Yusuke Urameshi (Takumi Kitamura) is a much-feared juvenile delinquent who, out of the blue, saves a kid from a speeding truck… and dies. This improbable deed shocks the judges of the afterworld, so spirit guide Botan (Kotone Furukawa) takes him to Koenma (Keita Machida). He has an offer for Yusuke: serve as a spirit detective, stopping yokai (i.e., demons) from infiltrating the human world, and he’ll be restored to life.
Soon enough, Yusuke is chasing demon-possessed humans, trying to recover evil magic objects, and getting trained by Genkai (Meiko Kaji) alongside his rival Kuzama Kuwabara (Shûhei Uesugi). He’ll need that training, too, after having gone up against super-fast Hiei (Kanata Hongô) and rose whip-wielding Kurama (Jun Shison)… but much more dangerous enemies lie ahead.
Such is the story of YU YU HAKUSHO, a renowned Japanese manga featured in weekly magazine SHONEN JUMP before making its way to animation in the late ’90s. In five episodes, Yusuke and his friends, including his devoted best friend Keiko (Sei Shiraishi), fight, team up (very unwillingly), and forge bonds as they seek to rescue a kidnapped yokai and stop plans to unleash demons on Earth.
The manga itself includes quite a few volumes; by necessity, the adaptation pares down or cuts out entirely several subplots that were part of that story. Yusuke and Kuwabara training with Genkai, where each learns how to harness their spirit energy–Yusuke creating a “spirit gun” with his finger and Kuwabara conjuring a “spirit sword”–is truncated into a couple of montages, for instance, but the key elements are still there. Genkai, the wise and powerful master, still imparts wisdom, after finding her students have the heart to be great champions after all.
The positives: the action is spectacular, to start. The choreography is crystal clear, many of the fights are set in daylight or in good lighting (avoiding the standard problem where you can’t see what’s happening), and the CGI is solid (though the hyper-muscled “100%” form of Younger Toguro (Gô Ayano) is a little over the top for me).
The actors are fantastic; the casting here is spot-on, with Kitamura and Uesugi in particular bringing A-game to this story as Yusuke and Kuwabara. Beginning as enemies (and, to Kuwabara, rivals), they come to respect each other after Kuwabara gets an unexpected glimpse into the supernatural world… and wants in. Kitamura especially has that slouching, shoulder-swinging walk Yusuke had in the anime, bringing that element to life in a subtle but winning way.
Shiraishi is also terrific as Keiko, showing love and exasperation and anger at the stubborn Yusuke; they don’t have romantic vibes in this story, they’re more like siblings, but these two leads have great chemistry. Ayano brings an air of worldweary pathos to Younger Toguro, who’s run out of enemies to fight, while Ken’ichi Takitô is a blast as the sadistic Elder Toguro.
Along the way, we get to see Yusuke’s unhappy home life with an alcoholic, unemployed mom and school officials who assume he’s always the troublemaker. There’s a lot of great context provided that make Yusuke’s path toward being a (reluctant) hero more meaningful.
The negatives: there really aren’t any, except maybe it could have used one more episode. The story is condensed and thus very fast paced; characters like Botan, Koenma, Hiei, and Kurama get less screen time, but even there, the writers and actors squeeze a lot out of that limited time. I felt I knew every character who had more than a line of dialogue.
Netflix has another great adaptation on its hands. I hope they’re running full steam ahead with season 2, because this show has the potential to go the distance.
I’m giving it nine spirit guns out of ten.
