YuYu Hakusho (Anime)

YuYu Hakusho is a Japanese anime series created, written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. The anime was directed by Noriyuki Abe. The series aired from October 10, 1992 to January 7, 1995 in Japan. In English, the episodes aired from February 23, 2002 to April 1, 2006 on Cartoon Network. Initially, the episodes were shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block from February 2002 to April 2003 and switched to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block for the remaining episodes. The series tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is struck by a car while trying to save a child's life. While in the afterlife, he is named the Spirit Detective by Koenma & Botan, and must investigate cases concerning demons and apparitions. Yusuke travels with his friends Kuwabara, Kurama & Hiei, the other protagonists of the story. As the series progresses, the series strays away from a detective story to a more fighting-oriented story.

Background
YuYu Hakusho follows Yusuke Urameshi, a street-brawling delinquent who, in an uncharacteristic act of altruism, is hit by a car and killed in an attempt to save a young boy by pushing him out of the way. His ghost is greeted by Botan, a woman who introduces herself as the pilot of the River Styx, who ferries souls to the "Underworld" or Spirit World (霊界 Reikai?) where they may be judged for the afterlife. Botan informs Yusuke that his act had caught even the Underworld by surprise and that there was not yet a place made for him in either heaven or hell. Thus Koenma, son of the Underworld's ruler King Enma, offers Yusuke a chance to return to his body through a series of tests. Yusuke succeeds with the help of his friends Keiko Yukimura and Kazuma Kuwabara. After returning to life, Koenma grants Yusuke the title of "Underworld Detective" (霊界探偵 Reikai Tantei?, lit. "Spirit World Detective"), charging him with investigating supernatural activity within the Human World (人間界 Ningen Kai?). Soon Yusuke is off on his first case, retrieving three treasures stolen from the Underworld by a gang of demons: Hiei, Kurama and Goki.

Yusuke collects the three treasures with the aid of his new technique, the "Rei Gun", a shot of aura or Reiki (霊気 Reiki?, "Spirit Energy") fired mentally from his index finger. He then travels to the mountains in search of the aged, female martial arts master Genkai. Together with his rival Kuwabara, Yusuke fights through a tournament organized by Genkai to find her successor. Yusuke uses the competition as a cover to search for Rando, a demon who steals the techniques of martial arts masters and kills them. Yusuke defeats Rando in the final round of the tournament and trains with Genkai for several months, gaining more mastery over his aura. Yusuke is then sent to Maze Castle in the Demon Plane (魔界 Makai?, lit. "Demon World"), a third world occupied solely by demons, where Kuwabara and the newly reformed Kurama and Hiei assist him in defeating the Four Beasts, a quartet of demons attempting to blackmail Koenma into removing the barrier keeping them out of the human world.

Yusuke's next case sends him on a rescue mission, where he meets Toguro, a human turned into a demon. In order to test his strength, Toguro invites Yusuke to the Dark Tournament (暗黒武術会 Ankoku Bujutsukai?, "Dark Martial Arts Association"), an event put on by corrupt, rich humans in which teams of demons, and occasionally humans, fight fierce battles for the chance to receive any wish they desire. Team Urameshi, consisting of Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and a disguised Genkai, traverse through the strenuous early rounds to face Team Toguro in the finals and win the tournament. They learn that Team Toguro's owner, Sakyo, was attempting to win in order to create a large hole from the human world to the Demon Plane and allow countless demons through. With his loss, Sakyo destroys the tournament arena, killing himself in the process.

After the tournament, Yusuke returns home, but has little time to rest as he is challenged to a fight by three teenagers possessing superhuman powers and who end up taking the detective hostage. Kuwabara and the others rescue him and learn that the whole scenario was a test put on by Genkai. It is disclosed that Shinobu Sensui, Yusuke's predecessor as Underworld Detective, has recruited six other powerful beings to help him take over where Sakyo left off, opening a hole to the Demon Plane in order to cause genocide of the human race. Yusuke and his friends challenge and defeat Sensui's associates one-by-one, culminating in a final battle between the two detectives. Sensui kills Yusuke then retreats into the newly opened portal to the Demon Plane. Yusuke is reborn as a partial demon, discovering that his ancestor passed down a recessive gene that would hide until an heir with sufficient power surfaced, when his demonic lineage would be revealed. Yusuke travels to the Demon Plane and defeats Sensui with the aid of the spirit of his ancestor who takes control of Yusuke's body to finish the fight.

As they return to the human world, Yusuke is stripped of his detective title as King Enma orders he be captured and executed in fear that Yusuke's demon blood could cause him to go on a rampage in the human world. Yusuke, unsettled at having been controlled by his ancestor Raizen, accepts an offer by Raizen's followers to return to the Demon Plane. Raizen, desiring a successor to his territory, is on the brink of dying of starvation, a death that would topple the delicate political balance of the three ruling powers of the Demon Plane. Hiei and Kurama are summoned by the other two rulers, Mukuro and Yomi, respectively, to prepare for an inevitable war. The three protagonists train in the realm for one year, during which time Raizen dies and Yusuke inherits his territory. Yusuke takes initiative and proposes a fighting tournament to name the true ruler of the Demon Plane, which is agreed upon by Mukuro and Yomi. During the tournament, Yusuke and Yomi meet in the second elimination round where Yusuke is defeated and knocked unconscious. Yusuke awakens days later to find that the tournament has ended and that a similar competition is to be held every so often to determine the Demon Plane's ruler. Yusuke stays in the Demon Plane for a while longer, but eventually returns to the human world to be with Keiko.

Difference Between Anime and Manga

 * In the manga, when Keiko confronts Yusuke on the roof of their high school. He is seen smoking a cigarette. But in the anime, he is not seen smoking whatsoever. Instead he is seen eating gum that he took out of his pant pocket.

Films

 * YuYu Hakusho movie 1 (The Golden Seal)
 * YuYu Hakusho movie 2 (Bonds of Fire)

Theme Songs

 * Opening


 * "Hohoemi no Bakudan"
 * Closing


 * "Homework ga Owaranai"
 * "Sayonara bye bye"
 * "Daydream Generation"
 * "Unbalance na Kiss wo Shite"
 * "Taiyou ga Mata Kagayaku Toki"

Seasons

 * Spirit Detective Saga (Ep. 1 – 25)
 * Dark Tournament Saga (Ep. 26 – 66)
 * The Chapter Black Saga (Ep. 67 – 94)
 * Saga of the Three Kings (Ep. 95 – 112)

Voice Cast

 * Japanese


 * Nozomu Sasaki as Yusuke
 * Shigeru Chiba as Kuwabara
 * Nobuyuki Hiyama as Hiei
 * Megumi Ogata as Kurama
 * Mayumi Tanaka as Koenma (Child and Teenage)
 * Sanae Miyuki as Botan
 * Yuri Amano as Kayko & Puu
 * Hisako Kyouda as Genkai (old age)
 * Megumi Hayashibara as Young Genkai
 * Yuri Shiratori as Yukina & Sayaka
 * Ai Orikasa as Shizuru
 * Tomomichi Nishimura as Jorge, the principal & the narrator
 * Shigeru Nakahara as Yoko Kurama
 * Tessho Genda as Togoro Otouto
 * Katsumi Suzuki as Toguro Ani
 * Yo Inoue as Rando
 * Nobuyuki Furuta as Sakyo & Shigeru Murota
 * Rokuro Naya as Shinobu Sensui
 * Shin Aomori as Kuromomotaro
 * Mitsuo Senda as Seiryu
 * Ikue Otani as Little Boy (ep 1), Fubuki Sanada & Shura
 * Kazuyuki Sogabe as Gama & Suzuka
 * Takayuki Sugo as Raizen
 * Taro Arakawa as Mr. Yukimura (Keiko's Dad), M2, & the doctor
 * Kenichi Ogata as Tarukane
 * Eiji Maruyama as Master Metamira
 * Shigezo Sasaoka as Ship Captain (ep 26)
 * N/A as Topaz
 * Eiji Sekiguchi as Kaname Hagiri/Sniper
 * Jurota Kosugi as Soketsu
 * Norio Wakamoto as Goki & Chu
 * Kappei Yamaguchi as Jin
 * Takehito Koyasu as Sakamoto
 * Nobuo Tobita as Suzaku
 * Katsumi Suzuki as Sakashita
 * Yoko Somi as Atsuko (Yusuke's Mother)
 * Chieko Honda as Misako
 * Mika Kanai as Sasuga
 * Yu Shimaka as Butijiri & Gokumonki
 * Mitsuaki Madono as Kazemaru
 * Mitsuaki Madono as Komada
 * Rica Matsumoto as Seasman
 * Yoshiko Kamei as Gamemaster & M1
 * Daiki Nakamura as M3
 * Eiji Ito as Seitei & Shu
 * Yasunori Matsumoto as Toya
 * Rin Mizuhara as Miyuki
 * Nobuaki Fukuda as Yama (King Enma) & Shigeru Murota
 * Chisa Yokoyama as Murugu
 * Kazuko Yanaga as Kuroko Sanada Sato
 * Reiko Kondo as Rinku
 * Chiharu Suzuka as Ruka
 * Ikuo Nishikawa as Akashi
 * N/A as Car Driver (ep 1)
 * Toshiyuki Morikawa as Roto & Shishi Wakamaru
 * Hidenari Ugaki as Makintaro
 * English


 * Justin Cook as Yusuke, Kuromomotaro, Puu, Seiryu
 * Christopher R. Sabat as Kuwabara, Gama & Raizen
 * Chuck Huber as Hiei
 * John Burgmeier as Kurama
 * Sean Michael Teague as Koenma (Child and Teenage)
 * Cynthia Cranz as Botan
 * Laura Bailey as Kayko
 * Linda Young as Genkai
 * Jessica Dismuke as Yukina
 * Kasey Buckley as Shizuru
 * Kent Williams as Jorge
 * Bill Townsley as Toguro Ani
 * Eric Vale as Rando & Sakyo
 * Robert McCollum as Shinobu Sensui
 * Aaron Dismuke as Shura
 * Brad Jackson as Mr. Yukimura (Keiko's Dad) & Tarukane
 * Brice Armstrong as Blue Demon (ep 33), Master Metamira, Ogre (ep 2), Ship Captain (ep 26), The Principal & Topaz
 * Carol Hope as Sayaka
 * Ceyli Delgadillo as Little Boy (ep 1)
 * Aaron Hatch as Kaname Hagiri/Sniper
 * Alison Retzloff as Fubuki Sanada (Sato)
 * Dameon Clarke as Soketsu & Togoro Otouto
 * Jeremy Inman as Gokumonki, Goki, Suzuka
 * Jerry Jewell as Jin, Sakamoto, Suzaku
 * Justin Pate as Sakashta
 * Meredith McCoy as Atsuko (Yusuke's Mother), Misako & Sasuga
 * Michael Terry as Seitei
 * Mike McFarland as Butijiri, Kazemaru, Komada, M3, Reshio
 * Monica Rial as Gamemaster
 * Orion Pitts as Shu
 * Peggy Paterson as Miyuki
 * R Bruce Elliott as Yama (King Enma)
 * Kara Edwards as Murugu
 * Kate Bristol as Kaisei Sato (Sanada), Young Kurama (Eps. 46, 108-109)
 * Kent Williams as Chu, George Saotome & the Narrator
 * Kimberly Grant as Rinku
 * Laurie Steele as Ruka
 * Sean Schemmel as Akashi, Car Driver (ep 1), Murota, Roto
 * Shane Ray as Makintaro
 * Sonny Strait as The Doctor

Trivia

 * When YuYu Hakusho was still running in Japan, it was second behind the Dragon Ball Z (Anime) in popularity.
 * Kurama was the most popular anime character in Japan for two years. He beat out the extremely popular Son Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise.
 * Episode 24. In-joke. Urameshi and Kuwabara attack Gokumonki with "Shonen Jump". The manga of Yu Yu Hakusho was originally serialized in Shonen Jump Weekly.
 * Kuwabara's name is a combination of two of Yoshihiro Togashi's favorite baseball players.
 * Kurama and Hiei are both mountains in Japan.
 * Several references to the Sailor Moon metaseries are found throughout YuYu Hakusho, perhaps because series creator Yoshihiro Togashi was dating Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi at the time (whom he later married).
 * In The Three Kings saga, Koenma appears at the tournament dressed incognito as Sailor Moon's Tuxedo Mask. In chapter 44 of the manga, Kurama states: "Just call me Tuxedo Mask." after breaking up a fight by throwing a rose.
 * In the final episode of the series, two of Keiko's classmates bear strong resemblances to Haruka Tenoh (Sailor Uranus) and Michiru Kaioh (Sailor Neptune)
 * In the final episode, while Kurama is speaking to Kuwabara on the train, a sign on a building reads in English "YUYUHAKUSHOEND!".
 * Also in the final episode, in the scene where Keiko is walking home, a truck drives by with the name "Narlboro" on the side, a reference to the cigarette brand Marlboro.
 * The kanji that were used by the author to spell YuYu Hakusho have 2 possible meanings. 1 is "Astral Visit Report", and the other is "Chronicle of Yusuke's Journey". The second is supported by the fact that the same kanji is used for the Yuu in the title, as for the Yu in Yusuke's name (Yusuke means lit. "Ghost Helper", Hakusho translates roughly to document, white paper, or report). The second meaning is also supported by the end of the anime, which states that the show is nothing but a record of Yusuke's travels, recorded by rei-kai intelligence.
 * Kuwabara's favorite band is Megallica, the "Gods of Heavy Metal" as he calls them, in the Chapter Black Saga; Megallica may possibly be a tribute/parody of both Megadeth and Metallica.
 * In episode 6, the words "Mad Piero" can be seen as graffiti on one of the walls. This is a self-reference from the anime studio behind the production of the series, Pierrot, whose name is pronounced as Piero, and is the Japanese word for clown, derived from the French language. A villain by the name of "Mad Piero" also appears in the anime title Cowboy Bebop.
 * In episode 9, The Successor to Genkai! The Tournament Begins, background characters that look remarkably like Zangief, Dhalsim and E.Honda from the fighting game franchise Street Fighter appear behind Yusuke and Kuwabara.
 * In episode 9 a character that resembles Chun Li, from the back, appears in the line to draw lots.
 * In episode 21, when Yusuke reawakens in Kuwabara's room after the Maze Castle battle, we discover that he has an Oingo Boingo (American New Wave rock band started in the 1980s) poster on his wall in the background.
 * In episode 22, when Yusuke, Botan, Kuwabara and his sister Shizuru were watching a video (VHS) (sent by Hiei under orders from Koenma) about Yukina, Koenma spoofed (with trademarks of his own name) Columbia Pictures, with Koenma posing and holding a torch. Shortly afterwards, a stunted male oni appeared, meowing inside the name 'Koenma' as a parody of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion.
 * An inconsistency that occurred during the Saga of the Three Kings story arc was that in episode 26 of both the English and Japanese versions, Hiei says that he and his sister are half siblings and have different mothers. Yet in episode 100 in his reflections of his life, they have the same mother.
 * In The Three Kings saga there are some pretty obvious references to Star Wars. One of these occurs in episode 99 (Unforgettable Memory) in which Mukuro replies to Hiei "I won’t say something like 'I Am Your Father'”. Another parody is in episode 101 (The Makai Thief) when Yomi’s assistant, a short, old ,one colore and wrinkled demon, Yoda appears.

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