Yuugo: Koushounin

Overview:

Yugo the Negotiator is an obscure series. I mean a REALLY obscure series! The only reason I had even heard of it was that it was the favorite anime of an old youtube reviewer named Jaded Otaku, who had a show called "What's Wrong with Anime?" This guy was a troll LEGEND! His videos are gone because butthurt fanboys flagged all of his videos hundreds of times until Youtube removed them. However, there are still hilarious "response videos" of weaboos foaming at the mouth with rage and cursing his name that are still floating around Youtube! For a time he was the king of the ... "Elitist" anime reviewers, kind of like Roriconfan/thatanimesnob except he was funnier and more charismatic. Now for the question: Did this series that was so highly praised by an elite reviewer turn out to be any good? The answer.... not really.

Plot and characters: 5/10

The plot revolves around a man named Yugo that acts as a high stakes negotiator. This guy can talk his way out of any situation and use his wits, charisma, and psychology to overcome any foe. The premise is extremely interesting and rather unique for an anime. Unfortunately, the execution is rather lacking. The problems with this series are further compounded by the fact that it is divided into 2 arcs with 2 completely different staffs. The first half takes place in Pakistan and is well written, actually did some research, and shows respect for the culture and people of Pakistan. The second half though... sweet buttery JESUS does it suck! Yugo heads to Russia and it becomes the most cliche', poorly researched, most hilarious portrayals of Russia I have ever seen. The Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons had a FAR more accurate portrayal of Russia and Russians. Let me just tell you a few of the things I found funny. Yugo prepares to journey to Russia by locking himself in a meat locker at 40 degrees below zero, to visit Vladivostok. Judging by the weather in the Japan scenes, this is during the summer or spring. The average temperature during spring/summer in Vladivostok is roughly 20 degrees Celcius or 70 degrees F. Whoops! The plot is that Yugo must stop some evil Russian army guys from recovering the Tsar's long lost gold, worth in today's value ( read in Dr Evil Voice) 100 BILLION DOLLARS! This would more than double the size of Russia's economy in the Yugo world, and allow them to rebuild the Soviet Union! The writers of Yugo season 2 should have spent a little less time sleeping in Economics class. Russia's economy is over 2 trillion dollars in nominal GDP and roughly 3.5 trillion by GDP PPP. Russia brings in over 500 billion dollars each year from exports alone, so 100 billion dollars would be a drop in the bucket and nowhere NEAR enough money to rebuild the USSR. The US economy alone is 17 trillion dollars and all of NATO together has an economy of well over 30 trillion. To take back Eastern Europe and rebuild the USSR, Russia would have to defeat NATO, which would require a wee bit more than 100 billion dollars, which is less than the GDP of Angola, a small impoverished African nation. To defeat the Russian Army, Yugo must enlist the help of Russia's greatest academic, who is a prostitute because she is too poor to eat without selling her body. Judging from how serious the tone of this series is, the writer of Yugo actually seems to think that Russia's top academics are crack whores. Many educated Russians during the 1990s did have to take lower paying jobs or flee the country, but this is just comically absurd! These 3 examples are only the beginning of a HUGE list of unintentionally hilarious bullshit in Yugo. Imagine a writer that used even more crude ethnic stereotypes than Hetalia, but unlike Hetalia was DEAD FUCKING SERIOUS about it! That is what the second half of Yugo is like. It is too bad Jason Douglas is a good voice actor, otherwise Yugo could have become a cult classic from the level of unintentional comedy gold!

Art: 5/10

The art is also divided between the first half and the 2nd half. The Pakistan Arc had a much higher budget and looks pretty good. The Russia Arc...not so much.

Entertainment: 6/10

The first half is actually pretty good. It isn't spectacular, but certainly not bad. The second half is only entertaining due to the quality of the writing.

Overall: 5/10

If it had ended with the Pakistan arc, I would have given Yugo a generous 7/10. Yugo did at least have the guts to try a unique premise and go where few anime had gone before. Then act 2 started and everything went to hell! Despite the laughably bad second half, I will still give Yugo a 5/10 to honor both the decent first half and the courage to try such a unique premise.

It's an okay watch but nothing more than that. Writers expect us to think this dude to be top negotiator, but he does as much negotiating as James Bond does gardening. But he is a badass. We are told that constantly and he will even prepare gadgets and gear for some dangerous action but the moment you start thinking about it you realize he did all of that so you can see ho badass he is. No other reason.

I'd love to say characters are great, but in reality we are introduced some characters which do absolutely nothing than appear in one or two episodes and ... are just mysteriously capable people who do weird things for this "negotiator".

Whole thing is just meh. Animation is typical for the period. Characters are okay, from what little we do see them. Story for the most time holds water and then decides to pull a fast one on you where one moment someone will try to kill him and has spent entire episode torturing him but by the end they will be all in love with his character and missing him already before he even left.

It's watchable and might be okay to kill the time. Don't expect high art or quality show. It will leave you thinking you missed 70% of the content somewhere in there. But you didn't miss anything, it just was never there in the first place.