Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghostfiles

This review is spoiler free.

In 2015 I was at my local convention enjoying the closing ceremonies, a certain AMV played and then I realized I had really been missing out. The video was for “Yu Yu Hakusho” the acclaimed adaptation of Yoshihiro Togashi’s influential manga. And in that moment it was as if lightening had struck me and opened by eyes to something I should have seen a long time ago. I had always been aware of the series, in fact the reason I had decided to watch the 2011 “Hunter x Hunter” anime was because of people saying “it’s by the guy who did ‘Yu Yu Hakusho’”. However due to a variety of reasons including the fact that I didn’t have access to Cartoon Network when it was airing on American TV I just had not seen it for myself. But once I finally sat down to watch it I was completely blown away. Not only was it as good as “Hunter x Hunter”, it may have even been better. All throughout its 112 episode run I was hooked and when it came time for me to rewatch it I was impressed all over again. With its unique blend of action, horror, comedy, and fantasy it is easily one of the highlights of the 90s that helped inspire hits like “Naruto”, “Bleach”, and I even see some influence in “Kimetsu no Yaiba”. Not to mention the ways it helped pave the way for Togashi’s other big hit. More than that though, it is also one of the greatest anime to come from that decade. As someone who loves shonen anime and manga this is something I cannot recommend enough.

Our protagonist is the fourteen year old delinquent Yusuke Urameshi. He’s brash, he’s aggressive, he’s sharp tongued, and he’s dead. While skipping school he has a moment of surprising selflessness and saves a small child from being hit by a car at the expense of his life. After meeting the Shinigami Botan he is brought to meet Koenma, the son of King Enma and ruler of the Spirit Realm. Koenma senses Yusuke possesses an unusually high spirit energy and upon having him complete a series of tasks he is resurrected and appointed as a Spirit Detective. Once granted his new chance at life he develops a new friendship with a previously rival delinquent, Kazuma Kuwabara, and undergoes the tutelage of the martial arts master Genkai. Through a series of missions he eventually builds relationships with the beautiful and benevolent fox demon Kurama and the dark and mysterious Jagan master Hiei. Together these characters make up our main cast and we follow them through rescue missions, to the epic splendor of the Dark Tournament, to a brewing war in the Demon Realm, and so much more in between.

When it comes to the characters I think Togashi really hit it out of the park. Yusuke is one of my favorite protagonists in all of anime and a perfect example of how to make an amoral character that isn’t placed on some pedestal because he’s the main character. Yusuke can be selfish, he makes mistakes in his relationships, he is impulsive, and he has little to no concern for being polite. Often someone has to tell him the way he’s behaving isn’t okay, usually with it being either Kuwabara or his childhood friend and love interest Keiko. The flaws that he possesses feel like genuine flaws, they aren’t distorted into feeling like something positive or ignored. What keeps him from feeling too far in one direction is the fact that Togashi understood where to place his good qualities and keep him balanced. Yusuke is a very funny and enjoyable personality despite his issues and we see on several occasions what he values and wants to protect. Despite his problems with his mother, Atsuko, he still couldn’t bear to see her grieve his death and his budding romance with Keiko offers a softer side to Yusuke. And as the series progresses you see him develop into a stronger version of himself. With a character like Kuwabara even though he’s another loud delinquent teen he is also surprisingly level headed compared to Yusuke, often acting as a voice of reason. He also possesses a romantic side that serves for some really endearing and lighthearted moments. As a full blooded human in a group containing two demons and someone who came back from the dead he sometimes has his struggles with fighting, but when the moment strikes he can surprise everyone with what he’s capable of. Kurama is a character who I think would have been very flat in the hands of a lesser writer, but thankfully Togashi is not that. He was once a legendary demon thief who suffered a near fatal injury and had to take refuge within the body of a human couple’s son. By becoming their child he found himself softening to humanity and even going as far as to offer his own life in exchange for saving his mother. But when things get tense we see the thorns beneath the elegant surface and get a taste for the demon Kurama once was. In the case of Hiei he is another that could have been dull in the hands of somebody else. Unlike someone like Vegeta, his most obvious predecessor, Hiei is given more depth of personality and isn’t purely defined by his lust for power. When it’s discovered that his sister Yukina has been kidnapped we see that Hiei is willing to go to great lengths for her even if he doesn’t gain anything from it. He guards his secrets with an iron grip, but when the viewer comes to learn about them Hiei is seen in a whole new light. And unlike the characters he would influence, like Sasuke Uchiha, he is also capable of having a dry humorous side and being used in some really enjoyable comedic scenes at his expense. This main set of four is just spectacular, one of the best main casts from a Jump series, and I can’t imagine the anime without them.

One of the reasons I like Togashi so much as a mangaka is how he is able to work with various shonen conventions and still provide a unique spin on them. Many have said he was subverting tropes in “Hunter x Hunter”, but what I really think he was doing was offering his own take on certain concepts and ideas. The same applies to “Yu Yu Hakusho” as well. One of the best examples is within the iconic Dark Tournament arc. Big arcs built around fighting tournaments were not a new concept when Togashi wrote this, but despite how common this type of arc is to a shonen fan he keeps it fresh. We see throughout the tournament that Team Urameshi was at a consistent disadvantage because the organizers of the event didn’t want them to succeed and neither did the audience. The people running it go to all kinds of measures to hinder their chances at winning and it can make the viewer feel rather frustrated along with the characters. This is a great thing though because in so many action heavy arcs like this I don’t feel as if the main characters are fighting against much of anything. They may fumble for a brief period, but they still end up winning in a way that doesn’t feel like it was earned and feels more like the plot dictating the events. With this arc there are times where Yusuke doesn’t get to fight and we see how the personal decisions Hiei makes end up hurting his ability to participate. There are also times where the rules of the tournament come back to bite the characters. It doesn’t feel like they had it easy for this arc and that’s why when they are victorious it feels amazing. Another shonen classic is having the antagonist parallel the main character, we all saw plenty of this in “Naruto”. However I feel like it gets explored better in this anime with the connection between Sensui and Yusuke. Sensui was once a Spirit Detective until he made a shocking discovery about those he was protecting and broke away from it all sinking further into darkness. Through him we are asked to confront if this job is going to benefit Yusuke in the long run, will he end up like Sensui? It feels very engaging because Yusuke has already shown that there is a certain risk with him, he isn’t a wholesome and perfect person and doesn’t listen to authority figures. So the thought of him going down a different path has weight. There are also the previously discussed ways Togashi worked with popular character archetypes and found ways to make them more than their tropes. I also think it’s worth mentioning how the audience sees a great deal of development between Yusuke and Keiko romantically, something so many shonen don’t bother with and treat like an afterthought. When it comes to Togashi’s writing choices it never feels like he’s showing off or trying to deconstruct things. What I gain is this sense of someone who really loves shonen anime and manga providing his own twist on the familiar.

The anime ran from 1992 to 1995 and was produced by Studio Pierrot and what they accomplished with it feels truly miraculous. To have a long running TV anime in the early 90s be as consistently well animated as “Yu Yu Hakusho” is no small feat. Something that a lot of people need to realize is that the 90s was a rough period for the anime industry due to a period of economic stagnation that hit Japan around 1991 and lasted throughout the decade, which has since led to it being referred to as the Lost Decade. The effects that this had on Japan were so large that the economy is in many ways still recovering and the anime industry took a very massive blow. Some have even called this the biggest moment in anime history along with the release of the original “Astro Boy” TV series. Due to this many TV anime from the 90s experienced production and budget issues and the ones that we all know and love as animation marvels are outliers. Many anime fans will often cite shows like “Neon Genesis Evangelion” as proof that anime in the 90s were all amazing, but what those people fail to realize is Hideaki Anno experienced many problems during its production and its higher quality episodes don’t really speak for other anime of that time. Shows like “Evangelion” and “Yu Yu Hakusho” are ultimately the exception, not the rule, when it comes to 90s anime. This show was directed by Noriyuki Abe who would go on to direct “Bleach” as well as serving as chief director for the first 104 episodes of “Boruto” and I can’t begin to imagine what it was like for him to make this anime. To have an anime air consecutively for years and to keep the animation this consistent and fill it with some of the best sakuga of the decade feels unreal. Among its staff was a then up and coming director by the name of Akiyuki Shinbo. Since then he has gone on to be the brain behind the “Monogatari” series, “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”, “Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei”, and “Sangatsu no Lion”. You may have heard of them. He directed and storyboarded several episodes during the anime’s run and they are among the best in the entire show. Episode 30 in particular stands out for both Shinbo’s direction and one of my all-time favorite animation cuts done by Atsushi Wakabayashi, who went on to do amazing work in “Naruto”.

EPILEPSY WARNING, FLASHING LIGHTS

The episodes directed by the other staff members don’t slack off either, some of them are so top notch that they feel like one big series of sakuga moments in a twenty-three minute run time. Whether its body horror like in the fight between Kuwabara and elder Toguro or character animation like what we see between Sensui and Yusuke in their climactic battle, there are so many memorable scenes thanks in part to the effort and talent of the animators. I would go so far as to say this is the best animated Jump adaptation of all time. It really is that good.

“Yu Yu Hakusho” is an anime that reminds me of why I enjoy shonen so much. The action, the characters, the creative fighting styles, the settings, the humor, the drama, I feel like it encapsulates so much of what keeps me going back to Jump. While it isn’t offering the same sort of thought provoking themes I would find in a Naoki Urasawa manga, it also doesn’t need to do that to be great. It does have its fair share of interesting plot threads and character arcs, but I don’t think it ever felt like that was disrupting the tone that originally brought me to it. What Togashi laid out in his story was so chock full of fun and entertainment that I didn’t want it to stop. It speaks volumes of the anime’s quality that I found myself saying “after this episode I’ll turn it off” and then I’d end up watching several more. I didn’t want to put it down and when I decided to rewatch it I was actively excited to watch it every night. Like I had said when I reviewed “Gintama”, it really says a lot to be able to go back to a long form anime and still be in your seat and engaged like you were when you first watched it. I still laughed and cried at all the places that I did on the first viewing and found myself paying even closer attention to the stunning visuals. Not to mention the seiyuu cast consisting of Nozomu Sasaki, Shigeru Chiba, Megumi Ogata, Nobuyuki Hiyama, Mayumi Tanaka, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Kappei Yamaguchi, Megumi Hayashibara, Norio Wakamoto, Tesshou Genda, in the main and supporting cast there are so many wonderful performances. We were very fortunate to have an adaptation like this for the manga that Togashi infamously burned himself out making. All the efforts of himself and the staff of the anime paid off and left us with a masterpiece for the ages. It truly is an anime worth seeing whether you love shonen as much as I do or not. After all, the other world isn’t watching for nothing.