Yusuke Urameshi

Having a no-show for a father and with his mother always off somewhere else (getting drunk or partying), Yusuke has grown up in a very neglectful environment. He's short-tempered, impulsive, merciless, and likes to intimidate those who are afraid of him. Underneath his bold, cocky attitude, he has a joking and kind nature. Yusuke has also had the bad luck of having to deal with so many cruel and despicable people at such a young age, Iwamoto being among them. One of his most notable traits is his desire to fight, which becomes more noticeable as the series progresses. Yusuke has been noted on many occasions, even by his own admission, to be rather unintelligent, and, at times, just plain stupid. However, he has also been shown many times to be capable of being clever, perceptive, and sharp-witted in dire situations and in addition, his teacher Genkai later notes, he "can be a genius at fighting". Yusuke's desire to fight is more out of enjoyment of a good brawl, and surprisingly Yusuke doesn't like killing if he can avoid it. Another prominent trait of Yusuke's psyche is his sense of justice, as he doesn't tolerate evildoers and always has a firm resolve to capture or even beat them for the sake of doing the right thing. Even though Yusuke is feared by most students and severely disliked by almost all of the teachers, he is generally misunderstood. Keiko Yukimura, one of his childhood friends (and later love interest), is one of the very few who knows Yusuke is actually very kind, and she sympathizes with his problems in life. Yusuke also becomes very protective of his friends, especially Keiko, Botan, Koenma, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei. Out of all the six mentioned, though, Younger Toguro notes that Yusuke is "the most protective" of Kuwabara, most likely because Yusuke knew him longer than Hiei and Kurama, and also because of the frailty of Kuwabara's human heritage. By extension, Yusuke can be mildly vengeful. When Dr. Ichigaki's test subjects were released, Yusuke beat him much more severely than he might have otherwise. Likewise, when Bakken of Team Mashotsukai finished beating Kurama, Yusuke took great time and pleasure beating him. Following the Chapter Black Saga, Yusuke gains a more neutral opinion regarding the comparative worth of human and demonic lives. He accepts demons' need to eat humans to keep up their strength; as a matter of fact, he discusses this with Hokushin, claiming he would not have attacked him if he had been forthright about his dietary habits in their first meeting. Yusuke's foremost predecessor as Spirit Detective, Kuroko Sato, notes it's like Yusuke's humanity is fading with the awakening of his demon nature, even though Yusuke himself claims he would never eat humans. Her statement about his disconnection from humanity is not entirely untrue, however, as Yusuke later casually offers to kidnap a few humans to give Raizen nourishment, even going as far as to shout that he'd "stuff them down (his throat) himself" if that's what it will take to get a good fight out of the ancient warrior; the English dub tones it down a bit with Yusuke saying that he would kidnap evil humans. However, this implies that he's grown desensitized to death in general; Yusuke knows there's an afterlife, so even if someone died, they'd go somewhere after judgment by Koenma.