Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen - Honoo no Kizuna

This movie does not tie in with the TV series. It has all the main characters but different villians. One thing that I didn't like about this movie is that they don't use the voice actors from the TV series. But you can't have everything, right?!

The movie has a simple plot...easy to follow. Demons are trying to take over the world and Yusuke & friends must prevent that from happening! Everyone (Yusuke, Kuwabara,Hiei, and Kurama) fight individual battles against a team of demons. Movie does however, give you a peek of Kurama's background before he teams up with Yusuke, but not the whole background. (You ... have to watch the TV series in order to find out about the rest of Kurama's past). It might help to watch the beginning of the Toguro Saga (i.e. "Rescue Yukina") to find out who Yukina is. It's not necessary since you are told in this movie who she is.

But basically it's like the TV series. You see where the movie is going...no surprise endings. The usual plot for YYH....demons are running around and Yusuke and team must battle them!

One of the classics again! Well, one of MY classics, at least... I always have fun whenever I revisit the Spirit World with Yusuke and the gang...

Main Characters: Yusuke Urameshi, Kuwabara Kazuma, Kurama, Hiei

Story: 7/10 - not much of a plot since once you've seen 1 arc of YYH, you've practically seen them all... this time Yusuke and the gang needs to defend against a Demon King named Yakumo... what I usually look forward to are the action scenes and it did not disappoint... though it was kinda anti-climactic since the villain kept on talking/taunting and i was like - shut up & get your ... a** kicked already! *tee-hee*

Art: 7/10 - sharp and somewhat hastily drawn, that's how I would describe the art in the movie... not bad for a 90s anime and i still like it...

Sound: 7/10 - BG music can be non-existent with all the action and explosions going on... ED theme reminded me of the series' "Hohoemi no Bakudan" so i guess it's okay...

Character: 8/10 - bias? definitely! loving Yusuke's no-gel-look (as always) and his persistent/stubborn ways... we get to see Kurama's former partner, Kuronue... a green Hiei with eyes all over his body gave me the creeps but was cool... Kuwabara is still his lovable, stupid self...

Enjoyment/Overall: 7/10 - one of the best fight scenes i've seen in YYH... i believe that this is the only time we will see how it looks like when all their powers are combined... and it's awesome, if i can say so myself...

I would recommend this to people who want to know what Yu Yu Hakusho is like but do not have the time to finish the whole series...

If you get hooked on the action scenes here then be prepared for the Toguro and Sensui Arcs... :)

Overview:

Shonen action movies have never really changed since the Dragonball Z movies of the early 1990s and late 1980s. The formula is that a new villain shows up out of nowhere, the heroes beat him, and this is NEVER mentioned again. These stories are almost always non-canon to the actual story. American comics have a phrase to describe these kinds of stories: "elseworlds". What is important is that the action is good and we the audience are entertained. Yu Yu Hakusho the movie delivers some decent action scenes, but also has an unfortunate amount of shoddy exposition on a story that we don't care about.

Action: ... 6/10

The action scenes in this movie when they FINALLY happen are pretty good. Hiei, Kurama, and Yusuke have predictably awesome fights, while even Kuwabara has a pretty amusing fight. However, this movie could have had a lot more action and less talking. Dialogue is great when the series is well written, but when you have a poorly written piece of crap like this movie that doesn't even make sense in the context of its own world, then you really don't want to have tons of dialogue. All it does is make the plot holes even more obvious and bore the viewer to death.

Art: 5/10

The art is decent. It seems the animators went with slightly darker colors than the main series, but you get used to it. I have no major complaints in this department, but it surely isn't a visual masterpiece either.

Fun: 4/10 if you are watching the sub. 7/10 if you are watching the English Dub!

This is one anime where everyone should watch the English Dub. It is absolutely hilarious how bad it is. I know I'm being un-original since almost every review of this movie mentions this fact, but a lot of the voice actors in this film were also in Garzey's Wing. Older otaku consider Garzey's Wing to be the single worst English dub in the history of anime, and THESE are the voice actors they chose for this movie! This only makes sense because this movie was dubbed in English years before YuYu Hakusho was brought over to the US by Funimation. When this film was dubbed, no one in America had any clue what Yu Yu Hakusho even was, so not many people rented this film at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.

Overall: 5/10

If you are a big fan of Yuyu Hakusho or a big fan of HORRIBLE voice acting, this movie won't disappoint. It isn't a good film by any stretch, but it will give you some amusement at least.