Yu Yu Hakusho Chapter 153 Discussion

Well, this is clearly the conclusion of the Chapter Black Arc & if I'm being honest and I hate saying this about two arcs in a row but it doesn't quite hold up to the same standard I once held it too. I think I can pin this one more on Hunter x Hunter as it surpassed Chapter Black in every way imaginable with Chimera Ant. Revisiting this after seeing Chimera Ant was like reading the first draft of a masterpiece, long before it reached that status. I'd also put some blame on the anime adaption, which in most regards just improved upon the source material (sole exception being the quick battle between Sensui/Yusuke when they went to capture Kuwabara).



That's not to say that it's a bad arc. Well, you could certainly argue that on the principles of the *terrible* resolution. The fact that Sensui was defeated only thanks to two Deus ex Machina in a row is something that always sullied this arc. But it still had it's positives & one needs to look no farther than the villain to see that. Sensui is easily the best of the main antagonists & Toguro was no slouch himself. Can hardly think of a more insane villain, especially in battle shonen (I'd argue there doesn't exist one for that category). But he wasn't just insane, he had his depth & the way the series parallel him with Yusuke was interesting. The general themes were still good & interesting yet feel under-developed in light of his more recent works (that's true of most aspects here really). All of Kurama's "fights", particularly Game Master, are among my favorite in the series especially in terms of unorthodox battles. I still really like this arc but the manga version at least, isn't as strong as I once thought. I'd go into more detail but I don't want to prattle on forever about this.



Instead, I throw a quick note that I like the fact that, at the end, the majority of the final chapter is dedicated to showing us what happens to the villains. Togashi writes the most compelling villains in battle shonen, easily & while I wouldn't throw Kamiya or Sniper as two of his best by any stretch, the fact that he focuses this time on them does show why that's a talent of his because more often than not, he doesn't just treat them as villains.

Rei366 said:
@zingo_fanta Interesting idea. But wasn't the author already annoyed by his manga and characters at that time?



I think it was already decided by this point that the manga would end soon yes. But that doesn't mean Togashi didn't care about creating a good story. Yusuke's demon ancestry has really no effect in the Chapter Black arc other than a power-up, while it's the main thing in the Three Kings arc, and the reason it concludes the way it does. And since Togashi probably had come up with the ending at this point, he probably wanted to speed it up by both ending the fight against Sensui and setting up the new arc simultaneously.



And the main reason Togashi ended the manga was because of health and stress reasons, not for being annoyed with the manga itself. He didn't hate the manga, he just hated working on it.

I definitely think Chapter Black is one of Togashi's best arcs. Probably third best after Chimera Ant and Yorknew City from Hunter x Hunter.



I don't think that Yusuke's sudden demon ancestry is a problem at all, probably because its handled pretty well. And I view it more as an introduction to the next arc rather than the conclusion to this one. I think Togashi made Yusuke a demon not so he could defeat Sensui, but so that he would want to go to the demon world and explore his new identity.

@zingo_fanta Interesting idea. But wasn't the author already annoyed by his manga and characters at that time?



edit @zingo_fanta Oh, right ! Sorry, it has been a long time since I read THE LETTER. ^^"  (I thought he had said he couldn't do anything more with his heroes.)

https://mangahelpers.com/forum/threads/weekly-shonen-jump-2015-discussion-and-toc-talk.3000394/page-94

Nice ending to an overall fantastic arc. Although there were a few missteps were I felt as though Togashi could've improved, I'd easily say this one of the bests arcs any battle manga has ever had. I feel like he took an idea that he used for Toguro and both expounded on and refined with Sensui. I don't know which of the two I prefer, I will say that I found Sensui just more entertaining to see on panel. Dude was so creepy, and I loved it. A generally unsettling villain that made quite the compelling story arc. And even though I've noticed Togashi's arts starting to lose its polish, his shading and inking reached new heights.

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                        Everything went back to normal and yuusuke chose to go back home, though its too peaceful..

I wonder what will happen now with the story. I assume the sealing was successful.