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Plot Synopsis

Benoit wrote:

The story is all about a notorious boy whose name is Yusuke Urameshi who dies saving a boy's life in a car accident. Despite Yusuke's punk-attitude, he has a heart of gold which prompted Botan (a beautiful girl who happens to be the grim reaper) and Koenma (the guy who decides who goes to heaven or hell) to give him a second chance in life. Being alive once again, Yusuke discovers that he possesses spiritual powers. This power given by Koenma is known as the spirit gun, which Yusuke can use with his right finger to fire powerful energy blasts. Yusuke also discovers that there is a spirit world, which is why Koenma dubs him as the spirit detective to eradicate any evil that disturbs the balance between the human world and the spirit world. Together with Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei, Yusuke (along with his new powers) must destroy anything that threatens not only mankind, but also demonkind.

Story & Characters

Yuu Yuu Hakusho was animated from the manga of the same name by Yoshihiro Togashi. The story focuses on Yusuke Urameshi, a delinquent who was selected to be the Spiritual Detective, accompanied by his close friend Kuwabara, who has the ability to manifest Spiritual Sword, Kurama, who can control wide variety of plants, and Hiei, the fire demon.

Although the story is 100% action fighting oriented, I wouldn't say it's really that bad. I have to say that the plot is one of the strong point in this anime and the animation studio did quite a number of changes in the anime compared to the manga itself. And surprisingly, the changes does help to cover and cut out some unnecessary chapters which was done in the manga.

There's not much twist and plot-playing, so it's digestable. Even though it's almost 11 years since it is first aired, the consistent flow of the plot makes it such a wonderful anime.

I forgot to mention as well, that, it has lots of supporting characters. (And for some reason they looked much more appealing that the main characters) You've got Koenma, Botan, Genkai, Keiko and Yukina. Actually, thanks to the tournaments and Yusuke's job as a Spiritual Detective, the appearance of a number of not-so-small casts exist. But strangely enough, they don't appear very much as random characters and somehow do make some connection between the main characters, which I find it very interesting.

Rating

8 (good)

Art

Artwork is definitely one of the most consistent and is one of the strong points in this anime. What I enjoy most is the consistency in drawing fighting scenes. They are sooo good, the punchings and kickings were so great none of the details were taken out. The artwork is, if I would say, is just average. Not that distinctive in style, and yet not the worst.

Most of the battle constumes has taken chinese clothings as references. This could be seen from Kurama, Yusuke and some other upcoming characters in the anime. But I have to say the clothing in the anime is by far much more better than the manga with the details and effort it has been given to it's production. The manga lacks details after approaching the end of the story, so irt's a good thing the anime did manage to make up for it.

But the most cool artwork presentation in this anime has got to be the plants which was used by Kurama. Look at the size and how they move, they're so whacky.

Rating

7 (above average)

Sound

The one thing I must admit in this particular section is that I love the OP and ED! Although the songs are quite old, and the singer had horse voice and whatnot, I still love them because of the upbeat tune the songs have.

But putting that aside, the voice characters were okay. But the excellent voice acting by Ogata Megumi (Kurama) never ceased to stop me from falling in love the characters she voiced.

However, I still prefer the Animax dubbed over the Japanese version. I'm not sure if it's because of its old production or something. Seeing them speaking in English looks much more "original" in my opinion. I'm not saying that you should change it to english when you're watching it with Animax, it's your own choice.

Rating

6 (average)

Presentation

Humour is definitely not something which belongs in Yuu Yuu Hokusho. Well, they do manage to try to out it in through Koenma and his "subordinates". (Poor Koenma) For an anime which is first released around the 90s, I have to say I really enjoyed this one despite the fact that they lack handsome boys and magical magic. I'm not really into fighting, action-oriented animation but the plot is really something. And again, it's really a great idea for the animation studio to remove the unnecessary chapters from the manga and improved the character's clothing. Some of them weren't really useful at all, I don't even know why did Yoshihiro Togashi wanted to draw that part. @_@ However, the presentation in the sense of "colouring" isn't so good, but if you're a huge fan of kicking-butt scenes, you'll definitely love this one.

Rating

7 (above average)

Final Verdict

7.17 (above average)

Reviewed by Ephemeral-Garden, 1y 38wk ago