[Some light spoilers for Yu Yu Hakusho in case you care]

So, I needed to talk about this. If you´re a rabid fanboy of Yu Yu Hakusho, please try and let me hear you out.

Hunter X Hunter is my favorite shounen (it´s really seinen, but whatever)-series ever. I love it and I cried many times during the 2011-version, all those emotions, omg.

With Togashi being a mean slob (I don´t care if he´s sick: Tell your assistants how the story goes and have them draw, sigh!), I finally got around to watch Yu Yu Hakusho. I had high expectations, because whenever you enter certain discussions, people will claim that Yu Yu Hakusho is easily better than Hunter X Hunter. I´ve seen many agressive YYH-fans attacking those that thought differently.

So I started watching.
And I kept watching.
And I kept watching until the Dark Tournament that many claimed was the best part of the series.
And I kept watching.

And it SUCKS.

:/

Sorry if this offens anyone, but Im at episode 72 currently and watchin this serious has been extremely tiring. As a HXH-fan, I´ll finish it because it´s obvious how the roots for HXH are in this anime. However, it is not good. It´s really not.

Whereas HXH is exciting from episode 1 and quickly enters the hunter exam that´s just one super exciting moment after another (ffs, I kinda want to rewatch it, now that I´m writing about it ...), YYH starts out incredibly slow. The first, say, 15 episodes are a complete waste of time. It´s just boring to watch these bland characters. Everyone is wearing those simple retro school outfits, there´s no variety, they´re just dressed like normal pupils from that time. Compare that to HXH, where every character boasts charisma and features his very individual design.

Then you have battles. Omg the battles. Let´s focus on the Dark Tournament here, which is said to be the series´ highlight: How are any of those fights exciting?! There are NO rules regarding how powerful a character is. There are no clever concepts, no smart abilities either. It´s just a combination of shounen hero-willpower and out-of-nowhere specialattacks. And there´s never an even fight. It´s always "oh no, he´s stronger than me!" - next scene: "Ha, now I´m stronger than you!" - next scene: "Damn, he´s even stronger now!" , and so on. In HXH, you have both a proper ruleset for basic power such as speed and strenght AND you have an abundance of clever abilities that all have their own rules and limitations. When watching a battle in HXH, you never know who will win, but no matter the outcome, it never feels cheap. In YYH, you know that the heroes will always win and it doesn´t matter how strong the opponent is: shounen hero-willpower trumps everything!!1

I don´t want to call this a truly bad anime, for one because it´s visibly and older series, for another because it isn´t really bad, it´s just ... when you claim it to be BETTER than HXH, it becomes laughable, entirely ridiculous.

So that´s it. Am I wrong? If so, why? Or do you agree that HXH is objectively better? I honestly can´t see it any other way. Calling YYH the better series reeks of blind nostalgia imo.