Yu Yu Hakusho (Anime Review)

So, continuing my newer series of anime reviews is one that I think is fairly underrated, Yu Yu Hakusho. I mean, a lot of people really like it and some people have even said it's their favourite anime ever. But, I don't think it's talked about enough. I really love Yu Yu Hakusho. I watched the whole series last year on YouTube and it was so good. I had heard about it from some people beforehand and I wanted to give it a shot, and I ended up loving it all. There are some problems with it, but, overall, it's amazing. Firstly, and this is something I feel I need to address, the manga of Yu Yu Hakusho was never released where I am. I mean, maybe it was before, but now I can't buy it anywhere. So, recently, I've been buying the volumes on Amazon and it's nice to have something like that in my anime and manga collection. And so, having it, it's cool to read it and look back on the story that I finished in terms of its anime. The manga of Yu Yu Hakusho started back in 1990 by Yoshihiro Togashi, who later went on to create Hunter X Hunter, around the time Dragon Ball was being made and something that kinda separates it from other manga is that it's really short. I was honestly really surprised to find out that there's only 19 volumes of it. So, the story focuses around a 14 year old named Yusuke Urameshi who's the biggest delinquent in his town, mainly due to having a neglectful mother, and, one day, after saving a kid from being run over, he finds himself being dead, but no one expected him to die and so, the underworld doesn't have a space for him. That's when he meets Botan who takes him to Koenma. They eventually manage to bring him back to life with the help of Yusuke's friend, Keiko. From there, Yusuke begins to fight demons as a Spirit Detective with his rival, Kuwabara. And they even manage to get two demons on their side, Hiei and Kurama. So, what I really love the most about the show is actually what I think a lot of people love Dragon Ball Z for, the overall layout of the story. I really love the pacing of the show and, unlike Dragon Ball Z, it never feels like the pacing is insanely slow, everything in the story just happens and it never sticks to something that long. Even the things it does stay at longer than others is really interesting. And the characters are a big help with how much I love the show. Out of all the characters, Hiei is favourite. He's by far the most interesting and awesome in my opinion. And the relationships that the characters have with each other makes it all the more fun to watch given how unique they all are. Usually in some cast in an anime, I can name some character that may not seem as relevant to the series as much as the others, but here, they're all so memorable and so unique that I can't say the same for this. I also did really care about the relationship between Yusuke and Keiko. Like, normally, I don't care that much about relationships in anime aside from a few, but the Yusuke and Keiko one is really well done because it's well written and I really like both characters. And I like how you can tell the animation is from the 90's, but it still feels really cool and gets unique and flashy in a lot of parts that it never gets distracting. The animation is also unique in the sense that it has some really impressive action scenes, some of the best from the 90's. And with the characters being unique, it helps with their fight scenes with their style of fighting. Like Yusuke's constant fist fights due to doing a bunch of street brawls as well as the Spirit Gun, or Kuwabara's attacks with his Spirit Sword. There's also Hiei's fights with his own sword along with his Jagan Eye and Dragon Of The Darkness Flame and then there's Kurama with his whip. Each fight feels awesome in that way because they all have different types of ways to fight. It's also really funny, some of the jokes in the series are laugh out loud funny, namely Yusuke's interactions with Koenma and Koenma's interaction with his assistant, Ogre. And there's also moments of really well earned emotion like with Genkai, Yusuke's mentor, who I already spoke about before and I still like because she's pretty different from other anime mentors who would be more loving or supportive. And while she does show that at time, she's a lot more of a harder mentor than others and she can act like a bigger jerk than Yusuke does. But she's still well written enough that she's still likeable, especially when we find out about her past with Toguro and then the emotional part with her comes when Toguro kills her. Given the relationship that Yusuke and Genkai had developed over the course of the series up until that point, it made it all the sadder. Speaking of which, that then leads to arguably the best part of the whole series, the Dark Tournament. As I said in my top 5 anime tournaments, this is definitely my favourite tournament in any anime. This arc has been praised by so many people and there's a good reason for that. So many amazing things happen in this and we get introduced to so many great characters. I love how it's presented with Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama and Genkai teaming up for it with Koenma, Ogre, Botan, Keiko, Yukina and Shizuru watching. And I love all the new characters it introduces, especially Chu, I really like him. And this is where a lot of the best action scenes in the series are. The fact that they also have it where it's a bunch of greedy businessmen makes it all the more frustrating when we see how the whole thing is being rigged against them. That's something that's what's really great about a lot of anime. If they're able to make us like the characters and have these odds be stacked against them, it makes it all the more satisfying when they're able to go against what the greedy people are hoping for and just make them suffer for it and even more tragic and frustrating  when they get something thrown against them that makes them lose with everyone else around them thriving on their loss. I also really liked the introduction of the Spirit Beast earlier in the story but then it's brought back with Yusuke's being this cute like bird like creature named Puu. And, yeah, I know it's used as a joke at first when they all make fun of Yusuke for it, but then, later on, it's used for pretty big emotion when Yusuke is trying to keep Genkai's power inside him and he uses his emotion to help Puu to help with that. And then, in my opinion, the absolute best part of the series comes afterwards, the final fight of the Dark Tournament with Yusuke vs. Toguro. Just about every second of this is awesome with some really amazing moments. And then the rest of the series is cool too. Not as good, but there are a lot of really great moments throughout. The next big arc is the Chapter Black arc where we get introduced to Sensui, who used to be a Spirit Detective until he saw people torturing demons for fun and he decided to go rogue and have demons invade Earth. And this story arc has a lot of really great moments throughout and some really awesome fight scenes like Yusuke against an evil doctor in a hospital. There are a few things about it that feel a tiny bit meandering, but there's a lot of really great moments as well like the Yusuke vs. Hiei rematch as well as Yusuke vs. Sensui in Demon World and we see Yusuke's demon transformation because of Raizen. I've rewatched that scene on YouTube a lot and it's a great moment. It even gives Puu a great moment when he transforms into some big dragon-like creature. But then, and this is where the series begins to have problems is the ending. The Three Kings arc is something I'm really mixed on. For one, I will say the start of it is really good with it having a good setup, but then it begins to feel a bit disappointing towards the very end. The main problem with it is that it ends way too fast. It just kinda starts and ends really fast. I like everything with Raizen, he was really cool, but then it just kinda leaves everything it was building up just to have it end. I understand it ended because Yoshihiro Togashi was feeling kinda stressed and tired about doing these publications so he wanted to end it, but that still means the story kinda suffers due to that ending and it not feeling very complete and feels like it's still missing a proper finale. But, the ending still has some great moments. Like, I like the fight between Yusuke and Yomi or Hiei's time with Mukuro. That stuff was pretty cool, but the rest mostly just feels like padding. So, yeah, the ending of the series is kinda disappointing, but, honestly, I can totally forgive that because the rest of the series is just really good. And, even still, the ending isn't bad necessarily, just a bit of a let down, it still has some good moments. And the acting and dubbing in this is amazing. This honestly made me notice Justin Cook more with his amazing performance as Yusuke and this is probably my favourite Chuck Huber role with his performance as Hiei. I was actually really surprised when I found out Christopher Sabat played Kuwabara. And, like I said, a lot of these characters are really likeable and really cool. Yusuke himself, despite being presented as a trash talking delinquent is still super likeable and really, really cool. Even Hiei, even though he's just like Vegeta, still has a lot of layers about him that makes him feel unique and awesome, and, like I said, he's definitely my favourite character in the series. So, yeah, I totally get a lot of people's love for the series and I still think this is an anime I don't think is talked about enough. Something else that makes it better than most anime is that there's little to no filler. There's hardly any filler at all. I love that fact. There are one or two filler episodes, but the rest, despite being 112 episodes, are all cannon and are part of the main plot. This may actually be my favourite anime from the 90's. And I mean anime that started and ended in the 90's so One Piece doesn't count. I like it more than Dragon Ball Z honestly. I just really love this series and I had a really great time watching it and I can't wait to watch it again. So, yeah, if you're a fan of anime, you should totally see this. I really love it and it's probably up there with some of my favourite anime ever. And so, everyone, that's my review for Yu Yu Haksho. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.