Hiei (Japanese: 飛影) is a fictional character in the manga series YuYu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi. The sword-wielding fire demon Hiei is introduced as one of three wanted demons, alongside Kurama and Goki, who stole three treasures from the Underworld. Following his defeat by the forces Yusuke Urameshi and Kurama, Hiei becomes their ally as a payment to the superior Koenma. While Hiei remains as a supporting character across the series, it is not until the final story arc that his backstory is revealed, involving his relationship with his sister Yukina and whether or not he seeks revenge for being abandoned. The character also appeared in the manga's two animated movies that feature him facing new enemies. Togashi was inspired by Skunky from Patalliro! when designing Hiei while his inclusion as a lead in the manga was done by popular demand. Hiei's Japanese voice provided by Nobuyuki Hiyama in the original anime. Hiei's English voice actors are Chuck Huber in the Funimation dub of the television series, Kirk Thornton, in the dub of YuYu Hakusho: The Movie, and James Stanley in the second movie, YuYu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report. Critical response to Hiei's character was generally positive due to his quiet personality and contrast with the other characters as well as his role in the final arc.
Creation YuYu Hakusho manga author Yoshihiro Togashi based Hiei and Killua Zoldyck from Hunter × Hunter from the manga Patalliro! by Mineo Maya; Patalliro! was an influence on Togashi's work, as he read it and other yaoi works while working to write shōnen manga. Togashi based Hiei's design off of the character Skunky from such series. He contiguously developed the names of the main characters by skimming through a dictionary and taking out kanji characters he found appealing. "Yusuke Urameshi" is a pun, "Kazuma Kuwabara" is a combination of two professional baseball players, and "Hiei" and "Kurama" are "just names that popped into [Togashi's] head." Although Kurama and Hiei were introduced as enemies that Yusuke Urameshi had to fight, Togashi planned from the beginning to turn Kurama into a supporting character afterward with Hiei also joining him due to positive response to the cast. Though Kurama and Hiei would go improve the series' popularity, the editors from Weekly Shonen Jump still saw Yusuke as another reason for the series' success. When he introduced Hiei and Kurama, the author had early plans to make Kurama a main character but was not certain about Hiei. For the Four Holy Beasts story arc, Togashi made four enemies on impulse, but the only humans were Yusuke and Kuwabara. When it became clear that they were not strong enough to take on two demons each, Hiei and Kurama appeared on the scene, making their introductions as protagonists. Togashi's editor was the one who suggested the manga author to keep using Hiei in the rest of the series. When fighting, Togashi wanted Hiei's fights to be always fast to the point some end in a few pages. He also wanted his personality to remain that of a meansprited child. While Hiei remains as Mukuro's assistant in the series' final arc, Togashi initially considered the two to be a couple.
Casting
The anime staff liked the contrasting colors the protagonists have, linking them to popular tokusatsu series. When animating the manga series, there was talk of casting either Hiei or Kurama as a female cast member, and the station producer said it would be Kurama due to his Kurama having androgynous, naive-looking looks. As a result, Hiei was voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama. Hiyama initially gave Hiei an intimidating aura in order to give Yusuke fear. As a result, Hiyama was surprised when Hiei became a supporting character. When talking about the character, Hiyama says Hiei is constantly moody and is balanced with the notable power he exposes. Due to this cold portrayal the character has, Hiyama noticed there was a massive change when his sister Yukina was introduced, and Hiei is bothered by how Yusuke and Kurama casually mock this state of weakness. In response to positive response to the handling of the leads, Hiyama said that Hiei and Kurama might also become enemies in future episodes. Chuck Huber voiced Hiei in the Funimation dub of the series, talking a liking to the techniques Hiei uses in battles and had no idea there was a major fandom behind it. When going to a convention, Huber was surprised by Hiei's popularity as he could not believe several people wanted to sign him autographs related to the series enough to request breaks. Kirk Thornton also voices him in the dub of YuYu Hakusho: The Movie, and James Stanley in the second movie, YuYu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report. Hiei is called Vincent in the Philippine version of the anime, which is titled Ghost Fighter. For the official play of the series, Shohei Hashimoto plays Hiei. The actor was a fan of the anime as a child and was surprised that he would portray Hiei; he considers the reason for the character's popularity is being a tsundere archetype and being always performing cool feats. He further enjoyed performing Hiei's techniques which he considers help expanding more the cool aura the character presents. Kanata Hongō portrays Hiei in the live-action Netflix series. He mentions taking a liking to his skills in battle calling his lines fitting for a young male. However, he considered his character would not be able to defeat Young Toguro.
Appearances
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