Netflix's live-action One Piece version was a smash hit, and it will try to replicate that magic with its YuYu Hakusho adaptation.
We have our first trailer footage and a brand new poster for the series thanks to Netflix's Geeked Week 2023.
Both glimpses of the series establish the involvement of the Toguro Brothers, implying that the adaptation may make it all the way to the manga/anime's The Dark Tournament arc.
The footage also confirmed that it won't be a long wait for YuYu to hit Netflix as it will debut worldwide on December 14, 2023.
Yoshihiro Togashi (Hunter x Hunter) first wrote and illustrated YuYu Hakusho back in 1990. The series was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump and consists of 175 chapters collected in 19 volumes. As of 2022, the manga has over 78 million copies in circulation.
The manga really soared in popularity thanks to the release of a 1992 anime series from Studio Pierrot. The anime consisted of 112 episodes and more or less fully covered the entire manga series, a rarity in the genre. Oftentimes, anime series only tackle a portion of the manga series and serve more as a tool to boost manga sales.
Sho Tsukikawa (You Shine in the Moonlight) is directing from a script penned by Tatsurō Mishima (Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead).
The cast for the adaptation includes Takumi Kitamura (Let Me Eat Your Pancreas, Tokyo Revengers) as Yusuke Urameshi, Shuhei Uesugi (Followers) as Kuwabara, Jun Shison (Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day) as Kurama and Kanata Hongō (Shin Kamen Rider) as Hiei.
Additionally, Kotone Furukawa portrays Botan and Keita Machida (Alice in Borderland) plays Koenma.
In a bit of inspired casting, Meiko Kaji of Lady Snowblood fame portrays Genkai while Gô Ayano (Rage The Snow White Murder Case) plays the indomitable YoungerToguro Brother.
The official series synopsis from Netflix reads, "The series follows Yusuke, a tearaway teenager who dies trying to save a young boy from being hit by a speeding car. As he looks down at his body from the afterlife, Yusuke meets a woman named Botan (Kotone Furukawa), who guides him to the spirit world. She tells Yusuke that his death was premature and unexpected, but that no one would’ve ever believed a troubled kid like him could perform such a selfless act — so there’s no place for him in heaven or hell. Yusuke is then given the opportunity to be revived after completing a trial, allowing him to be sent back to the human world to investigate demons as an Underworld Detective."