Unfortunately for you guys, nobody stepped up to the plate this week so y’all get to deal with me again. This week I’m featuring another favorite of mine from the 90s: “Smile Bomb”, the funky first OP for the original ghost/monster/demon fighting manga starring a delinquent, YuYu Hakusho.

Before Bleach cemented itself in the minds of everyone as the perennial ghost fighting manga, there was its predecessor, Shaman King. And before Shaman King, there was YuYu Hakusho! Starring the gruff but good-hearted delinquent Yusuke Urameshi and his brotastic crew of delinquents, demons, and magical beings. It was your standard battle manga, complete with fighting tournaments, school antics, and one-on-one fights between the bad guy’s crew and each member of the good guy’s team.

And just like the anime itself, its OP is quintessential 90s stuff. You got your heroes running towards something, the montage of each of them and their abilities, the panning shot of all the bad guys, and even a bit with the hero being injured, but defiantly standing against the unseen opponent. Then it ends with the classic full cast lineup at the end. As if to make things even more gloriously cheesy, a full version of “Smile Bomb” is featured in the last episode, as all good OPs tend to. If that’s not 90s, nothing is.

It was a hard choice to make, between this one, and its numerous great EDs* that YYH featured, but I figured I’d go with the song and sequence that made such a great first impression on me.

And that’s all I really got to say about “Smile Bomb.” It’s a fun catchy OP that speaks for itself and the show it headlines. That said, I’ll gladly stand by featuring the dub version of the OP, sung by Sara White, who perfectly emulates the swooning funky vocals of the original. Regardless of which version you prefer though, it’s definitely one of the catchiest OPs to come out of its era.

*TICK TOCK TICK