Yu Yu Hakusho

[Drunk Monk]

Yu Yu Hakusho

Another live action based on a famous anime franchise. It started out a bit annoying, another talented punk with disregard for everything yet a good heart, just misunderstood. Then he enters the Yokai world and meets Enma (junior) and things perk up. The premiere ep ends with a big superhero style fight that was enjoyable. 

I’ll watch more.

[Drunk Monk]

E2 was good fun with a superhero fight scene that was very well done. Our disdainful hero faces off with a cgi red hulk devil yokai in a car junkyard and the choreo is imaginative and well paced. Luved it. Definite winner for style points. I’m all in for more of that. 
The second yokai (there are 3 dark magic items the antihero mist recover) is more complex. 
I’m beginning to like the humor of it.

[Drunk Monk]

E3 was the obligatory martial training cliche where the students must achieve some impossible task to advance to mastery. But the master was good.

E4 was pretty much solid fights as each character confronts their respective nemesises. The choreo remains on point, capturing the energy of anime fights with dynamic cinematography, stunts and special effects. I’m really enjoying the style of fight choreo. They make it look easy but when I break down the composition in my head, it’s impressive work.

E5 will be the finale. I’ll likely watch that tomorrow night.

[Drunk Monk]

The finale was fun. Ultravi fun. 

Ultimately the story and characters are 2-dimensional, but this did come from anime. And it’s an unfair comparison to One Piece or Blue Eyed Samurai because both of those were much richer. 

This boils down to the action, which is imaginatively shot & choreographed, much in the spirit of anime, with ample use of decent special effects. The heroes were flat but the villain brothers were great. There’s some gory bits, like power punching through yokai monsters so the explode into sanguineous bits, or slicing & dicing with magic swords, again leaving piles of sanguineous bits.

It’s only 5 eps, less than an hour each. 

D00M recommended. 

This is extracted from a long running manga which became the long running anime Shonen Jump (which I never saw). I hope there’s another season.

[Greg]

I caught the first episode and a half. It was kind of fun. I might be burnt out on teens. Did Red Hulk get a cut for using him in the show. I did enjoy the fights. I liked the interaction Kuwabara. He might be my favorite character since he seems so unhinged. Is there some cultural significance to the afterlife god having that blue ball over his lips?

I'll finish up episode two and see if I need to see more.