#393 Manga Theory 40 | YuYu Hakusho

So, this time, let's introduce YuYu Hakusho, commonly known as "YuYu".
I've only introduced the games in the past, and I haven't introduced the manga yet, have I?

YuYu Hakusho Synopsis

The super delinquent Yusuke Urameshi dies in the very first panel of the first chapter after being hit by a car while trying to protect a boy who was about to be involved in a traffic accident...
It seems that this super delinquent dying while trying to save a boy was unexpected even in the Spirit World, and he is given a trial to return to life by Botan, a guide from the Spirit World.
With the help of his childhood friend Keiko and his rival Kuwabara, he is successfully resurrected, but after his resurrection, he ends up working as a "Spirit Detective," exterminating demons that have moved into the human world.

From there, it shifts into a battle manga.
First, he fights thieves like Hiei and Kurama who stole treasures from the Spirit World, defeats the demon Rando who was planning to do evil, defeats the Four Saint Beasts, and then enters the Dark Tournament battle arc, etc... It gained popularity with the classic Shonen Jump style, and it was a very popular and cool manga that represented the Jump of that time, no, Shonen manga, and even manga as a whole today.

I also owned all the volumes of the comics (I sold them halfway through and bought them again when I entered high school), watched the anime, bought the games, and was quite the YuYu freak.
I think the Dark Tournament arc was one of the peaks, but I also liked the Sensui arc.
The Demon World arc was such a sudden development that I wasn't really into it...

I couldn't watch Dragon Ball at its peak (Frieza arc) in real-time, but I was able to watch YuYu Hakusho at its peak (Toguro Brother arc), so maybe that's why I have such a strong attachment to it!

The Appeal of YuYu Hakusho

1. Easy-to-understand special moves

I think the reason YuYu Hakusho was loved so much is that it was accepted by both children and adults (HUNTER x HUNTER is probably too difficult for children to keep up with).

Yusuke and Kuwabara are supposed to be in the same junior high school, but for some reason, they wear different uniforms, and Kurama also wears a uniform, so they have an approachable look, and the technique Spirit Gun (Reigan) is wonderful with its simple naming and execution.
Besides that, the Spirit Sword is easy to understand, and the Rose Whip, where a rose becomes a whip, is also good.
But above all, there's Hiei.
Cutting 16 times in a single slash, leaving afterimages, and above all, the Dragon of the Darkness Flame! Every elementary school student at the time loved watching that.

Other than that, simple enemy characters like Suzuki who uses a yo-yo, Jin the wind user, and the beautiful demon fighter Suzuki were also good.

2. Phrasing that makes you want to repeat it

And then there's Togashi-sensei's word sense. It's truly outstanding from this point on.
These things really stay with you even after you become an adult.

Also, Togashi-sensei's looseness was good too.
HUNTER×HUNTER is so loose that the serialization has stalled, though.

Kurama calls Kuwabara 'Kuwabara-kun,' but in the scene where Kuwabara is kidnapped, Kurama says something like 'If I do this, Kuwabara will be blown away too,' and in the margin, he writes, 'Oh, I forgot to add the -kun,' and the fact that he gets away with that kind of looseness is great, haha.

3. And then, of course, there's the anime.

The anime was really good.
'I haven't seen the afterlife for nothing!'is a pretty famous phrase, but it's actually a line unique to the anime. I think that kind of creative assertion was really good.

Also, the anime's theme songs really stick with you.

My personal top 10 best bouts in YuYu Hakusho

Runner-up: Old Man vs. Tanuki

This one makes you cry.
Volumes 1-2 feel like a youth romantic comedy, but this tanuki episode (the 'Tanuki Chapter') is a tear-jerker.

10th Place: Yusuke vs. Rando

This is from volumes 3 to 4.
I think the series started gaining popularity around this point, and it shifted into a battle manga with the tournament to find a successor to Master Genkai's 'Spirit Wave' technique. This was fun to watch.
The story moves along at a brisk, enjoyable pace, but then there's this guy at the end:Rando!He's a bad guy! He's completely intent on abusing Master Genkai's techniques!!
In the end, he gets overwhelmed by his own power and is defeated, but he was a character who gave Yusuke quite a hard time early on.
Personally, I liked the assassin 'Kuroda'.

9th Place: Yusuke vs. Suzaku

Then, a group of bad guys called the Four Saint Beasts appears, and the enemies are the four gods: Genbu, Byakko, Seiryu, and Suzaku. They are familiar names from SAGA andBAD BOY MEMORYas well.
Anyway, this guy is evil; he torments the human world with a strange flute and bizarre insects, and Keiko is made to suffer... but Yusuke manages to defeat him.
In this way, the trope ofsaving a suffering heroine by fighting and winning against the bossis a classic, but it's a thrilling development, isn't it?
This part was also fun.

8th Place: Yusuke & Kuwabara vs. The Toguro Brothers

After this, a scumbag character namedGonzo Tarukaneappears, and the Toguro Brothers make their first appearance as his bodyguards.

This Tarukane is a truly evil guy who makes money by imprisoning demons.

The Toguro Brothers are defeated, the Yusuke & Kuwabara team wins, and Tarukane is purged, but... this defeat wasa fix!
The Toguro Brothers had intentionally held back and pretended to lose in order to swindle 66.2 trillion yen out of Tarukane.
Then, Toguro threatens Yusuke because he wants to fight him for real, and to settle the score, Yusuke and his friends head to the Dark Tournament.

7th Place: Hiei vs. Zeru

And then the Dark Tournament—many people would say this was the most interesting part.
I also started reading in real-time around this point, so I was really hooked. I think I bought the comics faster than I bought Jump, so I enjoyed reading volume 7, where this match takes place.

And the moment Hiei rose to stardom was with this 'Dragon of the Darkness Flame'.
We who were reading it were as excited as we were for things like the 'Big Bang Attack' and would imitate it.
Hiei's popularity was incredible.

6th Place: Yusuke vs. Chu

The match between Yusuke and Chu was also really good.
In terms of story, it's only about three chapters, but that's all it needs! Actually, this kind of thing is better. I remember it vividly.
The finalKnife-Edge Deathmatchwas also simple and extremely good.
Normally, it would be ranked higher as a best bout, but since I'm writing this in chronological order, it ends up at this rank.
(It feels like the ranking doesn't really matter anymore... haha)

5th Place: Kuwabara vs. Elder Toguro

So, skipping ahead to the finals.
The 3-on-3 tag match in the second round and the demons from the Makai tournament in the second round (Kurama vs. Toya, Yusuke vs. Jin, Kuwabara vs. Risho, etc.) were all great. The semi-final match against Team Uraotogi was good, and the finals with Kurama vs. Karasu and Hiei vs. Bui were also good, but... due to space constraints in the magazine, I'll skip them.

Now, the fight against Elder Toguro.
This elder brother is apervert who can transformand such, but his personality is also the worst; he just provokes Kuwabara and ends up getting beaten back, lol.
During the serialization, after two matches were over, I thought the third match would be Yusuke & Kuwabara team vs. the Toguro brothers again, so I remember worrying,"I wonder if Kuwabara can beat the elder brother on his own..."lol.
It was a landslide victory that ended up being an unnecessary worry, though... lol.

4th Place: Yusuke vs. Younger Toguro

And finally, the Younger Toguro arc.
This younger brother is a gentleman at first, but gradually becomes evil.
"You don't think you're going to die, do you?"and lines like that were famous quotes that gave the final boss an intimidating presence that remains in manga history.
And in the end, they give it their all, exchange thanks, and he falls.
Younger Toguro was truly an ideal final boss.

3rd Place: Kurama vs. Kaito

After the Dark Tournament ends, we enter the Sensui arc.
Starting with the Sensui battle, elements of psychological warfare are added, and developments that would later connect to HUNTER×HUNTER begin, which is incredibly interesting (though it was difficult to understand during the serialization).

This match between Kurama and Kaito is the quintessence of psychological warfare.
It's super interesting, and I found myself wishing I could have seen even higher-level defensive and offensive battles.

2nd Place: Yusuke vs. Kamiya

Kamiya was a pretty good character, so I wish they had made him stronger.
The setting of him being a doctor—creating viruses, turning his hands into scalpels, performing sutures—was good.
It's a shame he ended up just one step away from being a psycho killer; he was a good character.

1st Place: Yusuke vs. Sensui

And since the Makai Tournament arc was largely omitted, Sensui is effectively the final boss.
He was a soft-style enemy rather than a hard-style one, and Yusuke struggled and was even killed once, but... the fact that he made a comeback victory through Yusuke's unexpectedreincarnation as a demonwas something that made me think, "Hmm..." lol.

Still, he is a good character.
He was a human who hated humans, like Mayor Hirokawa in Parasyte, but he must have been satisfied to die in the Demon World in the end.

Summary

It ended up being longer than I thought.
That's about it, but I re-read it for the first time in a while to write this, and as expected, the phrasing and such were interesting.
It's a masterpiece that doesn't feel old at all even when viewed today.