"YUU YUU HAKUSHO" is a manga by Togashi Yoshihiro made up of 19 volumes, its first episode was written on 1990. The manga was published in "Shoonen Jump", a magazine of manga for boys edited by Shueisha, then it was collected in tankobon edited again by Shueisha and transposed in 1992 into a television series, that exactly follow the original story with some small additions during the narration. The extra episode "Tokubetsu Yomigiri Yuu Yuu Hakusho Gaiden TWO SHOTS" (about Kurama's first encounter with Hiei) was transposed in a cell comic in two parts published in the anime book "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Perfect file" vol. 1 and 2. The television series is made up of 112 episodes that can be divided into four parts : "Joshoo ~ Reikai Tantei hen"("The Detective of the Spirit World", ep. 1-25), "Ankoku Bujutsukai hen" ("The Dark Tournament of Martial Arts", ep. 26-66), "Makai no Tobira hen ~ territory" ("The Front Door of the Demon World", ep.67-94), "Makai hen" ("The Demon World", ep. 95-112). Some television specials, 6 O.A.V. and 2 eiga were also produced. The eiga, "YUU YUU HAKUSHO" and "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Meikai Shitoo hen Honoo no Kizuna" ("Mortal Combat in the Hell The Bond of Flame"), don't come from the manga and present some new characters (as Koashura in the first and Hinageshi in the second). The first two O.A.V., "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Eizoo Hakusho ~ Ankoku Bujutsukai no Shoo ~"("The White Book of the Images ~ The Chapter of the Dark Tournament of Martial Arts ~") first part and second part, are structured following the same scheme: for each character the most significant scenes from the main matches of the Ankoku Bujutsukai were selected and assembled adding as soundtrack the the respective characters' image songs, collected in the C.D. "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Nesshoo hen ~ Karaoke Battle Royal ~" disc 1 and in the C.D. "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Music Battle hen" in < live version; at the end of the O.A.V. two very short and unpublished episodes (one for each O.A.V.), that don't come from the manga, set respectively during and after the tournament and the interviews to the dubbers of the four main characters (two for each O.A.V.) were added. The other four O.A.V., "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Eizoo Hakusho II" "~ Yuusuke no Shoo ~", "~ Kurama no Shoo ~", "~ Hiei no Shoo ~", "~ Kuwabara no Shoo ~" ("Yuusuke's Chapter", "Kurama's Chapter", "Hiei's Chapter", "Kuwabara's Chapter"), contain the videos of the respective characters' image songs of the C.D. "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Music Battle hen 2" and some videos, edited with some significant sequences from the television episodes with a new dubbing, adding as soundtrack some image songs of other C.D. ("YUU YUU HAKUSHO Music Battle hen 3 ~Makai Densetsu~", " YUU YUU HAKUSHO Nesshoo hen 2 ~Duet & Karaoke Special" disc 1, "YUU YUU HAKUSHO Saikyoo Best Selection Album"); at the end of the O.A.V. the intervews to the dubbers and the very short episodes of the small series "Yume Yume Hakusho" ("The White Book on Dreams") (one for each O.A.V.), that don't come from the manga, were added.

The title is made up by four kanji: yuu is the first and it's also the first kanji for yuurei (ghost), the second yuu is the kanji of asobi (play), the third, haku, is the kanji that means white (shiroi, as koku means black, kuroi), the fourth, sho, is the kanji of to write, but it can also mean book (shomotsu). The English translation of the title is "The White Book on Ghosts' Play", or "Spirit Activities Report" (translation by Project Yuu Yuu), while the translation on the Shueisha catalogue is simply "The White Book on Ghosts" (on the magazine "Animerica" it was translated "The Poltergeist Report").

Abe Noriyuki (19/07/1961) took care of the supervision of the animated series, Kitayama Mari (12/05/?) and Oonishi Masaya (27/11/1959)are the character designers of the animated series.

"Level E", "Hunter × Hunter", "Ookami Nante Kowakunai!!", "Tende Shoowaru Cupid" (all edited by Shueisha) are othermanga by Togashi Yoshihiro (27/04/1966) .