Admittedly, at first I couldn’t stand watching Yuu Yuu Hakusho because the artwork was poorly done. However, I was forced to watch the series due to the fact that my schedule was so busy the only thing it would allow me to see on TV was YYH. After a time I realized that the story wasn’t as trite as I initially thought, and when the other members of the YYH team came, the plot started getting interesting. There’s Kuwabara Kazuma, Yusuke’s worst enemy who later becomes his best friend. There’s Hiei, the mysterious demon with a bitter past. And there’s the brainiac Kurama, my personal favorite, who turns into the irresistably handsome Fox Demon when provoked. The storyline doesn’t end with the introduction of the characters alone. The plot deepens with every episode you tune into, and the mysteries that cloak each of these characters unravel pretty fast.

The anime that YYH is often compared to is Rekka no Honou. In fact, YYH even bests Rekka in terms of continuity and consistency in both action scenes and storyline. While the animated version of Rekka had a vague storyline and an unresolved ending, YYH was very clear as to where the story should branch out and what character best fits a particular episode. It isn’t all about Yusuke alone. Although YYH is no match for Rekka in terms of artwork, the fluidity of the characters’ motions aren’t that much different from Rekka.

The battles are actually the best part of this series. Sometimes I just couldn’t get enough of those tournaments that I literally go home from the office early just to catch them on TV. These are the same kinds of tournaments that Rekka fans would probably kill for just to watch. Overall, YYH is a great anime. If it weren’t for the weird art at the beginning of the series, I would have given it a 10 rating. It was a blessing that I only had to suffer seeing the ugly artwork during the first few episodes. It later improved, much to my relief.

Ah, yes, before I forget… my idol Megumi Ogata is the seiyuu for Kurama. She’s known as the voice actress of SailorUranus (SailorMoon), Shinji (Evangelion), Eagle and Esmeraude (Rayearth) and many other popular roles.

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NOTE: This description was written sometime in 2000 and was recorded in the classic Otaku Fridge as 12.??.2000. Unfortunately the database would not accept non-numerical values, so this review is now dated January 01, 2000 by default.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 7; Story 9; Characters 9; Sounds 9

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 1st, 2000 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.