Yukina (雪菜) is a member of an all-female race of demons known as Ice Apparitions (氷女, kōrime), more commonly known as the younger fraternal twin sister of Hiei and the love interest of Kazuma Kuwabara.
In Yu Yu Hakusho, Yukina's twin brother is Hiei. They belong to the Ice Apparitions race. Hiei was separated from Yukina at birth because he was considered cursed. Additionally, Yukina is the object of Kazuma Kuwabara's affections.
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What is the relationship between Yukina and Kazuma Kuwabara?
Kazuma Kuwabara and Yukina have a profound relationship in the anime. Kuwabara harbors romantic feelings for Yukina, which eventually culminate in her becoming his girlfriend. Furthermore, Yukina moves in with Kuwabara's family, signifying a further intensification of their bond.
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What is the significance of Yukina's greenish cyan hair and red eyes?
The greenish cyan hair and red eyes of Yukina, a character from the Yu Yu Hakusho series, are distinguishing features that signify her familial connection with her fraternal older twin brother, Hiei. Her hair is typically styled in a low ponytail, secured with a red ribbon that complements her eyes. These traits are maintained in both her anime and live-action depictions.
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What is the race of Yukina in Yu Yu Hakusho?
In the anime and manga series Yu Yu Hakusho, Yukina is of the Kōrime race, commonly referred to as Ice Maidens. She is identified as Hiei's fraternal twin sister and has past affiliations with the Ice Maiden village. Yukina is also known for her alliance with Yusuke Urameshi and her former role as Genkai's assistant.
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How does Yukina's live-action appearance compare to her anime counterpart?
In both live-action and anime versions, Yukina is portrayed with long mint-green hair tied in a low ponytail with a red ribbon. Her eyes are depicted as red. The live-action version sometimes shows her hair as light pink. Her Dark Tournament outfit remains consistent across both versions.
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Appearance
Yukina has long greenish cyan hair that is kept in a low ponytail where it is tied in the back with a fancy red ribbon and red eyes. Her live-action appearance is similar to her anime counterpart and her greenish cyan hair was tied in a loose ponytail.
She is almost always seen wearing a long-sleeved, light blue kimono with a darker blue obi that's tied in the back. The red 'lining' seen around her collar indicates she has a Hiyoku (an undergarment) on underneath it. She is also rather short, being a half a head shorter than Keiko and even slightly shorter than the her already short brother. Her appearance does not change until the final episode of the anime. Her long hair is now braided, and she wears a pink dress with a brown cardigan sweater.
In the All or Nothing OVA, Yukina's hair is now tied in a high ponytail and wears a light blue short sleeved loose cotton dress and brown flats.
Personality
Yukina, unlike her family of female ice apparitions, is very kind-hearted and polite, although a bit naive. Because of her upbringing, she is largely oblivious to Kuwabara's romantic feelings towards her for most of the series, finding his flirting to be humorous. Despite this, she does seem to care for him and enjoy his company. Yukina is the only main character (aside from Kuwabara's sister) who refers to him by his given name, Kazuma.
Yukina also appears very curious about the identity of her brother and is determined to find him, though in the end she never finds out who he is. She is a very caring person and loves nature. The most well known (and tragic) example of this is when Elder Toguro constricts and kills two birds in his hand, resulting in her breaking into tears. Despite being taken prisoner and used as a "gem producer" by Gonzo Tarukane, she didn't allow it to affect her opinion of humans, remarking to Kuwabara, shortly after being freed, that she still enjoys being around them.
Over time, Yukina distanced herself from her people. She felt that the Ice Maidens had grown cynical and emotionless as a race, remarking that their hearts were as "frozen" as their homeland. Due their cold nature driving her mother to suicide, she reveals a more vengeful side as well, one motive to find her twin brother being to fulfill their self fulfilling prophecy of their demise at the hands of the "imiko".
Synopsis
History
Yukina's mother, Hina, broke the rules of their people by conceiving children through her relationship with her lover, a male fire demon. Hina gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The boy, Hiei, was taken from her, since he was viewed as being cursed. In order to save Yukina, Rui was forced to drop Hiei off a cliff.
Hina later committed suicide, and her best friend, Rui, raised Yukina. Yukina was eventually told about her twin brother, and she left the ice world to look for him.
Spirit Detective Saga
While trying to find her brother, Yukina was captured by the corrupt human Tarukane, who planned to become rich by forcing her to shed tears- as the tears of Ice Maidens instantly solidify into priceless gems called hiruisekistones. For five years, Tarukane tortured her in every way imaginable to make Yukina cry. Over time she grew strong-willed, being able to resist crying; she even froze the room she was trapped in to annoy him. This forced Tarukane to bring in the Toguro Brothers to torture her, since he had run out of ideas. Seeing her fondness for birds, Elder Toguro crushed them, breaking Yukina's heart and making her cry.
Yusuke, Kuwabara and Botan come to her rescue, defeating numerous members of the Apparition Gang along the way, including their most powerful members, The Triad. Kuwabara, having fallen in love with her from the video explaining the mission, was able to establish a psychic link with Yukina to tell her that they were there to save her; however, she told him to run as he would die. Taken by Tarukane to his underground arena to see them die at the hands of the Toguros, Yukina was relieved when Kuwabara and Yusuke survived.
Tarukane tried to flee, but was scared into submission by Hiei. Yukina wondered who this stranger was, but got no answer. She tended to Kuwabara, using some of her energy to heal his wounds; grateful, he asked her not to hate all humans. A grateful Yukina told him she didn't as he showed her there was a better side to humanity. Much to his sorrow, Yukina decided to return home to Demon World.
Dark Tournament Saga
Yukina shows up late in the Dark Tournament (during the third round), where she quickly befriends Shizuru Kuwabara, Botan, and Keiko (along with Atsuko in the manga). She reveals that she's there to cheer on Kuwabara and Yusuke, and hopes that she can help them by using the healing abilities that she had learned. At the same time, Kuwabara was on the verge of losing his fight (and likely his life) due to being badly injured in the previous round. Yukina arrives in the stadium and calls out to him. Botan believed that having Yukina there would help Kuwabara in the fight. This is proven when he battles and the "power of love" saves him, giving him a much needed power boost and restoring his already depleted spirit energy. With his powers restored, he was able to win his match - allowing the team to advance to the semi-finals.
Yukina remarks after the match that Kuwabara is healing much faster than her powers are capable of, which Kuwabara attributes to the 'bond' between them. In his fight with Elder Toguro, Yukina was his main and only staunch supporter, believing that he would achieve victory even as his own sister believed that he wouldn't survive the fight. Though she is oblivious to Kuwabara's feelings for her, she sheds multiple hiruiseki stones when he is stabbed (and appears to die) by Younger Toguro during his fight with Yusuke.
Three Kings Saga
Yukina, like many of the supporting characters in the series, does not appear in this saga until the final episode, but she does appear in flashbacks of Hiei, in which she gives him her tear stone and tells him to give it to her brother if he finds him (while accidentally calling him brother in the process) In the anime, she is seen living with Genkai and helping maintain the compound. In the manga, due to Genkai's death, she is seen living within the Kuwabara family household, much to the shock and delight of Kuwabara. The two of them are seen approaching Yusuke's ramen stand as well as playing with them on the beach in the finale.
In the sixth episode of Eizou Hakusho, Hiei attempts to return his mother's tear to her, claiming that he learned that her brother is dead, but she tells him to keep it, heavily implying that she has finally learned and accepted that Hiei is the long lost brother she had been searching for so long. This is further implied when Genkai tells Hiei that Yukina is not naive as he believed her to be.
Techniques/Moves
Ice Manipulation: While being held captive by Tarukane, she froze the room whenever he or his men came to retrieve the valuable Crystal Tears she produced. Being kind of heart, Yukina would never try using her ice powers to harm someone unless her life was in immediate danger.
Crystal Tears (氷泪石, Hiruiseki, translated as Ice Tear Gem): Being an ice apparition, Yukina's tears harden into dense crystallized beads that are coveted by many demons. That's because most Ice Maidens, being as cold-hearted as they are, only cry one tear just after having a child via parthenogenesis once a century. Called Hiruseki Stones in the English dub (actual spelling: hiruiseki). Being as compassionate and open-hearted as she is, Yukina will cry if she sees something horrible done to innocent creatures or people she cares about.
Accelerated Healing (治癒・能力, Chiyu Nōryoku, translated as Healing Talent): Like Botan, and to a greater extent, Genkai, Yukina possesses slight healing abilities. This is made apparent when she uses them to heal Kuwabara, both after his and Yusuke's fight with the Toguro brothers, and later on in the Dark Tournament. For reasons that are unexplained, except by Kuwabara who believes it to be the "power of love", her powers have a seemingly-greater effect on Kuwabara, though Yukina herself is unable to explain it. Yukina also seems to be able to regress into a state where she can't feel physical pain (though she may merely have become resistant due to years of torture by fire talismans), and even heals instantly when Toguro leaves a superficial cut on her cheek.
The name Yukina means "snow" (雪) (yuki) and "vegetables, greens" (菜) (na), a common suffix for girls' names.
Trivia
Yukina's age is speculated to be somewhere between 16 and 99 years old, at the end of the series. This is because the race that she belongs to give birth to a baby girl every 100 years, and Yukina has not reached that point yet. Because Hiei is Yukina's twin, he is somewhere between that age range as well.
After Yukina is rescued from Tarukane, Hiei states that they are "only half siblings" and that they have different mothers. This is a direct contradiction to the more detailed explanation of their family shown in the Three Kings Saga. It could be said that Hiei said this so that he'd be less likely to be questioned about his unhappy past, although they can still be seen as half-siblings if Yukina was conceived by Hina alone while Hiei was conceived by Hina and her unknown lover.
Susan Huber is listed as Yukina's voice actress in the English credits of the anime from "Lamenting Beauty" to "Toguro Returns", although Jessica Dismuke is actually the voice actress instead. This was not corrected in the Blu-ray remastering.
The only characters who are aware she is Hiei's twin sister are Yusuke, Kurama, Koenma, Botan, Genkai and Shizuru.
