Two unexpected franchises that get representation this time are Yu Yu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin. The former revolves around a teenage delinquent who dies saving a child before being resurrected as an Underworld detective, investigating supernatural crimes alongside his friends. The latter depicts a former assassin who carries a reverse-blade sword and vows to never kill again, traveling the country to help those in need and atone for his past sins. While both franchises will probably be on the back burner somewhat, as I usually rewatch stuff like the Raimi Trilogy, for example, I am happy to delve into some new content so long as there are no one-note fan service tropes or loser protagonists who share the same templates. Basically, these two beat the average Isekai made today. So with all that said, let's review Yusuke Urameshi and Kenshin Himura!
Before we continue, I would like to discuss the mangaka of Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki. He was a man who not only created Rurouni Kenshin, but he also penned Gun Blaze West, Buso Renkin, and Embalming: The Another Tale of Frankenstein. In late 2017, he was caught possessing child pornography, which included nearly a hundred DVDs with those illegal images burned in them. Despite being fined 200k yen, which nearly equates $2,000 (yes, a much smaller amount than what American criminals are fined and presumably other law breakers in different countries), he was later let go in the middle of 2018. It's already bad enough to hear news regarding celebrities doing stupid shit or getting in legal trouble of late, but to hear that the man was released and continued having his manga serialization continue is downright embarrassing for Japan's government. Sure, it's easier to discuss the issues of US lawmakers or how the country's police sometimes fumble things, but the fact that a man was fined such a small amount of money, if you convert Japanese yen to US dollars, and is allowed to resume production of his series, is unheard of. Admittedly, it's often seen as similar to some cases in Hollywood where controversial figures tend to stay unaffected despite past actions (John Lasseter and James Gunn come to mind for many), and with how much Hollyweird people have each other's backs like the Epstein elite, it wouldn't surprise me if something similar was a thing for Japan. At this rate, new fans are better off pirating the series and buying merch second hand (I got my Kenshin Himaru Figuart from a friend of mine who knew me as a retro anime enthusiast), though I wouldn't blame them if they would rather not support the series while the creator is still alive. Tl;dr, I hope Nobuhiro Watsuki rots in hell on the day he dies, and that is something I rarely say.
Moving on from that rant, here we have Yusuke Urameshi, who is seen wearing a yellow shirt as faint as old wallpaper coloring from the later part of the 20th century and pants with the ankles rolled up to reveal his black loafers. Not exactly the most distinct outfit, though the way his shirt is tucked in and how much of his arms are exposed does at least showcase how he means business. That and his body frame has some musculature to show how well versed he is in martial arts. I think the sleeves do look unsightly with how much they break up the sculpt of the shirt, though I understand that is to help with articulation. Like with most Figuarts, the hips are sculpted in a way where the joints can move better than they normally would beneath the waist piece despite it looking less naturalistic than how a company like Hasbro sculpts hips. The aesthetics work mostly fine, but I would rather have seen Yusuke in his all green outfit. Not that Tamashii did a bad job with this, but it feels a little more generic apart from the head of the character.
Speaking of, his head sculpt does match the artsryle from the series, though I'm not sure if the metallic teal linework is supposed to match the lines sculpted on his hair or not. Maybe it is, but the result is like when the sculpter and deco artist made their works in isolation and then the assembly lines went with what was presented to them. His tray includes four alternate hands, 6 pairs of hands, a right thumbs up, a small ki energy effect, Pu, an alternate hairpiece, and a larger blast effects with a stand that comes in two pieces.
For articulation, he has a double ball neck, ball joints for moving front and back as well as wiggle around for pseudo butterfly joints, hinges for outward arm movement, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, dual wrist joints, a double ball joint for the torso, ball joints for the hips, thigh swivels, double jointed knees, and ball joints for the ankles with toe-ticulation. I love the blast effects he comes with, especially with how easily they go well with some of his more battle ready expressions.
The display options are always a treat, and the alternate haircut is another bonus. Funny how this pops up after I reviewed the McFarlane Collector Edition Guy Gardner. Also, yes, that little dude is named Pu. Not the most flattering name, but it is short for Pusuke, and it represents a spirit of the protagonist in question as a kind being in contrast to his master's bad boy personality.
And up next, we have Kenshin Himura, whose noble Japanese swordsman aesthetics contrast the slacker outfit of the previous dude. While he wears Japanese robes, the sculptwork on this figure looks awfully dated despite being made recently. The gappy elbows combined with the unsightly legs, somehow making the thigh swivels and the knee joints even more obvious on him than on Yusuke. I get that they're trying to nail the look of the outfit he wore with how baggy it kind of is but it ends up looking worse than the outfits usually worn by Goku or some of his Z-Fighters. Maybe that's why we never got an official Inuyasha figure that was articulated if it would mess up the look of his outfit (especially near the ankles where the pants get puffy). Either way, this is too close to a 2007 figure, and it would have been more acceptable at that time.
His head sculpt is decent, though it can be hard to see the eyes a bit with how the bangs of his hair cast a shadow over them. The X that marks the spot on his face is neat. His accessory count is the same for the hands and face plates as with Yusuke, though he comes with his katana either deployed or in a sheath as well as a belt without a peg. Whether or not you could say his accessory count is better or worse than Yusuke's is up to you.
His articulation is mostly the same, so we'll instead discuss his accessories. The katana feels been there, done that with the way it works if you remember how other Figuarts use alternate belts without the pegs, or how the swords don't actually go into the sheaths. The approach of using a handle as a separate accessory is still neat, regardless.
The alternate faces are the best part of the figure, with the humble smile and dizzy face being the best parts of the whole set. Sadly, they aren't enough to save a mediocre-looking figure. Yusuke Urameshi could have been in his all green outfit, but the character looks much better sculpted than Kenshin Himura wished he was. Sure, it's easy to blame the outfit the swordsman wears, but it's still no excuse for how it turned out. Idk if I will be able to finish Yu Yu Hakusho pretty quickly, but I might get an extra character or two if I end up liking the series. As for any other characters in Rurouni Kenshin, good luck convincing me while the mangaka is still alive.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Yusuke Urameshi)
⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Kenshin Himura)
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