December 04, 2009.

Must have!.

Rating: 5
The dark tournament is under way and the team must fight or die! A continuation of one of the most popular anime titles ever made at a price anyone can afford.

December 30, 2008.

The fights continue on..

Rating: 4
This one kicks off during the Dark Tournament, with Kuwabara battling Rinku. Yusuke is still asleep at ringside and the rest of his allies must continue fighting in the tournament. Or face death by the Toguro Brothers.

Yu Yu continues delivering on one of the things it does best, non stop action. Most of the fights are nothing short of brutal. I'm still amazed at the level of violence in this anime. But it's not just the violence that stands out, it's the characters. This is probably the most vicious and merciless group of heroes I've seen in a long time or ever. They're every bit as ruthless as their enemies, which I find to be cool. I've been sick and tired of the Vash's, Goku's, and Kenshin's for some time. Give me my anti-heroes.

The plot is still very straight forward, which is to be expected from a fighting anime(I know there are some exceptions). But I just find it a bit too predictable and straight forward at times. Plus it drags once in awhile a little too much and several scenes annoyed me, thankfully it picks up later. The animation didn't get any better and there are many reused cels.

Overall, this is a nice follow up but the Dark Tournamnet continues in season 3. This set contains episodes 29-56 and there are several trailers. If you made it this far, then continue on because it does get better.

December 16, 2008.

Another winning package..

Rating: 4
Yu Yu Hakusho, my third favorite anime, is being released in these wonderful season sets just like DBZ. This box set makes brings the episode count up to half the entire series!

I'll start off by saying that the packaging hasn't changed from Season 1's box, which of course is predictable. This is a good thing, as the four discs are packed into two thin cases, making the set compact and versatile for space.

One particular flaw with the set appears in all these sets, unfortunately. There is no Marathon feature which allows you to view all the episodes on the disc in order, but removes the "coming next episode" animation, plus the opening and closing credits. FUNimation does this for DBZ and even One Piece which only comes in 13 episode sets! With so many episodes per disc, this seems like an obvious addition, but alas.

Otherwise, the only extras are character profiles and trailers.

Now lets get to the good, shall we?

The entire set focuses on the Dark Tournament Saga. More than half the saga is covered in this set. The fights include: the remaining battles with Team Rokuyoukai, led by the charmingly drunk Chu, Team Ichigaki, three powerful students seemingly controlled by a devious scientist, Team Masho, ninja-like warriors who specialize in elemental combat, and Team Uraotogi, a team of flamboyant fighters using very unique weapons. The set ends as the first battle with Team Toguro comes to a close.

Along the way, Yusuke is confronted by his team's own Masked Fighter who reveals her true self. The identity is very predictable, and it isn't surprising, but it leads Yusuke to take part in a memorable test to prove he is capable of defeating the wicked Toguro. In this test, Yusuke absorbs a ball of pure, concentrated energy, which owing to its power, puts Yusuke in an extreme state of pain. The screams of Justin Cook, Yusuke's English VA, are so convincingly painful that you just can't look away. And the death of a particular teammate brings tragedy and resolve to Yusuke, as the dying tells Yusuke of Toguro's abandonment of his humanity.

Of course, this wouldn't be Yu Yu Hakusho without comic relief. Key comedic moments include the hatching of Yusuke's spirit egg which revealing a less than intimidating creature of hilarious design, a hard pressed battle for Kuwabara which results in hilarious victory after seeing the face of the girl he loves, and two particularly entertaining scenes with Yusuke and Keiko, the first where Yusuke gets slapped hard after inappropriately touching Keiko's behind, remarking its attractiveness, and the second involving Keiko watching over his sleeping body while their friends suggest "taking advantage" of the situation.

The episodes are not without fault, though. The fight with Team Ichigaki is a little too uninteresting, and Ichigaki himself partakes of the "anime bad guy" laugh too much. The fight between Chu and Yusuke starts well, but, unlike the manga, the fight concludes with Keiko making an attempt to stop the fight whilst learning about pride among fighters, instead of being a fast paced brawl without interruption. On top of those, not everyone in the cast is perfect, in both English and Japanese. I generally prefer Japanese dialog, but the original cast has a bad habit of disappointing me a lot. On the other hand, the English dub has a wonderful cast for the main recurring characters, but sometimes falls short on the minor ones.

But if Japanese is still your thing, the subtitles are quite accurate. I know this because they resemble a fan-sub, keeping the honorific suffixes, and translating the name of every item. Unfortunately, like the original cast, the subtitles disappoint me. Not because they're bad, but because it shows how largely unoriginal the Japanese dialog is. Several characters give the same tired lines used in similar situations in just about every other shonen title out there. It makes you appreciate the random jokes and quirks that FUNimation put in their script to give the characters more personality.

Otherwise, this set is worth every penny, considering the price, which is less than a dollar per episode. Pick this up and all the others. The plot is basic, but the characters, the flashy battles, loud sound effects, and memorable music make this series a classic.

December 25, 2008.

Yu Yu Seasons!!.

Rating: 3
I really enjoyed this season. but I wish that they had finished the tournament, instead of stopping before the finals were over because there were still three fights to go!

December 15, 2008.

Fight or die.

Rating: 4
"Yu Yu Hakusho's" first season ended with Yusuke and his buddies coming to the Dark Tournament, determined to fight their way to the finals, and defeat Toguro's team.

So it's pretty clear what the second season consists of -- a string of one-on-one fights, with Yusuke and his buddies fighting a series of increasingly dangerous enemies. There's not a great deal of central plot beyond this, but the evolving powers of Team Urameshi -- as well as some cloak-and-dagger machinations -- keep things interesting.

After Kuwabara barely survives his opening bout with the creepy child Rinku, his teammates square off against other members of Team Rokuyukai -- Kurama is blackmailed during his bout and must use his wits to survive, Yusuke dukes it out with a drunken warrior, and Hiei unleashes a devastating fire attack called Dragon of the Darkness Flame.

But things take a nasty turn when they fight Team Ichigaki, a group of human martial artists being controlled by a malignant scientist. The kindhearted Kuwabara can't bring himself to hurt three innocents even if they are out to kill him -- and the mysterious Masked Fighter may be their only hope. But Team Urameshi aren't done yet -- first they must fight a lethal gang of ninja demons, then a bunch of "fairy tale" figures with lethal talents. But one of those talents causes an unexpected change in Kurama.

Meanwhile, the Masked Fighter reveals her true identity, and puts Yusuke through his final test, which will give him enough power to go head-to-head with Toguro... if it doesn't kill him first. But then Toguro commits a shocking murder, and Yusuke becomes determined to fight and kill him -- now out of revenge, rather than fear. But does Team Urameshi really have a chance to defeat Team Toguro?

The first season of "Yu Yu Hakusho" basically consisted of a string of smaller adventure arcs, with Yusuke working to vanquish the villain of the week. But the second series takes a very different format -- instead we get a series of one-on-one fights. It sounds a bit monotonous, but the various superpowers -- and some interesting side subplots -- keep it from being so.

The fights themselves are pretty colorful -- killer plants, ice, blood, magic capes, fire dragons, tiny tornados, killer robots, and a box that deages its victim. So needless to say, the battles are fairly interesting and there's really no way of telling how some of them will turn out. The whole subplot about Dr. Ichigaki and his helpless guinea pigs is pretty wrenching, although the ending is a bit limp.

But equally interesting are the stories outside the ring -- Toguro and his equally villainous partner Sakyo are doing some behind-the-scenes scheming, and cause a little bloodbath of their own. It adds a bit of spice to Team Urameshi's forthcoming battles with Team Toguro, because a lot more than their lives are now riding on their victory.

Yusuke has a lot of growth in this particular season -- not only is he a top-notch fighter, but he also struggles to absorb a new source of power from an old friend. And he gets his Spirit Beast, which turns out to be... a blue penguin with spaniel ears. But when someone close to him dies, Yusuke's rage and anger are pretty palpable.

His friends also have some power-ups -- Hiei trains himself to exhaustion, so he can master his new technique. And though he usually uses wits and plants alone, Kurama briefly turns back into a cold-blooded, silver-haired demon fox. Kuwabara is the only one who doesn't change much, but he serves as the kind heart of the team -- and some comic relief, such as when he sees his beloved Yukina watching his fight.

The second season of "Yu Yu Hakusho" is basically an escalating string of supernatural fights, but it's colorful enough to not be monotonous -- and the grand finale promises to be even more so.