Yu Yu Hakusho is a Japanese live-action fantasy/adventure series based on the Shonen Fighting manga of the same name by Yoshihiro Togashi. It is developed by Akira Morii and Kazutaka Sakamoto, written by Tatsurö Mishima, and directed by Shö Tsukikawa.
The series stars Takumi Kitamura as Yusuke Urameshi, Shuhei Uesugi as Kazuma Kuwabara, Jun Shison as Kurama, and Kanata Hongō as Hiei. The cast also includes Sei Shiraishi as Keiko Yukimura, Kotone Furukawa as Botan, Ai Mikami as Yukina, Hiroya Shimizu as Karasu, Keita Machida as Koenma, Meiko Kaji as Genkai, Ayumi Ito as Atsuku Urameshi, Kenichi Takitō as Elder Toguro, Go Ayano as Younger Toguro, and Goro Inagaki as Sakyo.
The five-episode first season premiered on Netflix on December 14, 2023.
Tropes that show up in the series:
- Adaptation Amalgamation: Originally, Yusuke joins Genkai's tournament under Koenma's orders in order to find and defeat Rando. But after that was done, he later returned voluntarily for training before the Dark Tournement. In the series, however, Genkai's tournament is dropped in favor of just making Yusuke her student right away, so he can prepare to fight Hiei during the adaptation of the Artifacts of Darkness arc. The training is complete with Yusuke gaining Genkai's Spirit Wave technique and energy, something that happens during the Dark Tournament in the anime.
- Adaptational Badass: Several.
- Yusuke gets the Spirit Orb from Master Genkai much earlier in the series and doesn't struggle to contain its power like in the manga. He's also shown using spirit energy in ghost form to prevent some burning debris from falling on Keiko.
- Kuwabara is first able to summon his Spirit Sword through sheer training and willpower unlike the original series where he only awakened the sword after grabbing the fragment of a highly enchanted wooden katana used by a rival fighter.
- Kurama is apparently able to transform into Yoko Kurama at will from the very beginning of the series without the use of a potion or magic smoke like in the manga/anime. He's also able to successfully kill Karasu with the Deadly Vetch, which Karasu both noticed and countered right away in the original series and thus forced Kurama to use the more risky Vampire Plant summoning to finish him off.
- Keiko still doesn't get to do too much but in this version of Yu Yu Hakusho she learned some fighting skills from Yusuke and was able to break herself and Yukina out of their cells by subduing a guard.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Hiei's sister, Yukina, only debuts in the manga in chapter 46, after the "Artifacts of Darkness", "Genkai's Successor", and "Four Beasts" arcs. In the series, she appears just after Hiei obtains the Sword of Darkness, one of the titular artifacts from the aforementioned arc.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Kuwabara's hair goes from reddish orange in the anime and manga to blonde in live action.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Due to changing audience tastes, Pragmatic Adaptation, Compressed Adaptation and/or other factors, Yusuke comes off as less of a jerk in live action than he did in the original source material.
- Adaptational Villainy: Though many of his wicked actions were cut for time, Elder Toguro makes up for it by pulling double duty with his unapologetic dog kicking throughout the season. Specifically, he murders Yukina's would-be rescuer in this version (rather than Tarukane and his goons) and he's also the one who kidnaps Keiko rather than Hiei. In fact, he uses his morphing powers to impersonate and frame Hiei for the kidnapping, causing him to get caught in a brief conflict with Yusuke.
- Adaptational Wimp: Mostly everyone due to this adaptation fusing the "Rescue Yukina" and "Dark Tournament" arcs together. Most of the main cast don't have access to nearly as many powers/moves as they did during the original series and many of the big powerhouse characters (such as Hiei and Toguro) had their raw might significantly scaled back closer to what they had during their initial appearances. (They can still break bones and solid walls with ease, but neither is shown exhibiting the power to level whole buildings or really anything close to what they both had at the end of the final match between their teams.)
- Adapted Out:
- Most of the arcs involved in Yusuke getting revived are skipped over, with him being revived in the first episode. The second episode covers the case that also introduces Hiei and Kurama.
- Rando, the Four Saint Beasts, the Demon Triad, and the secondary characters from the Dark Tournament are nowhere to be seen.
- Jorge Saotome (Koenma's assistant) isn't shown in Koenma's office.
- Shizuru, Kubawara's sister, doesn't show up at all.
- Yusuke gaining the Spirit Wave technique and energy doesn't rip apart his body in this version.
- Age Lift:
- Yusuke, Kuwabara and Keiko are all 17 in the first season, in contrast to the manga and anime, where they were 14 at the start of the story.
- Kurama's human form is aged up slightly from 16 to 17, though he is still significantly older than that in actuality.
- In the manga, Koenma was a centuries old god with the body of a baby, though he would eventually transform into a teen/young adult in later arcs. The live-action show depicts him with an adult body from the start, presumably due to the challenges that using an actual child actor would have posed.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: One happens between Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kuwabara's gang and a yokai-possession victim when a dropped lighter sets off an explosion and accidently ignites the area surrounding Yusuke's home.
- Body Horror: Just like in the original anime, but here its all in beautifully detailed live action for your viewing pleasure. Some choice examples include:
- The yokai bugs infecting people, crawling around under their skin and mutating their bodies.
- Everything Elder Toguro does. You thought his body morphing powers were creepy and unnerving on paper or in animation? You have seen nothing. He even gets to recreate his little "Genkai puppet show" to freak out the heroes. His living severed head also appears in the end credits, hinting at his possible turn in an adaptation of the "Chapter Black" arc of the original show.
- The effects of Kurama's Deadly Vetch were mostly left to the imagination when he killed Roto. Not so here, when he uses it to kill Karasu the camera takes the opportunity to show the plant spreading through the victim's body and wrapping around his heart and when Kurama finally says "die" to trigger it... well the result speaks for itself.
- Casting Gag: In the European French dub, this is not the first time Rémi Gutton, as Yusuke, had voiced a character what had to deal with deadly force problems from the afterlife.
- Chekhov's Gun: Sakyo keeps a pistol in his desk, which he uses to demonstrated Russian Roulette to Tarukane, and later uses to kill himself after losing his bet against Ko-enma.
- Color-Coded Characters: Following the original manga/anime, each of the main quartet is associated with a colour (even the teaser posters
used the same chromatic arrangement):- Yusuke wears green.
- Kuwabara wears a blue school uniform.
- Kurama wears pink.
- Hiei is dressed in an all-black getup.
- Combat Pragmatist: Keiko doesn't fight often, but Yusuke made a point of teaching her how to fight dirty. She tends to lead with a Groin Attack.
- Compressed Adaptation: Since the first season is compressed into five episodes, some elements of the manga/anime have been reinterpreted to provide a connection between them when previously they did not have. To wit:
- Rather than being a weapon of the Saint Beasts as the "Four Beasts" arc was cut, the Makai Insects show up as the leading front of the youkai horde on the other side of Sakyo's tunnel to the Makai, mainly because they happen to be small enough to fit through it while it was still tiny. They also are responsible for Yusuke's death (as the driver who ran him over had been infected by one), and his resurrection (as the person who started the fire that made him realize that he had a reason to come back had also been infected by one).
- In the manga/anime, Hiei acquires the Sword of Darkness with his fellow yokai Gouki and Kurama, then fights Yusuke at the end of the "Artifacts of Darkness" arc. Hiei only returns to the fray in the "Four Beasts" arc (the story after "Genkai's Successor" arc), and becomes a protagonist during Yukina's Rescue arc.
- In the live-action series, Hiei still acquires the Sword of Darkness, but his story this time is deeply intertwined with Yukina's Rescue arc, which has been brought to the forefront as a subplot.
- Create Your Own Hero: Sakyo opening a wormhole to the Makai caused a Makai Insect to escape to Earth and possess a truck driver, who then drove out of control and ran over Yusuke, starting his journey to become a Spirit Detective.
- Death by Adaptation: In a way. Since the main narrative of the first season is a mix of the Artifacts of Darkness and Yukina's rescue arcs, with some elements of the next arc (Dark Tournament) thrown in, Genkai's death is pushed forward as an element of Yukina's rescue, instead of happening in the order shown in the original manga/anime.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Sakyo still dies by his own hand, but he uses a simple gun rather than an exploding building.
- Rather than get his rotten head kicked off by Toguro on Sakyo's orders this version of Tarukane is heavily implied to be eaten by a stray yokai when he goes to retrieve Yukina from her cell.
- Though his fate isn't much different than how he went out in the anime/manga Karasu ends up dying to Kurama's Deadly Vetch seed being planted in his body rather than having all his blood drained by the Vampire Plant piercing his heart.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: Yusuke being hit by a car is changed to being run over by a truck, and you see the entire thing in an aversion to Gory Discretion Shot.
- There's also a lot more realistic gore due to the series now being in live action. The scene where Toguro punches a monster clean in half is not only kept but rendered in the same loving detail as it was in the manga. Boom.
- I Gave My Word: Sakyo literally bets his life in a wager against Koenma, and dutifully kills himself when he loses.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Elder Toguro impersonates Hiei while kidnapping Keiko, resulting in a brief rematch between Yusuke and Hiei due to false blame. Considering Sakyo's plan was to invite both of them to his tournament, there's no clear motivation for him to do this.
- Mythology Gag: The anime's theme song shows up on the radio of a truck during the first episode.
- Russian Roulette: Sakyo plays this to show Tarukane just how serious he takes gambling... complete with five loaded chambers instead of just one. He still wins, to Tarukane's utter shock.
- Sick Captive Scam: Keiko pretends to be sick to trick a guard into entering her cell, then knocks him out so she and Yukina can escape.
- The Stinger: There's a mid-credits scene at the end of Episode 5 where you see Elder Toguro get picked at by a seagull.
- Training from Hell: Both Yusuke and Kuwabara are subjected to this while studying as Genkai's students. Yusuke is tasked with using his aura to balance on a large spike and holding the position for twelve hours while Kuwabara is forced to try and slice though a giant boulder... using only wooden katanas. Their efforts definitely pay off in the end though, with Yusuke receiving the Spirit Orb and Kuwabara unlocking his Spirit Sword.
