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© Pierrot/Shueisha
© Pierrot/Shueisha
© Pierrot/Shueisha
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March 10, 2009
by: Daniel Briscoe
The Dark Tournament comes to an end, a new foe is revealed and the world is once again at stake. Sounds like a regular day for Yusuke Urameshi.
Disc Description: The Dark Tournament has come down to a final grudge match and Yusuke's full wrath is unleashed as a friends blood stains the arena floor. But there will be no time for rest or recovery as kidnapping follows victory and further intrigue threatens the boundary between worlds. A tunnel is being carved, one which completed will lay waste to the World of the Living. There are seven who seek an age of destruction and chaos, and hero must battle fallen hero.
Features:
* English/Japanese Stereo
* English Subtitles
* Character Profiles
* Textless Songs
* Trailers
Product Review:
Content: If you are reading this review, then you probably have already seen, at the very least, part of the wonderful shonen action series Yu Yu Hakusho. That being said, I'll briefly explain the plot and the characters, but you're all already probably familiar with them.
The story revolves around high school screw-up and tough guy Yusuke Urameshi, who, one day, in an act of selflessness, saves a young boy and dies. THE END! ...well, not quite. Yusuke is given another chance at life when he is asked by Spirit World, where people go when they die, to become a Spirit Detective, a human agent who acts in the world dealing with all manner of paranormal, demonic, or any other type of spiritual hijinks or end-of-the-world-destroy-the-human-race nonsensical activity.
That's the main character, more or less - he's a foul-mouthed tough guy who, when he's willing to show the world, has a heart of gold. He also can shoot massive amounts of spirit energy from the tip of his index finger. Cool, huh?
It's about as cool as Yusuke's best friend and rival, Kazuma Kuwabara's ability to make a sword out of energy from nowhere. He also has a pretty good idea when bad things are going on as it pertains to the not so good spirity stuff.
Then there are two demons who were once enemies of Yusuke who have later become his allies - Kurama, a once cold-hearted demon who has changed his ways and has quite an affinity for plants in all varieties, and Hiei, a distant and somewhat reluctant ally of Yusuke who is quite nifty with a sword and has some other pretty cool powers. He keeps himself a bit aloof, but in the end, he's always there with Yusuke and the others.
© Pierrot/Shueisha
Our hero, Yusuke. He kicks some serious tail.
Along with these primary characters are a substantial number of other supporting characters that make the show very entertaining and give it a healthy amount of depth for an action series. Because while these other characters may not have as much direct influence on the plot as the four primary ones do, they still add a lot of flavor and variety to the show, and this is definitely a winning formula.
Now, we find ourselves in the final round of the Dark Tournament, a competition where the winners receive wishes that come true. Yusuke and his friends have traveled here to face the Toguro brothers, old rivals of Yusuke once thought defeated. Kurama has just barely defeated his opponnent, but a technicality gives the Toguro team a point. Hiei steps up next to face his opponent, and demonstrates a new, powered up version of his "Dragon of the Darkness Flame" technique - which actually involved him absorbing the Dragon into himself, a feat never seen before! With that, the score is tied, and up next is Kuwabara, who faces off against Elder Toguro, an opponent that can move his vital organs to any part of his body he wants! With strength and a whole lot of willpower, Kuwabara is barely able to defeat the Elder Toguro with his Spirit Flyswatter, smashing all of the Elder Toguro at once and achieving victory!
© Pierrot/Shueisha
Awesome attacks like this one here, the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, is one of the reasons this show maxes out the awesome meter.
You see, it is instances like that that make this show so lovable. It fuses a very good blend of humor with drama to tell the story, which is why you can have a fight like Hiei's, where you see an awesome, powerful, cool-looking attack that leaves your jaw on the floor due to the amount of awesome that was just sent straight into your brain, and then you get one like Kuwabara's - a "flyswatter" to crash someone all at once because he can't pinpoint where his vitals might be at any given time. Still a hyped up and cool looking attack, but the way in which it is done is absolutely hilarious, and one can't help but smile after the dust settles on this particular fight.
After all these shenanigans, the owner of Team Toguro, in a surprise twist, makes a wager before the grudge match between Yusuke and the Younger Toguro, making it worth two points - meaning that Yusuke and Toguro's fight will decide the winners of the Dark Tournament! This is a fight that is as much about developing character as it is about awesome shonen action power-ups and final attacks. Toguro turns out to be a much, much deeper character than is initially presented, and you find this out in the aftermath following the tournament. We come to find out that Toguro doesn't want to kill Yusuke - he actually wants to be defeated, but he has never faced an opponent that has ever made him use 100% of his full power, let alone defeated him. We also find out that Yusuke has a deeper reserve of power than even he realizes, but it’s tied to his emotions, much like Kuwabara's power is tied to his will. After a heated battle, and one of Yusuke's friends seeming to die, Yusuke finally draws on his innermost strength, and is able to defeat Toguro and win the tournament, but just before an announcement is made that there is a bomb that will blow up the stadium and everyone in it! Luckily, everyone is able to escape, and Yusuke and his friends return home for some much needed rest...
...and you'd think that would be enough for a while, right? Within just a short amount of time, a new foe is introduced, who is forging a tunnel from the demon world to the human world, and if they succeed, humanity can basically kiss their posteriors goodbye. As it turns out, Yusuke isn't the first Spirit Detective that Spirit World. There was another one, once, and his name was Shinobu Sensui...and one day, he saw a bunch of human beings being evil, and went crazy, deciding that humanity needed to be punished for its evil crimes. He even got a hold of a video tape that shows all of the evil, most vile and despicable things that the human race has ever done. He used this tape to convince six other humans with unique, psychic powers to aid him in his cause to destroy humanity.
But, Yusuke has problems with letting people destroy the human race, so he and his friends embark on a journey to stop Sensui and his psychic team from opening the tunnel to demon world. I won't go into who all the psychics are or what their powers are because after all, if I told you everything that happened in this show, there wouldn't be any need to buy it!
© Pierrot/Shueisha
Toguro at 100% of his power – pretty scary. And by pretty scary I mean of course incredibly scary.
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