Yu Yu Hakusho Vol. #02

By Dani Moure     May 11, 2005
Release Date: April 18, 2005



What They Say
Yusuke's Back - Yusuke has reclaimed his life, but has only one day to be revived by someone's kiss-And that someone might be Kuwabara! Back in the flesh, Yusuke finds he can see supernatural creatures hiding in the living world, and quickly hunts down a demon criminal. With this move, he learns his adventure is only beginning...

Featuring episodes 5 to 8.


The Review!
Yu Yu Hakusho continues, with another curveball thrown our hero's way.

Audio:
I listened to the Japanese track for my main reviewing, and enjoyed the performances from the voice actors, particularly Yusuke and Botan on this disc. The stereo mix is basic, as you'd expect for an old show, but I noticed no dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

I briefly sampled the disc in English, and the dub sounded quite well acted, though I didn't really listen to enough to form a great opinion of it. I noticed no technical problems with the portions I listened to.

As this is a FUNimation production, we also get dubbed openings and endings. And as they almost always are, these are really good. They're not particularly accurate to the original translations, but that's a lot more difficult with songs than it is regular dialogue. They do capture the spirit of the originals well though, and it's a practice I enjoy an awful lot so I'll always give kudos to FUNimation for being one of the few companies that still dubs their songs.

Video:
With this being an older show, it shows signs of age. I didn't notice any macroblocking or aliasing during regular playback, though the transfer isn't the sharpest (which seems more down to the relative age of the source materials), and there's a bit of grain throughout. Colours are quite well reproduced, and I didn't notice any instances of cross-colouration. Nevertheless, for a show made long before DVD was a consideration, the transfer comes across quite well.

We also get alternate angles for the openings and endings. This means that you can either watch the translated, English credits in the opening, or the original Japanese opening with kanji, and the same for the ending, depending on which language you select from the menu. Unfortunately, FUNimation don't credit the Japanese voice actors at all on the English translation angle, which is very annoying to say the least. Other than that, this is a practice I really like and would like to see many other studios adopt.

Subtitles are in a nice yellow font, as opposed to the white font used on the US discs, and I didn't notice any major grammatical or spelling errors.

Packaging:
No packaging was included as this was a check disc.

Menu:
The menus are simple but functional, with the main menu screen sporting an image of Kuwabara down the left side, with the episode selections and sub-menu options, as well as the series logo and disc title on the right hand side. All the menus are static, and only the main menu has music playing (the ending theme in this case). The system is simple but functional, and does look quite nice and is fitting with the style of the rest of the packaging.

Unfortunately there's no scene selection menu, and a major oversight that’s carried over from the first disc is that Madman have only added a chapter stop after the episode title screen appears in each episode (just after a brief recap), and not one at the eyecatch, meaning the chapter for the meat of the episodes lasts almost twenty minutes. This is an annoying practice that I hope is corrected soon.

Extras:
There's not a great deal here as you’d expect. We get the opening and ending in textless form again, which is nice. There's also a bunch of textual character profiles which are decent if short, and a brief but nice series of translations for the character names. While it's not a great selection, it's not too shabby and I expect the rest of the series to be pretty much on par with this.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With this volume, MVM have caught up with where they left off on Yu Yu Hakusho a couple of years back in its dub form. I never watched the series back then, but it’s been on my “want to see” list for a long time, and now that I am I’m finding it quite enjoyable. While I am often sceptical about some fighting shows, which is what the series is beginning to develop in to, Yu Yu Hakusho has a cast of characters that are entertaining to watch with some depth and personality behind them.

The first episode on this disc picks up from where the last left off. Yusuke’s done enough to be brought back to life, but there’s a bit of a twist. A living person has to blow some life energy into him by kissing him, and they have to do it the next day, or there won’t be another chance for fifty years. Yusuke goes back and forth trying to get someone, from his mother, to Keiko, even Kuwabara, to give him that kiss. Resurrected, Yusuke gets back to his usual routine, but finds he has to give Kuwabara a helping hand.

I have to admit that one thing I didn’t really expect, having seen the first few episodes and part of the story before, was Yusuke being resurrected, and being brought back so early on. I’d thought the series continued in the spirit realm following Yusuke, but not so, and I’m definitely glad it doesn’t. With Yusuke back to life there are some great opportunities to have even more fun with the characters and their interactions, and it makes for an enjoyable show.

With episode 6, things take a slightly different turn, as Yusuke is now as Spirit Detective, and since he has the ability to see spirits in the human world, he works for Koenma to try and solve cases involving those straying from the spirit world, and he does so with Botan at his side. His first mission is to track down three spirits that have stolen three treasures of darkness from the spirit realm and brought them to the human world. Botan equips Yusuke with some new equipment, but at the same time he has to deal with the trouble at school.

The first of the three is the demon Gouki, and Yusuke must battle it out with him even though his attacks have little to no effect, especially after he changes into his demon form. Next up is Kurama, who is far more laid back about things than you’d expect. In fact, there’s a good reason for him wanting the item he stole, as he needs it to help get his ill mother back to full health. But the last of the three is the most dangerous of all, Hiei, the demon with the third eye that’s capable of deceiving his opponents. And when Hiei kidnaps Keiko and sets in motion her transformation into one of her puppets, Yusuke has to muster everything he has to mount a rescue.

The mini-arc with the three demons spans three episodes, and is a lot of fun, providing a real taster of where the series will probably go in the future. While the fighting may turn a lot of people off, and often would me, Yu Yu Hakusho does it well, with the fights thus far not dragging out beyond their welcome. While the fight with Kurama is non-existent, it’s made up for by his backstory which is interesting and unexpected, and also quite sad. It’s easy to sympathise with the situation Kurama is put in, and he makes for an interesting ally to Yusuke in the end.

If it’s action you want though, you get plenty of that in the two fights with Gouki and Hiei, and they’re both really well done. Both play out in the traditional way you might expect from this kind of show, but they also end on an interesting not with the different ways Yusuke is forced to think to find their weaknesses and ultimately defeat them. The conclusion to the battle with Hiei was particularly good, and a bit unexpected which is something the series will need if it’s to try and keep the battles feeling fresh.

The only disappointment on this disc is the relative lack of interaction with some of the main cast. Kuwabara appears in the first episode but is mostly notable by his absence in most of the others. Yusuke’s mother suffers a similar fate, and of the humans it’s only really Keiko that gets a decent amount of time, though much of it is spent unconscious while she’s fodder for Hiei. It’s perhaps a little unfair to criticise the series in this area at this point though, since there is still such a long way to go with the series clocking in at 112 episodes, leaving plenty of time to develop the supporting cast and their relationships. On the other hand, for a newly introduced character Kurama gets a good amount of development, and the Yusuke/Botan relationship is fun to watch both for how it appears to Keiko, and also because they’re not your typical unwanted pairing in a show like this as they don’t bicker constantly.

While Yu Yu Hakusho does show its age in a lot of ways, looking like a series from the early to mid nineties, the animation is decent considering the series' length, and the character designs are interesting and varied to keep things fresh. The music in the series is fitting if rather unmemorable.

In Summary:
While it won’t set many people’s worlds alight, Yu Yu Hakusho is a highly entertaining and very solid series. The retail price is pretty good, although it should be considering the show’s length, and the show itself continues to show a lot of promise. The characters are what really make the series, and the stories have a healthy mixture of drama and comedy that ensures they’re still fun even when things get intense. Having waited a long, long time to see the series, I'm not disappointed so far. I only hope the show maintains its current level of quality.

Features
Japanese Language (2.0),English Language (2.0),English Subtitles,Textless Opening and Ending,Name Translations,Character Profiles

Review Equipment
Philips 28" Pure Flat Widescreen TV, Pioneer DV-464 code free DVD player, JVC gold-plated RGB SCART cable, standard stereo sound.