Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Yuu Yuu Hakusho, YuYu Hakusho, Two Shots

Japanese: 幽☆遊☆白書

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 19

Chapters: 176

Status: Finished

Published: Nov 20, 1990 to Jul 12, 1994

Genres: Action, Award Winning, Comedy, Drama, Supernatural

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Togashi, Yoshihiro (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.20¹ (scored by 29,575 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #409²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #221

Members: 65,065

Favorites: 2,629

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Wikipedia

8.20

Ranked #409Popularity #221Members 65,065

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Togashi, Yoshihiro (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /19

Chapters: /176

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Synopsis

Fourteen-year-old thug Yuusuke Urameshi spends his days skipping school and causing trouble for the adults in his life. Yuusuke regularly engages in street brawls against rival Kazuma Kuwabara and ridicules his childhood friend Keiko Yukimura. Filled with self-loathing and the burden of an alcoholic mother, Yuusuke sacrifices it all in a split-second decision—he tackles a small child out of the way of an oncoming car, losing his life in the process.

Spirit guide Botan intervenes, allowing Yuusuke to see how the people in his life react to his death; he is moved by the emotional ruin his loss causes his mother, Keiko, and even Kuwabara. Additionally, due to his death's heroic nature, he receives an opportunity to return to life from the Spirit World ruler's son, Koenma.

Koenma hires Yuusuke as a "Spirit Detective" and tasks him with solving a series of increasingly challenging paranormal mysteries. Battling and befriending demons such as the beautiful Kurama and hostile Hiei, Yuusuke further develops and utilizes his skills as a fighter. But as dark forces move in the Underworld, Yuusuke struggles alongside his companions to defend everything he took for granted.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho was awarded the 39th Shogakukan Manga Award for best shounen manga in 1993.

The series was published in English as Yu Yu Hakusho by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint from August 18, 2003 to March 2, 2010; in Spanish by Glénat; and in Brazilian Portuguese by Jbc from November 2002 to November 2004—and again in a special edition from October 2014 to April 2016.

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Two Shots/Noru ka Soru ka, Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho

More characters
Characters

Urameshi, Yuusuke

Main

Hiei

Main

Kurama

Main

Kuwabara, Kazuma

Main

Botan

Main

Toguro, Younger

Supporting

Sensui, Shinobu

Supporting

Genkai

Supporting

Koenma

Supporting

Jin

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Sep 20, 2009

Rakuen42

Recommended

The opening volumes, where they try and put Yusuke’s personality on track, was what started to pull me in. He reminds me a lot of Onizuka, another character I loved, in that he’s so wonderfully flawed. You don’t see Goku having some sudden epiphany and becoming a better person because he’s already sitting in the Lawful Good alignment to start with; there’s not a whole lot of room there for progression. By contrast, the delinquent is a great character to make the protagonist because he can’t be perfect and he has to grow at some point. Starting the series off dead ... and in need of redemption really gives that development a kick in the pants too. Of course, Yusuke never makes it marginally close to being paragon of justice. He is generally good, has a sense of justice, and cares about his friends mind you, but ultimately he just wants a good brawl, and saving the world in the process is gravy.

This leads into the other characters. Kuwabara is another delinquent who is determined to become more powerful that Yusuke some day. Since he’s not the main character, you can guess how well this is going to work out. He grows in a much different direction though, motivated by a few events in the story (one seemingly minor) and his blinding determination to never give up. Kurama is a formerly powerful demon that has been stuck inside of a human’s body. Forced to see life through humanity’s eyes, he reforms his ways and becomes a protector of the race. Finally, Hiei is an enigma for the majority of the series, you don’t even find out much of his motivations until the final arc. Even he develops a minor form of justice and a grudging respect for Yusuke. Overall, I loved these characters and their interactions throughout the story. Their personality clashes allow for a decent bit of levity to lighten up the fighting backdrop.

If you’re looking for a story, well, it’s a good thing there’s strong characters, because this is a Shonen series. You should check your story at the door. But, a plot still exists, and there are definite motivations to the characters’ actions. A few of the villains can even be painted as a bit unfortunate in their path to evil (or are they really evil?). The ending theme and eventual moral to this whole story is the same as that which Nippon Ichi has taken and ran with for the past few years. Light is not good and dark is not bad. Judging people based on stereotypes and what you’ve always been taught to believe is never the way to go; each being deserves to be looked at based on their own merits and shortcomings. Given that’s the conclusion, it’s natural that Yusuke ends up being a mostly neutral aligned character. Beyond that, like every shonen, there’s going to be those ludicrous points (such as the entire final arc), but just sit back and let it pay off on sheer enjoyment factor, because it will.

Manga pretty well rests on the art style, and this series doesn’t disappoint. I don’t know how many times I looked at a fight scene… then went back again… and again. They’re drawn well, lots of action and explosions and all that greatness. As a warning though, the further you get in the series, the more gore you’re going to see. Backgrounds are well drawn when they’re the focal point of the panel, and take a natural backseat in quality and appearance when they’d end up detracting from the main attraction. The same process applies to the character designs, and they’re generally in that decent to good range that you get in this genre. I do have to say that I liked a lot of the enemy characters, for appearing for such a short time there’s some original design put into them. In particular, I really liked Younger Toguro’s design.

Bottom line, this is a shonen series; you know roughly what to expect in this territory. If you like the genre then I’m going to wonder why you haven’t read this yet. If you’re not much of a fan, this series might not convert you, but it’ll still be a pretty good ride throughout.

Final Score: 8/10 SPIRIT SHOTGUNS!

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Jan 13, 2008

exabyte

Recommended

The story is about a 14 year old boy named Yusuke Urameshi. He dies in a car accident after trying to save a little boy. He ends up being a Spirit Detective (someone who hunts down demons in the human world and solves cases). So we get to see him solve some cases and kick some ass. The story gets more interesting in the Dark Tournament Arc where you see some of the nicest moves the show has to offer (Dragon of the Darkness Flame anyone?). The third arc is Chapter Black Arc, which talks about some psycho trying to ...

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Sep 12, 2018

ChouEritto

Mixed Feelings

Yu Yu Hakusho is a series that has garnered a reputation as a great classic amongst many members of the anime/manga community. Much like many Battle Shonen, however, most of the praise YYH gains as a great work is purely fuelled by one of the major banes of critical thinking; nostalgia.

Note that this review will be more of a spoiler-filled analysis of each arc of the series to fully analyse the story's quality, particularly for a fair lengthed Shonen in which delving into detail is fairly necessary.

===Part 1: Spirit Detective Arc===

The Spirit Detective Arc, whilst having an interesting beginning, quickly turns into 2 volumes of ...

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Netflix Japan revealed on Wednesday that Yoshihiro Togashi's Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho (Yu Yu Hakusho) manga will receive a live-action series. Kazutaka Sakamoto (A.I.C.O...read more

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New 'Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho' Anime Special Announced [Update 12/18]

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Dec 16, 2017 3:39 PM by Sakana-san | Discuss (63 comments)

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Poll: Yu Yu Hakusho Chapter 1 Discussion Rasco - Jan 2, 2012	7 replies	by Mochi_sama »» Apr 20, 6:37 AM
Poll: Yu Yu Hakusho Chapter 48 Discussion Rasco - Jan 11, 2012	7 replies	by RafieTheAnimeFan »» Apr 10, 10:06 PM
Yu Yu Hakusho has 78 million copies in circulation DarkHumor04 - Jan 2	0 replies	by DarkHumor04 »» Jan 2, 11:22 PM
Poll: Yu Yu Hakusho Chapter 40 Discussion Rasco - Jan 3, 2012	3 replies	by Noir_Alchemist »» Dec 22, 2022 7:05 PM
Poll: Yu Yu Hakusho Chapter 175 Discussion Rasco - Jan 15, 2012	14 replies	by Chess00 »» Nov 23, 2022 7:02 PM

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