This is a great series. Not because of superior animation or music. Not because of innovative plots or creative story-telling. Its just fun to watch.
The series grabs hold of you with the first line of the first episode, which goes something like this: "This is our hero, Yusuke Urameshi. And surprisingly enough, he's dead." I mean, if the main character dying in the first episode doesn't pique your interest, what will? After that, the story is one we've seen often enough: guys with super powers fighting evil. Basic, but with good execution it can be quite effective.
I think the main strength of this show is in the characters. Yusuke is the jerk with the heart of gold. He'll do the right thing, but he'll always have a smart-alec remark to rub your wounds with salt. He has most of the best fights, and his scenes with his girlfriend are classic, and usually end with him getting slapped. Hiei and Kurama are just cool, if you'll simply look past Kurama's unfortunate fashion sense (the pink jump suit just doesn't work for me). Kuwabara's probably the best. He's so arrogant, and yet he loses nearly every fight he's in. It's great just to watch him get the crap beaten out of him after his long descriptions of how he's going to win the fight.
The only negatives for this show are some annoying habits they have. They usually pull the old, "There are four of us and one of him, but we're not going to all fight at once and overwhelm him, we'll just sit back while one of us (namely Kuwabara) gets pummeled. We could simply shoot the guy with a finger, but let's let him tire himself out kicking Kuwabara's face in instead." It makes for good comic relief, but gets kind of old when the fights stretch out unnecessarily long. Let's not turn this into DBZ here.
