Let's Talk About... Yu Yu Hakusho

[Avaitor]

"Glimpse Beneath the Mask" and "Ambition Destroyed: A Trial of Light" don't really add too much to this arc's plot, at least on the top of my head, but they're strong episodes, and help to keep the humanity alive in our two main characters.

And I'll get to them later. I have to go now, but I wanted to get the ball rolling at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm not feeling well today and have stuff to get done tomorrow, so I'll post about these episodes later on in the week.

To be honest, though, it's the next few weeks that I'm looking forward to. Team Urameshi vs. Team Masho is one of my favorite set of traditional shonen battles ever. It's going to be an absolute blast.

[Spark Of Spirit]

There's not much to talk about with this match, really. The best part is seeing the Masked Fighter's technique. It's also really hard to understand the power scale in these episodes other than the Masked Fighter is clearly the strongest in the whole match. Also, it is interesting to see just how weakened Hiei is and how clever Kurama remains (which we'll see more of in the next match) outside of the ring.

It's the next match that is the best part of the arc, in my opinion.

[talonmalon333]

There's not much to talk about with this match, really. The best part is seeing the Masked Fighter's technique. It's also really hard to understand the power scale in these episodes other than the Masked Fighter is clearly the strongest in the whole match. Also, it is interesting to see just how weakened Hiei is and how clever Kurama remains (which we'll see more of in the next match) outside of the ring.

It's also pretty clear that Yusuke is far stronger than the rest of them other than the Masked Fighter, at least once he gets back his Spirit Gun.

Also, I'd say this match adds to the main plot in the sense that we see the he Masked Fighter unmasked... even though we don't know who it is at the time. But it does lead into her eventual true reveal. I do remember that, when I first saw these episodes years ago, I had long suspected her identity. And even when I saw her unmasked in this match, my belief remained the same.

Also, I love when Yusuke beats down Itchagaki. Such a satisfying moment.

It's the next match that is the best part of the arc, in my opinion.

That's a hard choice for me. If you are to look at the matches and compare the individual fights, I think the Dark Tournament finals could easily be considered the best overall for the fact that most of its matches are so great (along with the fact that it has the fight that the entire tournament is building up to). But when looking at the overall whole package, there's something special about the match that starts next week. It's the perfect part to just binge watch from start to finish.

[Spark Of Spirit]

To be clear I think all the rounds in this tournament are great. This current round is easily the weakest, but it is a great set up for the next one.

I honestly can't think of one part of the next match which isn't great. Also, if you pay attention, it says a lot (positively) about Kuwabara's power level that we weren't aware of before.

[talonmalon333]

I can't think of any part of the next match that isn't great, either. It almost feels more like a single, big fight consisting of multiple people, rather than a series of individual, disconnected match ups. It's all great stuff, but the second, fourth, and fifth fights in it are my favorites.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sorry guys. I was REALLY swamped with stuff that I just needed to get done this week, so I really had no time to post anything. Even now I'm rather busy, so I'm going to do shorter entries than usual, but still want to do them all the same because I love discussing this show and don't want to miss a single week. That said, I'm glad that it's with more forgettable episodes like this pair that I don't have as much to say about.

35. Glimpse Beneath the Mask

So, the 3-on-3 fight continues, and it's pretty decent action, for the most part. That said, the real weakness here is that none of the opposing characters are particularly interesting. This whole plot with Dr. Ichigaki and his mind control nonsense would make for something more dramatic if it was dealing with characters that we knew more about, but we just met these guys and they have as basic of a backstory as you can get. Thus, as an audience, we don't really buy into anything and just don't care whether Yusuke and company decide to either put them out of their misery for good or find a way to free them from their mental prison.

We do however, finally get a glimpse under the mask. And yes, obviously it was Genkai the whole time, but in Togashi's tradition of playing around with tropes, it's not quite the Genkai that we expect to see. For whatever reason she appears decades younger than we know her, and this raises our curiosity as an audience in a good way, so in that respect the whole concept of the mask on her up until now was not wasted. We'll of course learn more about all of this in later episodes, but it was a pretty neat little reveal that stands out in this episode, which aside from that is just pretty standard shonen-fare.

36. Ambition Destroyed: A Trial of Light

This concludes the admittedly drawn out fight with Team Ichigaki. However, one highlight here is that we once again see some more growth for Yusuke. On a spiritual level, he is becoming far more adept at using his powers as well as sensing other people's powers, as evidenced by him now being able to see the attacks that were previously invisible to him. On a metaphorical level, however, I believe that Togashi is using this to show us how Yusuke is developing a better sense of compassion and understanding for other people. Much like with how he realized that he wanted to protect his friends and family during the pivotal moment of his fight with Suzaku a couple of arcs back, in this case he is developing the ability to empathize with people who are strangers to him, by having an understanding for their plight and struggles. Of course, we also get to see Kuwabara's ever-increasing spiritual awareness help Yusuke get to that point as his struggle to try and calm the other fighters down without violence really manages to get a hold of Yusuke's attention, and after informing him of his vision of their past, Yusuke is able to see his opponents as other, non-evil people who he can help in some way, rather than just as 1-dimensional lackeys to beat up.

Once again, though, this would all work far better if his opponents were actually interesting characters, but as it stands, it's still an interesting development for Yusuke. The rest of the battle and its conclusion is alright, for what it is, but as Desensitized stated earlier, this is easily the weakest portion of the Dark Tournament arc.

Luckily, next week will REALLY pick things up, and the whole Team Urameshi vs. Team Masho fight is not only the best fight of the Dark Tournament, but also one of the best and most memorable of battle shonen in general. It was ingenious from a writing standpoint to back Team Urameshi into a corner by forcing them into another match with five fresh opponents when all of Team Urameshi have just finished their own fights, and not a single member among them is completely fresh for battle. Kurama didn't really take any damage, himself, so he's the most fit to fight, obviously, but he can't possibly last against all five opponents, and you can really already feel the desperation and intensity of the situation at hand. This is the kind of stuff that I absolutely love to see in shonen manga/anime which keeps me hooked and makes me want to come back for more, but something which modern writers rarely seem to do at this point. That said, I look forward to enjoying this whole ordeal yet again in this classic series.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Man, what a great set of episodes for Kurama this week. I just love it when clever characters are backed into a corner like that.

He has two matches in a row and has to fight the second one while dealing with a severe handicap, and yet he STILL comes out on top. If you weren't already convinced that he's a complete bad-ass before this point, then you would be now.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Kurama, Yusuke, and a third character I don't want to mention yet, really show their mettle in these matches. Not to mention, these guys are no pushovers. Other than the finals, I think this is the outright toughest team they fought as a whole.

[talonmalon333]

Kurama, Yusuke, and a third character I don't want to mention yet, really show their mettle in these matches. Not to mention, these guys are no pushovers. Other than the finals, I think this is the outright toughest team they fought as a whole.

That's true. The team only has one weak link.

Also, I think the Itchagaki match is better than you guys are giving it credit for. It's the weakest round of the tournament for sure but I like how it's a three on three match. It's fun seeing them all working together and it changes things up. And I really enjoy the Masked Fighter's unmasking, and Kuwabara getting knocked out trying to save them as well as everything that comes after that. I don't care much about the human opponents but I do care about what it means to the main characters. The match is also only about three episodes which makes it the shortest by far.

[Avaitor]

Hey Spark, feel free to edit this post with your screencaps. I still can't right-click anything on my Mac.

But holy shit, these were great! Weakening Kurama was a great addition for tension, and it has paid off well.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Done!

Kurama took down both Gama and Touya at the near cost of his life. And he's their current most powerful member in this fight. Given that neither are the strongest in Team Masho, things are looking really grim for our heroes.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

37. Master of Disguise

So, Team Urameshi is already in a pickle as soon as this round of the tournament begins. We learn that Team Masho's sponsor has bribed the tournament committee to fix the fight so that Team Urameshi has every disadvantage against them. That includes locking up two of their best fighters under the guise of a medical examination (albeit they weren't in great shape, anyways). Meanwhile Kuwabara can't even stand properly in his condition, Yusuke is half-beaten up himself, and Kurama is the only relatively fresh fighters that the team has. I fucking love these kinds of situations in comics and animation. When I was first watching this arc back on Toonami, I remember this being the point that truly hooked me on the show, as it just kept me guessing as to what would happen next, and how the heroes would find themselves making it out of these kinds of situations in one piece.

Luckily, Kurama is probably the best member of the team to be the one with the least damage, as his combination of skill and wit can clearly make him the superior opponent to arguably tougher fighters. In this case his first opponent is Gama, who has the ability to inflict curses on his opponents by splashing them with make-up made out of his own blood. Not only does this make for an interesting fight, but it also showcases Togashi's talent for coming up with unique and creative abilities for his characters, no matter how minor they may be. Seeing Kurama get all of his limbs tied down with a curse and then still prevailing by using his freaking hair to unleash his
Rose Whip on an unsuspecting Gama to catch him off-guard is a really surprising maneuver, but one that you can totally buy in a series of this nature. Togashi could have just ended the match there and it would've been fine, but he added in the brilliant moment of Gama sacrificing his life and using up the last of his strength to paint a spirit seal on Kurama.

So, by the end of this very episode, Team Urameshi may have one victory under their belt, but it comes at the cost of Kurama now barely being able to move, and on top of that he can't even use his own Spirit Energy anymore. That is truly exciting stuff.

38. Kurama's Stand

This episode picks up right away with the next match against Toya. And with Kurama in a seemingly impossible situation, it's even better than the first match. Toya uses his ice powers to not only attack Kurama from a distance so that he can't get to him and counter-attack, but also uses an attack that's incredibly hard to dodge, forcing Kurama to use his own body to protect the more vital parts of his body. It's simultaneously hardcore and completely ingenious. And I love how, unlike a lesser writer, Togashi doesn't make Toya lose by making him an idiot who falls for obvious schemes, but rather he makes Kurama intelligent and actually has him use a strategy that works BASED ON THINGS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN ESTABLISHED ABOUT HIS ABILITIES. This is something that so many other shonen mangaka don't get when they try to portray clever strategies in a fight. But with Kurama, we already know about his Seed of the Death Plant and how it works thanks to his previous fight with Roto, so when he uses his strategy of growing it out of a cut that he purposely took from Toya in his own arm, we can be thoroughly satisfied with Kurama's victory as an audience because he turned his major disadvantage around by using a clever strategy that makes perfect sense to us once it's revealed.

And once again, this in and of itself would have already been great had Togashi just left it at that, but there are two other things that make Kurama's stand against these two opponents so memorable. One is how his second opponent, Toya, is yet another example of an opponent who isn't necessarily evil, as he reveals that he and his team have their own personal motivation for wanting to fight. Kurama's respect for his opponents in these fights thus adds an emotional weight to the character and his struggle. And, of course, the second thing that makes this all so memorable is that, after having gone through so much in these two short but incredibly intense battles, the third fighter of Team Masho, Bakken, rubs salt in the wound of Kurama's struggle by beating up on a now unconscious Kurama. This of course is possible due to Team Masho's sponsor using a loophole in the rules to force the committee to count Kurama as an active fighter for the third match based on him still being alive (albeit completely unconscious at this point) and standing on his feet in the middle of the ring. It really actively gets you to hate this guy and Bakken and wish for their comeuppance, while simultaneously feeling a ton of respect for Kurama and how much he put into struggling through those two victories of his, which feel all the sweeter because of how hard-fought they were. And what's even better is that you see that even Sakyo and Toguro are ticked off at all of his meddling, yet don't directly say it. I love when he asks why Sakyo is sitting with the demons in the standard seats of the stadium, and Sakyo responds with a great line about how it's because he prefers to sit with an audience that doesn't pretend to know the outcome of the match. It's a great sarcastic little comeback, and I just love it when a smart villain insults a much lesser villain right to his face.

And, of course, this episode ends yet again in a way that leaves you pumped for the next one. You see, when Yu Yu Hakusho is at its best, I feel that there aren't really many other battle shonen (at least as far as anime goes) that can even come close to its level of quality.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I also took two more shots, since they are official fights that I didn't screengrab:


Kurama Vs. Touya

Kurama Vs. Bakken

I also liked that "Kurama's Stand" was not just in reference to the tournament, but where Kurama is as a character in trying to move on from being just Yoko Kurama and empathizing with what Team Masho is trying to do in becoming more than warriors bathed in darkness. We've already seen the darkness Kurama is capable of when pushed too hard, but it isn't something he enjoys being, and strives for much more. That's why he took the fights so personally even putting aside how bad off his team was.

Great set of episodes. But the fight isn't close to over yet.

[Spark Of Spirit]

This week, our hero, Yusuke Uremeshi faces incredible odds for his team against Team Masho. Not only is he outnumbered three to one, but he's the only member of his team not half dead or out of energy, and the Tournament Committee is out to get him! This week, the battle heads uphill as not only does Yusuke have three opponents, the final two are the strongest on the team by far.



In our first episode this week, Bakken has taken down an unconscious Kurama in an incredibly cowardly move that more or less succeeded in getting Yusuke to pissed off levels. Needless to say, this match proved how much of a bad idea that was as Yusuke wiped the floor with him proving that not only was Bakken all talk, he was the weakest member of Team Masho by far and was easily dispatched. Unfortunately, Yusuke still has two more opponents to go and as was stated before, they are the strongest members of Team Masho. Hard matches for Yusuke, indeed.



Up next Yusuke faces Jin the Wind Master, the second strongest member of Team Masho who once again easily proves Team Masho is no joke. Not only can Jin fly, but also control the wind around his body to great fists of pure tornadoes. What Yusuke doesn't expect, however, is not only is Jin really strong, but he's a lot like him and the first person he's ever met that he had so much in common with. That said, it doesn't mean they'll go easy on each other, which ends in an explosive face off between the two the sets the way to the final match. How will Team Uremeshi make it out of this one?

So those are our episodes this week. Any thoughts?