33 Years Later, Shonen Fans Still Know the True Best Tournament Arc

It might be over three decades old at this point, but Yu Yu Hakusho still has the best tournament arc that anime fans will ever get to see. If you have experience with any of the series that have ever come from Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, or any action manga series at all really, then there’s a good chance you know about tournament arcs. These arcs highlight various characters that do battle with one another in different kinds of ways while the protagonist and their friends try their best to overcome each set of opponents to somehow win the whole shebang.

Tournament arcs aren’t limited to just punching each other in the face either as fans have seen sports series like Haikyu!! introduce their own tournaments, Yu-Gi-Oh! basically was built on them with increasingly intense children’s card games, and countless other examples offer a different kind of tournament to enjoy. But Yu Yu Hakusho was able to accomplish both being a unique set up for a tournament, but also telling a compelling story. Rather than having a tournament just for the sake of it, Yu Yu Hakusho‘s Dark Tournament Arc is arguably the most important arc in the series overall.

Yu Yu Hakusho’s Dark Tournament Arc Is Undefeated

For the sake of this piece, we’ll be focusing on Yu Yu Hakusho‘s anime adaptation of the Dark Tournament arc. Yoshihiro Togashi’s original manga version of the events has slight differences from how it plays out in the anime, but the anime is honestly the best distillation of what makes this arc such a special piece of the series and of anime history on a whole. There’s just something special about the experience that elevates the Dark Tournament to a whole new degree as Yusuke Urameshi was literally never the same as soon as the idea of the tournament was introduced.

Yusuke began the story as a punk kid who was down on his luck, and those around him only made things worse. But after dying and coming back to life to work as a Spirit Detective, Yusuke finally found what he was truly good at: kicking ass. His rough upbringing made him confident in his combat abilities, but it wasn’t until facing someone who was in a completely different realm of strength like Toguro that Yusuke truly understood just how weak he was. And with Toguro pushing him, Yusuke was forced to enter the Dark Tournament.

The Dark Tournament was a highly volatile proposition as demons and humans in the underworld fought to the death as rich sponsors bet on the bloodshed. Yu Yu Hakusho had already had a tournament arc not long before (and would go on to have another one later) as Yusuke and Kazuma Kuwabara fought to earn the right to train under the mysterious psychic Genkai, and Yusuke was able to pull through successfully. That was set up like a more traditional tournament with a bracket that had Yusuke steadily going to the top, but that’s not the case here at all.

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The Dark Tournament Was Chaotic and Unpredictable

That’s kind of the case with most tournament arcs. When one is introduced to a Weekly Shonen Jump series, for example, it usually is more to serve a function rather than being needed for the story’s progression. A tournament arc can range from either a hail mary to keep interest in a series going before its cancellation, to a functional way to introduce more characters that would be important later. It would then lead to months upon months of telling this story until it reaches the final round. Oftentimes it’s in a single direction, and is used to bring the main character to a new level of power before it all comes to an end. That’s not the case here.

The Dark Tournament is often remember the most from Yu Yu Hakusho fans because it’s such a significant part of the story itself. It wasn’t just an easy way to introduce new characters as each round instead focused its time on fleshing out notable opponents throughout in an episodic like fashion. Each round of the tournament was absolutely chaotic and hard to predict to see how they would develop. For example, the first major round of the tournament started with Kuwabara losing the very first fight. It then ended with Yusuke facing off against Chu (who shared a similar power set to him) in deadly close combat where the two places their feet against knives and punched until one of them fell down.

Then the second round was a battle royale of the three last members of Yusuke’s team against a team of human fighters enslaved by an evil doctor. Structurally, every round felt unique and thus it was hard to predict which character would win. Because of the Dark Tournament allowing each team to set the rules of their respective fights by round, it wasn’t an automatic guarantee that Yusuke and the others would win. On top of the demons literally stacking things against them making them fight multiple times before advancing to the semifinals, and there was intrigue built into each round.

Nothing felt like filler to get from one round to the next. Togashi had put care into each fight prominently displayed, and each one offered something different to enjoy. Whether it be Hiei unleashing an ultra powerful dragon attack (only to reveal that he used it out of desperation, and severely handicapped him for the rest of the arc), or Kurama using his cunning to survive not being able to move his arms or legs. Each fight stacked the deck in the opponents’ favor, so it was all the more incredible when Yusuke and the others would achieve victory. But that’s just the tournament itself. Things get truly next level with everything that happens outside of it.

Yusuke Truly Changed With the Dark Tournament

Getting back to why he was in the tournament in the first place, Yu Yu Hakusho made sure to emphasize the ongoing rivalry between Yusuke and Toguro. After winning the previous tournament to learn the Spirit Wave technique from the psychic Genkai, Yusuke ends up forming a very close bond with her. With so few older positive influences in his life, Yusuke really grew an attachment to the one mentor figure who really brought out the best in him. Their rough facades made them a perfect teacher and student pair, and for Yusuke, she was one of the few people who truly believed in him.

It’s revealed during the Dark Tournament arc that Toguro and Genkai actually once fought in the tournament together years before. When their team won, Toguro used his wish to give him a monstrous demon body to make himself powerful. This caused a rift between the two of them, and it comes to a head during the arc. One of the major elements pushing Toguro towards Yusuke is the fact that he wants to make Yusuke a worthy opponent for him. He wants Yusuke to push himself to a level where Toguro can finally have a reason to use all of his strength in battle. So that brings him face to face with Genkai.

During a pivotal moment in the Dark Tournament, Genkai decides to complete Yusuke’s training by passing on the Spirit Wave to him completely. This was the majority of Genkai’s power, and it would truly bring Yusuke to his full capacity by taking her power into him. This led to him suffering physical and mental pain for days as his body was trying to take in the power, and Genkai herself was left defenseless. Toguro had been waiting for this exact moment to make his move, and thus kills her. But Yusuke doesn’t find out until he’s done with his final trial.

Yusuke vs. Toguro Is Still the Best Final Fight Ever

All of this fuels the final fight against Toguro’s team, and one by one each of Yusuke’s friends use the full slate of their abilities to defeat each member of the team. This all leads to the final fight between Yusuke and Toguro, and the entire time he’s further antagonizing Yusuke to get him to truly use his full power. It’s tragic as Yusuke’s true power only comes through when he’s emotionally wrecked by one death after another, but it turns out to ultimately be a cry for help from Toguro himself.

Through Toguro’s defeat, fans learn that he wanted a strong opponent so that could finally die. There was an element of him that always regretted his decision to turn on Genkai and turn into a demon, but his pride would not let him die in any other way. He turned to Yusuke for a twisted kind of help, and ultimately helped Yusuke to reach a new level of power as a result. The two of them were such parallels to one another that only they could face each other in the end. It wasn’t about bringing the tournament to an end, but instead was bringing their rivalry to an end overall.

It’s such a memorable phase of Yu Yu Hakusho, and is so hard hitting, that unfortunately Yoshihiro Togashi never quite reached that peak again. This is the best the series ever gets, and nothing after quite reaches the same level of intrigue, suspense and pure enjoyment per episode. It’s something that Togashi doesn’t quite get as well again until years later with Hunter x Hunter, and to this day is still the best tournament arc fans will ever see in anime.