100 Fun Facts About Yu Yu Hakusho

Which hit manga did Yoshihiro Togashi launch four years after ending YuYu Hakusho?

Hunter × Hunter. It began in 1998, and Togashi's poor health has since forced breaks in its run that lasted years.

Which song opens every episode of the 1990s YuYu Hakusho anime?

Smile Bomb, 'Hohoemi no Bakudan' in Japanese. Matsuko Mawatari's song opened all 112 episodes, and an English-language version was recorded for the dub.

How does Yusuke Urameshi die at the start of the story?

Being struck by a car. He had shoved a small boy out of its path, only to learn afterwards that the boy would have survived with barely a scratch anyway.

Which toys does the young demon Rinku fight with at the Dark Tournament?

Yo-yos, which he steers by sending demon energy down their strings. Togashi named him after a video game hero: Link, of The Legend of Zelda.

Which company dubbed YuYu Hakusho's TV anime for North America?

Funimation. It bought the rights in early 2001 and split the 112 episodes into four 'sagas', one for each story arc.

Which company animated YuYu Hakusho?

Studio Pierrot. Its director on the series, Noriyuki Abe, went on to lead the studio's Bleach anime a decade later.

Which guide to the afterlife greets Yusuke's ghost right after his death?

Botan, who swoops in riding an oar. She stays on as Yusuke's assistant, passing on his orders and teaching him to use the tools for his cases.

Koenma, the centuries-old boss who hands Yusuke his cases, usually appears in what form?

A toddler with a pacifier. The pacifier is no comfort toy: Koenma has spent centuries filling it with his own energy so that it can one day raise a protective barrier.

Yusuke fires his signature Spirit Gun, the manga's Rei Gun, from where?

His index finger. He points his hand like a pistol and pulls the trigger in his mind, and early on he can manage only one shot a day.

Kurama turns which flower into his signature whip?

A rose. Kurama can command any plant by feeding it his demon energy, and the whip he grows from it is sharp enough to cut through steel.

Which demon does Yusuke hunt at a tournament held to choose an old martial arts master's successor?

Rando, who steals the techniques of the masters he kills and hid among the entrants as a small monk. He lost when a stolen shrinking spell backfired on him.

Which lightning-wielding demon leads the Four Beasts of Labyrinth Castle?

Suzaku. His gang looses a swarm of parasitic insects on the Human World, and in the fight to stop him Yusuke finds that Suzaku can split into seven copies of himself.

Who invites Yusuke to the Dark Tournament to test his strength?

Toguro. Once a human martial artist, he had himself made a demon so that age would never sap his strength, and he wants an opponent worth using all of it on.

Who is the disguised fifth member of Team Urameshi at the Dark Tournament?

Genkai, fighting as the Masked Fighter. At full power her body briefly returns to its prime, so when the mask is torn off in one bout it shows a young woman's face and the secret holds.

Who owns the team Yusuke faces in the Dark Tournament final?

After losing his bet, Sakyo destroys the tournament arena and dies in the collapse.

Who held Yusuke's detective post before him?

Shinobu Sensui. On one case he walked in on rich humans torturing demons for fun, and the shock turned him against the human race he had sworn to protect.

Which ancestor takes control of Yusuke's body to finish a fight in the Demon Plane?

Raizen, a demon king who long ago fell in love with a human woman. He swore off eating humans for her sake, and by the time he meets his descendant he is starving to death.

Which two rulers share power in the Demon Plane with a dying third king?

Mukuro and Yomi. Each calls one of Yusuke's friends to their side for the war they expect, until Yusuke talks them into settling the matter in the ring instead.

Who eliminates Yusuke from the Demon Plane tournament?

Yomi, blinded long ago by an assassin his old partner Kurama had sent. The win cost him dearly: worn out by the long fight, he was beaten soon afterwards.

Where does YuYu Hakusho end, with Yusuke and his friends reuniting?

On a beach. By the manga's end Koenma has exposed his own father for manufacturing the demon threat, and has taken over the running of the Underworld himself.

Togashi's proposed title YuYu-Ki punned on which classic novel's Japanese name?

Journey to the West, known in Japan as Saiyūki. A manga called Chin-Yu-Ki had just started, so Togashi dropped the pun and took 'Hakusho', the first word that came to mind.

Kuwabara's name combines the names of two professionals from which sport?

Baseball. Togashi said he combined two pro players' names, thought to be Masumi Kuwata and Kazuhiro Kiyohara; 'kuwabara kuwabara' is also what the superstitious mutter when frightened.

Which Dark Tournament fighter grows stronger the drunker he gets?

Chu. With both of them out of energy, he and Yusuke finish their bout as a knife-edge death match, trading blows with their heels pinned against two blades in the floor.

Tough-guy delinquent Kuwabara has a well-known soft spot for which animals?

Kittens. The school's second-toughest brawler dotes on his own cat, Eikichi, and lives by a code of honour that rules out stealing or shaking anyone down.

Which company published the English manga in North America?

It debuted in the very first issue of the American Shonen Jump magazine in January 2003.

Which YuYu Hakusho character is Hiei's twin sister, although she has no idea they are related?

Yukina. She left her homeland to search for the brother she has never met, and asks his own teammates for help finding him while he stands by and says nothing.

What is the English title of the second YuYu Hakusho animated film, released in Japan in 1994?

Poltergeist Report, which is simply one way of translating 'Yū Yū Hakusho' itself. In the film, Yusuke's team defends the Human World against the king of a fourth realm, the Netherworld.

In the 1993 YuYu Hakusho film, what do Koenma's kidnappers demand as ransom?

The Golden Seal, the stamp that finalizes the sentence of every soul in the afterlife. In the wrong hands it could topple King Enma himself, so Yusuke and Kuwabara race to rescue Koenma.

Kurama first appears in YuYu Hakusho stealing a wish-granting mirror to save whom?

His human mother, who was gravely ill. The mirror takes the user's life as its price, so Yusuke offers up some of his own and both of them survive the wish.

Which publisher released the first YuYu Hakusho video games sold in North America?

Atari. It took the licence in 2003, once the dubbed anime had caught on with American viewers; until then almost every YuYu Hakusho game had been sold only in Japan.

In YuYu Hakusho, the gangster Tarukane holds a demon girl captive because her tears turn into what?

Priceless jewels. To stop making him rich she trains herself not to cry, even under torture, so he hires two demon enforcers to break her.

Which service streamed the 2023 live-action YuYu Hakusho series?

Netflix. The supernatural story needed so much visual-effects work that its five episodes took about five years to make, two of them spent in post-production alone.

To bring Yusuke back to life, someone who cares about him must give his body what?

A kiss, and within a day. He cannot get the message through to his mother or to Kuwabara, so it falls to his childhood friend, who reaches his body just in time.

Which masked bomber does Kurama fight in the final of the Dark Tournament?

Karasu, who shapes his own energy into explosives. The mask over his mouth is no disguise: it holds his power in check until the moment he takes it off.

A 2004 US complaint about the YuYu Hakusho manga mistook a Buddhist manji for what symbol?

A swastika. A Florida teacher complained after a fifth-grader bought the magazine at a Scholastic Book Fair, and about 18,000 of the 120,000 copies on offer were sent back.

What colour is Yusuke's trademark school uniform?

Green. The other boys at his school wear dark blue and his rival Kuwabara light blue, so the mismatched uniforms mark the pair out as the school's delinquents.

Which voice actor both directed the English dub of YuYu Hakusho and voiced Yusuke?

Justin Cook. He was hired only to direct, but the producers could not settle on a lead until one of them decided the director himself sounded right for the part.

On which US channel did the English dub of YuYu Hakusho air from 2002 to 2006?

Cartoon Network. The dub began in the late-night Adult Swim block and moved a year later to Toonami, with some of its violence and coarse language edited for broadcast.

What was YuYu Hakusho called in its Tagalog dub in the Philippines?

Ghost Fighter. The dub renamed Yusuke 'Eugene' and, mistaking Kurama for a girl, called him Denise; a later episode explained that Denise was really a boy named Dennis in disguise.

What is the name of Yusuke's junior high school?

Sarayashiki. The name comes from Banchō Sarayashiki, a famous ghost story about a wronged servant girl, and the rival school, Kasanegafuchi, shares its name with another well-known ghost tale.

Kuwabara forms which weapon out of his aura?

A sword. He first conjures it mid-bout against a swordsman at a martial arts tournament, and after training with Kurama he learns to wield one in each hand.

What is Kurama's human name?

Shuichi Minamino. Kurama is an ancient fox spirit who, badly wounded, slipped his soul into an unborn human child and grew up as an ordinary schoolboy.

Which actress, in her first voice role, voiced Kurama in Japanese?

Megumi Ogata, then a newcomer. The anime's makers cast a woman on purpose, wanting the androgynous Kurama to have the allure of a Takarazuka Revue star.

Hiei kidnaps which character and cuts her with the Conjuring Blade?

Keiko. The blade turns anyone it cuts into a demon, so Yusuke has to beat Hiei in time to stop her from changing for good.

What is implanted in Hiei's forehead?

The Evil Eye, the 'Jagan' of the English dub. The operation cost Hiei nearly all his strength, so he rebuilt himself as a swordsman under the surgeon who performed it.

What does YuYu Hakusho's English dub call the signature technique Hiei debuts against Zeru?

Dragon of the Darkness Flame. The first time he summons it the fire wrecks his own right arm, and he tames it only later by absorbing the flames into his own body.

Hiei was born to a race of what?

Ice Maidens. They bear only daughters, so a boy born with fire in his blood was treated as a curse and thrown from their homeland while still a baby.

Which flying 'Wind Master' does Yusuke face in the Dark Tournament?

Jin. Yusuke knocks him out of the ring and is declared the winner, but the tournament's crooked committee then overturns the result and rules the bout a draw.

What kind of creature hatches from Yusuke's Spirit Beast egg during the Dark Tournament?

A penguin-like animal, Pu, which flies by flapping its big floppy ears. A spirit beast takes its shape from its owner's heart, so the tough Yusuke is mortified to have hatched something so cute.

Yoshihiro Togashi married the creator of which hit 1990s manga?

Sailor Moon. Naoko Takeuchi met Togashi at a fellow artist's party in 1997, briefly helped with the shading on his next manga, and married him in 1999.

Before he was reborn in the Human World, YuYu Hakusho's Kurama was a thief and what kind of demon?

A fox demon famed for cracking seals and making off with ancient relics, Kurama fled to the Human World badly injured and hid inside an unborn child.

Which magazine serialized Togashi's YuYu Hakusho manga across 175 chapters from 1990 to 1994?

Weekly Shōnen Jump carried the series from December 1990 to July 1994, and the chapters were later collected in 19 volumes.

What reward awaits the team that wins the Dark Tournament, YuYu Hakusho's contest between squads of demons?

Any wish they desire goes to the winners, and Yusuke's team is rewarded with the return of a teammate who was killed before the final.

Where is YuYu Hakusho's Dark Tournament held, a site one team of ninja demons hopes to win as a home?

The fights are staged on an island, and the ninja of Team Masho enter hoping to claim the place as a home of their own.

Who puts on the Dark Tournament in YuYu Hakusho and sponsors the teams of demons that fight in it?

Corrupt rich humans run the event, among them the Black Book Club, a circle of tycoons who gamble fortunes on fights between demons.

Why is no place ready in heaven or hell for Yusuke Urameshi when he dies at the start of YuYu Hakusho?

His sacrifice was unexpected: nobody in the afterlife thought a street-brawling delinquent would give his life for a child, so he is offered a series of tests to win it back.

Which talent does YuYu Hakusho's Kuwabara show well before he learns to shape his aura into a weapon?

A sixth sense for the supernatural runs in the family, and his sister's is said to be even sharper than his own.

What is Yusuke's first assignment in YuYu Hakusho once Koenma revives him and names him a detective?

Recovering stolen treasures comes first: a gang of three demons has taken a trio of artifacts from the Underworld, and Yusuke must win back each one.

What business does Yusuke open at the end of YuYu Hakusho, after years of fighting demons?

A ramen stand becomes his new trade, though he still spends time helping humans and demons learn to cooperate.

The young demon Rinku in YuYu Hakusho takes his name from the hero of which video game series?

The Legend of Zelda supplied the name: Rinku is how Japanese renders Link, and his teammate Roto is named after a Dragon Quest hero.

Why does Kuwabara stay behind when Yusuke and the others leave for the Demon Plane late in YuYu Hakusho?

To study for exams, of all things: the former delinquent is cramming for his high school entrance tests and puts fighting aside.

What price does the Mirror of Darkness, which Kurama uses in YuYu Hakusho, demand from anyone it helps?

Their life is the price, yet Kurama survives after Yusuke steps in and offers to share the cost with him.

In the Philippine dub of YuYu Hakusho, which Western name was given to the hero Yusuke Urameshi?

Eugene was the hero's name in the Tagalog version, which renamed nearly everyone: Kuwabara became Alfred and Hiei became Vincent.

Which Japanese broadcaster first aired the YuYu Hakusho anime, from October 1992 to January 1995?

Fuji TV aired all 112 episodes and co-produced the series, whose ratings were said to sit just below those of Dragon Ball Z.

At the end of YuYu Hakusho, Yusuke's childhood friend and girlfriend is entering college to become what?

A teacher is her goal, fitting for the classmate who spent years dragging Yusuke to lessons and trying to keep him out of trouble.

Which voice actress plays Koenma in the Japanese version of YuYu Hakusho?

Mayumi Tanaka voices Yusuke's boss in the afterlife, and fans also know her as Luffy in One Piece and Krillin in Dragon Ball.

Why is Yusuke's demon ancestor close to death when he summons Yusuke to the Demon Plane in YuYu Hakusho?

Starvation is killing the demon king, who swore off human flesh some 700 years earlier after falling in love with a human healer.

After Yusuke returns to life as a demon, his spirit beast Pu grows into a huge bird resembling what?

A phoenix is the look of the grown beast, a far cry from the tiny creature that left Yusuke embarrassed when it first hatched.

Which actor and lead singer of the band Dish plays Yusuke in the 2023 live-action YuYu Hakusho?

Takumi Kitamura studied the hero's walk and stride in both the manga and the anime, then added what he called modern twists.

In YuYu Hakusho, what is the name of Yusuke's hard-drinking mother, who raised him alone from her teens?

Atsuko was only a young teen when Yusuke was born, and it takes his death to show how much she loves him.

In YuYu Hakusho, what is the name of Kuwabara's cool-headed older sister, an aspiring beautician?

Shizuru is the one who sends her brother to a famous martial arts master for advice, and Togashi called her his favourite female character.

Which demon completes the trio with Hiei and Kurama that Yusuke hunts on his first case in YuYu Hakusho?

Goki is the odd one out of the three: Hiei and Kurama both go on to fight at Yusuke's side.

What do the Four Beasts release into the Human World to blackmail the Underworld in YuYu Hakusho?

Parasitic insects are set loose to pressure the Underworld into lifting the barrier that keeps the Beasts out, so Yusuke is sent to storm their castle.

Which tiger demon of the Four Beasts loses to Kuwabara in YuYu Hakusho and is then killed by a teammate?

Byakko can turn tufts of his own hair into smaller beasts, and after his defeat he is finished off by his fellow Beast Seiryu.

Which demon referees the Dark Tournament's early rounds in YuYu Hakusho, protesting when the organisers cheat?

Koto takes the rulebook seriously enough to object to the committee's dirty tricks, and she moves to the commentary seat for the semifinals.

Which demon scientist enslaves three martial artists with mind-control implants at YuYu Hakusho's Dark Tournament?

Ichigaki poisoned the fighters' master himself, then offered a cure in exchange for their bodies as test subjects.

Which vain YuYu Hakusho fighter, self-styled 'the Beautiful', enters the Dark Tournament disguised as an old man?

Suzuki builds the weapons his teammates carry, and after losing he hands two of his inventions to Kuwabara and Kurama for the final.

What happens to anyone who breathes the smoke from Ura Urashima's box, used against Kurama in YuYu Hakusho?

They grow younger, which backfires badly: the smoke winds Kurama back to the far stronger form he had before his human life.

Which axe-wielding YuYu Hakusho fighter wears heavy armor to hold back his own aura at the Dark Tournament?

Bui loses to Hiei in the final round and asks to be killed, a request that Hiei refuses.

Hiei wins his first Dark Tournament match in YuYu Hakusho with a power he cannot yet control, injuring what?

His right arm is left badly damaged by a power summoned from the Demon Plane, one he has only fully mastered by the final.

Why do Hiei and Kurama agree to help Yusuke fight the Four Beasts at Labyrinth Castle in YuYu Hakusho?

For reduced sentences: both owe the Underworld for earlier crimes, and Hiei comes out of the mission no longer acting only for himself.

The 2023 live-action YuYu Hakusho ages its hero Yusuke up from a 14-year-old middle schooler into what?

A high school senior is the new Yusuke, in a series whose five-episode first season took almost five years to make, two of them spent on post-production.

How do Team Urameshi's first Dark Tournament opponents in YuYu Hakusho decide which of them will be the alternate?

Rock-paper-scissors settles it, and the loser, stuck as the reserve, turns out to be the strongest fighter on the team.

How are match-ups chosen when Team Urameshi faces the fairy-tale fighters in the Dark Tournament semifinals?

Rolling dice picks the fighters, which is how Hiei ends up standing in for absent teammates and fighting twice in a row.

In YuYu Hakusho, what is recorded on the Black Chapter videotape that Yusuke's predecessor uses to recruit followers?

Humanity's atrocities fill thousands of hours of the tape, and watching it convinces his recruits that people deserve to be wiped out.

Which demon, once the partner of Yusuke's predecessor, opens the tunnel to the Demon Plane in YuYu Hakusho?

Itsuki can step between dimensions, and after the final battle he carries his partner's body away so the two can stay together forever.

At the end of YuYu Hakusho, Hiei joins a special squad in the Demon Plane with which duty?

Returning lost humans safely home is the job, a striking post for a demon who began the series planning to raise an army of his own.

Which anime-only ogre, Koenma's much-blamed aide, is revealed near the end as the narrator of YuYu Hakusho?

Jorge Saotome exists only in the anime, where the second-to-last episode shows the whole series to be an Underworld file he narrates.

Which director of the YuYu Hakusho anime went on to direct the long-running Bleach series?

Noriyuki Abe found it odd that Yusuke and Kuwabara wear different uniforms at the same school, checked with the manga's editors, and kept the contrast.

Which Japanese magazine's Anime Grand Prix voted YuYu Hakusho best anime in both its 1994 and 1995 polls?

Animage readers also made Kurama their favourite male character in both of those polls.

Which major Japanese prize for comics did Togashi's YuYu Hakusho win in the shōnen category during its run?

The Shogakukan Manga Award went to the series even though it ran in a magazine from a different publisher, Shueisha.

Which three-volume science-fiction comedy about an alien prince did Togashi create straight after YuYu Hakusho?

Level E ran from 1995 to 1997 and has been summed up as zero percent fighting and one hundred percent humour, the reverse of his tournament epic.

Togashi said YuYu Hakusho's planned shift from comedy to fighting followed the path of which earlier manga?

Kinnikuman began largely as a comedy before turning to wrestling bouts, and Togashi planned the same switch from the very beginning.

Togashi modelled one of YuYu Hakusho's three demon kings on Kushana of Torumekia, from which Hayao Miyazaki work?

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind gave Togashi the model for his scarred ruler, a character he later named among his favourites.

At the end of the YuYu Hakusho manga, Koenma takes over from his father after exposing him for what?

Faking demon crime reports let the old king justify sealing the two worlds apart, so his son reopens the border once the truth is out.

What do the Dark Tournament's two referees and its nurse become by the end of the YuYu Hakusho manga?

Pop idols on human television, no less: the three demons perform together under the name the Occult Threesome.

Which star of the 1973 revenge film Lady Snowblood plays Yusuke's elderly mentor in the 2023 live-action YuYu Hakusho?

Meiko Kaji made her name playing outlaws and avengers in the 1970s, and her Lady Snowblood later helped inspire Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.

Which developer behind Gunstar Heroes made the 1994 Mega Drive fighting game based on YuYu Hakusho?

Treasure first designed it as an original game called Axion, then converted it into a licensed fighter starring Yusuke and his rivals.

Which voice actor, who played Tetsuo in the film Akira, is the Japanese voice of Yusuke in YuYu Hakusho?

Nozomu Sasaki was already a fan of the manga and wanted the lead because of the way Togashi drew him.

Which voice actor did Togashi say understood YuYu Hakusho's Kuwabara better than he did himself?

Shigeru Chiba is also the narrator of Fist of the North Star and the voice of Buggy the Clown in One Piece.