Webtoon Spotlight

Respect spotlight#05: Yu Yu Hakusho

Kurama: My fav character in the series Kurama's arc is certainly one of complexity. In a team with a bunch of meatheads, it's refreshing to have a thinker in the group. His style of fighting and moral conflict were the definite inspiration for the style of hunter x hunter. He is born as a bandit that stole lives as much as he stole possessions. "Yoko" eventually had his actions caught up with him as he was forced to store his body away in the body of a human child. And after being introduced to any form of kindness to the probably the first time in his life, Kurama's arc is one of identity and redemption. Is he still the same bandit he was before, or is he the "weak" human he used to be?  How much of his old life must he hold on to keep his friends alive? Either way, every time this redhead takes the screen, someone is going to get clapped and played like a fiddle.

Overview

Probably the best word to describe Yu Yu Hakusho is growth. This is an anime designed to grow with you and grow up with you; these are characters who not only grow in power but also in character. Take away the fight scenes and mystical powers, and you got a journey about fighting against an unfair world and making your place in it. Every main character gets the screen time, and moments they deserve (except my main man Kuwabara), making them feel like real and important people. It's a truly timeless tale that relates to almost every young kid.

This series was also amazing it the themes of reflection and morality. A third of the way through, you expect it to be all demons all the time, but you also see that some humans were, in fact, worse than even some of the previous villains. And if your tired of 50 episode battles in 3 days, then fear not because the pacing in each episode makes almost every event a blast and each arc hit right after the other. Fight wise; I will admit Yu Yu is about as classic as it can get; the variety of powers makes the animators think out of the box and flex their muscles a lot in the many battles throughout. The fights also have very few victories based on pure power alone instead of opting for a more strategic approach, which would profoundly inspire Hunter X Hunter.

Overall I think Yu Yu Hakusho is a timeless classical anime and stands out amongst the shonen genre while still being very much in its box. I definitely would recommend it to newer anime fans just starting in. But for the rest of this review, I will be reviewing my thoughts on the various arcs so spoiler warning for the rest of the series.

Resurrection Arc

While I did enjoy this arc, I do see why the anime decided to skip over this storyline slightly. This was essentially our introduction to our mainstays. The themes of I said for Yusuke and Kuwabara stands here. While the series was meant to be a precursor to Danny phantom only times (except without the whole alive thing), the concept thankfully died out after a while.  Another underappreciated detail is the usage of Asian mythology, which plays a significant role in the series. Either way, this was a sweet ending to the first arc.

Spirit detective Arc

As the first real action arc of the series, this is a mix of good and bad. Overall this arc was supposed to show Yusuke's fighting prowess and introduce us to the characters of Hiei and Kurama. The arc also solidifies Konema's hatred for Yusuke as he gets no help from anyone. I'm just saying he can't be a detective if he doesn't have a police department first, but I digress. If there was one minor complaint I do have is the use of all of the spirit items. Their not a bad idea, but they're pretty damn useless in the grand scheme of things, and I mean the items for both Yusuke and the thieves as well.

Genkai Tournament Arc

    In many ways, you could consider this a sort of trendsetter for the series proper. With the introduction of the Genkai, we get to see the world expand a little with the intro of more individuals with spirit energy and awareness. This also marks the first tournament, which pretty much becomes a staple of the series for better or worse.