Related Titles: Yu Yu Hakusho (anime tv series) | Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie (1st anime movie)

Genre: Supernatural | Martial Arts | Action | Comedy | (hint of) Horror
Companies: Pierrot
American Liscensing Company: U.S. Manga Corps.
Format: One 93 minute movie
Dates: 1994
Original Creator: Yoshihiro Togasami
Age Rating: Not suitable for young children; 15-18 and up

Synopsis: Suddenly, without reason, all of the Spirit World is flooded when an unusual rainfall overflows the River Styx. Koenma senses an extreme enemy because of this direct attack on the Spirit World, and entrusts a mysterious item to Botan to deliever to Yusuke to protect. However, she is weakened and remains unconscious by the time she finally reaches Yusuke, and Yusuke and company are left in the dark about who the new enemy is...but not for long. Yusuke and company are outclassed and outmatched by the enemy, and are defeated several times in straight out fights and also with mind manipulation. But, they are determined to not give up on the Human World without at least one, last ditch fight! It seems completely hopeless, but is there a slim, impossible chance that Yusuke can outpower the Nether World king that has attacked them and save the Human World as well as the Spirit World?

SCORE: 85%

This is of course a move spun off an anime tv show. But, it's still a good movie and this one is a lot better than the first 30 minute YYH movie released a year before this one. I'm an avid YYH fan, so you know how much I love it! But, my love for this anime isn't the reason for the movie's score. It is a good movie anyway!

Plot: Tra-la-la! Do we have plot? Yes, we do! It's not a very hard plot to follow, and once again is a very simple one for the audience it is aimed for, set up so the audience can easily grasp the story so the rest of the movie can concentrate on the fights and visuals (and even the emotions acutally).

However the simple plot isn't a bad thing, and the movie is a gem because it actually develops the characters (especially Kurama, when an old friend of his reappears from his demon past, and also Hiei, as it seems his loyalty to his friends is tested. This keeps the movie interesting by not being just an endless battle scene). This is pretty rare for an anime tv show based movie, when the creators of the anime will usually try to keep all character development of any kind out of the movies so all attention will be focused on the more superior visuals of the movie over the tv show and also so people won't miss out on important info if they only watch the tv show. However, this movie was a nice little exception, without ruining anything for the tv audience.

And, as I alway state about YYH stuff, the best thing about YYH is the characters and their personalities, not the visuals or even the plot, even though all 3 of these areas tend to be good. So the plot is simple, but good enough for me if it has kick ass characters!

The pacing of this movie was good. The battles were truly amazing to watch, just for their sheer speed, and they just kept getting better as the movie moved along. Also, the emotional quiet time in the middle of the movie, even if it is kinda out of place and slightly corny, was also paced decently. The movie only became slow when battles dragged just very slightly, and when moments were taken to look at the scenery and to show where the characters were at.

The only other drawbacks to this movie's plot is if you don't know the characters. It is an anime tv show based movie after all, and is meant to entertain the main core YYH audience that watch the tv show. That's why I had to dock this movie's score a bit more once again. However, if you want to sample some YYH (and don't plan on watching the series or don't mind ruining some of the series for yourself if you watch it later), I recommend you watch this movie. You might not know the characters, but pretty soon you'll get to know them in this movie, as they show their well established and very different personalities.

My only problem with the characters was the new female character created for this movie named Hinageshi, who is another oarswoman like Botan. It's very apparent that she was created to fill in for Botan, relaying information (since Botan is out of commission for most of the movie). She did go to the final battle with the four guys, is agile and put up good battles and struggles, but she still crossed me as kinda of pathetic. Of course, I didn't want her to come across as more credible than my fav guys in this movie, and she's not a regular main character, but her personality was too pathetic for my taste, in a too girly fashion (once again, common in anime).

All and all, this movie is great for it's characters, not plot, even thought Hinageshi bothered me. Also, all other girl charcters were pushed aside for this movie, as they should be, not being the main characters and having no fight abilities (Keiko and Yukina). I was disappointing in not seeing Genkai kick any ass. Considering what was at stake in this movie, I thought Genkai would have done more to help. This seems a bit out of character for her, but not really. The character of Genkai has stated before that she doesn't take sides, it's just that the people that she doesn't like and pisses her off happen to be the bad guys.

The battles do drag on a bit longer than they should, but they also surprise me, considering how many times I thought the movie was already over, and I would find out it wasn't. That wasn't necessarily bad, as each battle got better then the last one. However, if too much hand to hand and power battling bores you really quick, you'll have to have patients to finish this movie. I get bored with too much battling too, but this movie's fights kept me interested pretty intently, so give the action a chance.

The resolving scenes were funny almost because of their almost corniness. But it wasn't bad. Besides, all anime needs to be made fun of, no matter what it is. YYH is one of my favs, and I rip it new ones all the time. LOL ^_^

Visual: Of course, the visuals of this movie is better than the tv show by a good amount. They have to be if they want anyone to see this movie in theaters!

It takes a lot for me to be impressed by visuals anymore. Over use of CGI has made many anime boring for me, since CGI imagery tends to not blend with the rest of the imagery and tends to move slowly. However, the fights and action in this movie was truly amazing. Watching Yusuke battle was incredible, which he did in a strange fashion of almost elegant acrobatics at top speeds. He moved so quickly, he reminded me of a flea jumping around on a hot brick (LOL). However, this early 90s movie impressed me a lot better than more recent movies, simply because it doesn't have the crappy CGI that doesn't blend with the rest of the imagery. I truly haven't been this impressed with action sequences in anime in a very long time.

There were a few times when the animation seemed off, because it was in too close to the action, not allowing for a better drawnback view of the sequences. However, it may have seemed like that because of quality of my copy of the movie. I'll have to see how good it is when I finally get a copy of the DVD. But, the visuals were very impressive, even in my only half-decent copy.

The only thing to really piss me off visually wise was the quick flashes of scenes back and forth that could give you a seizure. That was highly annoying, but only happened about twice in the movie.

Wooh! Kurama stripped and bathed in a lake for us in the movie! Whee!

Sound: Nothing extremely new. I don't know which songs were for the movie and which came from the tv soundtrack, but everything had that nice early 90s popish-techno-dance sound. I recognized a few of the songs as ones that I have listened to myself before, such as Nightmare, a Kurama song, and Manazashi no Aria, a Hiei song (these songs are just a couple of several made for and by the characters [their voice actors sing many of these songs], especially for Hiei and Kurama). Decent music that isn't annoying.

Nothing new in the sound effects department. However, they did work well and effectively, and truly sounded like crunching cement, collasping buildings, or shattering glass. Very decently done, and believable.

As always, the seiyuu do knock out peformances for their highly detailed character roles. As always, the four guys voices are well done. I didn't like Hinageshi's voice, but that figures, eh? (Megumi Ogata is great as Kurama once again! ^_^).

The Dub: I haven't viewed the dub, but I know it would be good, if and only if it was dubbed with the same voice actors as the tv show. Getting used to new voices that can't act is highly annoying. But, this movie is licensed by another company that is not FUNimation! This dubbing is as rancid as the dubbing of the first YYH movie! *turns and pukes* Maybe it's just my preference for the FUNimation dub voices...but I doubt it. I really think the dub actually sucks. As usual, you should probably stick to the Japanese with subtitles.

Dub Letter Grade: F

Extra Rants and Bitching: Kurama had a strip and bath scene! Whee! LOL

I just like these characters too much. Watching Yusuke become the Incredible Hulk was pretty amusing. Great characters, but of course, great action, which is what this movie was aiming for! If you want a break from the really good thinking type of anime, watch this movie. It's good for a not having to think too much movie, but isn't completely dumbed up at all. Just straigh forward storytelling and great characters and action. Even a few good sweet moments too.

Score Comments: A very decent score. I'm not going to say the movie deserves better scoring or worse, and I'm also not holding anything bad against it for being a tv show based movie either. A nice, rounded movie. You might need a little info on Japanese folklore and about the characters, but believe me, you'll like the characters. I would hope you would! I do!

Websites:
Yu Yu Hakusho (Official FUNimation Site: Is rather new, being open only since January 2002)
Smooth Yu Yu Hakusho (One of the best YYH fan sites, where all the images, with my editing, for this review came from)

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.