Sunday, December 7, 2008

Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie – Ging’s Large Short Serious Business Review #8

Yu_Yu_Hakusho screenshot Ultra on2 copy

Synopsis: Yusuke Urameshi, a spirit detective (one who fights evil demons who enter human world to cause havoc) and his partner Kuwabara and their demon pals Kurama and Hiei receive a case from spirit world (the equivalent to Heaven…?). They must save their earth from the lord of the netherworld and his goods.

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Plot: Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie is supposed to be an anime based off of a shonen fighting show that I hold dearly to my heart: Yu Yu Hakusho. The problem starts with the plot: Yusuke, a spirit detective and his friends get a case to stop the lord of the netherworld from taking over the world. Sounds good but there is no such thing as the netherworld in the actual show….and this could not possibly take place at any point in the show because some characters have powers obtained near the end of the series and some have their starting powers. Not to mention this couldn't have happened in-between story arcs because they are all so tightly woven together. However, as a stand alone movie without a series the plot is just bad as opposed to horrible. Either way, it sucks. 3/10

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Characters: The characters pissed me off. They didn’t act like the characters from the show. Plus they added characters that completely contradict the final story arc of the series (Yoko’s past). The characters were not explained at all, which isn't common for this kind of movie but at the same time, it seems to be somewhat important. The villains are shallow and painfully generic as well, with the exception of the odd choice of dialogue. (see title image). Another random thing I noticed was that every female character was beaten (some more than once) and they don't even fight. In summary of the characters section: they all were nothing like the characters you knew from the show and the villains are standard uninteresting characters like the ones found in one episode story arcs of Power Rangers. 3/10

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Sound: The music used was actually stolen directly from the show, but changed in pitch slightly most likely to avoid lawsuits. Lucky for them the music is actually good. It gave me a poorly tuned sense of the emotional tension I get when watching Yu Yu Hakusho. Unfortunately they fucked it up by putting it the incorrect scenes. 5/10

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Animation: Guess what? They didn't completely screw up the animation. Shocking, I know. While it is different than the show, it is expected (different companies). It is very similar to the series' animation but with a few noticeable differences. It didn’t do enough to bother me though. Yet at the same time, the battle animation was not nearly good enough. 6.5/10

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Overall, the show is a clusterfuck of a thrown out arc, a different company, poor direction, and a complete misunderstanding of what Yu Yu Hakusho is. They did some things with the show that I personally will never understand, especially the dialogue and plot. It is clear not a lot of thought was put into this and the outcome shows. Having seen the dubs and subs I would have to say if you want to actually watch this stay away from the dubs, they will make your experience 1000 times worse. I urge Yu Yu fans to stay away from this. Overall Rating: 4/10

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