Anime/Yu Yu Hakusho [Revived]

Holy shit, the live-action show is a fucking trip.

The costumes run the gamut from "Yeah, that looks like a real-life version of the character, good work," to "Budget cosplay at Comic-Con".

The fighting is incredible. As goofy as the characters look when walking around and talking, they look phenomenal in motion with strong choreography and great use of practical effects. It's the kind of visceral and bloody action that lets you feel the weight of every hit.

And the story feels like Yu Yu Hakusho played on Shuffle. They compressed every single arc from the start of the show through the end of the Dark Tournament into five hour-length episodes by mix-and-matching pieces to turn them all into a single arc; hitting each arc not sequentially but simultaneously. There's even just a bit of Chapter Black mixed in.

Relentlessly shotgunning in plot-points. We were doing THAT but now we're doing THIS and we'll get back to THAT after we do THE OTHER THING, merging so many different things that it can give you whiplash if you're familiar with the source material.

With some genuinely good twists used for the arc-mixing. And some emotional beats that feel wildly unearned when these characters have barely known each other for like an hour.

Yu Yu Hakusho remixed is utter nonsense and kind of bullshit and yet I enjoyed it all the same. Even when it's stupid I was left like, "HAHAHA HOLY SHIT That does NOT work there hahahaha." Good times all the way through.

I think my favorite part was after Yusuke calls on Genkai's Spirit Wave Orb to defeat Toguro and rescue Yukina from Tarukane, Hiei finally returns the Shadow Sword to Yusuke. Serving as a reminder that we haven't actually finished Yusuke's first job as Spirit Detective yet, but also making you stop and realize that Hiei never fucking used it.

It comes up once, when it becomes the explanation for his Jagan Eye. He cuts himself and grows the Jagan early on, so that he can find Yukina. Then it comes up again when Kurama pesters him about it halfway through the film; Kurama wants to give it over to Yusuke but Hiei refuses to surrender it. And then the next time we see it, he's surrendering it to Yusuke at the end of the film. They go to all the effort to remind us he still has it and then it never comes up, either in his fight with Bui or the "Failed Dogpile on Sensui" against Toguro.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 21st 2023 at 7:51:48 AM

If the show is a success, I hope it lasts three seasons.

Sensui, and the 3 kings deserve to be different seasons.

Watch them remix the Four Saint Beasts and Three Kings into the same arc.

The Beasts aren’t in the show? I always liked them, distinct designs, distinct gimmicks, and a lot of in-story hype; I feel like they could’ve carried their own season, really.

This may be something minor, but I'm not convinced that Yusuke's death is related to the Monster of the Week.

I would have preferred it to be an accident, just like in the original.

I'm impressed with that fight between Yusuke and Hiei.

Pretty much all of the fights are amazing. The show really works if you tune out most of the parts where nobody's throwing punches at anyone. It's basically:

Ablablah familiar-looking stuff you probably recognize if you already know Yu Yu Hakusho but is extremely poorly explained

MOST INCREDIBLE FIGHT YOU'VE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE

dundun speeding through seventeen plot points in five seconds

HOLY SHIT THAT FIGHT'S EVEN BETTER THAN THE LAST

I guess this arc is happening now whoops you blinked it's over

WHOA LOOK AT THAT CHOREOGRAPHY THIS IS A WORK OF ART

Starting to watch the live-action show, about halfway through episode 1. Seems pretty good so far, though they're definitely compressing stuff. It's interesting that this seems to have captured the spirit of the original, just like One Piece Live-Action, even though it's shortening and compressing even more.

Based on what I've heard, Season 1 remixes a lot of arcs together, so I think Season 2 could definitely remix 3 Kings and Chapter Black into one arc. Have them deal with Sensui and the encroaching threat of the 3 Kings at the same time, then when Sensui opens the portal into Demon World, that leads into wrapping up the 3 Kings arc right after. Just cut the whole segment of story where the portal is closed and Yusuke goes back to the human world for a short time before being invited back.

Okay, I have now finished the live-action show, and it does a pretty decent job. But I really wish they had kept a little bit more of the original story. Here's what I would have changed if I were in charge (pretty much all the changes are to episode 3, Genkai's training):

• Give it one more episode, from 5 to 6.

• Genkai doesn't give the Spirit Wave Orb to Yusuke after training, and Toguro doesn't come to kill her at her home right afterward.

• Have Genkai come with them in disguise.

• Have Sakyo hire a bunch more demons to protect the mansion, coincidentally enough those being some major Dark Tournament Demons.

• This is where the extra episode is, dedicate one episode to Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and Genkai fighting those guys to establish their powers and movesets before the last two episodes have them fight Bui, Karasu, and the Toguro brothers.

• At the end of this episode is where you put Genkai giving Yusuke the Spirit Wave Orb.

• Episode 4 (now 5) cuts the pointless Kuwabara scene with Keiko, Yukina, and the monster, and adds Genkai vs Toguro at the start.

And now my pitch for season 2:

5 Episodes around 50 minutes each, same as season 1.

• Episode 1: Yusuke and Kuwabara meet a team of Human Psychics with Territories who were recruited by Koenma to team up with Yusuke to stop Sensui and his evil organization. Meanwhile, Kurama and Hiei are summoned to Demon World by Yomi and Mukuro, and we learn their backstories.

• Episode 2: Yusuke, Kuwabara, and the Psychics fight Doctor, Seaman, Sniper, and Gamemaster. Kuwabara awakens the Dimension Sword, befriends Seaman, and gets kidnapped. Replace Kurama and Hiei's scenes with the Human Psychics.

• Episode 3: Elder Toguro comes back in Gourmet and Kuwabara kills him with the Spirit Flyswatter. Yusuke fights Sensui and Sensui kills him. Kuwabara unlocks the Dimension Sword and fights Sensui alone, cutting through the Barrier and going into Demon World. Hiei and Kurama join him in fighting Sensui because they were already in Demon World. Yusuke comes back to life with demon powers from Raizen, then he beats Sensui. The episode ends with Yusuke deciding to stay behind in Demon World and confront Raizen, while Kuwabara goes back to Living World to take responsibility for opening the portal by fighting the demons coming through.

• Episode 4: Yusuke meets Raizen and we learn about him. Raizen dies and Yusuke proposes a tournament to decide Demon World's fate, since the Barrier is now down and one of the 3 Kings is dead. Raizen's friends show up at his funeral.

• Episode 5: We skip past most of the tournament, just like in the anime and manga (especially since the Dark Tournament never happened and the Dark Tournament veterans aren't included). Instead of Shigure, Kurama fights Shura. Mukuro vs Hiei. Yomi vs Yusuke. Maybe flesh out Raizen's friends more. Enki wins the tournament and reforms Demon World. Epilogue with everyone living happily in Living World and the Barrier down (they never put it back up after Sensui took it down).

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jan 17th 2024 at 11:42:05 AM

"The costumes run the gamut from "Yeah, that looks like a real-life version of the character, good work," to "Budget cosplay at Comic-Con". "

To be more clear here:

-Yuske and kuwabara: yeah they look more realistic japanise delinquent, yusque in fact now have the typical deliquent mullet while the anime make him look to pretty boy for my liking.

-Kurama and Hiei: Kurama suit look good, his wig on the other hand look flat and very fake(my gf talk with me about it and said the issue is volume as kurama hair work by capes and the first one have more volume that the secone one, which this one dosent have), hiei cloth look good and more pretty much also his hair look silly in screen.

Keiko looks....I didnt like how it looks.

As for the villians:

-Toguro work fine, more or less how it should be, his skin should be grayer a little bit.

-Older toguro look fine and more or less pasable.

-Bui is okay.

-Karasu borde on cosplay a little bit, I wont like.

Seiko and torume look more normal so I dont mind then

I recently had a conversation with someone about classic anime that actually treated its female characters well, and I turned the conversation to how in YYH the manga - though not perfect in that regard - treated the female characters (especially Keiko) a fair bit better than the anime did.

Given a similar note Tobias made once in his retrospective on Dragonball, I do wonder if - though of course not the entire problem - there were a lot more female characters from classic anime that we take for granted as being poorly written, but were initially written as stronger characters before animators/adaptors modified them to be more passive and waifish, presumably pushing unorthodox moments instead towards at the time more typical tropes.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Apr 23rd 2024 at 10:56:28 AM

I recall bringing that up a few times. Same for Yusuke's mom Atsuko being pretty much erased from the anime and her Yakuza connections toned down.

Studio Pierrot REALLY HATES manga female protagonists. I dont watch Bleach religiously but the anime outright removed almost every single hint of Ichi Hime, I majorly respect Kubo for telling them to eff off and stick to his guns. Hinata got majorly lucky because the anime staff loved her,but BOY DID THEY DO SAKURA dirty. And Keiko got the worst of it. It is sad that a studio that had so many female heroines before and after, with their Magical Girl franchises and what not be so awful to female characters.

Some great Atsuko Dark Tournament Moments that the anime cut:

She's so awesome. I really hate the anime cut her, I think she's my favorite part of the gal squad. I really love the bit where she has to be physically restrained from trying to enter the ring and throwing hands with Toguro herself.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 24th 2024 at 9:02:39 AM

The only thing that makes me not hate Studio Pierrot is the music for ther Magical Idol shows and the way they animated key fights in Naruto. Say what you want about the filler but when they get the manga right THEY GET IT RIGHT.

whoops forgot I was not in the Naruto section. I wonder if one day we may see a re adapatation of the Yu Yu Hakusho anime.

Edited by AegisP on Apr 24th 2024 at 8:59:34 AM

I don't see what the point would be, aside from missteps like Atsuko getting Demoted to Extra and the Shizuru x Sakyo "romance", YYH's 90s adaptation was stellar.

Unless you really, really want to see those early arcs from the manga animated.

Well, it wouldnt hurt anyone, the first adaptation will always be there for those who want it.

I think the pacing really suffers, especially in the Dark Tournament. Like, the manga battle against Team Ichigaki is 4 chapters, those being chapters 62-65. The anime stretched those 4 chapters out into 3 episodes. That's like Dragon Ball Z or One Piece levels of padding, a modern anime adaptation could adapt that whole round in one episode.

And then Kurama vs Gama and Kurama vs Toya are just one chapter each, but the anime expanded both of those fights to take up one full episode each. Which is just ridiculous, especially since the Toya fight explicitly takes place in the span of 10 minutes from Gama's death, it makes way more sense to adapt both fights together in one episode.

Let me put it this way, there are 175 chapters of the Yu Yu Hakusho manga, and 112 episodes. That's an average of only 1.5 chapters per episode, and that's not even including the 15 or so chapters from the beginning and end that weren't adapted.

A modern anime could adapt Yu Yu Hakusho at a perfectly reasonable pace of 3-4 chapters per episode and end with 48 episodes, and the only thing lost would be Jorge.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 24th 2024 at 10:03:33 AM

I dunno I think the pacing and expansions were fine thought it could be better streamlined though as you said, the Chickification and Adapting Out were definitely bad. I don't think a remake that meshes what worked in the OG while being more faithful would be bad idea.

I'm really curious to hear the opinions of anime-onlies on Atsuko in the Dark Tournament.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 24th 2024 at 6:14:48 AM

We never learn which of Yusuke's parents is descended from Raizen, but I like to think it was Atsuko. She's far more prominent (his father only appears in person once, in the manga's epilogue) and she can punch lower-tier demons' lights out. Yeah, slapstick logic, don't ruin my fun.

I'm baffled as to why the anime went so hard on cutting her out (and made Keiko a bit weaker as well).

Actually that doesnt sound like slapstick, it seems like a sound theory actually. I like it!

x4

The more I read of the cut stuff and character changes, the more some things about the anime soured on me.

x3

Yeah I was always under that impression as well and seems legit.

x2

It's made even weirder since the opening theme features her in audience for the tournament. No idea why either.

I read somewhere that Togashi regretted or at least disliked the inclusion of Keiko(and maybe Atsuko as well), but I dunno if this was related to how she was done in the anime or if it was a translation issue of an old interview since info was all over the place back in those days. Again, I'd be pretty down for a remake fixing some of these issues since hot blooded tomboyish girls are MUCH bigger now.

Edit: I wonder if it might have had to do with censorship laws about delinquency and alcohol and whatnot.

Edited by doomrider7 on Apr 24th 2024 at 9:23:46 AM

Here's the cut scene between Atsuko and Yusuke's dad at the end of the series: