Yu Yu Hakusho

Last updated: 10 November 2026

About Yu Yu Hakusho

Yusuke Urameshi, a 14 year old delinquent, dies saving a child and is offered his life back if he works as a Spirit Detective for the Spirit World. With Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei beside him and the master Genkai behind him, he takes on demon cases, a deadly tournament and threats that blur the line between humans and demons. It is a complete 112 episode story with a beginning, a famous middle and a real ending.

Yu Yu Hakusho is a TV anime from 1992, first released in Fall 1992. It belongs to the Action and Supernatural and Adventure genres and is listed as a completed series. The summary above is written by the AnimeYug team in our own words.

Story & Plot

Yusuke Urameshi is 14, a school skipping delinquent with a quick temper and a reputation he mostly deserves. Then he pushes a small child out of the path of a car and dies doing it. The act surprises everyone, including the Spirit World, which had no death planned for him that day. Koenma, the toddler sized ruler of the afterlife, offers him a deal: pass a set of trials, come back to life, and work as a Spirit Detective, hunting demons and stray spirits causing trouble among humans.

Back among the living, Yusuke takes cases with the help of the ferry girl Botan and his old rival Kuwabara, a loud brawler with a strong sense of honour and growing spiritual power. Two early enemies, the plant using fox spirit Kurama and the swordsman Hiei, end up fighting beside him instead. The four of them become a team under the training of Genkai, a tiny, terrifying master of the Spirit Wave technique, who holds a tournament just to find a student worth teaching.

Then comes the Dark Tournament, the heart of the series. Yusuke's team is forced to enter a demon fighting tournament where losing usually means dying, and at the top waits Toguro, a fighter who gave up his humanity for power and has a personal history with Genkai. The arc is long, brutal and full of character moments, and it is still the standard other tournament arcs get measured against.

The last two sagas turn darker and stranger. A former Spirit Detective tries to tear open the boundary between worlds, forcing Yusuke to question the job itself. After that, a revelation about Yusuke's own heritage drags him into Demon World politics and a final tournament with the fate of a kingdom on the line. The series ends with its cast choosing the lives they actually want, which feels earned after everything they have survived.

Story Arcs & Episode Guide

The Yu Yu Hakusho anime is split into story sagas. Here is every saga in order, with its episodes and years.

Why Watch Yu Yu Hakusho

• 112 episodes and almost no filler, it respects your time
• The Dark Tournament, a benchmark for tournament arcs
• A lead who grows without losing his rough edges
• Kurama and Hiei, two of the coolest rivals turned allies in shonen
• A famous English dub that many fans rank among the best ever made

Who Is It For?

Best for teens and up. There is frequent martial arts violence, demon battles, some blood and dark moments in the Chapter Black saga.

Voice Actors

The Japanese voices behind the main characters of Yu Yu Hakusho.

• Yusuke UrameshiMain character, Spirit Detective
  Japanese voiceNozomu Sasaki
• Kazuma KuwabaraMain character
  Japanese voiceShigeru Chiba
• KuramaMain character
  Japanese voiceMegumi Ogata
• HieiMain character
  Japanese voiceNobuyuki Hiyama
• GenkaiYusuke's master
  Japanese voiceHisako Kyoda
• Younger ToguroDark Tournament final boss
  Japanese voiceTessho Genda

Staff & Production

Original Creator

Yoshihiro Togashi

Animation Studio

Studio Pierrot

Director

Noriyuki Abe

Series Composition

Yukiyoshi Ohashi

Music

Yusuke Honma

Manga & Source Material

Yoshihiro Togashi wrote and drew the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1990 to 1994. It was his first big hit, before Hunter x Hunter, and the anime follows it closely from start to finish.

• The manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from December 1990 to July 1994.
• The complete manga fills 19 volumes and 175 chapters.
• Togashi ended the series earlier than first planned, and has spoken openly about the strain of the weekly schedule.
• Togashi went on to create Hunter x Hunter, which shares Yu Yu Hakusho's love of rule based battles.
• The anime adapts nearly the whole manga, which is why it needs almost no filler.

Music

Yu Yu Hakusho did something unusual: one opening for all 112 episodes. Smile Bomb became so tied to the show that the Funimation dub recorded an English version of it. The five endings rotate between Mawatari Matsuko and Hiro Takahashi.

Opening Themes

• “Hohoemi no Bakudan”by Mawatari MatsukoThe only opening for the whole series, known in English as Smile Bomb.

Ending Themes

• “Homework ga Owaranai”by Mawatari MatsukoFirst ending theme, sung by the opening artist herself.
• “Sayonara Bye Bye”by Mawatari MatsukoSecond ending, one of the most loved songs in the series.
• “Unbalanced Kiss”by Hiro TakahashiThird ending theme, used during the Chapter Black period.

Series Timeline

1. 1990-1994

   Yoshihiro Togashi's manga runs in Weekly Shonen Jump, 19 volumes in total.

2. 1992-1995

   Studio Pierrot's anime airs 112 episodes on Fuji TV.

3. 1993-1994

   Two films are released in Japanese cinemas.

4. 2002-2005

   The Funimation dub airs in the US on Adult Swim and Toonami, winning a new generation of fans.

5. 2018

   A two part OVA, Two Shots and All or Nothing, is made for the 25th anniversary.

6. 2023

   A five episode live action adaptation streams on Netflix.

Release Schedule

Premiere

10 October 1992 on Fuji TV

Broadcast

Fuji TV, Saturdays; in the US it aired on Adult Swim, then Toonami, in the 2000s

Streaming

Crunchyroll, Hulu and Netflix (varies by region)

Episodes

112 episodes, plus two films and later OVA episodes

The series is complete. A live action version is a separate production. Details as of 10 November 2026.

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