Kazuma Kuwabara

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.

Kuwabara, as most people call him, is the second-toughest kid in Sarayashiki Junior High School and is always trying to get Yusuke Urameshi's spot. 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. 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, and becomes a great friend and a member of the team, even though he doesn't get along very well with Hiei. His special powers are his high-level Reiki Sensitivity, which allows him to see the supernatural around him, and his Rei Ken, which is a sword made of his Reiki, first discovered during the Genkai Successor Tournament. Compared to Hiei, however, Kuwabara is not a very good swordsman.

During the Ankoku Būtsukai (Dark Tournament), Kuwabara fights more full matches than the rest of his teammates, but also has the biggest losing streak, although 3 of his 4 losses are attributeable to cheap ring-out and the remaining one to drawbacks of his honor code. Near the end of the Tournament, Kuwabara and Kurama are approached by Suzuki, the former leader of Team Uratogi. Suzuki gives Kuwabara the Tameshi No Ken to help him in the finals against Team Toguro. After defeating Elder Toguro, Kuwabara fakes his death when facing Younger Toguro, to draw out Yusuke's true power.

During the first half of the Chapter Black Storyline, Kuwabara loses his powers. He suspects that this is from using Suzuki's Tameshi No Ken against Elder Toguro in the finals of the Dark Tournament, but unknown to him, Genkai knew that his powers would become dormant with the coming of Sensui's plan, in order for his true ability to awaken. Later on he regains his powers and gains the Jigen Tou, the symbol of his true power, which he uses to save his three school friends from Seaman's (Kiyoshi Mitarai) water-based monsters. However, its ability to cut through dimensional walls attracts Sensui, who kidnaps Kuwabara so he can use this ability to destroy the barrier between the human and yōkai realms. Luckily, because he hasn't fully mastered the technique yet, Yusuke and the others have time to rescue him. After seeing Yusuke sacrifice himself, Kuwabara masters it, but ends up breaking the barrier down anyway so that he, Yoko Kurama, and Hiei can get to Sensui. However, none of them can even come close to matching Sensui's power until the newly resurrected Yusuke Urameshi arrives.

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.

It is said that when Kuwabara awakens his true potential and masters the Jigen Tou, his spiritual power increases to the level of a lower A (or A-) class yōkai. 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.

Attacks

*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. Hiei is a master swordsman, but Kuwabara on the other hand swings his sword like a flyswatter. 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 Rei Ken 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 child of the Jolly Devil Six (English manga) a.k.a. Team Rokuyukai (English anime). It wasn't much help against Rinku's Devil Yo-Yo attack.
*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 Reiki, but allows him to produce a Rei Ken that is two to three times stronger than normal. It also allows Kuwabara to produce any object he can imagine out of his Reiki. An example of this is when he turns his Rei Ken into a giant paddle-like weapon to strike Elder Toguro's entire body at once without worrying about Toguro's ability to move around his vital organs. This attack was named Kyodai Reikibou (巨大霊気�', Giant Spirit Energy Staff) or Spirit Fly-Swatter in the English Dub. Suzuki warns Kuwabara that this object might have some side effects, although it is debated whether the Tameshi No Ken causes Kuwabara to lose his powers at the start of Chapter Black.
*Rei Shuriken (霊手裏剣) is a technique where Kuwabara produces Shuriken made of his Reiki. 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 Rei Shuriken against Elder Toguro because he made fun of Genkai's death, but he is not strong enough to finish him off.
*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, possibly as a side effect of using the Tameshi No Ken. When he regains his powers he gains this technique. Not only is it more powerful than the Rei Ken, but it also allows him to bring down any Dimensional Barrier. This ends up making him a target of Sensui since it will allow him to break the barrier between the Human and yōkai realms.

Trivia

*The Philippines Dub of Kuwabara's given name is "Alfred".
*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.
*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 sountrack: "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".