Yu Yu Hakusho:
Ghost Files
Vol. 3- A New Apprentice
Vol.4- The Gate of Betrayal
(MVM Region 2 PAL DVD)
(2005)
review by Blackgloves

After sacrificing himself while saving a child from a fatal car accident, 14 year old street tough, Yusuke Urameshi, has been returned to life as a spirit detective! Armed with his special psychic spirit gun and a demon locating compass, the youngster must overcome his behavioural difficulties in order to repeatedly save the world from a variety of evil demon creatures who have the habit of escaping the jurisdiction of the spirit world (overseen by Urameshi's boss, the pacifier-sucking, baby-faced, Koenma) with the aid of a blue-haired cutie Grim Reaper called Botan and his street thug friend and rival Kuwabara -- among others!

Fresh from the completion of his first case, Yusuke begins vol 3 on a well-earned three day weekend when Botan appears with yet another case ... this one even more challenging than the last! It seems an evil, psychic-power-sucking demon called Rando is on the prowl, hovering up lethal psychic techniques and becoming ever more powerful in the process! An ageing psychic master called Genkai is planning to hold a competition -- open to all-comers, whoever they may be -- in order to pass on the most powerful psychic technique known to the spirit world: the mighty "spirit wave" technique! Rando is believed to be one of the candidates who has entered the competition. If he wins, he will have the power to impose mass destruction upon the world! A reluctant Yusuke must go undercover, win the contest, figure out which of the other contestants is Rando, and destroy him! Simple eh!

Genkai turns out to be a withered, bad tempered old woman; not someone Yusuke would usually have a lot of time for. But she soon demonstrates her awesome psychic power and gains respect from the contestants. All four episodes of volume three are devoted to Yusuke's attempts to win the competition and discover Rando. Events are complicated by Yusuke's "friend", Kuwabara, being one of the other contestants. If he is to win the competition, Yusuke must also beat Kuwabara!

The first round seems simple enough: candidates must simply draw lots; those who draw a red piece of paper go through to the next round; while, those who have a white piece are eliminated from the contest! This, apparently random, method of whittling down the numbers is really anything but: only those with a decent level of "Spirit Power" will be able to turn the paper from white to red! As the four episodes of this volume progress, various rounds of the contest ensue including a games round where psychic power is needed in order to perform, and a cross country run which involves passing through a demon haunted woodland! Both Yusuke and Kuwabara manage to get through each round, in Yusuke's case, almost always be the skin of his teeth!

The last eight candidates are required to fight a duel to the death in total darkness, using only their psychic senses! This gives us several episodes of explosive cartoon violence which reaches rather extreme levels for an animated show aimed at a slightly younger audience! The final episode of Vol 3 sees Yusuke's rival, Kuwabara, becoming a bit more likeable and heroic than he's been previously -- but at the cost of being beaten black & blue and having every bone in his body smashed! The volume ends with Yusuke being left to square-up to Rando, who reveals his true demon form once he becomes the only other contestant left standing.

The big finale between Yusuke and Rando is saved for the first of the three episodes included on vol 4: "The Gate of Betrayal" (yes that's right -- only three episodes on this volume!) As usual, Yusuke takes another beating before finally triumphing -- well we know he's not going to die again this early in the series, after all -- the real excitement in this series comes in the enormously inventive fight scenes that involve all sorts of crazy psychic martial arts moves and outrageous spirit powers. The bone-crunching level of violence makes all this stuff unusually entertaining for a kiddie anime show, and would get the moral campaigning brigade well worked up if it were a Western kid's cartoon series! Thank goodness they don't seem to have cottoned on yet to the awesome levels of jaw-pounding nastiness contained in some anime shows -- so we can enjoy our cartoon ultra-violence in peace!

The last two episodes of Vol 4 introduce a new story arc as Yusuke arrives back from his harrowing six month training programme with Genkai, only to be plunged straight into yet another crisis. By now, the pattern of the show seems firmly established: most of Yusuke's cases wind up with him having to battle a succession of demons with outlandish powers -- and this one turns out to be no exception. The interest is maintained by the crazy and imaginative ideas featured as a pretext to get Yusuke into his next series of battles. With this latest story arc, the world is being invaded by a swarm of Makai insects: parasites from the spirit world which infect humans and turn them into zombie psychopaths! This plague has been instigated by four creatures called Saint Beasts who are imprisoned in the City of Ghosts and Apparitions. The beasts have been incarcerated in the city for as long as anyone in the spirit world can remember, but now they want passage into the living world! They will only release the special whistle that can destroy the Makai insects if spirit world agrees to their request. It is Yusuke's task to secretly enter the Maze city where the Saint Bests lurk (about which little is known) and retrieve the whistle. For this mission, the spirit detective is joined by his pal Kuwabara and two of the demons he's previously defeated (in vol 2) who have been promised clemency if they help. But will they be able to put aside their dispute with Yusuke in order to save the world?

Both volumes feature English and Japanese 2.0 stereo audio tracks with two sets of optional English Subtitles (one a direct translation of the English audio dub by Funimation, the other a closer match to the original Japanese script). We also get the usual textless opening and closing titles and character profiles.

"Yu Yu Hakusho" has some great ideas but they tend to be squandered by a rather formulaic approach to the material. The series is still worth sticking with though and the characters have enough potential to develop some interesting relationships as the show continues.