OPINION: Why Yoshihiro Togashi Is My Favorite Manga Creator
I know the title of this thing is "Why Yoshihiro Togashi Is My Favorite Manga Creator" and that's technically correct, but it doesn't fully cover the scope of my admiration for the creator of series like Yu Yu Hakusho, Level E and Hunter x Hunter. He's one of my favorite creators in all of fiction, the kind of writer and artist I'm honestly in awe of. Togashi has a way of not only reinventing the genres he works with but our expectations of him. He keeps you on your toes that way, and even within the span of certain series, he changes and refocuses to the extent that, on an arc by arc basis, you're given a new perspective on the narrative.
Perhaps my favorite example of this is in Yu Yu Hakusho, my favorite anime. The way the manga evolved from comedy and supernatural hijinks to dark fantasy to fighting tournament chaos is well-documented, but Togashi takes it a step further. Each new story arc shines more light on the previous one. The Chapter Black arc, in which Yusuke and the gang take on Shinobu Sensui, an ex Spirit Detective who decries humanity's brutality against the demon world, forces you to rethink every action and every victory against the demon antagonists that came before. The same thing occurs when Yusuke is revealed to be at least partly a demon, something that forces you to investigate the grey areas between will and predestination.
These kinds of things overhaul the story on a thematic and a genre level. Hunter x Hunter is renowned for its dissatisfaction with the tropes that often come common with its peers. Each new arc, based generally around discovery and games, is a chance for Togashi to test himself as he attempts to build a new system of not just rules, but tension in the story. It's a risky effort — the kind of thing you watch the Heaven's Arena arc for ends up being different than what you'd pick out the Chimera Ant arc for. But it works out thanks to Togashi's appetite for exploration. Every new effort is his own new world, his own "Dark Continent Expedition."
Togashi has been doing this his entire career. He got his start in comedy and romance manga before diving into Yu Yu Hakusho, a series that became a pillar of Weekly Shonen Jump's explosive popular era in the early '90s. Afterward, he'd create Level E, a science fiction manga that balanced Togashi's creativity for crafting capable fantasy worlds with his penchant for humor. Comedy is a perennially underrated aspect of Togashi's writing toolbox, despite his constant use of it. Many of his characters have a sense of humaneness, of blunder and hubris and devotion, that gives them a funny relatability. From Kuwabara's brand of youthful machismo to Gon and Killua's childlike reception to parts of an ever-strident world, they turn what could be complicated lore into personally accessible adventures. No matter how intricate a structure becomes, Togashi's sense of pathos, a deeper current of everyone, from Kurama to Toguro to Leorio to Meruem having things that they want and things you can pity about them, turns these sprawling works into journeys that are ultimately moving.
Finally, Togashi's worlds and characters are a visual dream, the kind of thing tailor-made for anime adaptation. There are bits of Togashi's series that are unforgettably horrific and beautiful — the first time we see Toguro's malformed body, a mix of muscle and monstrosity as he raises his power to its highest level, will stick with me for the rest of my life. When put on screen and imbued with the moving energy of animation, they provide an expert blend of the macabre and the magical. It's here that his drive for reinvention is most evident. As stories move on and body types and species change and depart, audiences are forced to keep up. It's a thrilling exercise, the kind of thing we get all too rarely when authors decide to play it safe. But Togashi seems to respect his audience and their capability for wonder.
So he's pushed forward, delivering series after series that I hold near and dear. The stories Togashi has devised are eternally ripe for enjoyment, inspection and revisitation. A once-in-a-lifetime creative force, we are blessed to have been granted his many worlds.
Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!
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