Yu Yu Hakusho Live Action Stuff We Haven't Seen Much in the Anime

(SPOT.ph) Hold on to your seats, ghost-fighting aficionados, because the live-action Yu Yu Hakusho is about to flip the script on everything you thought you knew about our favorite delinquent-turned-spirit-detective! Ready for a walk on the wild side of the Spirit World? Buckle up, buttercup—we're diving into the nitty-gritty that the OG anime didn't dare to show.

Some spoilers ahead. You've been warned.

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Yu Yu Hakusho Live Action Bits We Haven't Seen Much in the OG Anime

A Smoking Yusuke

If you've followed the OG series, you'll know that Yusuke/Eugene (Takumi Kitamura) is definitely NOT the student you want to be teaching if you're a teacher. He never showed interest in his lessons and likes to instead hang out on the school's roof deck. But never in any part of the anime did we see him light up a cigar while classes are ongoing and even at home—not even when his sister has been chain-smoking around the house.

Yusuke Not a 100% Delinquent

Yes, he skips classes but it doesn't mean he's also the bully—you know, the one who usually takes money and/or lunch from those who aren't strong or brave enough to fight back.

In this Netflix adaptation, we see him defending someone who got bullied but eventually takes the blame for it just because the teachers have always known him as a delinquent. He didn't even correct his teacher when he did it. We see Keiko/Jenny (Sei Shiraishi) confronting him about it but just dismisses her and says that it takes a lot more effort to explain stuff.

Yusuke's Beef with Kuwabara

We know they don't go along very well in the OG series. The first episode showcases them via a lousy fight scene that's endearing to watch. Because, well, it looks anything but cool but funny nonetheless. It almost feels like being brought back to the early OG anime days when Yusuke and Kuwabara/Alfred (Shûhei Uesugi) would just do their banters while throwing punches in the face. Their love language, perhaps?

Early Friendship with Keiko

She's pretty much the same in the Netflix adaptation in the sense that we know she and Yusuke are childhood friends. However, this isn't very much established in the OG anime because the anime was more focused on the love interest angle right off the bat, versus the live action series where we saw a glimpse of how they were before they eventually dated.

Hohoemi no Bakudan Plays in the Background

...and it happens just before a major scene. The song is roughly translated as "A Smile That's a Bomb" and if you look closely at the translated lyrics, you can somehow deduce that it's a summary of what Yusuke is going through at the time (read: teenage years, stuff he can't figure out right now, this instant detective thing, the works).

If you're not familiar with Hohoemi no Bakudan, you may have heard the tune at some point in your childhood. After all, it's the opening song in the anime series where we first see Botan/Charlene (Kotone Furukawa) hovering in the air while riding her trusty witchy broom, er, oar, before doing a backflip of sorts.

Yes, this scene:

An Early Glimpse of the "Other World"

It's a pretty sight, somewhere along the lines of what we saw in the lantern scene of Tangled (2010), even. The "other world" is where Botan's boss, Enma, is. ICYMI, Enma is one of the rulers and judges of the Spirit World. We also see a more detailed version of how they send spirits of the dead from the land of the living to the next life. If you feel that swiping left is just for dating apps, think again.

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A Hotter Koenma

We also see a glimpse of Koenma/Jericho (Keita Machida). Yes, the Alice in Borderland (2020) guy. Koenma is also known as King Enma Jr. Unlike in the OG anime series, we see a taller and hotter Koenma in live action versus the pacifier-clad toddler we see in the first few episodes of the anime series.

No Kiss Needed for Revival

In the OG series, Yusuke needs to receive a kiss from a living person so his partially dead body can be brought back to life. The live action version did a slightly different take on this and made Yusuke promise to listen to everything Koenma says in return instead.

Yokai Possession Now Possible

This is versus the OG anime series where we just see the monsters get transported from their world through an open portal and wreak havoc in the human world. In the context of this series, yokais are monsters. 

The Netflix series did a great job of developing Yusuke's first assignment as a spirit detective by having that lengthy fight scene with a yokai-possessed bullied human who's one of the victims he previously saved.