Yu Yu Hakusho - Episode 5

Episode 5

As the sinkhole gets larger and releases more Yokai, Koenma leverages the human world’s safety on a bet with Sakyo, knowing the temporary barrier he has put in place wouldn’t last. While Kuwabara gets to hurt the older Toguro with his spirit sword, the latter's body reforming capabilities are just too hard to defeat and he ends up chasing the trio all the way to the main arena where his younger brother and Yusuke are engaged in a battle. Hiei and Kurama arrive a bit earlier to turn that duel into a three-against-one, but are easily overpowered given their weakened condition. The older Toguro summarizes the relationship between his brother and Master Genkai as well as narrates her death through a puppet show. Annoyed, his brother sends him flying far away, presumably with no chance of reforming this time around. As the younger Toguro gives Kuwabara a seemingly fatal blow and zeroes in on Keiko and Yukina to unleash Yusuke’s potential, he finally releases his inherited spirit wave orb, putting an end to his enemy. Yukina heals Kuwabara and they all head back to the mainland.

From episodes 1 to 3 I was really hyped but when it all became clear in episode 4 as to which direction the show was heading, I slowly lost interest. Don't get me wrong. This show is legit. The fight scenes are exciting and masterfully crafted while the CGI does not leave much to be desired. Once again, the problem with this is execution. How do you compact all that character development in less than five hours? You can’t. You don't. As such, certain liberties are taken in the final fight, because they just don’t have enough leeway to develop character arcs to resolve plot issues convincingly enough. What you get instead are a lot of flashbacks for motivation and a not so organic rage brought about by the death of an old lady who appears on screen for less than 20 minutes in one episode. For the casual viewer who did not grow up with the anime, this is actually a good “summary” of what Yu Yu Hakusho is all about. Should they want to delve deeper, then they have to cross over to the anime and the manga to get intimate with the lore. Don't hold your breath for a season two. I'd call this a cash grab if not for the top notch production values, but let's give credit where it's due.

“In order to rescue Keiko and Yukina, Yusuke and the others went to Kubikukuri Island. Still unaware of Genkai's death, Yusuke fought against Younger Toguro. Meanwhile, Roundworm Monsters began to pour out of the hole opened by the sinkhole. Sakyo wanted to connect the demon world to the human world and summon Yonkai.”

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