Smile Bomb! YuYu Hakusho time!

From left: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, Botan, Shizuru, Keiko, Yusuke's mom(?), and Koenma.

Running in a crowd
In a faceless town
I need to feel the touch of a friend.
In the countryside
I wander far and wide
The isolation gets me again

 Yusuke Urameshi is a boy who dies during the first episode of the show. How many shows or movies can claim something like that happened ?  Yuyu Hakusho, along with Dragonball Z essentially defined the tournament and training arc tropes, along with defining what is essential to be a popular series in Shonen Jump; Friendship, Struggle, and Victory. Yuyu Hakusho competed with DragonBall Z in the television and manga rankings, and near the end anime wise edged ahead. So this is obviously going to be an awesome fighting anime, especially since it comes from the golden age of Shonen Jump.

Yes, they are all really pretty, save Kuwabara.

     Yuyu Hakusho is the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a 14 year old delinquent who dies saving a boy from getting hit by a car. No one ever expected this to happen, so there was no place for him in the afterlife! So the grim reaper of this series, a pretty blue haired girl named Botan informs him that he can come back to life if he wants, but it takes Yusuke seeing his mother, his childhood friend (Keiko), and fellow street punk (Kuwabara) mourning his death for him to take the chance.

Thank you for waking me up!

    Yusuke meets with the second in command of spirit world, Koenma, a man with the body of a toddler, despite being hundreds of years old. After some hijinks (more if you read the manga) Yusuke returns to life; but at a price- he must become a spirit detective. Someone who solves cases for the spirit world. His first case; retrieving three spirit items stolen from Koenma's father's vault. With no training and a once per day attack, Yusuke is wholly overwhelmed, and our main cast takes form:

 

Yusuke Urameshi- The lead, an idiot delinquent who's great at fighting. Dies in the first episode, and returns to life a few episodes later. Can shoot spirit energy from his fists like bullets.

 

Kazuma Kuwabara- An idiot delinquent who loves scrapping with Yusuke, and has high levels of spiritual awareness. His weapon is a sword formed with spirit energy.

 

Hiei (Jaganashii?)- A Demon born to the ice maidens, a cursed child of the black flames. He wields a sword, can control Black Flames, and has a third eye implanted on his forehead that can track peopel long distances, and communicate with telepathy, among other things.

 

Kurama (Shuichi Minamino) - A power fox thief who escaped to human world to be born into the body of a human child. The most compassionate and intelligent of the crew, he controls nature and plants.

 

Keiko Yukimura- Yusuke's childhood friend, the only female to put up with his shit, and smack him down.

Botan- The grim reaper, provides Yusuke with support.

Koenma- The son of the lord of the underworld, cowardly and obsessed with food.

Yukina- Hiei's sister and an Ice Maiden, she can heal wounds and her tears create expensive crystals. Kuwabara is in love with her.

Genkai- Yusuke's master, and old bad ass.

    There are four main arcs to YuYu Hakusho:
Spirit Detective- Yusuke and the gang fight against one another, until circumstances bind them together. The end of this arc introduces Toguro, the main villian for the next arc.

Dark Tournament- The four leads, and Genkai in disguise fight in a tournament  with Toguro's team as the final boss. Yusuke finishes his training with Genkai and becomes the world's strongest person.

 Chapter Black- A video with the worst is humanity is recorded on it is stolen, and the viewer, a former detective, attempts to open a tunnel to demon world. Yusuke dies again at the end of this arc, and is reborn as a demon.

The Three kings- Yusuke, Hiei, and Kurama travel to demon world any align themselves with each of the three rulers of it. Yusuke's ancestor is dying from refusing to eat humans, and the power balance with shift when he dies. The arc concludes with a tournament to decide who will rule demon world, and the happy ending you want.

    What allows Yuyu Hakusho to stand above many a shonen series is that the characters are all unique, and have their own motivations. Hiei is driven to protect his sister, Yusuke loves to fight, Kurama wants to protect his mother, and Kuwabara is just along for the ride ( though he does have a man crush on Yusuke).The arcs are neatly divided, though this series isn't for everyone. Yuyu is also a great example of when an adaption surpasses it's source material. The manga was okay, with messy art, and a whimpering ending. The anime was great throughout, with a solid art style, and the conclusion you wanted the whole series. I loved the anime, and the manga was readable.

   Since everyone loves comparisons I shall compare it to Dragonball Z. Yuyu Hakusho is less than half the length of DragonBall Z, and tells an actual story with character development, and battles that are more than just save the world. Yusuke grows and matures, Kuwabara does one even better- he skips the last arc to study to get into a good high school.  Don't get me wrong, I love the DragonBall Z manga and DragonBall Kai, but that shit was plodding, and at times the battles would grind to a halt,since the source material was being written. The manga obviously doesn't have this problem, but Goku only grows stronger, nothing else.

   Yuyu Hakusho at 112 episodes stands as the best longer series I know of ( sorry Galactic Heroes), and includes one of anime's finest dubs, surpassing the Japanese audio. I initially watched this series on Toonami, before caving and buying the last two arcs on DVD, since the show was moved to a 5 a.m. death slot that no one knew of. If it had aired a few years early the show would have flourished, but I suppose that can't be helped. I discovered it and loved it.

Anime-10/10
Manga-6/10
Movies-3/10

Forever Fornever