Kitsunegari

Kurama vs. Hakkai

(My mini-ultimate showdown; all pics are screencapped from my own collection.)

When I was first inducted into anime, two of the shows the friend who'd performed the initial corruption showed to me were Yu Yu Hakusho and Saiyuki.  And when I first saw these two shows there was a particular character that I instantly gravitated toward: Hakkai from Saiyuki and Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho.  Obviously at that time in my life I liked a certain character type: the quiet guy with all the secrets; I also saw Fruits Basket at this time and my favorite character there was Shigure (no this has nothing to do with common voice actors- I initially saw Fruits Basket in Japanese and the other two in English).  While it is true that both of these characters fill a similar character type in a group of four heroes, and are living embodiments of why you shouldn't fuck with the guy who's smiling, it seems to me that they have so much more in common.  And even more importantly, if they ever went head to head, who would win?  Well since this is my website, let's explore these questions...

Identity:

More than any other character on their show, this character embodies the perfect harmony of demonic and human elements coexisting together in one. 
Hakkai was human, until, in an attempt to rescue/avenge his sister/girlfriend, he killed 1000 demons and became one himself.  He wears a power limiter on his ear to keep his demonic powers harnessed and is warned by Sanzo that to lose himself to his demon is something that he might not be able to come back from.  Originally known as Gonou when he was human, he takes the name Hakkai after his human self is "killed" for his crimes of mass-murder.  While another character on Saiyuki, Gojyo, is actually half demon/half human, he was raised by his demon father and step-mother and we never know much about his human parent at all.  Hakkai has much more conflict with the different parts of himself coexisting, and is an odd mirror for the trouble between the demons and humans in the overarching plot of the anime.
Youko Kurama was a spirit fox, a powerful and skilled thief in the demon world.  He is described by his second as having been cruel, greedy, and exceptional for his ability to think free from emotion.  When the demon thief finally gets caught, he slips his spirit to the human world and into the womb of a pregnant woman in order to keep from being killed.  Possessing her unborn child, he grows up as human Suichi Minamino before his returning powers bring him to the attention of the demon Hiei, and events eventually bring him to join Yusuke's spirit detective team.  While the new Kurama freely uses his demonic affinity with plants, his former cutthroat tendencies seem highly curbed by his human life experience and he is hesitant to awaken, and thereby give in to, the full force of his demonic self.  He is very much attached to his human mother and seems to be extremely comfortable living life in the human world.

Companions:

Both of these characters are members of a four man team, as mentioned above, and they tend to exhibit similar qualities: kindness, loyalty, protectiveness, determination.  Both act as the caretaker and sounding board of their group, looking out for the others and being the one that is usually sought out to offer advice.  Both hang out exclusively with a character who is a "half blood" or outcast, to the point where 95% of the fanbase thinks it is canon that these two are gay for each other. 
Since each of these guys tends to play the melancholic in a Four Temperament Ensemble, let's look at how they each interact with the other three members of that ensemble.

The sanguine: Hakkai's relationship with Goku is almost parental. He looks out for Goku, especially when Sanzo's not around (or incapacitated), and he gives Goku advice.  This happens most memorably around episode 7 of the first anime, when Sanzo is taken out by Rikudo, resulting in Goku going berserk, and Hakkai counsels Goku that rather than stress about what went wrong Sanzo would want him to learn to be stronger.  Meanwhile, Kurama's relationship with Kuwabara is a lot less direct; actually out of this whole group I think these two have the weakest/least developed relationship.  They're friends, but it doesn't really go any further than that.  I do love the scene later in the series where Kuwabara goes to Kurama's school to look for him because Yusuke is missing- but that comes down to the crux of their relationship: if it wasn't for Yusuke, they would probably never speak to each other again and be perfectly fine with that.  This is one of the few places where Hakkai and Kurama really differ, and I'm going to blame it all on Goku's (relative) age; and perhaps the fact that the Saiyuki team, by virtue of their quest, is a lot more insular than the YYH team.  While the boys on Yu Yu Hakusho get to go home their respective families at the end of the day (or at the end of the tournament),  the Saiyuki group are stuck together on the never-ending road trip, and they really are each other's only family.

The choleric: Kurama's relationship with Yusuke is one of mutual respect; Kurama respects Yusuke's leadership- rather than the authority of Koenma- and Yusuke respects that Kurama can slice and dice with the best of them.  Notably, Yusuke never questions Kurama's loyalty (though I don't think he assumes it either), and I think Kurama really respects him all the more for it.  Interestingly enough, these character's initial encounter is over the Forlorn Hope, where Yusuke prevents Kurama from sacrificing himself in order to save his human mother's life.  ...This is interesting because Hakkai and Sanzo first met in a similar manner.  Though the circumstances are different (Hakkai has just committed mass murder to avenge the death of his sister), the actions once they meet are similar: Sanzo (with some help from Goku) prevents Hakkai from sacrificing himself in penitence for his actions and helps him take a new name instead.  Hakkai is incredibly loyal to Sanzo; whether this is because of Hakkai's own sense of personal unworthiness or because of devotion to the priest, hey I don't know, but the end result is the same- he would sacrifice anything he has to ensure Sanzo is able to complete his mission.  I mentioned before that the gang on Saiyuki is like a family; well, if Goku and Gojyo are the bickering siblings, then Sanzo and Hakkai are the (slightly more) levelheaded parents.  These two are both prone to thinking before they act, though you don't want to mess with them when it's raining.

The phlegmatic: Ah, so we come to it.  Out of their group, both Hakkai and Kurama connect the most deeply with the one they met first.  In Hakkai's case, Gojyo found him dying in the rain on the way home one day, and took Hakkai in and saved his life.  He accepts Hakkai, doesn't pry into his past, and even tries to hide him when the law comes knocking.  To be fair this wasn't a one sided save; through his meeting with Hakkai (and soon after, with Sanzo and Goku) Gojyo finds a meaning he'd previously not felt in his life.  After their initial group antics, Hakkai goes back to live with Gojyo, claiming that without him there Gojyo can't find anything and doesn't even know when trash day is.  And they're still living together when Sanzo comes knocking three years later, commanded by the Powers That Be to take them with as he journeys to the West, in search of what is causing all the demons to lose their minds.  Meanwhile on YYH, it's unclear (to me) how well Hiei was acquainted with Youko Kurama before the thief's "death," but Hiei first meets Suichi Minamino before the start of the main series.  When searching the human world for his sister, Hiei stumbles upon the seemingly human Kurama, and later, when he's looking to boost a few things from Spirit World, Hiei knows exactly which thief he's going to call.  The pair grow closer during their "community service" start with the spirit detective team, but their relationship is built primarily on mutual respect for fighting prowess; Hiei absolutely delights in witnessing Kurama's ruthlessness in battle.
While I can see that there is some heavy innuendo between Hakkai and Gojyo (especially on Gojyo's part) to suggest that they are in fact a couple, there is much less so between Kurama and Hiei;  they're both demons and they tend to hang out a lot, but there really isn't any innuendo within the context of the show (while in Minekura's Saiyuki there's practically innuendo between everyone.)  Yet oddly the Kurama/Hiei shippers are probably even more rabid than the Hakkai/Gojyo shippers, which just reinforces what I learned when studying Gundam Wing: devotion of the OTP fans is inversely proportional to the canon story's ability to support the pairing.

The woman in their life:

Both of these characters have a deep emotional connection with a single human female which forms a cornerstone of their personality and/or psychosis.
Before he was called Cho Hakkai, Cho Gonou was deeply in love with Kanan.  She was his sister and also apparently his wife; or maybe just his girlfriend, but in any case they were definitely shagging.  One day Gonou came home from his work as a teacher to find that Kanan had been taken and given as a gift to the demon Yakugen Maoh, who liked to fuck pretty girls and then eat them.  Filled with loss, and a whole lot of rage, Gonou went to Yakugen Maoh's castle and slaughtered the demon's entire clan.  He eventually finds his Kanan in a cell in the depths of the fortress; she's still alive for the time being, but since she is pregnant by her rapist she cannot live with herself and takes Gonou's knife and kills herself with it.  Hakkai thinks of her whenever it rains, and feels guilty for failing her.  Early in the series he meets Yaone, the "villain" Kougaiji's henchwoman. When Kougaiji's and Sanzo's groups meet up, Hakkai and Yaone usually pair off to do battle, but they're both so polite they don't really ever get around to fighting.  Hakkai's relationship with Yaone is significant (not just because they are a popular fanfic pairing but) because his relationship with her is almost that of a brother toward his sister; he is very protective of her and once spends an entire episode diverting from the main plot to rescue her from a group of demon-killing humans.  In a weird twist, though I don't think Hakkai is aware of this information yet in canon, the reason Kanan was stolen from him by Yakugen Maoh was because Kougaiji had appropriated Yaone from a tribute that was supposed to be going to Yakugen Maoh's fortress, leaving the poor fuckup without a girl to munch on.
Though a demon, Kurama has deep and powerful feelings for his human mother.  His emotional connection to her is what really started Youko into becoming the compassionate Kurama he is when we first meet him in the series.  And he doesn't get any less protective of her later on in the series, almost dying when an opponent in the Dark Tournament threatens harm to his mother; of course he comes back and beats the guy dead, because you do not mess with his Mom. While there are more women in general in YYH than in Saiyuki, Kurama doesn't really have significant relationships with any of them, probably the reason behind the army of Mary Sues which flood fanfic involving him.

Fighting/Powers:

Both are masters of hand to hand techniques while also perfecting their own twists.

Kurama's demonic powers focus on plant manipulation.  He can grow strange demonic plants- the kind that like to eat people- from seeds he smuggles from Demon World, in addition to manipulating more familiar plants- like roses, which he uses in his signature weapon the Rose Whip.  While it might not seem like such an awesome power, just ask a few of his opponents about that... if you can manifest a way of speaking with the dead that is.  Kurama is cool and calculated in battle and when his team is fighting he often draws out their opponent first, sacrificing himself to provide his team with an overall victory.  Later in the series, he can also transform into his demonic self, Youko Kurama; who has the power of ultimate bishonen, in addition to being even more ruthless than Kurama's slightly more restrained human self.
Hakkai has mastered chi techniques, and is able to focus his energy and fire it in blasts at his opponents.  He can also use this ability to focus healing energy at people, using this early on in the anime on both Sanzo and Gojyo.  Hakkai wears a power limiter which consist of three cuffs on his left ear.  This binds his demonic energy and, with the effects of the Minus Wave sweeping the land, keeps him from going crazy.

Hakkai has only removed this limiter three times in canon and only the latest time, in the Saiyuki Reload manga, allows the viewer to see any of what happens when this catastrophic event occurs.  Hakkai's demonic power manifests in vine like markings all over his skin.  These vines allow him to direct and transfer energy, among other things.  Not to mention, he gets really fast, tougher, and even less concerned with not killing people, which for someone who was a mass murderer before he became a demon is saying something.

Badassery:

Yeah, you can fight, throw balls of light, and grow plants... but how is your Crowning Moment of Awesome?
Goku, literally the most badass character in Saiyuki, is scared of Hakkai's demon.  In fact, in volume 7 of the Saiyuki Reload manga when Goku transforms into the ultimately unbeatable Seiten Taisei Son Goku (The Great Sage Equaling Heaven), Gojyo has to drag Hakkai off of him to keep him from killing Goku.
Kurama gets progressively more badass through the course of the anime, though the fact that his first "fight" is him offering himself to the Forlorn Hope without qualm is pretty badass right there.  His singularly most badass moment I would have to say is his battle with Gamemaster, and his subsequent disposal of Elder Toguro.  Kurama pulls no punches; the kid doesn't get off for being a kid, not when he knows what he's doing will get people killed.

So, if these two did go head to head, who would triumph?  It's a tough question... They're both sneaky when it comes to fighting and not above using any method, however underhanded, that is needed to ensure that they win.  They are also both prone to grand, self-sacrificing gestures; so a better question rather than who would win might be who would survive?  We've never seen Hakkai pushed to the limits of his strength, though the limits of his strength might surpass the limits of his sanity.  We've certainly seen Kurama meet his match in strength several times in the anime, though it's hard to compare this across anime; especially since in Saiyuki the strongest demons consistently save their fights for Goku.

In the end, I would have to say I think Kurama would be the victor.  He has an edge of ruthlessness that I just haven't seen from Hakkai; Hakkai might have killed Gamemaster, but he would have felt bad enough about it I think it would have thrown him off his game (no pun intended...) and I really don't see him unleashing something along the lines of the Sinning Tree on anyone- he has too much darkness in his own past, I think, to enact justice of that nature on anyone else.  We've also seen Kurama fight with himself and conquer Youko's demonic nature while Hakkai still has trouble even accessing his demon without losing control; if Hakkai had to push himself past the edge of sanity in the fight, Kurama would win simply by keeping his head.

Well thanks for reading my mashup.  I hope it was entertaining!