So, Yusuke and Kuwabara. Their relationship is the single most important relationship in the entire show. All of the arcs up until the Sensui one rely on it developing and existing. Yusuke wouldn’t have beaten Toguro if he hadn’t spent the earlier part of the series growing closer with Kuwabara, and Kuwabara learned to shred dimensions because he felt the same way. Also holy shit these two have parallels to

all the canon couples in the show

, which means that the romantic relationships were chosen and depicted specifically to showcase aspects of Yusuke and Kuwabara’s relationship.

First there’s the way Kuwabara and Keiko both have similar scenes with Yusuke. They both get a dream of Yusuke inviting them to kiss him, Yusuke sexually harasses them both and is protective of them and flies off the handle when they’re threatened. Only, because of Kuwabara being in the line of fire more often than Keiko, it’s really more pronounced in Kuwabara’s case. A Yuyu arc just isn’t complete unless Yusuke screams after or because of Kuwabara at least once.

The start of the Sensui arc especially has a direct comparison between Kuwabara and Keiko, with Yusuke being dismissive and avoidant with Keiko in one scene and then opening up to Kuwabara about his worries in the next one. Yusuke feels similarly about Kuwabara and Keiko, but Kuwabara is closer to him because he understands the world Yusuke has wrapped himself in and therefore more easily offer him support.

Then there’s the other meta I wrote about Genkai and Kuwabara sharing a bunch of parallels and Genkai and Toguro both seeing some of Toguro in Yusuke. Genkai and Toguro are at the very least hinted at being romantically involved. The fact that Genkai sees these parallels in Yusuke and Kuwabara’s relationship, judging by her behavior before her death, it says a lot about Yusuke and Kuwabara’s rapport in-universe. Everybody Can See It.

Lastly we have Sensui and Itsuki. The romantic nature of the relationship here is more blatant, although it’s more twisted. Still, the twistedness doesn’t erase the similarity. Yusuke and Kuwabara are codependent to a degree, this much is canon in how they simply can’t function if they think the other is dead. Similarly, Sensui and Itsuki also would never leave each other. But the similarities don’t end on simply having an unhealthy fixation on each other.

One is the Spirit Detective personally chosen by Koenma, a downright prodigy in combat with quickly growing combat prowess. The other is completely devoted to his Spirit Detective, would even tear the fabric between the realms apart for him, and has the power to do that, to control dimensions to that degree. You only need to swap the names and that description would fit Sensui and Itsuki as well as Yusuke and Kuwabara equally.

These are the facts. From a more one-dimensional standpoint, this could all be read to mean that Kuwabara seems to be deliberatedly coded as Yusuke’s love interest, but that’s probably not the case since the show keeps pushing Keiko. Instead it’s merely to show that the relationship is important. The most important one, the one the entire story, and therefore universe, of Yu Yu Hakusho revolves around.

No, this is not the ship manifesto. This is practise.