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alt title(s): Yuu Yuu Hakusho 
This boy's name is Yusuke. He's 14 years old, and is supposed to be the hero of our story... but oddly enough, he's dead.
Originally a manga by Yoshihiro Togashi, Yu Yu Hakusho tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a bitter, beleaguered junior high punk. One particularly bad day gets worse for Yusuke after he dies saving the life of a small boy, only to discover that the forces of the Spirit World were expecting the boy to miraculously survive anyway. The good news is, as thanks for Yusuke's totally unexpected (if ultimately useless) heroic deed, they're giving him the chance to return to life.
After much tribulation, Yusuke does manage to return to life, only to learn that Koenma, the snarky son of King Enma (judge of the dead in Buddhist mythology) and part-time stand-in for his father, wants to recruit Yusuke as a Spirit Detective, hunting down renegade demons who threaten peace on Earth. With much reluctance, Yusuke takes on the job, and finds himself facing all manner of supernatural baddies. Lucky for him, he has the help of Botan, a cute and perky female shinigami (a sort of "angel of death" or " Grim Reaper") who serves as Yusuke's case manager during his "near-death experience" and as his personal assistant when he becomes a Spirit Detective, as well as his trainer Genkai, a short, crotchety old woman who nevertheless is a highly capable martial artist. He's also got some more than capable fighting partners in the form of Kazuma Kuwabara, his old school rival; Kurama, a benevolent reformed fox-spirit trapped in a human body; and Hiei, a not-so benevolent, not -so-reformed demon who reluctantly tags along with Yusuke and his entourage as part of his sentence.
Yu Yu Hakusho is a classic, excellent fighting anime. It has colorful characters, lots of humor and VERY clever fights. It wasn't as popular in the States as other series, mainly because of misleading marketing (it was being marketed as "the next Dragonball", an obvious disservice to it). However, its fans are VERY hardcore, and its influence on other anime series in Japan is undeniable ( Bleach owes a LOT to it).
This show provides examples of:
- The Abridged Series (Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged)
- Action Girl (Genkai, Mukuro, Natsume)
- Adaptation Expansion (The last manga arc was unexpectedly cut short due to Executive Meddling. The anime season revised the loose ends left in the manga through more fights and Character Development.)
- Affably Evil (Sakyo. Hardly evil at all from what we see see, actually.)
- Except that flashback where he talks about his job in a pet store. -_- And the whole "life is boring so I want to unleash lots of demons on the world" bit.
- Aloof Big Brother (Kurama and Hiei to Yukina.)
- Aloof Ally (Kurama and Hiei.)
- Antagonist In Mourning (Happens TWICE).
- Anti Hero (Yusuke)
- And I Must Scream Kurama's punishment of Elder Toguro. He totally deserved it too.
- Armor Piercing Slap (Keiko's usual punishment for Yusuke acting up.)
- Artifact Of Death The forlorn hope can grant the user a wish, but at the cost of their life.
- Back To Back Badasses (Kurama and Hiei in the Short Anime Movie)
- Badass (Pretty much almost every fighter in the series)
- Badass Crew (The four main characters.)
- Badass Grandma (Genkai.)
- Batman Gambit ( The reason Sensui set it up so that the tunnel to Makai would be opened, and the events that came afterwards, is so that he could die in Makai at the hands of a powerful demon, since it would be nobler than to die of the terminal illness he already had. Said strong demon happened to be Yusuke, possessed by the spirit of his ancestor, Raizen.)
- This is also Kurama's modus operandi of choice.
- Battle Aura
- Beam O War (Yusuke and Rando's Rei/Spirit Gun colliding with each other, Yusuke's Rei/Spirit Gun colliding with Chu's Suiken yoki orbs twice, Yusuke's full power Rei/Spirit Gun being canceled out by Sensui's puny yet just as powerful Resshuu Kou Kyu Ha)
- Beam Spam (Yusuke against Yomi, firing his near infinite amount of Yo/Demon Gun at Yomi's Demon Energy Barrier before finally breaking the barrier with Yin Yang Bomb shots).
- His Shotgun attack counts too.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension (Yusuke and Keiko)
- Better On DVD (After Cartoon Network moved the series from Adult Swim to Toonami, they aired a Bowdlerised dub. Thankfully, they still sold the uncut dub alongside the on-air one.)
- Beware The Nice Ones: (It's generally not a good idea to get Kurama mad. And while Kurama acts nicest, Kuwabara is probably the friendliest in the group, and he's not to be trifled with, either, if you don't want a Jigen-tou through your chest...)
- Sensui's main personality, Shinobu, is also fairly nice, even respectfully talking to Yusuke as if they were having tea and crumpets together. Just make sure you shake his hand when he asks you to.
- Beyond The Impossible (Many, MANY times.)
- BFG (Yusuke's Rei/Spirit Gun)
- Bishonen (Kurama, Koenma's human form, Karasu, Itsuki, younger Sensui, etc.)
- Bishonen Line (Sensui manifesting his Seikoki (Sacred Energy) into a Powered Armor.)
- Bland Name Product ("Megallica" and "Narlboro," at least.)
- Blondes Are Evil (Karasu once his Power Limiter slips. Plenty of Dragonball Z jokes involved too.)
- Bloody Murder (Mitarai's and Gama's powers.)
- Blood From The Mouth (Why hasn't this put here yet!? The Dark Tournament is loaded with it.
- Blue Bishonen Ghetto (The central Nakama's gender ratio is pretty much 50/50—somewhat skewed by Atsuko and George Saotome, though—but the only girls who really get any spotlight and character development are Genkai and Mukuro. The others have their moments, but the guys are pretty much the focus of the show. There aren't many female villains, either.)
- Board To Death (What happens during the Dark Tournament when Sakyo reveals his plan to open a gateway to the Spirit World to the rest of the Black Book Club, and then has Toguro kill them when they object.)
- Body Horror: Elder Toguro
- Boisterous Bruiser (Chu and Jin are the best examples, though Kuwabara counts as well)
- Boring Invincible Hero (Averted. Yusuke's victory is almost NEVER a forgone conclusion, and he's always pushed to the limits of his ability. He actually DIES fighting Sensui, and he also loses early in the Demon World Tournament to Yomi.
- Bottle Fairy (Atsuko.)
- Bound And Gagged (Kuwabara, when Sensui captures him to use his Jigen-tou.)
- Bowdlerise (Mukuro's back story: went from being her father's sex slave who disfigured herself so that he wouldn't want to touch her, in the manga, to being an already-cybernetic slave who couldn't remove the shackles from her arms even after she escaped. Still badass either way.)
- Breakfast Club (Sensui's Seven.)
- Breaking The Fourth Wall - In the manga, characters verbally refer to previous chapters and their appearance rates.
- Broken Bird ( Mukuro.)
- Brown Note (Chapter Black.)
- Bury Your Gays (Subverted: yes, Sensui (Killed Off For Real) and Itsuki (implied to at the end of the arc) die, but it's more of a Redemption Equals Death scenario. Plus Itsuki, being who he is, tells off Team Urameshi (prompting a moment of Not So Different and/or Sympathy For The Devil) before he takes Sensui's corpse and spirit into his own little dimension to spend eternity with him. Because the antagonists got what they wanted all along, Yusuke and Co. feel as if they're the ones who have lost.)
- Bus Crash (Murota. He's also a literal Mauve Shirt, so it's understandable if you have no clue who he is...)
- He gets eaten, goddamnit. That isn't cool.
- Butt Monkey (George)
- Byronic Hero: Hiei. His backstory screams this out.
- Calling Your Attacks (Spirit Gun!)
- Can Not Spit It Out (Subverted, of all couples, by Yusuke and Keiko! According to Keiko's dad, Yusuke's favorite way to make up with Keiko after a fight is to propose marriage.)
- Canon Foreigner (George Saotome)
- Cant Catch Up (Even Yusuke suffers this after the Dark Tournament.)
- Cat Smile (Botan, a few times.)
- Celestial Bureaucracy (Koenma and Enma.)
- Cerebus Syndrome The manga starts out as an episodic comedy about Yuusuke and Botan as ghosts, trying to help the living with their problems. After a couple of volumes of this, it abruptly shifts into shonen action mode. This gets far fewer complaints from fans than many Cerebus Syndrome victims, however, because most fans know the series from the anime adaption, which skips the comedy stories from the manga and rushes ahead to the action portion.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Hiei leaves the rest of the team during the Chapter Black arc, claiming he has no loyalty to the human world. Yusuke assures everyone else that "he'll come and rescue us in the end when we need him the most". He does.
- Character Magnetic Team
- Charles Atlas Superpower
- The Chessmaster (Kurama. Very much so.)
- Circles Of Hell
- Clark Kenting (The "mysterious" masked fighter that comes to the Dark Tournament as the gang's fifth member is obviously Genkai, even wearing the same robes as her and having her characteristically short stature. Despite this, nobody notices until unmasking time comes.
- Sort of. Kuwabara flat-out asks Yusuke if Mask is Genkai, and Yusuke pretty much tells him "That's what I thought, but s/he said no." Kuwabara is pretty firm in thinking this, until the mask gets ripped and young!Genkai is shown beneath it. Genkai's fighting style has the body's cells rejuvenated to the time they were strongest when it's used. It's... really something of a Double Subversion.
- Clear My Name (After coming back to school, Yusuke was framed by one of teachers in hopes getting him expelled. This was quickly cleared up after Yusuke received his first case.)
- Clothing Damage (Yusuke pretty much loses his upper top clothing in almost all of his major fights.)
- Taken to it's logical extreme in his fight against Yomi, where after taking a volley of energy blasts, his shirt explodes off his body. Not a fiery one, mind you, but still.
- Why is Hiei not on here already? His shirt usually is either ripped off or thrown off in the first five seconds of battle.
- Coming Of Age Story (The ending to the second-to-last episode and essentially the main point to the whole Three Kings Arc is this, as Jorge/the Narrator so explains. Supposedly, now that Yusuke is done kicking ass in Demon World, his next adventure is to allow himself to "grow up". There are also other sprinklings and hints of the "coming of age" theme throughout the series. Though mainly adhering to Yusuke, this applies to Kuwabara and Keiko as well, and arguably to Kurama/Suichi.)
- Complete Monster (Elder Toguro)
- Containment Field (The Kekkai barrier is used separate the Human World from the Demon World. Unfortunately this Containment Field only sort of acts like a net to only filter and keep out A and S Class ranked Demons.)
- Cool Big Sis (Shizuru. Atsuko acts more like this than your average mother, as well.)
- Corrupt Corporate Executive (Sakyou and the Black Black Club.)
- Curb Stomp Battle (The first time Hiei fights on the good guys' side, he slashes up the guy he pissed him off before his opponent could even start to attack)
- How about when Bakken beats the absolute shit out of an unconcious/already badly injured Kurama? And this one's followed when Yusuke goes on to Curb Stomp Bakken in response.
- Sensui vs. Yusuke (round one, anyway) and then Sensui when he proceeds to kick the COLLECTIVE asses of Youko Kurama, Hiei AND Kuwabara
- How about when Yusuke, after awakening his demon half, kicks the ever loving piss out of Sensui?
- Counter Attack (Sensui's Reshuuken fight style)
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome - Each of the main characters, including the Big Bads, get them. Kuwabara alone has at least nine.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique (The Spirit Wave)
- Dark Is Not Evil - ( At worst, most demons play pranks on humans.)
- Deadly Doctor (Minoru Kamiya.)
- Deadpan Snarker (Kurama, partly due to the fact that his true form is Really Seven Hundred Years Old and a White Haired Pretty Boy to boot, and Hiei in a more openly mocking and sarcastic way. Also Koenma, especially in his adult form, and Yusuke on occasion.)
- Dead Sidekick (Played with during the Dark Tournament arc, where Yusuke's friends exploit the trope by faking Kuwabara's death at the hands of Toguro, so that Yusuke's anger and grief will give him the power needed to defeat Toguro.)
- Dead To Begin With
Narrator: This is our hero, Yusuke Urameshi. There's only one problem. He's dead.
- Death Seeker ( Toguro and Sensui.)
- Defeat Means Friendship (Played straight and subverted.)
- Deflector Shields (Yomi's Demon Energy Barrier)
- Delinquents (Yusuke and Kuwabara.)
- Depraved Homosexual (Subverted, played around with, possibly averted and inverted with Sensui.) Played straight with Karasu.
- The Determinator: Kuwabara, to the max. The guy JUST WILL NOT QUIT. Especially if Yukina's involved somehow.
- Disability Superpower (Yomi.)
- Does This Remind You Of Anything: Goki's soul-eating tastes (that of little children) is rather close to the edge of pedophilia.
- Drunken Master (Chu. AND HOW.)
- In the uncut version, yes. In Cartoon Network's version, Chu is a lot like Monterey Jack from "Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers" (minus the cheese addiction) — a boisterous Australian who's a bit of a goofball, but is also a badass.
- Earn Your Happy Ending (and how)
- Empathy Pet (Puu.)
- Ensemble Darkhorse - Oddly enough, the second judge during the Dark Tournament saga, Juri, proved to be a decently popular character despite only being in the show for the last quarter of that arc.
- Not to mention Chu and Jin, two characters who remain popular despite comparatively little screentime.
- And of course there's Hiei and Kurama, the two most popular members of the Nakama.
- Esoteric Motifs (The Artifacts of Darkness, a Mirror, Sword, and Jewel.)
- Estrogen Brigade Bait (Yusuke, Hiei and Kuwabara all qualify to one degree or another; but the one that really takes the cake is Kurama for a variety of reasons.)
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas (Kurama's relationship with his human mother, Shiori, is what turned him into a decent person.)
- Even Evil Has Standards (Toguro refuses his elder brother's offer for assistance prior to his match with Yusuke in the Dark Tournament finals, right before smacking the crap out of him. When elder Toguro gets angry and remarks that they sold their souls together, younger Toguro responds, "That may be. But I never sold my standards".)
- Earlier, he openly condemned Botajiri's attempts to rig the match against Team Masho. He specifically wanted Yusuke to level up and give him a good challenge, he didn't care if he died before that fight but Yusuke didn't want him out of the tournament based on a technicality.
- Even The Guys Want Him (Kurama and Hiei always being the series most popular characters)
- Yusuke's pretty much neck-deep in Foe Yay with all of his male enemies.
- Evil Counterpart (Sensui, who's also a Nietzsche Wannabe, a Fallen Hero, and a Dark Messiah...along with being Dangerously Genre Savvy.)
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good (When Yusuke fights Sensui, jumps in the lake to prove he can't predict his moves, and ends up giving him an epic beatdown by wrapping his wet T-shirt around Sensui's arm to block his Ki Attacks. Or so it seems. Damn Split Personality.)
- Excited Episode Title (Including Excited Chapter titles in the manga, where Volume 9, for instance, was composed entirely of titles that ended in 3 exclamation points)
- Extremity Extremist (The fighting style of the Evil Counterpart listed above.)
- Eyes Of Gold (Kurama may look like a red-haired, green-eyed young man in his human form, but as soon as he drops the human disguise and turns into his real White Haired Pretty Boy demonic form his eyes change to this color. Itsuki also has this type of eyes and they are a hint that he isn't exactly a human psychic. Elder Toguro has them too.)
- Face Death With Dignity (Sakyou)
- Face Heel Turn ( Toguro-otouto and Sensui.)
- Facial Markings (Sensui's bindi; Yusuke's tattoos in his demon form, along with longer hair.)
- Fate Worse Than Death ( Elder Toguro, forever bound to the branches of a tree that saps him of his Life Energy and tortured with Kurama-related hallucinations. The demon who blinded Yomi spent 500 years painfully nailed to a wall of Yomi's palace.)
- Fan Service (Ruka oh my god Ruka!<3)
- Fetish Fuel (Like you WOULDN'T BELIEVE. See the Bound and Gagged above. Also as much male-eroguro-themed stuff (such as Karasu's obsession with killing the ones he loves, and Sensui's Kazuya personality) as they can show in a shounen anime. Oh, and the bishies. Can't forget about the bishies.)
- I think Ruka has created a new fetish for cord-bikinis, if not then she certainly created a new interest for red-heads AND nurses for this troper in his middle school years.
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant (Kurama. Wanna know why? Well, let's run off the check list: Bishonen who happens to be a lot older then he looks, Bad Ass, Red Wild Hair, Green Thumb, Green Eyes, likes roses, mama's boy, White Haired Pretty Boy Demonic Form complete with Eyes Of Gold, usually very polite, intelligent and witty, half the time wears a pink school uniform and last- but certainly not least-his main weapon is a whip. Oh, we can't forget that male stalker too. Small surprise Kurama has sent many a fan girl's mind crash diving into the gutter.)
- Filler Villain (Yakumo)
- First Episode Resurrection
- Five Man Band
- Flexible Tourney Rules Boy, are they ever—and intentionally. The Dark Tournament is done as a commercial gig, so teams are allowed to negotiate their own rules and conditions for a match, which adds some variety to the proceedings and makes for a better show.
- Flight (Sensui's Seikoki (Sacred Energy) allows him to fly an angel, which is also why he's also called "Black Angel".)
- Floating Continent (The Koorime's island.)
- Foe Yay (Yusuke and every single main villain; Karasu and Kurama.)
- The Four Gods (The Four Saint Beasts are based on them.)
- Four Is Death
- Friend To All Living Things (Yukina, except in regards to the rest of the Ice Maidens, but it's arguable whether their continued existence counts as "living.")
- Friendly Target (Averted and taken advantage of.)
- From A Single Cell (Elder Toguro.)
- Glowing Eyes Of Doom
- Good Hair Evil Hair (Kuwabara and Yusuke's pompadours signify their delinquent anti-hero status; Sensui's slicked-back hair clues us in to his Face Heel Turn and the fact he's the Big Bad of that arc.)
- Averted with Younger Toguro and his pompadour.
- Good Is Not Nice (Dear Crystal Dragon Jesus, Yusuke and Hiei are assholes. Kurama is the same way, but more outwardly pleasant and more subtle with his snarking. Kuwabara is a nice guy, though.)
- Good Scars Evil Scars (Subverted: Sensui's scars are multiple, as you'd expect of a villain; however, they are entirely covered by his shirt, as you'd expect of a good guy (because he used to be one). Itsuki becomes scarred over his eye from taking Kuwabara's Rei-ken: a simple heroic scar. Mukuro's scars are also "bad guy" scars that cover half of her body; however, seeing as how she got them (by pouring acid over herself to prevent her "father" from raping her as a child), as well as her usual hiding of them, makes them "good guy" markings...)
- Green Thumb (Kurama's abilities.)
- Growing The Beard (Either with the Dark Tournament or Chapter Black arc, depending on who you ask.)
- Considering how often the series changed genre, it probably grew stubble and shaved multiple times.
- The dub version was Growing The Beard for FUNimation, who worried some fans because of the massive changes seen in Dragonball Z. Using experienced voice actors and making minimal changes to the script are the best way of appealing to an audience (even the casual fan can tell when a script is heavily altered).
- The Grim Reaper (Botan.)
- Head Pet (Puu.)
- Healing Hands (Genkai and Botan, but mostly Yukina.)
- Heel Face Turn (Kurama, Hiei, Chuu, Rinku, Jin, Touya, Suzuki, Shishiwakamaru, etc.)
- Heroic BSOD (During the Dark Tournament final round, where Toguro pretends to kill Kuwabara in order to bring Yusuke's Power Level to his own level becoming a Worthy Opponent Interesting though at this time, his Battle Aura becomes the polar opposite of Toguro's own Battle Aura which killed well over a quarter of the stadium's spectators.)
- Heroic Resolve
- Heroic Sacrifice (Subverted and played straight multiple times.)
- Hey Its That Voice (Being the second major FUNimation dub, it shares many voices from Dragonball Z. Botan is ChiChi with a British accent, Hiei is a significantly more badass version of Emperor Pilaf/Android 17 and Genkai is a more feminine and less androgynous version of Frieza.)
- According to one of the commentary tracks, this was a huge problem for the casting committee: the sheer number of characters in DBZ meant that pretty much everyone had already used up their "hero" voices, so they had to dig pretty far back into the well to keep from being a total clone. They finally told the line producer, Justin Cook, to read for Yusuke, as he'd only ever had bit parts on DBZ.
- Christopher Sabat makes a completely unique voice for Kuwabara, which grows on you after a while.
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel (A lot of occurences during the story are quite dark and nightmarish, such as some of the exploits of Sakyou and Elder Toguro.)
- Homoerotic Dream (When Yuusuke is trying to come back from the dead, but needs someone to kiss him in order to transfer a spark of life energy to "jump start" him, Kuwabara gets a dream in which he does just that.)
- Honest Advisor (Genkai to Yusuke, and Kurama to everyone, but mostly Hiei)
- Ho Yay (Tons. Yu Yu is the granddaddy of shounen series using this trope to grab at the female demographic, and that's not even mentioning the canon gay couple. Not to mention Yusuke is neck-deep in Foe Yay at times. And let's not even start with Hiei and Kurama...)
- Huge Guy Tiny Girl (Kuwabara and Yukina; Younger Toguro and Genkai 50 years ago, Enki and Koko.)
- Humans Are Bastards (Sensui is very hung up over this.)
- I Know Mortal Kombat (Game Master/Amanuma, in the most literal way possible.)
- I Am Your Opponent (Pretty much how almost every one on one fight is setup.)
- Idiot Hero (Yusuke. He's basically a smartass version of Goku.)
- Image Song (Lots of them on the CDs. Each of the four main characters has around three or four songs by themselves, at least one song with other characters and most everyone else has at least one song by themselves.)
- Impaled With Extreme Prejudice (Happens in the movie as a Karmic Death.)
- Instant Armor (Risho the demon-ninja used his power of rocks like this during the Dark Tournament. Sensui's Holy Light armor also qualifies.)
- Interspecies Romance (Kuwabara/Yukina, Sensui/Itsuki, Raizen/Lady Doctor, and, if you really want to stretch it for a technical half-breed or hybrid, Yusuke/Keiko.)
- Invoked Trope - Toguro invokes Dead Sidekick on Yusuke, and Kuwabara appears to invoke Heroic Sacrifice, but really went for Disney Death. Subverted later, when Yusuke tries to pull a Heroic Sacrifice in order to inspire a My Name Is Inigo Montoya out of Kuwabara and the others—which isn't enough to defeat Sensui.
- Ironic Echo: In the Dark Tournament Arc, Kurama gets into a fight with a demonic bomber named Karasu. Early on in the fight Karasu seems to have the upperhand and as a result mimics putting a pistol to his head and saying bang, indicating to Kurama that he should just simply shoot himself rather then continue fighting Karasu. About ten seconds later Kurama transforms into his much more powerful White Haired Pretty Boy true form and suddenly it's Karasu whose on the ropes. Guess what gesture Kurama decides to make at this time.
- Isnt It Sad (Atsuko.)
- I Was Quite A Looker: Genkai.
- James Bondage (Happens to both Yusuke and Kuwabara. In the latter case... well, see Bound And Gagged.)
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold (Yusuke and Kuwabara.)
- Keet (Deconstructed with Mitarai/Seaman: In the beginning, he's very angsty because he got bullied in school a lot, possibly because of his feminine looks. He also has the power to make monsters he controls by letting a few drops of his blood into some water. He saw the Chapter Black tape, and went mad with revenge against humanity. However, after Kuwabara helped him after he was injured by one of his own monsters, or rather, Kuwabara's slicing of said monster, he did a Mook Face Turn. Also could be considered The Woobie.)
- Kick Them While They Are Down (Though, Kurama wasn't technically down.)
- Kill All Humans (Sensui- subverted because he is a human, among other reasons.)
- Kiss Of Life (Or, Kiss Of Transferred Life Energy, to facilitate the resurrection.)
- Large Ham: Kuwabara.
- Laser Blade (Kuwabara's Spirit Sword. Although it is technically made out of his ki, it still greatly resembles and even sounds like a real Laser Blade)
- Light Is Not Good (The reports of demon attacks were not only greatly exaggerated, they were setup.)
- Load Bearing Hero
- Love Redeems ( Raizen and his love for the lady doctor.)
- Made Of Iron (Gouki almost literally claiming his skin is as hard as steel)
- Magnificent Bastard (Several of the villains, particularly Sakyou and Sensui, and Kurama, despite being a technical good guy, occasionally shows aspects of this.)
- Magnificent Seven (Subverted and inverted with Sensui's group and, arguably, Sensui's own personalities.)
- The Man Behind The Man (In the manga, King Enma is responsible for just about everything, in the name of keeping his public image as powerful as possible - after all, Team Urameshi work for him, so if they take out a criminal he can take credit for it.)
- Meaningful Name ("Urameshi" is what Japanese ghosts who are haunting a house wail; "Kuwabara kuwabara" is a charm against ghosts; "Kurama" and "Hiei" are Japanese mountains said to be sites of demon activity; all of the ferry girls have names associated with flowers and plants ("Botan"=peony; "Ayame"=iris; "Hinageshi"="poppy".) this plant naming even goes for Sensui (whose name is a kanji anagram of "suisen", "daffodil") and Itsuki ("flowering tree"), perhaps to note the severity of their Face Heel Turn.)
- Meddling Parents (Raizen when he possesses Yusuke during his final fight with Sensui.)
- Megumi Hayashibara (Young Genkai, also sang her Image Song.)
- Monstrosity Equals Weakness (All over the place. Generally, humanoid enemies are real threats, while more monstrous ones are just cannon fodder)
- Muggle (Anyone without any or high enough spiritual awareness or sixth sense.)
- Multi Armed And Dangerous (Itsuki and his shadow hands.)
- Muscles Are Meaningless (Played straight and subverted; Kurama and Genkai possess enormous strength but both are fairly thin, while each time Toguro powers up, his musculature increases, and each of his common levels—20%, 30%, 45%, 60%, 80%—give him a relatively identifiable build.
- Mr Exposition (Kurama and Hiei, sometimes Genkai or Koenma.)
- My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours
- Mysterious Ancestor (Raizen)
- Narm Charm (The Beautiful. Suzuka. Just watch episode 50. Watching an old lady royally kick a gay clown's ass all over the place with nothing but her bare hands is pretty damn hilarious) Suzuka's antics along with Genkai's responses to them are really what makes it work.
- Nightmare Fuel (There's something nightmarish about being shrunken to the size of an action figure, and getting crushed half to death by a gleefully grinning kid the demon Rando in disguise.
- Nineties Anti Hero (Yusuke, in spades. Yu Yu Hakusho has been called "Dragonball Z for people who found Son Goku too nice." Hiei should go without saying)
- Noble Demon (Hiei.)
- Normally I Would Be Dead Now (Kuwabara's fight against Rishu. He's tapping into his life energy just to be able to stand.)
- Odd Friendship (Kuwabara and Hiei. Hiei constantly belittles how much of a dumbass Kuwabara is while Kuwabara keeps up with the short jokes. Kurama even jokes about how one day they might even become In-Laws.)
- Oddly Small Organization (The underworld's cleanup squad for when things go wrong consists of one detective and any friends he might make along the way. Though this is rendered a bit moot by the manga's ending, where it was revealed that Yusuke might not have been needed as badly as we originally thought.)
- Oh Crap: Pretty much any time Toguro shows up is an "Oh crap!" moment.
- Old Master (Genkai.)
- One Gender Race (The Koorime.)
- One Winged Angel (Younger Toguro especially when he reaches 120%!!! and subverted with Sensui who conveniently was also nicknamed "Black Angel".)
- The Only One Allowed To Defeat You - Kuwabara proclaims this in the very first chapter of the manga, and continues too for several arcs.
- Oral Fixation Fixation (Koenma's pacifier, not so out of place in his infant form, but much more noticeable in his older and more Bishounen guise. Apparently, several centuries of soaking in a junior god's essence also makes it a fairly potent magical object.)
- On The Next Episode Of Catch Phrase: Yusuke's "The other world's not watching for nothing!" which can only be heard in every Japanese voiced previews with subs. This is also his victory line in many Yu Yu Hakusho video games.
- Opt Out: Kuwabara didn't participate in the final arc, instead deciding to focus on his academics.
- Orifice Evacuation (Jiaki, the first demon Yusuke caught.)
- Our Demons Are Different
- Our Hero Is Dead (The very first freaken episode! Yusuke during his fight with Sensui. Turns out he's part demon.
- Out Gambitted (Roto)
- Overshadowed By Awesome (Kuwabara, although he does develop some techniques that keep him useful despite his lack of power later in the series.)
- Parental Abandonment
- Personality Powers (The psychics after the tunnel to Makai is opened.)
- Petting Zoo People (Yoko Kurama, the two announcers in the Dark Tournament arc and a few others.)
- The Philosopher (Itsuki; Sensui's Minoru personality.)
- Pint Sized Powerhouse (Hiei and Genkai.)
- Post Historical Trauma (The Black Chapter videotape.)
- Power Limiter (Younger Toguro's percentage strength, Karasu's mask, Bui's armor, Hiei's binding bandages on his right arm, Yusuke's Spirit Cuffs, Sensui's personalities, etc.)
- The Power Of Love (Rather hilariously referenced here
 , when a half-dead Kuwabara went straight from being owned to knocking the other guy halfway out of the stadium with one punch)
- Precision F Strike (Kurama drops one right before subjecting Elder Togero to a Fate Worse Than Death)
- Psychic Static (Yusuke does this to Murota.)
- Psycho For Hire (Karasu, among others that could be argued for.)
- The Psycho Rangers (Team Yusuke vs. Team Toguro)
- Yusuke - Younger Toguro (Team leader, well balanced)
- Kuwabara - Elder Toguro (Closest to the Leader, versatile abilities)
- Kurama - Karasu (Intelligent and precision fighters)
- Hiei - Bui (Brute force fighters)
- Psycho Supporter (Itsuki.) (Happiness In Slavery, Subordinate Excuse, and Mad Love also apply to him.)
- Random Power Ranking (The classifications for power go from D, C, B, A, S and later SS and beyond.)
- Rasputinian Death (Byakko.)
- Real Men Wear Pink: Kurama doesn't look all that impressive at first glance. After all, he is an effeminate-looking red-haired pretty-boy that half the time wears a pink school uniform; is something of a mama's boy; and he has this thing for roses to boot. Guess which character is the biggest Badass on the Five Man Band (to the point Hiei is scared of him), rakes up the highest on-screen body count and regularly delivers beat-downs of epic proportions to anyone who pisses him off.
- Really Big Gun (Yusuke's Spirit/Rei Gun)
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old (Koenma, who in fact is precisely seven hundred years old, also Kurama in his true form.)
- Red Headed Hero: (Yusuke's little group has got two red heads on it: Kuwabara and Kurama. Kuwabara is blondish-red while Kurama has dark crimson hair (most of the time.))
- Red Oni Blue Oni
- Red Stringof Fate
- Retired Badass (Genkai and Kuroko.)
- The Rival (Kuwabara, Hiei and Kurama.)
- Rock Paper Scissors (First appears as one of Genkai's test, and after that, happens with Kuwabara throughout the series.)
- Samus Is A Girl (Mukuro.)
- Secret Test Of Character (Partially subverted; when Yusuke is faced with the dilemma of killing his mentor to learn her ultimate technique he refuses, but not immediately. Good thing, too, because if he had refused without hesitating, he would have failed the test as it would have indicated a lack of desire to get stronger.)
- And early in the series when Keiko is caught in a fire, he was told that he could sacrifice the energy he was collecting in his spirit egg (the means by which he could return to life) in order to lead her to safety. He did so without hesitation, which impressed Koenma so much that he offered Yusuke another chance to return to life. Of course, he also had plans to make Yusuke the next Spirit Detective.
- Sempai Kohai (Yusuke was being sarcastic when he called post-Face Heel Turn Sensui 'sempai,' but he's notably more respectful to happily retired Kuroko Sanada than he is to anyone, ever.)
- Shirtless Scene (Too many to count, with both protagonists and antagonists. However, Kurama, the most popular Bishounen, doesn't have any of these...)
- Though he does get to open his shirt and rub blood all over himself...
- Except in the movie. But he has a big mid-chest to just-above-navel bandage on... Or So I Heard!)
- Shoot The Dog (Kurama killing Amanuma, but Sensui actually Xanatosed him.)
- Shoot The Shaggy Dog ( The entire Chapter Black saga is an example of this, partially due to Sensui's Batman Gambit above, and partially because Team Urameshi put so much effort into stopping something that the SDF could have done on their own.)
- Shounen
- Shout Out (During the Dark Tournament there was a shout out to Super Sentai of all things. Also in a manga-exclusive story Kurama throws a rose in front of two rival gangs a la Tuxedo Mask. )
- Single Target Sexuality (Itsuki—-> Sensui.)
- Sinister Shades (Younger Toguro.)
- Sorting Algorithm Of Evil (Every new bad guy the heroes go up against is billed as really strong and evil, but after a while, the show makes you ask why Spirit World placed such top priority against nobodies like Kurama and Hiei in the first season.)
- The first case is actually excused, as these "nobodies" stole valued objects from King Emma's collection. Koenma states that, should his father finds out, the consecuences of his rage would be such that even the Human World would feel them.
- The show is considered to have one of the most broken algorithms in anime because it started to follow the Dragonball Z pattern of being completely outclassed by the next Big Bad. The first few major fights Yusuke won by luck (i.e. having moss in his ears and making Rando Hoist By His Own Petard), but once he Took A Level In Badass there was no reason why each set of villains was more powerful than the last.
- Sorry I Left The BGM On (George the ogre turns out to be the narrator.)
- So What Do We Do Now (Kuwabara smacked Yusuke for daring to feel this way after they all nearly died.)
- Sparkling Stream Of Tears (When Yukina cries, her tears literally become extremely expensive gems.)
- Spell My Name With An S (Keiko/Kayko. The latter is used in FU Nimation's dub materials.)
- Split Personality (Sensui.)
- Spirited Competitor (The biggest example would have to be Jin, but many others: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Chu, Younger Toguro...)
- Stalker With A Crush (Karasu.)
- Stealth Mentor (Hiei and Younger Toguro have aspects of this.)
- Straight Gay (By Word Of God, and pretty much the only one in anime in existence, Sensui.)
- Story Arc
- Suck My Rose (Kurama, with the addition of using it as a weapon.)
- Summon Magic (Used by Rando, Kurama, and Hiei with the Dragon.)
- Superpowered Evil Side (Subverted with Sensui's Kazuya personality which is still technically weaker than his main personality. Possessed Mazoku Yusuke.)
- Synchronization (Between Yusuke and Puu.)
- Team Shot
- Tear Jerker (Yusuke's wake in the first episode is pretty moving)
- Kuwabara after Sensui kills Yusuke, trying to get him to wake up makes his troper shed a few tears each time.
- There are so many tear jerkers before, during, and after the fifth round of the Dark Tournament that it'd be impossible to list them all.
- The Hunter (The "Spirit Detective" job description.)
- This Is For Emphasis Bitch (In episode 80 of the English dub.)
Hiei: You ready?!
Yusuke: Bring it on, bitch!!
- To Serve Man (Demons (usually) eat humans for food. It doesn't say whether all species of demon have to eat human flesh to survive, though. This leads, later in the series, to a what measure is a human discussion, as well as Raizen's death via starvation for his medieval Japanese human lover, from whom Yusuke is descended...)
- Tournament Arc (Three of them: Genkai's Tournament, the Dark Tournament, and the Demon World Tournament.)
- Training From Hell
- Tranquil Fury (Kurama's default angry-mode.)
- Transformation Sequence (Toguro going to full power 100%!!!.)
- There is something about someone's skin bulging all over with tendons and convulsing that is very creepy.
- Transvestite ( Miyuki.)
- Trope Overdosed (Yu Yu Hakusho may not be the most original series out there but it sure is entertaining!)
- True Art Is Foreign (Yomi uses this trope in constructing the province of Gandhara to look like Japan.)
- Truly Single Parent ( Yomi clones his son Shura from his own genetic material and most of the ice maidens except, of course, Hiei and, arguably, Yukina.)
- Tsundere (Keiko is a Type B, aka "more deredere". She's a rather nice Girl Next Door unless provoked by Yuusuke.)
- Unknown Rival (Kuwabara to Yuusuke for some time before the start of the comic. Kuwabara is gleeful the first time Yuusuke remembers his name.)
- The Untwist (There is no one who is surprised by who the "mysterious masked fighter" is in the Dark Tournament saga.)
- Victorious Childhood Friend ( Keiko.)
- Viewer Gender Confusion (Touya is a very pretty boy, which would be fine. But he's also an ice demon, and the best known race of ice demons has been established to be entirely female. He is established to be a different species, but it's still enough that some fans swear he's female.)
- Viva La Evolution (Kuro Momotaro.)
- Wave Motion Gun (Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Flame.)
- Whack A Mole (During the beginning of the Chapter Black arc, in the house of four dimensions.)
- What Measure Is A Non Human (Played straight on multiple occasions, and also somewhat inverted - coupled with Carnivore Confusion - in the debate over whether demons have the right to eat humans.)
- What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome (Remember that Rock Paper Scissor game?)
- Whip It Good (Kurama's Rose Whip.)
- White Haired Pretty Boy (Yoko Kurama).
- Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him (Played straight, though it more involves why the big groups of monsters don't just all attack at the same time; but for drama's sake they always fight one on one.
- Wolf Man (Koromomotaro using his one of his Steaming Spheres to transform into his last Beast Armor: the Armor of the Wolf which resembles a werewolf.)
- The Woobie (Kiyoshi Mitarai aka Seaman.)
- Woolseyism "I know as much about games as I do hugs and puppies, and care for them even less. Wake me for the end of the world." The English dub is pure gold!
- Not to mention the implied romance between Younger Toguro and Genkai is much more accentuated in the dub, making their scenes far more heart-wrenching.
- The supposed 100% strength of Toguro that was later surpassed by 110% was changed to 85% and 100% to make a bit more sense.
- Worlds Strongest Man (Sensui.)
- After Sensui dies, Kuwabara is confirmed to be the Worlds Strongest Man. Possessing A-class power and a sword that can cut through dimensions will do that to you.
- Wouldnt Hit A Girl (Kuwabara, when trying to beat up Miyuki. Who, ironically, in the manga and uncensored anime, WASN'T a girl.)
- Xanatos Gambit (Sensui, within his greater Batman Gambit: he sets up eleven-year-old Amanuma so that the only way the heroes can advance is to kill him. If they let him live, the Makai Tunnel opens without a hitch and Sensui can die happily. If they kill him (which they do), Sensui knows that Koenma will feel guilty and drain his energy resurrecting the kid, thereby rendering him unable to defeat Sensui and the Makai Tunnel still opens without a hitch and Sensui dies happily. Shoot The Shaggy Dog, indeed.)
- Yaoi Guys (Karasu, Itsuki. Sensui is debatable, since he's not very preoccupied with relationships beyond using people while trying to destroy humankind...but there are very subtle cues in his backstory and in the way he acts.)
- Yin Yang Bomb (Toward the end of the series, one of the the characters mixes human energy and demon energy. The resultant combination is far more powerful than the two separately.)
- Yokai (Pretty much nearly 80% of all the antagonist in the series and 3/5 of the Nakama)
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
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