Yu Yu Hakusho (2023)

DIsrespected the most important arc in the source material.

I finished the Yu Yu Hakusho anime and started to binge the live-action a day later. What surprised me the most was the complete disregard of 60% of the content from the anime/manga. I understand the budget/production costs would not allow detail orientation despite that they should have ended the show with Toguro not going full strength, getting defeated and then coming back with an invitation to the dark tournament. The Dark Tournament Arc is one of the most notable tournament arcs in the history of Japanese anime/manga because it went on and influenced tournament-based arcs in various anime/manga. To completely disregard an arc as crucial and heartfelt as that was a poor choice. They should have brought the dark tournament arc in season 2 with five episodes again because there are characters introduced in that arc who come later on in the actual source material with a purpose and depth to them. Overall, it was a decent adaptation as it showed high potential but they chose to ignore an extraordinary chance of story telling; I would not be surprised if casual watchers enjoyed it more.

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Too condenced

Not sure why no one thought that maybe, just maybe, squeezing close to 70 anime episodes into just 5 for live action might not be such a good idea...

This unfortunately feels more like a messy recap than a complete adaptation, one that placed too much focus on the beginning and speedrushed the end

I understand that when adapting an anime to live action some changes need to be made, be it due to time constraints or to make it work on camera, but too many key moments that would've added to the worldbuilding and character developement were brushed over and lost thruout this production

I find it to be quite a pity, this series had everything going for it, adapting a beloved anime, beautifully done and faithful costume designs, a more than decent cast, Hiei was cast to perfection and i wish he would've had more chances to flesh out his character, close second goes to Koenma

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I haven't written reviews in a while, but I think my young self would hate me if I didn't write one for a long awaited Yu Yu Hakusho live action adaptation.

Here's the thing about this one: it's way too good for them to have adapted just this small portion of it and, with the script adaptation they had, they wrote themselves into a corner if they were interested to continue it.

The cast is sublime. I was expecting stellar work from Shison Jun (who you may recognize from other manga adaptations like Tricornered Window and that one shojo about a toxic monk) and Hongo Kanata (who you may recognize from other manga adaptations like The Prince of Tennis and GOTH) but Kitamura Takumi as Yusuke, Uesugi Shusei as Kuwabara, Furukawa Kotone as Botan and Shiraishi Sei as Keiko were all *chef's kiss*.

I don't think I can totally convey how very "Yusuke" Kitamura Takumi was. The facial expressions, the body language, the tone of voice. This guy got the assignment 100%. They all did.

The fight choreography was amazing, they all look so grounded and real, which is key for a shonen like Yu Yu Hakusho, in which battles are more rooted in the street fight and less on the grand effects (which we also get here, don't get me wrong).

They also did a great job with costume and make up, with added details in the classic outfits of characters like Kurama, Hiei and Yukina (the embroidery???).

The problem is that, with all the amazing ingredients they had, they still didn't have the confidence to pull a script that would allow them to continue this organically if they wanted.

Yu Yu Hakusho has four main arcs, the first one being the introduction to the world and Yusuke's detective work, the second one being the best arc in the manga/anime (and one of the best in manga/anime history maybe? am I exaggerating?): The Dark Tournament. For the Tournament to have the gravitas that it did, it required a lot of world and character building, introducing the human world and the demon world to then combine them together in this epic scenario.

This adaption merged the first and second arcs, getting rid of the Tournament setting and introducing The Big Bads of that arc in this one. They used pristine ingredients to cook only a snack.

This is not the first time (and probably won't be the last) in which an anime/manga adaptation blows the storyline in a first part, having to attempt to mend the pieces as best as possible in later adaptations, once they figure out it was a good idea to make more. Fullmetal Alchemist is a great example of that, with a first movie that changed a lot of the plot and having to fix it in the next two films, which thankfully were much better.

With this, though, it's very difficult to know how they could save it if they wanted. In order to do the Dark Tournament they'd have to change the characters they're going against or pull some writing gymnastics to justify it. And making another season with the third arc, Sensui's arc, wouldn't be at all impossible but it'd feel like we're missing the best part of Yu Yu.

I'm also not sure if there was enough room for this introduction to convey all that it had the potential to show to an audience that's unfamiliar with the source material. I think it will be entertaining and engaging to newcomers, it will most definitely interest them to know what happens to these characters next, but it would have probably been a lot more certain had they had the time to develop it more, like the anime/manga did.

All in all, it's a great adaptation, but it's disappointing that they squandered it in such few episodes, attempting to cram so much of the plot in them. If these 5 episodes would have been just the introduction of the world and characters, before the Tournament, it would have left the door clearly open for more, and I think audiences, fans and newcomers alike, would have wanted to see it. I hope they do make more, because this cast and director deserve it, but it's going to be a challenge to see how.

If I had any decision making power, though, I would also humbly request them to record the character songs because I feel they'd slay. Just saying.

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A Thrilling Live-Action Adventure Recapturing the Spirit of the Beloved Anime

As a cherished part of my childhood, the animated "Yu Yu Hakusho" held a special place in my heart and the announcement of a live action version had me excited and scared. However, all that fear was unfounded when I saw the trailer and it got me all excited for the release. This 5-episode limited series has all the best part of the animated series and I could not have been happier.

The series revolves around Yusuke, a delinquent with a heart of gold. He meets an early end while trying to save a child but is brought back to life and recruited by the spirit world to take care of yokais that wreak havoc in the human world. In this endeavour he is assisted by Kurama, Hiei and his self-proclaimed rival, Kuwabara. Thus begins an adventurous journey marked by battles, growth, and the forging of unbreakable bonds.

There are 3 aspects of this series that makes it truly entertaining. First, is the massive number of talented actors that make up the star cast. Actors like Machida Keita and Takito Kenichi have never disappointed me before and it was a delight to see Kitamura Takumi and Hongo Kanata aptly bringing their characters to life. Secondly, the CGI was exceptionally good. For a series that is based on supernatural characters with super-powers, it pays to have a believable CGI so as to not take away from the viewing experience. Thirdly, the fight choreography was outstanding. Yu Yu Hakusho is full of action and its combination with CGI made it a worthwhile watch.

Due to the limited episodes, we didn’t have enough time to go through the back stories of a lot of these characters especially the antagonists. We understood the motivations of Toguro, but not the rest of the characters following him. Fans of the animated series and/or the manga can fill in the blanks but the rest of the audience would not be able to connect with the characters. Additionally, although the fight choreography is praiseworthy, the editing was sometimes choppy and we couldn’t see every movement.

In conclusion, watching this series was a nostalgic journey down memory lane. The exceptional performances of the actors and the evident hard work invested in the production deserve applause. While some narrative gaps exist, the creators have successfully brought this beloved anime to a new audience, leaving room for future adaptations to delve deeper into the rich lore.

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Truck Driver Listens to Good Music

YuYu Hakusho it was 1989 when it was first aired in Fuji TV,
The Anime is packed with 4 Arcs, for those who just watched the Live Action, it only covered 2 Arcs in a simplified manner
1st Arc - Character Introduction
2nd Arc - Dark Tournament
3rd Arc - The Gate
4th Arc - Ancestral

This Live Adaptation was a simplified manner but exciting at the same time
why, the staff, some of them are the same staff in Rurouni Kenshin Adaptation, thats why some fight scenes are more or less similar to the fight scenes in Yu Yu Hakusho.

Was it compressed?
Yes the Live Adaptation of the Franchise took a different approach to provide context on the story within the limit of the budget of the producers and executive producers,

I am a Hardcore Anime Enthusiast and Producer, and I know where the other fans are coming from because YuYu Hakusho is nostalgia and most of the people are a hardcore fan of YuYu Hakusho.

First If you want to have an apples to apples comparison of the Anime and the Live Adaptation.
it is very difficult, why because Anime does not have Limits and Live Adaptation has Limitations,
Actor Schedules, Actor Health, Actor safety, Movie Rules, Not All Staff are Anime Hardcore Fans, they are a fan but not that hardcore, they do it for a living, Directors Time, Budget of the producers, Location and Animation Production Costs, Post Production Costs, Licensing Cost of the Franchise, Copyright Laws and Regulations on each Countries.
There are many factors for Live Adaptation while in Anime, the Artist needs to time to complete the story,

The Good
CAST - This is why Japanese Cast of Live Anime Adaptation is very fitting, they can portrait the emotions well
because it is part of the culture.
SCORE - BGM's are on point
Production - well made considering the budget

The BAD
OST - i don't want to talk about, except for the Truck Driver listening to Good Music
SUBBING - some expressions are toned down, some is not sync with what has said , believe me, when you can understand Nihon, you will cringe, that's not what he said. hahhaha


Rewatchable, hell yeah, Can't wait for the Gate Arc, hopefully with these release sponsors will come thru, I am one of them


Cheers Mate!!!
NG

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Nostalgia plus so much fun!

I love all the characters and the fight scenes! I had watched the anime during my younger days so this brings me just so much feel-good nostalgia. I love Kurama and I am pleasantly surprised that he is portrayed by Jun Shison who I just recently saw in Fermat no Ryori (as Kai, of the the ML). 💕💕💕

This adaptation has skipped much of what was from the anime - it's not a suprise given that it's just five episodes for this season. Though much has been skipped, i am not complaining because overall, I really enjoyed watching it. The story was fast-faced, there were funny scenes and some small details really paid homage to original content that it really got me hyped up as i watch along.

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IT’S FUN! Have an open mind ^^b

As a 34 year old fan of the original animated series who watched it a lot in my youth, I can easily say that this live adaptation was fun. I really like it. I didn’t go in expecting it to follow the series to a t, which probably helps. Some of the fight scenes were pretty wicked, like when Urameshi fought his first yokai (and so many more.) I’d watch it again. And I hope there’s a season two in all honesty. My only complaint is that I have an intermediate understanding of Japanese and some of the English translations bugged me, but not enough to ruin the watch. ^^b

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Good Acting and CGI, but failed on the Narrative

Ever since One Piece live-action came out right, I had high hopes that the following live-actions from now on will be at least decent since OP proved that it can be done, but i'm still on the fence since it's always gonna be 50-50 when it comes to adapting an anime or manga into a live-action.

In the beginning, it was really really good. I think the first 2 episodes had good pacing and writing, but in the remaining 3 episodes, the pacing of the story started really becoming fast, like 100 miles an hour. I think right that if they wanna condense the story all the way to defeating Toguro if the higher-ups behind this had no choice but to really condense it all, if they had at least given it 10 episodes run time, i think it would be a decent enough time to give the characters some depth and their dynamic/chemistry with the other characters and take the time to build up the story enough.

I think what really carried this adaptation, to compensate for the fast-paced story is the good action and CGI. My god, the fight choreographies here are so good, whoever is in charge in that department did a really good job, the fights are really awesome. And the CGI, they poured in some money in their goddamn, it came out really really good and clean and I like how they visualize the realms, it's so beautiful, props to the art heads behind those set, that why i think if this had more episodes, it could've taken the time and showcase the realms, cuz they just brushed it off as if it's just there.

The characters, again because the story is fast-paced AF we didn't even get that much time to get really invested in these characters, but they showed enough for us to care, aside from our mc Yusuke and Kuwabara, because in the beginning, they build them up fairly well. The acting... you know, i hate it in japanese films when the actors imitate the anime acting in real life, like you're not a fictional entity, why are you imitating this thing that only works in animation? but here i think the actors did a good job at portraying the characters. I think the only actor that really embodied the anime acting, but still came out really good was Kazuma. He's so good and can we just appreciate how alluring the voices of the actors? like my god! I'm using in-ears watching this show right and ooohhf! them voices tho!! It's so asmr coded. The costumes of some of these actors, like it didn't look like they were cosplaying at all, we probably aside from Hiei. When i first saw him, he really looked just like a cosplayer, but everybody else they really are in tune with their characters.

Overall, as a fan, this was a really good adaptation in terms of action and cgi, but i'm disappointed because they failed in the story for how fast it is. If you're someone who's never heard of Yu Yu Hakusho before and you're going in blindly in this, i think this is a good gateway for the anime or its manga.

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Unexpected heroes

I had never heard of this before watching, but I thought it was short enough to hold my interest. I'm surprised, but I really loved it. Yes, it was full of clichés and was silly in places, but it was more than that.

What I liked (and what I saw in this) and, yes, some are clichés and some are just truths:

Find purpose in life - it doesn't have to be amazing (or supernatural!), but a reason to keep going can change you
Take a chance when you can - again, doesn't have to be amazing, but give it a go.
You can surprise yourself
Persistence and belief can sometimes be the key to what you want
People can act the way they do because they don't see a way out
People won't ask for help when they really should because they don't know if others are willing to help
Your needs can often align with those of others, but you won't know that unless you make connections

What I didn't like:
A wise old lady and her lost love - I know: what a cliché
Some of the action scenes were too long

Overall there was a lot I loved about this. I'm glad I found it.

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Basic entertainment

For those that have watched the anime, you'll be disappointed. For those that haven't, it's entertaining enough if you go with low expectations.
I'm somewhere in-between. I watched the anime growing up but I was never a massive fan of it, I generally found this type of anime where fights take episodes to be a basic ok but not much more for me. I liked the world building the most. But alas, I felt the nostalgia and I didn't have anything else to watch at the moment so I decided to check it out.

I don't understand though why they decided to even make this series if they were only going to bother making 5 episodes. It's a case of if you don't have really the budget maybe don't butcher a series with thousands of fans?

I had low expectations since from the trailer it felt cheap and because usually live actions are always pretty bad compared with the original material. It happens here too as expected.
Some of the costuming, and especially the wigs, are cheap and made it look worse than it could have been. CGI was about passable. If CGI has to be immaculate for you then I would say give this a miss.
Acting was ok at some points, at others it was not great, with actors being just standing there expressionless.
Characters are very underdeveloped, I guess can't be asked more for a 5 episode series but it still was disappointing nonetheless. I also think overall it would have been better in my opinion if they had a retro feeling to the whole thing and had more accurate hair to the anime.

Points go because is generally cohesive and the story flows despite the gaps in it and in the characters development, because the action/fighting is entertaining enough and because it's generally passable as a whole.

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Having never watched any anime or manga-don't even know what manga is-I guess I asked for it.

After reading several reviews it seems like I'm the only one who's never heard of Yu Yu Hakusho. I didn't even know this was based off of a 66 episode anime either which is why this didn't grab me.

So this series to me just started from the middle and ended in the end. The characters were announced but with weak background stories. I'm guessing to those who already were familiar with the characters, those who knew needed no introductions.

The special effects were amazing. The fighting scenes as well. But I have issues with Japanese and Chinese fighting. It's like they have no reason for a fight, they just walk up to each other and claim to be better than the other then a fight ensues. That's most likely how some of these fight scenes went down. The male ego strikes again!

I also don't understand how the guy in the blue was human but was able to get powers close to the end of the series. I'm guessing there's a back story to that but with 66 episodes crammed into 5 episodes we gotta take what we can get.

The series was fine but it turned into that damsel in distress...If I had a $1 for the amount of times I said I hate when dramas make it all about a girl, I would be a trajillionaire. Is this the only way a movie or drama can go? Can they not always make it about a friggin' girl?? It was fine with the guy trying to combine two worlds. It could've been left at that!

For those who isn't familiar with this anime turned into a live action series, you may be disappointed. It may not grab you. I tried to enjoy this but seeing how I felt left in the dark, I'm just going to have to leave the anime turned into live action dramas alone.

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Mashup of all the storylines

If you watched the anime, then you will be able to see how they took pieces of all the best parts of the anime and seemed to mash them all together. I felt like there was no build up to any real "climax"

you don't get any of the build up from yusuke training with genkai, they dont build a relationship and so you dont feel sad learning about toguro and her history, etc etc. AND then randomly she gives up the spirit wave/orb/ power after 20ish days of training I believe... and if you seen the anime you know what happens after that.... but you cant feel sad since no real character connection

the dark artifacts are there and while they followed that storyline the most, it was a let down since even though yusuke met heie and kurama, he still doesnt build a relationship with them through the smaller missions before the big dark tournament.

The "dark tournament" was a fast pace battle, and even though the fights somewhat followed the anime with the final competition, it honestly gave no satisfaction to watch since there was NO BUILDUP. toguro and yusuke never fought before then and it was just "oh.... hes dead"

It was ok if you just want to see a live action recap of some good points in the anime.

Maybe they will make a season two that is longer, and maybe an actual tournament?

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