Yu Yu Hakusho is a manga written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi that was released in the early 90’s. In the first volume, we are introduced to the manga’s protagonist, Yusuke Urameshi, a 14-year old delinquent who just, well, died.
Unlike its anime counterpart, there are chapters from the manga that are not included in the 1st volume,and there are some major differences from its anime counterpart and its original source, and I will share it to you guys.
The manga kicks off with Yusuke being dead. Yusuke, now a floating spirit wonders what happened to him and why his arm just crossed over the man’s head when he tried to punch him, and so, Yusuke recalls what happened 3 hours ago. In which he remembered he had a regular day, in which he skipped school and beat Kuwabara but there is something in this regular day that is different, he saved a kid who is playing on a street and now, he is dead.
This is when Botan appeared to tell him that his death is not on schedule and he has a chance to live again. At first, Yusuke declines the offer but after learning that there are people who cared about him, he accepts. In which in the next chapter, he goes to the underworld to accept the challenge from King Enma, Jr. aka Koenma, a kid (?) that wears a pacifier and a bib and that challenge is to raise an egg and once it hatches, it will determine his fate. If Yusuke continues to emit good energy, the egg will hatch into a good being but if he continues to emit negative energy, it will hatch into a monster and devour Yusuke.
Yusuke then remembers to tell them not to bury his body, and so he goes to his mother but since she is drunk, he didn’t visited her in her dreams, so she goes to Keiko and haunts her in her dream to check his coffin. Keiko rushed to Yusuke’s house in which Atsuko, Yusuke's mom rushes to Keiko to say that Yusuke is still alive. And for that, after he returns to the land of the living, Yusuke can’t talk to them and so, he gives his final message to Keiko via Kuwabara and his extreme sixth sense.
Some chapters of the manga never make it into the anime. First is about a dog who can’t cross over to the other side because of his master can’t live without him. Next is about a girl ghost who is stuck in a park bench that waits for his boyfriend during Christmas but we learned that his boyfriend cheated on her and was being bet upon. The sixth chapter is about a raccoon wanting to express his gratitude to a grouchy old man for saving him back then.
And in between the chapters that never appeared in the anime is the chapter about Kuwabara trying to save his friend’s job by not fighting for a week and passing their next exam, in which we saw Kuwabara’s determination just to save his friend’s job.
The last chapter in this volume is Yusuke’s temporary resurrection. Since his body is slowly getting weaker, he must return to his body for it to be “recharged.” Meanwhile, Keiko and her friends met a bunch of thugs and Kuwabara’s friends came to help them but they lost. After Keiko slapped the leader of the thugs with her bag, Keiko is in big trouble. Meanwhile, our hero is enjoying his temporary resurrection… by smoking and playing in the arcade.
On the review, one thing that I observed in the manga that there are chapters omitted in the anime and some concepts removed, such as Yusuke must return to his body once a month for his body to continue living. Aside from the said concept, Yusuke, being a smoker was not found in the anime. In addition, there are alterations from the manga and the anime. First, is the artwork, in the anime, Koenma doesn’t wear a bib but in the manga, he is wearing one. Second, is the egg giving scene here in the manga was longer compared to the anime. And third, Keiko’s friends appeared more often in the manga than in the anime.
In terms of our protagonist, Yusuke is a good guy deep inside but because of his upbringing, he ended up being a punk and wasting his time on smoking, slacking off and hitting Kuwabara countless times.
In the manga, we saw a lot of his good side, especially in the chapters that was never adapted in the anime. For instance, in one chapter, he acted out as the demon just for the kid to let go of the spirit of his pet dog. Also, in one chapter, we saw him pull a girl ghost out of the park bench just for her to experience the joy outside the bench! See how good Yusuke is in the manga?
Keiko is one strong female character and that is all I can say about her as for Botan, she is one pretty static character, I never saw anything special about her that will interest me, personality wise except that she is Koenma’s assistant. Speaking of Koenma, he is one heck of a character. He is an old man in a body of a five-year-old that stamps papers for his job in filling in his father’s place and is working in a pseudo-stock exchange-esque office!
As for the artwork, I love Togashi’s artwork! It has a good mix between slapstick comedy-esque art and standard shonen artwork. Also, the character designs has the look of a standard Japanese punk middle school student will look like. Seriously, they can adapt Yu Yu Hakusho into a live-action series!
As for Viz’s translation (Note: The scans that I am using are the scanlated version of the manga), At first, I have problems with them editing the sound effects, but I slowly get used to it as I read the volume. There are some parts of the volume that I love how they edit, namely the panel in which we saw the words, “pointless” in Yusuke’s head which added the humor of the scene! As for the translation, compared to the scanlated version that I read, they tried to retain the humor of the original Japanese version as close as possible by changing some words in the translation to make it one fun read.
Overall, the first volume of Togashi-sensei’s Yu Yu Hakusho is one good read. Asides that it has content not found in the anime as well as a concept of Yusuke’s body being a battery for the sake of his Earth body to recharge. The characters, especially Yusuke being somewhat partly good and partly evil made this volume quite a read, add the fact that it ended with a cliffhanger of Keiko is trouble and Yusuke is just smoking and is playing on an arcade. Because of that, I want to read the second volume, right now!
Guys, like I pleaded with my Dragon Ball Vol. 1 review (will be doing vol. 2 later), please, please, support the official release of the manga by buying it! Sure, I used the scanned version, but it is for you guys to have a good idea on how the product will look like.