Joseph Luster
October 12, 2023 
Netflix announced plans for a live-action Yu Yu Hakusho series back in December 2020, and it’s about to come to fruition three years later. The streamer’s official social accounts went live with the news that the live-action spin on Yoshihiro Togashi’s classic series officially has a global premiere date. We’ll be able to see how Yu Yu Hakusho translates to the real world when the series goes live on December 14.
Ahead of that, a special screening event is planned for Japan on December 13. The series is being directed by Sho Tsukikawa, who previously helmed the live-action Let Me Eat Your Pancreas. Tatsuro Mishima handled writing, and Ryo Sakaguchi served as VFX supervisor. The lead role of Yusuke Urameshi goes to Takumi Kitamura.
More than three decades after Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi first captured the imagination of readers, the beloved manga gets a live-action adaptation.
Yu Yu Hakusho premieres December 14! pic.twitter.com/KUpeSuLXPB
— Netflix (@netflix) October 11, 2023
Togashi’s Yu Yu Hakusho manga originally ran from 1990 to 1994, collected in 19 volumes that are available in English through VIZ Media. A TV anime adaptation followed in 1992 and ran until 1995, followed by a pair of movies and two OVAs. A new OVA was released in 2018 to mark the series’ 25th anniversary.
Here’s how VIZ describes Yu Yu Hakusho:
Yusuke Urameshi was a tough teen delinquent until one selfless act changed his life…by ending it. When he died saving a little kid from a speeding car, the afterlife didn’t know what to do with him, so it gave him a second chance at life. Now, Yusuke is a ghost with a mission, performing good deeds at the beshest of Botan, the spirit guide of the dead, and Koenma, her pacifier-sucking boss from the “other side.” But what strange things await him on the borderline between life and death?
