Yu Yu Hakusho Gets Hiei Funko Pop Thanks to Funimation

Funko announced earlier this year that Yoshihiro Togashi’s Yu Yu Hakusho would be getting a line of Funko Pop figures, and while many of them were getting a standard release, one was left hanging in the air. Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Botan were being released as a group, but Hiei was going to be an exclusive to a then unknown retailer.

But now that’s no longer the case as Funimation announced that the exclusive Hiei Funko Pop will first be released into Hot Topic stores beginning July 25th, and will be available on their shop on July 31st.

Funimation has been celebrating its 25th Anniversary in a pretty big way with a line of slick and exclusive Funko Pop figures including representatives from Tokyo Ghoul and My Hero Academia, and while this Hiei isn’t silver like those it’s cool all the same. Framing Hiei’s infamous Dragon of the Darkness Flame (while giving his third eye a shout out in the design too) this Hiei will most likely be flying off of shelves.

Yu Yu Hakusho recently had a 25th Anniversary celebration of its own in Japan with a return OVA special featuring 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. Covering two different stories, the OVA adapts “Two Shots,” which is a side-manga story revealing how Kurama and Hiei first met, and “All or Nothing,” the second-to-last chapter of Yoshihiro Togashi’s original manga which sees Yusuke and the gang try and solve a major terrorist crisis.

Yu Yu Hakusho was originally created by Yoshihiro Togashi for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1990. The story follows 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.