Related Titles: Yu Yu Hakusho (anime tv series) | Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report: Fight for the Netherworld (2nd anime movie)

Genre: Supernatural | Martial Arts | Action | Comedy | (hint of) Horror
Companies: Pierrot
American Liscensing Company: Media Blasters/Anime Works | Central Park Media
Format: One 30 minute movie
Dates: 1993
Original Creator: Yoshihiro Togasami
Age Rating: Not suitable for young children; 15-18 and up

Synopsis: It's summer break, and Yusuke and Kuwabara are enjoying their time by doing their typical favorite pasttime: getting into fights and kicking major ass. However, their vacation is cut short when their friend Botan (she's actually the messanger of Death!) shows up and tells them that Lord Koenma, Prince of the Spirit World, has been kidnapped! The kidnappers demand the Golden Seal for ransom, a seal that is so powerful, that even King Enma, ruler of the Spirit World, could be kicked out of the Spirit World if it's stolen from his pocession, causing diaster in the Spirit World, Demon World and Human World! Yusuke, Kuwabara and Botan, along with their other friends, have very little time to rescue Koenma, before he'll be executed. What is Yusuke to do? He can't give away the seal, but he can't let Koenma, the person who brought him back from the dead, be murdered either!

SCORE: 72%

This is a short movie, spun off the Yu Yu Hakusho tv show. There isn't much going for this movie (shown together in theater with 2 other 30 minute movies from the same company because of it's short length), and is pretty average and not a bit challanging for the thought process. However, this short film established how the next full length YYH movie would be made.

Plot: The plot exists but is one of the most simple that can be done. Despite the summary of this synopsis above that may make you think that this story could have been centered on the moral decision to do the greater good, this movie is instead, actually pretty straight foward in plot, centered on just rescuing an important person while going through treacherous territory.

So, the plot is a simple no-brainer, geared towards its young male audience. It is filled with DBZ-ish battling, obstacles and traps. This movie is fun eye candy for guys with a simple story, but it does have a plot, even if it is an utterly simple, almost idiotic one.

So, this movie is like a YYH tv episode, except it was like an entire story arc from the show fitted into one episode, and the movie was about 7 minutes longer than an average tv episode.

One of this movie's drawbacks is it's slow pacing in just a few places. However, this bad pacing that drags the plot in the mud, isn't nearly as bad as a show like .hack//SIGN or even the tv show this movie was based off (YYH tv show is great, but tends to be a bit slow dragging the plot along).

Beware though; the humor is more stupid than the usual tv episode (YYH usually never has bad humor, but gets on the verge of being annoying in this movie, unlike the tv show), and unlike the tv show, the main villian is pretty frickin' stupid.

However, this movie isn't bad for a tv show based movie, even if it is short. It's definitly a movie for the fans of the show, and you might have a hard time enjoying this movie if you don't know the characters.

Visual: This show looked like an early 90s video game, in the way the characters fought and avoided obstacles and traps (I had more than one person say this movie looked like a video game when they first viewed it with me. This makes sense; this movie was shown in 1993, at the time when video games of this kind of nature and look were highly popular; think Sonic the Hedgehog. It wasn't unusual for a video game to be made based off an anime in Japan, including YYH).

However, the visuals of course had a good amount of better quality than the usual animation of the tv episodes. All the battles and movement were fun to watch.

Sound: Typical sounds graced the movie, not too different from the tv show sounds. Regretably, all the sound was the same as the show (hell, the movie even opened and closed with the tv opening and ending music themes). So, nothing interesting or new in the sound department, but nothing was annoying, even though some sound seemed exgerrated.

The Dub: E-YUCK! For whatever reason, Anime Works/Media Blasters received the rights to this 1st movie a long time ago before FUNimation received the rights for the tv series. Maybe I'm just used to FUNimation's voices for the characters, but I have no doubt that this dub voices and acting sucked regardless of that. The voices didn't match the characters, especially Kuwabara's voice. Also, there were errors in the subtitling, and when the credits rolled, Kurama was listed as Asuka, when there is no character named Asuka in the entire YYH universe! And Kurama's voice actress was also listed as Emi Ogata instead of Megumi Ogata.

Media Blasters, you suck! As if the dub wasn't bad enough, to get this movie on DVD, you get the movie Ninku along with it on the same disc, and I hated that movie. Grrrr....

If you're a big fan of YYH, you'll probably want this DVD (I did buy it), but stick to subtitles and stay away from the rancid dub!

Dub Letter Grade: F

Extra Rants and Bitching: If you're a big fan, any YYH is great to get your hands on (I'm an example). However, I hated how this movie came out on DVD with another crap-ass movie and how Media Blasters sucked at dubbing and also subtitling. They really screwed up some things. I couldn't help but wonder if they even translated the movie right, considering the other mistakes. In this rare instance, I actually have a lot of respect for FUNimation doing a good job on all the other YYH dubbing and marketing (especially considering their other work is DB and DBZ, which they throughly butcher, unlike YYH). I really wished they had the rights to this short movie also.

If you're a big YYH fan (and I mean, a big fan!) grab the DVD if you can find it. If you're an average fan or just want a glimpse of the YYH universe, stick to the tv show (since this movie is just a little better than an average tv ep).

Whatever kind of viewer you are, at least see a few tv eps of YYH to be able to recognize the characters and make sure the 2nd YYH movie, which is an acutal full length feature movie that is a lot better than this movie, and awesome in my opinion (of course it would be; I am a biased YYH fan after all). If you're on your toes, you should at least see the second movie, if not any of the series, if you pay attention well. The second movie isn't too hard to comprehend, and you'll recognized the characters more steadily as you watch further into the movie.

LOL, this movie made me laugh as I noticed one of those little fan reasons why Kurama and Hiei are a couple. For the good first half of the movie, Hiei, who hears what is going on, disappears without a reason as the Yusuke, Kuwabara and Botan set out to rescue Koenma. He later returns with Kurama, both of them showing up at the same time, having fetched Kurama to help without being told to do so. Boy, did he take a long time to get Kurama and himself to where everyone else was. Being secretive, eh?

Score Comments: Barely above average. This movie is entertaining, but not any kind of "must see" kind of flick. However, if you're a savagely loyal YYH fan, this movie will probably be to your liking.

Websites:
Smooth Yu Yu Hakusho (One of the best YYH fan sites out there)

Have a website about this series, or do you know of a good one? Want me to link to it on this review? Well, the feel free to email the sucker to me! Just make sure to put "Review Link" in the subject.