YuYu Hakusho vs One Piece | Changing the Live Action Industry
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- čas přidán 22. 12. 2023
- Live action anime is a taboo subject at the best of times but lately I've felt the tides slowly start to change. A change that might impact an entire industry and usher in a brand new era. After the massive success of One Piece's live action adaptation on Netflix this past year naturally I was curious to see what Yu Yu Hakusho had to offer. And I fascinated by the result. So much so that I am now confident we are on the cusp of something truly special.
What does the future hold for anime live action adaptations and what did I think of One Piece and YuYu Hakusho's respective attempts? Let's find out!
SUPPORT ON PATREON: / totallynotmark
MUSIC USED
Moonlit Meelee (Skullgirls)
Exploration (Devil Survivor 2)
You're Mine (Cover by Alex Yarmak)
S3xualizer (Cover by Alex Yarmak)
Prison Air 2 (Katana Zero)
Hydro's Station (AM2R)
Vivere Woodchuck's Invitation (Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth)
Witch (HxH GI OVA)
Takuto Furifuri (HxH 99)
Flutter (Navie D)
Commander Yammark (MMX6)
Closing Argument (GAA)
She Swallowed Burning Coals (Cover by Alex Yarmak)
Mist of Rage (Noisecream)
You Will Never Know (Katana Zero)
Track 15 (HxH OVA) - Zábava
Live action YYH was interesting. It really felt like they had no confidence they'd get more money and just decided to adapt the maximum amount they could while focusing on everything they felt fans would want to see. It was VERY strange, especially with things like the early street brawl showing what they could do while the Genkai training showing what they just couldn't. Hyper compression of priorities.
Agreed I would've preferred a better paced story that still gives us pay offs with the earlier arcs. It feels like they rushed his ghost period and it's way to early to introduce all these later villains. Also because the pace is faster every character just exposition dumps
I think there not planning for season 2..it's already 3/4 of Yu Yu Hakusho... It's reminds me of OVAs in the 90's just a summary of a manga..and they only do
a full adaption if it has good results.
I took it as the world lives while we look at others. Like the Sakyo plot fit for me because he would have made that club and all that while we weren’t watching so made sense that he was there behind the scenes. When they added Bui and Karusu I needed a minute because that I thought was pulling from the other stuff
Well it was a top tier success
Which is why I think they should redo it but by adding more of the original plot like Rando and Saint Beasts
U mean half. There's still Sensuo and the Three Kings arc which seriously needs a retcon because it ended abruptly in the anime@@abluejazz2680
The horrors of Dragonball Evolution and Death Note are behind us, thankfully.
Don’t jynx it, there’s still room of them to butcher anime we love.
If Freezer could come back again and again, so can a bad Dragon Ball movie. Forgive but never forget. 😢
Go on and slide in Avatar the last airbender as it’s about to get a redemption arc.
Bad adaptations are like cockroaches: hard to kill.
Hell even Percy Jackson is getting it's redemption arc, or at the very least trying to hold to some of the source material 🤣
One Piece had TWO showrunners, Steven Maeda and Matt Owens. Matt Owens is a OP super fan and reached out to the fan base a lot during production. They also made sure that Oda was heavily involved in key decisions (like casting).
Oh shoot if that’s true I had no idea. But good to know now nevertheless.
He also thinks long ring long land is one of the best arcs in the series so we’re in good hands.
@@TotallyNotMark all good homie, love your content 🙌
@@TotallyNotMarkThe part of Oda being involved with casting is widely reported as true. Dunno about the rest
@@TotallyNotMarkMatt Owens is the reason why the show exist as oda had to test him if he a worthy showrunner.
I feel the Actor for Yusuke actually did a good job as the Spirit Detective. He captured the rough yet caring side of Yusuke. But I honestly get how he wasn’t as expressive as he was in the anime/manga
I don't think he had time be expressive tbh. Like, this show covered plot points from the first 66 episodes of the original anime or roughly 110ish chapters from the manga, the anime/manga had down time with Yusuke for him to BE expressive. This was so focused on cramming in as many moments from the show as it could, they didn't have time. Out of everything, Genkai was handled the worst though.
I agree, the casting was great.
I think Yusuke was bland in the live action
of course bro that is takumi kitamura bros 😅
Expressions were eh. But he had the mannerisms down
I think the main flaw with this show is they rushed to get to the toguro fight. The ending of this season should have been the first toguro fight we’re he took a dive comeback and told them he only used 30% of his power and invited them to the dark tournament. Them bam season 2 dark tournament arc.
I agree. I came in thinking that this would be the case. It's a shame they rushed, cause I would be hooked.
I agree with this so much and, if they hadn't shown him meeting Genkai in the afterlife, they COULD HAVE done that, but noooooo, they just had to show us that Toguro was dead for realsies.
I agree and was pretty disappointed that wasn't the route they were taking cuz maaann that would've been soooooo much better and honestly that would've been the perfect segway for S2 😭😭😭 mad they dropped the ball on that especially smh
I was telling somebody else this is like if they used the last episode of OPLA to skip Reverse Mountain and Logue Town and instead fight Crocodile and Baroque Works in a bland warehouse without introducing Alabasta or its characters. Just a piece of shit lazy boss rush.
I share the same opinion
Mark, I think you forgot about Matt Owens the co-showrunner of One Piece, he was the one that was a fan from the begging in and the one Oda trusted. Maeda jumped has the experienced show runner because this was Owen's first try has a show runner. Maeda actually has left the project to do other things and now is Owen's work alone. 😅
Is that true Maeda has left?
@@voidlerhe’s just executive producer now
oh..well..
Steven is caught up with latest chapters of Manga as well though..so its all within the same realm.
The sad part is that early Yu Yu Hakusho is some of the most down to Earth and relatable material you could ever ask for. It isn't heavy on super anime stylistic material that would make it hard to adapt. You could have very easily done 5 episodes of Yusuke helping people as a ghost and just established Yusuke, Keiko, Kuwabara and Botan as the awesome characters they are and had Yusuke come back to life at the end of episode 5. This series is doomed though, how do you watch Yu Yu Hakusho and not love the episode where Kuwabara needs to pass a rigged test to save his friends job? How do you see no value in the scene where all of the unexpected people like the Principal are upset at Yusuke's funeral?
You’re missing the point. It’s not that those parts lacked value. It’s that they had 5 episodes to tell a complete story. If they never come back everyone would just be bitching about 5 random spirit detectives episodes with 0 arc
Yu Yu Hakusho anime > One Peace Anime
One Peace live action > Yu Yu Hakusho live action.
@@PodyTheCirate They would have had more budget to make more episodes if they didnt blow it all on cgi fights most likely. I would've gladly cut some of them for more time with the characters and set up for more seasons.
The part where Yusuke defends the bullied kid also happens in the manga, though not as blatant as in the live action.
Yeah, as I remember the manga quickly establishes that Yusuke is a halfway decent person under all that attitude and issues even before he saves the little kid.
In this moment, not one second. He bullies another bully who pretended to be Yusuke's cousin to steal some money without fighting. Which Yusuke does too, using his image to steal a ridiculous amount of money but making him real as a king of middle-school crime : you may steal in my name, but you owe me a cut.
What he said was that showing that scene without showing Yusuke in a more negative light as well takes away all complexity of the character from the audience. We get too good of an idea that he a good kid who is just misunderstood too early for it to hit hard when he saves the kid. That was I think the point Mark was trying to make.
YYH should’ve had 3 seasons. The fights were amazing. The characters were pretty spot on. Unfortunately it was incredibly rushed.
they did not want to do three seasons.
2 8 episode seasons would probably have worked better. First season goes up to the save the sister part and ends with the invitation to the dark tournament. Second season is the full Dark Tournament arc with most if not all the fights.
Yeah, three seasons of 8 episodes would be more then enough to adapt everything. 2 eps for the intro arc, two episodes for the genkai arc, 2 or 3 to cover the demon Kings, then the rescue arc. Season 2 is all dark Tourniment and Season 3 probably doesnt even need 8, with how short the end of YYH ends up being, and streamlining might help the rushed ending; hell just end it on Chapter Black as the Demon world stuff just feels unnessicary becuase its SO rushed.
Inaki is an enigma and came out of nowhere to where he even surprised Oda 😂
I think you should have mentioned Matt Owens, the other showrunner for one piece who I think was just as big of a part of the shows success as Steve was.
I really think combining Spirit Detective, Genkai's training & Rescue Yukina was a brilliant idea, if they held off on Dark Tournament and prayed for a Season 2, I really think it could have been a masterpiece
Nope its not. Genkai has a big impact on the story in the anime/manga yet they butchered her on LA
@rikikun2809 what does that have to do with anything? I'm saying they didn't have to do that, keep the training and get rid of the spirit orb/Toguro shit, save that for when there is more attachment
@@rikikun2809Genkai’s impact only starts being noticeable in the dark tournament so OP is right. Had they kept the dark tournament stuff for an entire season 2 instead of cramming it like they did they would have done Genkai’s justice
Everyone like "BuT mY DaRk ToUrNeY." Dudes, there were how many other teams in said tourney that were not used in season 1? It can easily be done in a season 2. "BuT mY gEnKaI." Yes, the one that canonically is resurrected, who still can be for season 2, and still can have her redemption as a consequence??? They could even write around the orb and still have Yusuke do the trial, with pu, with everything. STOP CRYING. Only team toguro was lost. Enough
I’d rather them give us something complete than “praying for a 2nd season” that probably wouldn’t have happened given Netflix history. What we got was damn near perfect
Matt Owens is definitely the One Piece showrunner who was the super fan. Maeda definitely seems to have become a fan but Owens is the one who described One Piece as saving his life, single handedly convinced Oda to give it a chance and was even driving the writers to look at the OP CZcams community for depth of analysis on the source materials (also making quite a few cameos with OP CZcamsrs)
Yes, he definitely needs to get his due.
I think the greatest triumph of the One Piece LA is that... it was super entertaining to newcomers. I mean it's one thing to be good for fans that already are invested in these characters and all, but to be cool to newcomers is a hard call, and it achieved this incredibly well! hell, my friggin mum loved it! and she does not watch anime AT ALL, i'm so excited about future seasons!
Steve Maeda was fantastic as well as Showrunner Matt Owens, who even connected to fans and content creators throughout the One Piece Live Action's production. Both deserve their roses.
I have almost no problem with most of the costumes, but in particular I always make a point to say that Live action Hiei's hair looks more like an onion than a fireball. Also RIP Kuwabara Pompadour
It's a real shame tho that they didn't add kuwabara's iconic pompadour
@@poorlydigitallydrawngigachad The stage show did!
@@AbStar_xx I just watched it and man it's better than the live action lol
@@poorlydigitallydrawngigachad both stage show productions are great.
The live action…well, it definitely wasn’t perfect (pacing, anyone?) but the characters were pretty much spot on and the action scenes? 🔥
If the pacing had been better, this would’ve been the new standard
@@AbStar_xx they could've taken some notes on the one piece live action imo. That one was pretty good for a live action
Mark, I think you may have fused Steven Maeda and Matt Owens (co-showrunners) into one person. They were both very important and Owens especially was the One Piece fan of the two, and the one who personally convinced Oda to trust him with the show. IIRC Maeda was added later (probably to help the less experienced Owens find his feet, especially since it looks like he's just exec producer for season 2)
I think you make a good point about Yusukes range of emotion, I think they kept him how he was in the live action due to the streamlined story and the nature of all the things happening to him so quickly didn't really permit for a lot of range. In the anime there's a lot of down time and a lot more character building where he's free to express different emotions, I think how he is acting in this show is more realistic based on all the things that are happening. Dying, saving your girlfriend, fighting demons, learning how to kill demons better, more people dying, like it's pretty depressing and leaves no room for comedy.
I really loved the first episode of the yu yu hakusho, the way yusuke hit kuwabara with a jump kick and the way his body rolled when he got hit by the truck had me on the floor
That shot of Yusuke and Kwabara in the hallway hanging out is creepy at how good it looked. For a moment when they were in the shadows, it was like they jumped straight out of the anime
Pacing was balls, choreography was good.
Easy summary for the series.
I knew One Piece live action would be a success when I heard Matt Owens speak. I could tell he loved the series and it was in good hands.
This started production before One piece's sucess. They would have probably planned for more episodes if they had known that. I guess it is the difference between playing safe and risking it all. One piece LA was very risky and it paid off. YYH was a really safe adaption that fizzled down towards the end.
As someone that has just seen the live action, i was soooo confused during the second half, yeah, the action was good, but every character just felt like had some pieces missing
A lot of people just want to have action these days. TikTok stimulation That is why so many people hated on Vinland season 2 because it wasn't a typical battle Shonen.
"Oh gawd Thorfinn turned to pacifist and I don't remember where Vinland is or Thorfinn is a real person. Where is my fights and how can I apply feats to him?"
For me, I had almost no faith in it being good or faithful when it was announced. What sold it for me before it released was all the fun interviews and hang-outs with the Straw Hat actors and seeing how fun and chill they were, and Oda backing this thing so much so it made sense why the manga hit the delays around that time.
If everyone making the show was that dedicated and enthusiastic about it, I had to turn that idea around and it delivered so good 👏
Episode 1 of the YYH Live Action, especially the first half, did justice to one of the most compelling introductions in storytelling. Halfway through, I was crying like a baby.
Too bad it went downhill on the rest of the episodes. I was so pissed when they skipped dark tournament
I'm so happy that we're entering this new age of good live-action adaptations whether it be anime/manga or games. Also Japan has had a pretty good record of live action adaptations.
By pretty good you mean 30% success rate at best 😂 but I do agree, maybe it is time for the live action renaissance!
I couldn't get into YYH until i switched to Japanese. The action is incredible and really gets it across how dangerous the yokai are with Yusuke barely makes it out alive in every battle
It feels like the beginning of the MCU.
A new medium of a nerdy property and everyone wondering...
"Can they pull this off?"
The fact that we got GOOD live action adaptations of some of the best animes out there gives me so much hope. In the past all of the adaptations were utter trash tag disrespected the source material, but now they’re being made with such care and appreciation for the sources
if you are a true yuyu hakusho fan. you would have hated the show for not showing the tournament. thats what it was well known for back in the days. comparable to the likes of dragon ball and hunter x hunter.
@@onimusic29as much as I would've liked to see the full Dark Tournament, it never would've been feasible without a Game of Thrones level budget
@@draculemihawk8844 they could have done the first arc first for the season one with yusuke assembling his team and training with genkai then ending it with the dark tournament teaser just like the anime. then maybe 2 seasons for dark tournament. but nope.
@@draculemihawk8844 if one piece live action writer can write 8 good episodes using only 100 episode of one piece anime then yuyu hakusho have no excuse. dark tournament only have 40 episodes, and first arc of yuyu hakusho only have like 20 plus episodes.. thats only 60 plus episodes of anime. if they did the 5 episodes introducing all the big names in yu yu hakusho then tease the dark tournament at the end it would have blow up like one piece live action.
The Netflix Yu Yu Haskusho show isn't good though. 😂
Really good points made on both. And it was cool to see a breakdown of the One Piece camera angles.
As usual when you finish one series, this is a plea for you to cover something, anything, by Naoki Urasawa. You love story and characters and he’s arguably the best at doing both. PLEASE 🙏🏽
Best anime adaptation is still probably Kenshin. Honorable mention for the Guyver which is probably more impressive seeing as Hollywood did it
The problem with the casting choices in Japanese-produced live action adaptations is most of these actors don't audition for the parts, they are offered these roles and the casting directors tend to offer these big roles to popular actors without thinking too much about whether they would fit the parts or not. This is why we get the likes of Kento Yamazaki getting cast as the lead in multiple anime adaptations even though he wasn't suitable for more than half of these roles. Same goes for Takeru Sato after the success of the Rurouni Kenshin movies, he got cast in multiple lead roles as well despite the fact that he was ill-fitting for most of those parts. lol One Piece, however, practically scoured the globe to look for these actors. That's why most of them are virtually unknown. I rarely see well-casted live action adaptations in Japan with Tokyo Revengers being one of them, which coincidentally stars Takumi Kitamura as Takemichi. If only Japanese live action productions actually considered doing auditions, then they wouldn't have so many miscasting problems.
Totally agree with you.. but no offense to the citizens of japan but japanese actors are really lousy in acting , animated acting, overacting slapstick style of acting
I would have to disagree with you on that one. If you've seen Godzilla Minus One, then you'd know that there are excellent Japanese actors. It's just that they tend to try so hard to act like their anime counterparts whenever they do these anime adaptations. And Japanese comedy is that just, slapstick. Kinda like the old Jackie Chan films. Not to mention that most of these live action adaptations are led by popular actors and Japanese idols who can't act their way out of a paper bag. But their serious films do feature some awesome actors. I mean, the likes of Ken Watanabe and Hiroyuki Sanada do exist and Hollywood has Japan to thank for that. The problem with the Japanese film industry is they like casting only popular actors, they don't really give newcomers a shot. They don't do auditions for major roles.
@@ichigo6513 Godzilla Minus One Japanese actors performance is one of the best in 2023, heck Kamiki Ryunosuke 's performance as Koichi is even better than Cillian Murphy's Oppenheimer.
Great review. Hope to see more of these.
I feel like Yuyu was very well produced and the tv-ma rating was such a big help in the fights and themes.
Not going to lie I'm sick of fights with close-ups as I want to see the action. That is why I love One Piece's action.
The action in the YUYU live action was AMAZING- and the thing I care least about is action lol
Part of me kinda wishes the yuyu hakisho live action was willing to take a risk and get a second season to have the dark tornement i feel like you could have dedicated ep 3 to genkis tornement and had 4 and 5 even if a little rushed to the rescue yukina arc instead of shoveing everything we love about the dark tornement without any of the set up for it into a already good arc
Hopefully we get a full in-depth review of the live action one piece too, but I'm glad that you enjoyed it! But once egghead island finishes oh boy I can't wait for that review!
Mark you are the Man. I enjoy your reviews and your content. And then you put in the music from Mega Man X6, one of my favorite franchise.
I pray we stay on this streak of good anime adaptions
When I heard that they were going to try and adapt the DT in such a small timeframe instantly made me stay away from it. YYH is my yearly rewatch anime and love pretty much all of it. Seeing so much cut out without even trying to properly adapt it overtime like One Pice LA is trying to do made me realize it wasn't for me.
Totally agree. The nosedive from YYH being shockingly perfect in 1 & 2 to just kill me now after is really sad to see. In the other hand, OPLA was near as good as I can expect throughout with an amazingly charming cast, but could be still better, especially better cinematography and choreography choices.
Yu Yu Hakusho has always been my favorite anime. And i had been looking forward to this adaptation for a long time. I went in expecting things to be changed, but what we actually got was far worse than I could have imagined. I loved the cinematography, and the actors. But the writing and the way the just bastardized everything from episode 3-5 just ruined it for me. That being said, you're amazing and keep on keeping on :)
Really? I think most of us knew this one was a just a filler in order to make us wait for the avatar live action
Bro you're probably the best (I've seen) at analyzing shit. I know it's your job and all so great job man!
(Second comment ever btw. First was on a one piece video about your editor. Props to your team too)
Just binged the last 3 Episodes from the YYH live action last night. My personal moments were definitely the fights!
The choreography and camera work was so good and dynamic! It really felt like I was reading a manga.
Love how they had so many expressive poses.
Live Action Hiei: You've seen me fighting normally in one episode, and this fight is getting a bit difficult for me, I guess I'll have to use my secret ultimate ability now.
If they can't make the first arc cool without relying on stealing the dragon of the black flame, the fox demon form, and the Toguro brothers from future arcs, they shouldn't have made the show.
the Fact that Krama was played by the actor who played the Red ranger in Ressha Sentai Toqger made me instantly like him. Dude is such a great actor.
Genkai: "Hey, i just met you, and this is crazy, here's all my power, now kill my wost enemy."
This is an amazing video but I was surprised when Mark only brought up Steve and not Matt 😭
I really thought they were setting up dark tournament to be season 2,I would have been so hype.
My mom has never sat and watched the original she only remembered bits and pieces from when I was a kid. She watched the live action and really enjoyed it, though there is talk of us sitting down together and watching the OG anime because she does want more context. So, in a way, I see this whole thing as a success. If this live action gets even a small fraction of its viewership to watch the anime, it does its job.
When we eventually (inevitably) get a Naruto live-action adaptation, I hope it fares between those two.
If and only IF they ever do, then they have to take their time with it. They cannot try to put multiple arcs together to save time. Condense and adapt it yes, but not rush or cut it. With Naruto it needs time.
@@EdgardoJCruz-dk5kv believe me, they’ll do it. Just a matter of time now, but probably more sooner than later.
I was so happy to see kuwabra.i watch him whenever i feel down. My favourite character of all time
Whoever keeps putting the Devil survivor ost in marks video, i love you
Hi Mark would love to see a video of your new updated tier list of anime / manga you watched / read
As good as the first two episodes are, the fact that episode two ended with resolving Kurama's part of the Artifacts of Darkness Arc, I knew that the pacing was going to affect the rest of the show and that they were going to cram too much into the first season. It's a shame, too, because the first two episodes did show a lot of promise. This season just needed to take it's time. Genkai's Tournament should've been the last arc of the season given how many episodes it had.
On a positive note, that shot of Yusuke drop-kicking Kuwabara from the first episode never fails to make me laugh. Surprised it hasn't become a new meme format.
That's why the many fight scenes are so far so good to watch. And i knew it's very similar. Good job mt takahito ouchi
YYH is easy to make because it happens in current JAPAN and they need to focus only on CGI and action sequences. OPLA had to focus on VFX, sets, costumes, prosthetics, thereby focus on action was limited.
You took the words directly out of my mouth. When I watched the first two episodes, the story, and the portrayals felt so on point. It seemed to me that they were going to do the 3 demons (Hiei, Kurama and Gokie?), the Genkai Tournament, and then The Toguro brothers sections. Exclude the 4 saint beasts, and just introduce the main players for the tournament.
Sadly, I was very disappointed from episode 3 and on. The Tournament would have been a masterpiece if they followed the action choreography direction, and it's a true loss to entertainment television.
with the OP live action slated for more seasons in the future, it'll be interesting to see just how much it will be able to improve upon the first season, and perhaps set a higher standard than it did with the first season. while i have not watched the YYH adaptation yet, my understanding is that it will likely not get a second season and therefore has done its job in highlighting what is possible. the future is indeed interesting to wait for
WAIT THEY REALLY REVEALED GENKAI AND KILLED HER IN ONE EPISODE??? ARE YOU SERIOUS MARK LMFAOOOOO
Yep, it’s true
Hello Totally Not Mark!
Yu Yu Hakusho (Netflix) was officially my first taste of the story. Like I tweeted out on X, upon finishing the 5 episodes I was left feeling disappointed. Without any attachments to the source material, I felt disappointed.
The show suffers from what I have started calling: "Visible Budget Syndrome" (after Ted Lasso's 3rd season.) There are times when it's just clear that a show runner is asking for an extended run time and a studio refuses to provide the budget. When it's visible that the show ran out of budget for a long run time.
Without any context, I knew I had been denied a cohesive story by Netflix. The pacing felt rushed to the point where outside of our Rival in Blue, I felt like I knew nothing about the cast and had no reason to care about any of the rest of them.
However, the break point came in the final episodes before Hiei unleashed the dragon attack... his character (at least in the English dub track) stated he was holding it back for later. I immediately turned my glance to my partner and asked: "are we watching a tournament arc repurposed into a speed run?"
Trust me when I say, those new to the show WILL notice the extremely rushed pacing. However, unlike fans familiar with the show, new viewers are likely going to drop off during the start of the second episode... not after it.
While I cannot deny that the cinematography for fights is a bit more clean in Live Yu Yu, unlike One Piece, we were never given enough time to get to know any of the characters. So, unlike One Piece (also Netflix was my first exposure to the story) where we were given time to get to know these characters, Yu Yu failed on what is unquestionably the most important aspect of adaptation: character.
Oda sensei owns the rights still to One Piece and unlike virtually every other manga creator. While you can argue that the passion is there with Live One Piece (a reason why I might never trust another live action out of Japan series), Oda had veto rights.
These two series would have been in production around similar times. With One Piece more due to set piece creation. So, on paper it's strange not giving both the same run time of 8 episodes. Until you factor in Oda's veto powers. I think One Piece and Yu Yu were both given 5 episodes but because of Oda's control over his baby... he forced Netflix to fund more episodes AND it shows.
Oda's involvement shined through and made all the difference. It made fans new and old okay with someone some fight scene short cuts because he forced the Characters and Story to shine brightest... with confidence that they would force Netflix to give them more and more seasons.
I’m happy to see that live action manga adaptation maybe are getting better, but the bar is so low I don’t actually know if we’re getting the best possible work or just something decent.
i think the biggest takeaway for me is that both series needed more episodes. 5 and 8 is just so little when covering so much.
Love the comparison and analysis! My 2 cents, you need :
1) understanding why something is beloved. This is hard because that could have many interpretations, this is why having the original creator thoughts on what they were trying to convey is important but also reflected through the lenses on how it was received.
2) the right skills, resources and passion to bring the vision to life. Always super hard because there so many pieces that go into showmaking. Any one of these things goes wrong can tank the production.
3) knowing where to make cuts and edits. It's not the same medium and has limitations that need to be taken into consideration to minimize damaging the potential emotional story/character elements. This is heavily tied to #2 but it needs it call out. Being faithful to certain scenes can be good but not at the expense of shallow emotional context and messaging.
Thanks for posting this I had no idea a live action remake of YYH was even being made! Honestly I’m blown away by how good the first episode is.
Edit: I get what this show is doing other than pacing I think it’s a pretty damn good adaption.
you're right. Yu Yu Hakusho has some really cinematic angles and shots. I didn't quite notice it until you said so. I thought it was just the nostalgia that keeps me watching, but yes they shot those fight scenes really well.
The Goki guy was made so well it felt like I was watching The Hulk hollywood scene
Oh my god... I just finished binging this and I have a lot of thoughts:
100%, the first two episodes were amazing, and the entire show had incredible choreography across the board.
It's just an incredible pity the showrunners felt compelled to use 60% of the show to try and speedrun iconic moments from across the series, except they all felt soulless because there was absolutely 0 narrative buildup. Yoko Kurama and the Dragon of the Darkness Flame were complete asspulls. Plus they FRIDGED GENKAI.
FRIDGED.
GENKAI.
I am absolutely livid.
yu yu hakusho live action has been getting some criticism audience wise and praise vice versa so it feels a bit controversial but like you said both it and one piece do give a sense of hope. that good live action adaptations can be possible.
It’s not perfect yeah, but it’s still pretty solid. It’s leagues better than Netflix death note and dragon ball evolution which might not sound like a high bar, but when something that bad is the norm this shows great progress
The general judgement of YYHLA seems to be "wasted potential". The good parts were greater than great but the bad parts dragged it down heavily.
I understand that this isn't a huge deal for most, but the localization dept was a big problem for me. It looks like they didn't even try. The fights were awesome, but this felt too much like a bad cosplay to me. I'm looking at you, Kurama. I made it to Yoko Kurama, saw how fake it lookede, like cat ears, and dipped.
It's such a shame. The first 2 episodes had me smiling like a dumbass during the whole run. That Goki fight will be something I share around for a long time. But they had to go toward the dark tournament stuff. I was not that worried when they showed Yukina because it could have worked with Hiei's introduction, but then they introduced Genkai and fucked it up lol
All we needed was breakfast is literally the perfect analogy for this adaptation.
I still blamed Netflix for not giving Yu Yu Hakusho generous budget just like how grand one piece gets.
OPLA broke the mainstream curse of live actions finally and absolutely stoked for S2 while I haven't seen the YYH live action yet still but seen wildly different opinions lul look forward to it.
Basically my thoughts on the whole thing! While it would have been nice for live action yyh to have been the best of both worlds, i really liked the things they did right, and it gives me hope for future action oriented anime adaptions 🎉 Honestly wouldnt be opposed to another season if they get renewed so they can learn from their mistakes and do a decent take on Chapter Black
I'm hoping it does get renewed so that Chapter Black can happen, as Sensui was a fantastic antagonist that I prefer over Toguro. I'd perfectly fine for the live action adaption to end there. As it stands, episodes 2 and 4 (I loved the Kurama vs Karasu fight) were my favorites, with 3 being the worst for sure, as Mark pointed out. I can live without Three Kings getting adapted, but if it were it could be where tournament could happen then for other missed fights from the anime that couldn't be shown here as could be an interesting change as yeah most of the tournament in Three Kings anime/manga was disappointing anyways compared to Dark Tournament so having iconic fights like Yusuke vs Chu and Kurama vs Toya (especially since this fight delved into Kurama's past/regrets to advise Toya) could be neat.
uh! I hate to break it to you, but as a long time Yu yu hakusho fangirl, I can tell you, we fans don’t boast. We know we are not in the majority expressing our love for this series, which is why when we do find people who also love it and want to talk about it, That makes us so MF***ing happy.
This kind of reminds me of some of the early Dragon Ball movies, which always seemed compelled to tell the original story of the meeting of Goku and Bulma; to set up the characters quickly, include a few moments from earlier parts of the series, then rush right into a conflict with current or recent villains, like Tao or Major Metallitron. They had a short time to introduce the characters and premise and try to showcase what makes them special, and that approach might work okay with something like One Piece, where characters really don't grow or develop much past their introductions, so most arcs are pretty self-contained, but definitely doesn't work with Yuyu Hakusho, where the development and growth of characters through their experiences is pretty much the backbone of the whole show, so leaving out almost anything completely changes the whole dynamic.
I hope whenever that "perfect" adaptation comes they give YuYu an other chance. It's too good of a story not to do justice.
i grew up watching yu-yu as a kid but never got further than what toonami would show so i never actually got past yusuke in a lava mountain where kuwabara fights some lion guy. so essentially this live action was borderline a reintroduction to the series for me. the action was AMAZING, some of the best fighting i’ve seen but there were times i felt like I should have watched the anime to know what’s going on because the delivery of the scenes. i felt a little lost and it did feel like this was a movie more than a show with how quick things were zooming. maybe i’ll pick up the anime and give it a watch as an adult now!
I basically felt the same when it came to the rest of the 3 last episodes. Other than rushing through the Dark Tournament arc, which was its most famous arc, the music felt lackluster to me. I tried my best to separate it from the anime, but just couldn’t. Kuwabara was by far my most favorite character in this adaptation. His character development was shown and felt more natural than the others. Yusuke felt too moody for me, while Kurama and Hiei still felt like strangers by the end of the show. In the anime, after the tournament ended, you know these four were more than friends, but a found family. And I can’t really imagine these four hanging out as well because barely any time was spent with them together.
I enjoyed Yuyu greatly. But I'm so confused where they go in season two. After glossing over perhaps the best tournament arc ever in anime and manga.
I could see them flesh out chapter black a lot more. Which is needed, could be a banger of a season if handled correctly
Live Action YYH was a lot of fun as someone who's watched a ton of tokusatsu. The stunts and fights in this series was right up my ally.
Hey TNM Love your videos, especially the Dragon Ball Z ones I just wanted to ask if you could give me some tips on animation I am very terrible at it and I do not have the proper tools for animation. I’m more of a manga drawer I know how to do fluid animations I just can’t draw animations. I can do claymation and stick figure animation on that one stick figure app just not anime animation so if you could give me some tips, I would very much so appreciate it. Thank you and again your work is amazing. Keep it up dude.
I liked Live Action Yu Yu Hakusho for 2 episodes. Then I felt increasing amounts of disappointment. The show just did not have any confidence in getting renewed for a second season so they compromised. One Piece may have had slightly less good fights scenes but everything else of note was much stronger in terms of skilled adaptation. No, One Piece isn't the only good live action anime adaptation out there, but hopefully going forward more people take lessons from it to help produce more that are good on a consistent basis.
I blitzed this one the other day and yeah, in the afterglow after finishing I really felt the pace losing some things along the way. It needed 1 more episode to feel better, maybe one that focused on Genkai and Toguro (and gave her an actual on-screen fight against him wtf).
The highlights for me were easily the climaxes of Episode 1 and 2. They had carte blanche to do whatever they wanted for the Gouki fight and they went above and beyond. Elder Toguro was an obvious high mark, but Tarukane's actor was a surprise hit for me. His performance was great and I wish we saw more of the billionaires cuz they were pretty fun. Kuwabara and his posse were also tons of fun, they looked like they had a blast with the physical comedy there. I'm glad Yusuke's dropkick against him was a highlight for you as well hahaha.
I liked how Bui did more than just go out like a bitch against Hiei, and it was pretty cool seeing Keiko get some damage on the board. While the Hundo Toguro fight was just okay (why the hell was his face unchanged ew), I liked how everyone on Team Urameshi was involved in the fight for a while instead of it only being Yusuke.
YuYu Hakusho was much better than I expected, based on previous adaptations like Netflix's Death Note, Dragon Ball Evolution, YYH's production studios' Cowboy Bebop and even the trailers, but it did drop the ball by rushing the Dark Tournament arc.
I got my teen sister to watch it and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it enough to check the manga or the anime, which I consider a win in my book. I hope more people, specially younger fans, that watch the live action adaptation are drawn to the source material, be it on the page or on the screen.
@7:50 yeah been sitting down to watch the YuYu Hakusho Live Action with my dad who's never seen the anime before and he was really confused about who these characters where that were being throne at him so suddenly and out of nowhere.
When I saw the truck hit Yusuke get hit by the truck in the trailer, I was like man that went so hard!
I don't think its as good as the Rurouni Kenshin Live Action movies, but damn I'm glad they're doing it right.
I'm so glad, I'm not the only one who thought One Piece overused the wide-angle lens shots
Everytime someone says oh there's never been a good live action when we have the marvel movies...it's the same thing as Japanese comics. I don't understand the discrepancy
Really loved Kuwabura's character in this, I've never read/seen Yu Yu Hakusho, it was on the older side when I got into manga and I never went back to check it out, but now I really want to go back and read the original, because the characters in this really got me interested to see a more fleshed out version of the story.
Would love to see a Godzilla Marathon from you as a Live Action review series like with your Batman and Spiderman reviews.
"I would honestly love to talk to someone whose first introduction to YuYu Hakusho was through this show"
Hi, that's me.
I thought this show was overall pretty good. Expectations were not super high for obvious reasons, but I really enjoyed what I watched. The action and effects blew me away. I also thought Genkai training stuff was way too rushed without ever having read the source material or hearing your opinion, so that's definitely bang-on. Didn't particularly have a problem with how the dark tournament was handled as again I haven't seen the source material. Can't say I had a problem with the CGI Toguro, really wasn't that bad to me. idk what you were expecting for a character who is so monstrously deformed, but maybe my expectations are just lower. Over all I just wanted to see some banger Shonen battles and the show delivered, but I definitely agree that certain characters and plot points could have been paced out over more episodes. Being a bit of an anime fan in general, I have been exposed to some bits and pieces of YYH without actually having watched it. With what little I knew I was actually able to tell they did a pretty good job the Kuwabara's character.
I just can't agree with Mark's final analysis of this live action. As a childhood found myself, I saw the differences and I knew people were going to review it poorly. But I would be lying if I said the show didn't have me engrossed from episode 1 to the end of episode 5. I watched the show in a day and the very next day I spent Christmas showing it to my best friend. We both had a blast and it's a night I will never forget. We both loved it!
The fight scenes and coreography and cinematography were good in the YYH live action especially the Goki fight was truly amazing but they tried to condense way too much material into 5 episodes and also changed some things they even did Kuwabara dirty with the fire. While it looked great I was disappointed.
As a first YYH experience, the live action was really good for the first few episode. I didn't hate the looks of Hiei or Kurama because I could chalk it off as, "they are demons and demons can look goofy." I thought they were setting up Toguro quite well too. Strong guy absolutely demolishing demons at 30% strength? Count me in. I was really into it till the death of Genkai. It meant nothing to me. I didn't get attached to the character at all. A story is usually successful if it can make you feel the same emotions as the main character. Toguro killing her didn't make me like or dislike him any more than before. Genuinely felt like one of those coveted "evil guy kills random person to show how evil he is" trope. So when Yusuke gets empowered learning of her loss, I felt strangely disconnected from him. It is ironically the same problem I had with HxH. I did not care about Kite. Was also quite disappointed with how the heroes fought Toguro once and that was it. All that buildup for one fight. I was dumbfounded to see him actually die there. It seems like the story is over right there too. I'd still call it an enjoyable experience though. Not being introduced to the character before, Yusuke was just live-action Jotaro for me which is a good thing. I liked the dynamic between Yusuke, Botan and the pacifier guy. And Kuwabara just stole the show. I wish they had adapted the Dark Tournament everyone hypes up as its own season but it is what it is.
Season 1 should have been 6 episodes and stopped at the end of the Maze Castle Arc, and teased the Rescue Yukina arc. Each episode at 60 minutes would have been tight, but doable.
*Episode 1 - * Yusuke dies and sees how much he is loved. Especially by Kuwabara and Keiko. He agrees to come back and be Spirit detective. He comes back at the very end of the episode. No fights unless you count Yuskue vs Kuwabara and Kuwabara vs a couple of goons that were harassing Keiko. Or heck, lets keep the bullies and the new kid Yusuke was sticking up for instead.
*Episode 2 - * Yusuke comes back, but has to stop the bullies. Turns out all 4 were being influenced by a demon. Kuwabara notices this and has to be the one to tell Yusuke whats going on. Yusuke can see now since he was dead and was in touch with his spirit energy. After they beat the bullies and the literal devil on the shoulder, Botan tells Yusuke about the 3 demons who stole the forbidden items. Yusuke tracks down the first guy (Gouki) beats him up, only for the guy to turn into a red ogre and end the episode.
*Episode 3 - * Yusuke loses to the Ogre Gouki, but is saved when Kurama and Hiei come and stop Gouki. The two demons warn the Ogre not to kill Yusuke or eat the souls… not yet since they don’t want Koenma to send his father’s forces after them. (The demons are a threat to Spirit World sure, but not a high level. Not until they have killed a human anyways.) Gouki spares Yusuke and goes off to collect more souls. The next day Botan heals Yusuke and tells him that he can’t beat demons without Spirit energy. Koenma shows Yusuke the Spirit Gun, Yusuke has a rematch with Gouki and beats him, and immediately finds Kurama and the same things happas usual. Only now more like the Netflix show with Kuwabara coming in. Episode ends with all 3 students finding a mutual respect for each other. Kurama thanks Yusuke and Kuwabara for their help and gives the mirror back and also tells them where Hiei is. Kurama is friends with Hiei so he won’t fight with them. He will however give them both a special plant that raises their spirit energy. Kuwabara gets a wooden sword and Yusuke gets a grass ring that will boost his spirit gun but leave him tired. The episode ends with Hiei kidnapping Keiko.
*Episode 4 - * This Episode would have been mostly about Hiei. The two boys go to fight Hiei. During the Fight Kuwabara learns the Spirit Sword and gets one good it on Hiei. Yusuke is no match for Hiei until Keiko begs Hiei to take her and spare Yusuke. This reminds Hiei of his sister and Yusuke gets a couple of good hits on Hiei. Particularly 1 Spirit Gun to the back. The ring Yusuke was wearing melts and a drained Yusuke crawas for Keiko until Hiei uses the Sword on himself to give himself the Jigan and also turns himself into the Green demon from the anime and beat Yusuke. Hiei threatens to kill Kuwabara and Keiko and even Botan who comes to Yusuke’s rescue. This causes Yusuke to tap into some power he never knew he had to shoot for the first time, a second bullet and break the sword. This lifts the curse from Hiei and turns Hiei normal, only Hiei keeps the Jigan. The two are now equal in strength. Hiei being in no condition to fight, but still better than Yusuke and Kuwabara, leaves. The episode ends with Koenma thanking Yusuke but sending him to Genkai saying he only won because of pure luck and if it weren’t for his friends, Yusuke would be dead. Genkai is seen greeting Yusuke and Koenma gets spankings for a broken sword as the episode ends.
*Episode 5 - * This episode would be half Genkai training Yusuke and half a demon insect invasion. Yuske and Grandma bond and learn a lot about each other. I want a good 15 minutes *at least.* seriously Netflix, wth? Lol. Anyways Yusuke trains with Genkai for a couple of weeks (No tournament here unfortunately,) and Genkai tells Yusuke he has special gifts that Koenma and herself have noticed, and that Yusuke has no idea how strong he can become. Koenma sends Botan to tell Yusuke about his new case. Unfortunately while they are training, Japan is attacked by the insects possessing people and causing rampage. Kuwabara and his friends try to help but aren’t much help. Especially when Kuwabara’s friends become possessed. Kuwabara manages to get Keiko to safety until the teachers come at them. All seems lost until Kurama saves them by using sleeping gas on the humans. Unfortunately during the scuffle Keiko was knocked out. Yusuke comes thanks to Botan. Botan send Yusue Kurama and Kuwabara to Maze Castle and stays behind to heal Keiko. Once at Maze castle, The 3 are stopped by the door keeper Rando. Rando claims to Know 100 tricks and makes a big deal about how he will kill them and blah blah. The episode ends with him immediately getting his head cut by Hiei who approaches the group with his sword out.
*Episode 6 - * This episode will unfortunately have to cram all of Maze castle into it. Hiei has returned for one reason, to thank Yusuke for saving him from the Jigan’s influence. He says he has now repaid his debts to the three men and is about to leave. Yusuke stops Hiei and says he hasn’tpaid his debt back to Keiko and Botan for threatening them and kidnapping Keiko. Hiei says Yusuke is lucky Hiei even had the pride enough to y did so far. Hiei has no respect for weaklings like Keiko or Botan. Kurama convinces Hiei to just tell them all why he’s really there. About why Hiei gotbthe Jigan and recruited Gouki and Kurama in the first place. Hieie admits it was for his sister. (In this version I didn’t see a way around Kuwabara not knowing. Sorry.) Long story short, Yusuke agrees to help save Yukina as soon as they finish up here. The four go into Maze Castle and sweep the floor with the Saint beasts like they did in the anime. I’m willing to bet about 40 minutes isn’t quite enough for a Maze and 4 battles, so the maze will have to be dropped. Maybe its just a temple where all 4 demons are trapped in. Maybe something like the Temple
Of Time. All 4 fights would have to happen at once and Susaku can not just clone himself and heal over and over. Also the White Tiger dies once and only once. None of that 3 lives bull lol. Anyways, the four members beat the beasts, yada yada, and the day is saved. Yusuke promises Keiko he will
Return, and all 4 men head to Tarukane’s mansion to save Yukina.
The episode ends with a clip of ti two Tugoro brothers walking off of a helicopter and introducing themselves to both Tarukane and the audience.
Sure it’s not perfect, but I’d rather see that then what we got. I also just wasted my 30 minute lunch writing this lol. So please forgive the spelling errors and let me know what you think.
I'm a big One Piece fan, & didn't love the Netflix adaptation on 1st viewing, but I gave it a 2nd watch & absolutely fell in love with it. The thing was that during my 1st viewing, I kept comparing it to the original & focused on all the things that were different from the source material. My second watch, I forced myself to let go a little & judge the adaptation for what it was. Once I did that, I was able to enjoy the show more. Yes, it's different, but it's still true to the heart of the source material. It was clearly made by people who love the source material, & while it isn't perfect (there are significant pacing issues), it's probably the best adaptation I've ever seen & definitely the best western live-action adaptation...
I think Totally Not Mark stated a lot of this issues with both YYH and One Piece, and where One Piece felt like a true live action adaptation, YYH was only "Inspired" by the source material. YYH could've with it's five episode took an approach to slowly build up Yusake death and kept the funeral part, but slicing out his life ordeal with the egg was a bit much. Keiko saving Yusake from the fire and Yusake throwing his egg into the fire, giving up his chance to return to life diminished a bit of character growth.
Instead we get a, "Dur, I Koenma can just give Yusake back his life." Really? The first demon Yusake fights being that of a Makai insect I shrugged at as I can understand trying to ramp up the action as I get the first arc of YYH being a bit slow on the build up, but for a reason. It was there to show those watching who Yusake was, on the surface he was this troubled delinquent teenager, but deep down he does care. I could with gritted teeth over look them making Koenma not in his toddler form as with CGI it would've looked out of place, but we lose a lot of joke centered around his appearance.
The Three Artifacts of Darkness was where it really started to fall apart, the Orb of Baast was fine, the mirror looked like a tablet, but I get they were trying to go on a more modern side of things. Then we get to the Shadow Sword... Why is it a dagger? At this point I was seriously having a hard time giving the "Inspired" live adaptation the benefits of the doubt. Then Hiei cuts his forehead with the "Shadow Sword" to give himself the Jagan Eye? _Rage mode Engage_ NO! I am done, Hiei entire backstory is now flushed down the toilet. I didn't watch the rest of the episodes, only going off that of CZcams Reviewers of what happened in those episodes.
How I expected Netflix to handle this was ending the final episode with Yusake defeating Hiei and getting all three artifacts back, then moving to season two, being that of the Genkai tournament, but no. Again, "Dur, Hi my name is Genkai and though I'm important to the story I get a few minutes of screen time then I die." The turmoil of Yusake getting the Spirit Wave Orb, To quote Yusake from the dub, "Please I had measle shot more painful then that." Just, "Dur, here's my Orb." No struggle, no hardship, everything just fast forward trying to get to Toguro. Character bonding be damned I guess. Four Saint Beast, what's that?
Dark Tournament? What's that? Chu, Rinku, Jin, Touya, The Beautiful Suzuki? Who are they? The Item Box, the Trail Sword, what are those? All the character growth and struggle during the Dark Tournament, Nah, this series used it like toilet paper and flushed all that for nostalgic fight scenes that they hope to cash in on, but for who? At this point your spitting on the diehard fans and those who never saw the show they're just banking them to be like, "Ooo, pretty fight scene." I feel like that's an indirect insult to them.
I will give credit that the fight choreography was done well, the actors tried, but the CGI at times was terrible. Maybe the Fight choreography on One Piece was terrible due to camera shots, but even with corners cut, it was far more faithful to the original material then the LA of YYH was. It felt like a slap in the face to Togashi work. The only good thing that I hope comes from the Live Action YYH is that it makes those that never seen the show curious enough to pick up the Manga or Anime.
To go back to One Piece for a moment, I'm not a die hard fan, but I have seen over 800+ Episodes of the Anime. In my opinion, I can recommend One Piece Live Action, because it follows the first 100 chapters(If I remember correctly) of the Manga. Even with it making some cuts, those coming from the Live Action In my opinion could still pickup where it left off in the Manga and Anime and continue on. With YYH, no, go back to the beginning as there's no way you can pickup the Manga or Anime and continue. This is why I can't give the Netflix "Inspired" Live Action Adaptation a pass or a recommendation. As it's not faithful, nor is it a good place for those who haven't read the Manga or watched the anime to start.
If you just want to shut off your brain and watch some decent fight choreography, fair enough, but if your looking for a story look elsewhere.
TL:DR: I can not give this "Inspired" Live Action YYH series a pass nor a recommendation. If you're someone who is curious about YYH, but never seen it, go ahead and give it a watch, but afterwards do yourself a favor and pickup the Manga or Anime. I know the Manga and Anime does take a bit to ramp up, but it is worth it, please just be patient with the first couple of arcs it will pay off. Also, for any who did read everything above and you are one that enjoyed the Live Action YYH. I'm glad you got something out of it, this is just my opinion of what I thought of it.
"Look how they massacred my boy" was my reaction after the trailer dropped. I was hoping they would spread the series out and make multiple seasons (at least 12 episodes or 2 seasons of 6 would have done the trick imo) but after the trailer I knew they were going to condense it all down including the Dark Tournament which is my all time favorite arc of any manga or anime. If I had my way The Dark Tournament deserves it's own 5 to 6 episode season and I wouldn't have done the Chapter Black saga without working directly with Togashi sensei to make the Chapter Black saga he would have wanted if he had not been sick.