And yet, I'd always felt drawn to a show called "Yuu Yuu Hakusho", partly because I'd played a good game based on it. Eventually I decided to bite the bullet and sat down to watch what was at the time the longest anime I'd ever attempted to watch in full.
To say that I wasn't disappointed would be an understatement - I honestly did not think I could get so much enjoyment out of this kind of anime ... with said enjoyment tempered only by the dreaded realisation that maybe, just maybe, I am no better than a narutard.
Then again, maybe "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" is actually good? It does appear to have more of a respectable reputation, and doesn't get shat with regularity by critics. Not having watched many other shows of its ilk though, it's hard for me to tell. I can only tell you how it defied my own expectations of it.
First of all, "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" doesn't just focus on the action: it has a strong all round game, boasting a substantial story and a cast of characters oozing coolness and charisma. In fact, it takes nearly 10 episodes before it becomes apparent that "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" is a fighting anime. Those early episodes tell the backstory of how the main character Yusuke Urameshi becomes a spirit detective after his premature death, and I found them to be thoroughly enjoyable. The strong characterisation jumps out from the very beginning: Urameshi's goofy classmate Kuwabara won me in a single character focused episode early on, and I felt sure he was going to be my favourite character in the show. Until Kurama and Hiei showed up, who in turn captivated my attention me with their personalities. Both spent time as my favourite characters of the show ... until Kuwabara gets spotlighted once again. There was something effortless about the appeal of these characters, and I struggle to think of another series where my favourite character changed so many times.
While the original creator Yoshiro Togashi had always planned for "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" to switch into the fighting genre, there were nevertheless signs he may have wanted to do something more with it. For example, when Urameshi first became a spirit detective, he was given several interesting tools to help him do his job. However, those tools quickly disappeared from the plot line with so little use that whoever bought them could have got a refund. Togashi would go on to create the genre-hopping shounen "Hunter x Hunter" where those kind of curious items would feature more heavily. "Yuu Yuu Hakusho", though, had to settle for being more conventional, perhaps because Togashi just wasn't able to take those budding ideas anywhere interesting at the time.
Initially, I was dismayed when the show went from one with engaging story and characters to one displaying all the cliches I'd heard about the genre: increasingly long and drawn out battles, hero being beaten within an inch of his life before making a miracle comeback via a single attack, etc. But that all started changing once the Dark Tournament saga began. As anyone who's watched "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" can tell you, the Dark Tournament is undoubtedly the highlight of the series. Once again, the masterful story telling shines through, with the show ratcheting up the tension and excitement before the tournament even starts. Though still peddling in many of the genre's cliches, the fights were incredibly engrossing, with the myriad of colourful participants and their fascinating powers keeping things interesting. I struggle to recall a single boring fight in the entire tournament. Mixed in with all this is the powerful character drama that upped the emotional stakes to incredible levels. Like I said, "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" has a strong all round game, and in the Dark Tournament, the show fires on all fronts.
The Dark Tournament saga was so good that the show would never go on to hit those dizzying heights again. That said, latter half of "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" is still mostly enjoyable. The start of the next part of the story, Chapter Black, begins with battles against characters with some really intriguing powers. None of the battles involved direct conflict, and one didn't involve physical combat at all. Again, these unusual ideas weren't taken very far, but would resurface more prominently in "Hunter x Hunter".
By the end of the Chapter Black saga, I started to get tired of "Yuu Yuu Hakusho". The fights were getting too drawn out for my liking, and the power level creep began getting out of hand. The problems only got worse in the final part of the anime, the Three Kings Saga, which involves - surprise surprise - yet another tournament. By now, everyone was so powerful it kinda diminished the impact of the Dark Tournament, making it look like some kids having a playground brawl. The excitement of the battles also seems inversely proportional to the power level of the fighters, which meant by then I found them about as thrilling as doing laundry. One of the few good things to come out of the Three Kings saga were the backstories of Kurama and Hiei - when the action failed, the story and characters could still somewhat carry the show. Even though "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" was unusual in that Togashi was able to end the story on his own terms rather than continuing until it's limping like a one legged horse on crutches and everyone becomes sick of it, I still feel the show went on for one saga too long. It is perhaps telling that Togashi originally intended to finish the story with Chapter Black.
Production value wise, "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" fares pretty well as a long running shounen. In particular, I remember the recaps during opening scenes often contain redrawn animations of action highlights in previous episodes, presenting them with different angles. The art style hasn't aged particularly well, but some of the action still looked great when I last checked. The sound production often evokes the feelings of a bygone era, but not in a bad way. While most of the opening and ending themes kinda sucked, the background music and sound effects did a good job at dramatising.
I've watched "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" several times now. While I'm no longer as enamoured with it as my first watch, the series remains one of my favourites. For about a decade, it was also the longest anime I completed - the longest period any anime has held that title for since I become a Serious Anime Watcher (incidentally, the current holder is the latest adaptation of another of Togashi's works Hunter x Hunter). Taking into account rewatches, it's fair to say that the many hundreds of episodes of "Yuu Yuu Hakusho" I watched probably makes it my most watched anime as measured by time spent watching. It also represented a significant step in expanding my anime horizons. Perhaps one of these days I should pick up"Naruto" too ... but not today.
Personal rating: +2.5 (excellent)
