Customer Reviews

Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files - The Complete First Season

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yu Yu Hakusho is one of my favorite anime of all time. While it's weak in plot structure, it makes up for it with interesting characters and intense battles. The 112-episode series is being re-released a la DBZ in economically friendly, multi-episode seasons. This set contains the first 28 episodes of this classic anime for one low price.

The story goes that Yusuke Urameshi, a 14-year old street fighting punk, when having a bad day, saves a young boy's life at the cost of his own. This selfless act was something no one on Earth could predict. No one in the afterlife could predict it either. Thus, the Spirit World sends a guide to tell Yusuke that he can undergo an ordeal to come back to life. And so begins the resurrection of Yusuke and his career as Detective of the Spirit World.

As I said, it's the characters and fight scenes that MAKE this series. The plot is basically one "tournament"-style battle after another. But the four main enduring fighters uplift the story with their comical arguments and moments of pure cool. There's Yusuke, the snarky lead who cares about others more than he lets on. Kuwabara, the silly comic rival of Yusuke who has a soft spot for the safety of his friends and kittens. Kurama, the cool, collected demon who tries to do all the right things. And then Hiei, the short, angry demon who loves a good fight, and holds deep respect for those he deems worthy.

For this first set, the episodes chronicle the death and resurrection of Yusuke, his first case against three demon thieves, his search for a technique-stealer amongst fighters vying for a Master's teachings, an allied assault against four demons who want to enter the Human World, a rescue mission to save an ice maiden from a greedy mobster, and the first battles of the infamous Dark Tournament.

The English dub is fantastic. As Funimation's second major feature, they demonstrated great ability in casting the key primary and secondary characters. I actually find more joy listening to the dub than the Japanese with subtitles. Most of the original voices just don't feel like they portray the characters to their full potential. Yusuke's lacks the smarmy attitude, Kurama is voiced by a woman, who can't quite pull off the deep cool that is Kurama, Kuwabara is debatable on both sides, as his original voice portrays his comical side well, but not the serious side, and his English voice sounds much deeper, but feels more adapt to all his emotions, and Hiei is the only one who has both voices pull off his angry awesomeness to full effect. Several of the minor characters have decent Japanese voices, but some have very, VERY poor voices(like Rando). Not to say that the dub is perfect, no way, because several of the street punks have unnecessary Brooklyn accents, and some characters like Sayaka and Yukina have mediocre actors.

As for the packaging, its 28 episodes on four discs. These discs are in two thin boxes, making the set very compact and easy to store. The set includes all Japanese audio, and it features subtitles for both languages. The subtitles for the Japanese audio are some of the best put together Funimation has produced. They refer to all artifacts, creatures, and places by their Romanized name(Koma no Ken, Yokai), and only when they introduce the said term that they translate it at the top, making the sub appear like a Fan-sub. Extras are sparse, which include textless opening and closing songs, meager character profiles, and trailers for upcoming Funimation titles. One thing that disappoints me is the lack of a marathon feature that Funimation has included on DBZ and One Piece sets, which allows you to view all the episodes in order without bothering with the extra openings, closings, and teasers.

However, one thing I like is that the DVD menu music is very cool. It sounds somewhat like the music from Jefferson Airship's "White Rabbit". It's the sort of music that you close your eyes and lightly bang your head to.

I highly recommend this set to any anime fan, as the fights and animation just keep getting better and better as the series goes. This is a great deal for a great anime.

The Yu Yu Hakusho DVDs are pretty expensive and many of the BIG box sets have been discontinued. I was so happy to see that the 1st season box set is being re-released in this affordable and more compact design. I was actually ready to buy the big old box sets from sellers on the site or from eBay but that idea has gone out the window. I haven't seen the whole series only a few of the 1st episodes of season 1 and i generally liked the series and would like to finish it and see what happens. I'm a huge fan of anime that has been animated in the 1990's. They all have a quality all their own with colors that just aren't visible in current new titles. Everything seems so computerized lately that certain artistic qualities just doesn't exist anymore. I can't wait for this release and hope they release all the other seasons as well in due time. Of course in a timely fashion and not a new season once every year.

Life is hard, and then you die. If you're unlucky, like Yusuke Urameshi, then life gets harder AFTER you die.

In fact, death is only the beginning of his troubles in the first season of "Yu Yu Hakusho." While this action-comedy series lags during the first few episodes (seriously, a whole episode about Kuwabara's schoolwork?), it picks up considerably once the eclectic main characters are introduced, and Yusuke starts spending his time working as a spirit detective.

Despite a reputation as a hardened rebel, Yusuke was killed knocking a toddler from the path of a moving car. Turns out the afterlife, aka Spirit World, didn't expect such a selfless act -- so Spirit World's toddler ruler Koenma offers him a second chance at life, with the help of the sprightly Botan. After seeing how the people around him are responding to his death -- including his rival Kuwabara and semi-girlfriend Keiko -- Yusuke agrees.

But that's a lot easier said than done, and only another selfless act keeps Yusuke from being permanently dead. And his return is conditional -- now he's working for Koenma as Spirit Detective. And his first case is a doozy -- retrieve three stolen artifacts from a demon trio, including the ruthless Hiei and mysterious Kurama. But Yusuke soon finds that Kurama's motives are a lot more complicated than he thought -- and that Hiei has a very nasty fate in mind for Keiko.

On Koenma's orders Yusuke signs up for an aging martial-artist's Pick-A-Student competition, to hunt down a lethal demon -- and his psychic rival Kuwabara may be in danger. And when rage-inducing insects start swarming his town, Yusuke and Kuwabara are sent to stop the malevolent demon band responsible for it. What's more they have some reluctant new allies -- the paroled Hiei and Kurama.

But Yusuke receives an even more sensitive assignment after that -- rescue a beautiful ice maiden from a human crimelord. To complicate matters, Kuwabara has fallen in love with her, and she's also Hiei's twin sister. But as the boys fight their way into the fortified mansion, they can't even imagine the danger that is guarding the ice maiden... and just slavering for a fight with them.

The first season of "Yu Yu Hakusho" is all about introducing the characters, and easing Yusuke into his new role as Spirit Detective. It starts off rather slowly, with a string of episodes all about Yusuke floating around yelling at people, occasionally possessing Kuwabara and helping the big friendly lug with his homework. It's a rather bland start to an action-series.

But things start picking up when Yusuke is made Spirit Detective. Then we're treated to grotesque demonic opponents, superpowers, nasty spells, and lots of action-packed sequences involving fists, lightning, lava, swords and rose vines. And the villains get way worse with each successive battle, right up to the explosive fight at the end of the first season.

It's not all action, though. There's some romantic stuff between the bickering Yusuke and Keiko, as well as Kuwabara's adorable crush on Hiei's sister. And there's a pretty hefty dose of humor as well -- the pacifier-sucking Koenma and his overworked office ogres, Kuwabara's kitten, or Genkai's torturous training. Funny dialogue too ("We're just watching fuzz." "Fuzz, yes fuzz! We find it relaxing").

Yusuke makes a solid anti-hero, with his alcoholic mother and a mile-wide rebellious streak. While he's a bit obnoxious at first, his increasing strength and responsibility make him more likable. And his thuggish-looking classmate Kuwabara makes an unexpected ally, since he turns out to be a lot more powerful and sweet-natured than you'd expect.

The crabby, lethal Hiei is still something of an enigma here, but Kurama more than makes up for that -- he's graceful, elegant, and has a very peculiar past as a foxy thief with a rose whip. We've also got a number of interesting supporting characters, such as Botan the perky Grim Reaper, Genkai the crusty martial-artist, and the feisty Keiko who proves to be Yusuke's only weak spot.

The first season of "Yu Yu Hakusho" is there to warm up the storyline, and introduce the main characters. While the beginning is a bit slow, it's a solid beginning to a good anime.

I'll leave others to give a synopsis of the series, and explain why you should watch this series (basically it's the quintessential shonen anime, having topped DBZ's ratings during both shows life times).

A little bit of backstory: Originally this show came out in what I believe (it's been years) were 3 episode per single DVD releases for about 20-30 bucks each (I'm not even going to get into VHS releases, if there were ever any, I can't remember them). After that run ended, they got put into season sets for about 70-100 bucks a piece. After those sets ended, YYH started to come out as sets of 14 episodes each for about 30 bucks a piece (that run just ended recently). It's for that reason that I ask...why do we need yet ANOTHER re-release of the same episodes (not even remastered like the DBZ episodes, even if that caused controversy) without any extras? Personally, I had been waiting for the 13 episode sets to finish releasing before I decided to buy them. What a waste of money it would have been, had I spent 30 dollars for 13 episodes, when this new set is 23 dollars for 28 episodes? Basically speaking, it's hard to trust that the second this FOURTH set ends, there won't be a remastered set...or a blu-ray set, or something better.

All of that said, I've put off buying YYH for many years now, and at less than a dollar per episode...there is no way I can possibly resist buying it now. I'll still wait to make sure the transfers aren't compressed to fit on fewer discs or something (someone always reviews the video quality with releases like this, and for sets, it's always smart to wait) but otherwise, I can't see anything stopping me from picking this set up. Here's hoping Season 2's set (or 3, 4, 5, etc) have some of the extras like the YYH music videos (with extra, new animation. Very rare and never dubbed into English).

Yu Yu Hakusho is a fantastic anime and one of my favorites. If you love Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece and you haven't checked this anime out you should since you will love it!

However, there really wasn't a need to release the episodes again (this is the 3rd time now).

Sure the original saga boxsets were ungodly expensive, but that was made up for when they released the 14 episode boxsets (8 in total) for about $22 on the web. And of course I should mention they just released the 8th one like 2 or 3 months ago. So this release is quite quick. If you've already been collecting those you might as well finish since it'd be cheaper and you'll get all the same great episodes, but if you haven't started collecting yet then this is the way to go since its now cheaper. If I had known they were going to release 28 episodes for $23 then I would have waited, but this is quite sudden. Instead I paid $23 on 14 episodes, but since my collection is complete I can't complain. I have the whole series, so there is no need to start buying these boxsets.

Anyway, GREAT ANIME SERIES!!

Like the other 3 season sets, this is a simple repackaging of the 2-disc re-releases of Yu Yu Hakusho from a few years ago- they have the same pros and cons.

Pros-
**The entire series is available in a space saving and affordable volumes
**More Episodes per disc, which is good if your watching the show in one long marathon

Cons-
**The next episode previews for the first 14 episodes/the first 2 discs are out of order, they appear after the ending credits instead of before.
**Video quality is questionable at times because of the number of episodes per disc

Overall, these season set releases are good if you're not a hard core collector and just want the series in an affordable and efficient manor. Since FUNimation has just announced that Yu Yu Hakusho will be coming to blu-ray in March of 2011, here's hoping they go back to fix the next episode previews and opening/ending animation issues they've created (in later season sets) with these releases, so that fans like me who worry about such things won't hesitate to pick it up. But for the more casual fans, who don't worry about such things, this DVD release should do just fine.

Recommended

I purchased a copy of Yu-Yu Hakusho the complete first season on dvd. I like this version of the box set better than the first one, because the first box set was packaged in to bulky a container and more expensive. The slimmer box sets are easier to store and are cheaper than the original box sets, while still containing everything the original box sets contained. The story on yusuke tells of a fourteen year who loves to fight and would do anything to save his friends. Yusuke dies while trying to save a young boy, for this he is given another chance. Now he is the new spirit detective for the earth realm. He now has to battle demons and humans who would do anything, even kill each other to rule over the three realms of reality. This is one classic fighting anime that's pulls no punches. I have listed below the details and names of episodes from each disc in these box sets, so you will know what each disc includes. Special Four-Disc Uncut Edition. Extras Include:Character Profiles,Textless Songs,Trailers.

Disc-01
01.Surprised To Be Dead
02.Koenma Appears
03.Kuwabara: A Promise Between Men
04.Requirements For Lovers
05.Yusuke's Back
06.Three Monsters
07.Gouki And Kurama

Disc-02
08.The Three Eyes Of Hiei
09.The Search Begins
10.Kuwabara's Spirit Sword
11.Hard Fight For Yusuke
12.Rando Rise. Kuwabara Falls
13.Yusuke VS. Rando: 99 Attacks
14.The Beasts Of Maze Castle

Dise-03
15.Genbu,The Stone Beast
16.Byakko,The White Tiger
17.Byakko's Lair
18.Seiryu,The Blue Dragon
19.Suzaku,Learder Of The Beasts
20.Seven Ways To Die
21.Yusuke's Sacrifice

Disc-04
22.Lamenting Beauty
23.The Toguro Brothers Gang
24.The Deadly Triad
25.Kuwabara's Fight Of Love
26.Toguro Returns
27.The Dark Tournament Begins
28.First Fight

If you trully enjoy anime series such as Bleach or DBZ this is worth the price. Supposed to be selling for $32 but getting it for $23. Come on, less than $1.00 an episode.... thats pretty much unheard of in this market.

A little side note: This was scheduled to come out July 8th but mine shipped out July 3rd and got it TODAY JULY 7TH.... weird but nice. Amazon really "F"ed up on this one =)

Yu Yu Hakusho is a classic series of which I've been a fan of since I was a little girl, and a long series at that. So, I was ecstatic to find the complete series. I won't review the series here (there's a wiki page for it and plenty of online reviews for the show itself), just the box set.


Packaging:
Overall, I would have preferred a single box set, but considering the series length, the four sets take up very little self space. Each season is two thinpaks (each containing two discs) in a slim, thin box. Honestly, I wish the box covers were a bit thicker and sturdier, these will tear and show wear quite easily I'm afraid. Each season has a different character theme for the box and thinpaks, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, etc, and character themes for set of menus on the dvd's. Every inch of the box sets are covered in nice art, from beautiful line art on the inside of the thinpaks to colorful group artwork on the covers; the only undecorated space is the dvd's themselves, which are white with minor detail, but it's a nice bit of symmetry and simplicity to contrast the rest of the detailed and colorful packaging.

Dvd's:
The dvd's themselves are fairly simple; the sound and picture quality is excellent in both English and Japanese, and there are two sets of English subtitles -one that matches the English dub and one that is a direct translation of the Japanese, and both are in small, white unobtrusive font which is nice in that they don't clutter up the screen but is harder to read. The special features are nothing special; usually just trailers for other anime or one-paragraph character profiles. The main menu has no fancy video intro but it does have a really awesome rock-theme that plays in the background. Still, it would have been nice to have different music for different menus, as YYH sports a varied and catchy arsenal of themes.

Another nitpick is the weird cutting off points for the seasons - the Dark Tournament Ark starts in box-set one and ends in box-set three, and considering the number of Dark Tournament Arc episodes on box-sets one and three it would have been easy to fit them on the dvd's for box-set two, or add one more thinpak. I would not have minded even a slimmer (and by extension cheaper) fourth and final box set (The Three Kings Arc is under twenty episodes) if it meant each box-set would truly only contain one season each. This is a minor, organization complaint, though. It only really becomes an annoyance if you were to go looking for a particular episode to re-watch and it turned out to not be in the box-set you expected because it was tacked on to the beginning of the box-set after or the ending of the box-set before.

In conclusion, it's a great value for the money simply due to the series size, and everything is done well, but it would have been nice to see the distributors go the extra mile and splurge on thicker packaging, consistency in the art and better special features. I'm satisfied with these four box sets but if a more complete single box set comes out I'll be the first to see these and buy that. If you are already a fan of the series I recommend picking these up, but if you just want to test it out I'd recommend you find another way to watch a few episodes (funimation sometimes offers free streaming of their anime on their website) and see if you genuinely like it before you lay your cash down, as these won't have great resale value if it turns out it's not your thing.

A satisfactory job, but not an exceptional one. 3.5/5 stars, which for convenience I'll round up.

EDIT: Also, be careful when putting the dvd's back in to secure them firmly; they tend to fall out of their places a lot easier than other thinpaks I have had, my season 2 box-set in fact had one loose dvd Not a deal-breaking, you just have to make sure they are secure instead of just throwing them in all willy nilly.

Yu Yu Hakusho: The Complete First Season is a four-disc DVD set that contains twenty-eight episodes. However, the title is a little misleading. The set actually contains the entire first season, as well as three episodes from the second season. The first disc contains eight episodes, the second disc contains six episodes, the third disc contains eight episodes, and the fourth disc contains six episodes. It should be noted that on the DVD boxes, the English episode titles are used; however, on the actual discs, the original Japanese titles are used in the episodes.

On the first disc, the only "extra" is a link that takes you to a menu for trailers. The trailers available to view on this disc are for the FUNimation Channel, Dragon Ball Z, Case Closed, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Samurai 7.

The second disc has three extras. The first consists of character profiles, which are a single page for each character with an accompanying picture. On this disc, there are profiles for Yusuke, Kuwabara, Botan, Keiko (misspelled as Kayko), Koenma, Atsuko, Hiei, Kurama, Gouki, Genkai, Kazemaru, Kibano, Shorin/Rando, and Ogre. Textless Songs has both the opening and closing credits, which are available in both Japanese and English. For the Japanese version, you still see the subtitles for the lyrics on the screen. There are also trailers for Desert Punk, The Galaxy Railways, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball GT, and the Z-Store.

The only "extra" on the third disc are trailers. The trailers on this disc are for the FUNimation Channel, Case Closed, Dragon Ball Z, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki.

The fourth disc has three extras. The first is more character profiles, done in the exact same style as the profiles on disc two. On this disc are profiles for Genbu, Seiryu, Byakko, Suzaku, The Toguros, The Triad, Sakyo, Tarukane, Yukina, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Koenma, Gondawara, Rinku, Koto, and Shizuru. The textless songs that appear on this disc are exactly the same as what appears on disc two. The trailers available on this set are for MoonPhase, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Dragon Ball Z, Full Metal Panic!, and the Z-Store.

The actual episodes that appear on this set are very well-done. However, I wish FUNimation had gone to a little more effort with the bonus features. Even with the relative lack of bonus features included on this release, I would still recommend this set to fans of Yu Yu Hakusho, especially if they're interested in owning the series on DVD.

In order to write this review, I watched a copy of this DVD set that my husband purchased for me as a gift.