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It's been at least three years since I finished watching Yu Yu Hakusho and I was more than happy to once again pick up a title from one of my most beloved series.

Story: When transferring a television series into a movie one expects series with a very short run time (ATHF for example) to be especially problematic in this area as the writers/characters are not used to a prolonged storyline. Ironically, this can also be the case with series that deal with huge story arcs trying to condense what would at least be a 20-some episode arc into about ninety minutes. The story wasn't ... lacking in this movie, rather it felt extremely rushed. If prolonged throughout a season of the series then it would have done rather well.

Art: Never lacking in Yu Yu Hakusho, old-school anime style with it's own sense of personality about it. It's animation style is very versatile, able to transfer between lighter and more melancholy scenes with ease.

Sound: Because it's been a few years since I've watched the television series I didn't realize that the voice actors weren't the same until I looked it up just now. The dub for this movie, with the exception of Yusuke, was just poorly done. Hardly any emotion put into the acting and I considered a few times switching over to the Japanese track. I was wondering what was off about the voices because I didn't remember the series being this badly dubbed, but now it all makes sense. Why they chose a different cast for the movie escapes me, but it was the wrong decision.

Character: Another unfortunate aspect of this script being turned into a movie rather than a series arc is that there were many chances at character development, and even movie-exclusive characters weren't fully exploited or handled briefly before being thrown to the wayside. I would have liked to see and know more about the antagonists in this movie as they could have made for some interesting characters, but nearly all of them were given five minutes of screen time before sudden, unbelievable defeat.

This was where the movie failed, while these were the characters I know and love it was utterly unbelievable that they were able to emerge from this scenario alive. Yusuke went from being nearly helpless against the King of the Netherworld to suddenly being powerful enough to change the energy-format of the Power Sphere, something King Enma couldn't do. If he really had that much energy, I would expect that we would have seen it before the critical moment. Godlike characters bug me as they are completely unbelievable, one of the reasons I never got into series such as Dragonball is because of this. In the series Yusuke develops at a reasonable, believable pace after much training, blood, sweat, and tears. In the movie the leap was sudden and inexplicable, a plot "device" that can ruin any good movie for me.

Enjoyment: Despite the previous statement this was a joy to watch, mostly because I was happy enough simply seeing one of my favorite cast of characters again. I've decided that I need to watch the series again, it's been too long my friends...

There's really not much to say about this OVA, I rented it thinking I was getting something related to Ninja Scroll and instead I received a headache from trying to figure out how Jubei was suddenly missing an eye.

This was a gore-fest, which I don't necessarily have a problem with (I love Berserk, Elfen Lied, etc.) as long as I get some plot along with my disembodied heads. But not only was there gore but random violence against children, rape, satanic sacrifices, more rape, more innocent people getting slaughtered for no reason whatsoever... it gets annoying after about, oh, an hour of this.

I ... really wouldn't have minded this OVA so much if there was some point to it. I might actually say that I liked it, there was definitely a lot of potential, but in the end everything that happened meant nothing. The OVA just ends. We're just about to start this huge climatic battle against the forces of evil and satan's reincarnation and then... the credits roll.

There is no sequel, no continuation, nothing.

So I pretty much just wasted 90 minutes of my life watching an OVA that had no point to it. I want to resurrect the time I lost and will never get back!

Story: I guess it's better to say there was no real story. I was completely confused throughout the first half, we were plunged into the middle of the story with no explanation and no idea what was going on. The second half was filled with predictable cliches and I found it was more stimulating to have no idea what was going on as it drove me to continue to watch in order to figure out what was happening. Overall, the plot was boring and something we have seen a thousand times before, only a lot more vague.

Art: The series is undeniably beautiful, the animation ... ranks up there with the likes of Gankutsuou. I'll even go far as to say that Karas, just like Trinity Blood, doesn't deserve such beautiful animation. If you want to watch this series then just mute the DVD, listen to your favorite CD, and enjoy the beautiful imagery. Don't worry, like I said before there's no story to pay attention to.

Sound: the music was all right, once again nothing special. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy the OST. The dub wasn't anything exceptional, Echo's voice actor in particular was very bland and unemotional.

Character: The characters are just as cliched and vague as the plot. There's little to no development and hardly any explanation as to what their motivation might be. Everyone is shallow and two-dimensional.

Overall this was a huge disappointment. It was as if Tatsunoko Productions simply wanted to show off their animation skills and threw together the story as an afterthought. With more focus on developing a plot and interesting characters this could have been an excellent series, unfortunately they forgot that good animation does not make a good series. Just like video games, it doesn't matter how amazing the visuals, it is the story that is truly engaging.