Looking at the animation, it’s obvious that this is a rather old show. I should add it’s unusual and rather refreshing to find a show like Yu Yu Hakusho that tackles characters, and especially adults, with such realistic problems. Indeed, with such fantastic role models around him, it’s no wonder that Yusuke is developing into an anti-social thug. A lay-about drunk, she treats her son as if he constantly owes her more than he can ever give. Like-wise, Yusuke’s mother is wholly unlikable. Disturbing and sadistic immediately jumps to mind and despite the fact we’re supposed to dislike them anyway, I found myself despising their very presence in several episodes. So bad in fact that they joke loudly at a student’s funeral and stand ideally by as another is being beaten to a pulp. However, other characters don’t fair as well and I suppose in an attempt to give the show a little more direction in these early stages, many of Yusuke’s school teachers are played up to be immoral, bad people. Again, there is nothing particularly complex about these quirky characters but the ways in which they are presented makes’ them stand out none the less. While all this is going on, Yusuke also discovers the after life and it’s overly cute inhabitants take for example, the supposed authority- a wise, 700-year-old toddler with the power of resurrection! And then we have Botan, a pink robed, high pitched teenage girl tasked with introducing Yusuke to his strange new powers. The seeds of cliché romance between our hero and life-long chum Keiko are set nice and early, but the most interesting reaction comes from the previously villanized Kuwabara who rather than revelling in Yusuke’s demise, is amongst the most vocal of mourners- devastated to have lost his greatest rival.
These moments, especially during Yusuke’s funeral wake, also provide us with an early opportunity to understand the feelings of those close acquaintances shocked by Yusuke’s early demise. Indeed, it just illustrates that even in death Yusuke retains his endearing sense of humour and bare-faced cheek. The death of a young kid is never a happy thing, but the tone of these early episodes isn’t overly dark or depressing.
That’s the trick of these broad appeal action adventures hook us with the characters and then carry us along for the never-ending, death defying, white-knuckle rollercoaster.įor a show I had pegged as formulaic before even sitting down to watch it, Yu Yu Hakusho pulls the interesting trick of killing the main character within the first five minutes of the first episode as good a way as any to kick us out of the comfort zone and introduce us to the unbreakable supernatural allures of Yusuke’s universe! And sure, while death in Yusuke’s world doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the line, such blunt inventiveness so early in the story was enough to make me sit up and take notice. These are characters that made an instant impression on me and while they may not be the most complex of personalities, their honourable, play-by-the-‘street-rules’ attitude appeals to the man’s man within us all. Likewise, his arch-rival Kuwabara is essentially a hooligan with too much time on his hands slicking back his bright ginger hair serves only to supplement his highly strung, violent nature. These kinds of shows often have a great, varied cast of characters and Yu Yu Hakusho is no exception Yusuke is a very untypical hero a knuckle head and arrogant street punk with a good heart, his lack of school smarts make for an interesting, if not dumb take on the moralistic lynchpin.
It’s easy to predict the direction in which Yu Yu Hakusho will head, but this doesn’t make it any less fun or exciting.
#Real life yu yu hakusho opening series#
I’ll admit I take a guilty pleasure from watching long-running action anime series and Yu Yu Hakusho appears to fit the bill perfectly sporting 112 episodes, I can already taste the bitter teenage angst, the dramatic character deaths and the tense, face to face supernatural martial arts.