Netflix’s next crack at taking manga and anime to live-action is Yu Yu Hakusho, and we finally have a full trailer ahead of the worldwide December 14 premiere.
The Yu Yu Hakusho series is based on the manga of the same name by Hunter x Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi. The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from December 1990 to July 1994 and inspired a hit anime that ran for 112 episodes. We’ve seen very brief snippets of the live-action adaptation in recent months, but now we have a more substantial look thanks to Netflix’s Geeked Week event.
There’s also a new visual:
Extracurricular combat
The story of Yu Yu Hakusho centers on delinquent Yusuke Urameshi, who dies after saving a child from an oncoming car. He soon finds himself in the Spirit World, where he takes the offer of another crack at life as a spirit detective. Unlike the international production of One Piece, the live-action Yu Yu Hakusho comes straight from Japan with Sho Tsukikawa directing and Tatsuro Mishima on scripts.
Takumi Kitamura is in the lead as Yusuke, who eventually teams up with the likes of Kazuma Kuwabara (Shuhei Uesugi), Kurama (Jun Shison), and Hiei (Kanata Hongo). The new trailer also shows characters like Koenma — as played by the definitely-not-a-baby Kenta Machida — and teases the vicious Toguro brothers.
We’ll see how successfully this shonen classic translates to live-action when Yu Yu Hakusho hits Netflix in December.
