Anime Review - Yu Yu Hakusho

[Erren]

Whether you've been a long-time anime fan,  or are just beginning to find interest in it, you're most likely to find one or more Shonen Jump shows interesting, whether its Dragon Ball, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Boku no Hero Academia, or today's topic - Yu Yu Hakusho. 

Yu Yu Hakusho tells the story of 14-Year-Old Sarayashiki Junior High School Student Yusuke Urameshi, a stereotypical trouble-making boy who dies within the first few minutes of the show's first episode (I do not kid around when I say this, either, he really does) after pushing a child out of the way of an oncoming car. We get our first of many flashbacks as to what happened hours or so earlier, where he shows up to school after missing ten days prior to these events. As the typical bad student, he's seen skipping on the rooftop of the school, only to have been caught by childhood friend and fellow classmate Keiko Yukimura, who lectures him about skipping - only to find him staring at her panties thereafter, and smacking him as a result. He's later kicked out for what a teacher saw as mugging another student when it was just him trying to get some facts cleared out from another student, who claimed that it was Urameshi's wallet that he stole. As he's leaving, he's met by Takenaka Sensei, who attempts to help him, but to no avail. Yusuke returns home, only to be belittled by his mother, Atsuko, and thus leaves to town as as result. Here, we meet one of my personal favorite characters, Kazuma Kuwabara, who challenges him to a fight, only to lose. As Yusuke continues on into the city, the child I mentioned earlier is seen playing around the road.. In an attempt to keep him away, he entertains the child by doing funny faces. The kid wanders into the street and is almost ran over before Yusuke pushes him out of the way, thus dying as a result of the car hitting him.

After this flashback, he's met by Botan, a cheerful, young woman who so happens to be a grim reaper for the Spirit Realm. She informs him that the boy was supposed to survive without scratch (for whatever reason, it's never brought up again,) and that Yusuke's interference wasn't needed. She explains that they have no place for him in the Spirit Realm, but are amazed that he saved the boy's life, even with his bad attitude record. He's given the chance to return to life, but declines, thinking things would be better off if he remained dead. During his wake, his mother has lost sense and has become distraught, as is Keiko, Kuwabara is angry that they couldn't finish their battle, Takenaka pays respects and says that Yusuke could have been a better person, and the child who was saved by Yusuke, along with his mother, asks if he could play with him again someday. Stunned and saddened, Yusuke changes his mind.

In the Spirit Realm, Yusuke's given an egg of a Spirit Beast by acting lord of the Spirit Realm, Koenma Jr., which will help him get back to life as long as he does things as a genuinely good person, otherwise, the Spirit Beast will become evil and devour him. In this adaptation, he only accomplishes two good things, different from the manga, where he helps a boy get over his dog's death, helps a girl get over her obsession of a boy so she can move on, and helps someone follow their dream of becoming a boxer. But since we're speaking about the anime, Yusuke helps Kuwabara by helping to keep one of his friend's job, and saves the life of Keiko who attempts to save his body. He throws the egg in which contained the Spirit Beast I mentioned earlier, which results in saving Keiko, and the egg (presumably) breaking. However, Koenma, seeing how Yusuke acted in order to save his childhood friend, decides to help him return to life. In a later episode, his body begins to glow as it means he's going to come back, and with Keiko kissing him on the lips (as weird as it sounds), he's revived before the time limit is reached (and thankfully he doesn't have to wait another 50 years to get revived). Sometime after his resurrection, he runs into someone possessed by a demon (who, for plot reasons, stole Kuwabara's cat), in which he captures. Botan was observing him, as orders from Koenma, to see if he would be qualified for a Spirit Detective job, and the story goes from there.

YYH is 112 episodes long, with the longest arc being the Shadow Tournament Arc. The shortest arc is actually the first one, the Artifact Recovery arc, which introduces us to the other two protagonists, Kurama, a red-haired Junior High student who steals one of the artifacts to save his human mother's life, and Hiei, a male demon born in the Land of Glaciers, who planned to turn others into demons, starting with Keiko.  Each episode spans for about 20 minutes each, and can eat up a lot of free time. However, if you REALLY want to get into this, go for it. I feel as if its an underappreciated gem that has a compelling story and knows how to build characters. I say it's a must watch. And plus, the theme song is really amazing (the Japanese version, in my opinion). Seriously, listen to it. 

 

Have any opinions? Know anything else that I should watch? Let me know, and I'll take it into consideration. Thank you.

[Slumber]

My favorite shounen series, and it might be the only one where I enjoy the dub over the sub. There's so much dead air in the sub, and it loses some of the tone of the original manga. The dub is much snappier and does a better job at translating the original text.

I'm sure you've already heard, but if not, Hunter X Hunter's a good follow up to YYH. It's made by the same dude, and a lot of people think it's even better than YYH. I think it's incredible, but not quite on the same level.

[Karimlan]

Best Villain in the entire series is a toss-up between the younger Toguro or Sensui Shinobu.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I would say it is a great series that somewhat outlived its welcome. Namely, it goes really strong until after the end of the Shadow Tournament Arc, and everything after that is unnecessary and actually manages to lower the overall quality. Despite this, it's one that I remember fondly, and especially liked battles involving Hiei or Kurama.

 

But I do generally feel that anime should not go beyond 100 episodes without a damn good narrative reason to do so. Otherwise, you get canned mediocrity like Bleach (cough and Dragonball Z cough).

Edited February 18, 2019 by Etheus

[NobodiePichu]

42 minutes ago, Etheus said:

I would say it is a great series that somewhat outlived its welcome. Namely, it goes really strong until after the end of the Shadow Tournament Arc, and everything after that is unnecessary and actually manages to lower the overall quality. Despite this, it's one that I remember fondly, and especially liked battles involving Hiei or Kurama.

 

But I do generally feel that anime should not go beyond 100 episodes without a damn good narrative reason to do so. Otherwise, you get canned mediocrity like Bleach (cough and Dragonball Z cough).

 

the dark tournament is pretty good in terms of being a tournament arc, but the chapter black saga is waaaay better in terms of story content and character. the demon election tournament is when the show starts to peter out though but thankfully its the tail end of the show and doesnt overstay its welcome.

A++ quality show, and the dub is fantastic. wish more dubs would make english track versions of anime openings cause that shit was the jam.

[Kaze's favourite pillow]

Pretty much amazing. Each villain is memorable, no matter how minor they are.

The anime has a nice pacing, not going too slow but allows the characters to be real people instead of puppets put there just to punch each other. it is amusing to see certain demons plays card games or telling what they likes to drink the most. Minor detail but some pieces of realism makes a character feel closer to the audicence.

My favorite good guys are: Kuwabara and Genkai

My favorite bad guys are: Suzaku, Karasu, Sensui and Yomi

Sadly isn't without its flaws. The last arc was rushed and a certain character almost always takes the final shot. Also the anime misses the very final arc, read the manga to know the true ending.

[eclipse]

Entertainment is thataway.