Related Titles: Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie (1st anime movie) | Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report: Fight for the Netherworld (2nd anime movie)

Genre: Supernatural | Martial Arts | Action | Comedy | (hint of) Horror
Alternate titles: 幽★遊★白書 | Yu Yu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report | Poltergeist Report | Spirit Detectives | Ghost Detectives | Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files | Yuu Yuu Hakushou (plus various other spellings of this title)
Production Companies: Pierrot
American Liscensing Company: FUNimation
Format: 112 episodes (maybe a couple extra ones in there also)
Dates: 10/10/1992 to 01/07/1995
Original Creator: Yoshihiro Togasami
Age Rating: Not suitable for young children; 15-18 and up

Synopsis: One day, 14 year old Yusuke Urameshi suddenly finds himself dead, having died pushing a child out of the way of oncoming traffic. Since he's such a bad delinquent, even the Spirit World was caught by surpise that he would sacrafice his life and die. Yusuke soon finds out he wasn't suppose to die and has a chance for resurrection and bringing his body back to life. Now he needs the help of the Oarswoman of the River of Death, the bubbly Botan, as well as the help of his only real friend since childhood, Keiko, and his not very bright rival Kuwabara who quickly becomes his rough and tough best friend. After he gets resurrected, what is this business about him having a debt to repay for being able to come back to life? What is this new job he now has called a Spirit Detective? Yusuke doesn't want the job, but along the way of his investigations he meets new comrades like Kurama and Hiei. Soon, because of many incidents, he starts increasing his spiritual powers, and competes in stadium battles that makes him a feared and despised fighter in the Demon World and the Spirit World. Why is he such a good fighter? Is it just all dumb luck? And how long will he have to be a detective...and just how many times will he have to save both the Human World and the Spirit World?

SCORE: 87%

To sum up Yu Yu Hakusho, you can call it "Dragon Ball Z with even more spirits and demons with a detective theme" (even though the detective theme kinda diminishes and reappears several times between story arcs). It's like this because this show and DBZ came out at the same time in the early 90s and were competing for the same audience, making both shows very similar to each other. But I think this series is better...and I love it! I think it's better ^_^.

Plot: To be honest, this show isn't much better than DBZ sometimes, even though the original premise to this show was very amusing and original. With competition like DBZ, this show started changing its plot in a few arcs and followed the same battle spirit and martial arts competition theme of DBZ. Who decided to do these type of energy battles first? Who knows? YYH even had a few demon power-ups for 3 of the 4 main male characters, which is their equivelent to DBZ's Super Saiyan power-ups. Who did the power-ups first? Who knows? All this fighting in both YYH and DBZ can get really old really quick, but YYH isn't nearly as bad as DBZ, since the fights are shorter and look more amazing, realistic and painful. However, this show is still entertaining because of the characters (and even the rival fighters who tend to be just as cool and as good hearted as the main characters).

Unlike DBZ, you can get attached to these characters a little easier, even if they are stereotypes (Yusuke: Main Badass, Kuwabara: Big dumb good-hearted lug, Kurama: Pretty, pretty boy and possible bisexual/homosexual or at least an extreme romantic, Hiei: Short Jerk with a dark past who's really good at heart, Botan: Bubbleheaded girl/Healer, Yukina: The weak beauty type that is liked in Japan, Keiko: The ideal girlfriend that cooks and cleans, Koenma: comic relief/higher power and Genkai: kickass granny with an attitude).

But, I have to give this show props for having Yusuke's (the main character no less!) martial arts/spiritual master be an elderly woman named Genkai. Even though the vast majority of fighters are male, one of the most powerful, feared and respected spiritual masters is a woman. And she's not a softly spoken, gentle elderly woman either! A truly powerful woman is something I have never seen in DBZ (There were no women who could become Super Saiyan, even though most of the ladies do have a good amount of fight and skill). Kuwabara's older sis definitely has a good amount of kickass ability also as a possesser of ESP like her brother. At least Yusuke isn't nearly as stupid as Goku and can be a little intelligent when it comes to his girlfriend (and also the guys ablities to be cute so often is very different from DBZ). I also have enjoyed laughing at the sometimes dumb situations in the show, and the humor it contains from Yusuke and Kuwabara being so mouthy, as well as other characters' personalities.

The plot is better and shorter, and the characters are well developed. Unlike DBZ and Sailor Moon, this series can appeal to both guys and girls a little better, and not just preteen boys (DBZ) or little girls (Sailor Moon). Don't get me wrong, this series was aimed more towards guys, but you would be amazed by the female following this series has (on the web, which includes myself ^_^).

YYH is a series that definitely stands on it's on when it comes to plot, visual and especially character. This is no DBZ, and it's better.

Visual: Visually this show's animation wasn't much better than DBZ or Sailor Moon...at first. The animation becomes steadily better (like most series, including DBZ and Sailor Moon) and the violence and pain portrayed in the fights seems much more realistic than most of the other fights seen in other run-of-the-mill early 90s and very commericial fighting anime. Also, the techinques the characters use to fight seem to have a lot of variety and aren't all just power blasts (examples: Hiei's third eye or Kurama's use of Makai plants). Some of the sweetest moments I have ever seen are in YYH without being an overpowerful drowning of their own sentimentality (say that sentence ten times fast ^_^). This series isn't afraid to have their main guys including the kick ass leader cry, or to show weird humor and just plain cuteness. Kewl ^_^.

As always I have to state that I enjoy Yusuke's hair a lot. I mean, how often to you see a main male (and a reknowned badass) character look that cute, (almost girly) because his hairdo actually gets messed up? Not often. I have to say that I have enjoyed a lot of YYH official artwork from the anime because of its ability to make 4 guys look so cute in so many different situations with only a few differences between pictures. ^_^ And the people who made this art weren't afraid of doing it either, apparently. ^_^

Sound: Love them voices. So, so very perfect for the characters! I thought I recognized Yusuke's voice (think Tetsuo from Akira ^_^), and I love Kurama's (his voice is by my favorite voice actress, Megumi Ogata!).

Sound effects, not extraordinary, but pull off what they need to. Very good. ^_^

Music! Gotta love that cheesy early 90s music! I don't like pop, but I liked this Jpop! Hee, hee, so much of this show is almost retro, including the music. It reminded me of disco! LOL (I'm not a big fan of disco, but I love the fun dance kind that isn't annoying; think KC & The Sunshine Band). This cheesy retro is beautiful, just beautiful! It reminds me of so many things from when I was a small fry in the early 90s (I was only 8 when this anime series started), including this bad music/early 90s almost rap (that showed up everyone, like in The Simpsons). Absolutely beautiful. ^_^

The Dub: Wonderful! But maybe I think that 'cause I saw a few dubbed eps first before watching subtitled ones. But, the dub is still good. The acting is great, and the translation is very accurate! I do have to say that I have a hard time telling Hiei and Kurama's voices apart, but otherwise the dub is good and sometimes has the great ability to insert new puns and jokes without changing any of the original script or being extremely stupid.

Dub Letter Grade: B+

Extra Rants and Bitching: LOL, I love Kurama! And Hiei! Kurama and Hiei! I know I would find that amusing if they were a couple. Enough girl fans want to think that these two guys are hooked up, I know that. I've seen the sites...LOL. I have probably enjoyed trying to guess if Kurama is truly just that girly because he's merely too elegant and too much of a romantic.

The fanbases on the net Kurama and Hiei have are incredible (including with the two together as a couple). I have probably enjoyed the shounen-ai and vaguely yaoi doujinshi and fan fiction about these two even more than the real series lol, because it's just plain wrong! Kurama, Hiei and the doujinshi I read first is what made me really start to like and watch the actual show! Sad, eh? It's funny to read what fans think and come up with (including every kind of MalexMale matchup possible from this series! 0.0 Geez!).

Now, don't get mad, I'm not saying that's the situation in the real show at all. However, the original creator, Yoshihiro Togasami, has stated that Hiei and Kurama were not meant to be a couple when he first created them.

However, it was no wonder fans started the debate when they noticed the two are both missing at the same time, they're constantly paired together, their personalities seem to work together, they have known each other longer before they were ordered to team up with Yusukue, and their constant respect and talking with each other makes it very probable (Plus they sing songs together on YYH Music Albums! [even though they have solo songs, but only these two seem to do most of the solos...] They have some sexy voices, especially Hiei's, LOL). It really makes you wonder, when Hiei will only talk with Kurama or put up with only Kurama's actions and teasing he has towards him. But they're probably just really good friends, right?

But then again, some production art of the two doesn't help the situation, and of course Hiei's cute shortness and aloofness, and Kurama's elegant, girly, pretty appearance doesn't help either.

Togasami wisely decided when this situation developed, to leave this debate and all the guessing to the fans, so he wouldn't lose any fans on either side of the arguement. Wise, eh?

In any case, don't worry if you are scared of this kind of stuff, since anything hinted at them as being a couple in the series is very vague, and nothing ever happens. Just be careful when your surfing YYH sites though. But if you find it amusing like me, and want to dream, it's up to you, LOL.

I also love this series for putting so many charcters in those awful outfits that were all the rage in the early 90s that had carried over a little bit from the 80s.

Geez! Denim, leopard prints, open shirts, jackets without shirts and halfway-dressup pants and jackets for leisure wear? Guys wearing pink and white with no problems (a guy wearing pastels is weird and it's a stereotype, but a very powerful one here in the U.S. afterall) and awfully, seemingly tight jeans. Also, no problems wearing more seemingly feminine attire, such as scarfs, chokers, some jewelry and gloves, including opera length kind of gloves, all on guys?. I don't know any 14 to 16 year old boys willing to wear that stuff on a daily basis at the present date. Indeed, very early 90s-ish ^_^. Plus, there's their ability to lose their shirts extremely quick, lol.

The pics I have here on this page are the tip of the iceberg compared to some pics I found and the outfits that the characters are wearing (and it's all official art too, often based off Yoshihiro Togasami's original manga art). Y'think the ones here are bad? You ain't seen nothing yet. I have a lot of pretty pictures from this series ^_^.

Gotta admit, I have to give props to a show that isn't worried one bit to make their main badass character (or all 4 of the main male characters) look a little girly and extremely cute once in awhile.

Also, it's great how Yusuke, when not in school uniform has a great standard outfit. It's usually a red jacket (a nicer, green suit lookin' jacket later on) but he wears tight jeans, white high tops, a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he insists on having his hair slicked back. What a throw back to the 50s!

Kurama's choice of wear and accessories are great. ^_^ There is hardly a time when that boy doesn't wear at least one item of clothing that is either pink or white. If not, he usually has a pastel color, usually lavender on. ^_^ DAMN he's pretty! DAMN! I still gotta say, if he's not bi or gay, he sure is sure of himself and how he looks (because he is mistaken as a girl by characters in the series) and sure is a really extreme romantic!

Oh, yeah, and always, I love how Kurama's voiced by a woman, Megumi Ogata, who later did Sailor Uranus's voice from Sailor Moon, Shinji Ikari from Eva and Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! ^_^ Cool ^_^. Kurama was her debut role, and this role is what made her my favorite female seiyuu. Nifty, neh?

I've enjoyed the very early 90ish music from this series too much too. Especially the songs sung by the actual voice actors as the characters. Those are always fun. LOL

Score Comments: Usually I wouldn't give such a highly commericial anime such a high rating, but I enjoy this story and characters (even if they are a bit stereotypical) immensely, even with this series' minor little flaws. Besides, if you really enjoy good, decent anime, most good anime tends to be extremely serious. Everyone out there needs an anime they can watch and enjoy without thinking, but is still of good quality. For me, this is the series that fulfills that part of my anime diet, and I watch it out of mere and extreme enjoyment. I suggest you check out at least a few episodes of this series and enjoy! ^_^ (Here's a hint to catching some episodes, dubbed ones anyway, that are also good: look out for this show on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network)

MAJOR WARNING ABOUT THIS SERIES'S LISCENSING AND IF YOU WANT TO PURCHASE IT: If you want to see the complete, unedited version of this show, you'll probably have to go to the DVDs. Things are probably censored for this show airing on Cartoon Network (even for Adult Swim) and you have to go to your local Sam Goody/Suncoast to get the Uncut DVDs. Wal-Mart sells YYH DVDs, but they're all edited. So, this is your warning!

Websites:
Yu Yu Hakusho (Official FUNimation Site: Is rather new, being open only since January 2002)
Smooth Yu Yu Hakusho (One of the best YYH fan sites out there)

Have a website about this series, or do you know of a good one? Want me to link to it on this review? Well, the feel free to email the sucker to me! Just make sure to put "Review Link" in the subject.