Keiko Yukimura

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Keiko Yukimura (雪村 螢子 Yukimura Keiko), or Kayko Yukimura as she is known in the English anime (TV series version), the English video games, and the English trading card game, is a character of the anime and manga YuYu Hakusho.

Keiko is voiced by Yuri Amano in the original Japanese anime. In the English FUNimation anime Kayko is voiced by Laura Bailey and Shannon Conley in the Yu Yu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report Dub. Her Latin American voice actress is Mireya Mendoza.

Keiko, who is 14 at the start of the manga, has been the childhood friend of Yusuke Urameshi since elementary school. By the time they are students at Sarayashiki Junior High School, Yusuke is a juvenile delinquent and the toughest pupil at school, while Keiko is a straight-A student and her personality is the opposite of that of Yusuke's. This doesn't stop their friendship; Yusuke and Keiko are closer to each other than they would like to admit. Keiko's parents run a ramen restaurant.

After Yusuke is hit and killed by a car, he is allowed to come back to life on the condition that someone kisses him. Keiko is the one who kisses him and revives him.

Yusuke tries to not get her involved with his spirit detective escapades. But first Hiei of the Evil Eye kidnaps Keiko and slashes her with a sword that slowly causes a third eye to open and turn her into a mindless demon slave. He then lures Yusuke into his lair. Yusuke defeats Hiei with Kurama's help while Botan keeps Keiko's third eye from opening. Keiko is given an antidote and is unaware of what happened.

Keiko finally partly learns what her friend is doing during the Four Beasts story arc. After the other three are killed, the last beast, Suzaku, plays a whistle that sends humans hypnotized with roundworm monsters (a.k.a. makai insects) after Keiko to kill her. Botan protects her and buys Yusuke enough time to destroy the whistle and to kill Suzaku and his bird friend, Murg (Murugu).

Keiko asks Botan to explain Yusuke's scenario to her after the ordeal is over; Botan does not explain it all to her mainly for safety reasons, Keiko finds out the rest during the Dark Tournament (the Ankoto Bujutsukai or Black Martial Arts Tournament in the original Japanese) when she goes there with Botan and Kazuma Kuwabara's older sister, Shizuru. Since then, Keiko supports her friend in the adventures he goes on, staying by their sides during the Sensui arc for moral support along with Shizuru.

Towards the end of the anime, Yusuke stops by her parents ramen restaurant and proposes to Keiko. It's a really tender moment until her father interrupts, saying how Yusuke always used to do that whenever Keiko got upset with him. She doesn't really say anything, but Yusuke doesn't need it to know she has accepted, and Keiko spends the next three years studying hard in a famous all-girls school.

At the end of the anime, after a meeting with the major part of her friends, Keiko finds herself looking at the beach. She then screams at the sea, "I'm tired of waiting for you, Yusuke!" He then shows up next to her unexpectedly saying "I don't want you to wait either," She is in shock, yet jumps onto him and hugs him, bringing him to the ground. As she stares into his eyes, she kisses him, showing that even after Yusuke made her wait for so long, she is still loyal to him.

'Yukimura' literally means snowy village and Keiko means firefly girl, or respectful child. Keiko's birthday is January 31. Her blood type is A, her hobbies include cooking and cleaning, and is currently pursuing her career on modeling.

[edit] Trivia

• Keiko's name in the Philippines dub of the series was changed to "Jenny".
• Alone of the girls, Keiko has two solos: "Donna Toki Demo Anata to Mezametai" ("At Any Time, I Want to Wake Up With You") and "YELL." She also has a duet with Yusuke in "Omoide o Tsubasa ni Shite" and sings along with Botan and Yukina in "HOLD OUT!!".
• As mentioned earlier, the names Keiko and Yukimura mean "firefly child" and "snow village" in Japanese, respectively. According to the second volume of the Funimation release of YuYu Hakusho, the name comes from a Chinese story about a poor scholar who studied at night using fireflies as a light. The story is meant to emphasize scholarship, and matches Keiko's high standing in her class.

YuYu Hakusho
Characters
Yusuke Urameshi | Kazuma Kuwabara | Keiko Yukimura (Kayko Yukimura) | Koenma | Botan | Hiei | Kurama | Genkai | Yukina
Story Arcs
Spirit Detective Saga | Dark Tournament Saga | Chapter Black Saga | Saga of the Three Kings | The Movie | Poltergeist Report
Other
YuYu Hakusho characters | Ability list | Manga chapters | Makai | Episodes | Trading Card Game