Character · Yu Yu Hakusho
Botan
Death arrives on a floating oar, wearing pink, and apologises for the inconvenience.
In Otakana the clue reads: Ferry girl who rides an oar
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Yu Yu Hakusho
- Letters
- 5 · Normal
Botan does the ferrying. When Yusuke Urameshi dies in traffic in the first chapter of Yu Yu Hakusho, she is the one waiting beside his body to explain the situation, and her manner is that of a helpful clerk rather than a reaper. She rides a wooden oar through the air, wears a kimono, keeps her blue hair in a high tail, and is genuinely sorry that his death was not on the schedule.
Once Yusuke takes the job of Spirit Detective she becomes his handler. She delivers case files from Koenma, carries the equipment, translates underworld bureaucracy into plain speech, and turns up in the human world posing as a relative or a school nurse whenever the plot requires an adult. In fights she is no use at all and knows it, which she solves by being extremely fast on the oar.
Yoshihiro Togashi keeps her tone bright on purpose. A series that opens with a dead fourteen-year-old needs someone who treats the afterlife as an ordinary workplace, and Botan's cheerful competence is what stops the underworld from feeling like a threat every time it appears on screen.
Spelling BOTAN
BOTAN is five letters and behaves itself. The word 牡丹 is the ordinary Japanese name for the peony, a flower that turns up all over Japanese design, so the name is decorative rather than ominous. No long vowels, no doubled letters, and no romanisation argument. Two beats, bo and tan, with the only real risk being BOTEN or BOTAM if you are typing quickly from sound.