--- title: Netflix’s ‘Yu Yu Hakusho’: The Legacy of the Shonen Manga description: The new five-episode Netflix series banks on what is arguably one of Japan’s most revered intellectual properties. canonical: https://time.com/6485553/yu-yu-hakusho-netflix/ author: Chad de Guzman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-12-14T08:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:52:46.841Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Story Behind Netflix’s Yu Yu Hakusho og:description: The new five-episode Netflix series banks on what is arguably one of Japan’s most revered intellectual properties. og:url: https://time.com/6485553/yu-yu-hakusho-netflix/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9adab5b7f827f15e/698a433bb3fce35efe0cb1f6/YYH-Yusuke-Urameshi.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: YYH-Yusuke-Urameshi og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story Behind Netflix’s Yu Yu Hakusho twitter:description: The new five-episode Netflix series banks on what is arguably one of Japan’s most revered intellectual properties. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9adab5b7f827f15e/698a433bb3fce35efe0cb1f6/YYH-Yusuke-Urameshi.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Netflix’s _Yu Yu Hakusho_ Adaptation Pays Homage to One of the Most Influential _Shōnen_ Manga Stories > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Dec 14, 2023 8:00 AM UTC  Takumi Kitamura plays the hard-headed demon fighter Yusuke Urameshi in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Yu Yu Hakusho. Takumi Kitamura plays the hard-headed demon fighter Yusuke Urameshi in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Yu Yu Hakusho.Netflix  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Dec 14, 2023 8:00 AM UTC If you were asked to name a quintessential Japanese manga or anime these days, you’d probably think of one of the globally revered titles that’s been adapted for film or television, like [_One Piece_](https://time.com/6310110/one-piece-netflix/), which just had a successful live-action reimagining on Netflix this year, or _Dragon Ball_, whose 2009 American film adaptation was a critical failure and a box-office flop. But amid the increasing global attention on manga and anime, it’s become easy to overlook a valuable contribution to Japanese pop culture: _Yu Yu Hakusho_, a critically-acclaimed manga by Yoshihiro Togashi that, as of 2022, has more than 78 million copies in global circulation since it first hit the pages of the _Weekly Shōnen Jump_ magazine in 1990\. Across 175 chapters and 19 tankōbon volumes, _Yu Yu Hakusho_, a story about pubescent heroes fighting _yōkai_ (supernatural monsters), laid the groundwork for many other manga today, its elements inspiring popular titles like [_Naruto_](https://screenrant.com/yu-yu-hakusho-togashi-inspired-naruto-clones-jutsu/) and [_Jujutsu Kaisen_](https://screenrant.com/jujutsu-kaisen-huge-inspiration-hunter-x-hunter-more-evident-best-shibuya-arc/). Its anime version aired on Cartoon Network in the U.S., and mentioning it to viewers in the Philippines is bound to induce nostalgia in anyone who came of age during its run, especially at the sound of its upbeat opening credits. It has also since precipitated two animated films, a number of video game tie-ins, and even a 2019 stage play. _Yu Yu Hakusho_ falls into the _shōnen_—literally “boys”—genre, which both scholars and fans say is one of the best mangawithin its category. Now, Netflix takes a stab at a live-action adaptation, debuting five hour-long episodes on Dec. 14, with director Shô Tsukikawa at the helm. Considering the influence _Yu Yu Hakusho_ has had on its successors, there was a particular burden on everyone involved to do the story justice. “I was feeling the pressure the past three years,” Tsukikawa tells TIME. Takumi Kitamura, the 26-year-old who plays main character Yusuke Urameshi, wasn’t even born when the manga came out, but says everyone involved came to the project with a deep awareness of _Yu Yu Hakusho’s_ impact. “I could almost say that this is really the original starting point of all the _shōnen_ manga,” Kitamura says. Go Ayano, 41, who plays the iconic villain Younger Toguro in the live-action series, read the manga as a schoolboy. “This is almost like a combination between Marvel Comics and the DC comics ” he says. “For me, this is really one of the best _shōnen_ manga of all time.” ## A timeless, broadly appealing story The story of _Yu Yu Hakusho_ kicks off unexpectedly with the death of protagonist Yusuke, a too-cool-for-school teenage delinquent with a penchant for fisticuffs. Despite his unruly behavior, a sliver of kindness emerges when Yusuke saves a child from a car crash, with him taking the hit instead and dying. This out-of-character goodwill prompts Koenma, the son of the ruler of the spirit realm, to grant Yusuke a shot at living again—under the condition that he become a Spirit Detective, tasked with quashing the demons worming their way into the human realm. As the story progresses, Yusuke teams up with Kuwabara, a loud-mouthed foil to Yusuke’s nonchalance; Kurama, a red-haired, swoon-worthy fox demon; and Hiei, an aloof and misanthropic _yōkai_. For the rest of the manga’s run until it wrapped up in 1994, their party battles it out with other supernatural beings to rid the world of demons. Akiko Sugawa-Shimada, a professor studying anime and manga at Yokohama National University, considers _Yu Yu Hakusho_ a very Japanese story. The majority of _shōnen_ stories share similar themes, like the hero’s journey, friendship, and overcoming adversity as a team, Sugawa-Shimada says, with creator Togashi rendering them with jokes, nuance, and growing pains. “His manga also contains a lot of humor, but Togashi kind of touches upon the juvenile problems young people share.” It helps that the characters in _Yu Yu Hakusho_ are considered attractive: “Of course, _shōnen_ manga appeals to young boys and young adults, but especially Kurama and Hiei—one of the _yōkai_ characters—are quite popular among female readers and female audiences.”  Kurama (Jun Shison), Yusuke (Takumi Kitamura), Kuwabara (Shuhei Uesugi), and Hiei (Kanata Hongo) in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Yu Yu Hakusho. Netflix The main characters in _Yu Yu Hakusho_ are also celebrated for complexities not seen in popular manga at the time of its initial release. For one, Yusuke was not the traditional _shōnen_ protagonist determined to be the best, like Luffy in _One Piece_ or Goku in _Dragon Ball_; instead, he’s a punk whose team was forced into battle by their antagonists. While Yusuke does mature throughout the series, he also never loses his definitive cockiness. It’s this nuanced characterization that director Tsukikawa tells TIME he wanted to capture in the adaptation, which, considering the relatively short run time, zeroes in on Yusuke. “The characters are pretty much the extension of what they've seen in the animation and the manga,” he says of the live-action series. ## Why the time was right for an adaptation Despite the lopsided track record of live-action anime adaptations, Tsukikawa believes _Yu Yu Hakusho_ was ripe for one and worth the risk. “The live-action adaptation wasn't possible in Japan for a long time due to the technology not available back then,” he says. The production team aimed for realism: Netflix [says](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/live-action-yu-yu-hakusho-trailer-unveils-trailblazing-visual-effects) the show captures the manga’s essence by incorporating the supernatural elements “in a way that appears realistic.” For a series about the supernatural, the _Yu Yu Hakusho_ team worked with Scanline VFX—a Canada-headquartered visual effects team whose portfolio includes projects like _Stranger Things_, _Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings_, and the 2022 Robert Pattinson-starrer _The Batman_. In its press release, Netflix said the production team made use of the latest performance capture technology, “with 170 cameras filming the actors simultaneously in 360 degrees.”  Keita Machida plays Koenma, the son of the ruler of the Spirit World, in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Yu Yu Hakusho. Netflix Ryo Sakaguchi is the first Japanese visual producer to win a Scientific and Technical Award at the Oscars. He’s also the visual effects advisor for the _Yu Yu Hakusho_ series, and he admits the gritty and grisly storytelling in the manga were a challenge to translate using real actors. “I grew up reading it in middle school, the original manga,” he tells TIME. Getting it right, he says, required “a lot of communication with the director, how he pictures things and how the manga and anime portrayed them. And then also, these need actors’ heads on them in many creatures. So balancing that out to something that I, as a fan, was going to like, was a big challenge.” The series delivers on these battle scenes, which Sakaguchi says viewers should be on the lookout for. More than just well-choreographed, they feel grandiose: the stakes in each fight palpable. More important than the technology, however, was capturing the essence of _Yu Yu Hakusho_ that inspired Tsukikawa to recreate it in the first place. “After reading the manga again after becoming an adult, I realized that there was some themes in the story that really reflect the world that we live in now,” he said. “Can different people or creatures from different species—can they understand each other or get along with each other? 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