YuYu Hakusho (2023 TV series)
[5] The show's creators revealed that because YuYu Hakusho's fantasy premise and supernatural action make it a VFX-heavy title, production companies were afraid to take on the project."[5] In July 2022, Netflix announced the series would star Takumi Kitamura as Yusuke Urameshi,[4] Shuhei Uesugi as Kazuma Kuwabara,[7] Jun Shison as Kurama,[8] and Kanata Hongō as Hiei.[14] Joshua Kristian McCoy of Game Rant praised YuYu Hakusho as one of the best live-action adaptations of a manga or anime series, placing it alongside the Rurouni Kenshin films.Although noting that the plot condensing erases much of the original manga's nuance, leaving emotional moments little time to breathe, McCoy called it a "solid action/horror/drama in its own right" that is designed to steer newcomers toward the source material.He praised the excellent characterization of the core duo of Yusuke and Kuwabara, but found Mishima's scripting falters when it comes to the supporting characters due to the pacing required of a five-episode series.[16] Daniel Dockery of Polygon also found the Netflix adaptation to effectively capture the wild tonal shifts and the characters that has made the franchise adored for the last 33 years, but said its length does a disservice to some crucial moments.A fan of the YuYu Hakusho anime adaptation, Parrish understood why Netflix chose the plot points that they did, but found the condensing of the story into five hour-long episodes left "characters that are formless, uninteresting seat-fillers" in high school production-quality costumes.