Los Angeles: A live-action drama series based on the popular Japanese manga “Yu Yu Hakusho” has been released on Netflix, incorporating cutting-edge visual effects that made it possible to recreate supernatural elements in the original work.

The first live-action adaptation of “Yu Yu Hakusho,” originally created by manga artist Yoshihiro Togashi, made the debut Thursday three decades after Togashi started the manga series in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1990.

“We were finally able to create it,” said Kazutaka Sakamoto, executive producer for the adaptation at Netflix’s Japanese arm.

At the center of the drama’s story is a battle between main character Yusuke Urameshi and the Toguro brothers. Without changing the shape of their faces, the younger Toguro can expand his muscles and the elder Toguro can distort his body, which were the most difficult things to recreate visually from the original manga in a way that appears realistic.

What made this possible was production company Scanline VFX’s volumetric capture technology.

In a studio in Los Angeles, 170 cameras were placed around actors to capture their head movements and facial expressions simultaneously from various angles in order to produce high-definition 3D data. The data were then connected to the computer graphic images of their bodies from the neck down.

Actor Go Ayano, who played the role of the younger Toguro, is quoted as saying that the technology gave him a “luxurious” opportunity because he only needed to focus on his face, while he usually pays attention literally down to his fingertips when he plays a role.

While advanced technologies broaden what visual works can express, they are also feared to affect actors’ work.

Sakamoto, however, realized through the making of the “Yu Yu Hakusho” drama that “only live actors can make an appeal with just their eyes.” He said that visual effects only reinforce their performances.

JIJI Press