Anime/Yu Yu Hakusho [Revived]

Apparently this topic used to exist but now doesn't,so I've taken it upon myself to resurrect it

Anyway my favorite character would be Kuwabara being the only kind of guy with any kind of code (Since Yusuke is Type III,Hiei is a hero In Name Only,and Kurama slides between III-IV)

And I now people love the Dark Tournament arc,but I'd say First Season Wins with this one, since the Sensui arc was kind of sluggish at the beginning and the most Squicky,the final arc didn't have enough Kuwabara,and the Dark Tournament arc simply went on too long.

Or maybe its becuase the Saint Beasts arc reminds a lot of the Dark Masters in tone.

So what say you tropers?

My favorite character was probably Yusuke. I absolutely adored the pure teenage snark that Justin Cook's performance seemed to add to him. He was just a great character.

As far as my favorite arc, I'm not going to throw in with everyone else here and say it was the Dark Tournament. While admittedly the Dark Tournament had the best fights (and Jin, who is probably my favorite side character in the show), my personal favorite was the Chapter Black arc. It was just boiling over with a lot of emotion, drama, and morality questioning. I like that when it's done right.

Oh Yu Yu Hakusho, I've quite loved another anime like I loved you...

My favorite character was Hiei (while the runner ups were Mukuro and Yusuke) and my favorite arc had to be Chapter Black. The Squick was just one reason I loved it so much.

edited 27th Dec '11 8:30:59 AM by hybridelement

My favorite character by far is Kurama. He out-awesomes himself every time he fights.

I dunno,something about Kurama just rubs the wrong way,maybe it's because he's a little too willing to Shoot the Dog

Maybe it's just Hype Aversion talkin' because he's such a magnet for all the fangirls.

People think the Dark Tournament arc was the best? I thought toward the end of it was when the show Jumped the Shark. Whenever shonen starts talking about numerical power levels, you know they're in trouble...

Not to say that the later stuff was terrible, I just liked the early seasons a lot better. Doesn't help that I have problems with the Born Winner and Puny Earthling tropes, and post-Dark Tournament Kwuabara spent the next two arcs as the Distressed Dude and Put on a Bus, respectively. It made me sad.

That said, Yu Yu Hakusho is generally awesome.

And here I thought I was the only one who liked the Spirit Detective saga the best. I agree that the Dark Tournament suffered from writing issues and Arc Fatigue by the time of the finals that I can't call it my favorite arc no matter how good it was (It's the same deal with Namek in DBZ; it's a good saga but staying in one setting for far too long really wears you out in the end), and the final arc just sucked. Not just for the absence of Kuwabara, but for setting something up before going off the rails completely by delving into the demons' backstories and then saying "Yeah, screw the war we promised! Let's have another tournament instead!" LAME. I love the last episode, however.

But I disagree that the Chapter Black saga was in any way sluggish at the start and yes, the squickiness worked to it's advantage often. I thought the problems with that arc came, again, towards the end after Yusuke died for a second time and then a whole bunch of stuff got thrown out of nowhere, culminating in a lead-in to the awful final arc. The manga version also gave Sensui far too much of a Draco in Leather Pants treatment in the end, which made me feel alot less sorry for him, which is wrong since he should be tragic.

Doesn't help that I have problems with the Born Winner and Puny Earthling tropes,

That's another thing that sucked about the end of the series. Demons officially became the Spotlight-Stealing Squad. Yusuke was made a demon and Kuwabara was Put on a Bus, so now all our main characters were demons. Sorry but I didn't give a shit about Demon World. Things were perfectly fine before we started really delving into that place and its' species.

The manga was much worse about it, as the vast majority of demons were made Good All Along, the evil ones learned evil from humans, and Spirit World was actually corrupt, which not only contradicts alot of what's come before, but kills the dramatic tension of Chapter Black dead; there was now no real reason to try to stop Sensui if most of the demons that came through the portal wouldn't destroy the world. The anime removed that crap and just kept demons a gray morality rather than excuse them so much at the expense of humans and Spirit World.

and post-Dark Tournament Kwuabara spent the next two arcs as the Distressed Dude and Put on a Bus, respectively. It made me sad.

You oughta re-watch the Chapter Black saga. Kuwabara was much more than just a Distressed Dude; he had at least two or three big awesome moments with his new power and the only reason he was kidnapped was because his power was the key to Sensui's plan. His role was very important in that arc, which is yet another reason why Putting Him On A Bus in the very next arc was such a let-down.

edited 30th Dec '11 2:02:43 PM by ManwiththePlan

The Chapter Black arc started ten episodes for real,with the first few just being taken over by Genkai and her training. Some of which could've easily come in handy later on,but for some reason never did such as the taboo kid

The final arc is much better even if Kuwabara got Put on a Bus becuase frankly,I had little respect for Hiei until this arc,he gets a lot of Character Development and frankly the arc nicely sorts out what Chapter Black set up. The Three Kings were cool characters,especially Raizen. It did a lot more to Yusuke's character to.

And no Itsuki

I can see that, especially the hype aversion part. I'm pretty sure the reason that I'm such a fan is because YYH was one of the first anime I had ever been exposed to ( I first saw it on Toonami, God rest its soul), and he was definitely the first bishounen badass that I had ever seen.

Also, something about Awesomeness by Analysis characters really appeal to me. Shikamaru from Naruto is the same way.

edited 31st Dec '11 1:04:08 AM by gregyo

Ah, YYH. I affectionately dub it "the Intelligent Person's DBZ."

I simply adore the plot and characters in YYH. Yusuke has to be one of the best shounen protagonists ever and it's because,even though he's lovably dumb and has a ton of Heroic Willpower, hes' not a frickin' idiotHero. Those are so tiresome and impossible to relate to or care about.

I honestly didn't care much for the Spirit Detective Saga. It was nice but I wouldn't rewatch YYH for that.

No when the show really began to shine for me was the Dark Tournament Saga. Yusuke's maturing, Genkai's past with Togur, Toguro himself... It was all really well-done.

Chapter Black is..well, it' a mixed bag for me. Do I like that Toguro was demoted to B-level? Not at all. That sort of cra killed DBZ - the endless, repetitive "this is the ultimate and unbeaable badass" being turned into a two-bit chump once the next arc starts.

However I overcame that because of the whole Territories thing. That was completely different from power levels and so I dug it.

Sensui is...interesting. I don't really like Shinobu at all. I like Minoru. Minoru was the Sensui we actually saw for most of the arc. He was suave, badass and a true Magnificent Bastard.

He also had an interesting fighting style with that form of martial arts he employed. His emphasis on leg strikes - even going so far as to have a "kicking energy attack" counterpart to Yusuke's Spirit Gun and Shotgun - really fit with teh whole Evil Counterpart thing.

I also liked that he -admitted- he was physically weaker than Yusuke. It was largely his skill and experience that let him dominate.

...then Shinobu came out... Now everything kinda went to hell. Yu Yu Hakusho, as I mentioned, was a lot like DBZ but better. The fights were more varied with each combatant bringing unique traits and abilities that helped distinguish them. Minoru's fight with Yusuke was exactly what I expected from the high quality of YYH.

Shinobu vs. Yusuke was just DBZ-Fu. Everyone punched and kicked really fast and occasionally shot an energy attack. It was kinda dull and tiresome since I'd seen it done so many times before.

Yet, despite the fact I think the end of Chapter Black and the entire Three Kings Arc were both pretty bad, I can still rewatch them. Why?

The effin' music.

In the end I think Yu Yu Hakusho is oen of my favorite anime of all time. Yusuke was a perfect protagonist, he went up against really interesting villains and both the actiona nd comedy were great.

It also bears mentioning that YYH had probably my favorite English dub of all time.

edited 13th Jan '12 12:07:01 PM by Nikkolas

This was a pretty good show. For some reason though, I couldn't get into the Chapter black saga, despite a few intreasting thing's that popped up. My favorite main charector is hiei, because of how much of an prick he is, but also because he's a badass, and I like the fact that he has a good quality {Caring about his sister} without it being too overblown.

Favorite bad guys are the toguro bros and their boss sakyo {or however you spell his name}. Younger toguro was a badass with a tragic past, elder toguro was a creepy sick fuck { Complete Monster villains seem to appeal to me for some reason}}, and sakyo was intreasting for how he has the pretty boy look, and he's somewhat of a gentlemen, but he's a complete psychopath with twisted ways of finding happiness. Something about him seemed sorta real too.

edited 16th Jan '12 5:51:22 PM by marston

Sakyo is one of the more accurate and believable depictions of The Sociopath in anime/manga.

Yeah I liked the Toguro brothers the best myself,although Suzaku was pretty cool for the few episodes we saw him.

I love a good Anti-Villain just as much as I do a really well pulled-off Complete Monster and Younger and Elder pull off both perfectly. It helps that Younger Toguro sounds like Steve Blum and Elder sounds like a sick impression of Mark Hamill's Joker.

I know Karasu is a bit of a dark horse,but he sounds too much like Robert Axelrod, sorry but the image of Wizardmon merged to a Depraved Homosexual,... excuse me a moment

Sensui was supposed to be an Anti-Villain,but I think the writers assumed too much,in a way he came off as monstrous as Elder Toguro.

^Yeah, those are more reasons why I like the toguro bros. When I was a kid, Elder toguro creeped me the fuck out, especially when he did that wierd face-changing thing during his fight with kuwabara. He still creeps me out a little bit.

And for some reason, everytime I watch the scene where Sakyo reveals his plan, I get chills down my spine, particularly when he talks about how he killed butajuri, not so much because of the scene itself, but because of the music that pops up right when he says that, and those creepy slightly bright green eyes of his during that scene. Admititly, another reason why I like him is not only did he kill a fellow Complete Monster that was despiciable and annoying, but he did it in a brillant way {I'm talking about what he did to that basterd Tarukane}.

And before anyone get's any ideas, I'm not turning sakyo into a Draco in Leather Pants, I just think he was a fairly cool villian despite not having any powers. If there is any charector that I think should have gotten a bit more focus then they did, it would be him.

edited 21st Jan '12 8:56:45 PM by marston

Nah I think they got Sakyo just right,but Bui seemed fairly interesting. Would've loved to see him in the Demon Tournament,...but they just left him after Hiei defeated him. All that potential wasted

I mean who else other than Mukuro could deflect the Dragon attack?

This show.

It is excellent.

I teared up at the Kurama episode. And Kuwabara is so manly. And... and...

AND THIS ANIME IS SO BASIC, YET SO GOOD!

Also, Yusuke is one handsome devil, and not in a girly way.

And the dub! It is superlative! At least most of the time. SON OF A GUN!

edited 26th May '12 2:41:45 PM by TheHandle

About whether or not Yusuke is an Idiot Hero. I'd say he's a strange variant who actually has a lot of potential to be a genius, possibly on par with Kurama(Or maybe that's a bit of a stretch I'm not sure). Yet he casually makes himself out to be an idiot at most times when he just couldn't be bothered thinking.

At desperate times when he has motivation however, you can see he just becomes so much more clever and thoughtful a whole lot more than most people in his situation would be.

edited 26th May '12 7:13:12 PM by PsychoFreaX

Oh my God Kuwabara is so funny. It's that voice, I just can't cope. I thought Tristan was funny but this guy... and he's so freaking ugly too! And the Homoerotic Subtext is actually lampshaded all the time! OTP! OTP! ROFL!

edited 28th May '12 10:44:14 AM by TheHandle

Yeah, Kuwabara's dub voice was gloriously goofy. It's only one of many reasons why we love him.

Don't you find it so endearing when he says "I'm a real man, ain't I?"

(x4)

Yusuke vs a Mind Reader.

And then, Yusuke vs Jin:

Well where are all you people who were chatting about YYH in the DBZ thread?

This is one of the most awesomely inspirational "hero themes" in anime.

And more than ten years later, no dub can rival Yu Yu Hakusho's.

edited 3rd Mar '14 4:03:16 AM by Nikkolas

As far as straight up Shonen Anime goes, Yu Yu Hakusho will always be my favorite.

I remember watching it in the mid 1990s IIRC in Manila in Tagalog. Too bad they changed the names of people back then, which I regretted later on.

Is there any official info on which year the show starts aside from the fact that it's in the early 1990s?

If I had to pick Kuwabara would be my favorite character. Dub Voice was awesome, the entire Dub Cast was good from what I remember.