Story
Ichigo Kurosaki, a normal high school student except for the fact that he can see ghosts, meets Rukia Kuchiki, a Shinigami, and is transferred the power of the Shinigami, which leads him to take on the task of exterminating Hollows in Karakura Town as a substitute Shinigami... With the power of the Shinigami in his hands, Ichigo gets caught up in the commotion of the world of Shinigami (the Soul Society), and develops dramatically throughout fierce battles.
Yu Yu Hakusho is Bleach, but shorter and with less filler. Both series feature a student, juvenile delinquent who meets a female shinigami and ends up working with that shinigami (who decides to also go to his school often) to help spirits travel to to afterlife. The series then changes to a battle shounen and the protagonist teams up with his friends to fight monsters.
Showing any more similarity crosses into spoiler territory, but the main difference between the series is that YYH focuses more on developing the characters.
I really love bleach! Sure it has it's problems here and there and it lost a lot of popularity after the anime stopped airing, but I still love both the manga and anime a great deal.
The battles are sweet The animation is nice character development is well done ( if we exclude filler seasons of the anime which I deny it's existence of in the first place ) entertainment value is high the only thing I can currently complain about is the speed on which romance develops but that is mainly due to me being a romance fanboy.
The entire theme of Shinigami has pulled me in this show and hnnng I am glad it did, at some point in the series the battles are on dbz level but then based around swords. Sure there are enemies with other type of weapons but it's mainly about slashing swords of all shapes and sizes in different story scenarios.
My favorite arcs are the Karakura Town arc and the Rukia Rescue mission arc. for now I give it an 8/10 this is subject to change depending on how the story ends.