With these two episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho, the story begins to push forward, with Yusuke finally regaining his body after his time as a spirit following his untimely and unexpected death. He also gets more than he bargained for though as he ends up being press-ganged into becoming a spirit detective for Koenma.
This obviously means that Yusuke cannot go back to his old way of life. Due to his time as a spirit, he can now see and interact with creatures from the other world that ordinary people cannot.
Yusuke almost failed to regain his body in the first place, but for some quick thinking from Botan. Yusuke just happening to have weird wavelengths meaning the whole process had to happen at that very moment, if not then in another 50 years, I found a little contrived, but it is what it is. Also weird is the fact that Yusuke didn’t use the possession trick during this escapade, which surely would have made things much smoother instead of having to rely on his mortal companions.
Kuwabara features heavily again in Episode 5, bringing more of his enjoyable comic relief. A highlight of the series so far was his comically horrifying dream of himself and Yusuke, and we also have his quest to retrieve his kitten Eikichi. Thankfully, Yusuke steps in to save Eikichi upon his return, much to everyone’s surprise.
Episode 6 involves Koenma telling Yusuke of three precious artefacts he must retrieve, after a robbery in the spirit realm. Koenma is in a hurry to recover them, due to the imminent return of his father, the true Yama, from a business trip.
I was rather surprised to see Kurama and Hiei introduced so soon, as I thought Yusuke would encounter them separately further down the line and slowly build his team, as with most shonen series. With this, all of the key cast members have now featured.
Kurama appeared reluctant to cooperate with his fellow thieves any longer, so who knows what he could be planning with the Ankokukyo. Right now, Yusuke has to contend with the horrifying, spirit-eating ogre Gouki. After Koenma put his new protégé in a situation of certain death, Botan is on her way to save him.
Again, rather contrived is the fact that thieves’ location in the human realm just so happens to be in Yusuke’s neighbourhood. Also, that Koenma couldn’t find anyone else to resolve the situation, apart from his newly-recruited spirit detective rookie. While Yusuke’s situation is obviously not the norm for people who are resurrected, there surely has to be others who can handle this, right?
We also see the debut of Yusuke’s signature attack here, the Spirit Gun or the Rei-Gun as it is known in the original Japanese. Even though I’ve never watched Yu Yu Hakusho previously, this attack has always looked cool to me being a fan of the Dodonpa from Dragon Ball. This technique is something Yusuke luckily doesn’t have to learn, with it being part and parcel of becoming a spirit detective.
Episode Conclusions
Unlike the last two episodes, Episodes 5 & 6 move the plot along further as Yusuke has to contend with his new role as a spirit detective. It kind of feels like we’ve watched three episodes this time, as Episode 5 felt like two separate ones. The first episodes did a good job of setting up the general premise, but it seems that soon enough we will be embarking on the true adventure of this series.
What did you make of these episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho, and do you think Kurama has noble intentions? Leave your comments down below.
Check out the video version of this article here.
