Yu Yu Hakusho: Sakyo The Gamling Demon Businessman
“You know there’s nothing quite like putting your life on the line in order to reexamine it. It’s nothing new for us to be attracted to psychopathic characters of fiction. We can look to such figures like The Joker, Hannibal Lector, Light Yagami, or just about any cleverly witted jester of chaos to understand why we gravitate towards those who know no boundaries and equally recognize just how easily muddled they were from the start.
One of the downsides many psychopathic characters in fiction have often suffered, be it in cinema or anime, is that somehow, and more often than we’ve learned to stomach, they have to have a tragic past to explain their gravitation towards darkness. In the case of characters like the Joker and Lector, it’s all a blank, and yes, fully denying whatever cannon was associated with Hannibal Rising, which we all know was shit, as well as coercion on Thomas Harris’ part. That aside, having a tragic past isn’t a hindrance on a psychopathic character being great, but it does still pose a problem in the limits it can invoke, whilst explaining their nature, as if there were bound to be some logic to their behavior.
When it comes to psychopathic characters with no backstory, this blank past gives them a degree of mystery, while still adding a tinge of horror to the nature of the evil they participate and actively embrace with more ease than what a labeled “Normal” person would be pushed towards. Strangely enough, that isn’t the case with a character like Yu Yu Hakasho’s Sakyo, who actually has a backstory. I know, I know, here’s when we get to the part where his parents beat him, he was mistreated in school, he witnessed a rape and was forced to watch, which only brought him closer to seeing the darkness in humanity we’re all poised to experience at one point, yada, yada, yada, except that we don’t.
In a melancholically cool expression, Sakyo meditates in his self-awareness as he conveys to his prizefighter Toguro that he was born into a normal working-class family. He was the youngest of five brothers. His parents never had any money, but as he tells it, “they were very loving.” Naturally, the shadow silhouetted image of an infant Sakyo running to his parents would seem innocent in a scene where a bastard of a character, who bears no shame in watching the most horrific atrocities take place before him would seem tender and even tragic from what seems like a pretty normal and average upbringing. That’s because it is, and the weird part is the sheer simplicity conveyed in Sakyo’s unadulterated confession of despite how loving his parents were the line, “I hated them both” only illustrates the utter conviction of a man who is unapologetically evil, and aware enough to not excuse himself from the little value he sees in life, and even money given how much a fill it has given him to the point where he willfully wagers it just to feel something remotely akin to the high a drug addict feels.
Sakyo, or gambling man Sakyo as the Yu Yu Haksaho manga characterizes him is a gambler, go figure. He is addicted to the act because of the rush it grants him. When he says “There’s nothing quite like putting your life on the line in order to reexamine it,” he means it. Money can only take him so far in the high he feels from the rush, that it is only by wagering his own existence that you get a sense of the depth behind a man who is completely unapologetic of how evil he is, and not even very complex when it comes to his motives. Yet, there is a fascination with the character that makes him attractive in ways many fans of the series can’t help but watch with the same fascination that draws them other great monsters fiction has conjured up.
Much like the classic fiction psychopaths mentioned, Sakyo is free. Now, he is free in the sense that he is liberated by the social and moral constraints of a society common folk often abide by, but often feel constrained by as well that you can’t help but envy him. By the way, I’m not advocating for the idea that I would like to be best friends with a guy like Sakyo, especially when you got a deal-breaker like animal torture to make you realize you’d sooner want to get the fuck away from this guy long before you decided to strike up a conversation with him. Granted, I’m guilty of wanting to at least have a conversation with Sakyo, not about animal torture, but anything intellectually honest. It’s clear that through his adrenaline addiction and the self-awareness he approaches it with, he knows very well how essential stimulation means to him.
While looking back to his past, Sakyo clearly stated how his older brothers all “Took honest white-collar jobs with wives and kids. If I had their lives I’d kill myself. Fortunately, their fate was not for me, I was much too smart.” Not only does he pride himself on an intellectual level, but he shows an utter repulse to living an average life that plenty of individuals, not psychopaths exclusively would look at as routine, mundane, and just straight out demeaning in the mediocrity it celebrates. In Sakyo’s case, suicide seemed far more appealing, This self-destructive desire was more honest and frequently conveyed in the final moments of life he was given even after losing his final bet.
After wagering his life on the final battle of the Dark Tournament between the protagonist Yusuke Urameshi and Togoro, he casually initiates the detonation of the stadium, as well as the machine he built to open a portal between the human and demon world. I know, it’s egomaniacal, and Sakyo even admits to such a demented view of reality, essentially expressing how he would feel that redefining the food chain between humankind and demons would be far better than through numerical determinism we as humans often associate with money, and that’s an interesting thing to consider, despite the fact that the person espousing such a conversation alone is a monster and not someone you’d want to be dating. I hope I’m speaking properly for Shizuru, who despite hearing just how twisted and broken the mystery man who saved her was, still carried a look that illustrated her need to save him. But going back to the subject of money and how incremental it is to our lives, there’s no secret in saying money doesn’t lead to happiness. That’s ultimately clear. At the same time though, the best non-biased and non prejudicial way of looking at money, especially now with the emergence of an asset as decentralized as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies shows just how much flexibility or the chance for greater flexibility it grants us. There’s no denying that a person who works at Tesla, be in the U.S or any other country has far more flexibility to the drastically more limited financial freedom a Walmart or McDonald’s worker is afforded. In the case of Sakyo, who is worth 100 trillion (Lucky Motherfucker) has enough money to not worry about ever having what he wants. And yet, the man carries a bored-zen-like expression that shows the utter lack of satisfaction such a prospect brings to him now that it’s lost its zeal. This touches back to his gambling addiction, the high it grants him, as well as the growing aspect of desensitization that has formed inside him as a result. From this, the only exhilaration he can derive from any kind of wager comes from the act of risking his own life, which in a way also helps him better understand the mechanics behind it.
The opening quote of “You know there’s nothing quite like putting your life on the line in order to reexamine it” ultimately shows that aside from being a person who lives outside the realm of societal norms, he clearly self-reflects on himself in a way where despite how horrid he is, he doesn’t justify, apologize, or even make attempts to rationalize it. In simple terms, Sakyo is just messed up and he knows it enough to never lie to himself. Despite how awful he is as a person, one can’t deny the appeal such a character brings. Now, he’s not the kind of guy you’d want to hang out or go on a date on, despite his anime sex appeal, (father my demon seed Sakyo) but at the time, he’s definitely a guy you could always believe to be telling the truth, even when it’s more horrible than any of the atrocities he’s taken part in or just bared witness to.
In the end, Yu Yu Hakasho’s Sakyo, although not the central villain of the series, or even of the Arc he’s most famous for, stands out as a villain who has a much deeper influence than all the other villains of the series given his indirect involvement as well as the ways in which he served as a trigger for many of the events in the story, be it Togoru or even Sensui’s descent into the madness that makes the Chapter Black Arc its own separate and well-crafted storyline following the exhilarating appeal of the Dark Tournament arc. But then again, that’s what ya get when you have the anarchic Genius of Yoshiro Togashi, a man who can easily stand outside the cultural norms we all feel constrained to abide by, while not giving two fucks for how much chaos he creates in rebelling against such customs, rightful or wrongfully. In Sakyo’s case, as chillaxed as Eric Vale, who also voiced Future Trunks in Dragon Ball Z (the reason all 90’s kids are all anime fans), makes him sound, it doesn’t escape the fact that Kuwabara would probably have a problem with having a guy who likes carving out animal hearts near his cat or his sister for that matter. LOL.
Bonus Announcement
Thank you, and please accept these links as a gesture of good faith. I don't know how familiar you are with Bitcoin. In case you are curious, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is a decentralized digital currency that is based on cryptography. It can operate without the need of a central authority like a central bank or a company. It is unlike government-issued or fiat currencies such as the US Dollar or the Euro, which are controlled by the country’s central bank.
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Disclaimer:
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Sincerely,
Andres
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