Anime/Yu Yu Hakusho [Revived]

So upon learning that Karaama would've originally been a female + Hiei's lover, do you think that what have worked for or against the team's favor? While I do love Karaama and his amazing voice/wit, I feel like it would've balanced the cast out a bit more if he was female although being Hiei's love interest is kind of unnecessary and would've even preferred she kept the boys uniform. Like Genkai is badass no doubt and Kazuma's sis is pretty awesome too but they don't get nearly as much action as the boys do. Like really the squad could use another Action Girl. But Karaam still works wonderfully as a male too so I can't say either is bad, he's a well written character. Still female Karaama really would've given Yuyu something DBZ and much shonen of its era never had in a strong yet highly intelligent, non cheesecake selling female main cast member that gets as much action as the bros do.

Finished the series, the last episode playing with smile bomb over the credits is so wonderful...I was sad it ended.

3 Kings doesn't get enough love I think. It's rushed somewhat but has some of the best character fleshing/development in the show and it's unconventional conclusion works well to drive its message home. Honestly I can't agree with people saying the Dark Tournament was the best arc and everything after is meh. It's certainly when the show went from good to awesome but I thought Chapter Black and 3 kings were better storywise and still hold up quite well on their own. I still put DT over 3 Kings overall due to pacing and DT being pretty much the best tournament arc in an anime ever. Chapter Black trumps both though, or me to YYH what York Shin is to Hx H.

Chapter Black > Dark Tournament > 3 Kings > Saint Beasts > Spirit Detective > Rondo

Yomi and Mukoro were pretty awesome and really it's a shame those two couldn't get more time. Sensui was probably my favorite villain. The whole territory thing his gang had and multiple personalities were awesome.

edited 10th Jun '15 5:15:26 PM by Vertigo_High

Totally agree, 3 Kings and Chapter Black were the best arcs (in the anime at least). Many I've asked say that the 3 Kings Arc was even more rushed in the manga - most of the fights you see in the anime didn't occur.

Figured I post this and remind myself why I rewatched this series 4 times.

You should really read the manga version Three Kings arc for yourself - it won't take long.

I watched the anime first, and read the manga second and I agree that the anime is far superior to the manga version, and the dub is mostly better than the sub. It has some really annoying problems with the names it uses for attacks (mixing them up, implying connections that weren't there, missing connections that were there - hell Spirit Wave is used for at least three different techniques) but also changes a lot of weird lines in the original to something more logical.

The Chapter Black arc could have been my favorite if it hadn't gone downhill. The exact moment it turned to crap for me is when Sensui first reveals his split personality. Comes the fuck out of nowhere, suddenly everything about him is retconned, also he's stronger than Yusuke after all, Yusuke's death was heartwarming but then it leads to absurd power ups on top of absurd power ups. It didn't become Dragon Ball Z, it became a poor man's DBZ, something more in line with what less informed fans think Dragon Ball is.

I see the general consensus is that the Dark Tournament is the best arc, I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I think I liked the first arc the most, maybe I'd have to rewatch. The Dark Tournament had numerous problems to me, it dragged on, and most of the antagonists were fairly underwhelming. But hey I guess that doesn't exclude it from being the best arc if the others were worse.

I agree with Sensui having split personalities being the point were Chapter Black went downhill.

That's probably why so many fans say the Dark Tournament was the best part of the series. The quality kept rising and the story kept a steady emotional climb until it had a great payoff in Yusuke vs. Younger Togoro.

edited 8th Dec '15 8:24:47 AM by VeryMelon

Here's an interesting tidbit: in the Hungarian dub, Kurama is voiced by a woman. A deep-voiced one, granted, but a woman nevertheless. Hell, I never even knew Kurama was supposed to be male until I read about it on TV Tropes.

I agree with the Sensui Split Personality thing being dumb.

Also while I have less than fond memories about Three Kings, I'll always love this part.

And I hear this isn't even in the manga. In the manga Yomi just wrecks Yusuke, the end.

The split personalities were dumb, but not as dumb as

• Sensui and Yusuke becoming Super Saiyans.
• Hiei's Shadow Dragon not just being overcome, but rendered harmlessly impotent in the face of Sensui's Super Saiyan might.
• The author forgetting which side was which in the Yusuke/Toguro "Spirit vs. Physical" battle and portraying Yusuke in his fight with Sensui as being physically powerful but spiritually weak. I guess the Spirit Wave was as fleeting as Gohan's Ultimate power-up.
• Every moment of Genkai's Character Derailment into a virtuous warrior of justice.

edited 9th Dec '15 8:13:19 AM by TobiasDrake

For your first 3 examples, the split personalities all lead to that. It's the reason Saiga and I singled it out as when Chapter Black took a nose dive.

Genkai was always a good person, just a bit misanthropic and grouchy. Yusuke and resolving her problems with Toguro probably helped cure her of that misanthropy and restored her to her totally good self.

True facts, when Yusuke does his Spirit Gun into the sky in memory of Genkai, I cried a bit. It's one of my oldest memories of a show making me that emotional.

edited 9th Dec '15 10:04:47 PM by Nikkolas

Here you go! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zba-LNgbDVM

I'm most of the way through the Dark Tournament (Elder Toguro's about to step up and get his ass schooled by Kazuma who is best character no exceptions) and I personally consider the Yukina arc to be my favorite so far. After the downright horrible Saint Beasts arc (which my friend introducing me to the series partially blocked out of his memory because paaaaaaain), Rescue Yukina was short, simple, entertaining, and full of Kuwabara being awesome, which is pretty much Yu Yu Hakusho at its best. I particularly loved how Yusuke and Kazuma actually ended up fighting smartly for once and trashed everyone that wasn't team Toguro with ease.

My second favorite bit was, of course, Yusuke's battle with Shu. Shu was fantastic. Unlike Suzaku, when he got an episode extra compared to what he actually needed to wrap up his fight, he used that shit and it was some of the most entertaining episodes of barely anything happening I've ever seen. :D And of course other assorted bits from the Dark Tournament like Hiei vaporizing that really weird-looking dude from the first round or insulting a guy's nervous system before tossing him back his severed arm, and Kuwabara beating the shit out of Risho when Yukina showed up in the audience.

edited 10th Dec '15 1:24:48 AM by EndlessSea

No, she wasn't. She was always a neutral person. She was going to pass on her Spirit Wave to whoever won her tournament, and it's by great fortune that the winner turned out to be Yusuke. That was always her motivation: to leave behind a successor. Her opinion: "Let the next idiot do something noble with it."

Then she just shows up in the Sensui arc completely dedicated to being a hero and saving the world, without an ounce of development to explain the sudden change in her demeanor. Altruism has never been her way.

edited 10th Dec '15 7:53:26 AM by TobiasDrake

It was pretty clear to me she didn't want to pass on her powers to Rando. She would have, if he had won, but that's because she was dying and wanted to leave behind a legacy. ANY kind of legacy.

After spending time with Yusuke though, she saw something more important. Instead of leaving behind just her power, she left behind her wisdom. She made a real difference in the world by helping Yusuke grow, not just as a fighter, but as a person.

Also, she worked out her issues with Younger Toguro, which plainly had been haunting her all these years.

So, yeah, those are pretty good explanations for her change.

Thank you for that.

edited 10th Dec '15 8:08:50 AM by Nikkolas

I always thought Yusuke devloping Genkai's personality is actually more believable in a master/student relationship than her remaining the same.

As for Sensui with the split personalities, it's pretty much right there in the opening credits and I thought it was a nice twist after being lead to believe all this time that his disciples were the seven the guy learned about reading his mind. Now the actual personalities could've used more time especially since we don't even see all of them but I can't say I found it dumb and made Sensui more interesting ability wise. Yusuke actually losing initially was pretty cool although him coming back and being part demon was a bit silly as it cheapens his character somewhat.

The issue with his personalities isn't that he has them, it's that it allows him to bullshit his way through the rest of the arc by suddenly giving him access to way more power and completely tossing out the idea that he was weaker than Yusuke in favour of making him the strongest guy to ever strong.

And it came right at the moment when Yusuke successfully had him on the ropes after using some strategy to make up for the lack of experience which was supposed to be the big difference between them.

Then Sensui's experience and skill never comes up again because it's all about S-class power and reaching that level. You'd think if he could beat Yusuke when Yusuke was the stronger one then Yusuke reaching the same level of power should have meant he still got wrecked but it just stopped mattering once the power esxalation happened.

It was really fucking stupid they developed this whole martial arts style for Sensui, even giving him "leg" versions of Yusuke's hand attacks like his own version of Spirit Gun and Shotgun. I can't remember how to spell it, it's like Rashuyuken and Splinter Rashuyuken.

Anyway, point is, they developed Sensui's fighting style exquisitely, placing emphasis on his elegance and skill vs. Yusuke's raw power and brawling tactics.

Then they tossed all that out the window and now he just punches things really hard.

Say, is it really true that Togashi kiboshed a planned Hiei/Mukuro hookup because he was legitimately afraid the Yaoi Fangirls would kill him? I've heard that rumor several times.

I feel like that's one of those Urban Legends that people just accept and don't challenge.

Validation.

And 1999 HXH > Madhouse HXH. ^_^

So is it true in the manga the Spirit World is pretty shitty and evil? Like, in the anime, koenma is our main rep of SW government and he's cool and nice. But I've heard in teh manga the place is far more akin to Soul Society or something and is run by total assholes.

Yeah, I've barely seen any of the sub, but a good example is the explanation for Togoro's final powerup against Yusuke's final spirit gun going from "I'm going 100% of 100%" to "I may not have been being truthful with you earlier, what I said was 100% was more like eighty-five".

Bumping this up cause I've been watching this again. One of these days, I have to properly check out both Chapter Black and the Three Kings arc (as well as the manga just for the hell of it).

But really brought me here is that, as I write this, I'm watching the end credits of, what was my (and probably everyone else's) first exposure to Yu Yu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report.

Funny how different this is in context, better knowing the characters relationships to each other (I though Hinageshi was someone important rather than a movie only character what with her being so central to the movie).

Also, props to Kuwahara KUWABARA for being the only member of the group to actually beat his opponent (something I took note of even back then when I understood nothing about the series). He literally punched out a god, and he did before the other three made it look cool. Not bad for the supposed weakest member.

I also rather like the movie remixes of some of the series tunes (even if they are rather short). Still, the villain seem atypical, and the stakes, while at least as big as Chapter Black seem odder since it's actually having a direct affect on the city, as opposed to just going on behind the scenes. I Know it's just a Non-Serial Movie for the most part, but if there was a point in the series where it could have happened, I'd have to put it post Dark Tournament but before Chapter Black, since neither Yusuke or Kuwabara demonstrate any new tricks. That would be impossible though, since the latter was supposed to have lost his spiritual powers in preparation of Sensui's threat.

Anyway, YYH rocks, Kuwabara needed more victories in the Dark Tournament, and now, Rob is out of her.

Wow, I glance at the DB thread which makes me think of YYH. I search for YYH, expecting a dead thread and browse through this last page, thinking I maybe missed a few older posts or two.

Then I stumble upon a completely new post.

Welcome, fellow right person! I too have to re-watch Yu Yu Hakusho because the blu-rays change a fair amount in the English dub it seems and I must see this for myself. Or, well, hear this for myself. But my point is, I haven't watched YYH all the way through in close to ten years. That's no good. This show is a timeless masterpiece.

As far as I was aware the Yu Yu Hakusho dub wasn't censored.