Is Netflix’s Yu Yu Hakusho Any Good?

Yu Yu Hakusho has made its official live-action series debut with Netflix, but did it hit all of the marks fans of Yoshihiro Togashi’s original manga series that fans had been hoping for? It’s been over three decades since Yu Yu Hakusho’s anime adaptation took over screens, and even longer since the original manga ran in the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. That means it’s been quite a long time since we’ve seen a new interpretation of the series, and this new live-action adaptation with Netflix is a breath of fresh air. 

Yu Yu Hakusho’s live-action series is both faithful to the original manga and not at the same time. It makes some dramatic changes to how the series plays out in order to tell its own version of a complete story over the course of its five episode run, and those changes are sometimes successful and sometimes not. The answer to whether or not it’s a “good” experience in its own right is a completely one, but ultimately it does succeed in what it sets out to do. But that’s only if you like the idea of the series without really caring about whether or not it sticks to the material. 

Why Yu Yu Hakusho’s Live-Action Series Doesn’t Work

Netflix’s Yu Yu Hakusho takes inspiration from across a few different arcs from Yoshihiro Togashi’s original manga and combines them together into a much more condensed story. While the overall beats are mostly the same, the condensed nature of its story means the nuance is lost between some of the arcs. While the cast themselves is solid (with Takumi Kitamura’s Yusuke being the big standout), it’s hard to dive into any of the extended cast in a deep way as it’s flying through all of their big moments. 

In the five episodes fans even see a much smaller version of the Dark Tournament play out as Team Urameshi fights against Team Toguro, and it even includes the big moments from those respective fights. It’s just they naturally don’t hit the same as it’s hard to care or even know about some of the abilities seen before they’re used. But if you watched the original anime many years ago, this is a fun revisit down memory lane. Especially when it comes to each of the fights, which are well choreographed. 

Which is all to say that Netflix’s Yu Yu Hakusho is a solid, complete experience that’s not always a faithful one. It loses some of the impact for speeding through big moments like Genkai’s role in it all (where she’s introduced and killed off in the same episode), but it does keep the spirit of the original works intact. It’s going to be a fun watch over the holidays, but not exactly one that you’ll want to see more of. 

What did you think of Netflix’s Yu Yu Hakusho live-action series? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!