The Pair
- Kurama Wiki
- Botan Wiki
- K+B (Oocities)
- KuraBo Fanfiction List (FFnet)
- Yasashii (LJ Community)
- KxB Group (DA)
- 蔵ぼ Fanart (Pixiv)
Kurama and Botan (KuraBo, 蔵ぼ) are fictional characters from Yu Yu Hakusho, Togashi Yoshihiro's hit supernatural manga series.
Kurama was once the notorious Makai thief, a youko who was once wounded so badly in a battle that he had to seek refuge in ningenkai by being reborn as Minamino Shuuichi. Known for his intelligence and cunning, his specialty is in controlling plants to do his bidding. His favorite is seemingly the rose, the use of which constitutes his signature move ("Rose Whip"). At the end of the series, Kurama has since decided to stay in Japan and work for his stepfather's company—most likely because of his human mother, Shiori, whose display of unconditional love for him when he was a child moved and changed him completely.
Botan (whose name translates to "peony") is a bubbly Reikai spirit guide, who ferries souls into the next life. Her personality definitely goes against the stereotypical shinigami. She first meets protagonist Urameshi Yusuke when he dies in the first episode, who was allowed to return to life in exchange for working as a tantei (detective). She works closely with the Prince of Reikai, Koenma, who assigned her to work with Yusuke Botan as his assistant and friend. She often provides a supporting role for the team, especially when it has been shown that she has some healing powers.
WHY I SHIP THE TWO. These two are not a canon couple; they actually had very few direct interactions in the series. But I suppose the YYH NL fandom found it rather easy to pair them together because, of the Yusuke-tachi, they are the two not to have been paired up with anyone else. When the manga ended, Yusuke has Keiko, Kuwabara has Yukina, and even Hiei has Mukuro. (If you count in Koenma, then he has Ayame.) Hence, the only ones left must could make a good couple.
While it doesn't hurt that Kurama and Botan look good together, their dynamic runs a little bit deeper than that. The talented doujinshi artists Yuzuto (ゆずと), Reizou (れーぞう), and Susuko (すすこ), who comprise my recent re-initiation into the ship, all produced works that portrayed KuraBo as having a rather plausible romantic relationship post-series. They show these two to have made the change from acquaintances to good friends, then hinted at the possibility of something more. It is the kind of love that I would normally not go for, but these artists made me change my mind—and before I knew it, I couldn't get enough of them, and after burning my money away on any and all KuraBo doujinshi I can get my hands on, I just had to build their fanlisting. xD
"THE EVE OF SPRING." This site title underwent a number of changes—I literally had a list of possible phrases that changed every day, even up to the moment I had to launch the site—and I finally went with something that captures my own poetic rendition of the relationship I imagine Kurama and Botan to have.
It is thanks to the three doujin artists mentioned above who made me consider shipping this pair, because they all portray a workable romantic relationship between Kurama and Botan, post-series. They depict Kurama and Botan making this gentle transition from friendship to romance, years after the YYH gang had settled down, and were shown to work not only because they are the only two unattached members of the group, but because their circumstances and personalities do complement each other. (I could sink my teeth into the stories they drew and wrote because they worked with all the canon details, making the relationship all the more believable.)
So I wanted a site title that captured this plausiblity—if both of them would cross the bridge and start seeing the other as more than a friend, I can believe that a beautiful love can bloom. Hence, the "floral" allusion: Botan's name literally translates to "peony," and Kurama's signature flower is the rose. The Eve of Spring, aside from its sonorous appeal, encapsulates this very premise of tentativeness that tickles, this anticipation for a lovely romance to blossom—spring, of course, being the season that signifies birth, or any beginning.