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Trivia / YuYu Hakusho

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  • Actor Allusion:
  • Breakthrough Hit:
    • For Studio Pierrot and Director Noriyuki Abe’s team of animators and producers; which among them includes Akiyuki Shinbo. Prior to YYH, Studio Pierrot mainly took cases relating to Shoujo, and the Magical Girl genre. Fueled with the urge to do something ambitious, the then young Abe requested to his higher-ups that he wished to get cases related to Shonen Action, which in this case, he was interested in YYH; and his higher-ups agreed to let him direct the work, and gave him full liberty in recruiting his teammates and get creative with their animation experimentation. The rest was history.
    • This also extends to the full Japanese cast of voice actors Director Abe’s team picked out. Abe applied the format of casting a balanced scale of actors from all stages of experience; just the four principal actors alone consist, at that time, one instructor-level voice actor (Shigeru Chiba), one young-and-popular (Nozomu Sasaki), one fifth-year in the business but no name yet semi-rookie (Nobuyuki Hiyama), and one fresh-out-of-training-school New Meat (Megumi Ogata). This gave the cast a smooth Senpai/Kohai chain to look out for one another and seek guidance from those of higher experience. To this day, actors who have participated in this work highly appraised the acting environment they received.
  • Creator Backlash: Togashi ended up not liking the demon form that he created for Hiei, which explains why it was never seen again after its first appearance.
    • For the American dub produced by Funimation, Laura Bailey considered her performance as Keiko "pretty bland", though Justin Cook disagreed hard. Kyle Hebert inadvertently revealed during a 2009 panel that he wasn't that fond of M2 as he found the character's arc, plus his fellow students, too melodramatic.
  • Creative Differences: In an interview, Togashi said the reason was being tired/burned out, as well as saying that Jump rejected his ideas for "deconstructing" the characters, which might allude to a different version of the Three Kings arc that didn't come to fruition (source).
  • Crossdressing Voices: Kurama in the Japanese dub was voiced by Megumi Ogata, a woman. Averted in the English and Latin American Spansih dubs, where he was voiced by men, and the Filipino dub, where "Denise" was voiced by a woman, albeit under the impression that the character was female. This would ultimately be played straight when Denise was retconned into "Dennis", who was only ''pretending'' to be a girl.
  • Directed by Cast Member: In the English dub, Justin Cook was the ADR director as well as Yusuke Urameshi's voice actor. He once joked in an interview with Animerica magazine that he was much more demanding of himself than the other actors.
  • Dueling Dubs:
    • The main series is best known for its 2001-2004 dub from Funimation, but Animax also produced a dub in Hong Kong sometime in the mid-2000s for their TV stations in South-East Asia. This dub is much, much harder to find.
    • The Golden Seal short movie was originally dubbed in 1998 in Los Angeles by Animaze for its original VHS release from Media Blasters' Anime Works label. It was later released to DVD in January 2001 in a double feature with Ninku: The Movie. Funimation later reissued it on DVD in 2011 (packaged with the Eizou Hakusho OVAs) with a brand new dub featuring their TV series cast.
    • There's two Latin American Spanish dubs done in Mexico: The first one, done in Cuernavaca at 2002, and an upcoming newer one at 2024, done in Mexico City, which was made with the sole purpose to replace the Cuernavaca one, which was pretty infamous due to its low quality on acting and translation.
  • Edited for Syndication: For the show's Toonami airing, there were expected alterations made to tone down certain content for its intended younger demographic, but some content was reworked altogether:
    • In episode 24 "The Deadly Triad", entire sequences were reworked or outright removed to cover up for the fact that the demon Miyuki is a transexual.
    • Similar circumstances surrounded Itsuki the Gatekeeper and his desired romantic relationship with Shinobu Sensui.
    • The manji symbol on the forehead of the minor character Kazemaru was removed, due to western sensibilities and inevitable misplaced Nazi associations.
    • In the original episode 66, Toguro volunteers to be sent to Hell. While in the dub, it is changed to Limbo.
  • Executive Meddling: In a case of a positive example, Togashi mentioned in an interview with Shounen Jump Giga that it was his editor who had convinced him to make Hiei into one of the main characters. Togashi initially planned for Hiei to be a one-off villain, but his editor convinced him to make him one of Yusuke's allies.
  • Fountain of Expies:
  • Friendship on the Set: The voice actors of the four main characters, Nozomu Sasaki, Shigeru Chiba, Megumi Ogata, and Nobuyuki Hiyama became life-long True Companions since their production period of YYH, and no matter how far apart their careers pulled them away from not being able to work along with each other, they will still find time to hangout anytime in private. When they do have opportunities to meet up to promote new YYH materials or other works that connects them, they wholeheartedly treasure every second of their time together.
  • Inspiration for the Work: Hiei was stated to be an inspiration for Naruto's Sasuke Uchiha.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes:
    • The second movie, under the title Poltergeist Report, was released in the US on VHS in 1998 by Central Park Media with a dub by Skypilot Entertainment. They reissued it on DVD in 2002 and 2006, but it hasn't been legally available since their license expired in 2009. Funimation has tried to rescue the film and redub it with their better-known TV series cast, but it's stuck in licensing hell. The film was also unavailable in Japan for many years for the same reason.
    • The English dub produced by Animax is extremely hard to find. There's a handful of episodes online and all of them are pretty low quality.
    • The Latin American dub of the series has been hit hard by this. The series aired on Cartoon Network from 2004 to 2006 and it never aired again. It did air on a Colombian TV channel in 2009 but they only aired the full series one time before being pulled.
    • The Latin American dub of the second movie is even worse since it only aired exactly TWO TIMES on TV. The first time was on Cartoon Network in 2006 during the midnight timeslot, and the second time was on a Mexican TV channel in 2009 during the early morning time slot. It hasn't aired on any TV channel ever since, and there are no home video releases.
  • Method Acting: Justin Cook (Funimation Line Producer/Voice Director/voice of Yusuke) not only watched the entire series through before starting work (which allowed him to catch and preserve the "Jorge was the narrator all along" gag from the second-to-last episode), he also looked up scenes from the manga that were cut from the anime (before the manga was ever released in English), like Kurama's explanation of the moment he realized the depth of his mother's love for him and how he started to reciprocate it, and shared it with the relevant actors, to help them understand more about where their characters were coming from.
  • The Other Darrin: Japanese Original
    • TV Anime:
      • Jorge was originally voiced by Hidenari Ugaki in episode 13 before Tomomichi Nishimura, the voice of the series narrator, replaced him for the rest of the series. This recast is notable for The Reveal in the penultimate episode which shows that the narrator and Jorge are one and the same.
      • Sawamura of Kuwabara's gang was initially voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa during the first stretch of episodes plus just before the Dark Tournament Saga (before Morikawa became better known as Shishiwakamaru). His appearances in the Chapter Black Saga, however, would be handled by Eiji Sekiguchi, primarily the voice of Sniper in that arc.
      • Kurama's mother, Shiori Minamino, was first voiced by Kumiko Takizawa in her initial appearance. Takizawa was unavailable to return later on so Shiori's appearance in the final arc was performed by Yuri Sato.
      • Keiko's father was voiced by Taro Arakawa in the early episodes but his final appearance in the Three Kings storyline was performed by Yutaka Shimaka.
      • Long before his proper debut, Shigure would be played by Tomomichi Nishimura in a flashback of Hiei's before Takashi Taniguchi would voice him definitively in the Three Kings story arc.
      • M3 (who is either Ryo or Kai depending on the medium) was voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama in his debut for one line before Daiki Nakamura would succeed him in the role immediately in the following episode.
      • Nobuaki Fukuda is mainly known as the voice of the Great King Enma, but back in the Genkai Tournament arc, Enma's voice could be heard over a phone as part of a gag at Koenma's expense. His one line then was provided by Ken Shiroyama who mainly voiced Kuroda in the same arc.
      • Mukuro was voiced first by Ai Orikasa (Shizuru and Koto) when she invites Hiei to join her army. Her proper debut has Minami Takayama established as her proper voice.
    • 10th-15th Anniversary:
      • When the PS2 games were released in 2005 and 2007 respectively, some actors had passed away or were unavailable to play their parts so recasts were necessary. The most prominent example was Suzuki, whose original actor Kazuyuki Sogabe had passed away a year prior to the game's release, so Show Hayami replaced him. The same happened with Rando who was voiced by Junko Minagawa in the game after the original actress, You Inoue, passed from lung cancer in 2003.
    • 25th Anniversary: 100% Maji Battle:
      • In addition to the above-mentioned Junko Minagawa continuing her role as Rando's replacement voice, Sensui is now voiced by Jin Yamanoi due to Rokurō Naya's passing in 2014, Rinku is now voiced by Eriko Matsui as Reiko Kondo passed away in 2007 and Suzuki is darrined yet again, this time by Yuji Kameyama.
      • There is also Hana Takeda replacing Chiharu Suzuka as Ruka, Jiro Saito replacing Takashi Taniguchi as Shigure, Yusuke Shirai replacing Eiji Sekiguchi as Sniper, and Naomi Kusumi replacing Hajime Koseki as Kirin. In addition, Wataru Hatano replaces Hirotaka Suzuoki as Yakumo.
    • 25th Anniversary: Year 2018 OVA Special:
      • Despite the side chapter TWO SHOTS and the final manga arc had Drama CDs released for YYH’s 10th-anniversary celebration back in the year 2004-2005, aside from the principal, and important cast, all semi-important, and minor roles were recast for the 25th Anniversary OVA.
      • Hidetoshi Nakamura passed away four years prior, so Otake was recast with Masaki Aizawa.
      • Shunjun was recast with Mitsuaki Madono; despite his first voice actor Kazuaki Ito still being active. Director Abe notably explains he cast Madono for his overall familiarity with the YYH universe due to being their Spear Carrier since episode 1, and the main cast would definitely feel instantly cozy at home if Madono was on board. The cast indeed wholeheartedly expressed their appreciation for this recast. Madono had already played some semi-important roles in the series such as Zeru in the Dark Tournament saga and Yanagisawa in the Chapter Black saga.
  • The Other Darrin: English Dub
    • The TV series and movies all had different production companies working on them so this obviously came into play (the movies were dubbed several years before Funimation ever got the rights). Media Blasters and Central Park Media were the other two companies.note 
      • In the former, Jonathan Fahn, Lex Lang, Kirk Thornton, and David Hayter (of future Metal Gear fame) played the roles of Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama respectively. Additionally, Lia Sargent, Brianne Siddall, and R. Martin Klein featured as Botan, Koenma, and Jorge "Blue Ogre" Saotome, with the second-former notable as its the only time Koenma has been played by a woman in English.
      • The latter movie had the likes of Richard Nagelnote  as Yusuke, Cliff Lazenby as Kuwabara, James Stanley as Hiei, and Chris Orbachnote  as Kurama. There was also Veronica Taylor and Eric Stuart of future Pokémon fame both pulling double duty with the former as Botan and Yukina and the latter as Koenma and Kaiki/"Kuronue" respectively. In addition, we had Shannon Conley as Keiko, Caryl Marder playing Genkai, and Ed Kissel providing Jorge's voice.
    • FUNimation's dub was not entirely immune to this. In episode 23, during a flashback of Hiei's, Shigure (the surgeon who gave him his Jigan eye) was voiced by Jerry Jewell (also Suzaku and Jin) but during his proper appearance in the Three Kings storyline, he was replaced by Pete Webber. The blu-ray version went back and redubbed Jewell's performance with Webber for consistency's sake.
    • King Yama's early voice cameo over the phone in episode 11 was performed by Andrew Chandler (voice of Byakko and Bakken) instead of R. Bruce Elliott who would voice him in the Chapter Black arc. Chandler's performance was kept for the Blu-ray release and not redubbed by Elliott most likely due to an oversight (it was just one line gag at Koenma's expense).
    • Hokushin was redubbed by J. Michael Tatum, replacing Jerome 57 who had voiced him originally. It was probably because he sounded too much like Itsuki, who Jerome had also voiced.
    • Near the end of the Chapter Black arc, for the blu-ray rerelease, several members of the Spirit Defense Force squad were redubbed with more recent actors from their current talent pool. Sōrai went from Melissa Ellis to Alexis Tipton, Saitō from Merk Harbour to Joel McDonald, Ryohi from Clarine Harp (she later voiced Koko near the end of the series) to Stephanie Young, and one of the two unnamed members went from Travis Willingham (already Yanagisawa) to Scott Freeman.
    • Hiei and Yukina's mother, Hina, had Kelsey Lewin redub over Lauren Goode from the original. The same happened with her friend Rui who went from Susan Huber (she was previously Sayaka) to Mariela Ortiz. The Ice Elder also went from Cynthia Cranz (Botan) to Juli Erickson (best known for Pinako from both of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime).
    • A few extras during the Dark Tournament were revoiced for diversity with more current actors such as Shishiwakamaru's fangirls and the demon spectators who jeer Onji/Suzuki before the fight with Genkai. This was also repeated during the fight in the hospital during the Chapter Black story, with a few of the nurses being redubbed by the likes of Cherami Leigh, Brina Palencia, and Kate Bristol.
    • Similar to the "remastered" sets of Dragon Ball Z, a few minor redubs for certain characters were made for better performances. In addition to the above-mentioned with Shigure, Webber also redubbed his lines for the Three Kings arc. Jeremy Inman redubbed nearly all his work as Suzuki (including correcting the alteration to his name to Suzuka). Subsequent characters who mentioned his name were also corrected (though there are at least three lines where he is still referred to as Suzuka). Aaron Hatch also rerecorded his part as Sniper, sounding much less flat in comparison to his first go at the character.
    • Everyone was predictably recast in the dub of the live action Netflix series.
  • Playing Against Type: Kyle Hebert is versatile, but more well-known for voicing hot-blooded characters. On the other hand, his role as Karasu prepared him for Sousuke Aizen of Bleach, a show that arguably draws much inspiration from YuYu Hakusho.
    • Nobuo Tobita—who would've thought that the guy who plays Dirty Coward characters like Kanryu and The Major was once a pretty boy, or that Kamille Bidan would end up as such a villain.
    • Sonny Strait commonly voices characters who either can be very comical or often have comic mishaps happen to them, yet at the same time often display major signs of being more competent than they look. None of that applies to his role as Doctor during the Chapter Black arc, where he plays a creepy Soft-Spoken Sadist.
  • Real-Life Relative:
    • In the English dub, Linda Young (Genkai) and John Burgmeier (Kurama) are real-life mother and son.
    • In one very brief scene of the English dub that shows Yusuke and Keiko as children, the child Yusuke is voiced by Aaron Dismuke, Justin Cook's cousin.
  • Referenced by...: The author of Black Clover stated that he based the Third Eye's Evil Eye off of Hiei.
  • Screwed by the Network: The anime's fate in the US. It originally aired on Adult Swin with a rather lucrative timeslot and all its content was uncensored as well. But, at the time, the anime boom was in full swing, and Toonami, then airing in the afternoons, was the lead block for anime dubs. Since Yu Yu Hakusho was a shonen series, the heads decided to move the show there. This ended up leading to the show having to be censored as a consequence however but allowed the series to continue on past the Saint Beast arc into the Dark Tournament and Chapter Black arcs. Near the end of the latter arc, however, the show was suddenly yanked from its timeslot due to restructuring going on in the company and punted to 4:30am on a Saturday. For most following the series, the show just seemed to have disappeared without a trace as there was no advertisement for this. As a result, the “Three Kings” arc was hardly seen by any of the fanbase following it on the airwaves. And the last anyone would see of the series again on TV would be years later when Toonami was revived as part of Adult Swim's “April Fools” stunt where they showed the penultimate episode of the series.
  • Star-Making Role:
  • Technology Marches On: The fact that Chapter Black, a recorded instance of all of humanity's evil is a demonic VHS tape really dates when the show was made.
  • Torch the Franchise and Run: Togashi didn't particularly want to continue the story past the Chapter Black arc (or at least was in conflict with his editors about where the story should go), so after the Three Kings arc (which cuts off mid-story before jumping ahead to the end rather anti-climactically), the manga has a series of one-off low stakes stories that lead up to the revelation that King Enma had been brainwashing demons and unleashing them on the human world to help pad his rate of solving cases against criminals. Despite what is implied by the rest of the story, demons are apparently normally no more prone to violence than the average human. With this and Yusuke settling down to open a ramen shop, there was no way for the story to possibly continue.
  • Trans Character, Cis Actor: One member of The Demon Triad, Miyuki, while initially presented as cis, is quickly revealed to be a trans woman (demoness?), and is voiced by cis actresses Ako Mayama note  in Japanese and Peggy Paterson in English.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • On one of the DVD commentaries, three out of the four main voice actors admitted they wanted different parts from what they were given. Justin Cook (Yusuke's VA) wanted to be Kurama, Chuck Huber (Hiei's VA) wanted to be Yusuke, Christopher Sabat (Kuwabara's VA) wanted to be Hiei, while John Burgmeier (Kurama's VA) didn't admit that he wanted any particular part. If this were the actual cast and Burgmeier was still part of the main four, he would have been left with Kuwabara.
      • Also, Funimation beat AnimEigo for the US license to the TV series. Supposedly, AnimEigo only planned on releasing the series straight-to-DVD, and possibly sub-only. Them letting Funimation take the license was an early sign of the company scaling down. In the end, Funimation's more ambitious plans for Yu Yu Hakusho ended up paying off, with the series' successful run on Adult Swim and Toonami, along with the merchandising deals.
    • Originally Hiei was introduced as a one-off villain who Yusuke would defeat and be done with. However, Hiei proved to be incredibly popular, so he was kept on board for the rest of the series. This ended up causing some plot issues however with the Jigan Eye and his demonic form, so the demonic form was removed and never reappeared, while the Jigan Eye had to be altered a bit later on as well.
    • Yusuke was going to go through an arc that deconstructs his character. Togashi later refit it for Hunter × Hunter during the Chimera Ant Arc. Judging by that comment, some believe it was supposed to occur after Genkai's death.
  • There is a small short comic that Togashi only gave out to a handful of people. It contains gender-bent Hiei and Kurama and a sketch of Kurama and Karasu as a couple, among several other authors' notes.

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