Remembering the Classics: Yu Yu Hakusho Part 1

For the last little bit, I've been desperately wanting to watch a bunch of anime from the 90's and the millennium. The one anime that has been really tickling my fancy for some reason is Yu Yu Hakusho. I originally avoided this anime like the plague because I had an acquaintance in college who claimed that the show was based on real events, that she was a reincarnated angel and that her friend was dating Edward from Twilight. She was also convinced that there was a gang of Vampires invading Moscow.

Vampires EVERYWHERE!

Honestly, the only reason I even knew her was because she was roommates with one of my friends. At least she was fun to hang out with during Halloween.

Anyway, I found out that the DVD's for the anime are pretty cheap so my boyfriend and I decided to pick up season 1. We watched all of disk 1. So I decided to share my thoughts on the first two story arcs.

Arc I: Our Main Character Dies!

Our story starts off with the death of our main character, Yusuke Urameshi. Normally, Yusuke is a cranky, school skipping, self identified miscreant. However at the last minute, he jumps in the way of a car, seen above, in order to save the life of a child. The crash proves fatal and Yusuke soon finds himself looking down at the scene. The only one able to see him is a mysterious woman named Botan. 

She rides a boat ore like a witch rides a broomstick. It makes sense in a weird way. She is meant to guide lost souls across the river Styx after all. Anyway, Botan tells Yusuke that he wasn't supposed to jump in the way of the car and since they weren't exactly expecting him to die so soon, they don't have a spot set up for him in the after world. Because of this and his selfless act, he is given the option to go through a trial in order for him to possibly get his life back. Originally Yusuke refuses, thinking that there is no one way anyone in his life would miss him. He soon finds out that he in fact has 4 people who miss him.

His alcoholic mother....

I couldn't find a picture of her crying. 

His love interest, Keiko....

I'm not sure why though.

His wannabe rival, Kazuma....

DON'T DO DRUGS!

and finally the school principle.

Anyway, after seeing so many people mourn his death, he decided to go along with the trial. Yusuke is then wisked away to the spirit world where he then meets Koenma, son of King Enma and currently in charge while his father is away. 

He's a little short. 

That Egg he's holding there is a part of Yusuke's trial, he has to raise the spirit egg to birth where it will either become some sort of spirit guide or an evil head biting creature depending on what type of emotions he feeds it. Anyway, episodes 3-5 are pretty much just character development while Yusuke tries to be a good parent for the spirit egg. I won't spoil the end of the arc here but basically Yusuke has to decide whether to save his kind of sort of but not really girlfriend or be reincarnated. Despite his choice for the first, he still comes back to life though.

This arc is very weird in that it doesn't really have ANYTHING to do with the feel of the show later on, when Yusuke becomes a spirit detective. It still gives us an interesting introduction into our characters though with even more on the way in the next arc. It definitely had a few funny moments and kept me entertained but I feel like it could have been compressed a bit more. The real reason we watch shows like Yu Yu Hakusho is for the action. Luckily the next arc goes a long way in giving us more of that. More on that next time. 

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to leave your comments and criticisms in the comments and remember to share with your friends.