8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Anime | 100% |
Foreign | 96% |
Action | 38% |
Comic book | 33% |
Comedy | 21% |
Martial arts | 18% |
Supernatural | 12% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
No good deed goes unpunished.
That old adage, dredged up by everyone from your Mom in her best martyr mode to television’s Judge Judy to a plaintiff before she lays into a defendant who has absconded with a loan, might also be knit onto a sampler hung on the animated wall of Yusuke Urameshi, the hero of Yu Yu Hakusho. This anime got off to a very promising start with a story arc which saw Yusuke, not exactly a paradigm of nobility or good behavior, finally do something selfless, namely running into a crowded highway to push a small child out of the way of a marauding car. Yusuke’s reward for this laudable act? He got hit by the car and promptly died. You might think that would make for the shortest anime ever, but that, as they say, was just the beginning, and the real adventure of Yu Yu Hakusho then started up, one where Yusuke is given a second chance at life, but as a Spirit Detective, a “career” I likened in my review of the first season of the series to that of a sort of Scully and Mulder X Files idea. Yusuke and his demon fighting buddies encountered all sorts of ghouls and goblins once the main story arc of Yu Yu Hakusho was developed in the first season, and much like many series that start out with a bang and then settle into their formula, that’s when this series lost at least a little bit of its initial head of steam. Yu Yu Hakusho, at least about six episodes in or so, became a sort of supernatural Yu-Gi-Oh, one battle after another in fairly standard shonen form. Sure, Yusuke’s opponents were often otherworldly sprites, doppelgangers and outright monsters, but aside from that perhaps slightly unusual element, the show wasn’t as innovative as it might have been, and in fact became pretty rote pretty quickly. So how does this second season fare?
For an older series, Yu Yu Hakusho looks surprisingly spry on Blu-ray, courtesy of an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. The best thing about the series is the often extremely vivid color palette, which is reproduced here with excellent saturation and at times really eye popping vivacity. Line detail is for the most part quite good as well, This second season has a couple of anomalies which weren't quite as much in evidence in the first season, for whatever reason. First of all there are quite a few frame to frame alignment issues, creating slight shifts that are nonetheless pretty noticeable. There is also fleeting aliasing and something akin to motion judder as the camera moves across the individual cels, something that really didn't crop up that much in the first season's Blu-ray. These may sound alarming, but they're relatively minor issues and really only crop up for seconds over the course of over 600 minutes of programming, so don't let it dissuade you if you're interested in the series.
Yu Yu Hakusho features two lossless audio options, the original Japanese language track in a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix, and a rather good English dub offered in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The original language track is presented with excellent fidelity and a rather surprisingly robust low end (with some good LFE), despite its narrowness. I opted for the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, which features some kind of goofy voice work at times, but which also offers some nicely immersive surround placement of a lot of fanciful sound effects, as well as a perhaps better representation of the show's nice underscore and songs. Fidelity on the 5.1 track is also very good, with abundant low end and quite a bit of oomph in the utilization of LFE.
It's hard to take Yu Yu Hakusho too much to task, for it really doesn't aim to be much more than what it is. If the endless battles get to be repetitive, that's part and parcel of what this series has to offer, for better or worse. What keeps the show afloat is some rather interesting characters, as well as a kind of goofy sense of humor that pops up frequently in relatively unexpected places. While the premise of the show has never really been fully realized, at least after the really fascinating opening episodes, within the very narrow confines of what Yu Yu Hakusho attempts to offer, this is by all accounts a successful action anime that should delight most lovers of the shonen genre. Despite a few niggling complaints about the image quality on this second season, overall the show is still Recommended.
幽☆遊☆白書 / Yū Yū Hakusho / Anime Classics
1992-1993
1992-1993
Anime Classics
1993-1994
1993
1993-1994
Anime Classics
1994-1995
1994-1995
2018
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
2009
ソウルイーター
2008-2009
Anime Classics / フルメタル·パニック!
2002
1993
2010
2005
1989-1996
2009
Episodes 168-195
2008
1994
2003-2004
2009-2010
Classics
2003
1992
Classics / フリクリ
2000-2001
2010
2010
1995
Anime Classics
2002