Yu Yu Hakusho

[gunswordfist]

Yesterday, I watched the episode that concluded the Seaman fight. Probably Kuwabara's 2nd best episode.

[gunswordfist]

Just watched episode 77, Sensui's fall late last night/up until a few minutes ago today.

I clearly never seen this episode uncut. Interesting how Sensui said he handed out judgment even back then. I never knew he actually killed all of those humans. And either forgot/didn't know that Koenma trained him. I was wondering if Sensui could actually use his spirit awareness to know exactly what power someone is about to get and he revealed he could in this episode. So that confirms that he'd just outsmart anyone who uses a territory on him (like Reader) and beat them. Loved how the beginning of his first Yusuke fight started.

OK, that was a lot. I'm going to continue trying to figure out Sensui starting by watching another episode.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sensui's Fall is one of my favorite episodes in the series. This along with Toguro's Wish are really good at both exploring the pasts of these villains and also giving you a good look into what warped their pscyhe into becoming the people they eventually turned out to be.

[gunswordfist]

Sensui's Fall is one of my favorite episodes in the series. This along with Toguro's Wish are really good at both exploring the pasts of these villains and also giving you a good look into what warped their pscyhe into becoming the people that they eventually turned out to be.

Yeah, I'm loving how the main villains are getting episodes like this. Sensui's Fall gave me such a better understanding of the character.

Watched episode 78 soon after that. I love how different the Sensui fight is because Yusuke at least hits the villain once by now but he can't touch Sensui at all. The chase itself is kind of humorous because Sensui keeps on going like, "Hey look, I'm over here!" *they chase him.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sensui was taunting Yusuke to follow him on purpose. Their whole strategy was to divide up the team so that they'd have an easier time capturing and getting away with Kuwabara, so Sensui made sure that at least one of them would stay on his trail, while he got Sniper and a couple of his other followers to occupy the other members. As Kurama himself deduced in that episode you just watched, they were basically dividing them up to execute their plan.

Also, you only got to see Yusuke and Sensui have a skirmish here, but as you'll later see Sensui say himself, in his current state he's actually weaker than Yusuke (and by extension Toguro, as well). The reason he's able to toy with Yusuke so much is because he's pure skill. His 30+ years (I think that's how long it was) of experience trumps anything Yusuke can throw at him, because even if he has the edge in power and speed Sensui can predict most of his moves because he still fights like such an amateur. In that regard, Sensui's probably on the level of Genkai in terms of expert fighting skill (the difference is that Genkai's max power is far below a B class fighter after she gave Yusuke her Spirit Orb which considerably weakened her).

Of course, once he becomes "Shinobi" Sensui, all of that talk goes out the window.

[gunswordfist]

I know that's what he was trying to do, I just thought the actual chase was funny.

And I know that about Sensui and was thinking about that. I like the fact that in his current state he's weaker and relies on skill and trying to wear down Yusuke with different attacks he can't defend to try and beat him. I also love how the fight ends with that personality losing it's cool when Yusuke beats him by fighting dirty. That's probably how Yusuke would beat him if he fought Sensui from 10 years ago.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I got bored and decided to honor my favorite shonen anime by listing off my top 10 favorite episodes from the series and stating a couple of reasons as to why each of them are some of my favorites in the series (I'll split it into 2 entries). Now, this is not an episodic show, so of course most of these episodes aren't going to make good stand-alone episodes, but the point of this list is to honor my favorite points of the series, so consider these episodes to be high-points in an overall fantastic adaptation.

Here is the first half of my picks (I'll be using FUNimation's English titles for the episodes for easier recognition):

10. Flowers of Blood (Episode #029)



This is one of the earlier Dark Tournament episodes, and while this arc didn't have the grandest of beginnings, this is the first episode where shit really got serious. After an admittedly weak opening match between Kuwabara and Rinku, we immediately transitioned into a match featuring the esteemed strategist of Team Urameshi, Kurama. This episode is basically a foreboding message of why you do not ever want to try and fuck with Kurama's personal life. In this match, he faces a sleezy opponent called Roto, who knows fully well that he doesn't stand a chance against the skill and cunning of Kurama, unless he can outwit him, or so he thinks. He claims to Kurama that he has his beloved mother under surveillance by one of his underlings, and can remotely give him the order to execute her by pressing the button of a certain device he is carrying. He basically forces Kurama to have to let him win the match to save his only family. However Roto makes the mistake of trying to have fun with the predicament that he put Kurama in, and orders Kurama to offer up no resistance as he mercilessly beats him to a pulp. This is kind of strange to watch considering that Kurama is the most dignified member of the main group in the series and seeing him at an enemy's mercy like this for the very first time is a bit upsetting, especially when Roto finally tries to shred the last of Kurama's dignity by ordering him to lick his boot.

Of course, Kurama is the ultimate strategist for a reason, and without spoiling how he does it, lets just say that Roto ends up paying for the cost of trying to toy with Kurama and his mother, BIG TIME! Most people initally have the impression that Hiei is the cruelest and most cold-hearted of the group, but this episode proves that Kurama has the most stern mentality. If you ever dare to screw with his emotions by threatening someone he loves, you can bet that he will pay you back 10 times over with the cruelest of punishments that he can think of. Oddly enough, Roto meeting his death in this match so quickly is him getting off easy compared to what Kurama does to a certain other enemy in an episode that may or may not show up later on this list.

9. Surprised to be Dead (Episode #001)



The very first episode of the series, and what can I really say about it that already hasn't been said? How many series do you know of that have a beginning as unique as this, where the main character literally dies in the very first scene? So, basically Yusuke Urameashi is a street punk who regularly cuts school and has nothing looking up in his life. His father is nowhere to be seen and presumably abandoned him before he was even born, and his mother is a drunk who's line of work is never revealed but pretty questionable. Yusuke's whole school lives in fear of him due to false beliefs about his persona, his teacher's despise him, he only has one friend who has known him since childhood, Keiko, and even she is regularly pissed at him. The closest other person he has to a friend is his school street punk rival Kuwabara, who he enjoys giving a good ass-kicking every now and then. Of course, there's more to Yusuke than meets the eye, and after being fatally wounded in an accident as he pushes an innocent child out of the way of an oncoming car, Yusuke finds himself in an out of body experience as a ghost, meets a female Grim Reaper who goes by the name of Botan, and is basically lead to his own funeral to see most of his classmates and teachers mock his death, but also to discover that there are a few people who considered his life to be worth something. Its an episode that's not only unique, but really touching, and is the perfect kick-starter to this series, as it really gets you to want to keep watching to see what happens next. I couldn't think of a better or more unique first episode to a show like this, myself.

8. The Shadow of Elder Toguro (Episode #059)



This is yet another Dark Tournament episode. This time its Kuwabara going up against the older Toguro brother. Now while we all know that Younger Toguro was the real muscle between the brothers, Elder Toguro should not be dismissed as one of YYH's great villains. Of course, he's not the 3-dimensional sort of character that villains like his younger brother or Sensui are, but he's the perfect type of villain that fits under the "love to hate" category. Every aspect of this character is sick and twisted, and this episode really demonstrates that aspect of him.

Kuwabara at this point is the only member of Team Urameashi who did not know that Genkai had passed on. When Elder Toguro realizes that his teammates have hidden the news from him, he uses this to both his advantage and for his own sick and twisted entertainment. For one thing, by revealing Genkai's death to Kuwabara, he tries to warp his emotions by implanting distrust of his team in his head for not informing him of her demise at Younger Toguro's hands. Elder Toguro being the sick bastard that he is, though, takes things too far and then starts talking extremely dirty about Genkai, insulting her for not choosing the path of eternal youth and life like he and his brother took, and then going so far as to spew out profanity about his sexual interests in her younger body. He gets so demented with his speech that it even manages to disgust his younger brother and his team manager, Sakyo (and that's saying A LOT). Needless to say, he isn't very bright, and his "speech" ends up enraging Kuwabara to a new extreme, allowing him to really tap into the depths of his power and bring him more opposition than he bargained for. I won't spoil the results of the match for you, but suffice it to say that its not a pretty site to behold. The bottom line, though, is that this episode is great in both portraying how dark and twisted of a villain Elder Toguro is while also being a great character moment for Kuwabara. Basically you get both a memorable villain and hero for the price of one memorable episode.

7. Haunted by the Past/Secret of the Jagan (Episode #099-100)



One thing that I love about YYH is that every one of its main characters gets their own grand episode or set of episodes that really explore the depths of their character. In this case these episodes are all about Hiei, his past, and his distant relationship with this younger sister Yukina. The first of these 2 episodes mainly explores Hiei's past and how he became an outcast at birth. He was born in a clan of all-female ice demons due to his mother having partaken in a forbidden act by mating with a male outsider demon. The elder of the clan feared that Hiei would grow up to be a cruel and gruesome man and bring destruction to their entire village, so she forced Hiei's mother to cast him to his death by throwing him into a river. Of course Hiei survived and was eventually found and taken in by a group of bandits, where Hiei was raised throughout his childhood and grew stronger until one day even the bandits feared his strength and abandoned him. Alone again Hiei eventually decided that he wanted to return to his home village to take revenge on them for their atrocious crime against him, however not knowing where the village was actually located he could only find it by way of the Jagan Eye. Thus he traveled to a demon surgeon known as Shigure who performed an operation implanting the eye within him in exchange for the ice crystal his mother gave him at birth before casting him off. The operation also sapped much of the strength that he had acquired, so Shigure became his teacher and trained him in sword-fighting and general battle skills. After a few months Hiei leaves on his quest and eventually gets involved in other matters that lead him to the current portion of the story.

In the 2nd of these episodes, Hiei is attempting to become a top general for one of the Three Kings of the demon world, Mokuro, as the entire plain is on the verge of erupting into war. However, in order to do so he must fight for the position against the other top contender seeking that position, his old teacher Shigure. Without spoiling much, its a really well-done backstory and conflict, and for these episodes I must give more credit to the anime staff than Togashi as this was the point in which Togashi was getting extremely lazy with this manga and the anime writers had to improvise by filling in new material and still keeping it interesting, and this is probably their best effort when it comes to the Three Kings arc.

6. Toguro's Wish (Episode #066)



This is the final episode of the Dark Tournament arc, and what a way to send off one of the greatest shonen villains of all time. At this point Toguro has already met his death after his intense battle with Yusuke, and he meets with Koenma in the Spirit World to have his fate in the after-life decided for him. Koenma tries to go easy on him with a lighter sentence, however Toguro won't accept it and opts out to go into purgatory and face thousands of years of torture for the various sins that he had committed throughout his life. Before walking off to deal with his punishment, he meets with Genkai for one last time and they discuss their past. I won't spend a whole long paragraph describing it all as you should really watch this episode, but suffice it to say that this episode is a perfect example of why Togashi is so damn good at crafting great villains. You get a lot of insight into Toguro's history and how his psyche was affected when all of his students were murdered by a demon, and how he sought out revenge by gaining power and then entering the Dark Tournament, and basically mutilated that demon. However in his hunger for the power that he needed to get to that point he had changed a lot, and upon winning the Tournament he asked the underground businessmen who ran it to use their top scientists to make him into a demon in order to further increase his power, thus turning him into the very thing that he initially hated so much and took his revenge on. There's more to Toguro's character than what I just explained, but that's just a brief summary of what this episode goes over. Really, its just a great character piece in general.

Anyways, these are my first 5 entries. Now discuss them....

[Avaitor]

I remember watching 10 for the first time and thinking "HOLY SHIT, Kurama has balls". We've already learned that he was a badass before, but this just confirms it.

And of course 9 is a classic.

I haven't seen 8 in a while, but I remember it well enough to agree that it's a great choice.

I need to get the last volume soon, since I haven't seen #7 yet, but it sounds really good.

But yes, 6 is yet another classic, and does indeed show how strong of a character younger Toguro was.

Great choices so far man!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Thanks. It really is hard coming up with a list like this especially since this is not an episodic show and there are so many great episodes and moments that I'll have to leave out of this list, but after having watched the series about 7+ times I selected these episodes as the ones that I feel resonate with me the most.

Ironically I haven't put up any Chapter Black episodes in the first half of my list, but when I think about it the CB arc works better as a whole whereas the individual episodes rely a bit too heavily on continuity to the point of it being really hard to select out single episodes from the arc to put on a list like this. Even so, its still by far the best story arc in the series, and of course you'll see some CB episodes among my top 5 entries when I post that up (presumably sometime tomorrow).

[Avaitor]

Yeah, I was expecting to see some CB in the second half when I didn't see any of it on here. I'm sure I have an idea for some of the ones that'll make it.

[gunswordfist]

I'm sure people complain about how slow YYH starts all the time but I'll never understand that. I love those first few episodes so much.

The scene after the Elder Toguro fight is my favorite Yusuke/Kuwabara scene. Their conversation goes into how Yusuke thinks and Yusuke shows that he does actual respect Kuwabara (I believe there was a bit of doubt to that). Hell, one of the best dialogue exchanges in the series. It doesn't come off as cheesy or anything.

Actually, the bandit leader literally turned his back on Hiei because he didn't respect the fact that Hiei just went from one fight to another and killed too much even for a member of a bandit gang.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I really like Hiei's back story, and I really give kudos to the anime staff for taking Togashi's laziness and filling in all the holes to make it great. It took a 'cool' character and made him great, which is a pretty high compliment.

They did sort of the same thing with Yomi and Kurama, but Togashi didn't do anything with it so the anime staff could only go so far, but it was nice that they tried.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here are 2 more entries (I was too lazy to write all 5):

5. Kuwabara: A Promise Between Men (Episode #003)



This is once again one of the earlier episodes of the series, but it really is one of the best, and the more I see it the more appreciation I have for it. You know how I say that shonen stories aren't inherently bad and can be really memorable when done right? This episode is a prime example of that. It takes place during the first arc of the show where Yusuke is still in the form of a ghost and is currently holding the spirit egg that Koenma gave him in the previous episode, so he has to be on his best behavior as he has been forewarned that the egg will feed off of the deeds that he performs as an apparition, meaning that if he does good deeds then the egg could hatch into something that will be of use to him, whereas if he performs bad deeds the egg will eventually hatch into something that could potentially devour his soul. After a brief introduction the story quickly shifts focus to Kuwabara. Up until now, he has been introduced as Urameshi's rival but not much else was really revealed about him besides that. Yusuke happens to see him and his friends get into a skirmish with a group of punks from a rival school, after which they get caught by one of his teachers, and unfortunately its one of the sleeziest dirtbags in the school who completely has it out for Kuwabara's type. It just so turns out that Kuwabara's friend Okubo, who was also in the fight, has a job under special permission from the school so that he can help support his family, however the teacher threatens to have that liberty taken away from him, until Kuwabara steps in and says that he'll take the brunt of the punishment in place of his friends.

They eventually work out a deal in which the teacher agrees not to take away Okubo's job if Kuwabara and his friends each score more than 50 points on their next science exam. However he also tacks on an additional caveat, telling Kuwabara that he can also not be caught in any more street fights for the next week leading up to the exam otherwise the deal is off. So now Kuwabara has to hit the books while also ducking around every corner as he basically becomes a giant target once word gets out that Kuwabara cannot fight back against any opposition (and everyone knows that Kuwabara is a man of his word). Overall, this is the first, and IMO the best episode to show just how great of a character Kuwabara really is. He's not very bright nor is he very skilled, but he has possibly the most resilience out of any of the main characters in the series. When he says he'll do something he'll carry it out at any cost, and he'll respect any part of an agreement that he makes, no matter how absurd it is. This feat of bravery even manages to win Yusuke over to help his cause, which also leads to one particular funny moment later in the episode where Yusuke takes full advantage of his ghostly abilities. This really is a terrific and honestly very underrated episode in the show. Its just such a classic shonen story done right in just about every conceivable way, and it completely works as a stand-alone episode, as well.

4. The Doctor's Disease/Sleep, Doctor, Sleep (Episodes #073-074)



Avaitor already knows how much I love these episodes. I have to say, while he only appeared in just a few episodes in the entire series (and a majority of his screen-time belongs to these 2 episodes), Doctor proved to be a really memorable and creative villain. This is during the early segment of the Chapter Black arc where Yusuke and company have already made their way into the heart of Mushiyori City. In the previous episode Yusuke had managed to pick up a mind reader after knocking him out in an initial confrontation. The reader then agreed to use his psychic abilities to help Yusuke and the others locate Black Angel (they didn't know the true name/identity of Sensui, at the time, as Koenma had concealed that information from them). The reader does manage to identify the target, but before he can say anything he becomes a target himself as he is knocked unconscious by Sniper, who mostly serves as Sensui's right-hand man throughout the first half of the CB arc.

Now Sniper could have easily killed their mind reader, but knocking him out was a deliberate plan of his in order to lure Yusuke and all of his group to the nearest hospital, which was Doctor's territory. Upon sensing that they were in another psychic's territory in the hospital and realizing that strange demon bugs were flying around (that were basically invisible to any normal people), they quickly split up and spread out to look for their next target. This leads to a great scene in which Kido runs into a doctor and nurse, warning them that their is an impostor among their staff. The doctor seemingly takes the threat seriously and agrees to help search for the false doctor, until the nurse questioningly asks the doctor why he is present in the hospital when it is not his shift. Unfortunately, Kido had his back to the doctor at this point, so even though he immediately realizes what's going on, its too late, as Kamiya (aka Doctor) uses his abilities to cut off Kido's spinal function and completely paralyzes him in addition to wounding him, and also slashing the nurse across the chest which causes her to fall unconscious in shock.

That scene also leads to yet another great scene in which after Yusuke finds Kido's paralyze body, Kido manages to use his psychic ability to stop Yusuke from leaving and spell out the Doctor's name and identity in his own blood. Once Yusuke sets his sights on Kamiya, they start their battle which transitions into the next episode. Now the thing about this battle is that its really just psychological. Doctor has had his demon bugs poison all of the people present in the hospital. Normally to stop the effects of a psychics ability they would either have to be knocked uncounscious or killed. It just so turns out that Doctor can manipulate the hormones and substances in his body to keep himself from every falling unconscious or even feeling pain. This presumably leaves Yusuke with only one option of killing him, but up to this point Yusuke has never had to take a human life before (unless you count the "questionable" defeat of a certain ninja in Genkai's Tournament early on in the series, but he was never actually confirmed dead, so I guess you could argue that he survived that battle). This episode leads to some great moments and banter between Yusuke and Doctor, as Yusuke questions whether he's really willing to kill another human for once, and ultimately decides that he has to make that sacrifice in order to save hundreds more, but I won't say how the episode actually ends. I will say that its really a great set of episodes featuring a really unique and underrated villain, and it also serves as a really good character moment for Yusuke. It also has some surprisingly good animation in some scenes, and overall I think its among YYH's best set of episodes, though for whatever reason I'm pretty alone on that opinion.

I'll try and post up my top 3 entries sometime tomorrow.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I really like Hiei's back story, and I really give kudos to the anime staff for taking Togashi's laziness and filling in all the holes to make it great. It took a 'cool' character and made him great, which is a pretty high compliment.

They did sort of the same thing with Yomi and Kurama, but Togashi didn't do anything with it so the anime staff could only go so far, but it was nice that they tried.

Actually, I really loved Kurama's back-story as well, and had considered it putting it on my list, but after re-watching the episodes themselves, I felt that the staff did a noticeably stronger job crafting Hiei's back-story than Kurama's (though I love both, and give high praise to the anime staff for clearly showing that they care about the series with those episodes).

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yep, #4 was when I realized that YYH was the best shonen out there. If you are on the fence with this series or this arc WATCH THIS TWO PARTER. It features my favorite fight in the series and probably in all of anime, features some great character moments, is genuinely unpredictable, and the ending is both gripping and a bit touching. You know what I said about liking the Death Note ending because it was about good prevailing? Well this goes a bit deeper into that and I think Yusuke grows a lot in this two parter and it really reaffirms him as a good guy when throughout this arc he's constantly painted by Sensui as the 'bad' guy.

I posted the fight scene in another thread and its just so good in every aspect.

I really like Hiei's back story, and I really give kudos to the anime staff for taking Togashi's laziness and filling in all the holes to make it great. It took a 'cool' character and made him great, which is a pretty high compliment.

They did sort of the same thing with Yomi and Kurama, but Togashi didn't do anything with it so the anime staff could only go so far, but it was nice that they tried.

Actually, I really loved Kurama's back-story as well, and has considered it putting it on my list, but after re-watching the episodes themselves, I felt that the staff did a noticeably stronger job crafting Hiei's back-story than Kurama's (though I love both, and give high praise to the anime staff for clearly showing that they care about the series with those episodes).

I like it too, I just meant in that how Togashi kind of cut Yomi off when he abruptly abandoned the arc in the manga that it never really got a resolution so the anime staff had to pull that together themselves. As I've said before, Togashi was REALLY lucky he got a staff as good as this.