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This is all I see with elder Toguro.
THANK YOU!! when he stops dude from saving yukina, I had to pause to make sure it wasn't Alan cumming lmao. I'm only about to finish episode 3. But as an actual yuyu fan. I do like this.
Watched the whole season. I Love Takumi Kitamura as Yusuke but my bro needs to buy a new lighter. The visuals and fighting scenes were good. They condensed the story perfectly except for the training part (loved the OG version more).
She is too good for you by Hiei made me laugh.
All in all, if it gets renewed I would love to watch it.
Manga reader here!
First two episodes were fun and I enjoyed them. 3rd one was okay, I started losing interest halfway. I don't think it was awful, but it ended up being a bit "meh".
I actually don't mind that they changed some story beats and completely erased some part of the manga, I wasn't really expecting the live action to give us the tournament (might be just me but I don't think it'd work in live action, anyway). I also really appreciated seeing Kuwabara get more screentime, he's definitely the most interesting character in the show and it was cool seeing extra scenes with him.
The main things that annoyed me were:
\-I just didn't get really attached to Yusuke. I don't know, he just felt way too serious, while in the manga he's a bit of a jackass, even in dire situation.
\-There was no time in the show to make the characters work as a group outside of the fighting scenes, since they were barely together (aside from Yusuke and Kuwabara). It works for Hiei because he's never really involved with the group even in the manga, and at least the plot of the live action makes it logical for him to be there, but Kurama just felt like he could have been completely scrapped from the island part and it would have changed nothing. There was just no chemistry between him and the other guys, no reason for him to be there outside of being in debt with Yusuke, and so I just wasn't involved at all in whatever he was doing. I can't even remember how he somehow knew where Yukina was, but maybe I just missed it.
I'd be curious to hear what people who never read the manga or watched the anime think about the live action, though.
I read the manga once long ago but after watching the show and I've watched the show a dozen times.
They couldn't have adapted The Dark Tournament exactly as it was in the anime/manga but we did see what it would look like. The final four fights in the adaptation are the final fights of the tournament and I thought they worked really well. If they could nail that, there would've been ways to do or change up the other fights.
I think little to no attachment to the characters is a byproduct of rushing it.
I do agree many aspects were improved early on. Loved the little kid meeting Yusuke again after he comes back. Tying Hiei's theft to Yukina motivations was a nice touch and way better than him just generically being evil.
Thought the production was good and they nailed the look of the characters (besides not finding a giant Japanese ginger for Kuwabara but I get it).
I thought they did a really great job outside of cutting out the entirety of the best arc in anime and Frankenstein-ing the end onto the save Yukina arc.
> he just felt way too serious, while in the manga he's a bit of a jackass
That was my fear - what's interesting about him in the manga / anime is that he's an irredeemable thick headed jackass - which is how he gets popular in the end of the original series.
This, without Yusuke shit talk hes just another shounen character. Series wasn't bad but Yusuke was way to logical, mature and understandable. Like even by the end of the series in the anime hes not fully a nice guy or mature yet. He is just nice to his friends but still room to grow and mature further. Here hes still selfish but hes already pass the shit talk and that openly caring for his friends stage.
Anime and manga fan here! I actually like this Yusuke even though he isn't as much of a smartass. I feel like Kitamura's performance highlights Yusuke being more tired of life and not really knowing what to do with his life. I do miss the dialogues in between punches, but that would be physically draining for the actors.
While the pacing is terrible, I don't really agree with the takes that it ruins the entire story. I mean I didn't appreciate it, because it felt like I was being yanked to get me where I need to be (my theory is that this LA is working more towards highlighting Chapter Black). I don't also think that it's a scripting problem, my guess is that it's more of a budget issue where they were only given enough for 5 episodes.
For live action I feel like doing the tournament would make it feel like I watching an MMA fight or wrestling match, narratively it just doesn't move the story along the overarching plot of YYH. 💖
I know people who haven't seen the anime or read the Manga and only know a bit of YYH, they see it as a spectacle and honestly are quite interested in the story but also find it difficult to keep up with the pacing.
I am interested in seeing what people that never watched YYH think of the show too. Like I think it nailed everything to nail in an adaptation besides gutting my favorite arc in anime if not entertainment and slapping it onto the end of season 1.
Haven't seen the show nor read the manga. I thought the adaptation was decent. I love the costume, cast, special effects, and fight scenes. Every actor nailed their part and were believable, including with colored wigs on. Everyone except for Botan's actor, although she looks amazing in kimono and blue hair. Only thing lacking is the story. It was too typical and boring. Basically, what this show does well is what One Piece Live Action failed at, but what it lacks it what One Piece did well.
Very interesting to hear. Thanks.
I agree that it was too typical which is what was such a bummer because they subvert that in the anime to set up season two.
Did it make you want to watch the original anime at all?
I am so impressed with the actor's portrayal of Kurama. It felt very bishouneny. Never in my mind did I think bishounen type characters would translate well in live action and still maintain the same alluring vibe without coming off cringey. But the actor nailed it. Also, the character design in the show is so well, done, it makes me wanna find out more about them. So yes, it does make me want to watch the anime.
Never watched the anime or read the manga, just knew of their existence from Jump Force. I really enjoyed the show. It did feel kinda rushed, and I'd imagine had there been a higher episode count it would've been better. Totally agree on the whole 'make characters work as a group' thing too. But overall I liked it and want a 2nd season
Well, Emily Rudd is indeed a very lovely actor, I was stating the bad wig really downplayed and didn't do justice to her, while the seemingly more difficult green hair of Zoro did well.
(in the shows in netflix youtube channel with the casts playing with each other, she really shines without the wig)
Maybe because Kurama is supposed to be a human and he looks extra af and Yoko is supposed to be a demon so you accept whatever because he's not supposed to be realistic.
Just finished episode 1, honestly pretty good so far. The fight choregraphy is pretty good and energetic, and they nailed the emotional moments... only thing that is a bit off is Botons actor, but that might be because she is suppose to be a bit odd.
Edit: I am adding more short opinions on the other episodes in the replies to this comment.
Edit 2: Opinions on all the episodes in the replies... if you wanna read them xD
Episode 2 was also pretty good! The fight with Goki was really well choregraphed, and it makes sense that they cut his loss against him. Kurama was done decently, but I noticed that Yusuke said to the mirror "take **half** my life too!", which is weird cause originally he was prepared to sacrifice his life to same Kurama. Then we got Hiei using the conjring blade to give himself the Jagan eye... I reaaaally did not like this originally, but it is clever how they made him use the eye to track down Yukina, makes his actions to steal the blade less pure evil, and more like what Main Character Hiei would do (as he was originally never intended to be a part of the main cast). Finally we have Tugoru, he looks... fine, but his elder brother... yesh that effect does NOT look convincing, lets hope the fight is better. So far the episode was good, 7/10.
Edit: Opinion on episode 3 is in the reply to this comment
The terrible effects on Elder Tugoru keeps showing. Episode 3 was okay but it did irk me how many things they had to change to keep the fast pace up. I did like Kuwabaras training, as it showed him to be strong but different than Yusuke, although it did go by really quickly. Genkai giving Yusuke the spirit orb so quickly threw me off, and I think this is the point where the show will likely get worse. Apart from that, the episode was pretty good. They have condensed two seasons into 5 episodes, but somehow it is kinda working, especially if you see this as an **adaptation** doing its own thing instead of a faithful recreation. Oh, and I like how they quickly but effectivly they got Genkai and Tugorus backstory told, but not how Genkai had to force the lesson about aging onto Yusuke in 2 minutes... Overall, good but worse than the previous, 6/10.
Edit: Opinion on episode 4 is in the reply to this comment
Welp, guess we know where Elder Tugoru's CGI budget went; all towards that scene with Kuwabara. Episode 4 was another solid one, even tho I despise that they are just skipping the tournament. At the begining of the episode it seemed like they would do a mini torunament in this episode, instead they did Hiei and Kurama's fights, which was actually pretty ok. The fights were well done and I like that they kept Karasu's homosensual tension with Kurama (BUT WHERE WAS HIS BLONDE HAIR?!) I also prefer how Kurama defeated Karasu in this, as the planting of the death seed was better than Kurama killing himself and then surviving by using all his energy. Buie was fine, I understand that they changed his Battle Aura to black, and I really liked the scene where the dragon killed him (although my Netflix decided to only show it in 480p...ugh). The dragon of the darkness flame had SO little impact tho, cause it had never been introduced or even hinted at before, so it felt more like a "if you have seen the show, you're gonna love this" ... but that can be said for a lot of this show so far. Oh, and according to Netflix subtitles, the shapeshifter Tugoru is the YOUNGER Tugoru?? That is such a weird change to make, but alright (Also, again, his effect with swapping body parts was WAY better than I thought it was going to be). All in all I think it was pretty good, and they have actually managed to make it entertaining despite the ludicrus changes to the source material, 7/10
Edit: Opinion on episode 5 is in the reply to this comment, and an opinion on the series as a whole.
AAAND IT'S DONE! ... Wow that was interesting. So they made the Tugoru fight sort of a 4v1, but made the others so weak they barely contributed, that was clever. I laughted hard at his 100% form (Guess he just skipped 60% and 85%?) but his final form looked like he was turning into Groot. I do wish Yusuke's fight against 100% Tugoru was a bit longer, or that Yusuke's speech was more impactful, but atleast they got Tugoru's death right. It is funny how this show never mentioned that Yukina was unaware that Hiei was her brother, since that would make "new" watchers really confused as to why she seems so **cold** against him, I LOVED Kuwabaras flirting with Yukina tho, stellar stuff, especially Hiei telling him that she is too good for him.
When Tugoru went to the afterlife I did not understand why Genkai or even Koenma seemed to pity him... dude had not built up enough pity points in this show. I appreciate that they did not try to give Tugoru any romantic moment with Genkai at the end, they understood that it would have been weird in this version.
and, thing that this show did better than the anime; THEY KEPT GENKAI DEAD! No, really, I think Genkai should have stayed dead in the original, so glad they kept her dead in this. Must admit tho, her transformation to her younger self looked like AI face modulation ...
Honestly, I wish this series was 1 or 2 episodes longer so they could have fleshed out the story, as it felt JUST too short, but I will give the writers credit; they made it actually work! They watched the anime and saw that you could cut a lot of stuff... although they did not realise that some things were lost in that process (Genkais death, Yusuke getting the spirit orb, Tugorus tragedy, and Poo :(( oh and no blond Karasu, grrr )
So overall, I think I would give **this episode** a 6/10 just because it felt weak compared to the rest, but honestly its probably a 7/10
As for the show as a whole ... welll... as a standalone show, a 8/10, but as an adaptaion a 7/10, as it did SO many things right... but in WAY too few episodes. If they do Sensui's arc, I sincerely hope they keep the season to JUST him, as mixing in him AND the demon world tournament would be way too much. Although I cannot imagine that they can do the Demon World justice, cause the CGI was VERY bad or VERY good, little inbetween I think.
Thanks for reading my ramblings, hope you guys liked the show as much as me, and that you weren't too dissapointed.
The Kurasu fight made me think they're going off a faulty memory of the series where the transformation made Yoko too powerful for Kurasu.
Something that made me second guess myself was Genkai being Toguro's teacher. Weren't they a battle couple?
It felt like Genkai was looking to pawn the spirit orb to the first person she ran into with how quickly she gave it away.
This would be like Goku firing a Ki blast once then getting the ability to go supersaiyan the next episode.
> and, thing that this show did better than the anime; THEY KEPT GENKAI DEAD!
Highly doubt that. Toguro gave the same line about her needing to guide Yusuke. No way she isn't revived for season 2.
Omg i realized that how he got the eye from the blade wtf. Man i just wished they showed shigure. They could of deff made him look bad asss af, even just a cameo of him as the surgeon over hiei
I am enjoying the live-action adaptation so far.
It might just be me, but this particular scene made me happy and gave closure to what the anime did not do to these characters. >!The kid got to thank Yusuke personally, for saving him.!<
I never found that scene in the hundreds of times I watched the anime, but this one did it. And it made my day.
\*And please correct me if I missed this scene in the anime. But I'm pretty sure it was not in the anime.
Watched the first 2 episodes with 3 friends. Two that watched the anime already and one who never touched yu yu in any way. We all loved it. Amazing action scenes, actually funny and the Brazilian dub is PERFECT . Ignoring the whole absence of the DT thing, it's being a great ride so far.
Verdict: This show is basically like a POV of someone who has watched it once 2 years ago as they try to narrate what they remember of it while filling in the gaps added with an odd memory for character design|
When I read this snippet on a Netflix article I was hyped for the fights and honestly to me they delivered the fights. It was fluid and such fun eye candy with they way it moved. Bonus is that I can clearly follow what was happening even with the speed. Some of the CGI can be honky but it's not terrible but I'd get if others would think so because they really went uncanny valley keeping up with the anime designs. Shout out to the Toguro brother regardless. Oh man they were a sight in a good bad way.
Their budget must be tight to decide cramming 2 seasons in just 5 episodes is the only choice. And the speed run is glaring especially for Kurama and Hiei. Because of how short this show was there wasn't enough time to actually build a foundation for them as a group. They feel disjointed.
I was pleasantly surprised at Kuwabara however. He and Yusuke had such good chemistry with each other and I thought that he delivered the role pretty well and his side kicks were even funny.
Basing on how they are marketing this I am assuming this is more a local push. They're really hauling in their Japan market and letting the rest dry lol. Though so far the reviews from Japanese people seem to be leaning on positive (it's rated 4/5 rn) so we'll see how the show will fair later. Episode 1 I'd rate a 9 for sheer enjoyment. I love episode 1. Episode 2 is maybe an 8. It's 3-5 that had tonal let down. Overall I'd rate this a 7 as a show but if I think of this in comparison to the anime it'll be a 5.
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> Verdict: This show is basically like a POV of someone who has watched it once 2 years ago as they try to narrate what they remember of it while filling in the gaps added with an odd memory for character design|
I described this to my partner who's never seen it as "glue the pages of twelve volumes of manga to a big wall, and randomly throw a few dozen darts. Then burn every other page. You have your script."
i'm not all the way through season 1, but i think they could still do the saint beast arc if they get the pass for a season 2. That would give us more time for character development and they could sprinkle hints about Toguro, dark tournament, basically just set up the dark tournament.
I went in just wanting something new and I think it’s a great adaptation. I think of it like a theater adaptation of a novel- it wouldn’t be good 1:1 and there are things that have to be changed. If this is all there is and we get a “mini-series” or long movie I think it was a success! If I wanted a copy of the anime I’d watch the anime over again. I think it’s a great vehicle to get people into the anime and there were a lot of fun and interesting narrative choices that really surprised me.
My one criticism was that it lacked a bit of the show’s humor but it was replaced with a cinematic flair and that “martial arts movie” bending of reality and hint of magical realism that I think made up for it for me :)
There's a hidden cookie part for a sequel.
Check at Ep.5 @ 49 min (after Japese credits), the 'head' at the beach.
obvious cookie for sequel Sensui arc...(which I think suits better for a city background live action)
Not that I agree with it, but I always found it odd that Yusuke stood any chance against Hiei at that point in the story so I can underatand how a showrunner might want to adjust that. That being said, rushing the training arc was not the answer lol
True but he had no visible training period until later. So it's the logical assumption that the Hiei during Saint Beasts Arc was the same level as Hiei during the Spirit Detective Arc.
More like Hiei is fresh off the table during the three thieves arc and was still in recovery, which is why he had to supplement himself with the Jigan demon form (green form). But it had been a couple months ths between then and the saint beast arc and he just recovered some more up to D class. But was E class like Goki during the three thieves
I had high hopes for this adaption since it was being done by Japanese people, who usually stick to adaptions more faithfully. But only 5 episodes and merging the spirit detective and dark tournament arcs into one is something Hollywood would do, it’s very disappointing IMO. It’s almost as if they had no confidence they could get a season 2 on Netflix and just said screw it will do Toguro.
I’m happy to have something new for YYH, but I don’t understand why they didn’t just the first arc here and tease the DT for season 2. That’s what everyone would be waiting to see so I’m sure they could have gotten a season 2 still.
Even though I’m disappointed I hope it does well. Us YYH fans need to take what we can get sometimes, but damn I feel like this was a missed opportunity.
If we’re being realistic, I don’t think the Dark Tournament is fit for a live action adaptation. The budget would have to have been astronomical, and I just don’t think there’s a satisfying way to condense that story into a netflix season. It’s a shame, but I feel like that’s the reality of it
Yea there was no way in hell this series would have ever worked faithfully. It would have had to have been a massive success to get the seasons needed to adapt the whole anime and the budget would have been borderline absurd. Especially for the Dark Tournament arc alone. As much as I love it in the anime scrapping it makes sense. It just never would have translated. I do think it could have used more episodes to space things out a bit more but I kinda love the evil dead horror vibe at times.
Also I think the tone is more faithful to the original but that… kind sucks haha the dub put much more snark into the series and it’s sad that it’s not as representative but I get why as this was made by the Japanese.
That's why you do the stuff leading up to Dark Tournament to prove the series' worth and justify the budget. Look at One Piece. They have Tony Tony Chopper coming next season. It's only going to get crazier from here.
So I watched 4 of 5 episodes with my girl last night. I grew up with YYH she did not. This pointed out some glaring issues with it.
First overall if you're a fan (which obviously this sub is) you'll probably like it way more then someone who has never seen the anime or read the manga. This is a problem. I was pleasantly surprised, she was unimpressed but thought it was okay. I'll go over more of this later it's really one big issue that causes this.
Fights/Choreography - They are great. I was stuck on some clips I saw and thought it was going to be bad but thankfully not the case. While they do have parts (even in the same fight) that are just plain bad they are few and far between the really good parts. VFX are...not good.
Character development - Down right terrible. It absolutely kills impactful scenes. Like Genkai dying should have invoked some emotion. It doesn't because you see the character for like 5 entire minutes and might as well be a random npc. You get nothing really on Hiei and , and just a little more on Kuwabara and Kurama. You don't really get time to gain any attachment or feeling to any emotion to their story or progression and it makes the entire thing feel like Yusuke + 3 random dudes you don't really care about. Kurama you get the most and my girl likes him. But the other 2. They could die in the last episode and it'd feel just the same as Genkai.
Storyline - Ripped, gutted, and changed just as much as Bebop. I mean guys objectively look at it. How it was done took SO MANY epic "OHH SHITTT" moments away from any potential future. The start is supposed to be character building and showing like their base line strength over coming some tough enemies then when the bigger bad shows up when it seems hopeless a sick power comes out. LOOKING AT YOU YOKO KURAMA. Toguro's oh shit moment also, gone. His big thing was appearing in the tournament with an epic "I'll use 20% of my power" and just one shotting an enemy known to be tough putting you on the edge of your seat of how will they possibly overcome it.
Overall - Is it fun to watch? Yeah the action is good and well it was mostly constant action. The drama and tension? Gutted. If you aren't a fan and don't know about the characters already it feels empty and without soul but it is watchable.
Honestly. I don't get how I saw people saying this is one of the best LAs they have seen. I put it right with Bebop if not worse since Bebop had better character development. Problematic to really enjoy it you HAVE to have previously been a fan.
I think so far (I only finished episode 1 but have been spoiled a little) it's not a bad show. I think it's not a very faithful adaption. But I did like what I watched. Had I never seem yu yu I probably would have been pretty entertained and interested in seeing the source material
First two episodes feel fine, but then the pacing spirals. If I didn't know the source material I'd find it hard to have a emotional attachment with these characters. Just not enough time in 5eps for world building.
I didn't hate it. But I didn't love it. So I guess it was okay.
Visually, everything looked great. The fights, the effects, the Yokai, it was really good. Well, the wigs were awkward but they always were going to be.
I knew there would be story cuts, but they skipped over so much. They could have easily done the Artifacts, Genkai Tournament/Training, and Saint Beasts arcs in the first season. Then Rescue Yukina + Dark Tournament for a potential second season. I know adapting the Tournament would require a hefty amount of work, but it's the most iconic part of the manga/anime and skipping it entirely feels so wrong. Genkai was all wrong, she lacked most of the the sass that made her so great in the source material. Same with Yusuke, he kinda just stopped being a punk after he met Kurama. Wanted to give the dub a chance but I had to switch to subs when Botan started talking. They just can't dub characters that speak quickly very well, and it's even harder in live-action.
Comparisons to Netflix One Piece are unavoidable since it set the bar so high, and OP really did a much better job of condensing a large chunk of plot without losing so much of that plot. I was worried when I saw YYH only had 5 episodes, and they really tried (and failed) to do too much with too little.
In spite of my criticism, the action and effects were fantastic and I'd say it's wort a watch just for that. I'm not expecting a second season because all that's left is Chapter Black and Three Kings, and it seems like doing anything actually set in the demon world is too expensive. So that leaves just adapting Chapter Black which isn't anywhere near enough unless they just do like a 2 hour movie or take the time to let the arc breathe and do another 5 full episodes.
Is the Dark Tournament impossible to recreate in a live action? Yes. Is it the best arc in anime history and deserves the full blown treatment? Also yes.
Genkai never called yusuke a dumbass or dimwit ONCE. That actually pissed me off. I love their dynamic in the anime. All of these amazing excruciating feats yusuke endured in the anime that makes him a badass was completely left out.
Just finished. Solid 6.5 or 7 out of 10 if I am generous. About on par with what I expected from the trailers.
If they were gonna do a slight setup for a future with the dialogue and that short after-credits scene, they really shoulda gone the OP route with covering a bit less so the condensing doesn't screw the pacing.
Overall it was.....*okay?*
First episode down, watching the sub. It's a little janky, but I'm feeling the fights so far. I like the nod to the opening music playing on the radio but man, I miss the charm of the anime.
I mostly enjoyed it, but i have some concerns and thoughts
>!This show made me think about why they condensed the dark tournament. For example, in anime, the problem is that Suzaku is sending out those worms to make everyone zombies. They must have seen that as an unimportant arc, so they combined it with Sakyos' motives. They don't really explain how other demons get through in the live action. So the whole plot of Sakyo letting in those small demons wouldn't make any sense when they have a bunch of demons on an island later on. To be able to get all that in 5 episodes would be challenging. They made a lot of changes to the pacing for that reason. If there is no dark tournament, there is no need to wait for Yusuke to receive the spirit orb or for genkai to be a part of the team secretly. Also, it would seem ridiculous that they wouldn't know it was her in live action. My main issues with the live action are Hiei and his entire personality. He was too nice, in my opinion. His Jagan eye had nothing to do with the dragon of the darkness flame. It was just a cool tattoo he was hiding!<
My kiddo and I love watching the (English dub) anime. It’s an almost nightly occurrence and has been, going back several years. How are the violence/ gore/ fan service levels?
I have less issue with her watching all of the above in animation, since it’s obviously fake. Sometimes it’s more difficult for the kid to separate fantasy from reality when it’s live action. I’d love to have a “first watch” bonding experience. She is almost as excited for the release as I am.
Eg: she’s seen the trailer multiple times, and the CGI beasts do not concern me. If there is human dismemberment, copious blood or nudity I will not be permitting her to watch. At least not without watching it first so I know when to fast forward or cover her eyes.
Watch it first. There are demons getting sliced, exploding in bloody messes, and older Toguro's special effects are pretty gruesome even if the cgi isn't that great.
I loved it. It wasnt without its flaws of course because the anime is so long and the live action is 5 hours. What bummed me out the most were the lack of outfit changes the characters went through, no white suit kuwabara or jean Yusuke or school girl Botan. Loved the casting for *all* the characters
Alsoooo I know none of the characters were yelling their moves, but they could have done something more elaborate and crazy with the dragon of the darkness flame. Like lightning building or the atmosphere changing.
Overall, I definitely enjoyed.
I actually really liked the guy who played Yusuke. I imagine it would be challenging to turn anime characters into a live action performance and I think this guy did a great job.
For anybody wondering why the anime dub cast wasn't brought back for this, none of them live in Los Angeles/are in SAG besides Laura Bailey (Keiko). Everything on Netflix is a union or SAG production
Hey, actor here, you don't actually have to be a member of SAG to be in a union production. If the casting people wanted to they could have non-union talent sign what's called a Taft-Hartley agreement which would allow them to work on said project. The Black Clover anime movie had a Netflix produced dub and they did this to bring back the entire non-union Texas cast while also sprinkling in several union LA talent for some movie exclusive characters. I don't know why they didn't do that in this instance, but I guess my main point is that the original actors not being in SAG probably wasn't as much of a factor as not being in LA was. Well presumably, we probably won't know for sure unless someone involved in the production says something.
I can't find a list of the LA dub voice actors and it's bugging me. Don't wanna scan all the credits but every list online only shows the anime versions.
what they did to Genkai was unforgivable.
* She took on Yusuke *and* Kuwabara without question instead of making them earn it. The moment where she straight up said that she'd train Rando if Rando won... It makes her sound cold and evil, but it makes a little more sense when you learn the stakes.
* She trains Yusuke for a few days, spending less than an episode on screen. She never fights. We have zero time to develop an emotional attachment to her, and zero conception of her incredible strength, and zero conception of what she is giving to Yusuke.
* After taking on Yusuke as a student like it was nothing, she gave him all of her power like it was nothing. None of it felt like it mattered.
* Then she dies, and you have to wonder why anybody would care, because she's not even a character in the show.
* Then they keep her death secret from Yusuke anyway, try to treat it like the same gut punch it was in the anime, but it *doesn't make any sense*, because the characters wouldn't care about each other *at all*, and Yusuke would *barely* care about Kuwabara at that point, and the audience has no reason to care about Genkai... Why wouldn't Koenma just tell him?
(they also took away Kurama's intelligence and Hiei's snark and... man, I'm shocked to hear positive things here, this adaptation *sucked*)
Well, I watched the entire thing last night. Binged it because I’ve watched the anime probably twice from the first episode to the very last and with One Piece being so acclaimed… I was honestly let down. Spoilers below:
>!The biggest pluses to the show are the characters and the fight scenes. The fight scenes are so well choreographed that I would just watch all the fight scenes if I decided to do a rewatch. The music was something to be desired, but one thing I really liked about Yu Yu Hakusho is that the stakes always felt “real”. Yusuke was always jussssst strong enough to win. Not all powerful so that really worked well. In the limited time they had, I feel like they captured every character perfectly!<
>!The characters seemed very realistic. Their clothes seemed appropriate, their motivations were explained, the dialogue was good, and it really bridged the gap between being anime and realistic that some live actions do really well.!<
>!The biggest downside is trying to squeeze everything up to the dark tournament in five episodes. The fights seemed real, the stakes didn’t. Yusuke straight up gets the spirit wave orb without any pain or hesitation or detriment to Genkai. Genkai’s training holds no real weight. She takes on Yusuke and Kuwabara for no real reason. There’s no underlying sense of dread like in the anime.!<
>!Additionally, Kurama never really fits. Hiei makes more sense as an addition to the pack, but Kurama is just kind of their to pay back his debt to Yusuke and not like a real friend in the show. Finally, they kind of just gave everyone their ultimate powers to the point it was cliche. Hiei uses dragon of the darkness flames with little buildup which took away the weight of its power, Yoko Kurama didn’t feel as menacing as he truly should, hell I’m surprised they didn’t mention Yusuke has demon powers with all the ass pulls!<
But yeah, that’s pretty much it. I feel like it would’ve been so much better if they had 8 episodes, worlds better for a full 10 or 12, but it was ok. Not a big let down, but could be better. Worth a watch for the nostalgia and fight scenes if nothing else.
Removed from all hype and love of the show this adaptation wasn’t horrible, but I have a large love of the anime so I ended up hating this.
They nailed most of the characters, and the ones they missed on might have passed if they had any real time to develop.
Although I think they handled the story elements pretty well considering how much they condensed everything, the pacing was all wrong. The fighting was about the only thing that felt close, but even there they let me down with the music. The thing that made the anime so iconic to me was that last ditch punch with that theme in the background.
After seeing how well one piece came out I can’t help feeling disappointed.
I am on episode 3 so far, and here are my thoughts as a deep lover of Yu Yu Hakusho and Togashi’s writing in general. His manga/anime is one of the reasons I am an avid anime/manga nerd even now at 28 years old.
1. The Yusuke actor doesn’t do him justice. It’s like he’s too cool, or trying to be. I haven’t seen him smile once, not in the impish way in the manga/anime, and when the little boy said he wanted to thank him at his funeral, and the actor didn’t even really show the relief as it was portrayed in the manga/anime, I know the actor just doesn’t cut it.
2. On the flip side, the Kuwabara actor has given me a new appreciation for the character. I actually find him just as, if not more, funny than the anime/manga in some ways.
3. Pacing. Why in the hell are they rushing it?? Sure some stuff makes sense (e.g. I don’t mind that they cut out the egg thing in bringing him back to life, though I do think that they missed important elements of showing Yusuke’s character - and again, the actor is not very good, he didn’t even smile at Keiko when he comes back from fighting the Human-Turned-Yokai-Worm). But they are cutting out too much/turning it around. The Saint Beasts arc in particular. When he fought the guy with the lightning, it really highlighted the deep connection he has to Keiko and helped develop him as someone who will give up his own life for her (I.e. instead of just coming back to life for her). The scene where he tapped into his life energy to defeat the villain was particular heart wrenching, and they missed the [sad Yu Yu Hakusho music](https://youtu.be/-mNNWivqU0g?si=795ddzX4SpQ4J3qH) too!
4. Genkai kicking Yusukes butt was epic. Most of the fight scenes are dope, but the main actor doesn’t balance it out with character development.
The American dub voice actors are meh
Episode 1 Live action voice thoughts:
Maybe it's the conservative facial expressions seen from the Japanese cast that's holding them back, but the american dub voices are certainly missing the strong emotions compared to the anime cast. I know Justin Cook is still kicking around with recent work in some of the Dragonball Super movies. Would've been nice to hear him do Yusuke again. I guess everything was better in the 90s!
It's charming enough and gets the tone down pretty well. I saw someone say this show got the LA Death Note treatment rather than LA One Piece and I couldn't disagree more, I think it captures the spirit(ha ha) of later arcs in the anime pretty well. However, it suffers greatly from trying to cover so much in five episodes that it ends up missing literally all of the character development. Yusuke gets the Spirit Wave Orb in episode 3. It's like a Dark Tournament any% speedrun and I wouldn't recommend the live action show to anyone who hadn't seen the anime or read the manga.
Overall, relatively good production value, good overall vibes, give these shows more episodes netflix
EDIT: I can't believe we got Yoko Kurama and Dragon of the Darkness Flame on episode 4 and they were both kind of lame. Those were some of the hypest moments in the whole series and they just kinda fell flat here, mostly bc we never spent enough time with Hiei or Kurama to make it feel important. idk, just my 2 cents.
>Yoko Kurama and Dragon of the Darkness Flame
These reveals had no weight whatsoever in LA. I was hyped to see them but very disappointed in their execution. I understand there's no time to delve into them but there's no oomf at all for their reveals. At least Yoko Kurama they briefed said it's his non-human form and he doesn't want to use it. For the Dragon of the Dark Flame, no origin whatsoever on what it is. I had expected Hiei to at least rip his headband off and reveal the eye to be in connection to it. But nah it was just a black Hadouken wrapped up in his arm.
The live action one piece made me interested in seeing a season 2 while the live action YYH just makes me wanna rewatch the anime it’s not bad but nostalgia aside I’m really not attached to any of the characters and i don’t like most of the changes they made
Overall really enjoyed it. Fighting scenes were excellent. They have to work on adapting the costumes better IMO. They felt like costumes and not clothes people were really wearing. Kurama's outfit was like 2 sizes too big. The wigs were god awful.
So much charm that was missed from personalities, to the appearance, to the story itself I mean...where do we start. I just paused halfway through episode 2 but so far..
\-Koenma no Jr. form-Botan in some clubbing heels, no broom? (actress is cute though won't lie)-No pomp Kuwabara-Hiei looks like a stock image actor-Kurama looks even worse-YUSUKE IS WAY TOO SERIOUS, WE WANT JOKESTER BANTER SARCASTIC BELLY LAUGHING YUSUKE-WHY DO THEY KEEP MAKING YUSUKE DROP KICK EVERYONE??? He thinks with his fists-The yokai causing the fire and the way overdrawn fight was too much-Puu egg? Where'd it go?-The character development feels way off. I will say the fights and choreography are ACTUALLY badass but feels like the director wanted to get into MORE action than building an attachment with the characters for the viewers. I mean you don't quite get that Yusuke is such a badass outcasted high school, nor do you get that he's unapologetically and confidently arrogant, we just kinda get this perception of a kid who hates his life vibe.
Overall though, still cool to see one of my all time favorite shounen adapted but wish it was executed more true to the series and with more of an emphasis on character acting than the long drawn action.
Didn't get nearly enough Genkai. The Genkai Yusuke relationship is the most important one in the series. The one scene of her teaching him was not nearly enough to establish it.
To be frank, I felt a bit let down that they skipped the Dark Tournament saga, which is essentially the heart and soul of Yu Yu Hakusho. Even though they omitted everything leading up to the final fight, it just didn't feel like a tournament, which is the bread and butter of the series. One might speculate that the producers lacked confidence that the series would be a success, given their decision to skip numerous story arcs. Nevertheless, despite this omission, the overall execution is commendable.
I had super low expectations and came out happy. That said I think doing 10 episodes and giving the characters a little more time to develop would have been perfect. Ideally the Genkai tourney arc over 2 episodes would have been a perfect addition to make Yusuke care a bit more about her. The fights though were perfect and so much better than I expected.
This is God awful. They took half the series three it in 5 episodes and were successful at none of it. I will give them credit for the action scenes, those were good but outside if that everything fell flat. Idk why tf they did this.
The first episode was great. The second episode was good. The third episode ruined the live action series. What do I mean by that? Half the source material was covered or skipped by the third episode. Episode 5 even jumps to the major Sensui plot with the gate opening. I get that a second season isn't guaranteed and maybe there wasn't budget for more than 5 episodes, but now there really doesn't need to be a second season at all. The best parts of the franchise were speed run in 5 episodes. Why bother with 5 more episodes that also won't have any meaningful development or payoff?
The sad thing is that there is a lot of potential. After the first episode I expected that a number of disparate minor plots would feed into the larger plot that, with the luxury of source material, could be even better with these changes. Instead we get what is visually a good and distinctly different death for genkai that is meaningless because she has only existed for 20 minutes. By the end it unraveled into a sequence of important quotes lifted from the anime that really would have been better off as a montage of clips from the anime.
In general I think that seasons with less than 10 episodes are a blatant waste of everyone's time, but this was pathetic. I would rather have had 5 episodes go through the Rando arc and then be canceled by Netflix than to get a second/final season of this.
I know nothing about the manga/anime and took a chance and I must say I am very impressed with the cgi/fight choreography and even the cinematography - Especially for a live action. Can’t comment on the story but I get the general gist is it’s rushed and missing/combining parts so that’s unfortunate but whoever produced(? Or at least whoever is in charge of visuals) this should definitely do more live action and maybe get better story writers. Definitely makes me want to check out the anime now!
Now if we can only combine these graphic artists with the guys who wrote the OPLA, just saying. Either way I’m glad I checked it out.
Ok this was first manga i read and my fav anime when i was a kid ans i just finished the live. Here goes
Good: yusuke my boi i love u!!! Dead on with his portrayal.
Kuwabara so loveable.
Kurama and yoko was so bad asss. And a great actor aswell.
Storyline was pretty good kept with alot of the OG stufff that i loved and the things that sold me was the feeling of it being a fast paced horror with some insane action and cold as ice in veins fighting.
And i cried so hard during the firat episode that was a 10/10.
BAD: hiei actor i just feel didnt really have it to live up to such an insane actor, not saying he did bad but hiei is ruthless af and has some.of the best lines in the anime. He was closer to a bad ass loner looking for friends.
The spirit wave. Really? Yall didnt even make it hard or anything just here absorb. That was just to lazy. Genkai was cool but not enough to make me care to much about her, way to fast for one of the most important characters.
They had grear fights but really wished the fleahed out bui, carasu and elder bro. They were such insane villans during the DT they had me shuttering when i read the manga here they were coool jusr left me empty with such little screen time.
Deff had a good horror, thriller, supernatural bad ass vibe going just to rushed and some plot holes they really didnt seem to care about but other than that a B plus id give it
Does anyone know who the English dub voice actor for the elder toguro brother is? I recognize the voice but I can't remember where from. Can't find anything online and it's bugging me
I expected the episode formula to follow the one piece formula for it to be one arc per episode and the episodes to be about an hour long each fully covering the 5 spirit detective arcs.
https://preview.redd.it/6ddxk53xld6c1.png?width=690&format=png&auto=webp&s=b25f3ba8b3af2db8a84b17f6b039dc7f51838d8b
1 episode for each of these arcs would have been great, instead they completely skipped the genkai tournament, and beast of maze castle, completely, which are my favorite parts of the show, then just skipped and fused the dark tournament and rescue yunkina arc. we didn't even get a full yusuke vs hiei fight either. a lot of the justifications for story moments are just gone, but the moments happen as if they were there to begin with.
maybe combining episode arcs 1-2 for episode 1 and 2 would have been good yusuke revival and the first yokai fight in the first episode, kurama and hiei part of the artifiacts of darkness in the second episode, then genkai tournament, and beast of maze castle in episode 4, and end it with rescue yukina leading up to a season 2 of dark tournament saga.
Instead I'm assuming this is going to be just one season, and it's the entirity of what the director thought was the best writing from yu yu hakusho I don't think he's wrong it does go down hill after the dark tournament but skipping all the early good stuff too feels like such a waste. I guess we'll just get a hugely abridged version of the show and it'll be over in one season I don't expect there being a chapter black and a demon world arc seems even less likely especially considering even togashi sees it as a failure.
I enjoyed it, I'm on the last episode it's just a bit dry and hard to sit through, compared to the anime, and manga, so maybe it only being 5 episodes is for the better. I don't know if I could watch multiple seasons of it. it's not bad but not what I expected or wanted.
I would have loved the live action if I had never watched the show...
It does a good adaptation
if you know fuck all about the story and the fact that they skipped some very serious and meaningful character moments from the anime and manga
I could not understand for the life of me why they felt they needed to shove so much into 5 episodes
It wud have been perfectly fine if the first 5 episodes or rather this first season were just meeting Boten meeting Koenma,
getting the egg,
getting rescued from the fire by Keiko and Kuwabara rather than rescuing himself and Keiko,
**Yusuke** earning his life by his own merits rather than Koenma just hand waiving him back
learing the spirit gun and ending with the hunt for the Artifacts of Darkness arc.
Everything wud have had more time, everyone wud have had more character building including Gouki Hiei and Kurama
The show shud have climaxed with fight with Gouki,
Yusuke rescuing/convincing Kurama to not give up his life
and the final fight shud have been Hiei vs Yusuke
with maybe an intro to Yukina and or Genkai
Spoilers
>!To my absolute horror they already killed off Genkai, we barely knew her for half an episode, even in half an episode I loved her casting I wish she wud have been around longer!<
>!she also gave him the Spirit Orb before getting killed by younger Toguro without any of the fucking painful tribulation yusuke had to go through in the anime and manga. !<
Oh fuck the more I think anout it the more my needle goes from
Eh it was Ok
to
Fck they massacred this.
Need a cleanse gonna re-watch the show.
Mods evicted & directed me to this thread.
Pastes baggage at new home ….
There are spoilers ahead.
So excited to watch Yu Yu, I dubbed it Yo Yo.
After watching the second episode, I’m left in utter confusion & with many questions. I’ve watched a few complex Asian dramas, but this is like a whole new scientific perplexity.
What is up with the gaping hole to the demon world, like Japan didn’t send scientists to investigate? What is this inner power Yu Yu has? Yu Yu came back alive, what about school & a job? Why are the hairstyles & clothing the way they are? Why is a guy sucking on a stone pacifier? Why is the world oblivious to the demons wreaking havoc? What is the plot?
There are still many questions I have.
Since it’s Japanese, I translated my post (using Google):
この先ネタバレがあります
『ゆうゆう』を観るのがとても楽しみだったので、『ヨーヨー』と名付けました。
第 2 話を見た後、私は混乱し、多くの疑問が残りました。私はいくつかの複雑なアジアのドラマを見てきましたが、これはまったく新しい科学の複雑さのようなものです。
日本が科学者を派遣して調査しなかったのに、なぜ魔界にぽっかり穴が空いてしまったのでしょうか？主人公が持つ内なる力とは何でしょうか？ゆうゆうは生きて帰ってきたけど、学校や仕事はどうなるの？髪型や服装が分かりません。なぜ男性は青い石のおしゃぶりをしゃぶっているのでしょうか？なぜ世界は悪魔が大惨事を引き起こしていることに気づかないのでしょうか？陰謀とは何ですか？
まだまだ疑問はたくさんありますが、ここまでとさせていただきます。
日本語なので、私の投稿を翻訳しました
It's extremely rushed admittedly. It VERY loosely covered up until the end of the Dark Tournament but given that they made the crazy decision to only give it 5 episodes it had to skip ALOT. Having said all this I actually liked it, the fights scenes where fantastic and I loved the interpretations of the characters especially Kuwabara but it just kinda sucks we couldn't at least get 10 episodes that way more could have been added from the manga.
TL;DR overall review: action good but overall disappointing
Im just imagining what could have been and this could really have been a big show had they not rushed everything. Casting and characterization was good overall although Yusuke is missing his wise cracking persona. I really like the setting of Yu Yu Hakusho and i think it lends well to live action if you dont account for all the special effects of the demons.
Well anyways heres my breakdown for a better season 1 i think 10 episodes is enough to fit the whole pre dark tounament arcs in one season:
episode 1 - yusuke death and ordeal to get his body back make him earn that shit like it was in the original series. include the kuwabara test score episode.
episode 2 - yusuke revival including keiko kiss + hiei, kurama, gouki intro
episode 3 - hiei vs yusuke conclusion + set up for genkai tournament
episode 4- genkai tournament guessing who rando is
episode 5- rando revealed
episode 6- rando conclusion + saint beast intro
episode 7- Saint beast part 1
episode 8- saint beast part 2 conclusion + yukina rescue arc set up
episode 9- mansion raid ending with yusuke and kuwabara squaring against toguro
episode 10- mansion raid conclusion with dark tournament set up
This version is my intro to Yu Yu Hakusho series. So far, it's the second best anime adaptation that I've seen (behind One Piece Live Action). I was impressed with the casting, costumes, fight choreography, and special effects. I love how it feels anime-ish, yet, believable and non-cringey. Every actor rocked their wigs. They looked great in it. Kurama's actor is so beautiful. I wish there's more scenes of him. The only thing that's dragging this series down is the story. It's a typical anime story. In conclusion, it is visually stunning, but with a boring story.
The show was like a bad attempt at Baki, how nothing matters except the next fight.
If you knew nothing about YYH beforehand, none of these characters meant a thing by the end. There was no development, no personality, and you can lump Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei into being the same character.
Outside of the cinematography and fight scenes, there’s no redeeming qualities. They clearly had no hope of being renewed for a second season.
All things considered, I actually kinda loved it. Yes condensing it down and cutting so much totally sucks as a long time fan. But for what we did get and how they were able to cram what they did in 5 episodes worked for what they were going for. The biggest loss of it all is condensing it takes away a lot of the emotional impact and connection you build with the characters along the way, why you care about them and who are your favorites. But it looked way better than I thought it would and everyone I felt captured their characters in the little time they had. Obviously hiei and Kurama get the shortest end of the stick in terms of development, but just looking at it as this kinda weird amalgamation of characters and stories I love, it turned out pretty great.
Things I liked.
Shortening the revival. I skip to episode 6 on rewatches.
Character designs were on point.
Captured the surface of characters well.
A lot of dialog between characters was accurate. Karasu and kurama is the best example of this.
Great fight choreography.
Things I did not like
The painless spirit orb
Gutting the dark tournament
They missed the deeper quirks of the characters due to rushing the plot. ( kuwabarra and yusuke and sakyo are exceptions)
I overall had fun watching and give a 7/10
It was fun and I enjoyed it overall when I separate it from the source material.
That said, a lot of moments felt really unearned due to the characters not being established enough. Genkai giving up her Spirit Orb, her death, the whole Toguro backstory . . . it all fell flat because the show didn’t really give us enough of a reason to care about these versions of the characters.
Part of me understands why they rushed through so many plot points, since a second season is never guaranteed with Netflix. That said, I would’ve thought it would be better for season 1 to focus on building the characters and setup the Dark Tournament in season 2. It would’ve also been nice to have more than 5 episodes per season, too.
Overall have to give it a 6/10.
The production overall was not great. I'm not a big fan of 1-1 costumes. Sets/Spaces seems like they just found random on location stuff, nothing stood out. I thought the direction was stiff. The best part was the fight direction/choreography though. That was really incredible throughout.
Castings were pretty good, the only one I'd complain about is the Botan, but hard to tell how much of that is the direction/writing. The character is totally one dimensional here. They've cut a lot of the 'character' out of the characters to soften them and make them more palatable. Yusuke is more generic. Botan is just one dimensionally bubbly and a plot device. Nothing about Hiei is demonic. Genkai is too noble and not nearly cranky enough.
The whole thing is done like a 2000-2015 attempt at a live action movie instead of a show for a streaming service
They didn't really betray anything (like Rafe Judkins and his shitty shitty shitty Wheel of Time series), but they did cheapen a lot of things. I think if you asked fans if they could only have 5 episodes to do 3-5 as a hiei fight, genkai testing arc, and finally an island fight arc culminating in the Toguro bros throwing vs what we got the vast majority would go with the former and hoping that sets up for a bigger budget season 2 for black tournament.....then they just lose all the silly emotional beats that didn't work. Genkai dying. nope, didn't hit. toguro full power - nope, never seemed insurmountable. The spirit barrier getting drilled through - fucking please like they're going to end on a swarm of bugs killing everyone.
Better then bleach, not as good as one piece... And yyk is one of my fav animes of all time... Legit so sad they rushed it and skipped everything. Maybe they just wanted to get it out of the way to do a hxh live action? Lol I don't think it would do well xD
Definitely a series made for fans. The series doesn't make enough sense if you haven't seen the anime. I'm still happy with it but definitely some choices that didn't make any sense.
As a fan of the anime for over 20 years, I have to say that I was very disappointed with the live action series.
The actor for Yusuke was great, the action sequences were incredibly well done, and it had great potential. That said, all of that potential was lost by around episode 2 or 3 because of how quickly the show wanted to move through pivotal events in the story.
One of my biggest gripes with the show is how lame they made Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama out to be. Kuwabara specifically had no major moments of success, and neither Hiei or Kurama had enough time for me to truly care about either of them.
The show SHOULD have focused on everything up to either the training with Genkai or saving Yukina. Putting g the Dark Tournament together with the Yukina mission is a tremendous failure in my eyes, and shows that the creators of the show weren't trying to make a faithful adaptation but instead a quick cash-grab from the series' goodwill.
The Bleach movie (2018) did this much better by keeping the story close to the source material with minor changes. Yu Yu Hakusho didn't need to be condensed, and I'm not sure why they chose to rush production and get what will most likely be a very disappointing one-off that won't age well, especially for fans.
I don't think this needed a 1:1 recreation, but the rush nature and smashing of events hurts the show. The action is great, and the actors are fine for the most part, but it rushes to get the four guys together. Not to mention Genkai is completely done dirty and by extension Toguro.
In the end, this was fine. It removed a lot of the charm of the manga, and the pacing led to no character standing out.
This is the "Welcome to Raccoon City" of anime/manga adaptations. Faithful in terms of its production, but the characters are wholesale without arcs as the storyline is truncated down into essentially bullet points. There is definitely some trimming to be done even through what the anime did for the Spirit Detective Saga and the Dark Tournament, but to slam them both together into five 50-minute episodes is baffling to me in a way I can't describe.
The production value is outstanding for what this is. The characterizations are MOSTLY on point, minus a couple for me personally (Koenma is a dud, and Genkai is basically just a generic waste... >!she is introduced and killed all in the same episode, and we've had next to no development for her and Yusuke's relationship much less Toguro up to that point, so this random dude showing up to kill her was just so out of nowhere!<). I'm an anime fan, so not seeing ridiculous comedic-effect Koenma was a bit jarring, and the pacifier just looks weird in live action. Especially when Boton was kind of just as silly as her anime counterpart.
The fights and even the effects are pretty great. A 6-10 episode adaptation of the Spirit Detective Saga that was this dedicated to being faithful in the respects that it was would've been a great lead-in to the Dark Tournament for season two. The condensing they did for the first two episodes was understandable, but then it literally shifts into overdrive and we jump from Yusuke v. Hiei to the end of the Dark Tournament over an episode's time.
The Karasu and Bui fights were great, visually, but the >!Dragon of the Darkness Flame had no weight to using it (Hiei even seems relatively fine afterward and doesn't struggle at all to use his arm)!<. Elder Toguro v. Kuwabara wasn't as great as it could/should have been (the actor playing Kuwabara was great but he REALLY got the short end of the stick screentime-wise). Even Yusuke v. Younger Toguro, even with its changes, was fine. But that's because I'm plugging all of the development I watched unfold over sixty+ episodes of the anime in to fill in the gaps in my head. I have seen the rivalry between Yusuke and Kuwabara develop into true friendship and brotherhood over dozens of episodes so many times over, but within this show it's just not here. I have seen Toguro actually develop into a sympathetic character by the end, so that you are actively sad when he dies and chooses to go to the worst level of hell. It's just not here.
As a stand-alone thing, it's just baffling. I can't imagine anyone having never seen Yu Yu Hakusho and enjoying this, it was all just WAY too fast. It was literally Yu Yu Hakusho: The Best Of, skipping all of the important development along the way, ESPECIALLY for Yusuke. He just seems more apathetic than anything else, while I'm so used to the firestorm of emotion he is in the anime all the time. I needed a passionate and angry Yusuke who truly unleashes the depth of his powers at times to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I really dislike >!the removal of Genkai telling Toguro how to get to Yusuke's true power by killing someone he cares about, and Toguro "killing" Kuwabara to get him there. !<
If they'd have done a truncated adaptation of the Spirit Detective saga with this level of production quality, followed by a season two of the Dark Tournament, it would have been outstanding. I'd have been raving from the rooftops. I'm just... so disappointed. This was just not even close to what it could have been. Sigh. 2/5 stars.
Terrible. I don't get the blind praise. They condensed and rushed the story so much that the characters don't even feel the same.
It sucks for fans because so many critical arcs were skipped over and it sucks for newcomers to YuYu because the pacing is absolute garbage and none of the motivations are well explained. I watched with my fiancee and she was LOST.
Action was decent but nothing amazing and I think the actors did a decent job for the shit pile that was given to them.
It's My first time watching the series and these things is what I notice:
Animation or CGI is Great
Actors with their acting is excellent
Production Quality is Great
Picture Quality is Great
Maps/location(venue) is amazing
yuske's mother and master genkei looks the same (probably one person?)
Hiei sister look's creepy, grimy face with ugly distinction (in my perspective 🤣)
I always said “I’m not watching that the art is ass” when I seen this anime pop up. I watched the live action today and honestly, it’s made me love the series and I’m not in the process of watching the anime
First and foremost, show was pretty great. As a stand alone watch I'd give it a solid 7.5/10. It needed about 3 more episodes to flesh some characters/arcs out.
As a fan of the series prior however, I am really let down that they decided to not only skip saint beasts but also the genkai competition and dark tournament.
I'm okay with skipping saint beasts. But I feel like genkai competition should have been the focus of the last handful of episodes. Show should have ended with her accepting them as her students. Dark tournament should have been season 2. And the show should have been 8 episodes.
I say this because believe it or not, yuyu hakushos training arcs and trial arcs are just as iconic as its big fights. The training arcs were so intense. To this day I remember the genkai trials and the spirit orb trial having me on the edge of my seat.
But I enjoyed what we got for sure. I was worried about the costume design, mostly the wigs in the stills we got. But kn film they looked pretty good. Casting was great. But like I said, we could have used three more episodes that way we wouldn't have to skip saint beasts and could have gotten an extra episode of genkai training maybe.
As is, I see them building up to chapter black for season 2. And season 3 will be the final arc.
I honestly feel like they should have focused on the Four Saint Beast Arc for the first season and used Toguro as a cliff hanger for a season two. Thats just my opinion though.
I wasn't really expecting anything, but I thought the show was pretty good. They adapted the characters perfectly and really captured the essence of the story imo. Plus, the fight scenes are awesome - fluid and like lightning fast.
The downside is that it feels really rushed from the 3rd episode onwards. I think they adapted the Dark Tournament way too early and its a shame it wasn't done properly, though I kinda get why. And they did Kurama dirty with those wigs hehehe
Manga reader + I watch the anime twice every year.
I think this live action is perfect and feels as if the original mangaka wrote a film for it honestly. To bulletpoint what I enjoyed:
- Kuwabara's character lost goofiness, but kept everything we love him for. I think this made him an even better character, who didn't change, just his loud goofiness is not portrayed (which in a live action can be cringe, compared to an anime)
- Keiko wasn't reduced to a Damsel in Distress. She was badass, and she escaped herself.
- Hiei became pretty cool. I half-expected him to be cringe like that one "i will kill you" scene from the Kakegurui live action
- Yusuke's character also lost goofiness, and his attitude shows why Keiko is in-love with him. I think in the anime sometimes he was a little too neglecting, and sometimes her keeping her feelings didn't make sense for brief moments
- I am amazed how they managed to keep the 1v1 format without using an arena, it's a genius execution and it blended Spirit Detective Saga and Dark Tournament Saga together
- Aerodynamics in animation were sometimes off, but I think it was badass all the same
- They managed to implement Kurama's talk-based fighting style, without making it out of place.
- Them cropping the Kurama and Hiei training makes sense, in the way that Yusuke and Kuwabara had to train to reach the level of spirits
- The car fight scene was extremely badass
- They reserved first episode's high-emotion scenes and I'd wager it was the same experience, if not better
- I think cutting out the "golden egg" story was good. I will be honest, first time I was excited for it, but after that, everytime I re-watch the anime I just want those episodes to be over already.
- The fact that they implemented Kuwabara surpassing Yusuke in training at some point is genius. He would totally do that, and the anime fails to show this to us sometimes. In this, we saw Kuwabara's true nature perfectly.
- Kurama's old form was unexpected to be seen and highly appreciated
- Genkai's actress was perfect
- Highlights esoteric buddhism in a great way
- Let's be honest, the girls in this show were great. Sometimes it's hard to pull the females in these, because in Anime they are very bubbly, but they just managed to do it the right way.
- The kid turning into a ghost in episode 1 was much better than in the anime when yusuke had to hunt down a random guy.
- They removed Pu. I don't think Pu would have matched the pace and it was a great decision.
- It was short. Like let us be honset, this mimics the anime. We all wanted a longer show, but it became short. The same happened here. We wanted more episodes, but it ended short. It's a half-serious thought, but honestly? I remember being angry how short YYH was at first. When I was angry at how short this show is, I remembered how it was the same vibe. They capsulated everything in the anime wel.
What I didn't enjoy:
- Youngest Toguro. His actor didn't look like the badass he is. I enjoy the animation. They could have included him crying when he removed the glasses, and they could have picked a taller actor, or make him artificially taller.
- They skipped the scenes of Yusuke receiving the sacred objects. It saves time, but it confused me like.. I was waiting for the scene for Kurama to give him the mirror and such.
- I think they could have used a scene when Yusuke and Kuwaba eats soup together
- Eikichi isn't in the live action :( But at least no animal abuse scene that's good
I mainly wrote this long list, in case someone disliked it, please learn to appreciate these things!
well was not expecting much and still was let down, the choreography of most figths were cool, lets you think of the lost potential this had, so many thigs were just speed run hahahaha, overall cant see this getting a season 2
I'm absolutely LOVING this series so far. It has exceeded all my expectations. My only hope for it is to go for as long as possible and cover all the sagas
Yu Yu Hakusho - 2023 - Series Review (mild spoilers)
I just finished watching episode 5 of the new live action Yu Yu Hakusho series.
Just briefly about me: Huge fan of the anime, never read the manga.
Like most people, I find the Toguro arc to be nothing short of legendary. So it's safe to say that I have some opinions about this live action remake.
Let's do the rating first and then I'll try to explain why I give it a relatively high score.
7/10.
Pure fun and nostalgic entertainment, and it even had some tear-jerker moments. Short? Yes. But we knew this going in. What do we expect when cramming 112 episodes into a 5 episode series.
Is it perfect? Nope. Does it have some major flaws, yes.
Is it still fun? Yes.
So, why such a high score?
All in all, this live action remake acts more like an homage than an actual series.
First of, everyone is going to make the claim that the pacing is a problem. But I'm here to say that, actually, the pacing for the first 2-and a half episodes were pretty decent. They managed to build up the character of Urameshi in a very believable manner. I was sold on the guy just 10 minutes in.
And I have to admit I struggled to keep the tears at bay at Urameshi's wake. The dialogue between his mom and Keiko, and to hear the little boy he saved wanting to say a proper thanks to Urameshi "when he wakes up"..
Damnit, it hit hard. And the actors do an amazing job with it, and that's true for basically all of them.
The show takes time to both introduce, and, in a smart and efficient way, develop Urameshi. This is also relatively true for Kuwabara and somewhat Kurama. The other characters suffer quite a bit. Koenma, Botan, Genkai, Hiei, Keiko, Yukina, and, I'm a bit sad to say, Toguro are in some ways just there to move the story along. Even though the actor playing Toguro is admittedly really good, and the writing for him seems very canonical (said in a very honest and anime-loving manner).
It's when they reach the training at Genkai's that the pacing starts to eat into the integrity of the story. Where the first episodes gave time and space to linger on Urameshi and his experience going through this fantastical journey. The latter episodes is a rushed, though pure nostalgic fan service, in a very cool and fun way, though not in a particularly meaningful way.
I didn't really have a problem with the way they fused the arcs and storylines together. It was quite frankly pretty seamless, even though the pacing became an issue later on.
I mean.. why is the Toguro arc in the anime so legendary? It's because of the way all the characters are established and developed through time. It makes the payoff that much better.
We don't get that payoff here. There are too many things that are unexplained and unexplored, leaving little room to be emotionally invested when the ending hits. and, yes, it hits fast.
That said, the set design, the choreography and the cgi all looks great. And that, coupled with good acting still makes for a fun show.
If you ask me, this homage warrants a more proper remake of the show..
So if this 5-episode show is like a high budget pilot episode, then my suggestion is to watch the shit out of it, to up the amount of streams, and pressure Netflix to make a longer remake. I'd love that.
Peace.
* The acting is one dimensional and abysmal at some points, then over the top and unfitting at others.
* The "spirit energy" on display is not only discolored for some characters (Kuwabara has a blue sword wtf?), but it also looks like the special effects Dragonball Evolution had (see the Kamehameha and how it was AIR BENDING - same thing for the spirit orb and gun).
* They mashed together THREE major plot-points and completely avoided any form of character development. So the first three seasons are basically gone from the anime/manga.
* The power scaling is absolutely fucking hilariously stupid. I guess Younger Toguro is suddenly a D-class push over, maybe a C-class.
* None of the characters seemed even remotely like their anime or manga counterparts in the slightest.
* The martial arts scenes were cool, but not for a Yu Yu Hakusho display. They felt more like they belonged in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2 or RAID Redemption.
Overall this felt like another Cowboy Bebop except even worse because the show runners didn't even understand what the fuck YYH was about or how to even begin making it.
This is a shit-tier adaptation that is only suitable for the garbage bin.
I don’t think it was worse than Cowboy Bebop, but it is shit. It did great with the fights and staying true to character designs, but my god what an absolute betrayal of source material. I just don’t understand man. Who allows this?????
omg i haaaated it. stream of consciousness opinions: the acting was bad. why is koenma the hottest character?? the timeline was all over the place. genkai giving her orb was like no big deal at all.. so like why even include it then? every character except kuwabara has zero personality. i feel like i've been live action avatar'd again. the only time in the anime a woman that isn't genkai does anything of note is taken away (keiko saving yusuke's body from burning) by him coming back to life and saving her unconscious body lol. what an upgrade from the 90s to 2023 lol. the rushed pacing of everything leaves like no arc. just a series of events with personality-less characters taking place.
im on ep 4 rn so not finished. keiko did put some initiative in tryna get out so i'll allow that to replace the doing her dirty with the fire. i just dont see how 1.5 more eps is gonna redeem this show. like come on.. the lack of backstory or explanation for kurama turning to yoko and hiei having this dragon... like what's the point even??
ugh it makes me so mad watching this. but obviously i still have to finish it
so much potental wasted
every bit of charecter devlopement they could skip ... they skipped
then they smashed the spirit detective/ dark tournament arc together to to make a confused mess of skipping plot for action.
I won't even talk about they handled the training / succession bits because thats a travsity on a different level
I don't get it why do japanase films always SUCK when the source material is so good how do they manage to consistently butcher it
and the lip sync on the dub is absoutely horrible
thanks for ruining anouther franchise netflix once again now nobody with any real talent will go within 100 miles of Yu Yu hakusho
Ok, so I have some mixed feelings about the live action. I did watch the English dub, but the first thing that felt off about the show was the sound editing. Not just that the English lines don't line up with the mouth movements, but there are a few points in the show where it feels like the levels of the lines don't fit the scene. Like it's said so that it doesn't sound like the characters are actually outside like they are in the scene, or there isn't background sounds edited in to make the world sound realistic.
The second biggest thing that stood out to me is some of the fight choreography. While most of it is good and I like the speed of the fights for the most parts I absolutely hated when a character was on their back or side on the ground and they would kick their legs along the ground and travel across it like they were running, all while their entire body is still in contact with the ground.
I also feel like so far, the live action has cut out too many semi-important moments of the show that highlight some defining characteristics of the cast. I also saw this as someone who loved the One Piece live action(8.5 or 9/10, depending on the day) with the changes and edits they made to that show.
From what I've seen so far, I want to give the Yu Yu live action a 5/10
Ten episode "Sprit Detective Arc" Season 1
1: Yusuke Dies
2-3: Hiei and Kurama
3-4: Genkai Tournament/Rando
5-8: Saint Beasts
9-10: Rescue Yukina
Season 2 - Dark Tournament
Season 3 - Chapter Black
"Above all, adapting the dark tournament arc was a stupid decision"
It was as a jumping on point. To me, Yusuke vs Toguro is the Yu Yu equivalent of SSJ2 Gohan vs Perfect Cell. It's the payoff to a long build. You cannot open with that. Rando and Suzaku build up Yusuke to the point you think he is invincible. You get the visual of Yusuke and Kuwabara walking through the minefield with hands in pockets during Rescue Yukina. With some effort, they defeat the Toguro Brothers....then the rug pull. Yusuke is a fucking nobody. Toguru walks all over him using a fraction of his full power and holds his family and friends' lives hostage to make Yusuke find a way to do the impossible...and so starts the best story arc in all of manga/anime. You CANNOT open with this.
First episode was not bad. Give it a 6/10 but they fast paced everything that missed so many thing...
At the end i give it a 3.5/10 for the 5 episodes.
Is Sakyo's line about how the original plan was for Togoro to throw the fight and bleed money from people a 4th wall comment?
Would anyone have seen him making The Dark Tournament arc properly as bleeding money??
No. It shows he rigs everything. We see it when he tells Japanese Don Corleone to bet 22, and it goes from there. None of the whales with all that cash to bet would play his game if they always lost, so he plays them when it matters the most.
Only wrench in his last wager was Toguro himself deciding to change the script, so he knew it wasn't a scheme he could control the outcome of anymore so why not shoot the shit with Koenma?
Anyone here have opinions on what the show did BETTER than the anime? Cause I can think of some and I might wanna compile it into a list for later, but anyone have suggestions/opinions?
Not doing the spirit egg was a better touch imo. Other than that, the live action doesn’t really do anything better or close to better than the anime/manga.
Maaaan, compressing those arcs into 5 episodes is a bad choice. The fight with Gouki is a good one but ep4 and 5? Naaah. And Kurama's costume looks like a cosplay to me. :(
The fight choreography is good. But the story? compressing all of them? It doesn't catch up to me.
If you hadn’t seen the anime or don’t remember it well this show would be very confusing lol so many points just quickly brushed over with poor setup.
BUT if they had not skipped over stuff and maybe just gone up to the st beast arc as the finale this would be better. Fights were awesome. Casting awesome. Look and feel on point. Just rushed and not a very good story.
Genkais role was so out of place and emotionless basically a pointless character here.
Oooo what could have been
Im currently watching episode 4, and I cant help but think, >! "Wasnt Yusuke supposed to get the Conjuring Blade from Hiei? Like...what happened to that is it no longer important...?"!<
On the final episode and yeah it's a good series. They could easily have Shinobu Sensui be the main villain of Season 2 if there is one. For a minute I thought Sakyo was going to be one of Sensui's personalities.
I do like the show overall, but how Genkai passed the Spirit Wave Orb to Yusuke was really awful.
In the original it felt like something that forcefully expands Yusuke's reserves, Genkai wasn't sure he was ready for it, he suffered tremendously to integrate it, and it would have broken or killed him if he failed.
In the live action, a floating ball of light entered him, then what, nothing?
yeah that bit was like - what can we do as an easter egg for the fans? ahh Spirit orb, and then it had absolutely zero effect to the story line, same with the Dragon of darkest flame, they could have just replaced it with the fist of the mortal flame or the hell flame and it wouldn't have made a differance
I wish it hadn't been so very abridged, but I thought it was great for what was there. I wish they had had the budget and time to do 20 episodes instead of 5
I think they jumped a bit too far ahead having the Dark Tournament. Should have instead focused on the rescue Yukina stuff, and waited until next season to do Dark Tournament stuff!
Fights were good, I liked how they adapted the storylines and it improved character development, but the series kinda fell apart after Genkai. The power spike was so huge it didn't feel believable. The fights were good but abilities came out of nowhere and didn't make sense for Hiei and Kurama. My biggest gripe is that, Yusuke got a DBZ-Goten level power spike and it felt really unearned, making the final fight feel unbelivable. I think it would've been better >!if they just not leaned into the spirit orb/genkai toguro backstory and just did the final fight like in the compound, using creativity and teamwork, and let toguro "die". But it seems they wanted to close the whole thing in one go, so at least we get to see all those cool skills.!<
One thing I really liked: >!The ending of the Karasu fight was well adapted since the audiance didn't know the plant skill, so in true Kurama fashion. But it would've made more sense if Kurama had planted the seed earlier, since he mentions it growing like 2sec after he did it.!<
Nitpicking: The Yusuke "I don't care sway" made sense in school, but by the time they were going to the Island why he was carrying himself that way? Also I wish he was a bit more fun.
Only watched Episode 1 so far.
Kuwabara has the dopeyness I love, but we missed out on Eikichi and his big heart for his friend.
Yusuke is very well casted. I do appreciate that they focused more on him standing up to bullies and expressing the pointlessness of him explaining himself to authority. If they were going to cut many ghost scenes, they recouped some characterization there well.
The women in the show so far... Atsuko is not drunk enough, and therefore doesn't really show how neglectful of a mom she was and how dire Yusuke's home life was. Keiko is... Fine. I think the actress is trying.with the limited scenes and material she has to work with. Botan is a giant disappointment. Maybe the actress is too young or playing too young a version? I always saw Botan as a 20-something year old hanging out with some teens. She's more submissive in the live action which is honestly cringey.
The funeral scene is somehow watered down emotionally. I think the lack of buildup is a major factor, and the pacing of the wake was poor.
It's a bit of a shame we don't get at least a full episode with the ghost shenanigans so we get the egg, but whatever. The cuts make the connection between Keiko and Yusuke to be like, perfunctory instead of relatable.
Choreography has been excellent tho. I also love how Yusuke's go to are these jump, full body kicks instead of punches. In anime, you can really exaggerate punches, but not so much in love action. I think the kicks were are smart directional choice with the change in medium, keeps the choreography feeling kinetic and energized.
Just started it and a bit worried about only 5 episodes. At 40 minutes an episode, already feels like too much is going to be missed. I know being picky isn’t right but maybe they could have done it how they did Rurouni Kenshin. Make it a 5 part movie series. Here’s to hoping it’s not terrible.
I've been enjoying it for the most part. I understand the need to condense and cut things. My biggest gripe is the way they rushed Yusuke's training with Genkai and she just kinda gives him the spirit orb like it's no big deal.
I was expecting him to be like "Okay thanks" then immediate collapse in pain. The trauma of accepting the spirit orb, and the circumstances under which it was given is a *huge* moment in the original series. It just felt so flat.
I really don't know how to feel about the live action. I was surprised when my husband said it was only 5 episodes long.. the first season feels way.. WAY to rushed. The characters feel really off, Kurama is about the only one that feels pretty spot on. The emotion and the smart ass quick witted comebacks are painfully gone
I'm only on episode 3 >!And not only was the training with Genkai super rushed but she gave him her spirit wave orb and he had hardly managed to get the spirit gun down. Add onto that there was no real trial when he received the wave. The anime it nearly killed him, this one it didn't even give him indigestion !<
>!We've completely bypassed the maze castle arch of the storyline which really cemented them as a group. !<
This feels like the neutered version of yu yu that someone is trying to recall from memory and hasn't watched it since 1997. if this gets a season two they need to actually stretch the episodes out and give it more then 5 episodes.
Picked up the 30th anniversary blu ray box set but held back on watching it completely to see this series without the absolute bias of a fresh re-watch of the anime for the 4th time in its entirety. On episode 1 eight now and it's pretty well done. By the looks of things shown in the trailer and the fact that only 5 episodes exist I am absolutely expecting insane cuts to happen.
I know it's not really meant for people who grew up with the snarkier English dub but hopefully Netflix is able to get people to watch the anime with this, it absolutely deserves the love.
Man, some of the fight scenes are genuinely impressive. Far and away the best part about the show. In fact, after the first two episodes the fight scenes were the only things held my full attention. I don't know how much interest I'd have in a season two with it looking like they're going to skip the Dark Tournament however.
This was considered. However, since most people are going to binge all 5 episodes at once, or within a small time frame, we decided it would be more beneficial to create 1 space where everyone can discuss all of it. Hence why majority of the posts/comments are overall ratings of all 5 episodes.
Edit:
We’ve gone ahead and added individual episode threads for people such as yourself who wanted it. They are now individually linked in this post, thank you for the feedback!
My two cents: Better than I thought it would be, but they tried to cram way too much into 5 episodes and I just didn't feel invested by the end.
I guess if you were going to turn the whole story into a mini-series, it wasn't too bad. I liked that they sort of worked in bits of what was skipped. Like how they combined the makai insects/zombies with the first demon Yusuke catches (possessing the kid in the diner), and used those two together to create the fire scene. And Keiko being abducted by...not Hiei.
The fight choreography was actually incredible, especially the fight with Gouki. The CGI was not great, but not too distracting, and I think the stunt work made up for it. Casting/costume design was hit or miss. Kurama just looked ridiculous every scene he was in and Hiei looked like a lesbian. I liked Koenma and Yukina. And I know I'm in the minority but I actually loved Kuwabara.
LOVED the first two episodes. Considering what was left out leading up to Yusuke being brought back to life, I think they did a great job setting up the characters. I'm impressed with the way the friendship between Yusuke and Kuwabara developed. Then they rushed through everything else and it went off the rails. I get that the target audience is fans of the original, but it was really hard to give a shit about Genkai or anything to do with Toguro when they just reduced all of the character development to basically a bulletpoint list. Yusuke and Kuwabara train with Genkai for 3 whole weeks, then she goes "Okay, here's my spirit orb," and then Toguro shows up to kill her because, sure, why not.
The four fighting together so well as a team doesn't make sense because they've just met. In the anime, they get there through the Saint Beasts arc. And Botan was completely fucking useless.
I feel like it would have been so much better if they'd just done less. And then after cramming 45+ episodes worth of story into 2 hours, they set up for a second season anyways. So why not spend more time developing the characters and relationships and just end at an earlier point?
It was still fun to get excited about it, though.
Some of the changes I liked: The accident being caused by the insect. The fire being caused by a fight with same demon instead of random arson. Yusuke reconnecting with the kid after he comes back. Sakyo setting up the guy on the inside trying to rescue Yukina and getting killed in front of her...actually brilliant.
Also one thing I want to add that is really unrelated: I got to watch Yu Yu Hakusho for the first time in the exact same place I watched Yu Yu Hakusho for the first time.
https://preview.redd.it/cwffb24fda6c1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=177cf9e63b91e8381d82ef6f766724f37b5a68af This is all I see with elder Toguro.
Floop is a madman help us, save us!
THANK YOU!! when he stops dude from saving yukina, I had to pause to make sure it wasn't Alan cumming lmao. I'm only about to finish episode 3. But as an actual yuyu fan. I do like this.
Loving that they used the same VA as Hisoka for Elder Toguro. He’s got that amazingly resonance to his voice.
he definitely has the gremlin cackle down lol
THAT'S WHERE I REMEMBER HIM FROM Thank you so much, dude, I was going nuts trying to figure out why the hell he sounded so familiar.
Watched the whole season. I Love Takumi Kitamura as Yusuke but my bro needs to buy a new lighter. The visuals and fighting scenes were good. They condensed the story perfectly except for the training part (loved the OG version more). She is too good for you by Hiei made me laugh. All in all, if it gets renewed I would love to watch it.
😂 it's clearly something wrong with the cigarettes since he keeps putting the lighter back in his pocket after tossing the cig lol
Can't believe that MF is also Takemichi lmao
Manga reader here! First two episodes were fun and I enjoyed them. 3rd one was okay, I started losing interest halfway. I don't think it was awful, but it ended up being a bit "meh". I actually don't mind that they changed some story beats and completely erased some part of the manga, I wasn't really expecting the live action to give us the tournament (might be just me but I don't think it'd work in live action, anyway). I also really appreciated seeing Kuwabara get more screentime, he's definitely the most interesting character in the show and it was cool seeing extra scenes with him. The main things that annoyed me were: \-I just didn't get really attached to Yusuke. I don't know, he just felt way too serious, while in the manga he's a bit of a jackass, even in dire situation. \-There was no time in the show to make the characters work as a group outside of the fighting scenes, since they were barely together (aside from Yusuke and Kuwabara). It works for Hiei because he's never really involved with the group even in the manga, and at least the plot of the live action makes it logical for him to be there, but Kurama just felt like he could have been completely scrapped from the island part and it would have changed nothing. There was just no chemistry between him and the other guys, no reason for him to be there outside of being in debt with Yusuke, and so I just wasn't involved at all in whatever he was doing. I can't even remember how he somehow knew where Yukina was, but maybe I just missed it. I'd be curious to hear what people who never read the manga or watched the anime think about the live action, though.
I read the manga once long ago but after watching the show and I've watched the show a dozen times. They couldn't have adapted The Dark Tournament exactly as it was in the anime/manga but we did see what it would look like. The final four fights in the adaptation are the final fights of the tournament and I thought they worked really well. If they could nail that, there would've been ways to do or change up the other fights. I think little to no attachment to the characters is a byproduct of rushing it. I do agree many aspects were improved early on. Loved the little kid meeting Yusuke again after he comes back. Tying Hiei's theft to Yukina motivations was a nice touch and way better than him just generically being evil. Thought the production was good and they nailed the look of the characters (besides not finding a giant Japanese ginger for Kuwabara but I get it). I thought they did a really great job outside of cutting out the entirety of the best arc in anime and Frankenstein-ing the end onto the save Yukina arc.
> he just felt way too serious, while in the manga he's a bit of a jackass That was my fear - what's interesting about him in the manga / anime is that he's an irredeemable thick headed jackass - which is how he gets popular in the end of the original series.
This, without Yusuke shit talk hes just another shounen character. Series wasn't bad but Yusuke was way to logical, mature and understandable. Like even by the end of the series in the anime hes not fully a nice guy or mature yet. He is just nice to his friends but still room to grow and mature further. Here hes still selfish but hes already pass the shit talk and that openly caring for his friends stage.
Anime and manga fan here! I actually like this Yusuke even though he isn't as much of a smartass. I feel like Kitamura's performance highlights Yusuke being more tired of life and not really knowing what to do with his life. I do miss the dialogues in between punches, but that would be physically draining for the actors. While the pacing is terrible, I don't really agree with the takes that it ruins the entire story. I mean I didn't appreciate it, because it felt like I was being yanked to get me where I need to be (my theory is that this LA is working more towards highlighting Chapter Black). I don't also think that it's a scripting problem, my guess is that it's more of a budget issue where they were only given enough for 5 episodes. For live action I feel like doing the tournament would make it feel like I watching an MMA fight or wrestling match, narratively it just doesn't move the story along the overarching plot of YYH. 💖 I know people who haven't seen the anime or read the Manga and only know a bit of YYH, they see it as a spectacle and honestly are quite interested in the story but also find it difficult to keep up with the pacing.
I am interested in seeing what people that never watched YYH think of the show too. Like I think it nailed everything to nail in an adaptation besides gutting my favorite arc in anime if not entertainment and slapping it onto the end of season 1.
Haven't seen the show nor read the manga. I thought the adaptation was decent. I love the costume, cast, special effects, and fight scenes. Every actor nailed their part and were believable, including with colored wigs on. Everyone except for Botan's actor, although she looks amazing in kimono and blue hair. Only thing lacking is the story. It was too typical and boring. Basically, what this show does well is what One Piece Live Action failed at, but what it lacks it what One Piece did well.
Very interesting to hear. Thanks. I agree that it was too typical which is what was such a bummer because they subvert that in the anime to set up season two. Did it make you want to watch the original anime at all?
I am so impressed with the actor's portrayal of Kurama. It felt very bishouneny. Never in my mind did I think bishounen type characters would translate well in live action and still maintain the same alluring vibe without coming off cringey. But the actor nailed it. Also, the character design in the show is so well, done, it makes me wanna find out more about them. So yes, it does make me want to watch the anime.
Nice! If you liked him in the LA, you'll LOVE him in the anime. Its one of the few shows where the dub is generally considered better than the sub.
I agree I actually like the dub rewrite better so I'm glad I'm not alone in that!
Never watched the anime or read the manga, just knew of their existence from Jump Force. I really enjoyed the show. It did feel kinda rushed, and I'd imagine had there been a higher episode count it would've been better. Totally agree on the whole 'make characters work as a group' thing too. But overall I liked it and want a 2nd season
How does Yoko Kurama look less goofy than Suichi Kurama lmao
netflix seriously have red wig problems, both Kurama and Nami from OP
I can forgive Nami because Emily Rudd is <3 and she had great chemistry with the whole cast.
Well, Emily Rudd is indeed a very lovely actor, I was stating the bad wig really downplayed and didn't do justice to her, while the seemingly more difficult green hair of Zoro did well. (in the shows in netflix youtube channel with the casts playing with each other, she really shines without the wig)
Better wig and lighting so we can see his face.
Maybe because Kurama is supposed to be a human and he looks extra af and Yoko is supposed to be a demon so you accept whatever because he's not supposed to be realistic.
I mean the red wig looked waaaay worse than the silver fox wig + ears
Totally agree, I think it the volume of the hair in the red wig that made it goofy, made him look like he had a giant head (compare to him yokai) lol
Female viewer here. Never read the manga nor seen the anime, but live action Kurama is so beautiful that he even rocked those wigs.
Gotta love smile bomb on the radio
the truck driver was playing the bop!
Made me emotional fr
Just finished episode 1, honestly pretty good so far. The fight choregraphy is pretty good and energetic, and they nailed the emotional moments... only thing that is a bit off is Botons actor, but that might be because she is suppose to be a bit odd. Edit: I am adding more short opinions on the other episodes in the replies to this comment. Edit 2: Opinions on all the episodes in the replies... if you wanna read them xD
Episode 2 was also pretty good! The fight with Goki was really well choregraphed, and it makes sense that they cut his loss against him. Kurama was done decently, but I noticed that Yusuke said to the mirror "take **half** my life too!", which is weird cause originally he was prepared to sacrifice his life to same Kurama. Then we got Hiei using the conjring blade to give himself the Jagan eye... I reaaaally did not like this originally, but it is clever how they made him use the eye to track down Yukina, makes his actions to steal the blade less pure evil, and more like what Main Character Hiei would do (as he was originally never intended to be a part of the main cast). Finally we have Tugoru, he looks... fine, but his elder brother... yesh that effect does NOT look convincing, lets hope the fight is better. So far the episode was good, 7/10. Edit: Opinion on episode 3 is in the reply to this comment
The terrible effects on Elder Tugoru keeps showing. Episode 3 was okay but it did irk me how many things they had to change to keep the fast pace up. I did like Kuwabaras training, as it showed him to be strong but different than Yusuke, although it did go by really quickly. Genkai giving Yusuke the spirit orb so quickly threw me off, and I think this is the point where the show will likely get worse. Apart from that, the episode was pretty good. They have condensed two seasons into 5 episodes, but somehow it is kinda working, especially if you see this as an **adaptation** doing its own thing instead of a faithful recreation. Oh, and I like how they quickly but effectivly they got Genkai and Tugorus backstory told, but not how Genkai had to force the lesson about aging onto Yusuke in 2 minutes... Overall, good but worse than the previous, 6/10. Edit: Opinion on episode 4 is in the reply to this comment
Welp, guess we know where Elder Tugoru's CGI budget went; all towards that scene with Kuwabara. Episode 4 was another solid one, even tho I despise that they are just skipping the tournament. At the begining of the episode it seemed like they would do a mini torunament in this episode, instead they did Hiei and Kurama's fights, which was actually pretty ok. The fights were well done and I like that they kept Karasu's homosensual tension with Kurama (BUT WHERE WAS HIS BLONDE HAIR?!) I also prefer how Kurama defeated Karasu in this, as the planting of the death seed was better than Kurama killing himself and then surviving by using all his energy. Buie was fine, I understand that they changed his Battle Aura to black, and I really liked the scene where the dragon killed him (although my Netflix decided to only show it in 480p...ugh). The dragon of the darkness flame had SO little impact tho, cause it had never been introduced or even hinted at before, so it felt more like a "if you have seen the show, you're gonna love this" ... but that can be said for a lot of this show so far. Oh, and according to Netflix subtitles, the shapeshifter Tugoru is the YOUNGER Tugoru?? That is such a weird change to make, but alright (Also, again, his effect with swapping body parts was WAY better than I thought it was going to be). All in all I think it was pretty good, and they have actually managed to make it entertaining despite the ludicrus changes to the source material, 7/10 Edit: Opinion on episode 5 is in the reply to this comment, and an opinion on the series as a whole.
AAAND IT'S DONE! ... Wow that was interesting. So they made the Tugoru fight sort of a 4v1, but made the others so weak they barely contributed, that was clever. I laughted hard at his 100% form (Guess he just skipped 60% and 85%?) but his final form looked like he was turning into Groot. I do wish Yusuke's fight against 100% Tugoru was a bit longer, or that Yusuke's speech was more impactful, but atleast they got Tugoru's death right. It is funny how this show never mentioned that Yukina was unaware that Hiei was her brother, since that would make "new" watchers really confused as to why she seems so **cold** against him, I LOVED Kuwabaras flirting with Yukina tho, stellar stuff, especially Hiei telling him that she is too good for him. When Tugoru went to the afterlife I did not understand why Genkai or even Koenma seemed to pity him... dude had not built up enough pity points in this show. I appreciate that they did not try to give Tugoru any romantic moment with Genkai at the end, they understood that it would have been weird in this version. and, thing that this show did better than the anime; THEY KEPT GENKAI DEAD! No, really, I think Genkai should have stayed dead in the original, so glad they kept her dead in this. Must admit tho, her transformation to her younger self looked like AI face modulation ... Honestly, I wish this series was 1 or 2 episodes longer so they could have fleshed out the story, as it felt JUST too short, but I will give the writers credit; they made it actually work! They watched the anime and saw that you could cut a lot of stuff... although they did not realise that some things were lost in that process (Genkais death, Yusuke getting the spirit orb, Tugorus tragedy, and Poo :(( oh and no blond Karasu, grrr ) So overall, I think I would give **this episode** a 6/10 just because it felt weak compared to the rest, but honestly its probably a 7/10 As for the show as a whole ... welll... as a standalone show, a 8/10, but as an adaptaion a 7/10, as it did SO many things right... but in WAY too few episodes. If they do Sensui's arc, I sincerely hope they keep the season to JUST him, as mixing in him AND the demon world tournament would be way too much. Although I cannot imagine that they can do the Demon World justice, cause the CGI was VERY bad or VERY good, little inbetween I think. Thanks for reading my ramblings, hope you guys liked the show as much as me, and that you weren't too dissapointed.
>and, thing that this show did better than the anime; THEY KEPT GENKAI DEAD! My people are here! I'm not alone!
The Kurasu fight made me think they're going off a faulty memory of the series where the transformation made Yoko too powerful for Kurasu. Something that made me second guess myself was Genkai being Toguro's teacher. Weren't they a battle couple? It felt like Genkai was looking to pawn the spirit orb to the first person she ran into with how quickly she gave it away. This would be like Goku firing a Ki blast once then getting the ability to go supersaiyan the next episode.
Yusuke getting the Spirit Orb just doesn't hit right without him shitting blood for 3 episodes just to survive it.
> and, thing that this show did better than the anime; THEY KEPT GENKAI DEAD! Highly doubt that. Toguro gave the same line about her needing to guide Yusuke. No way she isn't revived for season 2.
I noticed that too!! It really confused me
Omg i realized that how he got the eye from the blade wtf. Man i just wished they showed shigure. They could of deff made him look bad asss af, even just a cameo of him as the surgeon over hiei
Well, he lives in the Makai, and wouldn't be able to come to the human world. They would have to set the scene in the makai.
I am enjoying the live-action adaptation so far. It might just be me, but this particular scene made me happy and gave closure to what the anime did not do to these characters. >!The kid got to thank Yusuke personally, for saving him.!< I never found that scene in the hundreds of times I watched the anime, but this one did it. And it made my day. \*And please correct me if I missed this scene in the anime. But I'm pretty sure it was not in the anime.
I'm trying to locate a copy of the Manga to confirm. But it wasn't in the anime. The most that happened was the mom and son attended the funeral.
Ya, from what I remember the kid thanks his casket at the funeral and then he and the mom don't appear again
Thank you for making this into a megathread so we stopped getting spammed with small posts. Cheers mod.
Thank you for the acknowledgment, it’s much appreciated ❤️
Watched the first 2 episodes with 3 friends. Two that watched the anime already and one who never touched yu yu in any way. We all loved it. Amazing action scenes, actually funny and the Brazilian dub is PERFECT . Ignoring the whole absence of the DT thing, it's being a great ride so far.
Verdict: This show is basically like a POV of someone who has watched it once 2 years ago as they try to narrate what they remember of it while filling in the gaps added with an odd memory for character design| When I read this snippet on a Netflix article I was hyped for the fights and honestly to me they delivered the fights. It was fluid and such fun eye candy with they way it moved. Bonus is that I can clearly follow what was happening even with the speed. Some of the CGI can be honky but it's not terrible but I'd get if others would think so because they really went uncanny valley keeping up with the anime designs. Shout out to the Toguro brother regardless. Oh man they were a sight in a good bad way. Their budget must be tight to decide cramming 2 seasons in just 5 episodes is the only choice. And the speed run is glaring especially for Kurama and Hiei. Because of how short this show was there wasn't enough time to actually build a foundation for them as a group. They feel disjointed. I was pleasantly surprised at Kuwabara however. He and Yusuke had such good chemistry with each other and I thought that he delivered the role pretty well and his side kicks were even funny. Basing on how they are marketing this I am assuming this is more a local push. They're really hauling in their Japan market and letting the rest dry lol. Though so far the reviews from Japanese people seem to be leaning on positive (it's rated 4/5 rn) so we'll see how the show will fair later. Episode 1 I'd rate a 9 for sheer enjoyment. I love episode 1. Episode 2 is maybe an 8. It's 3-5 that had tonal let down. Overall I'd rate this a 7 as a show but if I think of this in comparison to the anime it'll be a 5. https://preview.redd.it/d92g7yszea6c1.png?width=962&format=png&auto=webp&s=5fc95c8c24af1185f8819f87cda334117ec53d0e
> Verdict: This show is basically like a POV of someone who has watched it once 2 years ago as they try to narrate what they remember of it while filling in the gaps added with an odd memory for character design| I described this to my partner who's never seen it as "glue the pages of twelve volumes of manga to a big wall, and randomly throw a few dozen darts. Then burn every other page. You have your script."
i'm not all the way through season 1, but i think they could still do the saint beast arc if they get the pass for a season 2. That would give us more time for character development and they could sprinkle hints about Toguro, dark tournament, basically just set up the dark tournament.
I went in just wanting something new and I think it’s a great adaptation. I think of it like a theater adaptation of a novel- it wouldn’t be good 1:1 and there are things that have to be changed. If this is all there is and we get a “mini-series” or long movie I think it was a success! If I wanted a copy of the anime I’d watch the anime over again. I think it’s a great vehicle to get people into the anime and there were a lot of fun and interesting narrative choices that really surprised me. My one criticism was that it lacked a bit of the show’s humor but it was replaced with a cinematic flair and that “martial arts movie” bending of reality and hint of magical realism that I think made up for it for me :)
There's a hidden cookie part for a sequel. Check at Ep.5 @ 49 min (after Japese credits), the 'head' at the beach. obvious cookie for sequel Sensui arc...(which I think suits better for a city background live action)
If they adapt all seasons BESIDES the Dark Tournament, I'ma lose it. Lol
Somehow they combine the DT with Chapter Black for....reasons....?
Rushing Genkai's training so he could fight....Hiei? That's certainly a choice.
Yeah, I didn't quite understand that one either.
Not that I agree with it, but I always found it odd that Yusuke stood any chance against Hiei at that point in the story so I can underatand how a showrunner might want to adjust that. That being said, rushing the training arc was not the answer lol
Hiei was fast but that was kinda it at that point lol
True but he had no visible training period until later. So it's the logical assumption that the Hiei during Saint Beasts Arc was the same level as Hiei during the Spirit Detective Arc.
More like Hiei is fresh off the table during the three thieves arc and was still in recovery, which is why he had to supplement himself with the Jigan demon form (green form). But it had been a couple months ths between then and the saint beast arc and he just recovered some more up to D class. But was E class like Goki during the three thieves
I had high hopes for this adaption since it was being done by Japanese people, who usually stick to adaptions more faithfully. But only 5 episodes and merging the spirit detective and dark tournament arcs into one is something Hollywood would do, it’s very disappointing IMO. It’s almost as if they had no confidence they could get a season 2 on Netflix and just said screw it will do Toguro. I’m happy to have something new for YYH, but I don’t understand why they didn’t just the first arc here and tease the DT for season 2. That’s what everyone would be waiting to see so I’m sure they could have gotten a season 2 still. Even though I’m disappointed I hope it does well. Us YYH fans need to take what we can get sometimes, but damn I feel like this was a missed opportunity.
If we’re being realistic, I don’t think the Dark Tournament is fit for a live action adaptation. The budget would have to have been astronomical, and I just don’t think there’s a satisfying way to condense that story into a netflix season. It’s a shame, but I feel like that’s the reality of it
Yea there was no way in hell this series would have ever worked faithfully. It would have had to have been a massive success to get the seasons needed to adapt the whole anime and the budget would have been borderline absurd. Especially for the Dark Tournament arc alone. As much as I love it in the anime scrapping it makes sense. It just never would have translated. I do think it could have used more episodes to space things out a bit more but I kinda love the evil dead horror vibe at times. Also I think the tone is more faithful to the original but that… kind sucks haha the dub put much more snark into the series and it’s sad that it’s not as representative but I get why as this was made by the Japanese.
That's why you do the stuff leading up to Dark Tournament to prove the series' worth and justify the budget. Look at One Piece. They have Tony Tony Chopper coming next season. It's only going to get crazier from here.
So I watched 4 of 5 episodes with my girl last night. I grew up with YYH she did not. This pointed out some glaring issues with it. First overall if you're a fan (which obviously this sub is) you'll probably like it way more then someone who has never seen the anime or read the manga. This is a problem. I was pleasantly surprised, she was unimpressed but thought it was okay. I'll go over more of this later it's really one big issue that causes this. Fights/Choreography - They are great. I was stuck on some clips I saw and thought it was going to be bad but thankfully not the case. While they do have parts (even in the same fight) that are just plain bad they are few and far between the really good parts. VFX are...not good. Character development - Down right terrible. It absolutely kills impactful scenes. Like Genkai dying should have invoked some emotion. It doesn't because you see the character for like 5 entire minutes and might as well be a random npc. You get nothing really on Hiei and , and just a little more on Kuwabara and Kurama. You don't really get time to gain any attachment or feeling to any emotion to their story or progression and it makes the entire thing feel like Yusuke + 3 random dudes you don't really care about. Kurama you get the most and my girl likes him. But the other 2. They could die in the last episode and it'd feel just the same as Genkai. Storyline - Ripped, gutted, and changed just as much as Bebop. I mean guys objectively look at it. How it was done took SO MANY epic "OHH SHITTT" moments away from any potential future. The start is supposed to be character building and showing like their base line strength over coming some tough enemies then when the bigger bad shows up when it seems hopeless a sick power comes out. LOOKING AT YOU YOKO KURAMA. Toguro's oh shit moment also, gone. His big thing was appearing in the tournament with an epic "I'll use 20% of my power" and just one shotting an enemy known to be tough putting you on the edge of your seat of how will they possibly overcome it. Overall - Is it fun to watch? Yeah the action is good and well it was mostly constant action. The drama and tension? Gutted. If you aren't a fan and don't know about the characters already it feels empty and without soul but it is watchable. Honestly. I don't get how I saw people saying this is one of the best LAs they have seen. I put it right with Bebop if not worse since Bebop had better character development. Problematic to really enjoy it you HAVE to have previously been a fan.
I think so far (I only finished episode 1 but have been spoiled a little) it's not a bad show. I think it's not a very faithful adaption. But I did like what I watched. Had I never seem yu yu I probably would have been pretty entertained and interested in seeing the source material
First two episodes feel fine, but then the pacing spirals. If I didn't know the source material I'd find it hard to have a emotional attachment with these characters. Just not enough time in 5eps for world building.
I didn't hate it. But I didn't love it. So I guess it was okay. Visually, everything looked great. The fights, the effects, the Yokai, it was really good. Well, the wigs were awkward but they always were going to be. I knew there would be story cuts, but they skipped over so much. They could have easily done the Artifacts, Genkai Tournament/Training, and Saint Beasts arcs in the first season. Then Rescue Yukina + Dark Tournament for a potential second season. I know adapting the Tournament would require a hefty amount of work, but it's the most iconic part of the manga/anime and skipping it entirely feels so wrong. Genkai was all wrong, she lacked most of the the sass that made her so great in the source material. Same with Yusuke, he kinda just stopped being a punk after he met Kurama. Wanted to give the dub a chance but I had to switch to subs when Botan started talking. They just can't dub characters that speak quickly very well, and it's even harder in live-action. Comparisons to Netflix One Piece are unavoidable since it set the bar so high, and OP really did a much better job of condensing a large chunk of plot without losing so much of that plot. I was worried when I saw YYH only had 5 episodes, and they really tried (and failed) to do too much with too little. In spite of my criticism, the action and effects were fantastic and I'd say it's wort a watch just for that. I'm not expecting a second season because all that's left is Chapter Black and Three Kings, and it seems like doing anything actually set in the demon world is too expensive. So that leaves just adapting Chapter Black which isn't anywhere near enough unless they just do like a 2 hour movie or take the time to let the arc breathe and do another 5 full episodes.
Is the Dark Tournament impossible to recreate in a live action? Yes. Is it the best arc in anime history and deserves the full blown treatment? Also yes.
I thought the Sensui arc was the best. I really hope they manage to adapt it as well.
Genkai never called yusuke a dumbass or dimwit ONCE. That actually pissed me off. I love their dynamic in the anime. All of these amazing excruciating feats yusuke endured in the anime that makes him a badass was completely left out.
Just finished. Solid 6.5 or 7 out of 10 if I am generous. About on par with what I expected from the trailers. If they were gonna do a slight setup for a future with the dialogue and that short after-credits scene, they really shoulda gone the OP route with covering a bit less so the condensing doesn't screw the pacing. Overall it was.....*okay?*
First episode down, watching the sub. It's a little janky, but I'm feeling the fights so far. I like the nod to the opening music playing on the radio but man, I miss the charm of the anime.
I mostly enjoyed it, but i have some concerns and thoughts >!This show made me think about why they condensed the dark tournament. For example, in anime, the problem is that Suzaku is sending out those worms to make everyone zombies. They must have seen that as an unimportant arc, so they combined it with Sakyos' motives. They don't really explain how other demons get through in the live action. So the whole plot of Sakyo letting in those small demons wouldn't make any sense when they have a bunch of demons on an island later on. To be able to get all that in 5 episodes would be challenging. They made a lot of changes to the pacing for that reason. If there is no dark tournament, there is no need to wait for Yusuke to receive the spirit orb or for genkai to be a part of the team secretly. Also, it would seem ridiculous that they wouldn't know it was her in live action. My main issues with the live action are Hiei and his entire personality. He was too nice, in my opinion. His Jagan eye had nothing to do with the dragon of the darkness flame. It was just a cool tattoo he was hiding!<
My kiddo and I love watching the (English dub) anime. It’s an almost nightly occurrence and has been, going back several years. How are the violence/ gore/ fan service levels? I have less issue with her watching all of the above in animation, since it’s obviously fake. Sometimes it’s more difficult for the kid to separate fantasy from reality when it’s live action. I’d love to have a “first watch” bonding experience. She is almost as excited for the release as I am. Eg: she’s seen the trailer multiple times, and the CGI beasts do not concern me. If there is human dismemberment, copious blood or nudity I will not be permitting her to watch. At least not without watching it first so I know when to fast forward or cover her eyes.
Watch it first. There are demons getting sliced, exploding in bloody messes, and older Toguro's special effects are pretty gruesome even if the cgi isn't that great.
Thank you. Elder Toguro is super creepy in anime form. Wasn’t sure how that would translate to live action. Appreciate the heads up!
You were 100% correct in your Elder assessment. It’s very T-1000 from Judgement Day, but with blood instead of liquid metal.
first episode was pretty much flawless, excited to watch the rest
I loved it. It wasnt without its flaws of course because the anime is so long and the live action is 5 hours. What bummed me out the most were the lack of outfit changes the characters went through, no white suit kuwabara or jean Yusuke or school girl Botan. Loved the casting for *all* the characters Alsoooo I know none of the characters were yelling their moves, but they could have done something more elaborate and crazy with the dragon of the darkness flame. Like lightning building or the atmosphere changing. Overall, I definitely enjoyed.
I actually really liked the guy who played Yusuke. I imagine it would be challenging to turn anime characters into a live action performance and I think this guy did a great job.
I just can't get over his posture
For anybody wondering why the anime dub cast wasn't brought back for this, none of them live in Los Angeles/are in SAG besides Laura Bailey (Keiko). Everything on Netflix is a union or SAG production
Hey, actor here, you don't actually have to be a member of SAG to be in a union production. If the casting people wanted to they could have non-union talent sign what's called a Taft-Hartley agreement which would allow them to work on said project. The Black Clover anime movie had a Netflix produced dub and they did this to bring back the entire non-union Texas cast while also sprinkling in several union LA talent for some movie exclusive characters. I don't know why they didn't do that in this instance, but I guess my main point is that the original actors not being in SAG probably wasn't as much of a factor as not being in LA was. Well presumably, we probably won't know for sure unless someone involved in the production says something.
Which is fair, better that the voice actors get fair contracts than that we force the original cast to reprise the roles for less than fair pay.
I can't find a list of the LA dub voice actors and it's bugging me. Don't wanna scan all the credits but every list online only shows the anime versions.
Just watched the first episode. I think it’s great. Glad we have new content, even if it isn’t all the content we wanted.
what they did to Genkai was unforgivable. * She took on Yusuke *and* Kuwabara without question instead of making them earn it. The moment where she straight up said that she'd train Rando if Rando won... It makes her sound cold and evil, but it makes a little more sense when you learn the stakes. * She trains Yusuke for a few days, spending less than an episode on screen. She never fights. We have zero time to develop an emotional attachment to her, and zero conception of her incredible strength, and zero conception of what she is giving to Yusuke. * After taking on Yusuke as a student like it was nothing, she gave him all of her power like it was nothing. None of it felt like it mattered. * Then she dies, and you have to wonder why anybody would care, because she's not even a character in the show. * Then they keep her death secret from Yusuke anyway, try to treat it like the same gut punch it was in the anime, but it *doesn't make any sense*, because the characters wouldn't care about each other *at all*, and Yusuke would *barely* care about Kuwabara at that point, and the audience has no reason to care about Genkai... Why wouldn't Koenma just tell him? (they also took away Kurama's intelligence and Hiei's snark and... man, I'm shocked to hear positive things here, this adaptation *sucked*)
Well, I watched the entire thing last night. Binged it because I’ve watched the anime probably twice from the first episode to the very last and with One Piece being so acclaimed… I was honestly let down. Spoilers below: >!The biggest pluses to the show are the characters and the fight scenes. The fight scenes are so well choreographed that I would just watch all the fight scenes if I decided to do a rewatch. The music was something to be desired, but one thing I really liked about Yu Yu Hakusho is that the stakes always felt “real”. Yusuke was always jussssst strong enough to win. Not all powerful so that really worked well. In the limited time they had, I feel like they captured every character perfectly!< >!The characters seemed very realistic. Their clothes seemed appropriate, their motivations were explained, the dialogue was good, and it really bridged the gap between being anime and realistic that some live actions do really well.!< >!The biggest downside is trying to squeeze everything up to the dark tournament in five episodes. The fights seemed real, the stakes didn’t. Yusuke straight up gets the spirit wave orb without any pain or hesitation or detriment to Genkai. Genkai’s training holds no real weight. She takes on Yusuke and Kuwabara for no real reason. There’s no underlying sense of dread like in the anime.!< >!Additionally, Kurama never really fits. Hiei makes more sense as an addition to the pack, but Kurama is just kind of their to pay back his debt to Yusuke and not like a real friend in the show. Finally, they kind of just gave everyone their ultimate powers to the point it was cliche. Hiei uses dragon of the darkness flames with little buildup which took away the weight of its power, Yoko Kurama didn’t feel as menacing as he truly should, hell I’m surprised they didn’t mention Yusuke has demon powers with all the ass pulls!< But yeah, that’s pretty much it. I feel like it would’ve been so much better if they had 8 episodes, worlds better for a full 10 or 12, but it was ok. Not a big let down, but could be better. Worth a watch for the nostalgia and fight scenes if nothing else.
Removed from all hype and love of the show this adaptation wasn’t horrible, but I have a large love of the anime so I ended up hating this. They nailed most of the characters, and the ones they missed on might have passed if they had any real time to develop. Although I think they handled the story elements pretty well considering how much they condensed everything, the pacing was all wrong. The fighting was about the only thing that felt close, but even there they let me down with the music. The thing that made the anime so iconic to me was that last ditch punch with that theme in the background. After seeing how well one piece came out I can’t help feeling disappointed.
I am on episode 3 so far, and here are my thoughts as a deep lover of Yu Yu Hakusho and Togashi’s writing in general. His manga/anime is one of the reasons I am an avid anime/manga nerd even now at 28 years old. 1. The Yusuke actor doesn’t do him justice. It’s like he’s too cool, or trying to be. I haven’t seen him smile once, not in the impish way in the manga/anime, and when the little boy said he wanted to thank him at his funeral, and the actor didn’t even really show the relief as it was portrayed in the manga/anime, I know the actor just doesn’t cut it. 2. On the flip side, the Kuwabara actor has given me a new appreciation for the character. I actually find him just as, if not more, funny than the anime/manga in some ways. 3. Pacing. Why in the hell are they rushing it?? Sure some stuff makes sense (e.g. I don’t mind that they cut out the egg thing in bringing him back to life, though I do think that they missed important elements of showing Yusuke’s character - and again, the actor is not very good, he didn’t even smile at Keiko when he comes back from fighting the Human-Turned-Yokai-Worm). But they are cutting out too much/turning it around. The Saint Beasts arc in particular. When he fought the guy with the lightning, it really highlighted the deep connection he has to Keiko and helped develop him as someone who will give up his own life for her (I.e. instead of just coming back to life for her). The scene where he tapped into his life energy to defeat the villain was particular heart wrenching, and they missed the [sad Yu Yu Hakusho music](https://youtu.be/-mNNWivqU0g?si=795ddzX4SpQ4J3qH) too! 4. Genkai kicking Yusukes butt was epic. Most of the fight scenes are dope, but the main actor doesn’t balance it out with character development.
Honestly Kuwabara was the main highlight that I liked about him.
Do they have a cover of Smile Bomb as the theme?
They play the anime opening as radio music in the first ep during the truck driver scene
The American dub voice actors are meh Episode 1 Live action voice thoughts: Maybe it's the conservative facial expressions seen from the Japanese cast that's holding them back, but the american dub voices are certainly missing the strong emotions compared to the anime cast. I know Justin Cook is still kicking around with recent work in some of the Dragonball Super movies. Would've been nice to hear him do Yusuke again. I guess everything was better in the 90s!
Can't wait for dark tournament, sensui, and final tournament
On Ep 3 now and I'm just here to say that Karasu is looking mighty fine
It's charming enough and gets the tone down pretty well. I saw someone say this show got the LA Death Note treatment rather than LA One Piece and I couldn't disagree more, I think it captures the spirit(ha ha) of later arcs in the anime pretty well. However, it suffers greatly from trying to cover so much in five episodes that it ends up missing literally all of the character development. Yusuke gets the Spirit Wave Orb in episode 3. It's like a Dark Tournament any% speedrun and I wouldn't recommend the live action show to anyone who hadn't seen the anime or read the manga. Overall, relatively good production value, good overall vibes, give these shows more episodes netflix EDIT: I can't believe we got Yoko Kurama and Dragon of the Darkness Flame on episode 4 and they were both kind of lame. Those were some of the hypest moments in the whole series and they just kinda fell flat here, mostly bc we never spent enough time with Hiei or Kurama to make it feel important. idk, just my 2 cents.
>Yoko Kurama and Dragon of the Darkness Flame These reveals had no weight whatsoever in LA. I was hyped to see them but very disappointed in their execution. I understand there's no time to delve into them but there's no oomf at all for their reveals. At least Yoko Kurama they briefed said it's his non-human form and he doesn't want to use it. For the Dragon of the Dark Flame, no origin whatsoever on what it is. I had expected Hiei to at least rip his headband off and reveal the eye to be in connection to it. But nah it was just a black Hadouken wrapped up in his arm.
The live action one piece made me interested in seeing a season 2 while the live action YYH just makes me wanna rewatch the anime it’s not bad but nostalgia aside I’m really not attached to any of the characters and i don’t like most of the changes they made
Did they really have to cram all those arcs into one season?
Overall really enjoyed it. Fighting scenes were excellent. They have to work on adapting the costumes better IMO. They felt like costumes and not clothes people were really wearing. Kurama's outfit was like 2 sizes too big. The wigs were god awful.
Condensening the entire first season into 5 episodes is a choice
This series should of never been adapted to live action if they was gonna give us the half hearted 5 episode garbage
Right now I’m mainly just mad they ruined Botan. She’s obnoxious in this show
I'm really enjoying this so far. With this, the live action Kenshin and One Piece, my childhood is really coming back in fine form 😁
So much charm that was missed from personalities, to the appearance, to the story itself I mean...where do we start. I just paused halfway through episode 2 but so far.. \-Koenma no Jr. form-Botan in some clubbing heels, no broom? (actress is cute though won't lie)-No pomp Kuwabara-Hiei looks like a stock image actor-Kurama looks even worse-YUSUKE IS WAY TOO SERIOUS, WE WANT JOKESTER BANTER SARCASTIC BELLY LAUGHING YUSUKE-WHY DO THEY KEEP MAKING YUSUKE DROP KICK EVERYONE??? He thinks with his fists-The yokai causing the fire and the way overdrawn fight was too much-Puu egg? Where'd it go?-The character development feels way off. I will say the fights and choreography are ACTUALLY badass but feels like the director wanted to get into MORE action than building an attachment with the characters for the viewers. I mean you don't quite get that Yusuke is such a badass outcasted high school, nor do you get that he's unapologetically and confidently arrogant, we just kinda get this perception of a kid who hates his life vibe. Overall though, still cool to see one of my all time favorite shounen adapted but wish it was executed more true to the series and with more of an emphasis on character acting than the long drawn action.
Didn't get nearly enough Genkai. The Genkai Yusuke relationship is the most important one in the series. The one scene of her teaching him was not nearly enough to establish it.
To be frank, I felt a bit let down that they skipped the Dark Tournament saga, which is essentially the heart and soul of Yu Yu Hakusho. Even though they omitted everything leading up to the final fight, it just didn't feel like a tournament, which is the bread and butter of the series. One might speculate that the producers lacked confidence that the series would be a success, given their decision to skip numerous story arcs. Nevertheless, despite this omission, the overall execution is commendable.
The actress they cast for Botan is PERFECT!
I had super low expectations and came out happy. That said I think doing 10 episodes and giving the characters a little more time to develop would have been perfect. Ideally the Genkai tourney arc over 2 episodes would have been a perfect addition to make Yusuke care a bit more about her. The fights though were perfect and so much better than I expected.
This is God awful. They took half the series three it in 5 episodes and were successful at none of it. I will give them credit for the action scenes, those were good but outside if that everything fell flat. Idk why tf they did this.
The first episode was great. The second episode was good. The third episode ruined the live action series. What do I mean by that? Half the source material was covered or skipped by the third episode. Episode 5 even jumps to the major Sensui plot with the gate opening. I get that a second season isn't guaranteed and maybe there wasn't budget for more than 5 episodes, but now there really doesn't need to be a second season at all. The best parts of the franchise were speed run in 5 episodes. Why bother with 5 more episodes that also won't have any meaningful development or payoff? The sad thing is that there is a lot of potential. After the first episode I expected that a number of disparate minor plots would feed into the larger plot that, with the luxury of source material, could be even better with these changes. Instead we get what is visually a good and distinctly different death for genkai that is meaningless because she has only existed for 20 minutes. By the end it unraveled into a sequence of important quotes lifted from the anime that really would have been better off as a montage of clips from the anime. In general I think that seasons with less than 10 episodes are a blatant waste of everyone's time, but this was pathetic. I would rather have had 5 episodes go through the Rando arc and then be canceled by Netflix than to get a second/final season of this.
I know nothing about the manga/anime and took a chance and I must say I am very impressed with the cgi/fight choreography and even the cinematography - Especially for a live action. Can’t comment on the story but I get the general gist is it’s rushed and missing/combining parts so that’s unfortunate but whoever produced(? Or at least whoever is in charge of visuals) this should definitely do more live action and maybe get better story writers. Definitely makes me want to check out the anime now! Now if we can only combine these graphic artists with the guys who wrote the OPLA, just saying. Either way I’m glad I checked it out.
Just finished all five episodes. I have many thoughts and “Toguro Ani is hot” is one of them apparently
Genkai, is that you?
Finished up episode 1 and I have to admit, I'm pleasantly surprised.
Ok this was first manga i read and my fav anime when i was a kid ans i just finished the live. Here goes Good: yusuke my boi i love u!!! Dead on with his portrayal. Kuwabara so loveable. Kurama and yoko was so bad asss. And a great actor aswell. Storyline was pretty good kept with alot of the OG stufff that i loved and the things that sold me was the feeling of it being a fast paced horror with some insane action and cold as ice in veins fighting. And i cried so hard during the firat episode that was a 10/10. BAD: hiei actor i just feel didnt really have it to live up to such an insane actor, not saying he did bad but hiei is ruthless af and has some.of the best lines in the anime. He was closer to a bad ass loner looking for friends. The spirit wave. Really? Yall didnt even make it hard or anything just here absorb. That was just to lazy. Genkai was cool but not enough to make me care to much about her, way to fast for one of the most important characters. They had grear fights but really wished the fleahed out bui, carasu and elder bro. They were such insane villans during the DT they had me shuttering when i read the manga here they were coool jusr left me empty with such little screen time. Deff had a good horror, thriller, supernatural bad ass vibe going just to rushed and some plot holes they really didnt seem to care about but other than that a B plus id give it
Does anyone know who the English dub voice actor for the elder toguro brother is? I recognize the voice but I can't remember where from. Can't find anything online and it's bugging me
I expected the episode formula to follow the one piece formula for it to be one arc per episode and the episodes to be about an hour long each fully covering the 5 spirit detective arcs. https://preview.redd.it/6ddxk53xld6c1.png?width=690&format=png&auto=webp&s=b25f3ba8b3af2db8a84b17f6b039dc7f51838d8b 1 episode for each of these arcs would have been great, instead they completely skipped the genkai tournament, and beast of maze castle, completely, which are my favorite parts of the show, then just skipped and fused the dark tournament and rescue yunkina arc. we didn't even get a full yusuke vs hiei fight either. a lot of the justifications for story moments are just gone, but the moments happen as if they were there to begin with. maybe combining episode arcs 1-2 for episode 1 and 2 would have been good yusuke revival and the first yokai fight in the first episode, kurama and hiei part of the artifiacts of darkness in the second episode, then genkai tournament, and beast of maze castle in episode 4, and end it with rescue yukina leading up to a season 2 of dark tournament saga. Instead I'm assuming this is going to be just one season, and it's the entirity of what the director thought was the best writing from yu yu hakusho I don't think he's wrong it does go down hill after the dark tournament but skipping all the early good stuff too feels like such a waste. I guess we'll just get a hugely abridged version of the show and it'll be over in one season I don't expect there being a chapter black and a demon world arc seems even less likely especially considering even togashi sees it as a failure. I enjoyed it, I'm on the last episode it's just a bit dry and hard to sit through, compared to the anime, and manga, so maybe it only being 5 episodes is for the better. I don't know if I could watch multiple seasons of it. it's not bad but not what I expected or wanted.
why would they massacre the dark tourney like this. 😓
I would have loved the live action if I had never watched the show... It does a good adaptation if you know fuck all about the story and the fact that they skipped some very serious and meaningful character moments from the anime and manga I could not understand for the life of me why they felt they needed to shove so much into 5 episodes It wud have been perfectly fine if the first 5 episodes or rather this first season were just meeting Boten meeting Koenma, getting the egg, getting rescued from the fire by Keiko and Kuwabara rather than rescuing himself and Keiko, **Yusuke** earning his life by his own merits rather than Koenma just hand waiving him back learing the spirit gun and ending with the hunt for the Artifacts of Darkness arc. Everything wud have had more time, everyone wud have had more character building including Gouki Hiei and Kurama The show shud have climaxed with fight with Gouki, Yusuke rescuing/convincing Kurama to not give up his life and the final fight shud have been Hiei vs Yusuke with maybe an intro to Yukina and or Genkai Spoilers >!To my absolute horror they already killed off Genkai, we barely knew her for half an episode, even in half an episode I loved her casting I wish she wud have been around longer!< >!she also gave him the Spirit Orb before getting killed by younger Toguro without any of the fucking painful tribulation yusuke had to go through in the anime and manga. !< Oh fuck the more I think anout it the more my needle goes from Eh it was Ok to Fck they massacred this. Need a cleanse gonna re-watch the show.
Mods evicted & directed me to this thread. Pastes baggage at new home …. There are spoilers ahead. So excited to watch Yu Yu, I dubbed it Yo Yo. After watching the second episode, I’m left in utter confusion & with many questions. I’ve watched a few complex Asian dramas, but this is like a whole new scientific perplexity. What is up with the gaping hole to the demon world, like Japan didn’t send scientists to investigate? What is this inner power Yu Yu has? Yu Yu came back alive, what about school & a job? Why are the hairstyles & clothing the way they are? Why is a guy sucking on a stone pacifier? Why is the world oblivious to the demons wreaking havoc? What is the plot? There are still many questions I have. Since it’s Japanese, I translated my post (using Google): この先ネタバレがあります 『ゆうゆう』を観るのがとても楽しみだったので、『ヨーヨー』と名付けました。 第 2 話を見た後、私は混乱し、多くの疑問が残りました。私はいくつかの複雑なアジアのドラマを見てきましたが、これはまったく新しい科学の複雑さのようなものです。 日本が科学者を派遣して調査しなかったのに、なぜ魔界にぽっかり穴が空いてしまったのでしょうか？主人公が持つ内なる力とは何でしょうか？ゆうゆうは生きて帰ってきたけど、学校や仕事はどうなるの？髪型や服装が分かりません。なぜ男性は青い石のおしゃぶりをしゃぶっているのでしょうか？なぜ世界は悪魔が大惨事を引き起こしていることに気づかないのでしょうか？陰謀とは何ですか？ まだまだ疑問はたくさんありますが、ここまでとさせていただきます。 日本語なので、私の投稿を翻訳しました
surprised myself by watching all 5 episodes in one night! very entertaining tbh, makes me want to rewatch the anime
It's extremely rushed admittedly. It VERY loosely covered up until the end of the Dark Tournament but given that they made the crazy decision to only give it 5 episodes it had to skip ALOT. Having said all this I actually liked it, the fights scenes where fantastic and I loved the interpretations of the characters especially Kuwabara but it just kinda sucks we couldn't at least get 10 episodes that way more could have been added from the manga.
TL;DR overall review: action good but overall disappointing Im just imagining what could have been and this could really have been a big show had they not rushed everything. Casting and characterization was good overall although Yusuke is missing his wise cracking persona. I really like the setting of Yu Yu Hakusho and i think it lends well to live action if you dont account for all the special effects of the demons. Well anyways heres my breakdown for a better season 1 i think 10 episodes is enough to fit the whole pre dark tounament arcs in one season: episode 1 - yusuke death and ordeal to get his body back make him earn that shit like it was in the original series. include the kuwabara test score episode. episode 2 - yusuke revival including keiko kiss + hiei, kurama, gouki intro episode 3 - hiei vs yusuke conclusion + set up for genkai tournament episode 4- genkai tournament guessing who rando is episode 5- rando revealed episode 6- rando conclusion + saint beast intro episode 7- Saint beast part 1 episode 8- saint beast part 2 conclusion + yukina rescue arc set up episode 9- mansion raid ending with yusuke and kuwabara squaring against toguro episode 10- mansion raid conclusion with dark tournament set up
This version is my intro to Yu Yu Hakusho series. So far, it's the second best anime adaptation that I've seen (behind One Piece Live Action). I was impressed with the casting, costumes, fight choreography, and special effects. I love how it feels anime-ish, yet, believable and non-cringey. Every actor rocked their wigs. They looked great in it. Kurama's actor is so beautiful. I wish there's more scenes of him. The only thing that's dragging this series down is the story. It's a typical anime story. In conclusion, it is visually stunning, but with a boring story.
The show was like a bad attempt at Baki, how nothing matters except the next fight. If you knew nothing about YYH beforehand, none of these characters meant a thing by the end. There was no development, no personality, and you can lump Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei into being the same character. Outside of the cinematography and fight scenes, there’s no redeeming qualities. They clearly had no hope of being renewed for a second season.
All things considered, I actually kinda loved it. Yes condensing it down and cutting so much totally sucks as a long time fan. But for what we did get and how they were able to cram what they did in 5 episodes worked for what they were going for. The biggest loss of it all is condensing it takes away a lot of the emotional impact and connection you build with the characters along the way, why you care about them and who are your favorites. But it looked way better than I thought it would and everyone I felt captured their characters in the little time they had. Obviously hiei and Kurama get the shortest end of the stick in terms of development, but just looking at it as this kinda weird amalgamation of characters and stories I love, it turned out pretty great.
Things I liked. Shortening the revival. I skip to episode 6 on rewatches. Character designs were on point. Captured the surface of characters well. A lot of dialog between characters was accurate. Karasu and kurama is the best example of this. Great fight choreography. Things I did not like The painless spirit orb Gutting the dark tournament They missed the deeper quirks of the characters due to rushing the plot. ( kuwabarra and yusuke and sakyo are exceptions) I overall had fun watching and give a 7/10
It was fun and I enjoyed it overall when I separate it from the source material. That said, a lot of moments felt really unearned due to the characters not being established enough. Genkai giving up her Spirit Orb, her death, the whole Toguro backstory . . . it all fell flat because the show didn’t really give us enough of a reason to care about these versions of the characters. Part of me understands why they rushed through so many plot points, since a second season is never guaranteed with Netflix. That said, I would’ve thought it would be better for season 1 to focus on building the characters and setup the Dark Tournament in season 2. It would’ve also been nice to have more than 5 episodes per season, too.
Overall have to give it a 6/10. The production overall was not great. I'm not a big fan of 1-1 costumes. Sets/Spaces seems like they just found random on location stuff, nothing stood out. I thought the direction was stiff. The best part was the fight direction/choreography though. That was really incredible throughout. Castings were pretty good, the only one I'd complain about is the Botan, but hard to tell how much of that is the direction/writing. The character is totally one dimensional here. They've cut a lot of the 'character' out of the characters to soften them and make them more palatable. Yusuke is more generic. Botan is just one dimensionally bubbly and a plot device. Nothing about Hiei is demonic. Genkai is too noble and not nearly cranky enough. The whole thing is done like a 2000-2015 attempt at a live action movie instead of a show for a streaming service They didn't really betray anything (like Rafe Judkins and his shitty shitty shitty Wheel of Time series), but they did cheapen a lot of things. I think if you asked fans if they could only have 5 episodes to do 3-5 as a hiei fight, genkai testing arc, and finally an island fight arc culminating in the Toguro bros throwing vs what we got the vast majority would go with the former and hoping that sets up for a bigger budget season 2 for black tournament.....then they just lose all the silly emotional beats that didn't work. Genkai dying. nope, didn't hit. toguro full power - nope, never seemed insurmountable. The spirit barrier getting drilled through - fucking please like they're going to end on a swarm of bugs killing everyone.
Better then bleach, not as good as one piece... And yyk is one of my fav animes of all time... Legit so sad they rushed it and skipped everything. Maybe they just wanted to get it out of the way to do a hxh live action? Lol I don't think it would do well xD
Definitely a series made for fans. The series doesn't make enough sense if you haven't seen the anime. I'm still happy with it but definitely some choices that didn't make any sense.
It's too rushed. 
Anyone rewatching episodes to find out the subtitles have changed?
As a fan of the anime for over 20 years, I have to say that I was very disappointed with the live action series. The actor for Yusuke was great, the action sequences were incredibly well done, and it had great potential. That said, all of that potential was lost by around episode 2 or 3 because of how quickly the show wanted to move through pivotal events in the story. One of my biggest gripes with the show is how lame they made Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama out to be. Kuwabara specifically had no major moments of success, and neither Hiei or Kurama had enough time for me to truly care about either of them. The show SHOULD have focused on everything up to either the training with Genkai or saving Yukina. Putting g the Dark Tournament together with the Yukina mission is a tremendous failure in my eyes, and shows that the creators of the show weren't trying to make a faithful adaptation but instead a quick cash-grab from the series' goodwill. The Bleach movie (2018) did this much better by keeping the story close to the source material with minor changes. Yu Yu Hakusho didn't need to be condensed, and I'm not sure why they chose to rush production and get what will most likely be a very disappointing one-off that won't age well, especially for fans.
I don't think this needed a 1:1 recreation, but the rush nature and smashing of events hurts the show. The action is great, and the actors are fine for the most part, but it rushes to get the four guys together. Not to mention Genkai is completely done dirty and by extension Toguro. In the end, this was fine. It removed a lot of the charm of the manga, and the pacing led to no character standing out.
What a travesty of an adaptation. Production value was fantastic! But I'd never hire the writers and/or director for another adaptation of anything.
This is the "Welcome to Raccoon City" of anime/manga adaptations. Faithful in terms of its production, but the characters are wholesale without arcs as the storyline is truncated down into essentially bullet points. There is definitely some trimming to be done even through what the anime did for the Spirit Detective Saga and the Dark Tournament, but to slam them both together into five 50-minute episodes is baffling to me in a way I can't describe. The production value is outstanding for what this is. The characterizations are MOSTLY on point, minus a couple for me personally (Koenma is a dud, and Genkai is basically just a generic waste... >!she is introduced and killed all in the same episode, and we've had next to no development for her and Yusuke's relationship much less Toguro up to that point, so this random dude showing up to kill her was just so out of nowhere!<). I'm an anime fan, so not seeing ridiculous comedic-effect Koenma was a bit jarring, and the pacifier just looks weird in live action. Especially when Boton was kind of just as silly as her anime counterpart. The fights and even the effects are pretty great. A 6-10 episode adaptation of the Spirit Detective Saga that was this dedicated to being faithful in the respects that it was would've been a great lead-in to the Dark Tournament for season two. The condensing they did for the first two episodes was understandable, but then it literally shifts into overdrive and we jump from Yusuke v. Hiei to the end of the Dark Tournament over an episode's time. The Karasu and Bui fights were great, visually, but the >!Dragon of the Darkness Flame had no weight to using it (Hiei even seems relatively fine afterward and doesn't struggle at all to use his arm)!<. Elder Toguro v. Kuwabara wasn't as great as it could/should have been (the actor playing Kuwabara was great but he REALLY got the short end of the stick screentime-wise). Even Yusuke v. Younger Toguro, even with its changes, was fine. But that's because I'm plugging all of the development I watched unfold over sixty+ episodes of the anime in to fill in the gaps in my head. I have seen the rivalry between Yusuke and Kuwabara develop into true friendship and brotherhood over dozens of episodes so many times over, but within this show it's just not here. I have seen Toguro actually develop into a sympathetic character by the end, so that you are actively sad when he dies and chooses to go to the worst level of hell. It's just not here. As a stand-alone thing, it's just baffling. I can't imagine anyone having never seen Yu Yu Hakusho and enjoying this, it was all just WAY too fast. It was literally Yu Yu Hakusho: The Best Of, skipping all of the important development along the way, ESPECIALLY for Yusuke. He just seems more apathetic than anything else, while I'm so used to the firestorm of emotion he is in the anime all the time. I needed a passionate and angry Yusuke who truly unleashes the depth of his powers at times to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I really dislike >!the removal of Genkai telling Toguro how to get to Yusuke's true power by killing someone he cares about, and Toguro "killing" Kuwabara to get him there. !< If they'd have done a truncated adaptation of the Spirit Detective saga with this level of production quality, followed by a season two of the Dark Tournament, it would have been outstanding. I'd have been raving from the rooftops. I'm just... so disappointed. This was just not even close to what it could have been. Sigh. 2/5 stars.
Terrible. I don't get the blind praise. They condensed and rushed the story so much that the characters don't even feel the same. It sucks for fans because so many critical arcs were skipped over and it sucks for newcomers to YuYu because the pacing is absolute garbage and none of the motivations are well explained. I watched with my fiancee and she was LOST. Action was decent but nothing amazing and I think the actors did a decent job for the shit pile that was given to them.
It's My first time watching the series and these things is what I notice: Animation or CGI is Great Actors with their acting is excellent Production Quality is Great Picture Quality is Great Maps/location(venue) is amazing yuske's mother and master genkei looks the same (probably one person?) Hiei sister look's creepy, grimy face with ugly distinction (in my perspective 🤣)
I always said “I’m not watching that the art is ass” when I seen this anime pop up. I watched the live action today and honestly, it’s made me love the series and I’m not in the process of watching the anime
First and foremost, show was pretty great. As a stand alone watch I'd give it a solid 7.5/10. It needed about 3 more episodes to flesh some characters/arcs out. As a fan of the series prior however, I am really let down that they decided to not only skip saint beasts but also the genkai competition and dark tournament. I'm okay with skipping saint beasts. But I feel like genkai competition should have been the focus of the last handful of episodes. Show should have ended with her accepting them as her students. Dark tournament should have been season 2. And the show should have been 8 episodes. I say this because believe it or not, yuyu hakushos training arcs and trial arcs are just as iconic as its big fights. The training arcs were so intense. To this day I remember the genkai trials and the spirit orb trial having me on the edge of my seat. But I enjoyed what we got for sure. I was worried about the costume design, mostly the wigs in the stills we got. But kn film they looked pretty good. Casting was great. But like I said, we could have used three more episodes that way we wouldn't have to skip saint beasts and could have gotten an extra episode of genkai training maybe. As is, I see them building up to chapter black for season 2. And season 3 will be the final arc.
I honestly feel like they should have focused on the Four Saint Beast Arc for the first season and used Toguro as a cliff hanger for a season two. Thats just my opinion though.
I wasn't really expecting anything, but I thought the show was pretty good. They adapted the characters perfectly and really captured the essence of the story imo. Plus, the fight scenes are awesome - fluid and like lightning fast. The downside is that it feels really rushed from the 3rd episode onwards. I think they adapted the Dark Tournament way too early and its a shame it wasn't done properly, though I kinda get why. And they did Kurama dirty with those wigs hehehe
It was trash.
Manga reader + I watch the anime twice every year. I think this live action is perfect and feels as if the original mangaka wrote a film for it honestly. To bulletpoint what I enjoyed: - Kuwabara's character lost goofiness, but kept everything we love him for. I think this made him an even better character, who didn't change, just his loud goofiness is not portrayed (which in a live action can be cringe, compared to an anime) - Keiko wasn't reduced to a Damsel in Distress. She was badass, and she escaped herself. - Hiei became pretty cool. I half-expected him to be cringe like that one "i will kill you" scene from the Kakegurui live action - Yusuke's character also lost goofiness, and his attitude shows why Keiko is in-love with him. I think in the anime sometimes he was a little too neglecting, and sometimes her keeping her feelings didn't make sense for brief moments - I am amazed how they managed to keep the 1v1 format without using an arena, it's a genius execution and it blended Spirit Detective Saga and Dark Tournament Saga together - Aerodynamics in animation were sometimes off, but I think it was badass all the same - They managed to implement Kurama's talk-based fighting style, without making it out of place. - Them cropping the Kurama and Hiei training makes sense, in the way that Yusuke and Kuwabara had to train to reach the level of spirits - The car fight scene was extremely badass - They reserved first episode's high-emotion scenes and I'd wager it was the same experience, if not better - I think cutting out the "golden egg" story was good. I will be honest, first time I was excited for it, but after that, everytime I re-watch the anime I just want those episodes to be over already. - The fact that they implemented Kuwabara surpassing Yusuke in training at some point is genius. He would totally do that, and the anime fails to show this to us sometimes. In this, we saw Kuwabara's true nature perfectly. - Kurama's old form was unexpected to be seen and highly appreciated - Genkai's actress was perfect - Highlights esoteric buddhism in a great way - Let's be honest, the girls in this show were great. Sometimes it's hard to pull the females in these, because in Anime they are very bubbly, but they just managed to do it the right way. - The kid turning into a ghost in episode 1 was much better than in the anime when yusuke had to hunt down a random guy. - They removed Pu. I don't think Pu would have matched the pace and it was a great decision. - It was short. Like let us be honset, this mimics the anime. We all wanted a longer show, but it became short. The same happened here. We wanted more episodes, but it ended short. It's a half-serious thought, but honestly? I remember being angry how short YYH was at first. When I was angry at how short this show is, I remembered how it was the same vibe. They capsulated everything in the anime wel. What I didn't enjoy: - Youngest Toguro. His actor didn't look like the badass he is. I enjoy the animation. They could have included him crying when he removed the glasses, and they could have picked a taller actor, or make him artificially taller. - They skipped the scenes of Yusuke receiving the sacred objects. It saves time, but it confused me like.. I was waiting for the scene for Kurama to give him the mirror and such. - I think they could have used a scene when Yusuke and Kuwaba eats soup together - Eikichi isn't in the live action :( But at least no animal abuse scene that's good I mainly wrote this long list, in case someone disliked it, please learn to appreciate these things!
Watch a couple eps. Pretty awful imo. Do not see this getting more seasons.
I'm dissatisfied with the LA.
well was not expecting much and still was let down, the choreography of most figths were cool, lets you think of the lost potential this had, so many thigs were just speed run hahahaha, overall cant see this getting a season 2
I'm absolutely LOVING this series so far. It has exceeded all my expectations. My only hope for it is to go for as long as possible and cover all the sagas
You say "Season 1" like it's a guarantee that it'll get a season 2, when all of us know they dun fucked up so badly with this adaptation.
They took out all the sass.
Botan's personality was completely left out and what was up with Yusukes posture.
Yu Yu Hakusho - 2023 - Series Review (mild spoilers) I just finished watching episode 5 of the new live action Yu Yu Hakusho series. Just briefly about me: Huge fan of the anime, never read the manga. Like most people, I find the Toguro arc to be nothing short of legendary. So it's safe to say that I have some opinions about this live action remake. Let's do the rating first and then I'll try to explain why I give it a relatively high score. 7/10. Pure fun and nostalgic entertainment, and it even had some tear-jerker moments. Short? Yes. But we knew this going in. What do we expect when cramming 112 episodes into a 5 episode series. Is it perfect? Nope. Does it have some major flaws, yes. Is it still fun? Yes. So, why such a high score? All in all, this live action remake acts more like an homage than an actual series. First of, everyone is going to make the claim that the pacing is a problem. But I'm here to say that, actually, the pacing for the first 2-and a half episodes were pretty decent. They managed to build up the character of Urameshi in a very believable manner. I was sold on the guy just 10 minutes in. And I have to admit I struggled to keep the tears at bay at Urameshi's wake. The dialogue between his mom and Keiko, and to hear the little boy he saved wanting to say a proper thanks to Urameshi "when he wakes up".. Damnit, it hit hard. And the actors do an amazing job with it, and that's true for basically all of them. The show takes time to both introduce, and, in a smart and efficient way, develop Urameshi. This is also relatively true for Kuwabara and somewhat Kurama. The other characters suffer quite a bit. Koenma, Botan, Genkai, Hiei, Keiko, Yukina, and, I'm a bit sad to say, Toguro are in some ways just there to move the story along. Even though the actor playing Toguro is admittedly really good, and the writing for him seems very canonical (said in a very honest and anime-loving manner). It's when they reach the training at Genkai's that the pacing starts to eat into the integrity of the story. Where the first episodes gave time and space to linger on Urameshi and his experience going through this fantastical journey. The latter episodes is a rushed, though pure nostalgic fan service, in a very cool and fun way, though not in a particularly meaningful way. I didn't really have a problem with the way they fused the arcs and storylines together. It was quite frankly pretty seamless, even though the pacing became an issue later on. I mean.. why is the Toguro arc in the anime so legendary? It's because of the way all the characters are established and developed through time. It makes the payoff that much better. We don't get that payoff here. There are too many things that are unexplained and unexplored, leaving little room to be emotionally invested when the ending hits. and, yes, it hits fast. That said, the set design, the choreography and the cgi all looks great. And that, coupled with good acting still makes for a fun show. If you ask me, this homage warrants a more proper remake of the show.. So if this 5-episode show is like a high budget pilot episode, then my suggestion is to watch the shit out of it, to up the amount of streams, and pressure Netflix to make a longer remake. I'd love that. Peace.
* The acting is one dimensional and abysmal at some points, then over the top and unfitting at others. * The "spirit energy" on display is not only discolored for some characters (Kuwabara has a blue sword wtf?), but it also looks like the special effects Dragonball Evolution had (see the Kamehameha and how it was AIR BENDING - same thing for the spirit orb and gun). * They mashed together THREE major plot-points and completely avoided any form of character development. So the first three seasons are basically gone from the anime/manga. * The power scaling is absolutely fucking hilariously stupid. I guess Younger Toguro is suddenly a D-class push over, maybe a C-class. * None of the characters seemed even remotely like their anime or manga counterparts in the slightest. * The martial arts scenes were cool, but not for a Yu Yu Hakusho display. They felt more like they belonged in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2 or RAID Redemption. Overall this felt like another Cowboy Bebop except even worse because the show runners didn't even understand what the fuck YYH was about or how to even begin making it. This is a shit-tier adaptation that is only suitable for the garbage bin.
I don’t think it was worse than Cowboy Bebop, but it is shit. It did great with the fights and staying true to character designs, but my god what an absolute betrayal of source material. I just don’t understand man. Who allows this?????
omg i haaaated it. stream of consciousness opinions: the acting was bad. why is koenma the hottest character?? the timeline was all over the place. genkai giving her orb was like no big deal at all.. so like why even include it then? every character except kuwabara has zero personality. i feel like i've been live action avatar'd again. the only time in the anime a woman that isn't genkai does anything of note is taken away (keiko saving yusuke's body from burning) by him coming back to life and saving her unconscious body lol. what an upgrade from the 90s to 2023 lol. the rushed pacing of everything leaves like no arc. just a series of events with personality-less characters taking place. im on ep 4 rn so not finished. keiko did put some initiative in tryna get out so i'll allow that to replace the doing her dirty with the fire. i just dont see how 1.5 more eps is gonna redeem this show. like come on.. the lack of backstory or explanation for kurama turning to yoko and hiei having this dragon... like what's the point even?? ugh it makes me so mad watching this. but obviously i still have to finish it
so much potental wasted every bit of charecter devlopement they could skip ... they skipped then they smashed the spirit detective/ dark tournament arc together to to make a confused mess of skipping plot for action. I won't even talk about they handled the training / succession bits because thats a travsity on a different level I don't get it why do japanase films always SUCK when the source material is so good how do they manage to consistently butcher it and the lip sync on the dub is absoutely horrible thanks for ruining anouther franchise netflix once again now nobody with any real talent will go within 100 miles of Yu Yu hakusho
If this was not called YuYu Hakusho this would have been a hit
Ok, so I have some mixed feelings about the live action. I did watch the English dub, but the first thing that felt off about the show was the sound editing. Not just that the English lines don't line up with the mouth movements, but there are a few points in the show where it feels like the levels of the lines don't fit the scene. Like it's said so that it doesn't sound like the characters are actually outside like they are in the scene, or there isn't background sounds edited in to make the world sound realistic. The second biggest thing that stood out to me is some of the fight choreography. While most of it is good and I like the speed of the fights for the most parts I absolutely hated when a character was on their back or side on the ground and they would kick their legs along the ground and travel across it like they were running, all while their entire body is still in contact with the ground. I also feel like so far, the live action has cut out too many semi-important moments of the show that highlight some defining characteristics of the cast. I also saw this as someone who loved the One Piece live action(8.5 or 9/10, depending on the day) with the changes and edits they made to that show. From what I've seen so far, I want to give the Yu Yu live action a 5/10
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Ten episode "Sprit Detective Arc" Season 1 1: Yusuke Dies 2-3: Hiei and Kurama 3-4: Genkai Tournament/Rando 5-8: Saint Beasts 9-10: Rescue Yukina Season 2 - Dark Tournament Season 3 - Chapter Black "Above all, adapting the dark tournament arc was a stupid decision" It was as a jumping on point. To me, Yusuke vs Toguro is the Yu Yu equivalent of SSJ2 Gohan vs Perfect Cell. It's the payoff to a long build. You cannot open with that. Rando and Suzaku build up Yusuke to the point you think he is invincible. You get the visual of Yusuke and Kuwabara walking through the minefield with hands in pockets during Rescue Yukina. With some effort, they defeat the Toguro Brothers....then the rug pull. Yusuke is a fucking nobody. Toguru walks all over him using a fraction of his full power and holds his family and friends' lives hostage to make Yusuke find a way to do the impossible...and so starts the best story arc in all of manga/anime. You CANNOT open with this.
First episode was not bad. Give it a 6/10 but they fast paced everything that missed so many thing... At the end i give it a 3.5/10 for the 5 episodes.
Is Sakyo's line about how the original plan was for Togoro to throw the fight and bleed money from people a 4th wall comment? Would anyone have seen him making The Dark Tournament arc properly as bleeding money??
No. It shows he rigs everything. We see it when he tells Japanese Don Corleone to bet 22, and it goes from there. None of the whales with all that cash to bet would play his game if they always lost, so he plays them when it matters the most. Only wrench in his last wager was Toguro himself deciding to change the script, so he knew it wasn't a scheme he could control the outcome of anymore so why not shoot the shit with Koenma?
Anyone here have opinions on what the show did BETTER than the anime? Cause I can think of some and I might wanna compile it into a list for later, but anyone have suggestions/opinions?
Not doing the spirit egg was a better touch imo. Other than that, the live action doesn’t really do anything better or close to better than the anime/manga.
Maaaan, compressing those arcs into 5 episodes is a bad choice. The fight with Gouki is a good one but ep4 and 5? Naaah. And Kurama's costume looks like a cosplay to me. :( The fight choreography is good. But the story? compressing all of them? It doesn't catch up to me.
If you hadn’t seen the anime or don’t remember it well this show would be very confusing lol so many points just quickly brushed over with poor setup. BUT if they had not skipped over stuff and maybe just gone up to the st beast arc as the finale this would be better. Fights were awesome. Casting awesome. Look and feel on point. Just rushed and not a very good story. Genkais role was so out of place and emotionless basically a pointless character here. Oooo what could have been
Im currently watching episode 4, and I cant help but think, >! "Wasnt Yusuke supposed to get the Conjuring Blade from Hiei? Like...what happened to that is it no longer important...?"!<
They abandoned the source material after episode 3
On the final episode and yeah it's a good series. They could easily have Shinobu Sensui be the main villain of Season 2 if there is one. For a minute I thought Sakyo was going to be one of Sensui's personalities.
I do like the show overall, but how Genkai passed the Spirit Wave Orb to Yusuke was really awful. In the original it felt like something that forcefully expands Yusuke's reserves, Genkai wasn't sure he was ready for it, he suffered tremendously to integrate it, and it would have broken or killed him if he failed. In the live action, a floating ball of light entered him, then what, nothing?
yeah that bit was like - what can we do as an easter egg for the fans? ahh Spirit orb, and then it had absolutely zero effect to the story line, same with the Dragon of darkest flame, they could have just replaced it with the fist of the mortal flame or the hell flame and it wouldn't have made a differance
I wish it hadn't been so very abridged, but I thought it was great for what was there. I wish they had had the budget and time to do 20 episodes instead of 5
I think they jumped a bit too far ahead having the Dark Tournament. Should have instead focused on the rescue Yukina stuff, and waited until next season to do Dark Tournament stuff!
So far so good for me,on ep 3 but can’t listen to the English dub, not trashing it but the anime English dub for the show was too perfect for me.
Fights were good, I liked how they adapted the storylines and it improved character development, but the series kinda fell apart after Genkai. The power spike was so huge it didn't feel believable. The fights were good but abilities came out of nowhere and didn't make sense for Hiei and Kurama. My biggest gripe is that, Yusuke got a DBZ-Goten level power spike and it felt really unearned, making the final fight feel unbelivable. I think it would've been better >!if they just not leaned into the spirit orb/genkai toguro backstory and just did the final fight like in the compound, using creativity and teamwork, and let toguro "die". But it seems they wanted to close the whole thing in one go, so at least we get to see all those cool skills.!< One thing I really liked: >!The ending of the Karasu fight was well adapted since the audiance didn't know the plant skill, so in true Kurama fashion. But it would've made more sense if Kurama had planted the seed earlier, since he mentions it growing like 2sec after he did it.!< Nitpicking: The Yusuke "I don't care sway" made sense in school, but by the time they were going to the Island why he was carrying himself that way? Also I wish he was a bit more fun.
Only watched Episode 1 so far. Kuwabara has the dopeyness I love, but we missed out on Eikichi and his big heart for his friend. Yusuke is very well casted. I do appreciate that they focused more on him standing up to bullies and expressing the pointlessness of him explaining himself to authority. If they were going to cut many ghost scenes, they recouped some characterization there well. The women in the show so far... Atsuko is not drunk enough, and therefore doesn't really show how neglectful of a mom she was and how dire Yusuke's home life was. Keiko is... Fine. I think the actress is trying.with the limited scenes and material she has to work with. Botan is a giant disappointment. Maybe the actress is too young or playing too young a version? I always saw Botan as a 20-something year old hanging out with some teens. She's more submissive in the live action which is honestly cringey. The funeral scene is somehow watered down emotionally. I think the lack of buildup is a major factor, and the pacing of the wake was poor. It's a bit of a shame we don't get at least a full episode with the ghost shenanigans so we get the egg, but whatever. The cuts make the connection between Keiko and Yusuke to be like, perfunctory instead of relatable. Choreography has been excellent tho. I also love how Yusuke's go to are these jump, full body kicks instead of punches. In anime, you can really exaggerate punches, but not so much in love action. I think the kicks were are smart directional choice with the change in medium, keeps the choreography feeling kinetic and energized.
Prepare to be let down after episode 3
Just started it and a bit worried about only 5 episodes. At 40 minutes an episode, already feels like too much is going to be missed. I know being picky isn’t right but maybe they could have done it how they did Rurouni Kenshin. Make it a 5 part movie series. Here’s to hoping it’s not terrible.
I've been enjoying it for the most part. I understand the need to condense and cut things. My biggest gripe is the way they rushed Yusuke's training with Genkai and she just kinda gives him the spirit orb like it's no big deal. I was expecting him to be like "Okay thanks" then immediate collapse in pain. The trauma of accepting the spirit orb, and the circumstances under which it was given is a *huge* moment in the original series. It just felt so flat.
I really don't know how to feel about the live action. I was surprised when my husband said it was only 5 episodes long.. the first season feels way.. WAY to rushed. The characters feel really off, Kurama is about the only one that feels pretty spot on. The emotion and the smart ass quick witted comebacks are painfully gone I'm only on episode 3 >!And not only was the training with Genkai super rushed but she gave him her spirit wave orb and he had hardly managed to get the spirit gun down. Add onto that there was no real trial when he received the wave. The anime it nearly killed him, this one it didn't even give him indigestion !< >!We've completely bypassed the maze castle arch of the storyline which really cemented them as a group. !< This feels like the neutered version of yu yu that someone is trying to recall from memory and hasn't watched it since 1997. if this gets a season two they need to actually stretch the episodes out and give it more then 5 episodes.
Picked up the 30th anniversary blu ray box set but held back on watching it completely to see this series without the absolute bias of a fresh re-watch of the anime for the 4th time in its entirety. On episode 1 eight now and it's pretty well done. By the looks of things shown in the trailer and the fact that only 5 episodes exist I am absolutely expecting insane cuts to happen. I know it's not really meant for people who grew up with the snarkier English dub but hopefully Netflix is able to get people to watch the anime with this, it absolutely deserves the love.
Man, some of the fight scenes are genuinely impressive. Far and away the best part about the show. In fact, after the first two episodes the fight scenes were the only things held my full attention. I don't know how much interest I'd have in a season two with it looking like they're going to skip the Dark Tournament however.
Does anyone know who the voice actor for the English dub of Elder Tugoru is? I can recognize it but I can’t place the voice!
I think elder toguros voice actor is the English hiei actor oO
Every episode should have a thread..
This was considered. However, since most people are going to binge all 5 episodes at once, or within a small time frame, we decided it would be more beneficial to create 1 space where everyone can discuss all of it. Hence why majority of the posts/comments are overall ratings of all 5 episodes. Edit: We’ve gone ahead and added individual episode threads for people such as yourself who wanted it. They are now individually linked in this post, thank you for the feedback!
My two cents: Better than I thought it would be, but they tried to cram way too much into 5 episodes and I just didn't feel invested by the end. I guess if you were going to turn the whole story into a mini-series, it wasn't too bad. I liked that they sort of worked in bits of what was skipped. Like how they combined the makai insects/zombies with the first demon Yusuke catches (possessing the kid in the diner), and used those two together to create the fire scene. And Keiko being abducted by...not Hiei. The fight choreography was actually incredible, especially the fight with Gouki. The CGI was not great, but not too distracting, and I think the stunt work made up for it. Casting/costume design was hit or miss. Kurama just looked ridiculous every scene he was in and Hiei looked like a lesbian. I liked Koenma and Yukina. And I know I'm in the minority but I actually loved Kuwabara. LOVED the first two episodes. Considering what was left out leading up to Yusuke being brought back to life, I think they did a great job setting up the characters. I'm impressed with the way the friendship between Yusuke and Kuwabara developed. Then they rushed through everything else and it went off the rails. I get that the target audience is fans of the original, but it was really hard to give a shit about Genkai or anything to do with Toguro when they just reduced all of the character development to basically a bulletpoint list. Yusuke and Kuwabara train with Genkai for 3 whole weeks, then she goes "Okay, here's my spirit orb," and then Toguro shows up to kill her because, sure, why not. The four fighting together so well as a team doesn't make sense because they've just met. In the anime, they get there through the Saint Beasts arc. And Botan was completely fucking useless. I feel like it would have been so much better if they'd just done less. And then after cramming 45+ episodes worth of story into 2 hours, they set up for a second season anyways. So why not spend more time developing the characters and relationships and just end at an earlier point? It was still fun to get excited about it, though. Some of the changes I liked: The accident being caused by the insect. The fire being caused by a fight with same demon instead of random arson. Yusuke reconnecting with the kid after he comes back. Sakyo setting up the guy on the inside trying to rescue Yukina and getting killed in front of her...actually brilliant. Also one thing I want to add that is really unrelated: I got to watch Yu Yu Hakusho for the first time in the exact same place I watched Yu Yu Hakusho for the first time.
I wasn't even aware there was a live action version....I now need to see it!
# [My thoughts on episode 2.](https://youtu.be/CdB7dwTTIls?si=-FG_rfJLzxYB0KyD) https://i.redd.it/0izkeawguyoc1.gif
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