE to report it. The dub ups the ante by keeping the figure 66 trillion+, but implying that it's US dollars, as opposed to Japanese Yen, which increased the figure by two orders of magnitude to more than the annual economic output of the entire planet (noted by two members of the Black Book Club: one says, "That's more than Japan's Gross National Product," and another adds, "It's more than any nation's product").
Foil: To Gonzo Tarukane. Tarukane is short, ugly and blatant about his evilness, while Sakyo has a normal height, is attractive enough for Shizuru to develop a crush on him in the anime, and is very classy and polite despite his reprehensible goals and complete lack of morals. Tarukane's motive is pure Greed despite already being very rich, Sakyo wants more money so he can open up a portal to the demon world just for the fun of it all. And lastly, they both lose their fortunes in the end, but react to it differently, as Tarukane attempts to regain his money and goes insane when he fails while also resorting to begging for his life, while Sakyo calmly accepts his fate and kills himself even when Koenma spares him.
For the Evulz: Wants a portal to the Makai to be opened...just so life will be more interesting as the world goes to hell. He gets his wish in the end, but it's not the way he wanted to.
The Gambling Addict: Self-admitted, and to the point of gambling his own life at some point. And keeping his word when he loses.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a notorious one on his face, and is definitely a bastard.
Graceful Loser: In the anime at least, where he fulfills his end of the bargain and willingly forfeits his life along with his plans to open a portal between the demon and human worlds. He even lights up one last smoke amidst the destruction of the stadium.
I Gave My Word: For all his flaws, Sakyo is a deeply honorable man whose word is his absolute bond; if he promises you that he'll kill himself for losing a bet, he means it.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Has more of a mullet, leads to the same Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon effect as Karasu.
Man of Wealth and Taste: He likes gambling, dresses elegantly, is cultured in various areas, and is a refined gentleman. It makes one almost forget he planned to open a portal to Demon World to start a potential apocalypse just out of amusement if he won.
The Man Behind the Man: He's in charge of Team Toguro, and is thus the true villain of the Dark Tournament saga.
Nightmare Fetishist: He claims to have been fascinated by death and suffering since childhood.
Noble Demon: His goals are incredibly vicious and destructive, but he is a man of his word and has a strong sense of honor. Unlike most other villains in the series, he knows his own sociopathy and doesn't consider himself any better than his victims.
Non-Action Big Bad: He serves as the fifth member of Team Toguro, but acknowledges that he can't fight. His "match" with Koenma ends up being tied to the outcome of Yusuke's match with Toguro, essentially meaning that with Yusuke's team having lost one match and won two, the team who wins, in that case, would win the round and the tournament.
Non-Action Guy: In a Double Subversion, he reveals himself as the fifth member of Team Toguro... before wagering his life on Toguro so he doesn't have to fight.
One Last Smoke: While waiting for the self-destruct bomb to go off and being confronted by Koenma, he still continues smoking as calmly as he always has.
Only One Name: He is only known as Mr. Sakyo. In the anime, the lighter he gives to Shizuru shows the initials SN monogrammed on it, so its first name (going for the Japanese names order) apparently starts with the letter N.
Pet the Dog: His interactions with Shizuru in the anime, he is very suave and often protects her from the negative aspects of the Dark Tournament.
Posthumous Character: Even after his death, he still has an influence on the Chapter Black saga via Sensui's backstory. His plans are ultimately fulfilled by a man not only stronger then his top fighter, but who is also much smarter than him and ironically by one of his original enemies: Former Spirit Detective Shinobu Sensui.
Predecessor Villain: Eventually becomes this after his self-inflicted demise, as his past actions have deep repercussions during Chapter Black, since Itsuki more or less picked up on digging through the tunnel where he left off. Even worse, Sensui had his mental breakdown in one of his mansions, where they were torturing demons and bathing in their blood.
Sadist: When he was younger, he had a hobby of dissecting animals and "challenging" himself to see how long he could keep them alive after cutting their hearts out. He eventually moved on from this and gained a greater interest in gambling, but his sadistic side isn't entirely gone, as he oversaw the Black Book Club torturing and murdering demons, as well as showing amusement at the BBC's horrified and shocked reactions to his plan and revelation that he was the one who killed Tarukane and Butajiri.
Sharp-Dressed Man: He dresses very professionally and is overall a professional businessman who treats his affairs with a business-like attitude.
Smoking Is Cool: He typically smokes and due to his suave nature, he manages to make it look cool. It's to the point he prefers a smoke when finally dies.
The Sociopath: Fits the trope to a T right down to his own personal inability to feel joy and constant need for stimulation. His backstory tells us how he would torture animals when he ran a pet shop and only enters the dark underground because he could gamble lives including his own, implying a desire for constant stimulation.
Stepford Smiler: His smile is perennial, but by his own admission, there is no joy behind it.
Taking You with Me: Sort of a half-hearted, possibly unintentional example. After Team Toguro's defeat, he graciously accepts defeat and sets the stadium to self-destruct with himself inside it... without waiting for anyone to actually get out first.
Villainous Friendship: Downplayed as it's professional and both have their own interests that happen to align. However, Younger Toguro is often hanging around and Sakyo feels comfortable enough to talk about many matters, business and personal to the former. On Younger Toguro's part, he seems to favor him over any of the Black Book Club members, often killing his enemies on Sakyo's behalf and being the only "member" on the team that he has that is positive without any negative implications.
Visionary Villain: Averted in the manga, but his portrayal in the anime invokes this where his plan to open a portal to the demon world is both to see a new age unfold as well as to control the world with fear instead of greed. For his manga motives, see For the Evulz above for details.

Team Toguro

The Demon Tournament team owned by the ludicrously wealthy Sakyo N., and led by the Toguro Brothers. They each have their own reasons for joining the team and fighting, but they also unanimously want to aid Sakyo in helping him construct an even bigger portal to the Underworld. Because, apparently, life would be more interesting that way.

In General

Antagonist Abilities: Half of the team, in nice contrast to the other half. Elder Toguro and Karasu are respectively a demonic plastic man and an explosive magician, while Younger Toguro and Bui are just incredibly strong martial artists. Then there is Sakyo, whose money is his power.
Badass Crew: With the exception of Sakyo and Elder Toguro, each is a major Person of Mass Destruction in their own right.
Evil Counterpart:
- Younger Toguro to Yusuke, being both martial artists with a cool attitude who wear green and lead the team. And both are demonic in their own way.
- Elder Toguro to Kuwabara, who is similarly much more emotional than his leader, gets little respect from him (in Toguro's case, fatally so) and has a sword-related power.
- Karasu to Kurama, another genius tactician with Agent Peacock traits who fights by summoning things.
- Bui to Hiei, being both no-nonsense warriors with a begrudging sense of honor who fight with bladed weapons and have a hidden, frightening power.
- Sakyo to Koenma, his own team's imperturbable backer and Non-Action Guy who has a mission to fulfill (the opposite mission from Sakyo, in fact).
Lovecraftian Superpower: The Toguro brothers manifest their powers in a disturbing kind of way, distorting their bodies, either through shapeshifting or grotesquely exaggerated muscles.

Younger Toguro

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a13_8.png

^{Click to see him at 45% strength}
^{Click to see him at 100% strength}
^{Click to see him at 100% of 100% strength}

"Please be gentle with us. We're very fragile."

Species: Human (formerly) / Demon
Powers: Muscle Manipulation

Voiced by: Tesshō Genda (JP), Dameon Clarke (EN), Joaquín Gómez (Spain), Rodrigo Miranda (Latin America, TV series), Gianluca Iacono (IT)

Founder and Leader of the Apparition Gang and the captain and star fighter of Team Toguro, Younger Toguro is a formerly-human martial arts master turned-demon and one of the main antagonists of the Retrieval of Yukina and Dark Tournament arcs. It's been fifty years since he last participated in the tournament, and it appears Yusuke has intrigued him enough to hope he has finally found a fighter worthy of his full 100% power. He has something of an interesting relationship with Genkai, to say the least.

'80s Hair: A flat-top no less!
'90s Anti-Hero: Deconstructed. Ridiculously muscled and possessing tremendous power? Check. Cold, aloof son of a bitch with little care for others? Check. No inhibition to destroying anyone he is ordered to kill and/or needs to be killed to fulfill his goals. Check. Though the "Hero" Part? He is a Fallen Hero who made his Deal with the Devil with the intention of using his new found eternal youth to avoid being powerless to stop massacres like the one that cost his students' their lives. However he gradually became more jaded in his outlook and lost faith in his mission upon realizing he had become no different than any of the demons he fought being that his wish for eternal youth was based more out of his selfish desire to never grow old than it was out of any utilitarian goal he had used as an excuse. His only hope left was for someone to kill him, but nobody strong enough existed to do so until Yusuke came around, and when he finally perished, he willingly goes to the deepest part of Hell as punishment for his actions.
Adaptation Personality Change: In the manga, he is surprisingly extroverted and creepy for his calm appearance, and in fact he shows a crazy Slasher Smile very often. In contrast, his anime version is much more collected and stoic, never lifts his voice, and his worst facial expression is the little, slightly smug smile seen in the picture, which he doesn't strike very often.
Affably Evil: A honorable fighter and only kills when required to, unless you prove to be a worthy opponent or cross certain lines.
The Ageless: Became this upon becoming a Demon so that he would never experience declining strength with age as well as preventing those he loved from ever being victims of the likes of Kairen.
Alas, Poor Villain: No one mourned his actual death, though when he chooses Limbo, the worst punishment in Hell, Koenma makes it a point that Younger Toguro deserves a less harsh punishment and even pleads with him to reconsider. Genkai also mourns him when they cross paths with each other.
Ambiguously Brown: Some images give his skin a significantly darker tone than the rest of characters, and his overall look and build suggest he's not ethnically Japanese.
And I Must Scream: Chooses to be sentenced to the lowest pit of Hell where he will be tormented for thousands of years then simply cease to exist, even though he could have received a lighter punishment.
Anti-Villain: Despite a steady stream of brutal actions under his belt, thoughts of redemption are in the back of his mind and he is honorable, with a Freudian Excuse.
Arch-Enemy: He becomes one to Yusuke after killing Genkai, joining Suzaku and Sensui as Yusuke's most personal enemies.
Bad Boss: He isn't abusive to his subordinates as long as they do what they're told, but he makes it very clear that they are expected to follow his orders without question for the rest of their lives. Any objections will be listened to if and only if they're ready to risk disfigurement and dismemberment by fighting him again.
Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Though it was at the behest of Sakyo, Toguro murders the entire Black Book Club. Even if they were corrupt, criminal billionaires nobody on Team Yurameshi would have gone that far, Hiei included.
Battle Couple: With Genkai in the previous Dark Tournament. Younger laments at Genkai losing both her youth and beauty whereas she laments back at Younger for both losing his soul and humanity.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Half a century ago, Younger Toguro, along with his older brother were fellow colleagues of Genkai whose team of martial artists were devoted to protecting humanity and hunting down demons. Driven mad with grief at the loss of his own house of students, Younger Toguro became the very demon that he devoted his life as a human to destroy.
Big Bad Duumvirate: He and Sakyo share the Big Bad position in the Dark Tournament Saga, and Younger Toguro is the one who fights Yusuke in the finals.
Big Little Brother: Yes, he really is the younger Toguro brother, being much taller and more muscular than Elder Toguro.
Blood Knight:
- Dislikes fighting weak opponents, but fights them anyway because it's a fight after all. When Yusuke attempts to beat the crap out of Toguro for killing his one decent teacher only to lose instantly, Toguro is a little too happy that Yusuke is able to break his hand. His whole reason for Stealth Mentoring Yusuke is that he's looking for someone who can allow him to fight at 100% strength.
- Once Yusuke doesn't give him a challenge, he goes to kill one of his friends to get him to be more serious.
- Also qualifies as a Deconstruction as he no longer has any satisfaction in his life outside of fighting.
Body Horror: Up to about fifty percent, his muscle increases are grotesque, but still human-ish. Above that, not so much: at 100 percent he's so twisted that Hiei is visibly repulsed by the sight.
Boring, but Practical: Compared to most demons like Rando and Suzaku or even some members of his own team like Karasu and Bui who display unique abilities and techniques, Younger Toguro's ability is to simply increase his muscles, which sounds underwhelming by comparison; until it's shown it makes him so physically strong he can turn nearly any opponent to paste from a single punch without even half his full might. This is deliberate on his part: in their youth, he would lose to Genkai any time they sparred together because she could counter any strategy he came up with and had an answer for any technique he attempted. When he became a demon, he chose to make his fighting style based on sheer power so overwhelming that he could render any technique and strategy irrelevant. All so he could ensure he could kill her if they ever fought again.
Breakout Villain: The most popular villain from the series. When people talk about the series on a whole, he tends to be brought up and remembered fondly.
Broken Pedestal: On the receiving end for the audience of the Dark Tournament. He spends most of the arc as the fan favorite, and when he makes his entrance before his and Yusuke's final battle, the crowd chants his name. However, after he starts draining their life energy and killing them to maintain his power level, they turn on him and some of them even charge him in an attempt to kill him. The ones who do survive switch over to Yusuke's side and cheer him on to win.
Cool Shades: Almost never seen without them. It's only at the very end of the Dark Tournament that we see his eyes.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Dishes them with each percentage necessary to defeat the enemy at hand.
Cynicism Catalyst: Took a Level in Cynic after his students' murder at the hands of Kairen.
Dark and Troubled Past: His drive to villainy? A demon slaughtered his students and permanently altered his outlook while driving his quest for power.
Deadpan Snarker: And not exactly subtle about it, either.
Deal with the Devil: Combined with He Who Fights Monsters when he defeats Kairen (a demon who had much the same abilities as the Toguro Brothers) at the Dark Tournament 50 years ago, and upon winning asks the Tournament Commitee to turn him and his brother into demons.
Death Seeker: He long ago became disillusioned with being the strongest in the human world with nothing to show for it beyond being a glorified thug for hire. By the time of the Dark Tournament, all he wants is to die at the hands of a stronger fighter.
Demon of Human Origin: He was once a human before he won the Dark Tournament and wished to become a demon to maintain his youth and increase his power.
Disc-One Final Boss: He is one of the Dark Tournament Saga being the last opponent Team Urameshi has to face.
Dragon-in-Chief: He is much more dangerous than his boss, Sakyo, and is far more involved with the protagonists.
Dragon with an Agenda: He's a Death Seeker and thus hopes not to win the Dark Tournament. That doesn't fit well with Sakyo's plan. That being said, he does seem interested by the idea of opening up a portal to the demon world, and says that he likes it because it would give him more opportunities to test his power, but it's implied that he would have used this to finally meet his end at the hands of much stronger demons if Yusuke couldn't kill him in the final round of the tournament.
Even Evil Has Standards: Even he still finds some actions completely distasteful, especially those of his older brother. Notably, he becomes exceptionally irate whenever Elder Toguro mocks Genkai. It gets to the point where he tries to kill his elder brother when he attempts to cheat in Younger's duel with Yusuke. He also despises cowards.
Evil Counterpart: To Yusuke; whereas Sensui is Yusuke's exact opposite, Toguro is more what Yusuke would become if he decided to abandon his good tendencies and love for his True Companions and gave in to his inner Blood Knight. Even his coat is olive green, a darker shade to Yusuke's usual outfit. Not to mention they also share a Deadpan Snarker trait. Yusuke also acknowledges this during their final battle, noting that he found himself respecting Toguro for his strength and wanting to be like him, but refused to be like him when he realized Toguro gave everything up for power.
Evil Feels Good: He confesses that, while demonic energy is weaker than spirit energy, it "gives a much more pleasurable sensation when used."
Fallen Hero: He fought evil demons and taught disciples to fight evil...then Kairen showed up and his beliefs were shattered. Having lost those he wanted to protect, he lost any of his old ideals. Now he only believes in his own strength as a goal in and of itself, not caring at all what depths he has to sink to get it.
Finger Poke of Doom: He can make peoples heads explode by simply tapping on them, which sounds suspiciously familiar.
Genius Bruiser: Despite being muscular, he is a Warrior Poet and a Deadpan Snarker, it's just that it's only limited to fighting.
Healing Factor: Not to the same extent as his brother, but can he regenerate a gaping hole in his body in seconds as part of his raw power.
The Heavy: He serves as the primary antagonist of the Dark Tournament Saga and is far more personally involved with Yusuke than Sakyo is.
Hell Seeker: He is a Death Seeker so he can go to the deepest pit of hell so he can be eternally punished for not having the strength to protect his disciples, turning on the only woman he ever loved and then killing her, and becoming nothing more than a thug working for men like Sakyo.
He Who Fights Monsters: Started off a martial artist fighting demons, but ultimately became one.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl With his old teammate and friend Genkai.
Humanoid Abomination: His muscles increase and contort to grotesque levels as he powers up. Especially at 100% where he resembles a mixture of a bodybuilder and a tree.
I Let You Win: During the "Rescue Yukina" arc, he intentionally throws the fight as part of Sakiyo's scheme to steal Torukine's money and says as much when he meets Yusuke again to invite him to the Dark Tournament.
Immortality Seeker: In his past, though Eternal Youth Seeker is more accurate. He comes to regret that wish.
The Juggernaut: Spends the majority of his screentime being utterly implacable by even the strongest of fighters. Even Yusuke during the final round of the tournament is thoroughly outclassed during most of the fight despite two power-ups, though the third finally pushes him to Toguro's level. Besides Sensui and the foes faced during the final arc, Toguro is one of the single strongest beings in the story. For Yusuke to win, he had to train and be given Genkai's powers and even that was just barely enough. The guy was so implacable that Yusuke had a nasty surprise when Koenma tell him that, for all his power, Toguro was ranked Class-B (the third most powerful rank) by the Demon World's standards.
Knight of Cerebus: He's the strongest fighter and the biggest threat to Team Urameshi and all the participants in the Dark Tournament. Even the audience isn't safe.
I Control My Minions Through...: Fear. Out of all his subordinates, only his brother has anything resembling loyalty to him. The others only serve out of fear of death at his hands for refusing.
Last-Name Basis: His given name is never mentioned, he's only known as the younger of the Toguro brothers.
Lightning Bruiser: Unlike most beings of his stature, Toguro is every bit as fast as he is strong and muscular, even at his maximum level. He can easily speed blitz his enemies but mainly just tanks their attacks to show they cannot harm him. At full power he casually can appear near Yusuke and slam him to the ground before he can react.
Muscles Are Meaningful: As he powers up, he becomes incredibly muscular in the process.
My Greatest Failure: Not protecting his students from Kairen, a powerful demon. Even after defeating Kairen in the previous Dark Tournament, he never let it go, turning himself into a demon. Goes even further as it was his decision to become a demon that led him to fall even further and ultimately become nothing more than a hired thug for despicable people like Sakyo, who could only find any pleasure in battle, and ultimately killing the only woman he ever loved. While Genkai believed it was his student's deaths that led to his decision of later going to the deepest level of Hell in order to punish himself, it's very clear that Toguro was feeling guilty for more than just the deaths of his students.
Never Be Hurt Again: One of two reasons (see also Survivor Guilt) why he made a Deal with the Tournament committee was so that he could never again be powerless.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: His character design is based on Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially his roles in the Terminator franchise. The creators of the anime also took this tribute further by hiring Tessho Genda, who frequently dubs for characters played by Schwarzenegger, to voice him.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Most of his fights are Curb Stomp Battles, but his fight in which he kills Genkai was nothing but vicious as he goes for her heart and No Sells all of her remaining energy blasts before finally killing her by breaking her spine with his fist at 80%. It gets worse when Toguro goes 100% against Yusuke: the fight becomes so one-sided that it takes Kuwabara's "death" to make Yusuke fight on truly equal terms. In fact it was so brutal that Yusuke in the middle of the fight passes out from the pain and dreams of the moment that he first meets Keiko... only for Toguro himself to appear in the dream as a huge monster that squeezes Keiko possibly to death. It's so bad that the real Keiko snaps from seeing the beating and goes catatonic.
No-Sell: Even without powering up he's so unnaturally strong that he shrugs off most attacks. This is taken to its logical, extreme endgame when he powers up to absolute maximum and takes the full force of Yusuke's final Spirit Gun attack. He absorbs the blast in its entirety only to finally collapse and die, having at last had an opportunity to use all of his strength.
Noble Demon: He's only in it for business and will only be brutal when it's necessary, in contrast to his sadistic brother.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: As powerful as Toguro is by the standards of the human world, he's considered only above average by the standards of Demon World's major fighters. Unfortunately for him, neither he or any other demon powerful enough to challenge him could get past the barrier between the worlds, so he was left in complete boredom. He joined Sakyo because his plans would create a portal large enough to allow him passage to Demon World in hopes of finding a real challenge again.
Not in This for Your Revolution: Downplayed. He does like the idea of Sakyo opening up a portal to the Demon World as it would finally allow him to find actual challenges and meet his end at the hands of a much more powerful demon, but he's not really committed to it. His primary focus is ensuring Yusuke gets strong enough to kill him.
Not So Stoic: He gets much more expressive when he's finds a fighter good enough to challenge him. He shows much more emotion when fighting Genkai, grinning sadistically as he kills her. When he goes 100% against Yusuke, he drops the stoic facade entirely.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: If a rare opponent manages to prove strong and brave enough to impress him, he'll give them the "opportunity" to serve him without question for the rest of their lives. Anyone who tries to refuse is given the option to leave if they can defeat him in combat again. Since the offer is only given after he's beaten them within an inch of their lives, most end up accepting.
Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: He managed to win the previous Dark Tournament and defeat Kairen, a powerful demon who could also regenerate and killed his pupils, as a human.
One-Winged Angel: At 100% strength he becomes a gray-skinned monstrosity.
Pragmatic Villainy: As much of a Blood Knight as he is he generally avoids conflict that would be completely pointless and simply pounds opponents into submission with as much of his power as needed. This directly contrats with Elder Toguro, who veers into Stupid Evil and is called out on it multiple times by both Younger Toguro and Sakyo. The only opponent he really toys with is Yusuke in order to be able to die at Yusuke's hands at 100% power.
Psychological Projection: After killing Genkai, Toguro claims that she died years ago when she chose to grow old instead of become an immortal demon, but Koenma's judgment shows that Toguro himself died all those years ago when his students were massacred.
Self-Inflicted Hell: On arriving in the underworld, he is told that, due to circumstances, he is eligible for a lesser punishment. However, his guilt is so strong that he demands to be sent to Limbo, where he will be hideously tortured for ten thousand years, then be erased from existence. Koenma is extremely reluctant, but ultimately agrees, and the last sight of Younger Toguro in the series is him walking through the door to Limbo. Though compared to his older brother's own Fate Worse than Death, Limbo is almost Paradise.
Shoulders of Doom: Gains these once he goes to 80% and higher.
Siblings in Crime: He and his elder brother work as mercenaries and killers for hire.
Sinister Shades: Throughout most of his appearances.
Spanner in the Works: To Sakyo's plan, to Out-Gambitted levels. Sakyo's scheme was an intricate plot to remove his colleagues and competitiors while leaving himself in sole possession of their wealth and resources, disguised as a fighting tournament, in a bit to change all worlds. Toguro doesn't give a crap about that vision, and instead uses that plan as an excuse to enact his desire to kill off everything about his own past (including his cohorts) and then himself — ultimately ruining Sakyo's plan in what Sakyo thought was simply the coup de grace. He even lampshades this in the anime, "advising" Sakyo after the latter had bet his life on Toguro's match with Yusuke, comparing it to Tarukane's trust of Toguro — Sakyo misses the implication.
Spirited Competitor: Does not like fighting weaklings at all, but is very excited when Yusuke can provide a challenge to him.
Start of Darkness: Something permanently snapped inside of Toguro after a demon killed his students, and even after killing him, he felt that he needed to be punished for it for all time.
Stealth Mentor: Towards Yusuke. He pushes Yusuke to be stronger and his words during his fight with him seem to a Secret Test of Character in hindsight, so he won't be completely consumed by battle. He concedes just before facing his punishment in the afterlife that he did care for Yusuke albeit in an extremely bizarre way.
The Stoic: One of his most notable attributes is his constant poker face.
Suicide by Cop: What his plans for Yusuke ultimately were. He wanted Yusuke to become strong enough to defeat him and end his life of regret.
Survivor Guilt: His inability to save his disciples from being killed by Kairen is the source of his motivation for his actions.
Sympathy for the Devil: His Freudian Excuse definitely earns this.
Tragic Villain: His whole backstory and motivation, even if he has little Pet the Dog moments.
Tranquil Fury: When his brother repeatedly insults Genkai, he doesn't raise his voice except for a brief angry growl, but his demeanor and actions show he was furious, with him ultimately kicking and then punching Elder Toguro to a state of near death.
This Is Unforgivable!: Disowns his brother for insulting the recently deceased Genkai and attempting to cheat at the tournament, going as far as almost killing him and saying that he's dead to him now.
Unskilled, but Strong: Subverted. He's Strong and Skilled as a very skilled martial artist — he just prefers relying on absolute strength rather than doing flashier energy attacks.
"The strength to make all tactics useless. That is strength absolute."
Walking Shirtless Scene: The guy loves to take off his coat. Justified in that his main power is expanding his muscles, so it would be a shame to damage his nice coat.
Walking Wasteland: At full strength his body literally kills and sucks up the souls of weaker beings near him to fuel his own power and he did this to most of the spectators of his match with Yusuke. Meaning if you’re not strong enough or have no special protection, you will die in his presence once he gets serious.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Notes that brute strength is the only thing he's really good at, but manages to get by solely with that, beating everyone that got in his way.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: He certainly didn't want to by the time the story began.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The more he uses his power, the more his bloodthirsty urges seep out.
Worthy Opponent: Views Yusuke as one as well as the one to end his miserable existence.
Would Hit a Girl: During the Rescue Yukina arc, when Yukina protested against Elder Toguro killing a couple of birds she'd befriended, Younger Toguro's response was to backhand her to the floor. Following that, he threatened Keiko's safety twice; the first time was as a means of getting Yusuke to listen to his invitation for the Dark Tournament, and the second time was during their fight in the actual tournament, when he flung an energy-punch in the direction of Keiko and the other girls in the stands to provoke Yusuke further (Younger missed on purpose, but snidely wondered aloud if he would miss the next time). And of course, there's the fact that he killed Genkai, though that was part of a gambit on both their parts, and she got better.

Elder Toguro

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a14_2.png

^{Click to see him in Makihara's body}

"My mom always wanted me to become a surgeon. It's a pity I played hooky the day we dissected frogs. Oh well..."

Species: Human (formerly) / Demon
Powers: Body Manipulation / Immortality

Voiced by: Katsumi Suzuki (JP), Bill Townsley (EN), Joaquín Gómez (Spain), Guillermo Rojas (Latin America, TV series), Luca Bottale / Gianluca Iacono (IT)

Walking Spoiler Warning: Elder Toguro is an important character spanning two sagas in length which cannot be hidden. By viewing the contents of this folder, readers are bound to be spoiled.

Co-Leader of the Apparition Gang, and vice-captain of Team Toguro. Elder Toguro is a human martial artists turned-demon shapeshifter who usually rides on his brother's shoulder, and often fights alongside him. He can alter the shape of his body to form weapons or to move his organs to escape harm, and also has powerful regenerative abilities, almost to the point of immortality. Infamous due to his cruelty and sadism, even for Sakyo's standards.

Having survived the Dark Tournament, Elder Toguro was rescued by Sensui for the sake of being consumed by Sensui's subordinate, Makihara, in order to gain Toguro's shapeshifting powers. But Toguro eventually took over Makihara's body and full identity.

General Character:

Adaptational Attractiveness: Subverted. While in the manga he has an unnaturally small body, he also has a smooth, conventionally handsome face, making him a relatively attractive midget. In contrast, his anime version has a more regular height, but he is also lankier and his face is weirdly wrinkled and shadowed, which gives him a very creepy vibe.
Ax-Crazy: Gets more and more insane throughout the series until he's completely lost it.
Berserk Button: Seems to be genuinely angered and offended when Kuwabara calls him "a nasty little waste of space."
Body Horror: His power involves manipulating his body into anything, and shifting his vital organs around. It gets worse when he becomes a parasite after taking over Gourmet's body.
Card-Carrying Villain: Fully aware of the fact that he's depraved, honorless scum, and enjoys every second of it.
Creepy High-Pitched Voice: In comparison to his younger brother's deep voice, he has a very high-pitched, cackling voice that makes him even more unnerving and highlights his insane and monstrous nature.
Demon of Human Origin: Like his younger brother, he wished to become a demon after winning the Dark Tournament to become immortal. Unlike his brother, he cast off his honor along with his humanity.
Depraved Dwarf: Stands around four feet high in the anime, shorter still in the manga.
Dirty Coward: He spends most of his time hanging off his younger brother for protection and will only fight when he's confident he can defeat them in the most unfair methods possible while making them helpless. When he faces opponents capable of overwhelming him, he'll either shamelessly try to slither away or panic and beg for mercy.
Dirty Old Man: Being in his 80s, he's obviously the elder sibling. He also admitted he wanted to take advantage of Genkai when he was human, then insults her age. Younger was not amused.
The Dragon: To Younger Toguro, being the co-leader of Team Toguro. It's not directly stated but implied that he is not as physically strong as Bui or Karasu, but due to being the sibling of Younger Toguro, he manages to have a high position.
Dub Text: Complains that Kurama's not as pretty in his human form, but only in the English version.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: White-skinned, which begs the question of how he and his younger brother are related.
Embarrassing Nickname: Is often called "Toguro's shoulder monkey", in-universe included.
Equippable Ally: He can transform into a weapon for his brother to wield.
Evil Cripple: Subverted. Most people assume he can't walk and that this is why he has to ride on his brother's shoulder. In truth he's perfectly mobile, he just chooses to ride along.
Evil Feels Good: Especially in Gourmet's death, which he notes to be like being on ecstasy.
Evil Gloating: Very guilty of this; it led to his defeat and prompt Fate Worse than Death for all eternity on two separate occasions.
Evil Is Petty: He loves to toy with his prey by attacking them emotionally just to get a cheap thrill out of watching them break down.
Faux Affably Evil: Sure he seemingly presents quite a polite and gentlemen-like demeanor toward his victims, but that's only because he's relishing in his sadistic nature by torturing them physically and emotionally.
From a Single Cell: He can regenerate from anything which is ultimately used against him.
Hate Sink: THE single most odious and loathsome antagonist in the whole series. Even his younger brother had reached his own limit on tolerating this jerk when he insults his fallen lover too many times and tries to besmirch the honor of the final fight.
Healing Factor: Of the Pulling Themselves Together, soon upgraded to From a Single Cell.
Humanoid Abomination: Unlike his brother who becomes more and more inhuman as he powers up, Elder Toguro is effectively an amorphous mass of demonic flesh that barely tries to keep human form. He becomes even worse as essentially a parasite when he does a nightmarish Demonic Possession on Gourmet when the latter consumes him, much to his horror as he resorts to suicide rather than being Eaten Alive by the demon.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: While his younger brother only became a monster the moment he was transformed into a demon to indulge in bloodlust in order to forget about his trauma; Elder Toguro through his dialogue, is implied to have always been a repulsive person but kept that side hidden until he became a demon- with it being less about the transformation changing his nature and more about the transformation finally matching the hideous nature of his soul and allowing him to act on his hedonistic impulses.
I Lied: "But unlike my brother, my word is not my bond. So you can die too."
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His favorite tactic in battle is to extend spiked tendrils to impale opponents. He usually uses his fingers for this but can protrude spikes all over his body if he chooses.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Team Toguro aren't saints for sure, but Elder Toguro reaches Jojo villain levels of pointless cruelty and sadism. During the Dark Tournament, he promised to spare the lives of two of his opponents, if they begged for their lives. One of them begged and he killed him anyway, then goes on to praise the defiant one, noting his similarity to Bui and Karasu and how his younger brother would probably want him on the team... Before murdering him anyway because his brother isn't around and he hates keeping his promises.
Kick the Dog:
- The lying about sparing his competitors, the birds' neck-snapping, and his retelling of Genkai's death.
- Gloating on how he caused Gourmet to commit suicide.
- His slandering of Genkai's name and earning him a literal kicking out of the story.
Laser-Guided Karma: The anime introduces Elder Toguro torturing Yukina by snatching two of her beloved birds with his trademark tentacle attack and crushing them to death. He only gets worse as the series progresses. He finally meets his end at the roots of Kurama's Sinning Tree, which envelop him like tentacles and drag him beneath the earth into an eternal nightmare of torture.
Last-Name Basis: Nobody ever finds out his full name, only as the elder Toguro brother.
More Despicable Minion: He serves as this to both his brother and then Sensui, lacking any of their tragic or redeeming elements and just being a depraved sadist who revels in torturing others for fun.
Pintsized Powerhouse: The guy's tiny, especially compared to his hulkingly huge brother, but dishes out punishment like you wouldn't believe.
Psychopathic Manchild: Incredibly immature when compared to his younger brother. This reaches its peak when he fights Kurama in Makihara's body, acting like a teenager enjoying an adrenaline rush and childishly screaming "score" (or Bingo in the Japanese version) when he lands a seemingly fatal blow on him.
The Quiet One: Strangely, he's mostly silent during his debut in the Spirit Detective arc and for a chunk of the Dark Tournament, with the most noise he makes being sinister giggling. It's not until the tournament semi-finals that he becomes far more talkative, and he stays that way for the remainder of his appearances.
Recurring Boss: While he isn't the Big Bad by any stretch, he might as well be — he's the most recurring enemy that Yusuke and his crew go up against. During their raid on Tarukane's mansion, he's leader of the Apparition Gang. During the Dark Tournament, he was one of the co-founders of Team Toguro. And during Chapter Black, he's a key member of the Sensui Seven.
Sadist: Fully admits he gets off on the pain of others. If nothing else, he's much more open about it than Karasu.
Shapeshifter Showoff Session: In one scene, he twists and morphs his body, doing things like moving his eye to the palm of his hand, extending one out like an eye stalk, and migrating his heart to his face while bragging about his body morphing abilities and how it's almost impossible to hit his two weak spots (his brain and heart).
Shapeshifter Weapon: He can change his body into anything, from swords to shields; even a machine gun in his own words.
Siblings in Crime: He and his younger brother work together as mercenaries and killers for hire.
Smug Snake: He's very arrogant, assuming that his powers and relative intelligence make him practically invincible. When he's outsmarted or outmatched, he devolves into a shrieking mess.
Stupid Evil: Played with. He's not exactly an idiot, but he tends to waste his advantages just to indulge in petty cruelty. His brother and Sakyo both call him a fool when watching him waste time taunting Kuwabara with a macabre puppet show instead of killing him while he had the chance. Kurama exploits his inability to resist his sadistic urges to seal his fate.
Villain Ball: While not unnecessarily stupid, the Elder tends to be very boastful of how sick he is and his tendency to be sadistic at every single moment is what tests everyone's temper even his younger brother, and which causes the ones he fights who had previously had a major disadvantage to going Unstoppable Rage on him and causes anyone who listens to his twisted drivel to lose any respect they had for him.
Was Once a Man: Like his younger brother, he was formerly a human that was turned into a demon. Unlike his brother who retained his sense of honor in spite of gradually becoming an inhuman monster with each percentage he undergoes, Elder Toguro was heavily implied to be a nasty individual even prior to becoming a demon. His grotesquely malleable abilities didn't so much change his morals but rather it reflects his rotten soul as he gets increasingly inhuman as the series goes on, taking on more traditional aspects associated with demons. Going as far as enacting a nightmarish Demonic Posssession akin to a parasite when he's consumed by another, slowly killing them.
Weak, but Skilled: Not directly stated, but heavily implied. He lacks the devastating raw power of Bui, Karasu, or his younger brother to destroy large crowds from either their usage of their powers or from the raw force of their spiritual energy. When having to fight on his own, Elder Toguro makes up for this lack of might via his creative use of his malleable body to defeat his enemies via trickery.
Why Won't You Die?: Most common reaction towards his constant returns. Ironically says the same thing while under Kurama's hallucination.

Dark Tournament Saga:

For the Evulz: He is really guilty of this, there was really no point in telling Kuwabara of Genkai's death and then graphically showing how she died through a "puppet show" other than being a a nasty little waste of space. Thankfully, it backfired epically.
Mind Rape: What he intended to do with Kuwabara but it backfired epically.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He had an enormous advantage over Kuwabara, but then he decides to attempt Mind Rape which unlocks the Unstoppable Rage button in the loveable lug.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: He had been long considered only "Toguro's shoulder monkey". Then he fought three of the Ki-Rangers team and crippled two and killed the third in a single move, creeping out the whole stadium with how he did it.
People Puppets: He does this with his hands via a grotesque puppet show to show how Genkai died in an attempt to destroy Kuwabara mentally in addition to his shame of not knowing the truth led to his second-wind and Toguro's defeat.
Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Told how Genkai died to Kuwabara in an extremely graphic way. It backfires, and then raves about how he caused Makihara to commit suicide in order to escape the pain of being devoured from the inside out. It epically backfires.

Chapter Black Saga:

And I Must Scream: How he's finally taken care of, considering that he simply can't die. He's trapped in a particularly nasty variation, where his physical body will regenerate perpetually as it's being consumed while his mind will be trapped in his worst fears for all of eternity.
Assimilation Backfire: When Sensui Seven member Gourmet eats Elder Toguro to get his powers, Elder Toguro ends up taking over his body later.
Be Careful What You Wish For: He finally gets a body that can never die, but soon regrets this as he's trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine for all eternity.
Complete Immortality: Gains this after getting a Healing Factor boost after being hit by his brother, but is soon sealed away in a plant for all eternity.
Demonic Possession: A particularly dark and physical rather than the usual spiritual and supernatural take on this idea, being more akin to a parasite taking over a host. He is eaten by Gourmet, but he slowly takes over his body, causing the man to commit suicide in order to avoid being completely being Eaten Alive by the invader. Made all the more appalling that Elder Toguro was once human himself.
Eaten Alive: Played straight then darkly inverted, he is eaten by Gourmet, but takes over his body from the inside out, causing the latter to commit suicide in order not to be Eaten Alive himself.
Evil Is Bigger: Due to the nature of taking over Gourmet's body, he finally has a body to tower over his enemies. Downplayed as it visually looks like a grotesque bodysuit to make himself look more imposing than actually becoming larger physically.
Fate Worse than Death: Thanks to Kurama, he is trapped in a hallucinogenic demonic plant whose method of feeding is to ensnare its prey by its own tendrils, and relays the victim's worst fears before sucking them dry of life. Much unlike his younger sibling, this sends him straight to the level of Hell he belongs, and preys on his fear of losing and weakness by forever putting him subject to him having no power over anyone and feeling nothing but pain and torment all the way. And since Toguro is immortal, he'll be trapped by Kurama's plant forever.
Grand Theft Me: In a disturbingly parasitic manner, he does this to Gourmet, causing him to commit suicide in order to escape the pain of being Eaten Alive from the inside out.
Immortality Seeker: After getting punched by his younger brother, he gains the immortality he's always wanted only to be sealed in a plant that feeds on his never-ending life force.
Jerkass: While his brother is a Noble Demon, he is so repulsive to everyone that Kurama decides to trap him inside of a "living hell" plant for all eternity because death wouldn't cure him of his cruelty.
Karmic Transformation: It's subtle but his last appearance before being doomed to his fate recalls his role in life- for all of his talk of superiority and superior skills to his enemies, he ultimately relies on a larger and imposing figure to be considered a threat while leaching off the person's reputation to seem more important than he is on his own. It's initially metaphorical being a "shoulder monkey"/support weapon to his brother while indirectly mocking his former lover and his brother by proxy. He later becomes a literal parasite who leeches off of his host to gain more power and size- but in a manner that physically shows he needs the larger body as a puppet suit to make himself bigger and imposing because he's normally short.
Never My Fault: In one of his conversations with Sensui, he has the gall to blame Team Urameshi for his brother turning against him, ranting about how they "drove him crazy". Never mind that it was *his* dishonorable tactics and insulting of Genki that made his brother lose all respect for him.
Laser-Guided Karma: His favorite method is fighting without honor to make his enemy helpless and exploit his regeneration to infuriate his enemies. So he's doomed into an inescapable hell through trickery- being made to believe his enemy is somehow cheating death while being enraged at the fact.
Lotus-Eater Machine His ultimate fate, being trapped in an inescapable illusion where he's unable to defeat his enemy while his external body is perpetually regenerated and consumed for all eternity.
Seven Deadly Sins: As one of the Sensui Seven, he represents Greed.
Too Dumb to Live: He challenges Kurama head-on recklessly in spite of seeing firsthand that he managed to defeat Karasu, an intelligent and powerful fighter in his own right by taking advantage of his ego to defeat him and Kurama is someone that usually plans ahead of the fight. Elder Toguro ends up being defeated long before he becomes aware of his doomed fate- or rather he will never realize it due to being too deep into the hallucination to find out the horror of his situation.
You Are Already Dead: Kurama ultimately disposes of him by trapping him in a hallucinating plant for all eternity by inserting the seed the moment he struck him. Due to the nature of the illusion, he'll never find out how he was duped let alone escape.

Karasu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a16_0.png

^{Click to see him with his mask off}

"Your red hair is perfect for that fiery spirit that I admire. You know that's why I've decided to leave your beautiful face unharmed. I may not be able to keep you, but I'll always have the memory of your face to give comfort."

Species: Demon
Powers: Demonic Explosives

Voiced by: Ryō Horikawa (JP), Kyle Hebert (EN), Miguel Ángel Reza (Latin America, TV series), Daniele Demma/ Massimo di Benedetto (IT)

Karasu is a Quest class demon. He is able to use his aura to create bombs undetectable by lower-level demons. He wears a mask over his mouth which restricts his unstable powers. He is also able to use his entire body as an explosive. He takes quite a liking to Kurama.

Agent Peacock: Just like Kurama, only in a much creepier light.
Ax-Crazy: Not as much as Elder Toguro, but he is dangerously obsessed with killing Kurama. He's far more dissonant about his insanity than Elder Toguro's blatant madness.
- When the mask comes off, he becomes more prone to maniacal laughter and he fights with far less composure than previously. He still comes across as more sane in comparison.
Badass Longcoat: Rocks the trench coat and Cool Mask look.
Bond Villain Stupidity: While he deals with most enemies swiftly, with fighters he's fixated on like Kurama he prefers to delay finishing them in favor of slow torture for his own amusement — with Kurama, who is used to making plans through pain, this twice amounted to giving him time to gain an advantage: first allowing him to stall until his transformation into Yoko completes, and then to find an opportunity to set a deadly plant after Karasu, killing him.
The Chessmaster: Goes toe-to-toe with Kurama mentally in their battle.
Cold-Blooded Torture: He usually takes his time killing victims he's fixated on, blowing them up non-lethally, while also unnerving them with his mindgames.
Cold Ham: He gives some very passionate speeches of his intentions for Kurama, all in a very soft and mellow voice, the result making him exceptionally creepy. He still remains composed in his speeches even after his mask comes off, with his more bombastic reactions in brief moments.
Cool Mask: A gray one with tiny spectacles. It acts as a restraint for his powers.
Death Glare: When Kurama managed to injure him for the second time, he drops the dissonant look and leers angrily.
Defiant to the End: A flashback of his and Bui's defeat at the hands of the Toguro Bros shows a bloodied Karasu telling them to kill him now, saying that it's the only warning they'll get before he comes after them again someday.
Depraved Homosexual: In love with Kurama and shows this with his desire to kill him.
Dissonant Serenity: What makes him so dangerous other than his powers is that he is so calm and nonchalant that you wouldn't know he was crazy at first sight.
The Dreaded: To Kurama, who normally isn't intimidated by any other enemies. Karasu frightened Kurama so much with his powers and speed, that every time he tried to think of a way to beat him, he imagined that every outcome would lead to a brutal death. When he did receive a way to beat him, he immediately volunteers to fight Karasu, knowing how deadly and cruel the demon is. The Toguro brothers are actually somewhat worried when Karasu's mask came off, and advised Sakyo to take a step back. The same guy that was eager to see Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Flame, the opening of Demon World tunnel, and Toguro's full power.
Dub Name Change: Oddly enough, from Episode 57 forward of the Italian dub, Karasu becomes "Ya", for reasons unknown.
Even Evil Has Standards: He is shown to disdain cowardice when Midorenjya attempts to flee his fight with him.
Evil Genius: Take a good look, ladies and gentlemen; this is one of the few men who can outsmart Kurama.
Faux Affably Evil: Karasu is rather civil and open to discussion with the Toguro brothers about Team Urameshi, even though he despises the Toguro brothers intensely. He is rather polite with Kurama, and mentioned that he likes Kurama the best out of all the fighters, but he made his depraved intentions with Kurama very clear. He gives Kurama a moment to say his prayers, as he is prepared to kill him while telling him when he meets God to ask how he went wrong with him.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: If those lenses on his mask count as glasses, he definitely counts.
Having a Blast: His fighting style, is utilized by conjuring hand grenades, dynamite, and mines.
Jerkass: As a cold-blooded sadist, Karasu is one of the nastiest members of Team Toguro. He's rather snide with Koenma when he doesn't intend to fight in the finals, and he promptly kills off any guards getting in his way. He also briefly taunts Kurama with a "bang" gesture. And these are some of his less sadistic moments.
Lightning Bruiser: Is extremely fast and swift. He can plant sticks of dynamite on you before you even notice he's moved.
Mad Bomber: His powers involve explosives and he is actually very insane behind his literal mask- having an unhealthy obsession with Kurama.
Minor Injury Overreaction: The second time we see him slightly injured, he seemed downright offended, glaring coldly and violently pulling the rose out of his hand.
Not So Stoic: When his mask comes off.
Odd Friendship: With Bui. The two are rarely seen apart and were partners since the days the Toguro brothers defeated them. This is despite being polar opposites in personalities.
Power Limiter: He becomes much more powerful (and psychotic) once his mask comes off. Also, his hair turns blond when said limiter comes off.
Psycho for Hire: Is one like Elder Toguro, but has Dissonant Serenity to back it up.
Pyrrhic Victory: Despite being killed, he wins his match via a technicality.
Sadist: He does like seeing his prey in agony.
Shout-Out: Once he enters his Super Mode, Koto makes one to Dragon Ball Z. Seeing how his voice actors are Teen Gohan in the U.S. and Vegeta in Japan, the directors were in on the joke...
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Calm and composed even when in his most aggressive and sadistic moments.
- He becomes less composed when he loses his mask, being more prone to actively sadistic moments.
Stalker with a Crush: To Kurama. A lot of his dialogue with the intent to kill Kurama, has very suggestive undertones about killing the one you love and runs his fingers through his hair, showing his depraved obsession with him.
Smug Super: Constantly gloats about his superiority over his enemies, how pitiful and flawed they are, and how futile their attempts to stop him from murdering them are — like a cat playing with a caught mouse. Even when he faces off against an opponent who far outstrips him, he retains his smug sense of superiority until forced to abandon it. As a result, he actually managed to overcome Yoko Kurama, who effortlessly killed an S-Class demon later on, to the point where he reverts back to his human form, albeit very weakened, so his overconfidence is not unjustified. However, that very overconfidence proves to be his downfall, when he ignores the results of a seemingly failed attack by Kurama, then assumes he's too weak to pose a threat or possibly have a plan that could harm him. Despite this, Karasu is still extremely powerful and intelligent; he came much closer to killing Kurama than any other enemy, and technically won Team Toguro's only victory.
The Stoic: Normally this, even in his Yandere moments when his mask is on.
Tengu: His name means "Crow" and his mask and design is similar to that of anthropomorphic Japanese crows. When flowing, his longcoat also resembles crow wings.
Yandere: A male version, for Kurama. He becomes obsessed with killing him while ranting about how he loves him, which understandably freaks out Kurama.

Bui

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a15.png

^{Click to see him without armor}

"I only put enough energy into my attacks as is necessary to defeat my opponents. That wasn't even enough to scratch me. Take that any way you want."

Species: Demon
Powers: Battle Aura

Voiced by: Tetsuo Kaneo (JP), Vic Mignogna (EN), Óscar Redondo (Spain), Victor Cobarrubias (Latin America, TV series), Lorenzo Scattorin (IT)

Bui is a demon warrior who possesses an immense battle aura. When he was younger Bui fought Younger Toguro and lost. He swore he would train and one day defeat him so Toguro invites Bui to join his team as he trains, but Bui is unable to surpass him. He wears heavy armor to suppress his aura and wields an axe larger than his own body.

Anti-Villain: Similar to Younger Toguro in a sense . However, as firmly aligned as he is to the team, he's never shown partaking in excessive brutality like his fellow members, instead preferring to give his opponents a quick and merciful death.
Aroused by Their Voice: Lampshaded in-story.
Avenging the Villain: Very subtly implied. After Karasu is killed, Elder Toguro steps up to fight next, but Bui abruptly walks ahead of him. When questioned about his sudden assertiveness, Bui doesn't give an answer.
Battle Aura: When he removes his armor. His aura is so strong that it literally lifts him off the ground just by releasing it.
The Brute: He's so freakishly strong that he's able to deflect and toss Hiei's darkness dragon up in the sky.
Death Seeker: Wants to die after Hiei defeats him, believing he cannot get any stronger. Not that Hiei obliges to do so.
Evil Sounds Deep: He's not evil per se, but he does have a deep, sexy voice — lampshaded in-story.
Expy: Of Kaioh from Fist of the North Star. They are both big guys with an inverted Y-shaped scar in their faces who wear full armor to inhibit their excess power.
Genius Bruiser: Much more intelligent than he appears.
Hidden Depths: He looks like a silent brute who wears bulky armour and carries a heavy axe... before losing the axe, taking his armour off, and using his Spirit Energy to fight whilst eloquently chatting with Hiei.
Lightning Bruiser: Significantly faster than his opponent in the semifinals expected.
Odd Friendship: With Karasu. The two are rarely seen apart and were partners since the days the Toguro brothers defeated them. This despite being polar opposites in personalities. Bui is also familiar enough with Karasu to communicate sneak attacks without talking.
Power Limiter: His armor acts a power restraint that keeps his battle aura under control.
The Quiet One: Never speaks until his fight with Hiei.
Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Not surprising since his armor is a Power Limiter. Even with it on he's faster than he seems, but once he removes it he's capable of flight and even faster.
Shout-Out: To Fist of the North Star's Kaioh. Both wear armour not for protection, but to contain their battle aura (called matouki in Kaioh's case), and Bui even looks very similar to Kaioh, physically.
Villain by Default: Only really considered a bad guy because he's on Toguro's team.
Villainous Breakdown: Completely falls apart after Hiei absorbs the Darkness Flame. He's reduced to screaming and fruitlessly pummeling Hiei with a look of abject terror on his face before he's laid out with a single blow.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Never seen again after Hiei spares him. The last time we see him in the manga, he's watching Yusuke's fight with Toguro.

Chapter Black: Portal to the Underworld Arc

Case 06: Prevent the Opening of the Portal — Defeat The Sensui Seven

A collective of complete psychos who plan to finish Sakyo's work in opening the portal to the Underworld. They however aren't in it for the amusement, but because they personify the whole Humans Are Bastards philosophy, and want absolutely everyone dead. They are led by former Spirit Detective Shinobu Sensui, a tour de force of sheer crazy. In contrast to Team Urameshi's previous enemies, the Sensui Seven are comprised entirely of humans (save for Gatekeeper), and ironically enough (or because of that) are also their greatest enemies.

In General

Ax-Crazy: Varies from very obvious to subtle Dissonant Serenity.
Badass Crew: Their mental games and nasty moral dilemmas easily make them Team Urameshi's toughest opponents.
Code Name: They all operate using code designations instead of their real names. (Black Angel, Gatekeeper, Sniper, Seaman, Gamemaster, Gourmet and Doctor). Save for Elder Toguro.
Driven to Suicide: Don't seem to mind that their plan might mean that they'll be killed by demons as well; only Gamemaster seems to not realize this.
Knight of Cerebus: The Sensui Seven mark one of the darkest turns in the series. While there have been innocent humans threatened before, the only on-screen deaths (other than Yusuke's in the opener) were the members of the Black Book Club at the hands of Toguro. Even with Sakyo we never actually see his death as he's Buried Alive as the Dark Tournament stadium collapses around him. However Doctor murders several doctors and mutilates a nurse on screen, while nearly killing an entire hospital and Gourmet eats Murota. on screen. To say nothing of how Shinobu outright manipulates Yusuke and his friends into nearly killing Doctor had it not been for Genkai resuscitating him, and actually killing Sniper and Gamemaster, the latter of whom is an 11-year-old boy.
Seven Deadly Sins: Each represents a Sin respectively, Seaman (Envy), Sniper (Pride), Gamemaster (Sloth), Doctor (Wrath), Gourmet (Gluttony), Gatekeeper (Lust) and Elder Toguro (Greed); with Black Angel being without sin unless you count the flawed six other personalities he has.
Weak, but Skilled: Not counting Sensui and Elder Toguro, each of them are considerably physically weaker than any one person from Team Urameshi (or most of the series for that matter) as they are all still fundamentally ordinary humans on the outside. Their extremely bizarre and particular abilities however make them infinitely more dangerous than past adversaries, as to defeat them requires the Team to outsmart and outplay them rather than overpower them. Best exemplified in their fights against Sniper and Gamemaster: Sniper is an exclusively long-distance opponent that a close-quarters bruiser like Yusuke stands no chance against, while Gamemaster literally alters reality itself where a very specific skill-set is required to beat him, rather than combat skills. Resorting to violence against the latter outright prevents and reverses any damage incurred, either to the enemy or anything within the territory altogether.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: They generally have this attitude towards one another when they're cornered.

Black Angel — Shinobu Sensui

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a17.png

"Never satisfied, never full, they eat and destroy with grubby hands till nothing is left but piss, but now the judgement of all humans has begun."

Species: Human Psychic
Powers: Resshūken / Sacred Energy

Voiced by: Rokurō Naya (JP, adult), Jin Yamanoi (JP, 100% Maji Battle) Akira Ishida (JP, younger), Robert McCollum (EN), Alan Miró (Latin America, TV series), Patrizio Prata (IT)

Shinobu Sensui — codename Black Angel — is the previous Sprit World Detective and the main antagonist of the Chapter Black arc. During a routine case Sensui came upon one of Sakyo's hideouts for the then-early Black Book Club, a mansion where humans were torturing demons, bathing in their blood, and committing other acts of unspeakable evil. Seeing the cruelty of those he was sworn to protect, Sensui went mad and slaughtered everyone and everything there. He soon disappeared, taking with him a video known only as Chapter Black, a video tape kept in the vaults of the underworld containing footage of the most evil deeds of humanity. Sensui then waited until Koenma appointed a new Spirit Detective before coming out of hiding, springing his plan to judge the human race.

Actually Pretty Funny: When Sensui met Itsuki for the first time, he had him dead to rights and was prepared to execute the demon — only granting him a few last words if he had any. Itsuki uses it to ask him to live for just one more day as his favorite TV show is about to air its last episode. Sensui spends a good five minutes laughing his ass off and lets him live. Not long after that, Itsuki became his Spirit Detective partner.
Affably Evil: His real personality "Shinobu" is a strange case. He is shown to be well-mannered and polite, even wanting to shake Yusuke's hand when they first meet. Which doesn't stop him from breaking his arm and going Ax-Crazy after. And while he does show remorse after he kills Yusuke, and is very understanding of Yusuke's friends wanting to seek vengeance, he still desires to open the way to the Demon World and risk killing all humans.

Anti-Villain: Both a type I and II. He sees his actions as atoning for his past actions. Though the apocalypse he seeks to bring about upon Humanity is only a secondary goal in which he seeks to be killed by a demon.
Arch-Enemy: He's Yusuke's strongest one and Sensui is one of his most personal foes alongside Suzaku and Younger Toguro. Unlike Toguro, who Yusuke somewhat respected and came to view with a degree of pity, Yusuke holds nothing but contempt and hate for Sensui.
Artificial Limbs: He has a blaster built into his arm, and has an artificial hand to conceal the blaster and serve as a replacement for that hand.
Arc Villain: Of the Chapter Black Saga.
Ax-Crazy: His "Kazuya" personality, with a heaping side of Gorn and Combat Sadomasochist! Though he is still insane for having seven personalities, including a psychotic killer. It's just that Kazuya is the most blatantly insane.
Badass Boast: While he concedes that in terms of strength, he's about a 6 or 7 where Yusuke's a 10, he claims that in spiritual power, he's a 100 where Yusuke's a 10.
Bad Boss: He doesn't give a damn about whether his subordinates live or die, only whether they fulfill their tasks. Some of those tasks even involve dying for him, whether or not they're aware he's set them up. He'll order them to their deaths just to prove a point to his enemies. He outright forbids his subordinates from saving each other.
The Bad Guy Wins: Sensui's goal was believed to destroy humanity for their sins but his true goal was to open the portal to Demon world so a demon can kill him to atone for his sins which he succeeded in doing as Yusuke became part demon himself and defeated him. Also, it turns out that the portal was kept open, and humans and demons are living peacefully together.
Black-and-White Insanity: The fact that Humans Are Flawed and thus can't be neatly labeled in terms of absolute good and evil is what broke him. Koenma later explains that the Chapter Black tape is meant to be viewed alongside the opposing counterpart, Chapter White, specifically to avoid this issue. By the time that this is revealed, Sensui is so far into his plan and beliefs that he doesn't care.
Blood Bath Villain Origin: To be fair, the Black Book Club deserved it.
Blue Oni, Red Oni: Blue Oni to Yusuke's Red Oni.
Boomerang Bigot: A human leading a crusade of genocide on the entire human race.
Broken Ace: Sensui was basically everything Yusuke wasn't. Affable, determined, treating his position as a spirit detective as an honor. However, his black and white attitude left him completely unprepared for the extent of human depravity he could encounter....
The Chessmaster: Yusuke and his friends have become so adept at combating evil as warriors that Sensui's cerebral, calculating and ruthlessly intelligent evil renders them completely helpless.
Clark Kent Outfit: Don't let his loose fitting shirt fool you, he is jacked underneath. Even Yusuke was taken aback and remarked punching him felt like hitting tractor tires.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: In contrast to Younger Toguro who was once a human who became a demon and wanted to win the Dark Tournament to find a worthy opponent to fight at his full 100 percent power, Sensui was once a Spirit Detective who grew to despise humans after witnessing a demon being tortured by them, and has developed seven different personalities.
Covered with Scars: After Yusuke manages to take his shirt off, he sees Sensui's chest covered in scars, which he received from his training, not his enemies.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Most fights with him are this, especially the three-on-one. When fighting seriously he is among the most powerful villains in the series, which is saying something since the rest of them are demons. It takes Raizen, who has been stated to unequivocally be the most powerful character in the entire series according to the author, intervening to finally beat the guy. The real irony? He was already dying to begin with.
Dark Messiah: Interesting in that he was one Face–Heel Turn away from being an actual Messiah.
Deadpan Snarker: Mocks Yusuke in very creative manners throughout their fight.
Death Equals Redemption: Sort of, in the anime. He does regret the path he and his other personalities took as he dies and says that Yusuke found balance between demonkind and humanity in a better way than he could have. In the manga, he's unrepentant to the end, and simply dies wishing he'll be reborn as a demon.
Death Seeker: Combined with Suicide by Cop. It's implied that the evil persona was hammed up to a degree, so he could motivate the right people to step up to the plate and kill him. Sensui would rather die honorably in combat, rather than wither away and die from disease.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: What the Splinter Roushuyuken does

Disc-One Final Boss: Of the Chapter Black Saga before the final arc of the story.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: The speech he gives before he dies about having to fight demons from a very early age and having to come to terms with it sounds an awful lot like him recalling his Coming-Out Story. Especially in the dub.
Driven to Villainy: Thanks to the Black Book Club, though it's also kind of his own fault as well. Sensui's inability to accept morality outside of absolutes is what made him unstable; if his ideals hadn't been coiled so tightly in his head to begin with, he wouldn't have snapped like he did in the first place.
Energy Ball: The Roushuyuken is a ball of energy that Sensui kicks at his opponent.
Enlightened Antagonist: Sensui utilizes Sacred Energy/Holy Chi, a form of energy so great that it requires not only years of discipline and training but an understanding of the world to operate on a higher plane and transcend the physical realm. Despite this achievement, he planned to initiate a complete genocide of all humanity and is not above slaughtering whoever gets in his way.
Evil Genius: A rare Darker and Edgier version that's also a Big Bad in the series.
Evil Plan: Open a portal to Demon World and flood the Earth with demons because he hates humans. His true goal was simply to reach demon world and be killed by a demon because of his guilt at killing them for so long to protect humans that were just as bad if not worse.

Facial Markings: His bindi.
Fallen Hero: Used to be Spirit World's finest before everything went to hell.
Foil: Sensui and his successor Yusuke are complete opposites in every possible sense, from their viewpoints to their actions. While Sensui treated his job as an honor, Yusuke saw it as more of a chore. Sensui is refined, polite, calm, and hardworking, whereas Yusuke is hotheaded, foulmouthed, lazy, and shows little to no respect for authority figures. Their fighting styles are different; where Sensui uses the elegant martial arts style of Resshūken that revolves around kicks, Yusuke uses a brash and unrefined street-fighting style centered around punches. These differences were in fact one of the primary reasons why Koenma decided to hire Yusuke as a Spirit Detective; after witnessing the problems that Sensui's dedication, intelligence, and philosophical musings ultimately caused for him, Koenma decided that someone less intellectually and morally developed might have an easier time with the job. Another difference between them that involves a major irony was their species. Sensui is a Human who seeks to punish Humankind for its collective sins by opening a portal that demons can use to enter the Human world while Yusuke is a Human-Demon hybrid, upon his resurrection, who is seeking to prevent Sensui's armageddon.
Genius Bruiser: Up there with Kurama, Karasu, Kaito, and Yomi as one of the most intelligent characters in the series, as well as the series' most skilled martial artist and first S-Class shown.
Golden Super Mode: The main Shinobu personality's Sei-Kou-Ki/Sacred Energy. According to the narrator, the first humans to wield this power inspired mankind's stories of angels.
Go Mad from the Revelation: He definitely saw some things he shouldn't have, that broke his brain... However, the madness was aided and abetted by the Chapter Black tape.
Good Hair, Evil Hair: It's slicked back when he appears as a Big Bad, but in flashbacks, when he's a Spirit Detective, it's more of a bowl cut.
Handicapped Badass: As is revealed near the end, Sensui was suffering from incurable cancer. In spite of this, he's the most powerful human up until his death.
He Who Fights Monsters: He believed in this so strongly that it ultimately broke him when he found out the possibility that humans are not the saints that they're made out to be.
Hero's Evil Predecessor: He was the Spirit World Detective before the main character Yusuke Urameshi took the job. Seeing humans committing evil deeds against the demons he was fighting against, he had a Face–Heel Turn and started fighting for the demons instead.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: He is firmly convinced that humanity as a whole is so irredeemably flawed that the entire species, himself included, must be destroyed.
Kill All Humans: His stated goal and mission though it turns out that his true goal is of a Karmic Death in Demon World and his Shinobu personality doesn't want the human race destroyed so much as allowing the demon world a shot at the humans who wronged them.
Knight of Cerebus: If Toguro brought the series to a darker, more serious tone, then Sensui basically brings forth hell, brimming with the worst of humanity and Armaggedon.
Knight Templar: He was this in his youth. To Sensui, the world was in black and white: humans were good, demons were evil, and he would be the judge that slaughted the evil without mercy to save the good. When faced with undeniable proof that things weren't so simple, he snapped. In his later years, his thinking remained binary — except he has now judged all humans as evil and thus worthy of death. It later turns out that only six of his seven personalities truly thought this way. The original "Shinobu" persona only went along with them to find a Karmic Death.
The Last Dance: After getting diagnosed with incurable cancer that would kill him in a few months, Sensui set out to finish one last mission. All his planning was to ensure that he would be able to judge humanity, finally see Demon World, and have one last battle with a demon powerful enough to kill him before the cancer did.
Light 'em Up: His main personality's Sei-kou-ki/Sacred Energy. Also an example of Light Is Not Good.
Macho Masochism: Double Subverted. When he takes off his shirt after falling into the lake, the first thing the heroes notice about him are his scars that criss-cross his whole body. They assume at first that it was from all of the demons he had to fight when he was younger; however, he refutes that he got all those scars training himself. Yusuke lampshades it in the dub:
Yusuke: Awww, jeez, a masochist!
Madness Mantra: One so intense and loud it drives Murota damn near catatonic just by listening to his thoughts.
I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all! I'LL KILL THEM AAALLL!!
Manipulative Bastard: His split personality, Minoru persona.
Master of All: He's a born intelligent prodigy psychic who could destroy spirits even as a child, has a massive amount of spirit energy, and is a martial artist par excellence who's also a master of the Resshuken, a martial art style that requires one to have mastered all other forms of martial arts to learn. He's also unlocked Sei-Kou-Ki/Sacred Energy, the highest level of spirit energy there is to obtain to become an S-Class threat while only a human.
Mirror Character: Sensui is the former Spirit Detective and Yusuke's Hero's Evil Predecessor. Like Yusuke, he discovered not all demons were evil and made friends with some and worked alongside them, before going full Ax-Crazy after a traumatic event.
Misaimed Fandom: In-universe example. Sensui fervently accepts the Chapter Black tape as the undisputed truth in its depiction of Humanity. Koenma corrects him by stating that Chapter Black is supposed to be watched along with Chapter White to get a balanced look on humanity's potential for great good and great evil. Despite knowing that Chapter Black is a half-truth at best, he dismisses Chapter White entirely as he considers humanity's vices so damning that no amount of good could ever be enough to balance them.
My God, What Have I Done?: After seeing that humans from the Feast of Human Vices tortured demons for no other reason than sick sadistic pleasure, Sensui saw that humans can be just as evil as demons and most of the demons he killed were more likely innocent which caused his mind to shatter into various personalities.
Official Couple: With Itsuki.
Person of Mass Destruction: In their fight with Yusuke they are able to destroy mountains.
Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Sensui's body is covered in scars. Not from his years of battle, but from his own obsessive training. Showing just how self-destructive he is in his fanatical attempts uphold his rigid standards and ideals.
Posthumous Villain Victory: Considering his true Evil Plan (namely, to reach demon world and be killed by a demon because of his guilt at killing them for so long to protect humans that were just as bad if not worse, his ultimate fate of dying from fatal injuries that Yusuke, enhanced by Raizen, who has been stated to unequivocally be the most powerful character in the entire series according to the author, give him counts, making him a Victorious Loser. Yusuke claims the way the whole affair with Sensui concluded feels as though he had escaped.
Psychopathic Manchild: An understated theme with Sensui is his emotional immaturity. While he is sophisticated and dangerously intelligent, he was never able to grow beyond a rigid and simplistic idea of morality or accept that an imperfect world could ever be worth preserving. Yusuke was able to get under his skin despite being inferior in almost every sense because of this immaturity.
Pure Is Not Good: Sensui sees no reason not to act at the extreme end of whatever part of morality scale he currently identifies with. If Sensui wasn't so pure as a good guy, he wouldn't have become so tainted as a villain. His main "Shinobu" personality is still pure and innocent after all these years. Sort of.
Purple Is Powerful: His bindi and Ki Attacks.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: He loves to dish these out towards his opponents and humanity itself. Yusuke got a couple of these.
Sadistic Choice: Sensui loves these, in part of his goal to "teach" his enemies and prove his ideology is correct. Usually, this involves forcing the heroes into a position where they have to throw aside their morality and kill one of his subordinates (or at least let them die) in order to accomplish his goals, essentially making them choose between the lives of their opponents or the lives of innocents or friends. This is all in order to crush their consciences and make them believe they're as flawed as he claims they are. He does this with Doctor, to an extent with Seaman, and is the very reason he recruited Gamemaster in the first place (and possibly Doctor as well). Unlike many other examples of this kind of thing, Sensui's choices nearly always have an effect on the heroes (even when they do save everyone, but especially when they don't) because for all his madness, Sensui is very good at reading his opponents.
Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Part of his attitude/egotism after becoming a villain comes from his confidence in his naturally high power, in addition to hating humans.
Serial Escalation:
Seven Deadly Sins: Whereas Kamiya (Wrath), Makihara (Gluttony), Hagiri (Pride), Mitarai (Envy), Amanuma (Sloth), Itsuki (Lust) and Elder Toguro (Greed) represent the seven deadly sins of the Bible, the true Sensui (excluding his other personalities), is devoid of any true sin, like a fallen angel who still upholds his duties even if they are warped from his original goals. Hence, his Black Angel title.
Significant Birth Date: June 6th. Add in his year of birth (1967, given that the Sensui Arc takes place in 1993), write it numerically (6/6/67), and you get the Number of the Beast with a seven left over.
A Sinister Clue: Yep, he's left-handed.
Soap Opera Disease: He was suffering from terminal cancer, and had only a few months to live. One of the reasons why he's far more ruthless and efficient with his plan than any other villain — he had only a short time to execute it.
Split Mind, Split Powers: While only three personalities, two of them have unique powers: the violent Kazuya personality is able to generate a gun barrel in place of his hand, letting him harden and focus Spirit Energy into a bullet, while the original Shinobu personality is the only one with access to Sacred Energy (or Sei Kō Ki), due to it requiring a certain mental state to awaken; he uses it to clad himself in armor and for projectile attacks, including an energy tornado.
Split Personality: Including the original, seven in total after losing it. Each of them serving a different purpose in both expressing emotions he couldn't accept or doing the villainous dirty work so that his original "Shinobu" identity could remain "pure".
Start of Darkness: Exposure to the depravity of humanity and then the Black Chapter tape.
Straight Gay: By Word of God.
Straw Nihilist: He went on to use the Chapter Black to turn the people that would become his team into Amorally-Nihilistic people as well.
Suicide by Cop: His real goal in making his portal to Demon World is to find a powerful demon and let them kill him as a form of atonement for killing so many demons in his youth and as a Spirit Detective. He finally gets his wish at the hands of a Raizen-possessed Yusuke.
Sympathy for the Devil: His world view was shattered and he spent his whole life trying to understand the creatures he hunted and the resulting guilt of those actions led him to Suicide by Cop.
The Topic of Cancer: The single most powerful human in the series who makes most others look like cream puffs by comparison...is dying from cancer. Goes to show that in the end, he's still just human and no amount of power and fighting skill changes that.
Training from Hell: Kuwabara sees that Sensui's chest is covered in scars and assumes he got them from his enemies, but Sensui corrects him and informs him that they were all inflicted during his training.
TV Genius: Sensui is extremely smart, but he seems to have no clue how to relate to people beyond using and/or killing them. No Social Skills is, in his case, an understatement.
The Unfettered: Even when he was a good guy, he used the absolute extremes to deal with demons. As a villain, there wasn't anything too low for him to stoop to in his quest to destroy humaity.
Victorious Loser: Sensui, in dying, achieved what he wanted, and in the manga, his ideology colors the rest of the series as we find out more about the diversity of demons. This is lampshaded by Yusuke after his death.
What You Are in the Dark: Turns out Shinobu, the true personality, never wanted to destroy humanity, just his other personalities and when called on by them to pass judgment on mankind, he flat-out refuses.
Shinobu Minoru: With arrogance and insecurity they have destroyed their most sacred gifts, their world, and their brothers. At long last their day of judgement has come!
Shinobu Sensui: Who am I to pass that judgement? This ends here!
Shinobu Kazuya: Never, Shinobu! It has yet to begin! After all of this, don't pussy out now! Not when things are about to get really freakin' fun here!
Shinobu Sensui: We wouldn't survive to see that. It's already too late for us, anyway.
- Even Koenma comments on his skepticism of Sensui's desire to wipe out humanity, commenting on the lengths he went to in order to reach Demon World. If Sensui had really wanted to ensure the death of humanity, he would have just waited there on Earth and watched as the demons ransacked the planet, but instead he chose to go to Demon World and risk his so-called plan by fighting Yusuke's friends. Sensui for his part more or less lampshades that he wanted to die as atonement for his sins, and to see the home of the demons he'd been killing all his life before he died.
Worf Had the Flu: For as powerful as Sensui was, he was practically on his deathbed from cancer by the time Yusuke fought him. It isn't clear how powerful he was at his peak, but it's implied that a healthy Sensui might have been able to give Raizen a fight (though Raizen himself is not at his peak either due to him intentionally starving himself to death).
World's Strongest Man: Sensui is the strongest human in the setting and one of the strongest beings period. He managed to defeat all of the heroes with ease while still holding back his true power, killed Yusuke, and when Yusuke came back stronger, Sensui was still winning the fight. His defeat only came because Raizen took over Yusuke and powered him up, and even then, Sensui didn't bother to dodge the final attack. He also was already slowly dying due to illness, meaning he was not as strong as he could have been.
Young Conqueror: Was born with very high spiritual awareness as well as being a martial-arts prodigy, in contrast to Yusuke's Idiot Hero.
Your Days Are Numbered: He was already dying from cancer with an estimated two weeks left to live before he started his plans, which speaks volumes of how strong he may have been in his prime.

Gatekeeper — Itsuki

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a18_0.png

"Four times zero power is still zero power."

Species: Demon
Powers: Space Manipulation

Voiced by: Kouji Tsujitani (JP), Jerome 57 (EN), Víctor Covarrubias (Latin America, TV series), Massimo di Benedetto (IT)

Itsuki — codename Gatekeeper — is a demon who can traverse dimensions. Extremely soft-spoken with a gentle demeanor, he is still doubtlessly the most insane out of his group — which is really saying something. He is an immensely powerful psychic capable of tearing open entire holes between dimensions through pure meditation, and as such he's the other necessary key to bring forth Sensui's judgment. Having been with Sensui the longest he has grown very fond of him, stating that he wishes for Sensui to be his lover. Itsuki controls a being known as the Reverse Man, a shadow living between dimensions.

Action Survivor: He does have supernatural powers, but they're not very useful in battle. However, he gets by by being a ginormous Manipulative Bastard...
Author Appeal: Togashi has stated in the past that his favorite character to work on was Itsuki, and that much of his dialogue within the Reverse-Man came from his own philosophical ponderings. If he had more time to work on the manga (and that respective arc), he would've wanted to explore his madness in even greater depth.
Ax-Crazy: Don't let his gentle demeanor and non-combat expertise fool you, he's a Dissonant Serenity type who compares Sensui's downfall to watching a sweet little girl becoming a whore and being intoxicated with this fact. In fact, Sensui's continual descent into madness and depravity were the very reasons he joined him in the early detective days to begin with, wanting to observe Sensui's gradual insanity up-close and possibly get off on it.
Because You Were Nice to Me: After Sensui spared his life after listening to his Last Request, he became his partner and an unflinchingly loyal supporter.
Co-Dragons: With Hagiri to Sensui.
Corrupt the Cutie: His motive for why he started to hang around Sensui. It's still there in the anime (especially the dub), but nowhere near as noticeable or blatant when compared to the manga. One of the main reasons why Sensui/Itsuki is a Mind Game Ship.
Defeat Means Friendship: After Sensui hunted him down and defeated him, he ended up sparing the demon's life and Itsuki remained by his side since.
Dissonant Serenity: Itsuki seems to be a very mellow, quiet guy on the surface — but he will unexpectedly snap, especially when Sensui is about to do something violent (which he agrees with only because of Mad Love). Also, his Ura-otoko is full of dead bodies, airplane wreckage, etc.
Evil Genius: And here's the other man who can outsmart Kurama. Might be played with because it's not clear of he outsmarted Kurama or just out-crazied him. Probably both.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: His shadow hands are covered in unblinking purple eyes.
Fauxlosophic Narration: About half of his speaking lines are this.
Karma Houdini: He takes Sensui's corpse with him into pseudo-space and is never seen again. Being that he is no longer a threat to Spirit World and is in an area where they cannot pursue him lest they wish to be stranded with him, his file is permanently closed. Additional note should be made that of the five surviving members of the Sensui Seven, Itsuki was the only one (or two if you include Elder Toguro) who has made no attempt to atone for his actions.
Last of His Kind: The last living demon of his kind, a species that dwells in the space between dimensions. We're not talking about dimensions like "real world" and "spirit world", but a much more literal use of the word "dimension", such as "3rd dimension" and "5th dimension." The Ura-otoko he controls is a two-dimensional being that is simultaneously quite infinite within.
Last Request: When he first met and fought with Sensui, when asked for his last words, he asked to be allowed one more day to live. When Sensui asked for the reason why, he says his favorite tv show was going to air its last episode tomorrow. Sensui is amused by this and spares Itsuki's life, leading the other to becoming his partner.
Mad Love: To Sensui. Both are incredibly unhinged and Itsuki is very aware of it, yet he's still incredibly loyal and in love with his leader.
Manipulative Bastard: Of the passive-aggressive variety.
Meaningful Name: "Itsuki" written in a certain way becomes an alternate reading of the name of the Youkai "Kubire Oni" (Hanging Demon), a spectral monster who fills people with depression and suicidal thoughts until they put an end to themselves. Fitting, for The Corrupter, isn't it?
Moral Myopia: His last speech is filled with this. He calls out Team Urameshi and Spirit World for their crimes in an attempt to justify his and Sensui's goals, despite what he and Sensui did.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: His shadow hands.
Non-Action Guy: But he is surprisingly badass for one. And woe betide anyone who makes him angry...
The Philosopher: Somewhat of a subversion, as he's bloody crazy.
Psycho Supporter:
- Itsuki from the anime loves Sensui because... Sensui is beautiful. In all kinds of senses, with a stress on the functional beauty of tremendous power and absolute madness.
- In the manga, where Itsuki is more twisted, it's because he's gotten the opportunity to see all that purity get twisted and warped and spit out a shattered genocidal maniac who's more powerful than ever and still charismatic and brilliant. He compares it to "a little girl who believes babies come from storks growing up to star in pornos."
Seven Deadly Sins: As one of the Sensui Seven, he represents Lust.
Single Specimen Species: The only yaminade left.
Single-Target Sexuality: Taken to a very obsessive degree — he loves Sensui, and only Sensui. A LOT.
Softspoken Sadist: His smooth, mellow voice tends to hide his inner crazy.
Stalker with a Crush: In the Funimation dub at least, Itsuki was once this for Sensui.
Subordinate Excuse and Undying Loyalty: Holds both of these towards his ex-partner, now leader and lover: Shinobu Sensui.
The Unfought: Is the only one of the Sensui Seven to never battle the heroes, not even indirectly like with Gamemaster.
Undying Loyalty: After Sensui spares him, the two become partners. Even after Sensui slips into madness, Itsuki remains loyal to him even at the end where he whisks Sensui's corpse with him into his dimension where the two remain forever.
Villain Teleportation: A variant with his power over dimensions and the Ura-otoko.

Sniper — Kaname Hagiri

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a19.png

"I've got no quarrel with you, stranger."

Species: Human Psychic
Powers: Marksmanship / Death Print Bull's Eye

Voiced by: Eiji Sekiguchi (JP, TV Anime), Yusuke Shirai (JP, 100% Maji Battle), Aaron Hatch (EN), Luis Raymundo Espinoza (Latin America, TV series)

Kaname Hagiri — codename Sniper — is a human psychic who acts as Sensui's top field operative, always by his side offering combat support. An extremely cold, professional and efficient assassin, he is one of Team Urameshi's deadliest opponents, with any object he throws within his territory will hit its mark with deadly speed and perfect accuracy.

Abnormal Ammo: He uses a variety of objects throughout the series, ranging from pencil erasers, dice, marbles, pebbles, to blades of grass, kitchen knives, and a FUEL TANKER.
Always Accurate Attack: His territory allows him to fire objects at incredible speeds and force, and will always home in on their marks, though anyone quick enough can stop them and once stopped they lose the ability to follow their target. Genkai was on-edge when she realized he shot Murota from 500 yards (five football fields) in the head with a pencil eraser — without killing him.
Badass Biker: Though given that he's a drop-dead-gorgeous Bishōnen, and that his boss is gay. He fits the credentials well enough though — he rides his bike almost effortlessly, with enough skill to easily evade Kurama's attacks. He doesn't even need any sort of safety protection, as Shizuru ironically dubs him the "rebel without a helmet."
Co-Dragons: With Itsuki to Sensui.
Cold Sniper: An interesting twist. Per se, he doesn't actually use a real sniper rifle (he does use a pistol), but he can flick objects (marbles, dice, a tank truck filled with fuel) with insane force and accuracy. Moreover, his "territory" lets him imprint enemies with bulls-eyes that attract anything he throws with deathly speed. That said, personality-wise he fits the bill of the Cold Sniper quite well — out of all the Sensui Seven, he's the least emotional and crazy, and fights purely methodically. (Though he can also be Not So Stoic, and after Itsuki he is the most unfalteringly loyal to their leader Sensui.)
Combat Pragmatist: He's not above toying with his victims, but he never lets it go on for too long either.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Yusuke's fight against him was absurdly one-sided. In all his experience, Yusuke was always used to fighting enemies head on, but never against somebody who methodically kept his distance and chipped away at him. If it wasn't for Hiei's big damn heroic moment, Yusuke would've been dead a second time.
Didn't See That Coming: How he's ultimately defeated. If he has his sights on you, you will not win. Hiei stayed completely hidden in the trees and shadows — Sniper didn't even know he was in his Territory the entire time until he was already within 5 feet away from him. At that point, there was nothing he could do against Hiei.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He's a pale teenager with jet black hair, a poker face, and very creepy intentions.
Enigmatic Minion: For most the arc, he's got a perpetual poker face that would make even Younger Toguro proud. It makes reading him, and his intentions, incredibly difficult.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: About the only human he truly cares about is his sister — she even somewhat serves as his Morality Pet, not that it deters him from his goals.
For the Evulz: Like Itsuki, Hagiri could care less about Chapter Black and the evils of humanity. He is mainly motivated by a massive superiority complex: He finds most everyone around him too stupid and not worth the dirt they walk on, and thus they deserve to be replaced with Demons. He does however value his family. Just not enough to exclude them from his boss' genocidal plans.
Glass Cannon: He can be devastatingly dangerous with his powers, but he has no more defensive power than a normal human his age. One good strike from his superhuman opponents and he's done.
The Gunslinger: Always carries a pistol with him, just in case.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Hiei, non-fatally.
Improbable Aiming Skills: When someone is in his territory, and he can mark them to allow objects to home in on them.
Improbable Weapon User: He uses dice, marbles and shot a target in the head with a pencil eraser.
Karma Houdini: Aside of simply disappearing at some point, he doesn't really get much punishment for what he did as a Sensui Seven member.
Long-Range Fighter: As his codename obviously implies, his speciality is in attacking from a distance. To that effect, he is damn near unstoppable. If one can sneak close enough to him however, he's about as helpless as a regular human his average age and build.
Nothing Personal: Says this to Hiei right before he was about to shoot him.
Professional Killer: His territory makes him uniquely suited for surgical wetwork, and he makes his entrance attempting to assassinate Seaman.
Psycho Supporter: He might be the second most crazily devoted member of the Sensui Seven, right after Itsuki.
Seven Deadly Sins: As one of the Sensui Seven, he represents Pride.
Shout-Out: Honestly, who doesn't think he looks a bit like Kaneda?
The Stoic: He is a fanatic loyalist, but you wouldn't get that impression immediately. He is stone-faced and professional to a fault.
Squishy Wizard: Practically unstoppable at a distance. If that distance is closed however, the threat level plummets.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Lampshaded by both Yusuke and Kaname himself when he locks a fuel tanker onto Yusuke's bull's eyes.
Undying Loyalty: Is the most loyal to Sensui, after Itsuki.
Weak, but Skilled: There's a reason he's called Sniper. For how powerful his abilities are, he's a regular human, and would be knocked out by a direct him from any main character.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: After playing around with Yusuke as target practice, he finally opts to just gun him down with a pistol. If Hiei didn't arrive in the nick of time, that definitely would've been the end of him.

Doctor — Minoru Kamiya

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a21.png

"You can't avoid it any longer. You have to kill me—cross the ultimate line that divides all men—but you've NEVER killed a human and, once you do that, you could never go back to the other side. It's like a narcotic. You have to keep on killing or else the guilt will overcome you. At least that's the case with me."

Species: Human Psychic
Powers: Psychic Scalpel / Chemical Manipulation

Voiced by: Taro Arakawa (JP), Sonny Strait (EN), Claudio Ridolfo (IT)

Minoru Kamiya — codename Doctor — is a human Psychic and one of the Sensui Seven. An extremely deranged and disturbed man, he is fully aware that the goal he strives for will result in his (and everyone else's) death — and he's perfectly fine with that, seeing humanity as a disease that needs to be eradicated. Within his territory he can create viruses, reattach limbs, alter his own body chemistry and wield a psychic scalpel which he uses with surgical accuracy.

The Atoner: He cooks up a new identity and founds a clinic as part of his choice to redeem himself.
Ax-Crazy: The second he appears, crazy just oozes off of him. He was going to kill every person in an entire hospital, paralyzed Kido permanently, and slashed a woman's torso open. And he did it all with a smile. And that's the least of it — the hospital was merely a controlled environment for what he had in mind for the entire planet.
Brainwashed and Crazy: In his conversation with Sniper after everything is said and done, he suggests that the Chapter Black tape might have done something like this to them: made them twisted and angry and willing to do things they would not normally. Sniper doesn't seem all that receptive of the idea, and Doctor himself only believes it half-heartedly, accepting that the real truth might be that he's a horrible person and he's just trying to find a reason to deny it.
Card-Carrying Villain: He knows he's a complete monster, and he relishes it, though he sincerely believes that the rest of humanity are infinitely worse than him. Still, he knows for a fact that what he's planning will kill him as well, and he's perfectly content with that.
Deadly Doctor: He fights with hands that cut like scalpels, and insects with syringes that inject diseases into his victims.
Despair Event Horizon: What he saw on Chapter Black, made him nihilistic enough to wish for the death of all humanity
Disney Death: Twice, though played with. The first time, due to the effects of his nasty territory, Yusuke had no choice but to kill him in order to save everyone in the hospital. Genkai quickly revives him though, to save Yusuke the burden of having murder on his conscience. The second time is after he escapes police custody and fakes his death.
Evil Laugh: Compared to near all of his comrades, he is the most wild — which includes enjoying his evil laughs whenever he thinks he has an advantage. In fact even after he starts using his powers to help people, the last we see of him is doing a rather maniacal laugh upon seeing his own wanted poster, knowing he's safe under an assumed identity.
Feels No Pain: Lopping off an entire limb from this guy barely elicits a reaction. It's one of the reasons why he's such a slippery opponent. In a straight-up fight, Yusuke had him dead-to-rights, but with his Territory infecting the entire hospital, he had to be either knocked out or killed to save everyone in time. He tweaked his body chemistry to both feel no pain and to never lose consciousness, effectively ruling out the former option.
Facial Horror: Courtesy of Yana. He got better looking in the epilogue.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He was the most sadistic and evil member of Team Sensui, at least before he escapes from prison, changes his face, and founds a clinic to help others.
Good Powers, Bad People: His powers are all rooted in the aspects of being a doctor, including Healing Hands that are able to be used for surgery without tools, limb reattachment, and even safely altering body chemistry without the use of medicines and sedatives. Given that Doctor is a mad doctor however, his procedures taken to evil are aimed more at messy euthanasia and uses them to kill others.
Healing Factor: He can numb the pain receptors and use his ability to reattach his limbs.
Healing Hands: He can reattach limbs with his powers, making him very hard to put down. However, he decides to use those powers for others later one.
Heel Realization: A short while after the Sensui incident, he realizes that he was very wrong and decides to help others.
Karma Houdini: Despite almost killing an entire hospital and giving an innocent nurse a three-foot-long scar, in the epilogue, he gets to use his skills to become a doctor for the weak and change his face to boot, and this is after admitting to still wanting to complete their goal of creating Hell on Earth after a well-deserved No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Yusuke.
Lightning Bruiser: Unlike most psychics, his territory makes him uniquely suited for hand-to-hand combat. And while he is nowhere near as strong as Yusuke, he is legitimately fast — quick enough to surprise Yusuke several times and get close enough for fatal cuts. That said, like most territory-users, he is still a Squishy Wizard: It doesn't take much to kill him.
Limp and Livid: Takes this stance after Yusuke starts really fighting him — it makes him seem animalistic and really projects the feeling that there's something very wrong with him — physically and mentally. It's worth noting that at that point he was seriously injured, but used his abilities to numb the pain and allow himself to keep going as if he weren't, which would explain the odd stance.
Mad Doctor: This guy is freaking crazy until he realizes that he needs to make amends for his actions.
Made of Iron: Played with. Physiologically, he's as weak as any normal human. A punch from someone like Yusuke could easily take him down for the count, but his territory makes that extremely difficult. He feels no pain, can quickly heal, and can indefinitely cycle epinephrine and hormones throughout his body to never experience fatigue. A killing stroke will kill him easily, but anything less than one will simply result in him getting back up no worse for wear.
Medical Horror: The concept of Doctor alone is enough to probably get his own slasher film series. His battle with Yusuke and the gang was enough to not just nearly kill off an entire hospital, but his territory made the whole damn place look like an Abandoned Hospital by the point his initial virus infectees were at critical condition. Outside of the remnants and wraiths of the deceased, he marks off a good chunk of what can make hospitals and any medical career into Grade A Nightmare Fuel.
My God, What Have I Done?: Realized how far off he went and decides to use his skills for the betterment of others.
Psycho Supporter: Possibly the biggest one, as he fully intends to be killed by demons when they show up.
Seven Deadly Sins: As one of the Sensui Seven, he represents Wrath for his extremely violent methods.
Starting a New Life: After the events of YuYu Hakusho, Minoru Kamiya changed his face and name to evade law enforcement agencies due to his involvement with the Sensui Seven. He founds a clinic to help heal others, which was a result of realizing that the group lost their fight against Yusuke and his comrades, which contributed somewhat to his Heel Realization.
Straw Nihilist: Doesn't care if humanity is eaten by demons; in fact, he welcomed it.
Unskilled, but Strong: Doctor is able to fight in close quarters with Yusuke post-Dark Tournament arc, and even wound him once, by using his territory to adjust his bodies make up to give himself more speed and power, as well as reducing his sense of pain. However, he's not actually a fighter, meaning whenever Yusuke and him directly fight head on, Yusuke almost always overpowers him quickly, forcing Kamiya to retreat and avoid a head on fight when possible. Yusuke even nearly outright kills him after deciding to get serious.
Would Hit a Girl: Has cut a nurse down after she had a breakdown.

Seaman — Kiyoshi Mitarai

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a20.png

"Humanity only seems good to you because you were born in a peaceful time, but war's our nature, it'll always come back."

Species: Human Psychic
Powers: Water Manipulation

Voiced by: Rica Matsumoto (JP), Justin Pate (EN), Daniela Benítez (Latin America, TV series), Patrizia Scianca (IT)

Kiyoshi Mitarai — codenamed Seaman — is a human psychic and one of the Sensui Seven. He had a particularly troubled childhood dealing with bullies, which affected him all the more when he watched the entirety of the Chapter Black tape. Kuwabara's kindness, however, ultimately made him defect and help Team Urameshi — simultaneously making him Sniper's next target. He has the power to mix his blood with water to create powerful golems.

Ax-Crazy: Pre-Heel–Face Turn, he was pretty eager to use his powers to kill others. Even in his Motive Rant, he was making horrible Nightmare Faces as he explained his reasons.
Bloody Murder: Seaman's power is to create monsters by mixing his blood with water. Which he strangely doesn't use after his Heel–Face Turn, although it can be justified because it needs a large source of water to strengthen it.
Break the Cutie: The massive bullying that he went through and what he witnessed in the Chapter Black video simply... broke him.
Even Evil Has Standards: Was disgusted by Doctor and his intentions, even when they were both part of the Sensui Seven.
Freudian Excuse: Was savagely bullied in his former school, then Sensui subjects him to watch the Chapter Black.
Heel–Face Turn: As said above, Kuwabara's kindness and the help of the Urameshi Team help him leave the Sensui Seven.
Making a Splash: Has the ability to animate water to attack people with by mixing his blood in it.
Seven Deadly Sins: As one of the Sensui Seven, he represents Envy.
Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: He's seen as a victim of both the "ignoring" and the "physical violence" tactics.
Villainous BSoD: The basis for his entire character, from watching the Chapter Black video to discovering people who contradict its contents, it's just one breakdown after another for the poor guy...
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Neither Sensui or Sniper were really bothered with the idea of killing him off immediately the moment Kuwabara took him in. That too was a part of Sensui's plan to lure out Kuwabara.

Gamemaster — Tsukihito Amanuma

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a22.png

"Hold on to whacha got! Drivin' a REAL car is pretty much like the racing game at the arcade."

Species: Human Psychic
Powers: Video Game Materialization

Voiced by: Yoshiko Kamei (JP), Monica Rial (EN), Noemí Bayarri (Spain), Adriana Rodríguez (Latin America, TV series), Monica Bonetto (IT)

Tsukihito Amanuma — codenamed Gamemaster — is a human psychic and member of the Sensui Seven. He joined Sensui purely because he thought he was "cool for an adult"; meeting someone who apparently liked video games as much as him, and hated the world as much as him. He works together with Gourmet to kidnap Kuwabara. His territory lets him bring any video game to life, altering the physical and logical laws of reality to be the same as that of any game.

Awesome by Analysis: When it comes to games, and he trumps Kaito in the quiz game because of it: Kaito has memorized all of the game's 17,000 questions, to the point where he only needs to see the first few words to answer. Amanuma has memorized the game's supposedly random seed, and once he sees the order of the first few questions he doesn't even need to see the rest of the questions to know what they'll be.
Achilles' Heel: Amanuma is not immune to the laws of his own world. He has to follow the rules set forth by the game that he manipulates. This comes back to bite him royally in the ass when he emulates Goblin City and assumes the role of a character that is destined to die when the challenger wins.
Affably Evil: Has a rather smart mouth, but is easily the friendliest of the seven.
Back from the Dead: Fortunately, Koenma pulls a few strings.
Creepy Child: Especially when he first appears under the Goblin King cloak, and he's pulling off Death Glares and trying Breaking Speeches. Once the cloak comes off he acts more friendly and cheerful, though still occasionally rude — and it's not to be forgotten that he's working with a particularly nasty Arc Villain, if a bit unwittingly.
Children Are Innocent: Sensui plays his naivete and cavalier innocence to manipulate him into joining his cause. Even though he claims to be behind Sensui's plan, it's clear he doesn't process it as real in the way the others do, and though he knows demons are going to be released on the world he doesn't really understand what that truly means — seeing it all as a game (likening the worst thing to happen to being the demons "messing with people" and him getting off of school for a while) until he's forced to face the consequences of his actions. He doesn't even have any ill will towards Team Urameshi, and casually promises to throw the game and let them go once enough time has passed and he's had his fun — not realizing at all what that means.
Amanuma (tearfully): I didn't mean for all this stuff to really happen!
Curtains Match the Window: He has brown hair to match his brown eyes in the manga
Did Not Think This Through: Justified in that he's a bit too ignorant; but his downfall as Kurama points out is that Amanuma never fully understood what could happen if he dies in a game in which his character explicitly dies.
Drives Like Crazy: Is an 11-year-old boy whose only driving experience is playing racing games in arcades. Predictably, the car chase after they capture Kuwabara involves him causing a lot of mayhem. He even lampshades it when Kuwabara calls him out on his lack of experience.
Fatal Flaw: His ignorance. Amanuma is a highly ignorant child due to family problems and isolation that he came off as a smug know-it-all and flaunted it against Kaito. But, his ignorance came full circle when Kurama confronted him with knowledge that he would die in the game if he lost as opposed to the challengers who can just keep going and going. Amanuma only sees the game in front of him; but nothing else nor did he really even bother to think about his powers, any downsides to them, or the consequences of his actions.
I Did What I Had to Do: Inverted. He's on the receiving end of it from Kurama.
Kurama: This isn't about choosing one life over another. You at least know what Sensui is going to do. I can't say you aren't responsible for your fate.
I Know Mortal Kombat: In the most literal way imaginable.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's smug, rude and loves mocking others, and though he's usually more childish than nasty he does still do and say some dickish things to people just because he thinks he's better than them (Seaman being a good example). This is ultimately shown to be the result of immaturity rather than malice, and he lacks anything resembling actual sadism, even showing himself to be a rather graceful winner.
Locked Out of the Loop: While he does know that their plan will kill off the human race, he's either been not told or is too young to understand that the human race includes him and his colleagues as well.
Loners Are Freaks: One of the factors that turned him into a misanthropic kid willing to join Sensui's crusade to destroy Humanity. Subverted at the end following the failed apocalypse when he manages to make friends.
More than Mind Control: Like most of Sensui's minions, he gained his nihilistic outlook after being forced to watch Chapter Black, but Sensui manipulated him even more that that he got him to that point.
Parental Substitute: His backstory reveals that this is how Sensui got to him. His own parents didn't have time for him, whereas Sensui took an interest, encouraged him and his hobbies and fill a lonely hole in his life (we even get an image of Sensui as a giant bird, literally taking him under his wing). All for the sake of putting his enemies in a position where they'll be forced to kill Amanuma to get to him. In the midst of freaking out because he's going to die, Amanuma is also heartbroken by the betrayal.
Pet the Dog: The heroes' first indication that Amanuma is more innocent than he appears is when he completely outmatches Kaito and, instead of gloating about his victory or punishing him, he proves to be a very graceful winner and even encourages him for next time. Kaito (who loathes losing) notes that Amanuma actually made him feel better about his loss.
The Reveal: Despite his tragic character, this actually serves to be more amusing than anything else as we learn that both Kurama and Genkai are video game nerds.
Reality Warper: His powers allow him to make video games into reality.
Seven Deadly Sins: As one of the Sensui Seven, he represents Sloth, lazily accepting whatever Sensui tells him and mostly wasting time to have fun.
Spirited Competitor: For all his smugness, not to mention who he's working with, he's just a gamer who loves fun and a good challenge. His glee upon watching Genkai perfect one of his challenges is unmistakable (though he later plays it off as him being happy they wasted her on an early game), and it's clear he's more interested in having good gamers to play with for as long as he wants than Sensui's objectives. He even starts sincerely congratulating the heroes on how well they're doing, even when they're losing, unaware that if they actually do win, it would kill him.
Unskilled, but Strong: His powers, even if restricted to video games is undoubtedly very great; but he hasn't practiced much with it, so he can't manipulate it to cheat or to abort a game in progress. All According to Sensui's plan.
Unwitting Pawn: Sensui completely played on the poor kid's weaknesses and desires to make him his pawn. Amanuma didn't notice until Kurama told him that he would die if he lost his own game.
Villainous BSoD: Kurama reveals that he is going to die in order to invoke one of these in him and unnerve him enough to cause him to lose the game. It works, and it's heartbreaking.
Your Size May Vary: How big he is varies in the anime. For most of the arc, particularly during the Game Battler / Goblin City showdown, he's fairly tiny — about half Kurama's height with a typical small kid's build. Towards the end of Chapter Black, however — when we see him wake up from death, up through the epilogue — he's drawn as rather tall and lanky.

Gourmet — Sadao Makihara

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a23.png

"Touching, Seaman. You want to save Kuwabara so very badly because he saved you, but at the same time you're terrified of letting Sensui find out how much your new buddy means to you, aren't you?"

Species: Human Psychic
Powers: Gluttonous Absorbtion

Voiced by: Atsushi Ishida (JP), E. Bailey (EN), Pino Pirovano (IT)

Walking Spoiler Warning: Due to his close linkage with Elder Toguro, by viewing the contents of this folder, readers are bound to get spoiled.

Sadao Makihara — codename Gourmet — is a human psychic and one of the Sensui Seven. He works together with Gamemaster in kidnapping Kuwabara, and later challenges Kurama directly. His territory is inside his stomach, and any person or being he eats lets him absorb their powers.

In the beginning of the Chapter Black Saga, Makihara consumes the head of Elder Toguro in attempt to gain Toguro's Shapeshifting powers, but Toguro's powers overpowered him, leading to Makihara's entire body and soul being devoured, and transformed into Elder Toguro's new body.

Assimilation Backfire: Gourmet eats Elder Toguro to get his powers, Elder Toguro ends up taking over his body later.
Break Them by Talking: Strangely fond of these, especially being Dumb Muscle and all... Subverted, of course as it's really Toguro talking.
Body Horror: His entire schtick. His power is eating people alive in order to acquire their powers. This backfires when Elder Toguro remains conscious after being eaten alive forcing himself to commit suicide so he wouldn't suffer being eaten alive from the inside out. And by the time he appears prominently, he's being replaced by Elder Toguro, who's impersonating him until the moment the top half of his head was removed, with Elder Toguro revealing his head from the stump with the lower jaw still intact, leading to an unsettling image.
Cannibalism Superpower: When he eats other demons or psychics, he gains their powers.
Dead Person Impersonation: A very dark variant, he ate Elder Toguro, only for the latter to slowly devour him and the realization led him to suicide. By the time, he's featured prominently, Elder Toguro has already taken his body and acted like him until Kurama exposed him.
Demonic Possession: When he tries to eat Elder Toguro, the parasitic demon instead ends up taking over his mind and body.
Driven to Suicide: In order to escape the terror being Eaten Alive from the inside out.
Dumb Muscle: Lampshaded by both Sensui and Toguro.
Eaten Alive: Does this to Murota and Elder Toguro. In a sick twist of irony, the latter slowly does this to Makihara.
Eyes Always Shut: Except for one instance when he tells Kurama about how much guilt he had for killing Game Master.
Family-Unfriendly Death: Not only what he does to Murota, devouring him whole on screen, but his own death at Kurama's hands: Kurama wraps his rose whip around his head and slices it in two, completely severing the top half of his skull and leaving only his lower jaw attached to his neck. Subverted in that Elder Toguro reveals himself to have taken over his body growing out his own head from the stump where the top half of the skull used to be.
- His actual death at the hands of Elder Toguro. After eating the regenerating demon alive, Gourmet slowly comes to the horrifying revelation that Sensui had him do it so Elder Toguro would eat him alive from the inside out in order to have a more moveable body since he was taking too long to regenerate on his own power. Gourmet takes his own life so he wouldn't have to suffer dying by being eaten from the inside out, with the demon relishing the opportunity.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Notably the only one of Sensui's group not to be given a mention/come back to life in the arc's epilogue, though given how he'd been completely consumed by Elder Toguro beforehand, it is understandable.
Hoist by His Own Petard: His power backfires when he tries to devour a parasitic demon like Toguro.
I'm a Humanitarian: Ate Murota to gain his Telepathy power, did the same to Elder Toguro, but it backfired and led to his suicide.
Jerkass: While not utterly deranged like Doctor or batshit crazy like Itsuki, he is otherwise an extremely unpleasant man who takes pleasure in putting down and torturing both Kuwabara and Seaman. It's Elder Toguro's behavior seeping out from his ruse.
Mind Rape: After eating Murota, he does this to Kurama resulting in an angered reaction.
Off with His Head!: Kurama cuts the top part of his head off, subverted as Elder Toguro bursts out to reveal it was really him the whole time.
Power Parasite: He's able to gain the abilities of who he eats.
Seven Deadly Sins: As one of the Sensui Seven, he fittingly represents Gluttony. Also a twofer example as Elder Toguro is the embodiment of Greed.
Stepford Smiler: He comes off as a happy go villain always smiling while committing cruel acts but he was living in constant fear knowing Elder Togoro was living within his body overpowering him.
Swallowed Whole: How he eats people.
Villainous Glutton: His power is eating people and is very much a glutton, plus he is a part of a group that wants to start the apocalypse and he tried to Mind Rape Kurama. Though the latter part was due to Elder Toguro being in control.
We Hardly Knew Ye: We never knew what Makihara was like before Elder Toguro took over; by the time he showed up, it's already Elder Toguro masquerading as him.
You Are Who You Eat: While Gourmet doesn't become who he eats (though with elder Toguro's shapeshifting powers and telepathy, this is debatable), he does take the powers of whoever he eats and presumably, any necessary physical characteristics of said power.

Animated Feature Film Antagonists

Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie

Koashura

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a25.png

Species: Demon

Main Power: Unknown

Voiced by: Rica Matsumoto (JP), Julie Maddalena (EN-Media Blasters dub), Greg Ayres (EN-Funimation dub), Rosa Moyano (Spain)

Big Bad: Of Yu Yu Hakusho: The Golden Seal. Later is shown to be a Big Bad Wannabe.
Evil Counterpart: To Koenma in many ways even down to their names (see punny name below).
Evil Is Petty: See Love makes you evil below.
Evil Redhead: As can be seen in his picture, granted his hair has pink hue to it.
Love Makes You Evil: He is angry at Koenma for taking the affection of a girl when they were younger. However, this is shown as being Played for Laughs at the end as it is shown that he and Kotennyo never had any sort of intimate relationship to begin with.
Punny Name: Koashura's name means "Little Asura" much like how Koenma's name means "Little Enma".
Take Over the World: In this case Spirit World by way of getting the golden seal. Though it's subverted in that his real motive was that he wanted revenge against Koenma for breaking the present he wanted to give to his crush, as well as taking her away from him. Kuwabara was quite Disappointed by the Motive and smacks him for all the trouble he's caused.

Garuga

Species: Demon

Main Power: Attack Reflection

Voiced by: Takeshi Aono (JP), Kevin Seymour (EN-Media Blasters dub), Chris Ayres (EN-Funimation dub), Joaquín Gómez (Spain)

Koashura's right hand man in carrying out his plot against Koenma. He is actually a wanted criminal named Yasha who wants the Golden seal for his own purposes.

Attack Reflector: Located on his chest which can reflect energy attacks.
Bishōnen Line: While his transformed state, Yasha's true form to be more exact, is still monstrous in appearance, but is far less bulky and allows him to be swifter in battle.
The Dragon: To Koashura Later revealed to be The Starscream.
Dumb Muscle: Garuga demonstrates that he is a subversion. He reveals upon getting the Golden Seal that it was merely an act to make Koashura think he was in charge, but was simply manipulating him for his own means.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Yusuke defeats him in his true form by sealing the reflector on his chest using the magma found in the Magma Valley.
Purple Is Powerful: Though he is shown to have a brown exterior, but when Yasha drops his disguise he is shown to have mostly light purple skin with light yellow secondary coloring.
Spikes of Villainy: On his Shoulders of Doom of which he uses as one of his methods of attack.
White Hair, Black Heart: More so in his true form.

Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report

Yakumo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a26.png

Species: Makai God

Main Power: Multiple

Voiced by: Hirotaka Suzuoki (JP, Movie), Wataru Hatano (JP, 100% Maji Battle), Bruce Winant (EN), César Martínez (Spain, first dub), Joaquín Gómez (Spain, second dub)

The main antagonist of Yu Yu Hakusho: Meikai Shito Hen — Hono no Kizuna.

All-Encompassing Mantle: He wears a dark cloak with a turnover collar.
Bad Boss: Downplayed. Shortly after seeing Hiei incinerate Raiko with multiple Dragons of the Darkness Flame, he simply turns away remarks in a nonchalant manner saying something along the lines of "sucks to be you".
Big Bad: Of Yu Yu Hakusho: Meikai Shito Hen — Hono no Kizuna / Yu Yu Hakusho: Bonds of Fire / Poltergeist Report
Canon Foreigner: He and the other Makai Gods were created for this film, though the concept for them is derived from some latent ideas from the Manga. Canonically, the Demon plane is simply another part of the Spirit World of which King Enma and his forces have gradually subjugated. The movie portrayed it as part of a separate pre-existing realm that was assimilated after a war between Enma and Yakumo.
Catchphrase: "Know Your Rightful Place!" which he tends to particularly addresses to Humans.
Evil Versus Evil: Is this in the background of the movie with King Enma by default of revelations in the last chapters of the manga.
Filler Villain: Though he is the co-Trope Namer (along with Lanipator 's Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged), ironically he actually averts this as he debuted in a Non-Serial Movie, not any episodes of the television series.
Foil: To Sensui. Whereas Sensui was a Fallen Hero Messianic Archetype who became an anti-villainous Dark Messiah with an inflexibly strict since of Justice, Yakumo, while he may agree with Sensui's assessment about Humanity (read Humans are Bastards below), is an unabashedly wicked Satan-like God of Evil who could not careless about Humanity perhaps except as livestock.
Humans Are Bastards: Yakumo harnessed the power of the souls of evil Human beings who were banished to the void to free himself and his fellow Makai gods.
Mark of the Supernatural: He possesses purple irises signifying his supernatural origins and, in reference to color association in Japanese culture, that he is evil.
Meaningful Name: The kanji that make up Yakumo's name can mean "eight clouds" or "august cloud" which is fitting given that he is the former King of the Netherworld.
Mind Manipulation: Yakumo is able to exert his will over any demons under the influence of the Netherworld, designated by the cross-shaped mark on their foreheads. With his being the King of the Netherworld, and his influence wiping away the last traces of free will, the affected demons essentially become slaves to his will.
Our Gods Are Different: And he takes plenty of opportunities to snidely remind his enemies to respect that he is a god.
Purple Is Powerful: His aura manifests as a purple color.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: He was the ruler of the Netherworld, which was destroyed and assimilated into Spirit world, and demonstrates that he is not to be taken lightly. He is estimated to be at A Class in power and goes to S Class upon regaining the Netherworld Power Sphere.
Reality Warper: One of the powers he has when in possession of the Netherworld Power Sphere.
Satanic Archetype: He has shades of this. He had waged a war against King Enma eons earlier, ruled The Netherworld, and is also quite ambitious in his goal to displace Enma as the ruler of all existence.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Following his defeat at the hands of King Enma, he and the rest of the Makai gods were banished to the void.^note However, he managed to convert the souls of Human beings damned to the void into Demon energy and broke out of his prison from the inside.
Smug Snake: And he has the power to back it up.
Telekinesis: One of Yakumo's abilities.
Visionary Villain: In addition to seeking to conquer Spirit world, his plan is to recreate the Netherworld in the Human World via an Assimilation Plot with the use of the Power Sphere of the Netherworld.
White Hair, Black Heart: As can be seen here.

Kuronue

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a27_4.png

Voiced by: Hōchū Ōtsuka (JP), Eric Stuart (EN), Jordi Ribes (Spain, first dub), Kike Caraballo (Spain, first dub), Bernardo Rodríguez (Latin America, TV series)

A thief and a former associate from Kurama's past who is featured in the movie Poltergeist Report.

Back from the Dead: Subverted. The real Kuronue is dead, the one Kurama confronts is an imposter.
Bat Out of Hell: Kuronue is a Bat Demon.
Canon Foreigner: He was created for this film.
Enemy Mine: He joined with Yakumo in order to carry out his vendetta against Kurama. See Revenge for details.
Expy: Let's see, he's a villain that is a former accomplice of Kurama. This may sound like Yomi, but actually averted and simply coincidental as at the time Bonds of Fire/Poltergeist Report was released (April 9, 1994) the Manga and it's Anime adaptation were still in the middle of the Chapter Black arc. Though Kuronue could possibly be an inversion in relation to Yomi if the latter was in part inspired by former.
Out-of-Character Alert: He tosses away his pendant just as he is about to stab Kurama in the back. Kurama is able to deduce that the Kuronue he is fighting is an imposter because the real one was killed trying to reclaim his pendant which was very dear to him, and that he would never attack in such a way.
Posthumous Character: While escaping with their loot, Kuronue was killed trying to go back for his pendant.
Revenge: Against Kurama for failing to come to his rescue in the past. Subverted as the person Kurama is fighting against is merely an illusion.
Winged Humanoid: He fittingly has a set of Bat-like wings.

Other Makai Gods

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a32.png

Voiced by:

[Kaiki] Hōchū Ōtsuka (JP), Eric Stuart (EN), Francesc Rocamora (Spain)

[Majari] Yūji Mitsuya (JP), Jack Taylor (EN), Xavier Fernández (Spain, first dub), Eduardo Díez (Spain, first dub

[Raiko] Nobuaki Fukuda (JP), Peter Patrikios (EN), Antonio Moro (Spain)

Yakumo's subordinates aside from Kuroune.

Barbarian Longhair: Kaiki has his red hair in this style.
Combat Pragmatist: Kaiki has no inhibitions to taking an opening when he sees one. This ends up giving him away when disguised as Kuronue as the latter refused to ever attack someone from behind.
The Corrupter: One of the abilities of Raiko's Jagan Eye gave him the ability to put others under his will by "bringing out their wickedness" which he does on Hiei. However, the Dragons of the Darkness Flame could not be affected by the trance when they were released upon Raiko's attempt to control Hiei and shortly after destroyed the Makai deity in a giant ball of Hellfire.
The Dragon: Raiko serves as this for Yakumo.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Majari. The Central Park Media dub deliberately gave him a Camp Gay vibe in an effort to avoid Viewer Gender Confusion.
Extra Eyes: Raiko possesses a Third Eye. His Jagan Eye is similar, albeit more powerful than Hiei's. Though unlike him Raiko has absolutely no moral restraint in how he uses it.
Knight Templar: Majari proclaims in his fight against Kuwabara his devotion to Yakumo's plan. Raiko is also this to a lesser extent.
Laser Blade: Raiko has the ability to create a BFS. Majari gains this ability by copying Kuwabara's Spirit Sword technique.
Manipulative Bastard: Kaiki plays on Kurama's grief for his lost comrade to take advantage of him.
Playing with Fire: One of Raiko's abilities.
Power Copying: Majari's specialty.
Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Kaiki's method of operation is to use this on opponents so as to get them to refuse to fight back.
Spell My Name With An S: Some translations spell Raiko's name as "Raigo".
Squishy Wizard: Majari, once Kuwabara tricked him into blasting out all his energy, was left vulnerable without his powers.
Telepathy: One of Kaiki's abilities which he uses in conjunction with illusionary shapeshifting.
Undying Loyalty: Raiko has this for Yakumo and doesn't take kindly to slights against him.

The Demon Realm Tournament Arc & Ending Arc—"All or Nothing"

The Spirit Realm (Walking Spoiler Warning.)

King Enma

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b01.png

Voiced by: Nobuaki Fukuda (JP) ^note, R. Bruce Elliott (EN)^note, Riccardo Rovatti (IT)

King of the Spirit World, and father of Prince Koenma.

Adaptational Heroism: In the anime due to omitting revelations that came about in the last chapters of the manga. He's still no saint given what is seen of him, but he's not the Greater-Scope Villain like he is in the manga.
Anticlimax Boss: In the manga, he's the series' Greater-Scope Villain and his powers are said to be great, and yet he is ousted from his position off-screen and without any involvement from Team Urameshi.
Balance Between Good and Evil: He has proclaimed that he values the balance of the Spirit, Human, and Demon worlds. It is subverted in the manga, in that it has nothing to do with any sort of utilitarian goal but is for a self-serving purpose of giving him exclusive access to the Human world's souls.
Beast Man: Many characters imagine him to look like this, but when he finally appears in person during the Chapter Black arc he is, aside from being a giant, no different in appearance to an average Human. You can compare the images his actual and imagined appearance here.
Big Good: As the King of Spirit World and the source from which the office of Spirit Detective derives its authority, he would be this naturally, but in this case is a subversion as he's actually the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire series; at least in the original manga.
The Corrupter: He committed crimes of brainwashing weak demons to make them attack humans and portray the Spirit World as the Human World's protectors.
Corrupt Politician: What Koenma discovered about him near the end of the manga and had him deposed.
Dub Name Change: The English dub and the subtitle translation, refer to him as "King Yama", though this really isn't a name change as his mythological namesake had his name transliterated as "Enma" in Japanese.
Engineered Heroics: Uses a Monster Protection Racket to keep his superiority over others and justify the Spirit World's "protection" of the Human World.
God Is Evil: An interesting non-Abrahamic, non-monotheistic, nor Crystal Dragon Jesus example. He released demons into the Human world in order to stir up trouble and thus add meaning to his existence. Though unlike most examples of this trope as Enma is only the Judge of the dead and not the Top God of the pantheon, he gets his comeuppance.
The Gods Must Be Lazy: While he isn't shown for most of the time, he actually is an interesting subversion of this trope. He's the source of most of the problems that occurred.
Greater-Scope Villain: In the manga, King Enma is responsible for just about everything, in the name of keeping his public image as powerful as possible—after all, Team Urameshi work for him, so if they take out a criminal, he can take credit for it.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Koenma describes him as having a temper like this during the Artifacts of Darkness arc. He said that he would be willing to destroy an entire continent to retrieve them.
Large and in Charge: He is literally gigantic.
Monster Protection Racket: This was the scheme that Enma was running until he was exposed. See Balance Between Good and Evil, The Corrupter, and Villain with Good Publicity entries for more details.
Noble Bigot with a Badge: In his case, it would be more like "Noble Bigot with a Crown". Regardless, his actions resulted in proving that the "Noble" part is Blatant Lies.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He seems to be trying to keep the worlds safe from demons and portray the spirit world as the benevolent protectors of humanity, but he's actually intentionally releasing them into the Human world to stir up trouble and add meaning to his own existence, as well as keep his public image as powerful as he could through Team Urameshi working for him.
Public Domain Character: Is adapted from Yama (transliterated as "Enma" in Japan), the Buddhist judge of the dead.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: He has powers that are estimated to be at middle or upper A-Class.
Salaryman: His design strangely resembles a high-ranked Salaryman, complete with eyeglasses. Fitting as the series portrays the judgment of the dead as a bureaucratic office job.
Villain with Good Publicity: He manipulated Demons to cause crimes in Human World for centuries. It was to justify maintaining Spirit World's exclusive access to the Human world and intervening under the claim of protecting Humanity, but in truth was seeking to control the Human world for his own personal gain.
Walking Spoiler: Most of the details of his biography involve giving away a major plot twist.

The Special Defense Forces (SDF)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b11.png

Voiced by:

[Ōtake] Hidetoshi Nakamura (TV series, JP), Masaki Aizawa (2018 OVA, JP), Troy Williams (EN)

[Shunjun] Kazuaki Ito (TV series, JP), Mitsuaki Madono (2018 OVA, JP), Troy Baker (EN)

[Ōhou] Mitsumasa Kishimoto (JP), Ricky Page (EN)

[Sorai] Kyoko Hikami (JP), Melissa Ellis (EN; Original), Alexis Tipton (EN; Blu-ray)

[Saito] Ayumi Kida (JP), Merk Harbour (EN; Original), Joel McDonald (EN; Blu-ray)

[Ryouhi] Sakiko Uran (JP), Clarine Harp (EN; Original), Stephanie Young (EN; Blu-ray)

[Rinpai] Kouji Ishii (JP), Bob Carter (EN)

[Short Unnamed] Tsutomu Takayama (JP), Ethan Rains (EN)

[Tall Unnamed] Atsushi Ishida (JP), Travis Willingham (EN; Original), Scott Freeman (EN; Blu-ray)

The SDF is a military group operating under the command of King Enma.

Action Girl: Of the nine known members of the Special Defense Forces, only Sourai and Ryouhi are women.
Adaptational Heroism: In the anime due to omitting revelations that came about in the last chapters of the manga.
Armies Are Evil: Zigzagged. While Ōtake and the rest of the leadership of the SDF are collaborators with Enma's machinations, the rest of the team have no knowledge of this. Even then, some members (see Sociopathic Soldier below) are sadistic thugs who enjoy abusing civilians. However, when the Sei-Sei Shinto initiate a coup attempt, Shunjun, who became captain of the SDF after Ōtake's removal, aided Team Urameshi in thwarting the Terrorists (of which included Ōtake and other former Spirit World military and government officials from Enma's rule prior to his impeachment and removal) from achieving their goal.
Break the Haughty: Many of the members are a little too full of themselves and high on their own reputations as "the best of the best". Finding out that there are S class demons that are not only stronger than them but some that are thousands of times stronger, have them go from feeling like an unstoppable army to crying children. Hell, one guy in the anime even begs Yusuke for his life!
Continuity Nod: Kurama mentioned he was critically injured from a botched robbery and escaped to the Human Realm to merge with a human fetus to survive. Team members of the SDF revealed it was Shunjun who injured Kurama.
The Dragon: Captain Ōtake serves as this for King Enma.
Elite Army: They are all at Class A ranking in power meaning few enemies aside from those at Class S (such as Yusuke reborn as a Human-Demon hybrid) can stand against them.
Expy: Of the Science Patrol from Ultraman. In the Manga, Yana highlights the SDF's resemblance to the group.
Godzilla Threshold: The only time the SDF is ever-present in the human world is if any being with Class A power or higher is detected there. Otherwise, they serve in helping Spirit World's forces in expanding their territory across the Demon world.
Hunter of Monsters: They are colloquially known as "Hunters" by denizens of the Demon plane.
Jerkass: The two unnamed ones were harsh and sadistic towards Koenma and Mitarai, even ignoring that the latter had a change of heart and aided them in the conflict against Sensui. Captain Ōtake also qualifies, but is downplayed as he is polite when addressing Prince Koenma.
Locked Out of the Loop: In this case, two details have been withheld to the majority of the SDF.
- When Yusuke, Koenma, and Puu manage to blow past them, it is only at this point that Ōtake reveals that there is a ranking of power above that of A class which comes as a shock to the rest of the team.
- Also worth noting that the aforementioned Monster Protection Racket under Enma's character entry was unknown to the rank and file of the SDF.
No Name Given: Of the Nine shown members of the SDF, only two have no known names.
Oh, Crap!: The reactions of the SDF members when they find out that there are S class demons that are hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than A-class demons.
Red Herring Shirt: Shunjun, one of the few trendy-looking guys on the team, was revealed via casual teammate conversation indicating he was the person who critically injured Kurama back when Kurama was a demon fox thief in his previous life. And because of this accomplishment, Shunjun was promoted to captain of the SDF after Ōtake's removal and takes orders directly from Koenma. Hence, Shunjun became the most important aid to Team Urameshi under the case of The Sei-Sei Shinto.
Sociopathic Soldier: The two unnamed ones who took sadistic glee in beating Mitarai and then begging for mercy once Yusuke came back as a Mazoku Demon.
Teleportation: One of the powers that its members have. They can seal unauthorized portals between dimensions and also create portals when given the order. This is unique because Sensui went through hell to do the same.
To Be Lawful or Good: The SDF is strongly on the Lawful side in upholding King Enma's decree to have Yusuke killed upon resurrection as a demon even after he prevented an apocalyptic destruction of the inhabitants of Earth from happening. Though it should be noted that most of them are Punch Clock Villains who have been kept in the dark about Enma's true motivations.

Sei-Sei Shinto (The Armed Church of the True Disciples)

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (2018 OVA) [Sei-Sei Shinto Leader]

The last antagonists that Team Urameshi fought against in the story.

Adapted Out: The Sei-Sei Shinto, which appeared in Chapter 174 in the manga, wasn't animated for the TV anime until year 2018's Yu Yu Hakusho 25th Anniversary OVA special.
Ascended Extra: Subverted. Ōtake returns as one of the members of the Sei-Sei Shinto in Chapter 174... only to be arrested along with the rest of its members in a Curb-Stomp Battle by Team Urameshi in that same chapter.
Big Bad Wannabe: Ōtake, the former Captain of the Special Defense Forces who was removed by King Enma for failing to kill Yusuke, is one of the group members of the Sei-Sei Shinto.
The Coup: In this case, the True Disciples' goal is to to restore the Deposed ruler Enma back onto the throne.
Death Ray: What they plan on using as their Final Solution against Sarayashiki, Japan if their demands are not met.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Their opposition to the changes brought about by the new Spirit World government led by King Koenma is strongly reminiscent of Right Wing Militia Fanatics that were active during The '90s. In addition, their head grabs closely resemble Keffiyehs that are worn by people of the Middle East. Their goals are described, via the Viz Media English translation, as follows: "They believe they are on a Holy mission from god to purify the Human world. The True Disciples follow the most extremist (sic) version of their teachings".
Evil Reactionary: Now that the status quo has been changed following King Enma's impeachment and removal from the throne, they seek to restore the previous order at all costs.
Fantastic Racism: Against Demons who they still regard as being Always Chaotic Evil even after that was definitively disproven. The Sect also has some contempt for Humans in viewing them as being immoral and undeserving of running their own lives. Team Urameshi would beg to disagree.
Gas Mask Mooks: Most of the Terrorists wear Gas Masks.
Hostage Situation: Of whom notable individuals they are holding at gunpoint include Koenma and Botan.
I Reject Your Reality: They refuse to accept that King Enma was responsible for brainwashing and using Demons to justify his so-called "protection" of Humans and now wish to restore Status Quo Ante regarding that revelation as never having happened.
Knight Templar: The Sei-Sei Shinto is a radical Spirit World religious sect that takes over the Gates of Judgment in the Spirit World to "purify" the Human world.
Light Is Not Good: Spirit beings, such as Koenma and Botan, have for most of the series been portrayed as allied with the forces of good against Demonic threats. In this instance, it has been flipped with some of Spirit World's Denizens as the antagonists.
The Magic Versus Technology War: In this case, Sei-Sei Shinto's Spirit World Magitek against Team Urameshi's members' Supernatural Martial Arts. Despite outnumbering the heroes thirty-three to four, the True Disciples were easily beaten. The Interdimensional laser, on the other hand, remained as one thing Team Urameshi could not overcome with brute force.
Order Is Not Good: They are the order to the perceived anarchy of Demons. Though the order that Sei-Sei Shinto wishes to impose would better be described as Tyranny.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Of a more Fantastic variety.
Superior Species: What they believe to be the case with Spirit World in regard to its inhabitants' "right" to rule over Humans. While Yusuke and his allies never directly respond to this attitude, it's not hard to imagine that their answer to the cult would have been Screw You, Elves!.
Undying Loyalty: For the ultimate antagonist of the series King Enma.

Characters / YuYu Hakusho — Main Villains

Case 00: The Appointment as Spirit Detective

Case 01: Retrieval of the Three Artifacts of Darkness

Case 02: The Prevention of Rando—Protection Order over The House of Genkai

Case 03: Disintegration of The Four Saint Beasts

Intermission

Case 04: The Retrieval of Yukina

Case 05: The Participation of the Dark Tournament

Team Toguro

General Character:

Dark Tournament Saga:

Chapter Black Saga:

Case 06: Prevent the Opening of the Portal — Defeat The Sensui Seven

Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie

Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report

The Spirit Realm (Walking Spoiler Warning.)

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Index

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Characters / YuYu Hakusho — Main Villains

Edit Locked

Case 00: The Appointment as Spirit Detective

Case 01: Retrieval of the Three Artifacts of Darkness

Case 02: The Prevention of Rando—Protection Order over The House of Genkai

Case 03: Disintegration of The Four Saint Beasts

Intermission

Case 04: The Retrieval of Yukina

Case 05: The Participation of the Dark Tournament

Team Toguro

General Character:

Dark Tournament Saga:

Chapter Black Saga:

Case 06: Prevent the Opening of the Portal — Defeat The Sensui Seven

Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie

Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report

The Spirit Realm (Walking Spoiler Warning.)

Previous

Index

Next