The 90s was a formative decade for anime, particularly for the Shonen Battle genre, with several key titles dominating the decade. It’s easy to focus on Dragon Ball Z‘s phenomenal run between 1989 and 1996, which helped him remain a pop culture phenomenon throughout the ’90s. Dragon Ball Z is undeniably popular and serves as a gateway anime for many fans who first discovered the over-the-top action series before moving on to other titles. Dragon Ball Z is one of the greatest shonen titles of the 90s, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best or even without flaws.
Yu Yu HakushoThe anime debuted in 1992 before airing its final episode in 1995, all in Dragon Ball Zextended lifespan. Yu Yu Hakusho is considered a response to Dragon Ball Z and a successor in many ways. This does not mean that Yu Yu Hakusho supplanted Dragon Ball Z as the critical darling of 90s Shonen, but it manages to improve and correct some of its problems. Dragon Ball Zthe biggest problems. Those who felt empty Dragon Ball ZThe pace, character development and combat must give Yu Yu Hakusho a test.
Yu Yu Hakusho has superior pacing with tighter battles
A huge obstacle that every fan must face when approaching Dragon Ball Z is the overwhelming amount of material from the anime. Dragon Ball Z has 291 episodes, and it is also in the audience’s interest if they also watched the original. Dragon BallThe 153 episodes that lead to the sequel to the anime. Yu Yu Hakusho isn’t exactly short at 112 episodes, but that’s still only a fraction of Dragon Ball Zthe length. Even the condensed Dragon Ball Z Kaiwhich attempts to remove the copious filler of the anime and get closer to Akira Toriyama’s original manga, turns out to be 167 episodes.
When it comes to filling, it becomes a major problem for Dragon Ball Zboth in terms of its original stories but also how it complements compelling material. Some of Dragon Ball Z‘s best battles devolve into a meandering mess that loses the audience’s patience. In the end, fans just want to see the fight end and the series continue, rather than it being the culmination of a consistently exciting fight. No battle should last for dozens of episodes. It is impossible to maintain this level of tension. Yu Yu Hakusho is smart enough to deliver tighter fights that still feel important and generate high-stakes drama without lasting longer than necessary.
In addition, Yu Yu Hakusho is just a generally tighter, better-paced series. It explores four central sagas in 112 episodes, while Dragon Ball Z is divided into four major sagas spread across nearly three times as many episodes. Yu Yu Hakusho not only lacks superfluous filler episodes; it even goes low-key with some of the hairier storytelling elements from the source manga. There are actually changes to the beginning of the Spirit Detective saga in order to get Yu Yu Hakusho into its signature material more quickly. There is something to be said for the enormous scope that Dragon Ball Z covers, but it also leads to the lazy trope of a big time jump in order to create new drama and push the characters to new places. Dragon Ball Z stoops to free time jumps repeatedly as a means of soft resetting. Yu Yu Hakusho avoids this temptation and centralizes its story on a more condensed period. This has its own natural limits, but none of them are more intense than any of the others. Dragon Ball ZIt’s pacing issues.
Yu Yu Hakushothe story, in addition to being tighter than Dragon Ball Z‘s narration also visits increasingly dark places. This occurs to some extent in Dragon Ball Zbut Toriyama’s gag comedy impulses continue to come out at the Buu saga’s weirdest moments. These comedic elements are often at odds with the rest of the story. It’s mind-boggling to see Old Kai make lewd jokes or see Buu and Gotenks get caught in an absurdly comical confrontation, only for an innocent dog to get shot or the Earth to explode in the same sequence of episodes. This tonal boost is never a problem in Yu Yu Hakusho. There is never a temptation for gags that risk defusing dramatic moments. Yu Yu Hakusho is definitely a less funny shonen series than Dragon Ball Z. It’s not a problem when the serious moments, like Yu Yu HakushoThe more grounded and permanent approach to death resonates so strongly.
Yu Yu Hakusho offers stronger character development and power scaling between a balanced cast
Dragon Ball Z has a beloved cast of eclectic characters. That being said, it’s no secret that the anime is gradually becoming obsessed with Saiyans, who quickly become the only characters strong enough to do anything meaningful in combat. This limits many Dragon Ball ZThe narration of Goku, Vegeta or Gohan is forced to take the spotlight and do the lion’s share of the heavy lifting. While this is a generous assessment of the situation, more often than not, it’s Goku alone who stands out. Dragon Ball Zthe biggest and strongest hero. Yu Yu Hakusho makes no secret of the fact that Yusuke Urameshi is its main character and strongest fighter. However, it also ensures that the rest of its central heroes – Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama – all get their moments to shine. This also feeds into a more natural style of power scaling where everyone is in a relatively equal position instead of one or two characters towering over everyone.
Yu Yu HakushoThe cast of is naturally smaller than Dragon Ball Zbut he uses this to his advantage, to make each character feel important. There are enormous emotional, psychological and physical obstacles that everyone overcomes. Yusuke’s revelations towards Yu Yu HakushoThe ending regarding his true origins may seem a bit routine. Yu Yu Hakusho don’t milk this moment and come across as a manipulative cheater. It’s treated as a traumatic breakthrough rather than a purely powerful development. Even just knowing that Yusuke’s predecessor, Spirit Detective, was taunted to the point that he lost his mind and became a villain is fascinating territory for Yusuke to face.
Yu Yu Hakusho features many fights that take place in the wild, rather than a structured martial arts competition. Nevertheless, Yu Yu Hakusho specializes in intensified tournament fights. The very nature of one-on-one tournament fighting means that Yusuke must stay on the sidelines and he cannot be involved in every fight. Yusuke will definitely be involved in the finale, but Yu Yu Hakusho‘s preference for tournament combat is a very smart way to ensure that each character gets a proper showcase. There is nothing to this effect in Dragon Ball Z (although Dragon Ball And Dragon Ball Super offer many tournaments that allow you to show off the supporting cast).
Yu Yu Hakusho’s fights are less formal than Dragon Ball Z and with more creative villains
Dragon Ball Z And Yu Yu Hakusho both have lovable heroes, but captivating villains can make or break a shonen series. Dragon Ball Z has exceptional antagonists, like Frieza, Cell, and Kid Buu, who have become anime icons. These villains all work well in a vacuum. However, a big problem that arises Dragon Ball ZThe subsequent narrative is that she fits into a stereotypical pattern when it comes to the villains of the series. There are many distinct characteristics and motivations for Frieza, Cell, and Kid Buu, but they all rely on graduated transformations. In the case of Cell and Buu, they both also absorb their victims and can use the Z-Fighters’ signature attacks against them. These striking enemies get diminishing returns when the same ideas are used, except they’re just meant to be stronger each time.
Yu Yu Hakusho‘s villains aren’t as well-known as Frieza or Cell, but they’re all special and feel like completely original battles that test different aspects of the heroes. There is distinct choreography and strategic elements for each fight. Each of Yu Yu HakushoHeroes have a unique fighting style, which is reflected in the way they approach villains. Yu Yu HakushoThe varied gallery of rogues includes Elder Toguro, Younger Toguro, Shinobu Sensui, the Four Saint Beasts, and the Sensui Seven. None of these villains feel the same way, and there are even more exciting original villains that amount to throwaway fights during the Tournament of Darkness.
Yu Yu Hakusho fans never know what to expect in a fight or how it will be won, while there is a certain framework for Dragon Ball Z battles that become rather generic by the end of the series. The audience knows that there will be long periods of time spent cultivating the aura and going through transformations. Yu Yu Hakusho presents unique transformations for its heroes. However, it never reaches the exaggerated heights of Dragon Ball ZSociety’s increased reliance on Super Saiyan transformations as a practical means of defeating unprecedented evil.
Yu Yu Hakusho doesn’t indulge in energy beam struggles or epic attacks that take an entire episode to pull off. It’s more Yu Yu HakushoThe speed of turning to a more creative approach that delves deeper into the combat mechanics. Dragon Ball Z will never go out of style and its foundation continues to influence new shonen series. Yu Yu Hakusho just deserves to be in the same conversation and a case study on how to follow Dragon Ball Zin the footsteps, but without falling into the same pitfalls.