Yuyu Hakusho live action review

 

Once upon a time, I watched this anime called Yuyu Hakusho on videotape. It was about a middle schooler who liked getting into fights called Urameshi Yusuke who died after saving a boy from getting hit by a car. It was a comedy about Yusuke not being able to ascend or descend and being forced to be a spirit detective. It had hijinks of Yusuke being able to possess  the bodies of unconscious people and Yusuke's rival Kuwabara vs the evil teachers. It seemed like Yuyu Hakusho was going to be a shonen ghost comedy with action bits.

Then Yusuke and Kawabara went to train with the old lady Genkai and Yuyu Hakusho turned into a 1v1 action anime and later became very popular when it became a tournament story. Both Dragonball started off as comedies and went down the path of 1v1 battles before getting super popular due to tournament storyline. Both shows made so many tournament tropes famous and tournament anime are a genre unto themselves like Kengan Ashura. 

WHAT I LIKED

+ Really well done action scenes especially the fight in the junkyard between Yusuke and Gouki. I was watching the dynamic camera angles and thinking it must have been difficult to shoot. As I said for Alice in Borderland, Japan has the talent to do great action, they just need Netflix money.

+ Actual bloody sets to fight in that are not abandoned warehouses. Watching jdoramas for so long, it makes me smile when I see one that has money to shoot in various locations with plenty of extras. Though Yusuke and Hiei did fight at an abandoned warehouse type building.

+ They managed to condense the essence of the characters into 5 episodes. The Kuwabara rock hitting scene with the bokutos was summary of what made his character compelling in the anime  though without all the build up and pay offs.

+ Shiraishi Sei as Keiko and Ito Ayumi is the hottest MILF in jdoramaland.

+ Ayano Go as Toguro 100% actually worked. I was thinking they should have cast the big guy from Raise wo chanto shimasu but they did a good job with CG and stunt doubles.

+ Kurama's demon form.

+ Did not realise that Yusuke's name is actually written as 幽助 the kanji first means dark but is usually used for 幽霊 (ghost) and the second kanji is help which goes back to his job as a spirit detective. On an unrelated note, I am also playing the Ace Attorney games in Japanese and it is fun noticing all the meaning to the names.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- Only five episodes and they stripped out so much from the anime and fast forwarded all the way to Toguro brothers. If Netflix told me I only had 5 episodes to adapt Yuyu Hakusho I would not have gone all the way to Toguro bros. I get why they did it because there might not be a season 2 and Toguro 100% is the most iconic villain of the series. Netflix should have given them 10 episodes but I guess Yuyu Hakusho is not that big or famous of a property. 

- I really wanted to see young Genkai fight. 

- The lack of calling out special move names. WTF is going on. Are people so ashamed to call out special moves? Calling out the names makes it cool. The silence when Hiei released the dragon was deafening. Where was the kokuryuha? Yusuke finally shouted Reigan at the end. Where was his shotgun? Where is Kurama shouting 'rose whip'?

MEH

= Kuwabara and Hiei's voices are so iconic and the live action characters are a bit different and most importantly Kuwabara without the pompadour? I am guessing they tried it out and it didn't work.

= I don't think there was any need for older Toguro to be small like the anime. They should have used that budget for other stuff.

SUMMARY

If I forget the anime even existed, then Yuyu Hakusho is an decent 5 episode action jdorama. If I look at it as an adaptation hamstrung by a 5 episode limit but blessed with Netflix money, I think they did the best they could. I just hope more people discover the anime because of this. I hope Netflix will continue to spend more money making more action jdoramas. I was entertained by the execution but storyline wise does not do the anime justice. Watchable if you ignore the anime.