Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho
Yu Yu Hakusho

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The opening volumes, where they try and put Yusuke’s personality on track, was what started to pull me in. He reminds me a lot of Onizuka, another character I loved, in that he’s so wonderfully flawed. You don’t see Goku having some sudden epiphany and becoming a better person because he’s already sitting in the Lawful Good alignment to start with; there’s not a whole lot of room there for progression. By contrast, the delinquent is a great character to make the protagonist because he can’t be perfect and he has to grow at some point. Starting the series off dead ... and in need of redemption really gives that development a kick in the pants too. Of course, Yusuke never makes it marginally close to being paragon of justice. He is generally good, has a sense of justice, and cares about his friends mind you, but ultimately he just wants a good brawl, and saving the world in the process is gravy.

This leads into the other characters. Kuwabara is another delinquent who is determined to become more powerful that Yusuke some day. Since he’s not the main character, you can guess how well this is going to work out. He grows in a much different direction though, motivated by a few events in the story (one seemingly minor) and his blinding determination to never give up. Kurama is a formerly powerful demon that has been stuck inside of a human’s body. Forced to see life through humanity’s eyes, he reforms his ways and becomes a protector of the race. Finally, Hiei is an enigma for the majority of the series, you don’t even find out much of his motivations until the final arc. Even he develops a minor form of justice and a grudging respect for Yusuke. Overall, I loved these characters and their interactions throughout the story. Their personality clashes allow for a decent bit of levity to lighten up the fighting backdrop.

If you’re looking for a story, well, it’s a good thing there’s strong characters, because this is a Shonen series. You should check your story at the door. But, a plot still exists, and there are definite motivations to the characters’ actions. A few of the villains can even be painted as a bit unfortunate in their path to evil (or are they really evil?). The ending theme and eventual moral to this whole story is the same as that which Nippon Ichi has taken and ran with for the past few years. Light is not good and dark is not bad. Judging people based on stereotypes and what you’ve always been taught to believe is never the way to go; each being deserves to be looked at based on their own merits and shortcomings. Given that’s the conclusion, it’s natural that Yusuke ends up being a mostly neutral aligned character. Beyond that, like every shonen, there’s going to be those ludicrous points (such as the entire final arc), but just sit back and let it pay off on sheer enjoyment factor, because it will.

Manga pretty well rests on the art style, and this series doesn’t disappoint. I don’t know how many times I looked at a fight scene… then went back again… and again. They’re drawn well, lots of action and explosions and all that greatness. As a warning though, the further you get in the series, the more gore you’re going to see. Backgrounds are well drawn when they’re the focal point of the panel, and take a natural backseat in quality and appearance when they’d end up detracting from the main attraction. The same process applies to the character designs, and they’re generally in that decent to good range that you get in this genre. I do have to say that I liked a lot of the enemy characters, for appearing for such a short time there’s some original design put into them. In particular, I really liked Younger Toguro’s design.

Bottom line, this is a shonen series; you know roughly what to expect in this territory. If you like the genre then I’m going to wonder why you haven’t read this yet. If you’re not much of a fan, this series might not convert you, but it’ll still be a pretty good ride throughout.

Final Score: 8/10 SPIRIT SHOTGUNS!

The story is about a 14 year old boy named Yusuke Urameshi. He dies in a car accident after trying to save a little boy. He ends up being a Spirit Detective (someone who hunts down demons in the human world and solves cases). So we get to see him solve some cases and kick some ass. The story gets more interesting in the Dark Tournament Arc where you see some of the nicest moves the show has to offer (Dragon of the Darkness Flame anyone?). The third arc is Chapter Black Arc, which talks about some psycho trying to ... rid of humanity, but of course he gets his ass kicked too.

Unfortunately, the author fell sick sometime during the third arc so the quality of the artwork was reduced (so I had to give it an 8 :/) However it was still excellently drawn. The Three Kings Arc is the most intense and you'll have to see for yourself how awesome it is.

If you have watched the anime then you should read this!

Overview:

Today we look at a comic with some serious flaws, but I love it anyways. Many people remember seeing Yu Yu Hakusho on Cartoon Network both on Adult Swim and a butchered kid friendly edit for Toonami. It never gained the popularity of DBZ, but older Otaku still remember the series fondly. That is why it is interesting that so few people outside Japan have read the original manga. Of course when you open the manga and look at it, you will figure out why that is. This brings me to the first flaw in Hakusho.

The first minor blemish on this otherwise good title ... is that the art in this manga is quite bad and I mean BAD! The anime looks so much more polished that it is almost difficult to read the manga after seeing the anime.

art: 4/10

Another thing that might put off readers is that Hakusho starts surprisingly slow for a shonen comic. Usually the anime is the adaptation with all the painful filler, but in Hakusho it is the manga if anything that has more padding. As a ghost, Yusuke already saves Kuwabara's cat in both versions. Did we really need that chapter with the little kid and ghost dog? It WAS heart warming, but an unusual choice for starting out an action series. However, I don't really mind this slow start because of the next Hakusho flaw that I will discuss. As the manga goes on it relies more and more on fighting tournaments and becomes a complete dragonball ripoff. It ran in the early 90s at the same time as Dragonball and clearly wanted to copy Toriyama to boost its sales. I find myself wishing towards the end to go back to stuff like the ghost dog chapter in volume 1! At least it wasn't shamelessly stealing from DBZ back when it first started! Finally, after the 3 Kings arc it ends really awkwardly with an unfinished arc in which the Spirit World are the bad guys. This was a cool concept, but it really wasn't drawn out and lasted literally about 5 chapters before just stopping. It really looked like Togashi planned on a grand, final arc that was never made either due to low sales or Togashi himself just got tired of drawing Hakusho. Despite having the aforementioned flaws, it still has badass characters like Hiei and Kurama, as well as some of the best comic book fights of the 90s decade. Hakusho does an excellent job creating its own world and mythos. Besides having memorable and often complex characters, Hakusho was more ambitious than its early 90s shonen peers in trying to show moral ambiguity and complexity. If Dragonball was Harry Potter, Hakusho would be more like Golden Compass in that regard.
Story and characters: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

Hakusho is easily one of the better shonen action comics of the 1990s and is well worth your time. If you are a younger fan and love the new Hunter X Hunter, this is the same author. Hakusho was Togashi's breakout work and many would say his magnum opus. If you are an older fan who simply missed Hakusho, I would go back and give it a try. There are plenty of sites where it is free to read, so it won't cost you anything. I would recommend this series to everyone that loves action, great fights, and conflict that isn't just black and white/ good vs. evil.

Yu-Yu Hakusho. The once great, but forgoten series.

STORY: 7/10
The story isn't anything ground breaking. The main character, Yusuke, dies, comes back to life, and becomes a spirit detective with special powers. With these special powers Yusuke fights demons, monsters, and other guys with special powers. I only have beef with one of the special powers used, and thats Yusuke's. He shoots a ball of blue energy out of his finger which looks exactly like a mini kamehameha from DBZ. It kind of pissed me off, but most of the other powers are pretty cool.

So the story was broken down into three arcs. The first arc ... is defenitly the best. It's a tournament, and all the characters fight the bad guys one on one each showing off their own unique powers. The third arc had so much potential, and looked like it was going to be the best, but then the mangaka was forced to end the manga right when it was getting freaking awesome so there were around 5 chapters of absolute CRAP to end the series. Yu-Yu Hakusho has got to have one of the worst endings in manga history. That brings the 'story' score down a lot.

ART: 6/10
Theres not much to say about the art. It started off pretty good. It didn't make your jaw drop, but it was decent. It got the job done. Then, near the end, it just got worse and worse. The last few chapters of CRAP had maybe the worst art i've ever seen in a manga. I would have given a 7 or 8 if it wasn't for the ending of the series...seriously its really, really bad.

CHARACTER: 4/10
Not really unique. You had the tough guy main character who never gave up, the goofy friend, the super strong sensei, the emo guy, the girl who loves the main character, etc. If you're a shounen nut who loves everything shounen, then these characters will be your best friends.

ENJOYMENT: 8/10
I didn't enjoy the characters when they were just standing around talking to each other. But most of the time they were fighting demons, and shooting energy balls at stuff. Watching the characters fight was very enjoyable. I just straight up had fun reading through the fight scenes. It's too bad the ending is like watching your cat die.

OVERALL: 6/10
It would be wrong to say this manga did a lot of things right, but it also didn't do a lot of things wrong (except for the ending. That was very, very wrong). I'm sort of torn on this. The one good thing it did was the fighting. The two bad things it did were the characters and the ending. The art started good, but then went bad. This manga screams AVERAGE.

So it gets a 6. I know you're thinking "wait! That's one better then average!". Good observation you genious review reader. That's because all the manga that i read who have anime counterparts that I watched when i was a kid get 1 extra bonus piont. The 6 still stands.

Urameshi Yusuke and his friends "Yu Yu Hakusho" marked a generation with action packed adventures, very charismatic characters and a much more compelling story that many knights in armor of the period.
The first volume of "Yu Yu Hakusho" too little account of what you should expect from the series. Yusuke Urameshi is a troublemaker who avoids the death of a child, but ends up himself to the land of standing by. As his death was unexpected, they give you the alternative to make the resurrection of the test, and now he needs to show that it is a good person. The first volume is basically ... it, with Yusuke knowing several supernatural cases of spiritual guide Botan company and interacting distance of his schoolmates, the prissy Keiko and Kuwabara rival.

Although the manga seems a simple comedy, will be starting next volume that things will change figure: Yusuke will rise(spoiler king). And will work as a supernatural detective, caring for cases involving a lot of punches. Like any classic shonen obviously the clichés of training and fighting tournament are included.

But the grace of "Yu Yu Hakusho" is that the manga is less no-brainer that his countrymen's Shonen Jump magazine, as "Knights of the Zodiac" or "Dragon Ball". RPGs fan, Togashi always creates interesting powers for their characters and limitations that make each battle pretty much a game of chess for the fighters involved, without this be boring for the reader. The author might use this side of creation stories in a series published later in Japan, excellent "Hunter x Hunter".

In short; this is one of (if not the) best manga from the earth!

I love Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho. Growing up surrounded by Shonen anime akin to the likes of One piece and Hunter x Hunter 1999, Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho alongside these famous series became a fan favourite amongst my friend group and family. I like to think that I don't review anime with rose tinted glasses of nostalgia, but with Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho I find it hard to critically review the Manga as its become such a cult classic/childhood classic to me. Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho Is the predecessor to Yoshihiro Togashi's other notable shonen Manga of the decade being Hunter x Hunter. The Manga was serialised in Shonen Jump from December of 1990 to July of ... 1994.

~Story~
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho follows a very simple and basic shonen formula. It followed a trend very similar to its contemporaries starting off as your classic monster of the week story before progressing into an Arc based story narrative with and over arching narrative to back it up. Its obvoius that many of its successors take heavy inspiration from its story formula and arch structure including Hunter x Hunter. The story is not the most interesting part nor the worst aspect of the series. Like many shonen series the story is a tool for the characters to grow and develop in the story. Sufficeth to say the story is serviceable but is mainly as a lens to look at the characters with.

~Art~
Togashi has always had some rough artwork... This isn't me trying to say that Togashi has bad Artwork per say but Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho certainly highlights Togashi's weak point as a Mangaka. Unlike both his contemporaries and successors Togashi's drawing skills simply lack what series like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Fist of the North Star had with their iconic Art styles. Some panels make me cringe more than others but when Togashi wants to he can draw some real good stuff.

~Characters~
I have always been a huge fan of the way Togashi writes and develops characters through his stories and interactions. The main cast of characters remain fun in a classical shonen way, Hie, Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara bounce off so well with each other you can really see the inspiration that came in with Leorio, Kurapika, Killua and Gon. Yusuke goes through what is probably the most solidly well written character arch's I've seen in shonen and hit me with incredibly emotionally poignant moments that really illustrate the strengths of Togashi as a Mangaka. Every emotional beat in Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho hits and when it hits it hits goddamn hard.

~Enjoyment and Overall Score~
I love Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho, without realising it Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho became sort of a familiar background noise in my daily life, it was something that me and my friends could talk about, something me and my family could reminisce about. Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho will forever be ingrained in my life as a favourite and classic.

Yu Yu Hakusho is a series that has garnered a reputation as a great classic amongst many members of the anime/manga community. Much like many Battle Shonen, however, most of the praise YYH gains as a great work is purely fuelled by one of the major banes of critical thinking; nostalgia.

Note that this review will be more of a spoiler-filled analysis of each arc of the series to fully analyse the story's quality, particularly for a fair lengthed Shonen in which delving into detail is fairly necessary.

===Part 1: Spirit Detective Arc===

The Spirit Detective Arc, whilst having an interesting beginning, quickly turns into 2 volumes of ... episodic, forgettable missions of Yusuke as a ghost as we're constantly pushed the idea of what a great guy he is, to the point his initial perception by the characters as some typical punk doesn't really seem consistent when we see this side of him far less. Even after his revival, we only have a repetitive formula of a new big bad demon trying to conquer the world with about as much personality as a piece of paper until the Toguro brothers show up. Two of these, Hiei and Kurama, are given more personality by becoming permanent members of the main cast, but the former is poorly handled. Despite his nefarious introduction, Yusuke seems to have no qualms with working with him during the Four Beasts segment despite the common trope of misgivings and conflict amongst the main cast being appropriate here. Instead, the only character with any animosity towards Hiei was Kuwabara, someone who wasn't even there to see Hiei in his evil phase and has conflict with him just because Hiei called him an idiot. Overall, the Spirit Detective Arc is an overly formulaic arc that has some problems in it's character writing and is fairly mediocre overall. 5/10

===Part 2: Dark Tournament Arc===

This is what is often considered the peak of the series as we're offered the idea of a death tournament with the fate of the world in the balance...only to get a very by the books tournament arc with nothing new to offer to the over-saturated formula. Hardly any of the tournament matches outside the finals had much lasting impact with the plot or character progression, with the only opponent to offer anything meaningful to the plot after their defeat being Suzuki and the only one to offer much food for thought being the triple battle against Team Ichigaki. That said, you could cut out or change 90% of the tournament and the overall plot and character development wouldn't change at all. It also doesn't help that Toguro was constantly pushed as the endgame for Team Urameshi from the start with how far above the rest of the competition he was to the point it makes all the other teams and the backing of rich council members acting as though they stood a chance meaningless.
Saying that, why not change it to a tower-style team ranking in a style similar to Heaven's Arena in Togashi's current work? Doing so would not only be more engaging than a run of the mill tournament, but make the factor of Team Toguro being the only endgame far more justified.
I will say Toguro's character writing was good with his guilt and his sympathetic qualities being well foreshadowed. However, this is little saving grace when the majority of this is infodumped after his death and what repercussions he brought to the main cast through the deaths of Genkai and Kuwabara are made completely hollow when the former was revived and the latter was never actually killed. On the subject of Genkai's revival, this brings out a lot of questions about the series' afterlife, as if the likes of Genkai can be revived by Koenma, why is death treat as something truly permanent in this series? At least something such as DBZ had consistency in how the dead can interact and venture to the living world and the ruler of it's afterlife wasn't part of the main cast for maximum plot convenience.
Overall, the Dark Tournment had potential, but ended up being a typical Shonen tournament with all the poor plot devices the demograph is guilty of. 5/10

===Part 3: Chapter Black Arc===

Now, I will offer some fair praise to this arc, with it's first half easily being the peak of the series. The idea of having skill vs power akin to in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Togashi's current work Hunter X Hunter, as well as much focus on the idea of humanity's savage nature being very engaging. However, everything quickly goes downhill once the battle with Sensui starts. Not only does the revelation that Sensui was immeasurably above the main cast all this time come out of nowhere, but the other major revelation of Yusuke's ancestry have no foreshadowing whatsoever and act as a highly contrived power up. Along with these and Yusuke's friends getting rage boosted to A-Class instantly, this completely betrays the arc's premise of strength not being everything, especially when the 3 humans who ushered in this interesting aspect of the arc are completely removed from the climax.
Perhaps character writing could have saved this arc, but not quite. Most of the Sensui Seven didn't have much depth to their character and whilst Sensui was interesting, the plot twist involving him was poor and his seven personalities was unnecessary for doing anything but prolonging the arc when there was little conflict between them in their overall goal and if comparing it to other similar characters, Gemini Saga from Saint Seiya pulled off the multiple personality gimmick far better. On the subject of comparison, the ideas of humanity he represents have been explored with far more coherent writing through the Hunter X Hunter character of Meruem and many more in the Chimera Ant Arc, to the point Sensui and this arc seem fairly dated overall. What could have been the shining jewel in this series was forced by cheap conveniences to be an average at best one. 4.5/10

===Part 4: Three Kings Arc===

Whilst I gave the three previous arcs flak, I at least found them to be average or so. The Three Kings Arc, however, is absolutely terrible. Let's start with the power ups being a further betrayal of the previous arc's premise with how bad the power creep became. Not only did the 6 returning side characters from the Dark Tournament return to far surpass Sensui after Genkai's training, but Kurama far surpassed them by doing...absolutely nothing from what we're shown. Now, the idea of the Makai being divided in three could have been an amazing premise harkening back to the historical epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms and if mimicking it's drawing points could have been the best arc in the series...except nothing of the sort occurs because after Raizen's death, the conflict just becomes another boring tournament to settle everything. Going back to the 6 demons and Kurama, their training and reaching of new plateaus amounted to nothing as their performance in the tournament were so irrelevant most of their performances get infodumped long after the tournament is over. In fact, most of the tournament is skimmed over and the winner is a bland character nobody cared about. The only thing I can say positively about this arc is Hiei finally got some slight character development, though his backstory didn't really offer anything essential that couldn't already be pieced together.
Moreover, the post-tournament events are completely boring as a new conflict against irrelevant fodder erupts and is quickly overcome as the finale to the series. One of, if not the, most anticlimactic finale in all of Shonen. 1.5/10

===Part 5 - Characters, art and final thoughts===

Moving on to quickly go over characters, there's little to say, whilst they are more consistent than most Shonen characters, the cast is still a bunch of fairly typical archetypes beyond the two villains already discussed and the majority of such characters have a far better equivalent in the series' spiritual successor of Hunter X Hunter to the point discussing any of them in depth would be rather meaningless.

Onto the superficial aspect of art, it can be hit or miss. It's nice to see Togashi change his drawing style and experiment with different art techniques, but it causes things to become inconsistent and pages start to gain a major lack of detail for the most part halfway through.

In conclusion, Yu Yu Hakusho is quite a dated work now that it's creator has polished his craft far more long after it and with people not being so limited to what they can watch nowadays, it ought to be evident that most of the elements praised by the masses had already been done better elsewhere. If wanting a series not so focused on fights being settled purely by power, there's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. If wanting a series focused on giving it's 4-5 main cast members a good deal of spotlight, there's Saint Seiya. If wanting a series that offers far more creativity and depth than the average Shonen, there's Togashi's other big hit Hunter X Hunter. For any of those categories, however, I can't recommend Yu Yu Hakusho.

Overall Ranking - 5/10

Togashi at his best. I could say he evolved as a story writter, and world building in HunterxHunter, but he was already a master at everything else by YYK. This story man, it's just so simple, but so well told. It's the DB effect imo, something that seems obvious now, with so many shows and series doing it similar, but this was what influenced them all.

A must read if you're a fan of action and the supernatural. While obviouslly flawed, it does with so much charisma is hard to hold it against it. I trully can't forget the amazing Dark Tournament, that together with ... the Tenkaichi Budoukai, solidified what a tournament arc must be like. The Sensui arc launched the series in some really serious subject matter and tone, and this are just two of it's major arcs.

Reading this manga is an interesting experience if you're familiar with Hunter x Hunter, the other fighting shounen from Yoshihiro Togashi. Several powers, plot points and characters archetypes from this series are recycled into Hunter x Hunter but with more nuance and exploration.

Don't expect too much action in the opening chapters because the first twenty chapters or so are the main character Yuuske playing ghost detective and solving their problems so they can move on. Most of these stories were actually pretty sad and hit me in the feels department so I found them harder to get through than any other part of the ... manga. After that it becomes a traditional fighting shounen with a great tournament saga and never lets up.

Yu Yu Hakusho is very good for what it is, the characters are well realised and go through excellent development, there are great antagonists with amazing fight scenes and the series has the grace to end before getting overly long and bloated (albeit with a rushed and shitty ending, it only has three proper arcs), because it ends quite soon it didn't get fatigued and formulaic like many of the fighting shounen that came after it, each arc feels distinctive and tries new things.

The series may not have had the popularity of Dragon Ball, but I believe it was the stronger in quality and should be held up as one of the strongest in action-adventure shounen manga.

This series is amazing. But it suffers greatly in it's final arc. Character dynamics that are well established in the earlier volumes and chapters become completely irrelevant. DO NOT READ THIS! Watch it instead. It still has many faults, but it does it better in the anime. I wish I could give this a 10 out of 10. I really do. I love Togashi's work and this was such an important part of my teens. Now that I'm more critical of what I read and watch I still think that the anime suffers greatly after the first encounter of the "Chapter Black" Arc or "Black ... Chapter" if you're reading the English manga.

While Togashi was working on this he pretty much gave up on writing and drawing it after the beginning of the Chapter Black arc. There is a lot of positives to Yuyu Hakusho, it's basically the exact oppopsite of HxH while being very similar. If you have any interest in it please watch the anime instead. It fixes and prolongs the story to a degree, the last arc is still trash though and this is just an opinion, but I think the arc before it heavily suffers in quality too. Just don't let the manga define your opinion on the anime.

The ability of Yoshiro Togashi to tell an emotional story and express character beats is second to none. This is by far the single most stand out quality in Yu Yu Hakusho. Hairs can be split about the later pacing in the manga, but at the end of the day this stands among a pantheon of legends as one of, if not the best shonen coming of age.

There is little I can say in a review that wouldn't have been better said, or more well thought out, by people before me. However, something often overlooked is what Togashi was attempting to accomplish in this ... manga, that sets it apart from almost all of it's compatriots. Yu Yu Hakusho is not about any of the demons, or combat, but about the way characters face life threatening conditions in such a human way.

Comparisons are cringe, but one cannot look at Yu Yu Hakusho in a box. Goku, Jojo's, Luffy, Naruto, Ichigo, Kenshiro, Natsu, Inuyasha, and even modern Shonen heroes all fall under a "DC comics" style of hero. They are struggling with being super human. Goku is flawless. He doesn't struggle with his emotions, he struggles with his martial arts. Joseph struggles to come up with strategies to win the day, he doesn't deal with his internal self. Jotaro never progresses as a human. Ichigo struggles to control an inner demon that almost consumes him (like Yuji Itadori), Luffy has limitless power driven by nothing but his imagination. Kenshiro is an unstoppable force dealing with mastering one of the greatest martial arts alive. The thing these heroes have in common is that their emotional flaws are rarely, if ever, a problem for their ability to save the day. This is what firmly places most of shonen in a DC catagory. What sets Yusuke (as well as Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama) apart is his emotions. Yusuke rarely ever struggles in terms of combat. Yes, there are moments where he is unable to physically deal with the big bad, but only because he has yet to master himself in a way necessary to unlock an even greater hidden potential. Yes, Naruto and Ichigo have moments of this(moments that exist in direct inspiration from this manga), but it is not "their struggle", and, the moments that other manga do hit those story beats are in manga's 4-5x the length of Yu Yu Hakusho. Naruto is my favorite manga ever, but it doesn't sit around and dwell on Naruto's emotional short comings due to his father and mother being dead. Yu Yu Hakusho deals with Yusuke's life problems, and puts them front and center. His father's absence haunting him to the very end, and being forced to grapple with his father being less cut and dry than he once understood. Few other critically selling shonen mains have a pr0stitute for a mother. From the moment Yu Yu Hakusho begins, it isn't afraid to destroy and tear down the main character, and turn him into a flawed human.

To bring the point home further, Yusuke rarely, if ever, fights to save anyone else. That doesn't mean this manga doesn't have that, because Kuwabara arguably is the "main shonen lead" of the manga, and Yusuke is closer to the Vegeta. Yusuke at the end of the day CRAVES combat, and wants to face the strongest demons he can, the same as every single main villain across every arc. Yusuke is a half demon, and struggles with his demonic side in much the same way Inuyasha does, but Inuyasha lacks the interplay between the Human-Demon elements that Yuyu Hakusho pioneers. Again, it is necessary to bring up other manga and contrast Yu Yu Hakusho because everything Togashi is attempting to do here (and succeeds even further in HxH) is trying to deconstruct shonen norms.

Most notable in that is the fact Kuwabara actually holds the power to open(presumably close) the demon world portal, NOT Yusuke. This completely flips the manga on it's head, and decidedly sets up Naruto for the Slam Dunk Double-Lead shonen. It isn't just Kuwabara and Yusuke that set norms on their head, Kurama and Hiei offer an incredible balance to the normal "evil rivals turned good" that other shonen offer. If Togashi was given creative freedom as he intended, it's no doubt Hiei would have been a far more complex character, forced to fight Yusuke and his friends later on, but Shonen Jump refused to let him ruin a fan favorite. Kurama is another brilliant character with a phenomenal arc, but under developed due to the lack of length and time Togashi was given. The other side cast are all interesting and necessary, and unlike many other shonen that drop introduced characters and fail to continue relevancy across multiple story arcs(Krillen, Chad/Orihime, Neji/Kiba, etc). Even villains like Toguro are continually looming in Yusuke's mind, like haunting trauma's ready to trigger him to go berserk. Naruto never thinks about Zabuza, and Zabuza isn't relevant "emotionally" but rather, technically in terms of plot. Toguro doesn't matter in terms of "plot" or "world" but he matters in Yusuke's mind. Sensui is not a threat to Yusuke, but as foreshadowed by the first Spirit Detective, Yusuke might actually be a threat to humanity (and future grand demon lord). It's a wonder if originally Togashi wanted Yusuke to "become" sensui, open the demon portal, kill his father and take the throne of the demon world, killing Kurama/Hiei along the way. Orochimaru is not a psychological threat, he is alive, and actually a real problem. Freiza literally comes back as a robot. Dio never dies. It is only in Yu Yu Hakusho where the main character BECOMES the main villain in a sense, and Togashi would have gone further if given the freedom.

What Yu Yu Hakusho became and is to this day a blue print. Not just for Hunter X Hunter's anti-shonen tendencies, but for every single work that has followed. Many turn to Dragonball to see where tropes began, but it's often untrue and baseless, and the tropes Dragonball "setup" only became tropes because other manga, such as this, we're able to so wonderfully continue to push them further. Kinnukuman had tournaments. Ashita no Joe had edgy delinquent brawlers. Transformations directly were inspired by Ultraman. Demon's were explored further than they were in Inuyasha or Demon Slayer by Tezuka HIMSELF. None of these concepts are new, and nothing about a manga introducing "new" things is ultimately relevant. What matters is the way a manga communicates the critical junctures in a person life, and growth trajectory, using the common tropes to effectively communicate story. What Dragonball and Jojo fail to build towards, or ever really communicate, Yu Yu Hakusho accomplishes in the span of four years, and nineteen volumes.

A proper review cannot forget to discuss the fact Togashi noticeably slows down during/after Sensui. This is something Togashi himself has admitted was due to the time crunch and his inability to meet deadlines while maintaining quality. While a review for YuYu Hakusho is not necessarily the place to do this, is may be the only place where it is fitting as Togashi sacrifices YuYu Hakusho for the greater good of manga. By refusing to properly finish Yu Yu Hakusho, and taking a stand against heavily assistant drawn works, Togashi helped defy years of crunch time precendant that was occurring at Shonen Jump. His nearly total collapse into insanity was a lesson that Jump to this day remembers, and has spent increasingly effort to actually support their serialized artists. The entire final arc of Yu Yu Hakusho is nearly background less, and lacks much of the depth that earlier arcs include, but this was due to Togashi having a sort of artistic mid-life crisis where he began questioning if he was much of a mangaka when he couldn't even do his own work. Him finding a much more fitting pace is something that carried over into Hunter X Hunter, and without the "failure" of YuYu Hakusho, we would never get HxH. Taking the time to think through a plot before you write it is a lesson every mangaka since has learn, and YuYu Hakusho taught it to the world. While many think Dragonball is the blue print, in 2020 is it far more likely to find a demon filled, near gore-fest in your manga than it is a shining warrior of justice. And while I recognize Go Nagai was doing all of that 20 years prior, it is without a doubt that more directly than Dragonball or Jojo, Yu Yu Hakusho is the direct progenitor to Bleach, Naruto, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen. It is also important to bring up Takehiko Inoue, who, at the exact same year as Togashi burned down YYH, also burnt on a sacrificial alter to God his own manga, Slam Dunk, in protest to Jump. While many again will try to look towards Jojo and Dragonball as the "main influences on Shonen" it is arguable if they are anywhere near as potent as the influence Yu Yu Hakusho and Slam Dunk had on the genre.

Is there such a thing as a perfect manga? No. Is there such a thing as a perfect blueprint? That blueprint is YuYu Hakusho, and it's going to remain timeless.

Yu Yu Hakusho is one of the most influential and important Shounen Manga of all time. Sadly, many younger viewers/readers now see this as the other series made by the same guy as Hunter X Hunter.

Yu Yu Hakusho has 47 million total volume sales and it is only 19 volumes long. That's a ratio of 2.47 million copies of each volume. That is one of the highest sales per volume of all time!

Now, lets move on to the actual review. I'll also do some anime comparisons and talk about the Viz release.

Story: Yu Yu Hakusho centers around a Jr. High delinquent named ... Yuuske Urameshi. Eventually, after a series of trials, Yuuske ends up becoming a Spirit Detective. Essentially, he has to "solve cases" *cough* beat the crap out of demons *cough*. Early on the series does have an actual detective aspect to it but the series quickly develops into a battle manga, even boasting the best tournament arc of all time (in my opinion). It may sound generic now but Yu Yu Hakusho laid the groundwork for what would turn into stereotypes. The story is a means to the end for this series as the real beauty of Yu Yu is in its characters.

The Story is divided into 4 arcs. Sadly, the final arc is not good and extremely rushed.

Art: If you are familiar with Togashi's other work, Hunter X Hunter, then you know how wildly inconsistent his art can be. At times, his art is great and other times its unbelievably bad. It took a few chapters for Togashi to really start developing the art in this series but once he does it is actually quite good for a weekly Shounen anime. You can even see Shojo influences in his art. However, towards the end of the series the art just crashes. Really, Togashi just crashes as the end of the series is easily the weakest part.

Characters: The best part of the series hands down. The series has many side characters, great villains, and probably the best main cast out there. 2 out of 10 of my favorite characters of all time come from Yu Yu. You'll have characters take wildly different approaches to battles, which add to the the diversity of fights. One character will astound you with their intellect and another will make you laugh at how hardheaded they are.

Enjoyment: Overall, Yu Yu Hakusho is a must see Shounen. It laid the groundwork for many future works and it is simply fun. It'll make you laugh, it has emotion, and of course there are plenty of epic fights.

ANIME: Ok, so how does the manga compare to the anime? This is one of the rare cases where the anime is clearly better than the manga and I do mean that. If you haven't watched or read Yu Yu Hakusho, then just go watch the anime. The manga is like a rough draft and the anime is the real finished product in my book. The Manga and Anime are pretty much the same story until the very end. The Anime has one of the best dubs, great music, better art, much better fights, and it actually cuts out unnecessary parts from the manga while adding much better scenes. The anime is more serious, while the manga does have more comedy. At times this adds to the manga but it can be distracting during certain moments. Thankfully, the anime does its best to maintain the comedic nature of the series while keeping the serious moments serious.

Viz: Ok, so I like supporting the industry and I hope you do too. The manga has been licensed and fully released in English. Sadly, the translation may be one viz's weakest. I don't know if they were trying to censor certain curse words or trying to directly translate Japanese to English but the translation feels off at times. It's one of Viz's earlier translations, so it's kind of understandable. Still worth buying, most of the time the translation is fine just some goofs here and there (grammar mistakes as well), and Togashi's extras in between chapters and volumes are hilarious.

Overall: I gave this series an 8/10, with an inflated score coming from the sheer influence this series had on future shounen. You must consider that this is an early 90s series. At times, this series is frankly great but at others it sadly falls quite short of its heights. That being said, every Shounen fan must watch and/or read this series. It's an all time classic. Yu Yu Hakusho isn't just that other series made by the same guy as Hunter X Hunter; it's the series that paved the way for HxH, many other battle manga, and in many ways is still better than the newer stuff.

I hope this review helped!

High school delinquent Yusuke Urameshi opens Yu Yu Kakusho by saving a boy, sacrificing himself in the process. Luckily for Yusuke, and us, the story does not end there, with Yusuke finding himself in the spirit world with a chance to win back his life. Having tons of action and humor, the series has a lot to enjoy, but unfortunately there is also a lot holding it back. While reading, one cannot help but think that there is so much potential for something great, but those opportunities are never fully realized.

Drawn in a cartoony style, the art of the series is functional, but never really ... dazzles. The style, however, is very easy on the eyes and lends itself quickly to the over-the-top nature of the action and humor of the series. The art does mature over the course of the series, becoming quite good at certain spots, but unfortunately suffers severely near the end as the mangaka was plagued with stress. Since a large majority of the manga takes place in tournaments, there is usually a lack of interesting settings and backgrounds. The character models, though, are interesting and varied, especially with the demons.

Luckily the characters themselves are just as colorful as the designs, with interesting personalities which become fairly well fleshed out. The main character requires a bit of suspension of disbelief to swallow at first, since we are told that he is this extremely evil delinquent even though he barely looks or acts the part. Besides this point, Yusuke is quite a likeable character, having the same kind of draw as other shonen leads who are extremely blunt and tend to decide things with their fists (e.g. Monkey D. Luffy). The other protagonists are perhaps even more interesting, though they all tend to be fairly straightforward. The antagonists actually have the most backstory and we slowly realize that almost everyone believes they are fighting for a just cause, though truly despicable characters still exist for those who like that.

Yu Yu Hakusho has no overarching story connecting the story arcs, of which there are surprisingly few. Though this is not inherently a negative point, it would have made more sense if there was something more driving the main characters to accomplish their goals. Even Yusuke's desire to become stronger lasts only within the specific arcs.

The story begins with short stand-alone tales as Yusuke solves miscellaneous problems using solutions that only a delinquent would think up. These stories, though a bit predictable, offer some great tales with shonen sensibilities. After two volumes, the story quickly becomes a battle manga, and it is at this point that the story takes a nose dive in quality. The plot becomes formulaic and fights often employ nonsensical, arbitrary rules. Even more bizarre is that the protagonists easily accept these unnecessary constraints even if they are winning. Being all about the fights, one would expect to see these characters training frequently, but the manga skips all of it, so that when a character does become stronger, it seems out of nowhere and lacks the payoff that a manga of this nature would traditionally have.

Worse still is Yoshihiro Togashi's all too frequent use of deus ex machina to solve almost every conflict. Characters often comment that good luck follows those with strong powers, but it becomes very tiresome when a solution comes out of the blue with very little logical progression. In almost every situation, some conflict is set up, the protagonist is losing pretty badly, and suddenly some random event occurs to allow the protagonist to completely overpower their opponent.

The true tragedy, however, is that the story actually has a lot going for it. Revelations about the antagonists and even about the spiritual world itself are actually very interesting and defy the traditional one-dimensional nature of similar manga. However, these points often come far too late and are given too little attention to make any serious impact. For example, an important development regarding King Enma comes at the very end as hearsay during an offhanded remark.

This would have been acceptable if the mangaka spent his energy in a more appropriate spot. However, the fights, which should be the main attraction of the manga, quickly become disappointing. They almost always involve one person completely dominating the other, with very little ingenuity in the fights. When the fights should be interesting, they are quickly glossed over and ignored. For instance, the highly anticipated fight between Yusuke and Hiei begins, and then is completely disregarded in a single panel reading “And many hours later.” In fact, the entire final arc cuts off right before the most interesting fights begin, and never pick up again.

Even significant improvements to characters' abilities are ignored. Kurama, a demon fox trapped as a human, finally masters the ability to go between his human and demon form at will only to use that ability once on an enemy no one really cared about. Yomi's son's development is a large focus of the final arc, only for him to be quickly removed from the plot, never fighting against any of the protagonists. This is an unfortunate pattern that plagues almost every character's finishing moves, and even characters themselves. The series plays its cards in the wrong areas, leaving too many problems in too many places.

While Yu Yu Hakusho's style and genre would imply a younger, shonen audience, some of the themes involved in the story are inappropriate for younger children. Yusuku's mother apparently gave birth at fourteen, and it is heavily implied that she works as a prostitute. Some of the characters are driven to evil because of some really disturbing pasts, such as a life as a sex slave or watching extreme videos depicting graphic torture. In fact, alcohol is even given to young children (as in under the age of ten). While the series is never extremely dark or graphic, the themes do exist in the story.

While my review may appear to be extremely critical, I did still enjoy Yu Yu Hakusho, especially the first half of the series. Despite many setbacks, the series can still be a ton of fun. For people who are dying to read a good shonen manga, I would say “Go for it.” With the popularity and acclaim that the series has reached, it is clear that many enjoy the manga. If story is something that is really important to you, then you may want to pass for something else.

Over all Yu Yu Hakusho is pretty good for what it is, a 90s shonen. Alot of the stories beats found in Yu Yu Hakusho are generic but not to an insulting degree as found in more recent animanga in which they make that generic concept into the driving force of the narrative. Instead Yu Yu Hakusho takes the self loafing concepts of humanity such as "Would anybody care if I died" and "Humanity deserves to die" and transforms them into fighting motifs for the protagonist and makes it feel that these were silly concepts to even think of.

Each character also feels interesting especially ... towards the end when Togashi's writing style noticeably improves with characters like Mukuro and their motives.

Give Yu yu hakusho a read when you can, its a much better story telling experience compared to the anime. Its story stills holds up today's standards even with Yusuke's no brains all brawn mindset.

Yuu Yuu Hakusho.
The creator from HxH is also the the creator from this series.
Therefore, you know or at least you could have a major idea of what to expect from this series.
Yu Yu Hakusho has a good story overall.
The typical Shounen Tournament Arc (They might have invented that since this manga is over 30 years old)
Yusuke Urameshi is one the most easily recognized Shounen MC, the guy has a rather unique personality, adding that a very good supporting cast in other memorable characters.
Now regarding the ending of the manga.
I believe (Also a lot of people or maybe the vast majority of the fans ... agree) it was better depicted in the Anime.
Nevertheless, is a story that you can enjoy.
If you like or you are a fan of Shounen Action Supernatural oriented series and you would like to look for a classic for the completionist score, you should give this one a try.

Yuyu Hakusho: an exact definition of a masterpiece

Story: 9/10
The story follows a high school punk named Yusuke Urameshi after he dies trying to save a boy.
this might not sound as good, but it goes crazier than that, it goes deep down into the world of the manga.

characters: 9.5/10
one of the best main casts I've ever seen in anime and manga, The protagonist Yusuke Is extremely likable.
The deuteragonist (sort of) Hiei is another fascinating character in his own way.
The female lead Kurama is a better version of every shounen manga failed female lead
Yusuke's rival Kuwabara is a bit of an "I'm just there" in a ... lot of the series, but he still gets his fair shair of time, just not as much as the others.

Arcs: 10/10
easily the strongest side of the series, the series starts off a bit slow with the detective saga, but then quickly builds up to the best tournament arc in anime, and one of the best shounen arcs in general.
then the series slows a bit down for around 15 chapters and quickly reaches one of the series' peaks in the last two sagas.

fights: 10/10
the fight choreography is genuinely one of the best.

overall: 10/10
Yuyu Hakusho is still a series that is worth checking out today even if it seems a little dated on the outside but trust me it isn't.
the amount of manga it influenced is just insane.

YuYu Hakusho is one of those manga series that got overshadowed when it was getting released due to it going against the juggernaut of a shonen series, Dragon Ball. Years after it's release it remains practically forgotten but the anime apparently remains the milestone of shonen battle series. But how exactly does the manga stand on it's own two feet? By this point you should have some kind of idea of the story. It starts with the hero Yusuke Urameshi getting killed by a car while trying to save a kid. He then meets Botan a messenger of the underworld who explains to him that ... if he does all sorts of random missions he will get a second chance at living. The beginning of the series to be honest is downright awful. It has a episodic structure that makes it a chore to get through. The only reason I continued was because I wanted and knew a redeeming factor was coming. And boy was I glad I stuck with it. In the 4th volume we are introduced to some cool new characters and see some awesome fights with inventive new techniques (cough DBZ cough). As the series progresses you see more and more fights that are cool at first but grow repetitive after awhile. Togashi tries to add a little more depth to the villians which is a nice touch and it's nice to see some baddies that are more ruthless than your usual. Throw in a cool cast of heroes that ACTUALLY KILL and you've got a nice layout for a martial arts shonen. However the awful art which sometimes looks like a storyboard is a thing that hinders it. In addition, the ending is the biggest douche bag move I've ever seen in a manga (and I've seen Berserk). That probably has to do with the series getting cancelled (just my guess). So all in all, Yu Yu Hakusho is a somewhat good series if you're willing to be patient with it.

The 80s and 90s was a special time for manga. It was a time when Shonen manga was at its peak popularity. Everyone knew titles like Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, and Full Metal Alchemist, while the likes of Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach were only just beginning. Among all of these other, action packed series, stands a true gem, and that gem is Yu Yu Hakusho.

Before I begin to talk about the story, I would have to recommend that you read the first chapter of the series yourself before continuing with reading this review, as I believe it is the greatest first ... manga chapter of all time. I would not like to spoil what happens for anyone, so please do that first, as I'm about to talk about the the basic premise, and I don't want to spoil the beginning for anyone. Yusuke Urameshi is seen by everyone as a delinquent. He regularly skips school, is reprimanded by his teachers constantly, gets in fights on a daily basis, receives neglect from his alcoholic mother, is avoided by most adults, and has almost no real friends. The only person who he has any real relationship to is his childhood friend, Keiko, and she also nags him to start caring about his own life. So Yuusuke is basically a loner who no one expects anything good to ever come from… until he saves a child from being hit by a car, which kills Yusuke instead. Yusuke, now a spirit, meets Botan, the guide to the spirit world (afterlife). She reveals that Yusuke died in vain, as the car would have missed hitting the child. However, now the spirit realm isn't prepared for him either, as they did not expect him to accomplish anything, especially not a good deeds like this. So Yusuke is given the chance to earn back his life through helping others, and the story takes off from here. The beginning section of Yu Yu Hakusho is actually rather slow, as it deals mostly with Yusuke helping others, and has little to no action in it. However, it is clear that the writer, Yoshihiro Togashi, decided to take the series in a different direction after the initial part, and the series quickly develops into the action packed series that is to be expected from a Shonen. It's mostly the typical Shonen affair, with increasingly powerful villains, supporting characters defeating the main villain’s underling, and tournament arcs galore. There are only two problems with the story. The first problem is there are A LOT of time skips. Though time skips can be useful to bypass long periods of training, Yu Yu Hakusho uses this plot device far too often in order to justify character power ups. The second problem is that the final arc felt like it rushed to end as quickly as possible. It seemed as if Togashi finally got bored with the series, and wanted to just move on to something else (Hunter x Hunter). Other than that, the story is good, but it is definitely not the main focus of Yu Yu Hakusho.

The artwork of Yu Yu Hakusho is one of its finest aspects. Every character design sets itself apart from others. Even minor characters are given very memorable designs. This is especially impressive, as there are plenty of characters in Yu Yu Hakusho who make no reappearance after they are first introduced, and yet even they are usually distinguishable from those around them. Perhaps more impressive is the fluidity of movement during fights. Togashi has a way of giving fights a certain flow to them, and he does it with such an expertise that the reader is actually able to pick up on the character’s movements and attacks throughout a fight. Togashi does this better than most artists of his time, arguably even better than the great Akira Toriyama (coming from me, that's saying something, because I love Dragon Ball). A good example is Yusuke vs Shu, which is able to create an intense set of movement within a VERY restricted space. No fight ever feels dull or like it's just a rehash of a previous battle, even if it's a complete blowout. This makes the fights and art of Yu Yu Hakusho another amazing trait.

Finally, and most importantly, is the characters of Yu Yu Hakusho, and the main cast is great. The main cast of Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama are the standout of course. One trait (cliche)holds true about all of them (as well as the main villains who I shall have to use every ounce of self restraint from talking about for spoiler purposes): don't judge a book by its cover. I already mentioned Yusuke, the one who seems like a delinquent, but feels lonely deep down and wants to prove himself. Kuwabara, at first glance, seems to be a complete idiot. However, once the reader gets to know him, they see he is rather prideful, and how his quick thinking and strategies often allow him to win difficult encounters. Hiei takes the case of a reformed villain, and is seen as fairly evil when he is introduced. However, we also learn that Hiei is actually much like Yusuke, as he he is prideful and always looking for a stronger foe. Kurama seems to be the most calm and level headed of the group. However, he also has a dark and sadistic side that is linked with his past. These four, along with many of the villains (must… not… spoil… younger… Toguro) all display incredible amounts of character depth, and are very well written. Unfortunately, this cannot be said about the supporting characters. Unfortunately, they show fairly little depth. I can look past this for characters like Botan, Yusuke’s mom, Koenma, as they were never truly meant to have the greatest impact on the series to begin with. However, I cannot give the same excuse for Keiko. Throughout the entire first portion of the series, she was shown to be the only person Yusuke had in his life that was worth living for, but she receives very little character development. To make matters worse, when the action starts to become the focus of the series, she is completely sidelined. This is the only real disappointment I have in the character department, and it does hurt my views on this series, but only slightly.

Like I said before, Yu Yu Hakusho is a true gem among Shonen manga. For fans of the genre, the fast paced and well illustrated battles will not leave your dissatisfied. However, even if you don't like Shonen, I believe you may also be able to enjoy the depth of its main characters. Unfortunately, Yu Yu Hakusho is not flawless, as it has a slow begins segment, too many time skips, and some poorly developed supporting characters. Though this may slightly decrease the value of reading this, I still believe it is worth checking out by all.

As much as it pains me to give the manga a 7/10. Having seen the anime first, I just wasn't impressed. The anime adaptation is my all time favorite anime, but the manga has some issues.

Let's start with the negatives.

1. The English translation is kind of weird. Luckily I'm a 90s kid, so I understood it, but younger people reading it for the first time today might be off put by the language used. Nothing offensive, just dated.

2. The beginning meanders too much with other ghost's stories. It's 2 whole volumes until he's back in his body of this shounen fighting series! I wonder ... if Togashi wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do with the series yet.

3. The last few volumes are both rushed and full of fluff. I don't know all the behind-the-scenes details. I just know that it was rushed, and it really suffers from it. The Demon World arc (Don't know if that's the "official" name for that arc) is squeezed into a hand full of chapters. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but having an entire arc smashed into 2 volumes just isn't satisfying.

4. It's nice to see all the character's stories get wrapped up at the end, but some of it feels like a waste of time. Yusuke's mom is barely a character (which is fine) and it ends with us finding out his dad was physically abusive and they're still friendly? wtf? There's one last mission right at the end that is entirely pointless. Maybe Togashi had planned for the Demon World arc and that last mission to be entire arcs, but that's not what we got and I can only judge it on that.

Now for the positives.

1. First and foremost... The Dark Tournament arc is fantastic and, as everyone else always says, it's the golden standard for tournament arcs.

2. The main characters are all great and diverse. You got the socially stunted, but great fighter, MC. Typical for shounen, but it works. Botan is fun and lovely. Kuabara, the idiot friend with a heart of gold who just wants to prove himself. Hiei, the outwardly cruel and uncaring demon who actually cares about his friends (though he'll never admit it) and has his own warped code of honor. Kurama, a demon who reincarnated himself into a human baby and turned into a loving and caring person with a dark past and unforgiving disposition to those who threaten his way of life. Genkai, the aging master who is extremely tough, but is a very caring mentor. All of the main cast is excellent.

I'm better at pointing out what I don't like than what I do like. Don't be concerned that I had more negatives then positives on paper because I still enjoyed the read overall. The positives make up for the flaws.

Honestly, I would recommend watching the anime instead. The manga is not as good as the anime, but it's not a bad read. You just have to go in knowing that the beginning and end are rough.

YYH is a classic manga for many reasons, with well-written characters, an awesome creepy tone inspired by slasher films, and some truly epic fights that make you feel like the whole world is at stake, just like a good shounen should. The problems are also many. The beginning of this manga is all over the place, with it not even becoming a fighting manga until the 3rd volume, and that is tolerable but from there you run into plot-holes and just uncreative ways of presenting conflict up until half-way through the Dark Tournament arc, which in my opinion is the point where Togashi became the ... mangaka he is famous for being and the one who would go on to create HXH - he really comes into his own as a storyteller around this point. After the Dark Tournament Arc we are treated to Chapter Black, which has a very memorable and unhinged villain in Sensui, and also touches on some of the same themes that Togashi would rather go on to explore in the Chimera Ant arc of HXH, here exploring the question of humanity (is it good or bad, what makes someone a person, and what is the line between human and demon, what do we have in common and where are we different, something the HXH arc would explore using Chimera Ants and humans).

But it is important to note that this fairly short manga contains not one, not two, but three tournament arcs, the laziest trope a shounen can indulge in. And while the first third of the manga is pretty scattered, it is masterful compared to the mess that is the final few volumes. The Three Kings arc buildup creates a huge amount of story potential that Togashi squanders (for reasons that are not his fault and should be seen as an example of how publishers exploit their mangaka to the point of reducing the quality of the product). And after the Three Kings Arc, it becomes an unreadable mess for about one painful volume before Togashi finally put the series out of its misery. Do yourself a favor and watch the English dub of the anime instead as it fixes a lot (though not all) of these issues and adds a lot to the series in general.

I love this series and always have, and all of its strengths are very notable and memorable, in fact what makes it GOOD is so good that I can't bear to give it less than 7/10 despite my many criticisms, but overall the manga makes me a bit sad for all the lost potential it represents.