I first saw Yuu Yuu Hakusho not in its animated form, but in its fighting game form for the SNES. I remember that it was an overseas review in a US gaming magazine that caught my attention with its good art and weird character descriptions. I immediately thought “hey, something like Dragonball” since that was the really popular show being shown in the Philippines at the time (yes, it’s that old).
I was quite happy to catch the series from the very beginning and, despite the multiple inconsistencies due to dubbing problems over here, ended up enjoying it immensely. It’s still one of my favorite and most memorable series of all time.
Yuu Yuu Hakusho follows the adventures of Yusuke Urameshi, a delinquent who died and came back to life as a detective for the spirit world. He has the power to shoot spirit bullets, an ability termed Rei-gun (incidentally, a very punny name I understand that Rei means spirit in this case). He is guided by the spirit Botan and later joined in his fight by Kuwabara, his former rival who wields the Rei-ken spirit sword; Hiei, the three-eyed bad-ass wielder of the Black Dragon; and Kurama, the fox-spirit reincarnated into a human bishounen with powers over plants. The series initially followed Yusuke’s attempts to return to life since he died saving the life of a child (something the people above didn’t expect a delinquent to do). After he came back to life, he was tasked to be a spirit detective by Koenma, the son of the Otherworld judge Enma. I thought that the spirit detective phase was a bit short, though, as he only had four cases (with only the first two involving real detective work). The first case involved three items stolen from the Otherworld that led him to battle Kurama and Hiei. The second case involved finding a criminal who was taking part in a martial arts tournament ran by Genkai, who trained Yusuke further after he won. The third case involved a threat by bugs from the Otherworld, where the four main protagonists fought together for the first time (Kurama and Hiei being given the mission as a way of atoning for their crime). The fourth one involved a case to save Hiei’s sister Yukino which led the group to first encounter Toguro.
Somewhere during the end of the first case and the start of the second case, the series started to go “Dragonball Z” in terms of fighting. It wasn’t as over the top as Dragonball’s world-destroying fighting techniques though… the characters gradually changed and showed increasingly powerful fighting skills and techniques, but the logic in the strength increase was not too radical and came out as believable.
The series changed its perspective a bit in the episodes that followed. At first thought defeated, Toguro showed that he was stronger than he led on and invited the team to join a tournament. The tournament arc, which was probably the best and surely the longest arc in the series, showed the team facing impossible odds, growing in their strength, and finally winning. The arcs that followed, the Sensui arc and the Makai tournament arc, were definitely good story arcs in their own rights, but felt less when compared to the Toguro tournament.
One thing I’ve always liked about the tournament fighting in Yuu Yuu Hakusho as opposed to Dragonball Z was it was more self-contained and realistic. Most fights ended in one or two episodes. There were also a wide variety of dangers, opponents, and challenges in the fights. This made the tournament exciting rather than monotonous. You know that the heroes would probably win in the end, but there was still the prospect that one of them wouldn’t make it or that they’d lose. The drama around the fights were pretty well-written and the build-up to the fights were very appropriate.
In retrospect, I think I would have enjoyed this series even if they didn’t go down the DBZ fighting route and just dealt with cases as in the early episodes. Yusuke and his gang are fun characters who can carry the story and make even the supernatural seem natural and real. They had distinct personalities and motivations that made it easy for people to find favorites among them.
For a fighting series, Yuu Yuu Hakusho has its fair share of light moments when the people aren’t trying to kill each other. It serves as a good balance to all the seriousness and fighting drama.
Of course, people shouldn’t be watching this with expectations that there would be deep and meaningful discussions on the value of life, the aspects of death, and the goodness of man, despite its supernatural inclinations and stuff about the Eastern afterlife. This is merely an anime series that is simple, good, clean, and fun to watch.
Art-wise, I’ve heard people complain about the art in the first few episodes, but rave about the great art when the series started picking up. I agree with them on the latter part, but disagree with the first. I think the art of the first episodes was appropriately goofy. (This was the time when Yusuke and his friends were still young and unfaced with the challenges of the spiritual realms.) I think that the more mature art style appropriately reflects the change in their perspectives after Yusuke came back to life and their fights became more serious.
Other than that, Yuu Yuu Hakusho’s art has been largely consistent and good, except for some episodes. This is best exemplified in the Toguro Tournament episodes with the detailed fights and action.
I’d be biased in talking about the soundtrack: I love it. Yuu Yuu Hakusho has some of the best ending songs around, with a good mix of different songs. My personal favorite is the ballad “Sayonara Byebye” with its moody music that seems to remind you of old friendships. The opening song is a catchy and powerful piece that sets up the “action anime” feel appropriately. I even like the recurring background music during fight scenes. It adds to the mood of the fights themselves and gets the excitement pumping.
Why do I keep recommending Yuu Yuu Hakusho? It was one of those series that just did things well. It had great characters, good plots, nice art, and catchy music. It didn’t drag like Dragonball Z. What more can you ask for?
Oh, right. Good consistent translation for the dubs. But that’s a problem in Philippine TV only. I certainly hope the other releases would not face the same problem.
On a very tangential aside: I still don’t get why people keep pairing up Kurama and Hiei.
Individual Rating: Art/Animation 7; Story 9; Characters 9; Sounds 8
Yuu Yuu Hakusho
