Yu Yu Hakusho was written in December 1990 by Yoshihiro Togashi. It is a battle shonen themed based around the trials Yusuke Urameshi undergoes as spirit detective to protect the spirit world, using spiritual energy and martial arts to defeat various spirit and demonic threats. Unlike a lot of people, I didn't actually grow up with this series; I first read the manga in my late teens. Therefore none of this is gonna be based in nostalgia, the series is just a good series whether you first watch is as a child or not.
3 Reasons I love it:
It's difficult to talk about the good points about Yu Yu Hakusho not because it is lacking them, but because it has so many and they are so interwoven that it becomes hard to tell where one good point ends and another begins. Trying to pick out individual good points becomes troublesome thus. However I will do my best to give 3 distinct points.
1: The Yu Yu Hakusho cast is one of the most interesting and dynamic, if not the most interesting and dynamic, casts that a battle shonen has had. If you compare it to other early Battle Shonens; the series has neither the zany cartoonish off-the wall nature of Dragon Ball nor does it have the mythological gravitas of Saint Seiya. Instead the series punk and occult inspirations are reflected in the dualities of most of the main characters. They are each complex yet their interactions still have the immediate relatibility of simpler characters due to the way the characters masks interact as archetypes, all the while the characters true selves leave more unsaid.
2: Adding on to that, the series has an overarching sense of environment and atmosphere beyond almost any other I've seen while still remaining flexible and able to adapt. The series incorporates punk and occult influences, as mentioned, to create a sense of both brooding somberness and also fiery passion; with characters designs ranging from cute and fun to monsterous and threating to elegant and otherworldly, all the while keeping a sense of visual cohesion even despite it's sometimes very heavy stylization through it's sense of 90s flair.
3: Yu Yu Hakusho avoids a lot of the negative tropes associated with battle shonen; the pace moves along very quickly with at most some fights feeling maybe half an ep too long; the series has an actual sweet romance we see develop over time, there's very little filler. Even people that normally wouldn't like a battle shonen tend to like Yu Yu Hakusho for being stylish and lacking many of the common complaints of the genre; something it can attribute to it's overall consistency.
3 Flaws:
1: Infamously, the last arc of Yu Yu Hakusho was cut short due to the declining health of writer Yoshihiro Togashi. As such, particularly with the manga version, the ending of the arc feels very abrupt.
2: The series has a tendency to go back on itself, undoing what's already happened, robbing some incredible scenes of some of their emotional punch. The obvious example of this, and if you don't want spoilers then stop reading this point now, is Kuwabara's death, and arguably Genkai's death, in the Dark Tournament. I obviously don't want them to be dead, they're great characters, but their deaths were what motivated Yusuke to rise beyond and defeat Toguro.
3: In both the Dark Tournament and Chapter Black Sagas, there are numerous villains that are beaten that are made friends by team Urameshi however they don't really do much else for the rest of the series. This may be partially due to the abrupt ending of the fourth arc, but even in the third arc the psychics don't do much help to fight Sensui outside Kaito.
Favorite Part:
This may be an unconventional pick, but my favorite part is Kurama's moment in the Chapter Black Saga. Kurama is a demon fox trying to reform and live as a human, who occasionally gives in to the strength of Yoko Kurama, the amoral demon fox inside him, and this division between choosing the path of kindness and the path of strength drivse much of his actions. He spends most of his fights before then winning via strategy rather then brute power, taking unneccesary hits just to not lose himself to Yoko Kurama's influence. After being forced to kill an innocent child psychic, Kurama for the first time is unified in his two identities and completely contrary to how he normally fights just destroys the Elder Toguro after easily finding him, without any planning or strategy. It's a really cool moment, highlights the unification of Kurama's identities and foreshadows his role in the Three Kings Saga.
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