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Raizen
Species: Demon
Powers: Raw Demon Energy
Powers: Raw Demon Energy
Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (JP), Christopher Sabat (EN), Joaquín Gómez (Spain), Marco Aguileta (Latin America, TV series)
Raizen is one of the three kings of the Demon World (in fact, he was considered the strongest of the three) and is Yusuke's ancestor — 44 generations removed. After Sensui is defeated, Raizen summons Yusuke to the Demon Realm as he is on the brink of death from starvation and requires someone to take his throne.
- The Ace: At his peak, Raizen is stronger than everyone in the series! According to Yomi's informants, his offensive power is still the strongest even when almost dead of starvation, and the only reason Yomi and Mukuro can take on him is that his defensive abilities are sub-par due to starving himself.
- Amazon Chaser: What attracted Raizen to the Lady Doctor was her defiance.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Combined with Combat Pragmatist. If his fight with Sensui while possessing Yusuke's body is any indication, Raizen's fighting style consists of a complete and overwhelming offense, leaving his opponents no chance to properly counter-attack or even defend. During what little is shown of his first "fight" with Yusuke, Raizen delivers another merciless assault, leaving no room for Yusuke to even counter.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: S+ Class demon.
- Barbarian Longhair: An extreme example as his hair is a huge, wild mess that goes all the way to the floor. Though that had his tribal tattoos are fitting because he's the spirit of war, and thus emphasizes his primitive trait.
- Big Damn Heroes: During Chapter Black, Raizen directly intervenes and temporarily possesses Yusuke's body so that he can defeat Sensui. Yusuke was pissed off about this, but when looking at it in hindsight, if he didn't do that, Sensui would've likely killed Yusuke... Again.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: His three shown "fights" in the series consist of beating the piss out of Sensui, nearly killing Yusuke without even moving, and once again overwhelming Yusuke despite being literally minutes away from death. Only during the third one did his opponent even have a chance at taking him.
- Disappeared Dad: Raizen pretty much left right after the one-night stand he had with Yusuke's shamaness grandma (44 generations removed) leaving her pregnant with a human-demon hybrid child.
- Face Death with Dignity: After going completely berserk first...
- Facial Markings: Has a mark under his left eye.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: He was treated by the Lady Doctor before they engaged in a one-night stand.
- Glass Cannon: According to Yomi's informants, his offensive power is ludicrously high even by the Three Kings' standards, but the starvation weakened his defensive abilities a bit too much.
- Glorified Sperm Donor: This is how Yusuke initially sees Raizen after he meets his grandpa (44 generations removed), particularly when Raizen called him son when they first met. This is not helped by the fact that Yusuke's dad was a "no-show", and as such Yusuke having a dim view of male authority figures. The reality is a little more complicated than that and borders on Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You given that Raizen was A) being hunted, B) a demon, and C) demon world royalty, and thus had no shortage of enemies in the demon world who would have used his lover and their child against him.
- Handicapped Badass: A couple centuries of constant absolute fasting, and he's still the best around.Enki: If Yomi and Mukuro saw Raizen in his prime, they would have peed their pants.''
- Insecure Love Interest: He left the Lady Doctor because he didn't feel worthy of loving her, citing that while she spent her life saving lives, he spent his destroying them.
- Interspecies Romance: He (a demon) and Yusuke's shamaness grandmother (human).
- I Will Wait for You: Another part of the reason he stopped eating human flesh, was in hopes that one day the woman he fell in love with would reincarnate and he would find her again. Unfortunately, that never happens and he ultimately starves himself to death.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Or perhaps a Hidden Heart of Gold. He's a demon who acts uncaring and hard-boiled but it isn't difficult to sympathize with his plight and good intentions underneath (but he doesn't exactly warm up to Yusuke until the end).
- Last Words: "Man, I'm hungry."
- Lightning Bruiser: Back when he had no problem eating humans, he had enough power to dispatch Yomi and Mukuro simultaneously.
- No-Sell: Yosuke fired the Spirit Gun at him. It destroyed the wall behind him but he himself was unharmed.
- Noble Demon: Not at first. Originally he was just as vicious as any other, relishing in devouring humans. However after meeting Yusuke's ancestor and falling in love he changed. He left her because he felt unworthy of her love and stopped eating humans altogether, and advised Yusuke to side with Mukuro as the only option to protect both the Spirit and Human worlds after his own death.
- Physical God: As one of the Three Kings of the Makai world, he is easily one of the most powerful demons to ever live with his power surpasses that of an S-Class demon. Even in the weakened state, he is the strongest of the Three Kings.
- Plot-Triggering Death: His death starts the tournament that befalls the demon realm on who the ruler of their realm should be.
- Red Baron: Hokushin refers to him as "The Master of War."
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When he's so overcome by hunger, he goes into a berserk state.
- Self-Harm: Seeing as how the woman he fell in love with ate human flesh to save lives while he only ate to survive, he felt inadequate compared to her and he intentionally starves himself to death. He had been starving for years by the time Yusuke arrives. At that point he's already on death's door and when he bites some of Yusuke's flesh off, he immediately forces himself to vomit it up.
- Soap Opera Disease: When we first meet him, he's already dying of self-imposed starvation.
- Story-Breaker Power: When he was in his prime centuries ago.
- Take a Third Option: Between devouring the Lady Doctor and dying, or killing her in vain... he chose to have sex with her.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: In the present though flashbacks during the feudal era showed him wearing a shirt.
- Walking Spoiler: Due to being Yusuke's ancestor.
- War God: Raizen is called, at least in the anime, as Toshin which roughly translates into English as this. In some dubs, Kurama indirectly calls him this after seeing how Yusuke (possesed by Raizen at the moment) demolished Sensui.
- World's Strongest Man: At his peak, he was the world's strongest demon, and still is: the only reason Yomi and Mukuro can compete with him is that being almost dead by starvation made his defenses subpar.
- Worf Had the Flu: He's been starving for centuries, but was still able to manhandle Yusuke when the young Spirit Detective was at his strongest. The only reason Yusuke was able to even throw him off in their last fight is because Raizen was delirious from hunger and minutes from death at the time.
Mukuro
Click to see her with sealed mask
"Hiei, you needn't search for death. Death will find us all soon enough."
Species: Demon
Powers: Raw Demon Energy, Dimension Split
Powers: Raw Demon Energy, Dimension Split
Voiced by: Minami Takayamanote (JP), Wendy Powell (EN), Ariadna Jiménez (Spain), Patricia Mainou (Latin America, TV series)
Mukuro is one of the three kings of the Demon realm — she's despised by Yomi as a "chaos preaching tyrant", is somewhat liked by Raizen, but more or less feared by everyone for being shady and unpredictable. Discovering Hiei while preparing for war and, after testing his strength against Shigure, she placed him as her second in command. Mukuro is quick to agree when Yusuke proposes the demon world tournament, battling with Hiei and winning but then ending up losing to Enki in the final round.
- The Ace: The physically strongest female of the entire series. If that's not enough, she's also tied with Yomi and Raizen as the strongest being in the entire franchise and potentially she may be the only person who could come close to being second to Raizen when he was at his peak power in his prime. It's telling that she's one of the few people Hiei respects the most.
- Authority Equals Ass Kicking: S+ Class demon.
- Barefoot Poverty: The anime invokes this with some scenes focusing on her running feet as she escapes slavery in her youth.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Lampshaded by Kurama himself. He stated that Hiei and Mukuro were enjoying fighting each other a little too much during the tournament.
- Bifauxnen: Downplayed. She dresses and behaves like a man, she's taller than average for a woman, has a deep voice, owns a masculine title and wears her hair short. When she unveils her face and reveals that she's a woman and not a man, she still looks like a Tomboy but the intact halves of her face and neck are too delicate and feminine to leave any doubt about her actual sex.
- Berserk Button: When Hiei finds out about her traumatic past and doesn't particularly approach the topic gently, Mukuro who was already in a foul mood punches a hole in Hiei and launches him miles away from her castle.
- Body Horror: Half of her body is horribly scarred and deformed from sexual abuse and self-inflicted acid burns, and one of her legs is prosthetic.
- Broken Bird: Her past was sincerely horrific, and it left her mentally and physically scarred. See Body Horror for the reason why.
- Cooldown Hug: Shares one with Hiei at the end of their fight together, as if they were enjoying the afterglow of their Orgasmic Combat.
- Dark Action Girl: Again, Mukuro is the strongest female demon in the series. Even Hiei couldn't beat her.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Her budding relationship with Hiei sure softened her initial icy disposition.
- Dimensional Cutter: In addition to her S-Class Demon Energy and Lightning Bruiser combat skill that makes Hiei look slow, she can create cuts into the third dimension at will that are lethal on contact. She's apparently greatly feared for this technique and even the normally stoic Kurama is wary of her because of it.
- The Dreaded: She has a reputation as this throughout the Demon realm, but is a subversion. While she is ruthless in battle, but she is not the cruel autocrat her enemies portray her as via in-universe Ron the Death Eater propaganda. Raizen, as one of the few individuals outside of her domain who know her in any personal way, confirms that she is not this trope.
- Expy: Of the Norse goddess Hel.
- Togashi
has also said that Kushana of Torumekia was also an inspiration for Mukuronote .
- Togashi
- Fan Disservice: The full sight of her torn half, scarred and deformed half.
- Handicapped Badass: Extensive scarring and mechanical body parts don't slow Mukuro down in the slightest.
- Hot Guy, Ugly Wife: A variation with Hiei. While both are not officially engaged, there is clearly something going on between them. She wasn't ugly by birth but due to her mutation and partial disfigurement, Hiei is indeed more attractive than her.
- I Was Quite a Looker: From the half of her body that isn't deformed she appears to have been drop-dead gorgeous before getting disfigured.
- Ki Manipulation: She uses her raw demonic energy to fight; which means she doesn't need to touch her opponent to cause damage.
- Made a Slave: Back in the days, before Mukuro became one of the three kings. Doubled as Sex Slave.
- Noble Demon: Despite ruling the Underworld, she's not exactly evil as she's not about hurting innocent people for her personal gain.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the anime, both she and Hiei share a very uncharacteristic tender moment as he falls into her arms at the conclusion of their fight, which seems to initiate a more intimate relationship between the two.
- Orgasmic Combat: Again with Hiei during the tournament since neither of them really wanted to kill the other.
- Physical Goddess: As one of the Three Kings of the Makai world, she is one of the most powerful demons to exist and her power surpasses that of an S-Class demon.
- Rags to Royalty: She was once a mere Sex Slave, she's now one of the most powerful beings in Makai.
- Rape as Backstory: She was a slave since her infancy and was also repeatedly raped by her master, Chikou, when she was only a child. She deliberately doused half of her body in acid in order to repulse him and for that was thrown out. The anime adaptation vaguely alluded to these details regarding her sexual abuse.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Described by Raizen as a "traditionalist" who is content with maintaining the current relations with the human world (in sharp contrast to Yomi who wishes to conquer it).
- Samus Is a Girl: When she unveils herself as a woman, everyone in Makai is blown away! Only Yomi seems unsurprised, but then again this is Yomi.
- She Is the King: She is part of the three Kings and is referred to as "King", despite being female.
- Supernormal Bindings: Wears a shackle on her left wrist that she could never break off. Hiei eventually does it for her at the end of their fight.
- Take a Third Option: Between Raizen's starvation of human flesh and Yomi's belief that demons should eat as many humans as they want. Mukuro takes a far more pragmatic view of consuming humans as necessary but should be limited.
- Tarnishing Their Own Beauty: Half of her face and body are horribly scarred due to having doused herself in acid when she was younger. She did so because she used to be a Sex Slave and was trying to dissuade her master from raping her.
- Trauma Button: Her birthday. On this day she gets incredibly violent at anyone who approaches her, and even punches a hole in Hiei's chest when he treats the abuse she suffered as a Sex Slave too lightly. The reason for this is because her former master would rape her on her birthday.
- Tsundere: A rather harsh tsun-tsun with indeed a soft spot for Hiei, one of the only persons in the entire franchise for whom she may thaw her usual frostbitten behavior.
- Two-Faced: Mukuro's body had been completely stripped of flesh on one side with strong acid. Though Mukuro is different from most examples, being a not-so-evil demon (given a choice between Yomi and Mukuro, Raizen told Yusuke to side with Mukuro) and being female. Besides, said scars were self-inflicted, as she figured that uglifying herself would be the only way to escape her abusive caretaker (who did abuse her sexually, too).
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: With Hiei. She is One Head Taller than him.
- World's Strongest Woman: According to Yomi's data, she is the world's strongest demon, at least now that Raizen is starving. Got defeated by Enki, but at the time she couldn't give it all in such a peaceful contest.
Yomi
Species: Demon
Powers: Raw Demon Energy
Powers: Raw Demon Energy
Voiced by: Masashi Ebara (JP), Rick Robertson (EN), Tasio Alonso (Spain), Rodrigo Miranda (Latin America, TV series)
Yomi is the newest of the Three Kings — he has a bad relationship with both Mukuro and Raizen, but seeks to unify all three sides and end the squabbling. He plans to take over both the demon and human planes in an act of unification, calling on Kurama to his side.
- Affably Evil: Courteous and polite, but is probably already several steps in making contingency plans against whoever he is speaking to.
- Anti-Villain: Would have probably been this, if it wasn't revealed that he continually tortured and then ruthlessly killed the assassin who blinded him (since he was just a random mook, for all we know). Granted, he still shows a few signs of the trope in the anime, unlike his somewhat colder manga counterpart.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: An S+ Class demon, and ruler of his own significant slice of the Demon World.
- Barrier Warrior: His trademark technique is used to deflect and absorb any demon energy techniques sent his way.
- Beam Spam: Used against Yusuke.
- Big Bad: Of the Three Kings Saga. At first, all 3 Kings are given equal prominence in the story, but it becomes clear in the end that Yomi's victory would mean the end of the human world, meaning that Yusuke needs to defeat him. Unlike Toguro and Sensui, though, Yomi wins his battle against Yusuke...''sort of''; but his ambition had been mostly put aside, by that point.
- Blood Knight: Yusuke helps bring this out of him, and Yomi admits that for all his planning and status, he's always wanted to fight against Raizen.
- Character Development: Goes through a lot of it, both on- and off-screen. Before the series even began, he went from a hotheaded glory seeker to a calm, calculating Manipulative Bastard to rival Kurama. Then, shortly after the Makai Tournament is announced, his warrior's spirit is reawakened, and he decides that he now only wants to achieve his goal of unifying the worlds if he can earn it. He also gains a lot of perspective on Kurama's betrayal long ago and growth now, thanks to him becoming a father. When he loses, he goes on a journey with his son to parts unknown, forsaking his empire. It's a lot of growth for a character who appears so late in the series!
- The Chessmaster: This guy managed to checkmate Youko motherfucking Kurama.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Against his son Shura. It also made him understand Youko Kurama's betrayal, all those years ago, now that he's metaphorically wearing his former friend's shoes.
- Disability Superpower: Yomi has grown two extra sets of ears, giving him six in total. His hearing is so acute that he can hear everything within the borders of his country, hear heart rates spike and decrease, as well as accurately guess facial expressions. Oh, and he can fight just fine. You don't need eyes when you're this guy!
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The reason Yomi was able to win against Yusuke during their Cross Counter was he was able to hear his son's voice encouraging him not to give up. Otherwise it would have been ended in a double KO.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Of a sort. Yomi is capable of understanding the bonds of family and friendship, though he keeps such things at arm's length. However, he isn't willing to believe that Kurama — who once betrayed his friendship because it was beneficial to him — is capable of such things in the present, and so he assumes that Kurama only perceives his friends and human family as tools. However, on the flip side, he could also insist on doing so simply to demean Kurama: it's difficult to tell, as their relationship is extremely passive-aggressive.
- Eyes Always Shut: Hasn't opened his eyes since the day he was blinded.
- Final Boss: Of the entire series, despite not being the strongest demon.
- Friendly Enemy: He has to scheme and manipulate (because of the demon realm being a Crapsack World), but still always places emphasis on civility and negotiations before violence and plotting. After his fight with Yusuke, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and even seems to respect him as a friend and rival of sorts.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Was once the hotheaded underling of a powerful demon criminal, who kept screwing up his boss' plans with his incompetence and glory seeking. After failing him one too many times, his boss arranged to have him taken care of, and left him blinded and for dead. But Yomi survived, and even more dangerously — he learned and grew. Centuries of manipulation and growth later, he is one of the most powerful demons in existence, an intelligent and calculating force to be reckoned with, and a king in the Demon World that has forced his former boss under his thumb. Kurama's first meetings with him are, understandably, tense.
- Handicapped Badass: Was blinded by an assassin hundreds of years ago sent by his former partner, Yoko Kurama, as punishment for being a Leeroy Jenkins. To counteract this, he grew four extra ears to allow him to "hear" his surroundings. Despite his blindness, he manages to grow in power from A to S Class, take over a third of the Makai, curbstomp his cloned son Shura in a fight, and defeat Yusuke during the hero's final fight in the series — credit to Yusuke, though, his fight drained Yomi's Badass tank, causing him to lose in the next round.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the end, he comes to some agreement with the heroes and decides to spend more time with his son.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: To his son, to make him stronger and more self-reliant. It mirrors how he got blinded, and how he taught his son the same lessons without going to the extent Youko Kurama did a long time ago.
- Horned Humanoid: The flashbacks showed that he had two horns originally and in the present has five more added to his head (with a pair coming out each side and a larger one in the back). The additional horns were presumably added to improve his ability to pick up on vibrations and sounds.
- I Have Your Wife: Uses this on Kurama to get his cooperation. Replace "wife" with "mother" and "stepbrother" and there we go.
- It's Personal: Surprisingly subverted. While he's somewhat upset, he doesn't blame Kurama for trying to kill him, since he had to dispose of incompetent minions himself.
- Leeroy Jenkins: He used to be one of these, until he lost his eyes. He seems to imply that he has not once, in a full 1000 years ever again relied on impulse.
- Manipulative Bastard: This is pretty much the only character who can outsmart Kurama. And does so flawlessly. And gets away with it.
- Meaningful Name: His name translates into English as "to read" which is ironic in one sense given that he is blind, but is also fitting given that he can "see" and read his opponent's moves via his ultra-enhanced hearing.
- Noble Demon: Intelligent and a schemer, but the appearance of Raizen's old friends reawakens the nobility in him.
- Nothing Personal: He doesn’t hold Kurama’s betrayal against him, mostly because he’s been put in the position of having to dispose of incompetent underlings himself.
- Oh, Crap!: Sensing how powerful Raizen's old friends are makes Yomi realize that he's not going to easily win the tournament as he initially thought.
- Physical God: As one of the Three Kings of Makai, he is one of the most powerful demons to ever live. However, he is also the weakest of the Three Kings.
- Pyrrhic Victory: He wins against Yusuke in their match, but gets defeated in the next round because he exhausted himself.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: When he was younger, he was the Red Oni to Yoko Kurama's Blue Oni. However, he explicitly began to copy Kurama's traits when his foolishness cost him his eyes. For a thousand years, he has been the least outwardly aggressive of the Three Kings.
- Self-Made Man: Centuries ago during Kurama's original lifetime, Yomi was a simple impatient and headstrong thief whose recklessness eventually caught up with him (partly on Kurama's account). Now, after learning from all his mistakes — along with centuries of fighting and experience — he's one of the three most powerful and feared demons alive, with all the power, status, and strength he dreamed of back in his old days.
- Take Over the World: He doesn't just want to rule over Demon World but also the human and spirit worlds as well.
- Too Clever by Half: He's the most intelligent and scheming of the three kings, which ends up forcing him to accept Yusuke's tournament. He threw away his blindly loyal military commander in favor of the smarter and stronger Kurama and his six lieutenants trained up from the Dark Tournament and planted them as potential assassins if Yusuke proved to be a threat. Unfortunately, all of them much preferred Yusuke's plan because none of them actually like Yomi. As such, he found himself facing up to eight fighters who were all reasonably close to his level if he did not comply.
- Truly Single Parent: Shura is both his son and his clone.
- Visionary Villain: Wants to unite all of Demon World and then launch an assault on the human world to take it over. What his plan is after that is unknown, though it's hinted that he wants to use the combined strength of both worlds to defeat Spirit World and end their meddling.
- Worthy Opponent: Views Yusuke as one after Yusuke finds a way past his Deflector Shields.
- Would Hurt a Child: Yomi has no problem at all kicking the ever-loving crap out of his own son in battle. Although given how much of a cocky smartass Shura is, it's kind of hard to feel sorry for him.
