I love this series. If not for the dependance on fighting aspects giving it a weak storyline, this would be at the top of my list. The character development is very rich, and you'll love them to bits (soon or enough). This may probably be limited to male roles however, as its this gender that fills most of the cast. I'm not saying there is total lack of female charaacters. But being that there is so little romance inserted throughout the 112 episodes, I guess they decided they didn't need much of them. Just to straighten things out, the red head (Kurama) in the pic is not a girl, OK? He so happens to be my most favourite character ever, but if you're not a girl/woman you wouldn't understand the obsession.

Anyway, as much as I would like him to be, he's not the main character. Slip your eyes down a little to the dark haired one - Yusuke Urameshi. 14 year old with a naughty reputation in school (personally I think he's adorable). The first few episodes are almost entirely focused on him and how he winds up working for the underworld. Then things get a little more interesting as he meets up with the rest of the gang who looks and also fights more interesting than him (er...minus Kurabara - white shirt guy in pic).

The general sequence is: A villain turns up. They disagree about something. They fight through all the minions and such first ( taking turns, one on one). Final showdown with Yusuke. It gets quite tiring after a while, especially with the fights from Yusuke and Kurabara, then it's snooze district. With all the other fantastic mish mash they conjure up with Hiei and Kurama, theirs pale immensely in comparison. Unfortunately they seem to fight a whole lot more with their 3+ episodes of uncreative barehand fights before they release their ultimate (one form) of special skill.

I don't know, maybe the fighting aspect wouldn't be as bad if you like stuff such as DragonballZ. But even if the fighting did tire me, there were other aspects that kept me glued to the TV. Like the comedy that is healthily scattered throughout the show, the wonderful character interaction and development. Almost all characters, major or minor, are very interesting in respect of attitudes, past and skills. And then there's all the magic (well actually more like special skills) used in battles, and a lot of monster murdering of course. The world of Yu Yu Hakusho is set in the modern era, but it also depends heavily on supernatural backgrounds which I find to be an appealing aspect. For those who need character development, it does also focus on the other main characters more towards the end of the series, and we learn alot more about their past and what the future offers them. I guess they finally figured we'd rather watch one minute of Hiei / Kurama than an hour of Kurabara given a choice, so he's out alot in the last part. (Mwahaaha).