First Official Look At ‘Yu Yu Hakusho’s New Anime Special

Yu Yu Hakusho fans got a big news bomb this year when the series announced it was coming back in the form of a new OVA special for its 25th Anniversary blu-ray release in Japan.

The series has released a new key visual for the new special, offering the first official look at the series’ big comeback look at Hiei and Kurama. While this has been released in a lower quality before, now fans can see just how much the series has updated.

Confirmed in the latest issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump, the new anime special will be produced by Studio Pierrot, who animated the original anime series as well. It will feature the returning staff of director Noriyuki Abe, and the voice cast of Nozomu Sasaki as Yusuke Urameshi, Shigeru Chiba as Kazuma Kuwabara, Megumi Ogata as Kurama, and Nobuyuki Hiyama as Hiei.

The new OVA special will cover two stories. The first is “Two Shots,” which is a side-manga story that reveals how Kurama and Hiei first met and is represented by the brand new key visual above (which is a recreation of the cover page to the “Two Shots” manga entry), and the second is “All or Nothing” which will adapt the second-to-last chapter of Yoshihiro Togashi’s original manga.

The new special will be bundled along with the fourth part of its 25th Anniversary Blu-ray, with part four shipping in October (which includes the final Demon World arc of the series). The first release covers the Spirit Detective arc (the first 26 episodes) along with both movies, and will ship on July 27. The second release covers the entire Dark Tournament arc, and ships on August 28, and the third set includes the 28-episode Chapter Black arc, and ships on September 26 in Japan.

Yu Yu Hakusho was as known for its fashion sense as it was for its story and well animated fights. It is also one of the few anime series where the fandom is often evenly split between the original Japanese language release and the English dub. The fact it’s returning in some form will definitely be a huge get for fans who have been fondly looking back on the series for years now.

For those unfamiliar with Yu Yu Hakusho, the series was originally created by Yoshihiro Togashi and follows the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who loses his life when he is hit by a car trying to save a child’s life. After passing a series of tests, Yusuke is allowed to return to the living world but with a few caveats. With the gained ability to see spirits and demons, Yusuke is given the title of “Underworld Detective” and must solve various cases of spirits running amok in the living world.

Excited for more Yu Yu Hakusho? Let us know in the comments or talk to me @Valdezology!