Kazuma Kuwabara

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Kazuma Kuwabara

Kazuma Kuwabara (桑原和真 Kuwabara Kazuma) is one of the main four characters of the popular anime and manga series YuYu Hakusho created by Yoshihiro Togashi.

Kuwabara's seiyū is Shigeru Chiba. His English voice actors are Christopher Sabat in the FUNimation dub, Lex Lang in the Media Blasters dub, and Cliff Lazenby in the US Manga Corps dub. His Latin American voice actor is Mario Hernández. And Neil Yu in Filipino dub.

Kuwabara, as most people call him, is the second-toughest kid in Sarayashiki Junior High School and is always trying to usurp Yusuke Urameshi's position as the toughest. He leads a gang consisting of himself, Kirishima, Okubo (Ōkubo, spelled "Okubo" in the English anime and usually "Okubo" but sometimes "Ohkubo" in the manga), and Sawamura (In the English dub, Komada). He has a soft spot for kittens (including his own, Eikichi) and an iron code of honor. He develops a minor crush on Botan when he first meets her, but later harbors an enormous crush on the ice apparition Yukina, but is unaware that she is Hiei's sister.

Kuwabara has a tough older sister named Shizuru Kuwabara. She and Yukina are the only characters known to call him by his given name. As the show progress, Kuwabara ceases to be a rival of Yusuke, although the two disagree constantly. Kuwabara and Kurama are quite cordial with each other, but Kuwabara shares no love for Hiei, and both will readily mention their hatred of the other, although in truth deep down they are friends.

Kuwabara's most unique ability is his sensitivity to Reiki, or Spirit Awareness. Kuwabara has the ability to sense when ghosts and the paranormal are around, can see spirits and other demons, and can predict motives of others. With the possible exception of Shinobu Sensui, he possesses the highest spirit awareness of any human. Kuwabara can also create a blade out of his own spirit energy (known as the Rei Ken, or Spirit Sword). Although he first needed a piece of wood as a physical entity to create it, Kuwabara was able to practice and be able to create his own after six months (one month in the Japanese version). During his training, Kuwabara's sword is able to extend and shrink to his whim, and he can even create two, one in each hand.

During the Ankoku Būtsukai (Dark Tournament), Kuwabara fights more full matches than the rest of his teammates, but also has the biggest losing streak, losing four times, although most were due to ring outs. Near the end of the Tournament, Kuwabara and Kurama are approached by Suzuki, the former leader of Team Uratogi. Suzuki gives Kuwabara an item to help him in the finals against Team Toguro. This item was the Tameshi no Ken, or Trial Sword, which allowed him to defeat Elder Toguro. During the battle with the Younger Toguro, Kuwabara faked his own death with Toguro's aid to draw out Yusuke's potential.

During the first half of the Chapter Black Storyline, Kuwabara is unable to use his powers. He suspects that, like Suzuki told him, it was a side effect from using the Trial Sword. However, Genkai knows the truth: that Kuwabara was so spiritually aware, his own body was aware of Sensui's plan months before it happened, and underwent a transformation to prepare for it. Kuwabara accesses his power during the battle with Sea Man, Kiyoshi Mitarai, a human teenager who was gifted with the ability to create indestrucible monsters made of water. A human turned against his own kind by Sensui and the Chapter Black videotape, Mitarai planned to kill Kuwabara and his friends by drowning them in his monster. The inside of the beast is a separate dimension, one composed entirely of water, so physical strength is useless to escape from it. Kuwabara's powers awaken and he gains the power to slice through dimensional barriers with a new type of energy sword, the Jigen Tou, or Dimensional Blade. He slices through the monster and wounds Sea Man, saving his friends and his life.

This powerful sword, however, is what Sensui needs to destroy the barrier blocking Demon World's strongest denizens from entering the Human World. Sensui attacks, captures Kuwabara, and plans to have another human psychic, Gourmet, eat Kuwabara and gain his power, as Kuwabara would never slice the barrier willingly. However, Yusuke and team rescue him, and when Yusuke dies, Kuwabara follows Sensui into Demon World and slices the barrier open to pursue him.

After that ordeal is over, Kuwabara decides to retire from fighting permanently and focus on his schoolwork, so he can live the type of life he was meant to, after realizing that he cannot keep fighting yōkai for the rest of his life. At the end of the series, Kuwabara becomes a high school student. He has numerous female admirers, although he remains faithful to Yukina. He is also studying for his college entrance exams.

When he, Kurama, Hiei and Sensui enter Makai, several demons point out that the three of them are far more powerful than they are. The manga explicitly says they are B-class class yōkai, indicating that Kuwabara is likely around A- level after his latent powers manifest. It is also alluded to a few times that he has quite possibly the highest amount of spirit awareness (or Rei kan); even Genkai mentions it to Yusuke and the others during the Chapter Black saga. Next to Sensui, whose power was equivalent to an S class yōkai, Kuwabara is most likely the strongest living human. He shows this many times throughout the series, mainly in the movie Poltergeist Report, where he defeats a demon lord, Majari, who uses the ability to copy his opponent's powers. He uses a single punch after tricking Majari into exhausting his energy as well as his own.

Although Kuwabara is not as strong as the rest of his teammates and rarely uses his brain while in battle, he is widely considered as the nicest of the four.

[edit] Attacks

Kuwabara's spirit sword, with Kuwabara needing the piece of wood from Musashi's Shinbattou Shining Sword to wield it.

Kuwabara's signature spirit sword.

• Rei Ken (霊剣 Spirit Sword in the English Dub) is Kuwabara's signature attack, where he creates a sword made of his Reiki. Its strength depends on how much Reiki Kuwabara uses. It is first used in the Genkai Tournament when Kuwabara holds a piece of a broken sword from a special spiritual sword used by Musashi, the opponent he is fighting. It causes this weapon to emerge. After the tournament is over, Kuwabara does some training and learns how to control it at will without needing the broken sword piece. Since Kuwabara is not trained as a swordsman, he lacks the grace of Hiei's sword strikes, and swings rather clumsily. Later on, Kurama teaches Kuwabara how he can manipulate his Rei Ken with his mind, a technique which comes in handy during the Dark Tournament.

• Nobiyo Rei Ken (伸びよ霊剣 Spirit Sword Extend) - When Kuwabara learned how to control his sword, he developed this move as well. It allows Kuwabara to extend his Rei Ken and be able to attack enemies from a distance or increase his jumping distance by using it as a pole vault. In the English Dub Kuwabara activates it by saying "Sword get long."

• Rei Ken Ni Tōkai Ryū (霊剣二刀流 Spirit Sword Twin Blade) is known as Double Spirit Sword in the English Dub. During his training before the Dark Tournament under Kurama and Hiei, Kuwabara develops this technique, where he can materialize two Rei Ken at once. It is used only during the first match of the first round against Rinku, a fighting child of Team Rokuyukai (English anime).

Kuwabara's spirit flyswatter.

Tameshi No Ken (試しの剣 Sword of Trials) is known as The Trial Sword in the English Dub. Before the finals of the Dark Tournament, Suzuki, (Suzuka in the English Dub) the former leader of Team Uraotogi, gives Kuwabara a sword hilt which once belonged to his teammate Shishiwakamaru (Shishi Wakamaru in the English Dub). Kuwabara uses it during his match against Elder Toguro. It creates a tremendous drain on Kuwabara's energy, but allows him to produce a sword that is two to three times stronger than normal. It also allows Kuwabara to shift the energy into whatever shape he desired. He uses this ability against Elder Toguro, who could not be harmed because he could shift his vital organs around his body. Kuwabara turned his sword into a paddle-like weapon and smashed him all at once. This attack was named Kyodai Reikibou (巨大霊気棒, Giant Spirit Energy Staff) or Spirit Flyswatter.

Rei Shuriken (霊手裏剣) is a technique where Kuwabara produces small bolts of energy from his hands, similar to shuriken. It is used only against Elder Toguro in the Tournament Finals. After Toguro notices that Kuwabara doesn't know about Genkai's death, he uses molding capabilities to replay the event, but with the facts altered a bit for his personal amusement. This angers both Yusuke and Younger Toguro. In the end, Kuwabara uses this attack against Elder Toguro because he made fun of Genkai's death.

Jigen Tō (次元刀 Dimensional Blade) is called Dimension Sword in the English Dub. For the first half of the Chapter Black Storyline, Kuwabara does not have any of his powers. When he regains his powers, he gains this technique, although he is not able to summon it willingly. Not only is it more powerful than his normal sword, but it also allows him to slice through dimensions. He is able to dispel psychic territories (such as that of Sea Man), powerful and ancient entities (like the Ura-Otoko, a dimensional being tamed by Itsuki), or the barrier sealing off the Demon World.

[edit] Trivia

• The Philippines Dub of Kuwabara's given name is "Alfred" while the title is "Ghost Fighter".
• The Rei Ken emits the same sound effects as the lightsaber when brandished.
• In the English Dub of both of the Yu Yu Hakusho movies, Kazuma Kuwabara's family name was changed to Kuwahara.
• Kuwabara most of the time prefers to address Yusuke as Urameshi. However, in the English Dubs of both of the movies, he always addresses Yusuke by his given name. In the Spanish dub, Kuwabara generally uses Yusuke's surname to address him, but several times calls him by his given name, generally when he's in extremely big danger.
• His name, Kuwabara, means "mulberry field." According to Chinese legend, mulberry trees cannot be struck by lightning. Saying "kuwabara" twice is supposed to ward off lightning bolts.
• Kuwabara has four songs on the soundtrack: "DACHI", "Eien ni THANK YOU!", "Konjou Icchokusen", and "Otoko no Junjou". He has a duet with Yukina in "ROCKETTO Hanabi no LOVE SONG". He sings with Kurama and Hiei in "EYE TO EYE". Kuwabara also sings with his three teammates in "Bokutachi no Kisetsu", "Hikari no Naka de", and "Yasashisa wa Nemuranai".
• In the anime, Kazuma and Shizuru's parents never appear and are rarely, if ever, even acknowledged. However, his father makes a brief appearance in the final volume of the manga... to reveal that Yukina is going to be living with them. He appears to be aware of the Reikai, etc.