Okumura Yukio

Character
Name:	Okumura Yukio (奥村 雪男)
Occupation:	Exorcist Teacher Student Researcher (defected)
Relationships:	Okumura Rin Fujimoto Shiro Yuri Egin Satan Mephisto Pheles Amaimon Lucifer Beelzebub
Fandom:	Blue Exorcist
Other:	Recent Yukio illustration by @katohhhhhh on Twitter.
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Okumura Yukio (奥村 雪男) is the deuteragonist of Blue Exorcist, as well as Rin's younger, fraternal twin brother.

He is a Middle First Class exorcist, with the Dragoon and Doctor meisters. Although Yukio is a nephilim, being born from a human exorcist mother and the king of demons, Satan, he's completely human but for being basically flame-proof, due to having shared the womb with Rin.

Canon

Personality

In a show of the pairing opposites trope, Yukio is the complete opposite of his twin. At first, Yukio seems like a serious, quiet and reserved person. He's shown to be responsible, studious and punctual, which is sometimes interpreted to be due to malicious compliance or fraternal piety in fanworks. He's very self-sufficient, self-critical and outward judgmental of others in his sphere, especially those he is close to. He is shown to be caring for his brother, doing everything he can from a very young age to get stronger in order to protect Rin, as well as treating his brother's wounds after fights or accidents.

Yukio has self-esteem issues due to being born weakly and having been an emotional, dependent child in the past. He sees himself as vulnerable and somehow useless for not inheriting Rin's or his adoptive father's superior nephilim powers and courage. This makes him want to excel at everything and be extremely competitive. As the story progresses, we see Yukio struggle with his feelings for his brother, stuck between deeply loving and hating him at the same time, and as the internal conflict worsens, it also makes him self-destructive. He becomes brash, violent and impulsive, and is suicidal. This dark side of him is exploited sometimes in fanworks, in which he tends to be a lot more assertive and morally ambiguous.

History

He was born December 27, a few minutes after his twin brother. He was smaller and pale in comparison, and he was not breathing. He was saved from being killed by the True Cross Order by Rin, who protected him from the exorcists with his blue flames which left a mashou on Yukio's left eye. His mother perished from postpartum complications.

From that moment onward, he was raised by father Fujimoto Shiro, and the rest of the staff at the Southern Cross Boys' Monastery. He was meek, weak and cowardly, and used to be bullied to tears at school, where Rin would constantly protect him from the other kids. He was always able to see demons, due to the mashou he received at birth, but at age 7, Yukio confessed to Shiro that he didn't want to see demons anymore; Shiro explained to him how this could help him protect Rin in the future, and asked him to become an exorcist apprentice, which Yukio accepted.

He became the youngest person to obtain the certification of exorcist, at age 13, and is considered a prodigy for that achievement. He's also an honorary student and received a scholarship to True Cross Academy, and is the Anti-Demon Pharmacology teacher at the Exorcist cram school.

Fandom

Yukio is a somewhat controversial character in fandom, sparkling dislike or hate in many casual readers and fans alike. His personality, reasons, decisions and actions are sometimes misunderstood, and sometimes understood and still disapproved of. Many fans began disliking him after a point in the story in which he starts to close-off from other people and push, especially Rin, away due to having conflicting feelings for his brother as well as his self-image deteriorating. As he starts spiraling into a deep depression, paranoic and overworked, he also starts being more antagonistic towards Rin and treating him with contempt, which does not sit right with many fans, of the series in general, and those especially fond of Rin.

since blue exorcist is getting another season apparently i want to note once again how much i fucking hate yukio okomura. the hatred i have for that man is endless. if MY brother was rin I would be the happiest bitch on the entire planet. like for fucks sake. stop acting like such a rat bastard all the time the only reason i dont want him dead is cause rin loves him. fucking jealous ass shitty brother bastard man blaming everything on rin who did nothing ever fuckint wrong you have the same father STOP acting like you arent also a son of satan for FUCKS SAKE

randomfansstuff on Tumblr

yukio okumura is a character i have loathed since i was 12 years old. i should rewatch blue exorcist and just rage every time hes on screen

8bitmoss on Tumblr

I can't believe you support Yukio! He's an abusive asshole that has hurt Rin multiple times and should be hated!

anonymous question on tonguetiedraven's Tumblr blog

Fans of the character, on the other hand, tend to be more lenient with Yukio, many times using his difficult upbringing as justification for his questionable decisions and actions. They like to write analysis about Yukio's personality and his role in the series, sometimes in the tone of a Little Meow Meow or Babygirl, and are pretty defensive of him. Manga fans are of the opinion that Yukio haters are usually "anime only" fans and have invalid opinions on the character, and shouldn't even get to voice those opinions, for not following the story after the first 2 seasons of the animated series.

Yukio is, in my opinion (which you're free to disagree with) an extremely well written character, and (again, in my opinion) a sympathetic one. He is one of the best portrayals of a depressed and suicidal character I've seen in manga/anime, and I am so hopeful for the next arc of the manga that he gets some healing from all of that. He's spent most of his life without the proper support he needed (I adore Shirou, but will never agree with the path he chose for Yukio, even if I understand why he did it) and with very little, if any, actual mental/emotional support. Rin wants to help him and love him, but because of the secrets and roles thrust upon them, that wasn't much of an option until very recently, and trusting someone with all of that -- especially if you're already severely depressed and self-loathing -- is not an easy thing to just start doing. If you've spent your life keeping things to yourself, you can't just turn that off. Especially if one of the things you hate most about yourself is weakness.

tonguetiedraven on Tumblr.

I think if people paid more attention to the story and depth of each character in Blue Exorcist, they’d might see that Yukio isn’t such a horrible person. (...) Also another thing, as I keep adding more and more stuff, Yukio is not an adult. He’s a teenager. Just like Rin. And I feel that people forget that a lot. Yukio is still developing as a person and into an adult. And this fact is even referenced in the manga.

sticher30 on Tumblr.

YUKIO IS NOT A GIFTED KID

HE WORKED HIS ASS OFF TO GET TO WHERE HE IS AND CALLING HIM GIFTED COMPLETELY INVALIDATES THE TRAUMATIZINGLY HARD WORK HE HAD TO DO.

HE WAS TRAINED AS A CHILD SOLDIER AND IF YOU THINK HIS SUICIDAL IDEATION, CHRONIC DEPRESSION, AND EXTREME ANXIETY IS “GIFTED KID BURNOUT” YOU ARE NOT READING THE SAME MANGA I AM.

yukiokumura on Tumblr.

I really don’t understand why so many people in tiktok hate Yukio.

Like… he’s mentally broken. He tried to commit suicide, he blamed himself for everything he could never do. He was a child when he started to see demons.(...)

Yukio is too young to keep this shit in mind alone. Yeah, he is lonely, misunderstood and young.

Maybe yes, his actions towards his brother were cruel and selfish, but he’s still a child who carries a huge burden of responsibility on his shoulders.

lulibri on Tumblr.

Overall, Yukio probably has an equal number of fans and critics.

Tropes

Most of the works featuring or centered around him are Canon compliant or canon adjacent in some way and they're normally Angst or Hurt/Comfort. When not Romance, it's popular to write about his family dynamics in a Platonic way. Doctor Yukio, demon Yukio, dark Yukio and top Yukio are some other tags most associated with his character.

Character Study fic is also frequent.

Notable Pairings

This fandom generally uses smushnames and "Name x Name" conventions for their ship names.

Yukio is commonly shipped with his twin brother, Rin, and with Shima Renzo, and less commonly but with some prevalence still with Kirigakure Shura and Moriyama Shiemi.

Okumura Rin/Okumura Yukio: normally you'll find them tagged as Yukio x Rin or Rin x Yukio, however, they're also known as Okumuracest. In Japan and Korea, they're mostly referred to as their smushname, YukiRin (雪燐, 유키린).

Fans like to put these two in situations where they're forced to be intimate with each other, such as fuck or die and sex pollen. Featuring Rin's tail as an erogenous zone is pretty popular and a common setting for their stories to unveil in is their shared dorm room at True Cross Academy.

Okumura Yukio/Shima Renzo: also known as YukiShima, this ship is mostly popular in the west, with little prevalence in Japan.

Fans of this ship are quite set in their Fluff ways, thinking of ways of fixing their favorite characters and exploiting Shima's comedic personality to write Humor.

Yukio manga coloring by @yukinoua on Tumblr.

Resources

• Okumura Yukio tag on AO3.
• Stories including Yukio O. on FF.net
• Yukio Okumura tag on Wattpad.
• Okumura Yukio tag on Tumblr.