I’m curious if the people who have Yu Yu in their lists have seen Hunter X Hunter? Both are made by Yoshihiro Togashi. Personally I’ve only seen a little bit of Yu Yu. I tried to go back and watch it but the quality is just too old/bad for me. It needs a makeover like HxH (2011) got.
I have them both on my list, I like Yu Yu Hakusho better. Like shows such as Berserk and many others, Yu Yu Hakusho has aged in terms of animation. That said, the show has a lot of style and for the most part, the voice acting is very good, and of course I like the story. I think it captures emotion very well and Yusuke is fantastic as a character. I find him more relatable then any other anime protagonist. Also, Kuwabara is the greatest character in all of anime free. And just to say, I would have put Berserk on my list if it wasn't for the animation. But while Yu Yu Hakusho isn't always perfect, I think it did a good enough job for it's time that I don't take points away for the animation. I definitely think you should just to just kind deal with the animation if it bothers you, the show is great and if you loved HxH then you're probably gonna like both.
It's not hard to tell that the same guy made both series when you watch the animes. They both are your "coming of age" shonen stories, they both have kickass music, they both have interesting worlds with unique mechanics to build fights around, they both end abruptly but satisfyingly, they both manage to keep introducing great characters all the way until the end and so on and so forth. Yu Yu Hakusho is more of a traditional shonen while Hunter X Hunter goes with more of a deconstructive route and challenges your expectations. I think HxH is fantastic and was more ambitious then Yu Yu Hakusho but I just enjoy Yusuke's adventures more.
I'll also mention that while shows like Yu Yu/Berserk have aged, it still surprised me how modern shows manage to look worse at times while having access to all of these tools. So many shows these days look like they were made in photoshop, it's like they are just chucking low detail character models on top of a green screen background. Well TBH that's almost exactly what they do and it shows.(Love you DBSuper but I'm looking at you!) The old shows tend to use more hand drawn animation and stills so while they do have animation issues(at least by today's standards) they don't have that issue of style as often. More modern shows that nail it IMO would be something like One Punch Man(which is just a super fun animation showcase at times) and Mob Psycho which really amps up the artstyle.
And shoutout to the new season of Jojo, just missed my top 5 but that show is rad as hell. Another show that knows how to use style.
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