Koto (小兎), which literally translates to "Little Rabbit", is a demon girl that has been seen to be acting as the referee/commentator for both the Dark Tournament and the Demon World Tournament. She is later replaced by Juri as referee in both the semi-finals and the finals of the Dark Tournament, switching to mere commentary as she was suspected of miscounting in the match between Jin and Yusuke. She is also something of an idol in both the Human and Demon Worlds.
Koto is voiced by Ai Orikasa in the Japanese version, Amber Cotton in the English dub and Kata Csondor in Hungarian dub.
Appearance
Koto is a young woman of average height, with a slim build and rounded facial features. She has peach skin, light emerald green eyes and cinnamon brown hair that is kept in short, covering her cheeks and forehead. Her demon features consist of: a pair of triangular ears (akin to those of a fox), a bushy, light brown fur tail and two pairs of three whiskers, one for each cheek. Her clothes consist of a cream shirt with a golden collar and a short blue tie, a pair of waist-high pink shorts, red coat tails with teal lining, black tights, a pair of short-heeled red boots and a small red bow-tie choker.
Personality
In the original Japanese, Koto is a bright and cheerful young lady who is admirably professional and devoted to her job, and is basically a good person who just happens to work for bad people. In the English dub, she is portrayed as being significantly more bloodthirsty, often giving her own commentary on how much she enjoys the pain and death she sees. In both versions, she has some standards as she disapproves of Bakken's attempts to keep Kurama's unconscious body in the ring.
Koto often seems overtly-amused in the suffering of the fighters at the Dark Tournament, but only when both contestants can fight, though she becomes easily frightened whenever there is a formidable attack such as the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, though not as much as Juri. In the Demon World Tournament her sadism is toned down a bit.
She also has the entire tournament rule book memorized, and points that out to Botan, during Jin's fight with Yusuke- Botan complained that Jin's fighting was an unintentional ring-out.
Koto is briefy the object of affection for Chu, whom she doesn't share feelings for. Ironically, in the Demon World Tournament, she seems upset over the fact that Chu fell for Natsume. She sometimes puts on a cute act, but is very shrewd and manages to get in jabs at Juri being a former cocktail waitress.
Synopsis
The Dark Tournament
Koto acted as the referee and announcer during the the first half of the Dark Tournament, and as such was expected to narrate the the fights, all the while having to dodge the insanely deadly attacks of each team, most notably those of teams: Urameshi, Rokuyukai, Toguro and Team Masho.
Team Urameshi vs. Team Rokuyukai
The first line-up consisted of Team Urameshi vs Team Rokuyukai. Although the first two matches were for the most part uneventful, a particularly dangerous situation arose during the third between Yurameshi Team's Hiei versus Rokuyukai's Zeru. It was during this match that Koto had to back away from Zeru's bursts of white-hot fire and forced to leave the ring entirely after Hiei unleashes the Dragon of the Darkness Flame on his opponent. With Zeru having been clompletely vaporized, with only a burnt shadow left as evidence of the demon's quick demise, Koto is oblidged to declare Hiei winner and put Team Urameshi two wins in the lead. The fourth match consisted of Team Rouyukai's substiture, and actual leader, Chu versus Team Urameshi's eponymous Yusuke Urameshi. Before the match could even start Chu makes several inebriated advances towards Koto, and is even comforted by her after the drunkard vomits do to having consummed the notoriously strong liquour "Ogre Killer".
Team Urameshi vs. Dr. Ichigaki Team/ vs. Team Masho
Koto later returns to announce the matches between the silent and highly calculated Dr. Ichigaki Team versus their respective opposing teams. The cruel doctor's three human combatents had developed a morbid reputation for being nearly entirely silent and for decapitating their opponents in three-on-three bouts. In one particular match Koto is pushed aside so that the last member of one team coud avenge his fallen teammates, only to be himself decapitated by all three of Ichigaki's lackeys, thus leaving Koto to announce their humiliating defeat. The doctor's team ends up fighting Urameshi's Yusuke, Kuwabara and the Masked Fighter in yet another three-on-three bout. As the match begins Koto announces in confusion Urameshi Team's apparent beating, unaware that Yusuke and Kuwabara were hesitant to kill Ichigaki's human team members, who unbeknowkst to Koto and the rest of the crowd were being mind controlled by Ichigaki. The match is one only do to The Masked Fighter destroying the organic devices that had been controlling the three humans, allowing the team to quit the match. It was during this confrontation that the Masked Fighter's disguise was partially removed, revealing to Koto that the fighter was a teenage woman. With Team Ichigaki having been defeated Koto is about to announce Team Urameshi's retreat, but just then the Dark Tounement's committee overrules this and declares their immediate advancement against Team Masho. From this point on Koto becomes concerned for Team Urameshi's unfair treatment at the hands of the Tournement's corrupt committee. This is first illustrated when Koto tries removing Kurama after he had fallen unconcious after his second fight (against the ice apparition Toya) but is overruled by the committee. As a result the offish ninja Bakken is permited to savagely pummel Kurama while stil being comatose. Without any hesitation Koto steps in to defend Kurama, who at the last memments of the match was left lying on the ground and unable to act. She is easily shoved aside by Bakken, however the brute agrees to simply through KUrama out of the ring after Yusuke threatens to shoot him with the Spirit Gun. After Yusuke defeats Bakken in a brital display Koto declares Urameshi Team's third win (the first two having been earned by Kurama) and proceeds to narrate the fight between Yusuke and Jin, The WInd Master. This particular match proves to be a rousing event, with Koto herself performing a back-flip out of excitement. But her enthusiasm is cut abruptly short after the tournement's committee declares the fight a win for Team Masho, explaining that during the fight Koto had miscounted.
Team Urameshi vs. Team Uratogi
Team Urameshi vs. Team Toguro
Epilogue
In the manga epilogue, Ruka, Juri and herself have begun to really break out into Human World culture. She briefly appears in an ad in the Eizou Hakusho OVA. Koto admits to having a crush on an aloof, serious man, referring to Toya, who sneezes. However, in the anime, she also got infatuated with Yoko (not knowing that it was Kurama in his previous form caused by Ura Urashima's Idunn Box) when she sees him after Shishiwakamaru threw his sword to break Ura Urashima's barrier. She referred to Yoko as her personal fantasy and a love god with sexy ears and a dreamy tail, though she gets over it a year later.
Relationships
Chu: Chu was intially attracted to Koto because of her beauty, but when he found that out she could speak "drunk", his affection strengthened and persisted. Chu had also helped in saving her life when Toguro had begun draining souls from demons in the audience. By the Demon World Tournament, his feelings had lingered, as indicated by his declaration of love for her. However, he eventually fell for Natsume, indicating that his former feelings for Koto were merely the result of a shallow infatuation. Koto wasn't interested in Chu, but was frustrated when he begged Natsume to be his girlfriend, screaming that, "he turned her bloody tournament into a dating service," possibly hinting at implicit feelings.
Jorge When Jorge decides to be announcer, he makes his way near her, in an unheralded manner, and proceeds to ask her useless questions and make useless calls, in both tournaments. Koto seems to not mind this intrusion- only noticeably annoyed when Jorge does something excessively stupid and superfluous. She remembers him as the "rapping ogre" in the English dub.
Juri: It is implied that Koto and Juri are good friends, and that Koto was the one who found her and got her into referee status- Koto was a star in the makai, after all. During their commentary, she frequently makes remarks seeming like she's guiding Juri on otherwise tough calls. Koto also expressed a large amount of concern when Juri, in fear of her life, cried out at the possibility of dying while stil being a virgin.
Yusuke: Koto treats Yusuke like everybody else until the call with Jin, where Yusuke mistakenly threatens her, thinking she's involved with tournament committee calls, because though he'd won, they called a draw. Koto lets this go, but when Yusuke defends her against Risho, she seems to gain respect for him. This respect carries all over into the Demon World Tournament, in which she addresses him as "Mister".
Botan: In the English version, where Koto was turned into a sadist, Botan was secretly disgusted at Koto's sadism. She also thought Koto was too into the fighting action to care about refereeing. When she confronted the demon about her apparent disregard for the rules -in this case, not counting Jin out when he was flying over the ring- Koto proved Botan's ignorance by quoting a section of the official rulebook. Later, against Team Ichigaki, Botan was clearly disgusted at the sadism and called her a "heartless wreck." Although she didn't know it, Botan's insult had a profound effect- despite Koto still being into the violence in fighting, she started to show some standards, and when things got too brutal and unfair, she stood up for the weaker fighter. Naturally, this only happened to Team Urameshi, because the other fodder teams were easily destroyed by the ones who advanced, while Yusuke's team could hold out...and naturally, she got a lot of flak for this.
Toya: In the manga, Koto admits to having a crush on Toya, describing "He looks really [?] and hard to approach" and later she said she decided "He's gotta be really sweet on the inside." After Koto, Juri, and Ruka admit their crushes, without revealing names, the next page reveals Toya, Jin, and Susuka sneezing in unison, indicating that the female trio were referring to the men as their crushes.
Yoko Kurama : Koto was instantly smitten with Kurama's transformed state describing the former fox bandit as her personal dream boyfriend with "sexy ears and a dreamy tail" and described as "god of love." She seemed prepared to ask him out and showed great disappointment when her "silver-haired hunk" turned back into regular Kurama.
Trivia
- The Funimation dub, in which Yusuke refers to Koto as a "fox girl", and her tail and ears resembling a fox cause most to believe Koto is a fox spirit. Some claim she may be a cat demon—she frequently meows in the manga, and in the Funimation dubbed anime she refers to her ears as "little cat ears" and is called a "kitten" by Bakken.
- Likely furthering the Australian stereotype, Chu calls her Sheila, as he does every other girl, which she seems to take a disliking to.
References
Manga chapter: 173; p. 9 and 10