YuYu Hakusho Wiki
Register
Advertisement


Sakyo (左京, Sakyō) was the owner of Team Toguro, and the youngest, most eccentric member of the demon smuggling criminal syndicate known as the Black Black Club.

Appearance[]

Sakyo is an extremely handsome young man who appears to be in his late 20s or early 30s.

He is of average size, with straight posture and a relatively well-built body. He has long, black hair that is constantly slicked back, with a portion of his bangs on the left side of his face, resting on his forehead. His eyes are dark blue in color. There is a long scar on the right side of his face, reaching from his hairline to the end of his jawbone. He is often dressed formally, with a white button-up shirt, black suit jacket, a dark blue necktie, black slacks and black dress shoes. He also has a black lighter with a gold design which he lights up his cigarette with and later gives it to Shizuru Kuwabara to remember him by.

His live-action appearance depicts him as a middle-aged man rather than being in his late 20s to early 30's in the anime. His long black hair appears ragged with fringes on each side and his long scar on the right side of his face is faded. His long necktie is black rather than dark blue. He also carries a handgun which he uses to commit suicide after losing a bet.

Personality[]

While a vicious and despicable human being, Sakyo does possess a strong sense of honor and fair play, and murders anyone (like Butajiri rigging the tournament in favor of Team Masho) who uses cowardly and underhanded tactics to win wagers. His underlying personality is that of an absolute sociopath, but one who is unusually self-aware. He is fully aware of the fact that there were no external influences that made him immoral, and is capable of judging himself and his actions quite rationally and objectively. Also most unusually for someone with strong sociopathic tendencies, he displays few if any signs of narcissism. For instance, while he gives no thought to committing, ordering, or witnessing even the most gruesome of crimes, he seems to regard his own life as being just as worthless as any other. He has an extremely flat emotional affect, appearing most of the time to be rather genially bored even in the most extreme of circumstances. Upon losing his final gamble (which he referred to as a "great bet") against Koenma, he takes his own life as promised, without appearing to be even slightly distressed by the either the prospect of killing himself or the commission of the act. He appears to suffer from the sort of chronic emotional understimulation that many sociopaths suffer from, and his gambling and betting all appear to be ways of self-medicating his extremely hampered ability to feel anything. He has said on more than one occasion that gambling is the only thing that gives him any sort of pleasure; he mentions that he continually bets more and more in order to get the sort of "rush" that he once enjoyed from it.

He openly enjoys smoking, as he is often seen with a cigar (cigarette in the anime) in his mouth during most of his appearances.

In the anime, he does show a soft spot when around Shizuru Kuwabara, demonstrating compassion and even empathy, a stark contrast from his usual unfeeling demeanor.

History[]

Younger Sakyo

Sakyo in his youth.

Sakyo grew up as the youngest of five children to a pair of poor, but loving parents, and is the only child amongst his brothers and sisters to not have ended up a "civil servant." In the original Japanese version, he seems to look back on his family life with an indifferent yet strangely warm fondness ("My parents were decent and kind people; it was what you could call, an ideal family"). However, the English dub, he explicitly made it clear that he despised both his parents and the white-collar, conformist lives that his brothers and sisters lived, saying that he would kill himself if he ever found himself in such a situation. In both language versions, Sakyo never blamed his family for any of his violent or immoral tendencies, but candidly admits that he was "rotten in the head" by birth. This makes the seemingly contrasting sentiments of both versions mutually consistent with his character when taken as him acknowledging that he wants no part of his family's idyllic lifestyle entirely because of his own immorality.

Despite a normal adolescence, Sakyo was obsessed with death, violence and suffering; even going as far as getting an after school job in a pet store in order to indulge his morbid appetite. He would occasionally challenge himself to see how long he could keep an animal alive after carving out it's heart. In the manga, he also says he'd kill animals and insects out of boredom as well as dissect humans. Upon reaching adulthood, Sakyo discovered that he could translate his sociopathic tendencies into cold, hard cash by gambling. But he became addicted to the rush, caused by the knowledge that he could win or lose everything with his next bet, as well as the adulation that came with his wealth. However, rather than losing everything, he became so good at gambling that he acquired enough wealth to join the Black Black Club, a criminal organization consisting of perhaps the wealthiest men on the planet and became a highly influential member by starting a slave trade of demons within the Club by capturing lower class demons.

But even that got boring for Sakyo, so he started wagering his life for his prize fighter in order to get that same rush again. In the end, however, Sakyo's luck ran out, honoring his bet and staying behind as the stadium for the finals of the Dark Tournament collapsed, taking him with it.

Synopsis[]

Spirit Detective Saga[]

Along with the other members of the Black Black Club, Sakyo makes his first appearance on a large television screen, at Tarukane's mansion. As Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara force their way through the hordes of demons who were guarding the mansion, Sakyo wagers his entire fortune on the boy's successful defeat of the Toguro Brothers. However, this was all just an elaborate ruse, orchestrated by Sakyo and Younger Toguro, who faked his death at the hands of Kuwabara.

After Yukina was rescued by Yusuke and Kuwabara, and the other Black Black Club members had stopped their transmissions to the mansion, Sakyo reappears on screen, ordering Toguro to kill Tarukane, who fell into insanity after realizing that he had just lost his entire wealth on Toguro's loss. Afterwards, Sakyo agrees to Toguro's wish of having Yusuke and his gang participate in the Dark Tournament.

Dark Tournament Saga[]

Announce

Sakyo announcing at the tournament

In the early stages of the tournament, Sakyo watches from a VIP area over the ring, conversing with either the other members of the Black Black Club or Toguro. When Shizuru angers Keiko who storms out of the arena, Sakyo saves her from a group of demons who were prepared to rip her apart. Before leaving, he tells her that here, they are the minority, and that she should be careful from now on.

The day before the finals, Sakyo was approached by the tournament committee who asked him about his intentions. He revealed that he planned on opening a tunnel to Demon World, big enough so that even the most powerful demons could enter the Human World at their leisure. He explains that in doing so, he hopes to bear witness to all of the destructive powers that demons would amass, without them being restricted by Spirit World's laws. The committee was shocked and thus ordered for Sakyo's death. However, Toguro arrives just in time, and kills the entire committee and their demon assassins. Toguro is then asked if he, by any chance, disapproved of Sakyo's plan. Toguro states that he was more than happy with his intentions, for it was the only way he could keep on fighting more and more powerful opponents. Afterwards, Sakyo made a toast with Toguro, in honor of their success and mutual understanding.

Destruction

Sakyo decides to blow up the Dark Tournament Stadium

Just before the final match between Toguro and Yusuke is set to begin, Sakyo publicly makes a deal with Koenma; the owner of the losing team would die in order to ensure that one of the teams would win. Koenma agrees to the wager, shocking the audience, as well as Team Urameshi in the process.

Halfway through the final match, Toguro begins devouring the souls of the audience, amplifying his already formidable strength in order to defeat Yusuke, who at the time had the upper hand. As the people try to run as far away as possible from the fight, Sakyo activates a giant wall around the stadium, trapping every single person and demon inside. He then states that their lives are worth less than the tickets they had purchased in order to see the finals and that only the winners of the tournament will walk away alive.

After Toguro had finally lost, Sakyo uses a self-destruct protocol on the stadium in order to reduce it to rubble, killing himself in the process. In the anime, before he is crushed by the rubble, he has a brief conversation with Koenma. He then hands over a rather special lighter of his to Shizuru, who was upset that Sakyo opted to throw away his life so easily.

Chapter Black Saga[]

Though not actually present, Sakyo appears in a flashback where the former spirit detective Shinobu Sensui sees the Black Black Club torturing innocent demons and bathing in their blood. This led him to the brink of insanity, driving him to kill all of the members except for Sakyo, because he had already left. This immediately led to Shinobu developing multiple personalities from the ordeal, and carried out Sakyo's plan to open a portal to Demon World. However, Sensui's motives were different, as he wanted to eradicate every last human being off the face of the Earth.

Genkai openly mentions Sakyo and his former plan of opening the portal at the end of the test she had forced Yusuke and his gang to participate in at the start of the Chapter Black Saga.

Trivia[]

  • A close inspection of the lighter that Sakyo gives Shizuru shows the initials SN monogrammed on it. This, along with his relationship with Shizuru is exclusive to the anime.
  • Sakyo's plan to open the tunnel to the Demon World led the story arc of the Chapter Black Saga case.
  • His design bears similarity to Hakuto Kunai, the protagonist of Demon Lord, Retry!, possibly having being inspired by Sakyo's character. Hokuto also has a smoking habit.
  • In the dub, Sakyo says that the first time he felt the rush of gambling was playing a game in a friend's basement; when he bet his life against Koenma's, he felt that ecstasy of the original rush once again.
    • He added that he largely can't feel the enjoyment of gambling as "money loses its mystery, and you're left placing everything on your prized fighter."

Navigation[]

e v Team Toguro
Members: Younger Toguro | Elder Toguro | Bui | Karasu | Sakyo
Advertisement