Yu Yu Hakusho (2023)

"Before you start complaining, why not start practicing?"

Yu Yu Hakusho had considerable story to tell with numerous characters in a very short amount of time. For the most part, and for someone completely unfamiliar with the source material, it succeeded.

The story was streamlined and relatively cohesive. The main characters and their characteristics were fired out with the speed of a 22. Yusuke was the tough rebellious teenager who helped out those in distress but didn’t want anyone to know it. Keiko had been friends with Yusuke since childhood and knew all of his foibles and strengths. Kuwabara was Kusuke's rival who couldn’t help but respect the opponent he desperately wanted to beat. After the accident that transformed Kusuke’s life, a plethora of Yokai and supernatural beings were brought in as well as the requisite human baddies.

YYH covered enemies to friends, training sessions, coming of age, and the old end of the world ploy. I enjoyed the enemies to friends and strangers to friends storylines. There were backstories and characters given short shrift, but in a 5 episode drama they did a fairly good job of forming the characters. The hair and costume colors were bold. I have found it helpful when watching dramas or movies based on anime to think of them like Western superhero movies. The flamboyant hairstyles and costumes make much more sense to me now. At least no one was wearing yellow spandex, although Koenma’s pacifier was truly bizarre. One of those things that might work better in animation than live action. The CGI was well done for a drama and there was plenty of it. The episodes kept things moving with fights using supernatural weapons and abilities. The battles pulled double duty by covering up a basic story. If there was a drawback to the fights, a few of them went on too long. The acting was all over the place, from competent to-adequate, completely over-the-top, and barely registering a pulse.

Yu Yu Hakusho felt more like a long movie in some ways rather than a very short drama. As in a movie, characters were given just enough development to differentiate them and understand their motivations. With a myriad of characters involved, both good and evil, the writers managed to wedge in as much backstory and world building as they could. Overall, I found this supernatural fantasy to be comprehensible and entertaining with the forged friendships and creative fights being the highlights.

27 Dec 2023

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Full of action without a soul!

Before I start my review, I want to say something, so people can understand why I think, this is just another below average Japanese adaption!

I LOVE Yu Yu Hakusho since I was 10! I still remember that every week when the new episode aired in my country, I recorded every episode on my VHS. Yes, I'm that old, I used a VCR.? Then I watched all the 112 episodes, over and over again. I've seen the anime at least 50 times. So, when I say, YYH is my favorite Anime, I'm not exaggerating at all. When I first saw the trailer for this adaptation, my first thought was that it looks cheap, like basically every Shounen Fight adaptation that was made in Japan. Even tho the casting looked good, and the best part in this adaptation is the cast and the acting, I don't think I can name other positives.

The worst thing in this show is not the fact that it's only 5 episodes. They literally adapted 66 episodes from the anime in 5 episodes! Okay, okay, technically this isn't true, because they left out some side-stories, not to mention important characters and backstories. The worst part is not this. The fact is, if you never watched the anime, I don't think you're going to feel anything towards the characters. Sometimes it made me emotional, BUT only because I know these characters already, and I know why those things happened. Also, why these characters acted like the way they did.

If you never watched the anime, maybe you'll feel that it was a fun, because it is action packed and there's no slowing down, not even for a second. Still, I don't think you will have any connection with the characters. This adaptation is like a recap of 66 episodes. You will know the basics, but what's the point watching a recap when you can watch the whole story with real emotions, and you can see the whole journey and character developments? Not to mention, you'll understand why these characters became friends. They completely left that out from the show. This is like when you play an online game with strangers. They're not your real friends, but it's still fun, except that you will forget about them after you closed the game. This show is exactly like that!

So, yeah, it's not bad, but you're going to forget everything and everyone after you finished it.
I don't see the point of having another recap season. The best part in this show is the fight scenes, the acting, and the fact it will make people watch the anime!

Lastly, I have to say that the OST (the songs and the score too) was boring. One of the best part of the anime is the score!
Also, the VFX is not always bad, but it wasn't anything special. It's a typical Japanese CGI anime adaptation.

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