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YuYu hakusho (series)
Synopsis:
Yu Yu Hakusho is the story of a 14-year-old delinquent by the name of Urameshi Yusuke, who gets into an accident that changes his life forever. With Yusuke's second chance at life Koenma, the son of Enma who is the ruler of the Spirit world, appoints Yusuke as the Spirit Detective for the Spirit world. Yusuke is given new powers and abilities to assist him on his various missions and later gains powerful allies to help him.
Review:
YYH may start off slow (believe me I thought I had wasted my money), but around the sixth episode things start to get interesting. In the first twenty or so episodes Yusuke gets around four or five different missions, each lasting anywhere from four and six episodes. At first it may seem that this is what the story is about but when the second saga / story arc comes in to play you realize how different things will be from then on. The second saga is a long 44-episode tournament that has amazing fighting scenes that throw Dragon Ball Z’s in the dirt.
The character development is what made this series so special for me. Yusuke becomes great friends with his rival Kuwabara, who has much honor -- he hates losing and likes to fight alone. Yusuke is later joined by two powerful demons -- Kurama and Hiei. Kurama is a demon in the form of a human whose true powers are brought out when he is in his real form. Hiei is an incredibly powerful and fast demon who seems to be unbearably bitter at first, but as the series progresses we learn of his tragic past.
One thing that I must mention is the villains. There are points in this show when I liked the villains better than the heroes. The reason for this being the fact that they have a great deal of development. One villain in particular is Toguro, my personal favorite. He may seem very mean and nasty at first but at the end of the second saga I understood him as did Yusuke and the other characters. Rather than the saga ending with the celebration of his defeat, Yusuke looked at him and smiled and said goodbye as if he were saying it to a close friend. The fights in this show won’t try your patience like Dragon Ball Z. There’s always a reason behind the fighting, and most of the time the universe isn’t facing impending doom (cough, cough, DBZ). The villains always have something significant behind their actions.
The art and animation start off fairly crappy, but as each episode pasees the animation also improves. Some episodes contain a lot of eye candy, in the way of fighting and action scenes. Regardless the animation is better than that of DBZ’s; it’s also much more gory. What makes the fight scenes better than DBZ’s is how you see fists making contact and the way the camera angles twist and zoom about. Rarely will you see people punching and kicking so fast that all you see are speed lines a la DBZ.
Overall, I'd say it is the best fighting anime I’ve seen. Before this, DBZ was my favorite but this show made me realize what else is out there.
Miscellanies:
When DBZ was making record ratings in Japan, Yu Yu Hakusho was the only show to stay close behind… meaning it was extremely popular.
YuYu Hakusho (Movie)
Synopsis:
When Yusuke Urameshi dies in an accident trying to save a child, he finds himself in the Spirit World working for Koenma (son of the ruler Enma) as a half-dead, half-alive agent. But working for Koenma does have its disadvantages... especially when Koenma gets kidnapped! Now Yusuke and his allies must find Koenma and trade the Golden Seal of King Enma for his life.
Review:
When I saw this DVD on sale at my local video store, I nearly jumped on the rack -- for I had heard nothing but great things about the "Yu Yu Hakusho" series, and was looking forward for something new and exciting to watch. Yet YYH the movie is neither of the two, I could predict the ending from the beginning and next to nothing they gave was satisfactory. When I first heard the plot of "‘he’s a half-dead, half-alive agent" I expected them to make something of it... but the fact that he was half-dead and half-alive wasn’t even mentioned throughout this short movie.
The hero Yusuke is accompanied by very unattractive allies who look like they were drawn up in three seconds, while the main villain looked like a monster reject from Dragonball Z. The art altogether is very boring and could use a lot of work. However, the fight scenes weren’t that bad. The characters had very swift but visible movements which made this more enjoyable. I could have enjoyed the fight scenes more if they’d actually STOP running though! Each character is given one attack, which (thankfully) they don’t overuse to the point where it’s irritating to watch. A bit of brains was even used at the end battle (gasp!), so it was nice to know that this wasn’t completely thought up in less than 10 minutes.
The English dubbing is okay, although there were times the dub actors could have used a little more emotion. You can definatly tell this was dubbed by Anime Works. English voice actors include Lex Lang (Sanosuke Sagara in "Rurouni Kenshin") and Wendee Lee (Yui from "Fushigi Yuugi"). Yusuke's dub voice bugged me, but then again, everything about Yusuke bugged me. I suggest you go with the original Japanese version for this one. The soundtrack is nothing to look forward to. The background music is cheesy and the ending theme "Sayonara Bye-Bye" seems lifeless and flat.
If you're a YYH fan you'd probably want to support your favorite anime, and I've actually heard people give this movie "infinite" stars. Sorry, it just isn't that great! Sometimes you have to go against your anime code and just say what you honestly think of it... even if it's your fave series. YYH the movie is a fast-paced yet below average anime -- no wonder it's priced so low!
Miscellanies:
If you buy the US DVD release of the "Yu Yu Hakusho" movie, you’ll also receive the "Ninku" movie on the same disc. In my opinion, neither movie is worth the money, and there are no extras on the DVD.
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