Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Two Shots/Noru ka Soru ka

Status: Finished

Yu Yu Hakusho Special - Again, I swear I didn’t just choose this anime because I had to fill out the list with something. I actually wanted to see some new content from this series. This was a part of the 25th anniversary of the series Yu Yu Hakusho.

This special is divide in two episodes. One is about when lil Vegeta (Hiei) and Kurama meet and the other is an adaptation of the Interdimensional laser chapters, basically the second last chapter of the manga with added panels from the last chapter. Yeah, the anime follows the chapters as they seemed to go panel to ... panel. Minimalistic for an adaptation, but acceptable in this case.

The cast is back and so are the voice actors for our 4 main guys. It’s good to see that even the director is back to give us this anime one more time. It just shows that this IS a short return, a reminder that this series is profitable.

You know, I think this anime does sort of rekindle my interest in the series, for that I gotta thank the writer. The character interaction are either straight taken from the source or altered for the sake of the narrative. The new dialog in the flashback seems to be incharacter back before they meet Yusuke. Yusuke is being Yusuke and Kuwabara is hilarious as always.

The action scenes are decent for what they had to work with. There is something about the action in this series that show some intelligence against even the average of demons. And can I just say that they finally animated that 5 second scenes from the manga, I have always thought how that scene would be animated in current animation.

And that’s it. I don’t think this special is any special than what it is. It’s not breaking new grounds. A good short return of the character we know, indulging in a short adventure yet again. This does remind me of those short special of Rumiko work years ago, so I guess the same could apply here. It knows that it just a simple story and it does have some fun with it. There isn’t much to complain about and there isn’t much things to praise it. This is a watch for any Yu Yu Hakusho fan.

It kind of pains me to want to give this a 6 out of 10 because when this "Special" is great, it's great and it's kind of hard for me to judge this thing as a whole, but to put it simpily the first episode I found to be pretty dull since it's a dull prequel doing what dull prequels do and give too much information on events that never really needed explaining which is how Hiei and Kurama met. On top of that, it suffers from other prequel problems like the girl Kurama hangs out with being pointless in the long run since she ... is not even in the main YYH series and the original demon villain gets killed off right before any information is revealed about him. The interactions between Hiei and Kurama does save this from being completely boring. Also, hearing 90s anime music with modern animation is weird to me.

However the 2nd episode is fantastic and just made me want more. It's the sequel that I want to the 3 Kings arc, and it has Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara teaming up again to stop a hostage crisis and the character writing with all 4 is as great as it's always been, and unlike the previous episode, this one expands on the world building of YYH and goes into extra detail on the Spirit, Human and Demon World "agreement" that was found at the end of the 3 Kings arc. Yusuke's mom actually kind of helps here and there is some actual tension here since it's a sequel but the problem with this episode is that it ends right before it gets interesting and it feels like there could've been more. It makes me wish even more that YYH got a Dragon Ball GT style sequel. The episode ends anti climatically, and I wouldn't mind wanting more if they did make that sequel but this seems to be a one shot. Haven't felt this way since watching the Patlabor reboot. It's just weird that the Two Shots exist at all, it feels like they wanted to make more YYH but at the same time didn't want to continue too much without Togashi's blessing and as a result this awkward middle ground was made. Still worth watching as a YYH fan, but I just wanted more.

I'm a huge fan of the Yu Yu Hakusho series that ran from 1992 to 1995, which I consider one of the finest shounen ever, possessing many unique qualities rarely seen in the genre to this day. The various spin-offs and side stories from that time weren't bad, either. The first movie, "Golden Seal", was a solid, action-packed, if unspectacular OVA. The second movie, "Fight for the Netherworld", was feature-length at 94 minutes and didn't know what to do with all that extra time, ending up mediocre but not outright bad. Even the 8 minute side story "Nightmare Hakusho" about Yuusuke's crazy dreams was amusing. ...

Alas, the later properties done with the YYH name have sucked, whether it's the horrendous picture drama slideshow from 2009 or "Two Shots" and "All or Nothing" in 2019. I'm going to examine the latter two very critically, because quite frankly, who the hell else is going to watch or possibly appreciate them aside from hardcore YYH fans?

Two Shots-

I know Togashi originally wrote this, but there is a reason it was an extra to Volume 7 and not part of the main story. Furthermore, this would have been around the start of the Dark Tournament, and he was notably very ill when drawing the Yuusuke versus Chu match. It's an absolute mess.

Firstly, it directly contradicts the backstory we were told earlier, that Hiei first met Kurama by directly searching for him as the vessel for the legendary demon fox.

Here, they meet in battle. Despite Hiei being consistently shown as significantly stronger than Kurama's human, non-Yoko form throughout the entire YYH series, and certainly when they first meet Yuusuke, here they fight on even terms and Kurama even matches Hiei's speed, which is downright absurd.

Then, out of nowhere, Hiei collapses due to a wound. Nothing is ever explained about this. Did Kurama deal it? Did Hiei sustain it earlier? It's just a convenient, stupid plot contrivance to set up the next scene. Well, one of two dumb deus ex machinas, actually. For absolutely no reason, Kurama nurses the hostile demon who just tried to kill him and an innocent schoolgirl back to health. This is not within Kurama's personality in the least. Despite being soft-spoken and often kind, he is one of the most lethal fighters in YYH, as his plant horrors usually end up killing his adversary. Furthermore, when he and Hiei were ambushed outside the Dark Tournament prior to the Dr. Ichigaki match in a similar manner to how he was ambushed by Hiei, Kurama had no problems torturing an assailant for information before brutally finishing him.

The final battle against the demon Yatsude makes little sense, either. Where do they find this perfect doll representation of Hiei with his exact hair, height, and proportions, and how do they set it up in the brief moments before the demon tracked them down? It's yet another lazy plot hole to get to the desired destination.

Oh, and it still doesn't end there. Kurama uses the Pollen of Forgetfullness on Maya, the schoolgirl who has a crush on him, so she won't remember the demons she witnessed or Kurama himself. That's all well and good, but Maya attends the same school, and presumably, will continue doing so. What happens when she sees Kurama again? Won't her sudden amnesia about him arouse suspicion? Won't she fall in love with him all over again for the same reasons she did initially? And how does this amusing pollen work, too? It ONLY causes the subject to forget what Kurama wants, nothing else, like magic?

Honestly, I wouldn't have minded the plot holes so much if the action was better. However, the fights are presented horribly, just a few frenetic frames here and there, not affording the audience a clear look at what's going on. It's far worse than the action scenes from the main series 25 plus years earlier.

Oh, and they reuse the music from the original show for nostalgia, but it's horribly sloppy, often not matching what's occurring, or simply mistimed, beginning before a certain sequence or event does. This OVA is a mess and an insult to YYH fans.

All or Nothing-

This is a little better, but has problems of its own. It's the second-to-last chapter from manga, widely panned by readers, as Togashi was utterly exhausted and sick at the time from the inhumane schedule of producing YYH for Shounen Jump magazine, and simply wanted to be done with it.

There's a hostage situation in Spirit World led by Otake, the former leader of the Special Defense Force Team, who wishes to eradicate demons and re-establish the barrier between Human and Demon World. Now, the SDF are all a bunch of A-class fighters, and Otake, its leader, is presumably high A-class, making for a potentially interesting clash against any of the main four protagonists, even if they should triumph. Instead, no such clash ever occurs. Otake, who is vastly stronger than Younger Toguro and the leader of a group that strikes fear into the hearts of all but the greatest fighters in Demon World, is treated as an absolute joke and coward that is instantly defeated.

Beyond this, the entire OVA is dull. There's some discussion about how to infiltrate the building where the hostages are kept. Tactical planning was never seen in YYH before and it's definitely not Togashi's strong suit. The action is minimal, with every main protagonist using an iconic technique and nothing else. This is utterly idiotic in the case of Hiei. The hostage situation is perfect for him, a lightning-quick demon who could easily cut down the terrorists and save the hostages. Instead, inside of a cramped room, he uses the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, which is not only unnecessary, but due to its instability and area of effect, would likely kill many hostages. Again, this shows how little anyone cared at this point. At least the nostalgic music from the main series is timed properly and mostly matches the events.

The final ending is especially egregious too, and it's unclear what the hell is even going on before the OVA immediately cuts to the credits.

The two OVAs are pure nostalgia bait, with numerous call-backs to scenes from the main series and cameos from minor characters. But as a big fan of Yu Yu Hakusho, I can't overlook how utterly wretched they are. An all-time great shounen deserved better.