Yuyuko is the ghost princess of Hakugyokurou, the netherworld for the dead, though she wasn't always a spirit. She died by suicide long ago, and her body was sealed beneath the Saigyou Ayakashi—a dangerous youkai cherry tree that needed to be stopped before it killed more humans. During the events of Perfect Cherry Blossom, she got Youmu to help her make the tree bloom, apparently not realizing she was trying to unearth her own corpse. When that plan threatened to destroy her and release the tree's power again, she let it go and accepted her fate as the netherworld's caretaker.
Her main ability is inviting mortal souls to death—anyone she claims this way ends up in Hakugyokurou instead of heaven or hell. It's kind of dark that such an important power landed in the hands of someone so spacey and whimsical, but Yuyuko takes it seriously. She never uses it as a weapon, out of spite, or carelessly. Ironically, the weight of this power is what drove her to kill herself in the first place.
Most humans fear her because of what she can do and general supernatural dread, but Yuyuko's cheerful and friendly nature tends to disarm people. She looks fully human, which helps. She's known for making bizarre, nonsensical comments and sometimes missing obvious things entirely—the kind of personality that screams "airhead." But then she'll turn around and be unnervingly clever and perceptive, loaded with knowledge, and nobody really knows which version is the real her. She doesn't take much seriously and loves messing with her uptight assistant Youmu, who's basically her opposite in every way. Also worth mentioning: she has an absolutely legendary appetite and will work food metaphors into literally any conversation. She's dead and she's loving it.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
