Hiei, also known as, Jaganshi Hiei(Jaganshi is an epithet meaning "Master of the Evil Eye"), is a main character in the anime and manga YuYu Hakusho.
Appearance[]
Hiei is the shortest of the four main characters at only 4' 10" during the Dark Tournament (excluding his hair) as stated by Juri. At the end of the series, an artbook puts him at 5' 3". His height is never mentioned in the anime or manga, aside from the DT reference. Despite his short size, he has a lean, muscular build to him. He wears a white headband that conceals his Jagan Eye, which is placed on his forehead and has a purple iris. His eyes are crimson (blood red), with an angular and slightly slanted shape, giving him a very sinister look in the beginning of the series. He has spiky black hair (reminiscent of Vegeta from the Dragon Ball franchise) with blue outlining and white streaks. His skin complexion is regular peach-tan. Despite the similarity to Vegeta in appearance and personality, Hiei was actually based off of the character Scunky from Patarillo!.
Living up to his classic villainous persona, he usually dresses entirely in black. He wears a long black cloak-like jacket (with a white collar) and black pants tucked into black boots. In its initial appearance, he wears nothing beneath his cloak-like jacket and has a red tie at the center of his black pants but it was soon changes into two white belts where he frequently carries a sword with him that was strapped across his back. He later wears a black (and sometimes pale blue) sleeveless undershirt beneath the cloak-like jacket. He is the only one of the four main characters to never change his primary 'costume' during the series. The only exception was when he briefly wore light-colored Chinese battle costume at the start of the Dark Tournament.
Before mastering the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, he kept his right arm covered in bandages and bindings to keep the dragon from escaping. After gaining full control over it, a dragon tattoo now covers the arm and is visible when the bandages are removed.
In his battle against Bui at the Dark Tournament and through the near end of the Chapter Black saga, his black pants was updated as it shows its socks from his black boots and the white belt now gained five straps with a purple buckle.
In the Three Kings Saga, Hiei has minor changes from his primary attire with the exception of his black cloak-like jacket. His black pants is similar to ninja tights and his black boots are replaced with black martial arts shoes and white long shins which is tucked into his pants. He also regains his red belt from his initial appearance and is now rolled up into two.
Personality[]
Hiei prefers to keep his distance from others, so he often comes across as aloof and elusive. He has a rather cynical and even misanthropic view of the world around him, often belittling and mocking humans and their emotions and the significance they place on friendship and life. And while he is relatively taciturn, he occasionally squabbles with and insults his teammates, especially Kuwabara. It is obvious that deep down he holds a certain amount of respect and kinship for his teammates, but seems to be closest to Kurama and Yusuke. While he holds an affinity of kinship towards demons, this goes as equally far as his preference for humans, despising weaker demons, including braggarts and "tourists" who lack impetus for a degree of respect from him.
As a fighter, Hiei is very unbiased when it comes to his enemies. He shows the same degree of ruthlessness to his foes - regardless of age or gender. This is seen when he terrorizes Ruka and the Masked-Fighter with threats of death as his power is returning. According to Kurama, however, he has an honor code that prevents him from going all out against an opponent he perceives as weaker than himself. In battle, Hiei has killed the most opponents on the team- often making good on a threat he made at the outset. He is also phenomenally arrogant, and has a tendency to underestimate his opponents; this was noted to be one of his greatest weak points, which people such as Genkai were very aware of, that lead to Hiei's defeat against Yū Kaitō's Power of Taboo. Apparently, this later invoked heavy irony as Hiei mocked Yusuke for being able to defeat Toguro, yet was able to get easily captured by humans, only for Hiei to experience the same result which was contradictory to Yusuke's expectations. Despite belittling Kuwabara's intelligence at every opportunity he gets, he himself is not a terribly cerebral fighter. His basic tendency in battle is to charge in at full power and simply overwhelm his opponent. However, he can still be quite a clever combatant when the situation calls for it. However, he shows a surprising degree of sincerity, warmth, and protectiveness when around Yukina.
It is made clear in both the anime and the manga that he holds the demoness Mukuro in high esteem, perhaps higher than any other character. He respects her for her power and accomplishments. At the end of the series, there is clearly a bond between them, as it is made clear that its by his choice that he remains at her side. He also goes out of his way to free her from her past, breaking her shackle in the anime and delivering her abusive father to her as a birthday present in the manga.
Hiei prefers to work on his own agenda, and has a notorious reputation in Demon World as a killer even when he was a D Class demon. Despite this, deep down he has struggled with his identity as a loner and his abandonment.