Shout Out / Yu Yu Hakusho

• There are three shout outs to Sailor Moon.^note Yoshihiro Togashi is the husband of Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi.
  • In a manga-exclusive story, Kurama throws a rose in front of two rival gangs a la Tuxedo Mask. (He actually tells them "Just call me Tuxedo Mask.." while throwing it in the Viz dub.)
  • Juri's transformation sequence when she recovers from the Idunn Box is based off of Sailor Moon's transformation sequence.
  • Koenma's disguise in the Demon World Tournament is him wearing the Tuxedo Mask garb.
• Younger Toguro echoes Onimaru from Peacock King, another manga about young fighters battling demons. Like Onimaru, Toguro is a musclebound, foreign-looking man with perpetual sunglasses that is both a human and a demon at once and who has a Worthy Opponent relationship with the main character.

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• During the Dark Tournament, there was a shout out to Super Sentai of all things (it's one of the teams ruthlessly offed by the Toguro team; they even use the Himitsu Sentai Goranger codenames).
• One of the biggest is how Yusuke dies in the beginning. He saves a child who ran out into the street with a soccer ball, only to later be told that the soccer ball would have cushioned the child, saving the boy's life without leaving a scratch on him. This is a situation that would have, without Yusuke's unfortunate intervention, been exactly the same as what happened to Tsubasa in Captain Tsubasa.
• Not to mention when Kuwabara goes to the 'Megallica' concert in episode 75.
• When Yusuke and Kuwabara are arguing after their first arrival at Genkai's house, several Street Fighter characters can be seen, including Dhalsim, E. Honda, Zangief (with a scar on his chest instead of all the hair), and middle-aged Ryu.

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• There is a momentary shout out to The Stars My Destination during the Dark Tournament when an audience member is shown with the N♂MAD tattoo.
• In Episode 21, there's a glimpse of a poster of Oingo Boingo's "Good For Your Soul" album on the wall in Kuwabara's room. No name changes either, as with "Megallica;" the album's cover is mimicked in full, complete with artist and name.
• In the Demon World Arc, Yomi's advisor is a short, old guy with pointy ears named Yoda.