YuYu Hakusho

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since May 2008. It is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Anime and manga or the Anime and manga Portal may be able to help recruit one. Tagged since February 2009. It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since March 2008.

YuYu Hakusho
Cover of YuYu Hakusho volume 1 as released by Shueisha
幽☆遊☆白書 (Yū Yū Hakusho)
Genre	Martial arts, Bangsian fantasy
Manga
Author	Yoshihiro Togashi
Publisher	Shueisha
English publisher	Viz Media
Other publishers: Ivrea Editora JBC Kana Star Comics Comics House Glénat Chuang Yi Tongli Publishing
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Original run	1990 – 1994
Volumes	19 (List of volumes)
TV anime
Director	Noriyuki Abe
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Licensor	Funimation Madman Entertainment MVM
Network	Fuji Television, Animax
English network	Cartoon Network, Colours TV
Other networks: Cartoon Network Rede Manchete, Play TV, Cartoon Network K3 A+ Animax Arutz Hayladim MTV Italia, La7 IBC 13, GMA 7, Animax La Sexta Modernine TV, Animax
Original run	October 10, 1992 – January 7, 1995
Episodes	112 (List of episodes)
Anime and Manga Portal

YuYu Hakusho (幽☆遊☆白書, Yū Yū Hakusho^?, or "YYH", lit. "Ghost Files" or "Poltergeist Report"^[1]) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi with an anime adaptation. The name of the series is spelled YuYu Hakusho in Funimation's distribution of the anime and in the Viz manga.

The manga was originally published in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump. The series consists of 175 chapters collected in 19 tankōbon volumes, and won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1994.^[2] In North America, the manga currently runs in Viz's Shonen Jump.

The anime, directed by Noriyuki Abe and co-produced by Fuji Television, Yomiko Advertising, and Studio Pierrot, consists of 112 television episodes and two movies: The Golden Seal and Bonds of Fire. The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1993 and 1994. The TV series originally aired on Japan's Fuji Television network from October 10, 1992 to January 7, 1995, and was later licensed in North America by Funimation in 2001. The show first aired on US TV on February 2002 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. Around March 2003, the show moved to Cartoon Network's Toonami block due to higher ratings. YuYu Hakusho was taken off Toonami around March 2005 and moved to an early Saturday morning time slot at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time where the series finished its run. It also aired as part of the Funimation programming block on Colours TV.

A series of YuYu Hakusho OVAs were released only in Japan. It has also been broadcast across Japan, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent by the anime satellite television network Animax.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Production 4 Media 4.1 Manga 4.2 Anime 4.2.1 Music 4.2.2 OVAs 4.3 Other media 5 Reception 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

Yusuke Urameshi is a street-brawling delinquent with a tough guy approach to everything. Yusuke's mother Atsuko, an alcoholic, had him at the age of 14 and took a backseat in raising her son. He has a reserved seat in the guidance counselor's office, and numerous other delinquents in the city are constantly trying to take him on. Yusuke is pretty fed up with his life.

However, no one expects a sudden act of heroism on his part: he dies trying to save a little boy from a speeding car. When he arrives in the afterlife, he is informed that the child would have miraculously survived, and had it not been for him the child would have one less scratch on his right arm. His act of heroism, therefore, was "completely pointless". Yusuke's premature death was unexpected and unnecessary, and the afterlife was not prepared for his arrival.

After numerous tests to gauge his worth, Yusuke is eventually revived, and is assigned to work for the Spirit World as a detective investigating demon cases in the human world. He comes into spiritual abilities of his own, and enlists the help of numerous friends from Reikai (spirit world), Makai (demon world, translated in the English manga as the Demon Plane) and Ningenkai (Human World) to aid him in his cases as they fight off demons and humans seeking to rule over all three worlds.

[edit] Characters

• Yusuke Urameshi (浦飯 幽助, Urameshi Yūsuke^?) - Yusuke is the toughest kid in Sarayashiki Junior High School and has a typical tough guy approach to everything. He becomes a spirit detective after he dies and is revived by Keiko's kiss. His main attack is the Rei Gun (Spirit Gun in the English anime) where he can manipulate his Reiki (spiritual energy) and fire it into a projectile. He learns many techniques and abilities from Genkai. He mainly grows in strength from all of his different battles, because he responds to danger by unleashing his full strength.

• Kazuma Kuwabara (桑原 和真, Kuwabara Kazuma^?) - Kuwabara is the second toughest kid in the school, and resents Yusuke for it. Originally rivals, Yusuke and Kuwabara start a grudging friendship that only strengthens throughout the series. Although human, Kuwabara has high Reiki sensitivity; he is able to manifest a Rei Ken (Spirit Sword in the English dubbing); a type of Reiki that normally takes on the shape of a glowing sword. After the Dark Saga, Kuwabara is believed to be the strongest human alive.

• Kurama (蔵馬, Kurama^?), also known as Shuichi Minamino (南野 秀一, Minamino Shūichi^?) in his human form - Kurama is a demon with the ability to summon and control plants. He was originally the powerful and infamous yōkai, kitsune thief, Fox Demon Kurama or Yoko Kurama (妖狐蔵馬, Yōko Kurama^?) until he was wounded by a hunter. Managing to escape by inhabiting the body of an unborn human baby, he grew up as the human child Shuichi, and planned on abandoning his "family" once his demonic power returned at the age of ten, but grew to love his human mother, Shiori Minamino. Kurama has a wide variety of techniques, because of his ability to control a wide variety of plants, including the often seen Rose Whip.

• Hiei (飛影, Hiei^?) - A hi yōkai (hi yōkai, lit. "fire demon") who was born of a ice maiden (Korime (氷女, Kōrime^?, 氷女) lit. "Ice Woman").^[3] He specializes in the Jagan (邪眼術, lit. "Evil Eye"^?) skills, as well as swordsmanship, and can move at superhuman speeds. His sister, Yukina, is unaware of their relationship, and Hiei has gone as far as to threaten harm to others to prevent Yukina from realizing that he is actually her brother.

• Genkai (幻海, Genkai^?) - The aged Reiki fighter who rigorously trains Yusuke in the Spirit Light Wave Fist (霊光波動拳, Reikō Hadō Ken^?, Spirit Wave in the English anime). Though her manner is often gruff, she cares for Yusuke and the others, and constantly tries to help them grow stronger. In the past, she was feared as one of the most powerful human fighters in both Ningenkai and Makai.

[edit] Production

Togashi said that he began working on YuYu Hakusho during a period of time around November 1990; Togashi said that he forgot the exact time.^[4]

When first creating the series, Togashi did not have a clear idea of what he wanted to call it. When presenting rough drafts to his editors he used the tentative title "How to be a Ghost". Once given the go-ahead to begin publication, Togashi proposed "YuYu-Ki (Poltergeist Chronicles)" for the title, as there would be battles with demons and it would be a play on SaiYu-Ki. Because a series with a similar name (Chin-Yu-Ki) had already begun publication, Togashi quickly created an alternative: "YuYu Hakusho". He comments that he could have used "Den (Legend)" or "Monogatari (Story)", but "Hakusho (Report)" was the first thing that came to his mind.^[5]

[edit] Media

[edit] Manga

The YuYu Hakusho manga series was written and drawn by Togashi and published originally by Shueisha in the Japanese-language magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump.^[6] The manga consists on ninenteen collected volumes with the first one being released on April 10, 1991, and the last one released on December 12, 1994.^[7][8] In August 2004, the Japanese publishers of YuYu Hakusho released the kanzenban edition. Each kanzenban volume features a new cover. The kanzenban 15 volumes long (as opposed to the original 19 tankōbon, each book contains more chapters than the basic editions), with two released monthly.^[9][10]

The YuYu Hakusho manga is serialized in North America by Viz Media in the American Shonen Jump magazine.^[6] The first volume was released on May 13, 2003, and currently fifteen volumes have been released.^[11] The 16th volume was released on December 2, 2008.^[12]

[edit] Anime

The anime, directed by Noriyuki Abe and co-produced by Fuji Television, Yomiko Advertising, and Studio Pierrot, consists of 112 television episodes and two movies: The Golden Seal and Bonds of Fire. The series aired from October 10, 1992, to January 7, 1995, on Fuji Television in Japan.^[13] In North America, the episodes aired from February 23, 2002, to April 1, 2006, on Cartoon Network.^[13] Initially, the episodes were shown on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block from February 2002 to April 2003, and switched to Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block for the remaining episodes.^[14][15]

The four seasons that compose the series are each their own story arc, and referred to as "sagas" by Funimation.^[16] Thirty-two DVD compilations have been released by Funimation for the four sagas, with the first released on April 16, 2002, and the thirty-second on July 19, 2005.^[17][18] In addition, DVD collection boxes have been released for each saga,^[19][20][21] containing all the episodes of every saga, with the exception of the Dark Tournament Saga, which had two collection boxes.^[22][23] Funimation will be releasing season box sets of the anime starting with season 1 which was released on July 8, 2008 and season 2, which was released on September 23, 2008. The third season was released on November 11, 2008, and the fourth season was released on January 13, 2009.^[24] Each set contains 4 DVDs which will have a quarter of the whole series (about 28 episodes).^[25]

[edit] Music

The music for the YuYu Hakusho anime series was composed by Yusuke Honma, who would later score other series such as Ninku and Flame of Recca. The series has one opening theme, "Hohoemi no Bakudan" by Matsuko Mawatari, as well as five closing themes: "Homework ga Owaranai," "Sayonara bye bye," and "Daydream Generation" by Mawatari, and "Unbalance na Kiss wo Shite" and "Taiyou ga Mata Kagayaku Toki" by Hiro Takahashi.^[13] A number of soundtracks have been released in Japan.^[26]

[edit] OVAs

A series of YuYu Hakusho OVAs were released only in Japan. It has also been broadcast across Japan, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and India by the anime satellite television network Animax.

• Eizō Hakusho: Ankoku Bujutsukai (2 Volumes)^[26][27]
• Eizō Hakusho II: Yusuke Volume^[26][28]
• Eizō Hakusho II: Kurama Volume^[26][28]
• Eizō Hakusho II: Hiei Volume^[26][28]
• Eizō Hakusho II: Kuwabara Volume^[26][28]
• Opening Ending Encyclopedia^[26]
• Recap Guide Complete Advance Set (3 Volumes)

[edit] Other media

A number of video games have been released that tie to the YuYu Hakusho series, notably: YuYu Hakusho: Spirit Detective, YuYu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics for the Game Boy Advance, YuYu Hakusho: Dark Tournament for the PlayStation 2, and YuYu Hakusho Final for the SNES.

A few action figures have been released, as well as other collectibles. YuYu Hakusho also has a series of drama soundtracks sung by the Japanese voice actors.

[edit] Reception

This section requires expansion.

As of June 2007, YuYu Hakusho had sold more than 44,000,000 copies in Japan alone.^[29] It won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1994.^[2]

The anime was voted the best anime of the year in the Animage Grand Prix in 1994 and the second best in 1993 (after Sailor Moon).^[30][31] Additionally, the magazine declared the series number 53 on its top 100 anime listing in 2001.^[32] In a 2006 web poll conducted in Japan by the network TV Asahi, YuYu Hakusho was voted as the 15th best anime of all time.^[33]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: YuYu Hakusho

• Studio Pierrot's YuYu Hakusho website (Japanese)
• YuYu Hakusho in IMDB (English)
• FUNimation's YuYu Hakusho website
• YuYu Hakusho (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

v • d • e YuYu Hakusho Franchise Chapters • Episodes (Seasons: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4) • Characters • Video games • Films • Trading Card Game

v • d • e Weekly Shōnen Jump: 1990 – 1999 1990 Shin Jungle King Tar-chan • Slam Dunk • YuYu Hakusho 1992 Silent Knight Shō • Kyūkyoku!! Hentai Kamen 1993 Ninku • Tottemo! Luckyman • DNA² • Hell Teacher Nūbē 1994 Bomber Girl • Captain Tsubasa: World Youth • Rurouni Kenshin • Rash!! • Ninku: Second Stage 1995 Karakurizōshi Ayatsuri Sakon • Shadow Lady • Level E • Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo!! Masaru-san 1996 Hoshin Engi • Yu-Gi-Oh! 1997 Butsu Zone • I"s • Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! • One Piece • Cowa! 1998 Rookies • Whistle! • Hunter × Hunter • Shaman King • Kajika 1999 Hikaru no Go • Yamato Gensouki • The Prince of Tennis • Zombiepowder. • Naruto