Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files: Eight Finalists DVD Review - IGN (original) (raw)

After a long run, this big anime has its conclusion.

Why is it good things always have to end? With 112 episodes and its share of movie spin-off versions, Yu Yu Hakusho has had a good and relatively long life as an anime. It was airing on Cartoon Network, another plus, considering all the exposure it got there.
But, alas, nothing lasts forever. Eight Finalists is a special two disc, uncut edition, giving you a whopping fourteen episodes. Considering most anime DVDs give you four, maybe five episodes, this is a real treat. Here you can watch episodes 99 through 112 — so, in other words, the last episodes.
If you're interested in buying this, odds are you're already familiar with the series. For those who haven't seen Yu Yu Hakusho, listen up for a brief description. Yusuke is a boy juvenile delinquent who receives a chance to better himself by getting a career of sorts working for the Spirit World. It's up to him to take care of supernatural things happening. As you can imagine, a show about the supernatural has plenty of room to move around and come up with new plots. Is it any reason that Yu Yu Hakusho was able to thrive and build itself a little anime empire? Of course, having the capability of many plots is not enough to succeed. You need strong writing, characters you care about and tons of action. Needless to say, the anime (and its manga and movie versions) have all these goods.

FUNimation brings you this series and has the official English language website. But hey, don't stop there, Yu Yu fans. Keep in mind there's a manga version from VIZ Media (Naruto, Bleach) and movies. Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie was released by Media Blasters (Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Deeper Kyo), and Yu Yu Hakusho, The Movie: Poltergeist Report was released by Central Park Media (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Descendants of Darkness). It's enough to keep any fan busy, right? Even if the series itself ends, there are manga and movies to hopefully make you less depressed. Hopefully.

9 out of 10

Video and Presentation

There's about 300 minutes of anime on these two DVDs, so to say that's more than average would be putting it lightly. It's really neat you can get this many episodes all at once.

It's hard to describe, but you can see in this show the animation styles of the 1990s, as opposed to what's done today. While each anime series or film does have its own style, there usually are similarities apparent depending on what years they're done. A trained eye would be able to recognize this isn't a brand-new anime. It may not be quite as sophisticated as what we have today, but don't hold that against the show. This was the animation being done at the time of its making. Just think of it as vintage anime art.

8 out of 10

Language and Audio

In this case you get English stereo and Japanese stereo. From time to time the background has subtle, creepy music, giving it just the right atmosphere while still being faint. Something about the music also gives it a feel of an anime that isn't quite brand-new. That's not a bad thing, again, just a matter-of-fact thing. All in all, everything you listen to here sounds good.

8 out of 10

Extras and Packaging

Trailers and textless songs are available on most anime DVDs, and that includes this package. But there's an additional "Character Profiles" which is found on the second disc. It covers eighteen different characters, giving pictures and paragraph-long descriptions. That's quite a few characters to cover, making this an especially nice bonus. There are four trailers on each DVD, for those who want to get caught up on FUNimation's other current works.

8 out of 10

Bottom Line:

Yu Yu Hakusho the anime wraps itself up after impressively being a manga, a long-lasting series and a maker of spin-off movies.

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Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files: Eight Finalists DVD Review