Live-Action Yu Yu Hakusho Adaptation Casts Hiei & Kurama

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Live-Action Yu Yu Hakusho Adaptation Casts Hiei & Kurama

After finding the lead actor for the upcoming live-action Yu Yu Hakusho series, Netflix has found its Hiei and Kurama.

In a recent announcement, Netflix confirmed that Kanata Hongō would be taking up the role of Hiei in the upcoming series. Hongō has previously starred in the live-action versions of Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Gantz. Now he will be adding another legendary anime to his résumé as he joins a cast that already stars Takumi Kitamura (Yusuke Urameshi) and Jun Shison (Kurama).

In the anime and manga, Hiei is one of the series’ main characters, and has the power of the “Evil Eye,” and is looking to steal three weapons from the Spirit World when he comes upon Yusuke early in the series.

The Yu Yu Hakusho manga originally ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from December 1990 to July 1994, while the anime ran on Fuji TV from October 1992 to December 1994. The series is seen as an influential classic in the shonen genre, and its creator, Yoshihiro Togashi, would later go on to create the similarly beloved Hunter x Hunter.

“One fateful day, Yusuke Urameshi, a 14-year-old delinquent with a dim future, gets a miraculous chance to turn it all around when he throws himself in front of a moving car to save a young boy,” reads the official synopsis for the manga. “His ultimate sacrifice is so out of character that the authorities of the spirit realm are not yet prepared to let him pass on. Koenma, heir to the throne of the spirit realm, offers Yusuke an opportunity to regain his life through the completion of a series of tasks. With the guidance of the death god Botan, he is to thwart evil presences on Earth as a Spirit Detective.”