Kurama

is a fictional character from the manga YuYu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi. A reborn as the human in modern life, is introduced as a thief who stole a supernatural mirror to save his dying mother from death. Although Kurama is initially portrayed as a villain, he becomes a supporting character to aid the protagonist Yusuke Urameshi in the next arc. Across his fights are revealed events from his past life as a demon, into which he becomes able to transform for a limited time. The character has also appeared in the anime adaptation, the two movies, and other related works. Kurama was modeled after a friend that Togashi found interesting. Already during his introduction Togashi planned to have him become an ally to the main characters despite being a villain. As the next arcs, which primarily relieve on action, Kurama became a prominent fighter much to Togashi's pressure since he was not used to writing fighting series. He was voiced by Megumi Ogata in Japanese and Shigeru Nakahara in his demon persona. Several voice actors have voiced Kurama in English. The character was well received by the media often due to his sex appeal and prominent role in the series as a supporting character. Ogata's performance was also the subject of positive response despite early negative backlash by viewers of the anime. Creation Kurama was modeled after a friend that manga author Yoshihiro Togashi has. Togashi was impressed by such a person for claiming to be a French aristocrat even though he was Japanese. His name was rumored to be from Mount Kurama. However, Togashi denied it, claiming he applied the kanji to the sounds he chose "based on my senses". In his characterization, Togashi labeled him as "the typical "" archetype who is usually polite, but scary when he gets angry. The surname, Minamino, comes from the singer Youko Minamino.There were other surname candidates such as the Japanese celebrities whose first names are also Youko. Meanwhile, the name Kurama's name came to Togashi on the spur of the moment. Although Kurama and Hiei were introduced as enemies that the protagonist Yusuke Urameshi had to fight, Togashi planned from the beginning to turn Kurama into a supporting character afterwards.