Netflix Announces Major New Live-Action Manga Adaptation

In recent years, Netflix has been pretty active in bringing beloved manga and anime series to life. From Death Note to Cowboy Bebop, the streaming giant seems to be on the path to turn every available major genre IP into live-action form. Granted, the company's track record so far isn't quite perfect (and what company's is?), but Netflix is very good at learning and adapting. And let's face it: There's always room for more anime and manga adaptations. 

As such, whenever Netflix announces that it's working on a new live-action version of a beloved anime property, fans perk up their ears for news of how the company is planning to go about it. The most recent news on this front indicates that the streaming service is ready to tackle one of the really big ones. Yes, a true manga and anime classic is making its way to Netflix, and it looks like the streaming giant has fittingly huge plans for it.

Yoshihiro Togashi's legendary manga and anime series Yu Yu Hakusho is coming to Netflix. On December 15, 2020, the official Netflix Japan Anime Twitter account broke the news that Netflix and production company ROBOT of Alice in Borderland fame are working to adapt the genre classic into a brand new live-action series. 

Since the brief announcement just dropped, it's still too early to say when the series will hit Netflix and how many episodes it'll have — let alone even guess who's in the cast and who's sitting on the director's chair. That being said, it's fairly easy to feel optimistic about the project, because Yu Yu Hakusho is pretty much the ultimate anime and manga series for a live-action adaptation. The plot follows young Yusuke Urameshi, who dies while saving a child's life. However, he soon discovers that death is just the beginning, as he's resurrected as an "underworld detective" tasked with solving various supernatural issues in the world of the living. Apart from supernatural mystery and horror, Yu Yu Hakusho is also heavy on martial arts and interesting characters — all of which may prove essential in giving it the live-action adaptation it so richly deserves.