So, the first thing you need to know about Yu Yu Hakusho is that it has two English versions and a Japanese versions

The first version – the early-2000s Toonami dub – is the one you’re probably the most familiar with because it was the one that reached the widest audience. It came on at about 5 or 6pm Eastern Standard Time every weekday, which was right as most kids got out of school and ate dinner. The second version, which is the Adult Swim dub that came on after most kids were already in bed, aired some time before that, and was cut short in part because the Toonami dub already existed and it didn’t make much sense to air the same show twice.

I’ll only discuss the English dubs (in particular, the Toonami dub) in this post. The rest of this series will be about the Sub version for a few reasons which I won’t mention here. I do feel it necessary to mention that I first watched the Toonami dub, but the differences between the Toonami dub and the source content are too intense to ignore, so I thought it would make more sense to talk about them here and now and then move on.

Exposure

The only dubbed version of Yu Yu Hakusho I was ever exposed to was the Toonami dub… and it sucked.

The Adult Swim dub came out in 2002 and aired in a night timeslot until 2003, which is when a heavily edited version of the series moved to Toonami. They aired this version until 2005, which is approximately when the series ended (though many of the episodes were cut because of their content). The original FUNimation dub was alright, but could have been better at points (in particular, Kuwabara needed a better voice actor).

The Adult Swim dub – which is probably the dub that modern audiences can more easily access nowadays – was likely cut short because it wasn’t profitable enough. The target audience of the Adult Swim dub primarily consisted of American teenagers, and for the most part, they didn’t understand the nuances of Japanese culture. This wasn’t such a big deal at first, but it starts to matter more as the series progresses; for instance, Season 1 Episode 3, which is called “Kuwabara: A Promise Between Men,” spends a significant amount of time explaining why a kid who’s in Junior High would have been allowed to get a part-time job, which has been illegal in the United States since 1938 (look at the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 for more information about this).*
This problem gets exponentially worse as the series progresses because most of Yu Yu Hakusho’s worldbuilding relies on Japanese mythology, which the average American wouldn’t understand. That, plus the fact that American audiences still didn’t entirely understand anime as a medium at that point, likely led to the decision to transfer a heavily edited version of Yu Yu Hakusho to Toonami, where it would have gotten better ratings.

As it turns out, this was a good decision on the part of the Cartoon Network executives, because Yu Yu Hakusho made an assload of money for Toonami and allowed the series to continue. Unfortunately, it was not a good decision for adult fans, and it was definitely not a good decision for the content as a whole.

Toonami Strikes Again

Which brings me to my next point: The Toonami dub was absolutely fucking awful.

It wasn’t quite as bad as the 4Kids Yu Gi Oh! dub, but it was still pretty fucking bad. Many of the dirty jokes got cut out or changed, the violence was censored to the point that important moments (like Genkai’s death in the Dark Tournament Arc) lost their gravity, and they cut a lot of things that ultimately added depth and emotion to certain characters.

I’ll add more examples of this later. For now, you should remember that Toonami did this before with Sailor Moon in the S season. The fact that they did it again with Yu Yu Hakusho surprises absolutely fucking no one.

Major Differences

Which brings me to my next point: the differences in the dubs really impact one’s ability to enjoy and understand the content.

In the first episode, Keiko slaps Yusuke. Depending on which version you see, she did it for one of two reasons.

1. Yusuke was skipping school. (Toonami)
2. Yusuke flipped up her skirt and commented on Keiko’s underwear. (Adult Swim, Sub)

In the first, Keiko looks like an absolute lunatic who goes around assaulting her childhood friend for being the troubled son of an alcoholic. In the second, Yusuke is rightfully established as a perverted delinquent who takes advantage of the people who love him, and Keiko is significantly more justified in defending herself from him. Keiko’s behavior later on in the series makes a lot more sense in the subs, which goes a long way towards showing what Yusuke sees in her.

This sets Yusuke up for a lot of character development that doesn’t make a lot of sense in the Toonami dub. Why is Yusuke considered a delinquent when his biggest crime is truancy? Why does Botan beat him with an oar when he tests out his xray spectacle on a tree? Why do his teachers hate him? Why does he constantly get attacked by Kuwabara? We never see Yusuke starting fights in the initial dubs, but we do see him finishing them, which doesn’t make sense when Kuwabara calls himself Yusuke’s rival.

The Adult Swim dub clarifies things a lot. Yusuke gets into fights because he started fights in the past. Botan attacks Yusuke because he tested his xray spectacle out on Botan, not on a tree. His teachers hate him because he skips school, drives down test scores, and is constantly getting into fights with seemingly law-abiding students for no reason. He’s also likely involved in his mother’s Yakuza work, which goes a long way towards explaining why he can’t just be a law abiding citizen like everyone else.

Instead of being a one-dimensional Gary Stu, Yusuke becomes a flawed, immature hero that we can relate to. His character needs the dimension in order for his progression to make sense. Yusuke becomes much more respectful of women, he develops alliances with powerful people like Genkai, and it’s discovered that he belongs to a lineage that includes a demon and his lover, who ate corpses to produce powerful vaccines in her blood.

The manga makes it very clear that Raizen isn’t fucking his lover because she’s sexy. She strips in front of Raizen to demonstrate that she is literally rotting from the inside out, not because she wants to bang him. The fact that they do in fact bang is a testament to Raizen’s feelings for this strange, taboo, altruistic woman, not to his ability to get it up, and it’s actually a deeply romantic part of the anime that Toonami did not do justice.

Furthermore, the entire Rescue Yukina arc was watered down to such an extent that no one could really figure out why Yusuke was risking his life to rescue Yukina in the first place. Why risk that kind of interference? I don’t recall everything that happened in the Rescue Yukina arc, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t show all the torture scenes; they show the fact that she’s trapped by a bunch of talismans, but Toonami did not show that scene where the Toguro brothers murder Yukina’s pet birds in front of her (jump to 14:45). It’s a miracle they didn’t cut the entire Rescue Yukina arc, to be honest.

In the Romantic Relationship Category:

• Shizuru Kuwabara falls in love with Sakyo. They probably don’t bang, but they do want to bang, and this is important for… some reason. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the Toonami dub at all.
• Atsuko Urameshi is probably either a sex worker or a Yakuza boss. It’s highly implied to be the former in the anime; in the manga, they basically state that it’s the latter.
• Genkai and Younger Toguro were banging before he became a demon. This is a fact. They were probably actually married, since they owned a dojo together, but it’s abundantly clear that the two of them were lovers.
• In the Chapter Black saga, Itsuki (who’s a villain) is shown to be extremely devoted to Sensui. It’s stated that the two of them are in a romantic/sexual relationship in the Adult Swim dub and in the manga.
• Hiei and Mukuro are probably in some kind of sexual/romantic relationship. How do they establish this? Well, Mukuro strips in front of him to show him the scars from where she doused herself in acid to escape her sexually abusive father. I wish I was making that up.
• In the manga, Kurama falls in love with a human girl named Maya. He doesn’t act on this, however, because he’s a demon and she would probably die if he did so. Unfortunately, this wasn’t good enough, because she got kidnapped and was nearly murdered by one of Kurama’s old enemies.

(To Be Continued)

Notes

Though it is feasible that a kid under the age of 14 would have been allowed to get a job in the United States, the hours would be restricted to such an extent that the job wouldn’t provide much more than pocket money. It’s also entirely likely that a 14-year-old would have been denied a worker’s permit, as most American high schools don’t allow people to get worker’s permits until the age of 16.

It’s explicitly stated that Okubo is working to provide enough money for his family to buy food, which means that Okubo is working longer hours than would be allowed in the United States. There are exceptions to this rule (for instance, 14-year-olds are allowed to work on farms or for a family business), but those exceptions clearly do not apply here, as Okubo is working in a supermarket.

I don’t know if Okubo had to lie about his age or if he’s actually 15 at the start of the series, but it doesn’t matter, because school officials know about Okubo’s job (thus the entire plot of the episode). Most Junior High schools in Japan wouldn’t allow Okubo to work unless there was evidence of significant hardship and evidence that Okubo isn’t allowing his job to interfere with his studies; from what I understand, it’s actually pretty difficult to get a Junior High school to agree to this kind of arrangement, and permission can be revoked at any time. It’s also important to note that Junior High lasts for four years in Japan rather than three, so it’s somewhat likely that Okubo would have been fifteen before leaving Junior High. This can be done whether or not Okubo decides to stop attending classes, as either way Okubo is still considered a student at Sarayashiki Junior High and will be until he officially “graduates”.

Thus, why Okubo was allowed to work in the first place.