Let's Talk About... Yu Yu Hakusho

[Avaitor]

Hey guys, sorry, I went to Disney today and I almost forgot about tonight. Give me an hour or so to watch the episodes and right up a piece, okay?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Episode 27 was a bit more set-up and not a whole lot of stuff going on of much relevance, though it was entertaining. That said, once the tournament kicks off, it's a lot of fun, and I especially can't wait for next week's episodes.

As usual, though, I can't really give you a write-up until tomorrow.

[Spark Of Spirit]

No hurry, it's mostly set-up this week.

[Avaitor]

"The Dark Tournament Begins" is pretty self-explanatory. The Dark Tournament, well, begins. It helps to give us an idea of what to expect from Team Urameshi's mysterious masked fighter, who kicks ass. But yeah, come on, Kuwabara wasn't wrong with his assumption at all. We all know this.

But the episode is important for Botan coming clean to Keiko and Shizuru about Yusuke and Kuwabara's whereabouts. Shizuru, sharing her brother's gift, is a little more aware of their exploits, but this is big for Keiko, as she's about to get more into this world. Otherwise, it's a solid, if average, prep episode.



"First Fight" is another basic episode title, but one that works well enough, as we get to see most of a pretty satisfactory introduction fight.

We met Rinku, along with the rest of Team Rokuyukai, in the previous episode, but this shows how he's able to make it into such a tough tournament. His little kid act is a great bluff, as he's pretty smart with his tactics,  and that's what keeps things going.

But I also like how we get to see Koenma's older body in the episode. I like his baby form, but his older form is surprisingly handsome and appropriate. Plus seeing it blow everyone away, including the Angus Young-lookalike demon, is fun.

[Spark Of Spirit]

All I can think is if this was a five on five match, Team Urameshi would have cleaned house in seconds. Rokuyukai was very lucky they decided on one-on-ones. But I digress. Don't want to get ahead of myself.

Hiei's plan on the boat was hilarious, especially when the other combatants stole his idea. Otherwise, there's not much to say about it. It is a smart way to hold a qualifier and is the first indication that Togashi likes to start journeys off on ships for some reason.

The Kuwabara / Rinku fight is a very good introduction to the Dark Tournament. Kuwabara and the audience are quickly shown not too take opponents lightly and Rinku shows there's more to him than initially thought. While it's not my favorite fight in the tournament (that's a a bit of ways off) it is a good one and a great proper start to the saga.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Fashionably late as usual.

27. The Dark Tournament Begins

This was basically more set-up. It's necessary set-up, mind you, as it explains how Keiko and Shizuru find out about the tournament, as well as how the general lay-out of the tournament itself will be organized. It's a very "shonen" sort of story-telling pit, and this show isn't exactly able to escape it (and don't even get me started on how bad it can get with HXH at times). That said, I feel that Togashi does a good job of keeping you invested in the plot, even when he has to get you through the boring but necessary formalities that come with these sorts of story arcs.

One thing that I have come to realize is that, while I do love this arc on the whole, I couldn't convince someone who doesn't really care for this genre of why it's good, and that's fair. Still, for me, there is just something so fun and engaging about the concept of a tournament fought out by characters that I really like. It's a lot of fun, but the fights aren't of the mindless variety. They almost always use strategy that is both simple yet clever enough to keep things interesting, and between the fights we get a lot of great character development. It also helps that most villains aren't just one-dimensional punching bags this time around. There's also that aspect of how a lot of people feel that any sense of filler is bad and that everything in a show has to add up to something else and come back into play in the plot, later. I remember Doug Walker harping on stuff like this a lot in a lot of his reviews of shows, but to me that's only important for the type of story that you're trying to tell. For a very focused story on a grand scale like Avatar: The Last Airbender, that kind of story-telling makes perfect sense. For a primarily fun and more character-driven show like Yu Yu Hakusho, it's all about enjoying the adventure at hand, and it still works because the writing mostly works very well for what's happening at the moment, rather than being overly-concerned with what will happen later. That said, this show does a brilliant job of developing Yusuke's character over time and making it feel like a truly natural progression as it goes along, and it does it better than most other contemporary series in the genre, IMO.

As for Yusuke being asleep due to the intensity of his training, I consider it to be a very fun way to both follow and mock this trope of shonen. The main hero being kept out of the action until there's finally an opponent or situation grand enough for him to show off how much he's grown to the other characters has been very popular in this genre long before YYH even started, and Dragon Ball was the king of exploiting this. However, in this case, Togashi wrote it as Yusuke just flat-out being asleep and completely ignoring what was going on until he's finally needed, which I also find to be mocking the trope since it's basically like saying that the main character "might as well be asleep" if he's going to be blind to all of the struggles of his friends up to that point.

28. First Fight

Pitting the main team's weakest and least experienced character first against the (seemingly) weakest character of the opposing team is a predictable but very effective way to start, as it starts things out slow enough to get you a feel for the basics of what this tournament will be like. Kuwabara can show that he's not such a green boy anymore, but at the same time still has a lot to learn, especially when he starts paying the price for underestimating Rinku. I also really love Hiei's sideline commentary about how Kuwabara really needs to learn how these sorts of fights go down, and that he should drop his honor and play just as dirty as Rinku and his future opponents in order to prevail. We of course know that Kuwabara's code is far too sacred for him to even consider that, but it also says much about Hiei's character and will be a great point of reference when tracking his character development and seeing how he changes his own attitude towards fighting his opponents later on.

Rinku's use of yo-yo's as his primary weapon (aside from being a prototype of something that Killua will use in HXH) is a really great example of Togashi's sense of creativity. This is a world where demons and magic are extremely common and the rules of this Universe are never clearly defined. Thus, why not go wild with the concepts that he can portray, rather than just having enemies being generic tough guys with generic swords or guns or whatnot? It reminds me of something that Bruce Timm once said regarding animation when working on Batman: The Animated Series. I don't have the direct quote, but the gist of it was that in the medium of animation he felt that you absolutely SHOULD take full advantage of the format and do things that were flat-out impossible in live-action. Why limit your creativity? The story and characters will still resonate with people as long as you can connect to them on a thematic and emotional level, but that has nothing to do with trying to limit the capabilities of your characters or world, just so long as it suits the type of story that you're trying to tell in the first place.

At any rate, the fight itself is fun, but nothing too spectacular. It's a good lesson for Kuwabara not to underestimate his opponent, but to be quite honest, it's next week that I'm really waiting for. Both Kurama and Hiei have some pretty fucking awesome bouts in this match, so those episodes should be a really fun watch.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I gotta say that the match against Team Rokuyukai is a tremendous start to this arc. You learn more about Kuwabara and the tone of these matches with Kuwabara, you learn something new about Hiei, and Kurama gets another level to his character shown off. And this is the first round.

I'm still not certain who the strongest member of the team is, however. It's a bit vague in these episodes on who the best is.

[talonmalon333]

I was just thinking that as well. I'd also mention that I think every team match in the tournament is tremendous.

I'm still not certain who the strongest member of the team is, however. It's a bit vague in these episodes on who the best is.

Spoiler

I remember Kurama thinking to himself that Chu "might" be even more powerful than Zeru. But it's never confirmed.

[close]

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think I'll have to pay attention to the lines in future episodes to confirm for myself.

Either way, we're in for some great matches.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Man, things are finally heating up this week (literally)! We get two bad-ass fights back to back, and I just love how we see how cold Kuarma can be when Roto pleads for mercy.

This will be a fun discussion. And, really, there aren't any modern shonen which I can think of that can properly do the really memorable short-fights that just sell you on how lethal a character can be when you piss them off. Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Rurouni Kenshin are the only ones that could really pull that off, IMO.

[Avaitor]

I'm going to do this one earlier than usual, since I'm going out tonight. First let me watch last night's GOT, then these eps, and I'll get to it.

But I ripped the plastic from the second set, and wow am I excited. It's about time I got closer to completing my collection.

[Avaitor]

"Flowers of Blood", holy shit!



And "Dragon of the Darkness Flame", holy holy shit!

Sorry, you guys can probably do better than me. :p

[Spark Of Spirit]

Great time for Photobucket to crash.

Flowers of Blood successfully shows the truth behind who Yoko Kurama really was, and it wasn't a very nice guy. Though Kurama is different in now that he has people he would gladly die for if need be, he is still perfectly willing to kill to protect them. Of course, he probably could have cut Roto in two at the match's start, but he isn't the type to show all his cards at once. What this episode successfully does is show that Kurama is not the softy of the group (which was slightly hinted at before now, but never explicitly shown) and that he can be just as cutthroat as Hiei. Kurama is not only crafty-- he might be the most dangerous member of Team Uremeshi.

Dragon of the Darkness Flame is probably even more surprising an issue. To point out a bit of a spoiler, Zeru is technically one of the most powerful opponents in the entire Dark Tournament and Hiei managed to kill him with (seemingly) little to no effort at all. But what this episode effectively does is put a target on Team Uremeshi as the competition to beat. Not only that, but the Ensatsu-ken is not quite the trump card it might seem to be as we will soon find out. Though this episode was mainly Hiei showing him to be the strongest member of Team Uremeshi (at least to outsiders) it actually sets up much to come later including making the tournament committee very nervous.

All in all, a great set of episodes.

Next week, however, we finish off the bout with Team Rokuyukai. It's a pretty great ending, too.

[talonmalon333]

The Zeru match feels really short to me in that it's purpose was entirely to introduce the Dragon of the Darkness Flame. But for that purpose it works really well and leaves an impression that sticks with you.

The Roto match is one of those fights that works so well for reasons beyond attacks thrown at each other. These fights just have so much put into them. It's funny that it's only been a few weeks since we talked about those Maze Castle battles. They've made such an improvement in such a short time. And next week, we'll see a multi-episode fight done perfectly.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was once again running fashionably late this week due to being incredibly busy, but as always, here are my thoughts on the episodes:

29. Flowers of Blood

So I ranked this as one of my favorite episodes way back when I did my YYH list, and that opinion still stands. As many of you all know, Kurama is my favorite protagonist on this show, and this is one of his key defining moments. When I first watched this episode, I had always pegged him as the clever but kind member of the group. This is what gave me the first taste of the true Kurama that lay beneath the very human exterior that he wears. I mean, yes, he is a nuanced character with plenty of humanity to him, but this was one of our first major glimpses into his truly demonic side.

When Roto threatens to have his mother killed, he is also using his human characteristics against him as a weakness. Still, you can't help but respect Kurama, someone we've seen as a very dignified character up to this point, putting up with the abuse for as long as he does. But then when Roto tries to humiliate Kurama and commands him to lick his boot, I was honestly curious if Kurama would give into THAT kind of demand, which it would seem he'd have to do with his mother's life on the line. But, instead we finally get him to reveal the truly merciless, cold-blooded bad-ass that he is. I just love everything about this fight. It's completely unconventional for a typical battle shonen, and both surprisingly and satisfyingly ruthless. The moment where Roto realizes that he's fucked and begs Kurama for mercy, only to have Kurama casually glance back with a blank stare lacking any sense of empathy and coldly responding "no," was really the part that sold me on this whole fight. And of course, this is only a mere little peek into how dark of a character Kurama can be. I can't wait until we see more about him and his past revealed as our re-watch of the series progresses.

And yes, there is that bit at the beginning where Rinku wins the match against Kuwabara. I don't really have too much to say about that, but it's actually quite a good start to have one of the protagonists lose in the very first battle of the tournament to send the message that this won't be an easy affair by any means. That, and it sets up that Kuwabara still needs to improve quite a lot as this tournament progresses.

30. Dragon of the Darkness Flame

And this is just a damn fun and bad-ass Hiei episode. Sometimes you just need a good, fast fight like this. Much like Kurama's fight, we see how truly ruthless Hiei can be, though this in and of itself isn't really anything too surprising since we already knew that he could be a bad-ass. What makes the moment that he unleashes his attack (the Ensatsu Koku Ryuu Ha, just to correct Desensitized) seem so great is the feeling of impact that it brings to the table, something that modern shonen anime forget to do when they try to make an attack seem cool. If you notice, the animation-style changes just for the attack when it activates, making things seem distorted as if the entire arena were engulfed in flames. It really sells how powerful, devastating, and scary this power is supposed to be.

I also love how there's very little "dicking around" in the fight before Hiei ultimately concludes that he needs to use this move to win. Nothing feels needlessly dragged out or forced on us, which is a rarity among shonen anime adaptations that are airing while their source material is also still running. Hiei unleashes the attack, it's an awesome moment, and then it's all over before you know it. Zeru is dead. End of story. There's just something so compelling about the simplicity of it all, especially since as far as we know, he was far stronger than most if not all memebers of Team Urameshi at that point. It really leaves you in a state of now knowing what exactly to expect from future fights, which is just great.

We are also introduced to Yusuke's first opponent, Chuu. I've always found him to be a really fun character, but I'll save talking about him and Yusuke's corresponding fight and character development for next week's discussion.