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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijs6yJDGm5A So I don't normally like making threads. OPs should be full of info and insight on a subject and I got none of that. I'm sure there is a ton of fascinating info about a series as prolific as YYH's between the manga and anime and the localizations. But I know nothing about any of i. But a poster in the Ranma thread encouraged posting new threads so why not. All I know is I was a Toonami/Adult Swim Kid in the early 2000s and like many others YYH has a pretty profound influence on me. And unlike with DBZ, I'm not really ashamed of how much I loved it and still love it. At the same time, it's been nearly twenty years and I have rewatched it many times. It is not quite the masterpiece I used to think of it as. I made this thread largely because I did a rewatch while housesitting for a friend of mine and it made me reflect on what I still think it does well and what I think it fails at. Like with drat near every shounen I know, the opening arc is pretty weak. The first episode is great but then it drags and drags with a lot of really dumb and forced drama. ("oh no, Botan only remembered at the absolute last second that she could talk to Keiko's hospitalized and sleeping mother! How convenient") YYH kinda bookends on badness with the first and final arc being by far the weakest parts of the whole series. Three Kings still has a lot more going for it than the first arc, however. The thing that makes Yu Yu Hakusho still hold up for me is the main protagonist. Yusuke is a fantastic character, one of the best shounen mains I've ever seen, and this is consistent from start to finish. Whatever Three Kings' failings, it's almost worth it just for that final episode. I suppose I should mention I've only watched the anime and in English dub. YYH's dub is pretty legendary and part of what got YYH on my mind in the first place was s a discussion in another SA thread where its dub was lauded as the best ever. Bold words but I can see why people feel that way. Having discussed differences between anime and manga with people elsewhere, and relating this back to Yusuke as a character, one notable difference between manga and anime is Yusuke's mother is just forgotten about in the anime after the first arc. She's with the other girls in the Dark Tournament Arc in the manga. But her absence in the anime does her no favors since the last thing she really did was leave her son covered in garbage or fail to kiss him. With Atsuko gone, I viewed Genkai as Yusuke's real mother figure, largely based on the speech he gives her after she asks him to kill her to inherit the Spirit Wave Orb. He talks about how she's the only person who ever taught him anything and overall the impression was she was the stern but loving and admirable authority figure Yusuke always needed. And then I found out all of this was added by the dub. In the sub, he just ay "I thought hard about it and nope." That's it. Same for the manga. Nothing at all about how much Genkai really means to him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zba-LNgbDVM My other dual praise/criticism is that the two humans are the best of our hero cast. I talked about Yusuke but Kuwabara is right behind him in terms of being endearing and interesting. Now, he does suffer from the conditioned response of any battle shounen character no longer being strong in that he is suddenly seen as less awesome or important. At the same time, I love the direction they went with him. It could have been done better if Togashi had actually wanted to write this arc at all but at least he spirit of it all is perfect. He and Yusuke were both young punks who grew up. Yusuke could never be a bookish type but he still grew up while Kuwabara studying hard and leaving behind childish delinquency was awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt9-2S3I3MY Kurama and Hiei by contrast mean very little to me. I think that is probably another reason I care so little about Three Kings. In keeping with a double-edge of praise and criticism, Chapter Black is the peak of the series and it's not even close. I love Sensui as a villain, I love the tone, I love how it is far more dramatic than just fight fight fight ...but its ending sucks a lot. They spent all this time building up Yusuke's and Sensui's dynamic - they're polar opposites with Sensui being a martial artist specializing in kicks, who thinks calmly, vs.Yusuke, a street fighter who loves to punch poo poo and acts on his gut (their energy attacks are even mirrors of one another) - and then it's just completely overturned and Sensui is way super stronger than Yusuke and they're gonna have a DBZ fight. And they're of course just repeating the Younger Toguro situation again with "he actually wanted to lose and die all along. This was all his REAL plan" I guess I'll conclude with this video showing off YYH's best songs. YYH is not a all time great OST like Inuyasha or other soundtracks with so many great pieces you can't count them all. More like, it has a few select songs it repeats a lot and most of the instances of those songs being used you'll forget. But by god, they are used in a few select moments and help make them unforgettable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVJCNwSeRlE In sum, I'd say on the whole YYH is a solid 8/10 with extremely high highs and not many lows. Just a lot of...not as good stuff. The dub and the music really helped.
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Jul 24, 2021 09:08
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 22:33 |
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Asuron posted:Tatakai no Hate is the best OST , I will argue this one till death. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kp6c8ZgfUc This, along with reuniting with Keiko and everybody, is part of my "the ending justifies the TK Arc." So 100% agreed.
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Jul 24, 2021 12:53
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bees x1000 posted:Grabbed the whole series in a Bluray sale, solely based on the strength of HxH. We're going to start it this week. Be sure to keep us updated with your opinions. I haven't met a newcomer to YYH...ever so I'd be very interested to hear what somebody in 2021 thinks of the series as a whole and specific parts. Do you plan to watch dub or sub?
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Jul 25, 2021 17:01
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So since we're gonna have a newcomer to YYH around here, figure I'll declare SPOILERS I will say this about Three Kings, in spite of its many flaws like following the DBZ route of making everyone besides a certain special group (Demons here) pitifully weak and irrelevant. Yusuke's character never stops being great and memorable. And among his many memorable traits was his "You eat people? I gotcha, that's fine" stance. There's a lot that makes him stand out compared to your average shounen lead but I dare say this is something I've seen absolutely nowhere else. It's a brutal realism or pragmatism. Demons have to eat people, they were made that way. No judgment here
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Jul 27, 2021 21:58
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I talked in the OP about Atsuko vanishing in the anime. Relevant to current chat, we apparently see her talking to Yusuke's actual human dad in the manga? Or so I was told. It's at the end.bees x1000 posted:Watched the first 3 episodes tonight. This is definitely a 90's anime. A glorious time to be alive hence the point of the show.
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Jul 28, 2021 13:02
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Wark Say posted:I dunno, weren't the "Classes" meant to be less to do with "1-on-1 fighting ability" and more to be akin to "this fucker/fuckress might be powerful enough to level a nation if left alone" caliber? Well, the first time it is mentioned, it's to point out Younger Toguro was only B+ and Demon World is full of people who make him look like a chump and that's why they need to protect the tunnel and barrier at all costs. My "favorite" is how the A-Class is just worthless. Kuwabara, Hiei and Kurama all get powered up to A-Class and then are totally helpless against Sensui, the S-Class. The strongest fighters in Spirit World are introduced...and they're only A-Class and are treated as a joke who are kept in the dark of how Demon World has tons of demons who would eat them for lunch. There's literally not an A-Class who is worth anything from the point they are introduced.
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Jul 28, 2021 23:52
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An observation: The fights in YYH aren't very good in and of themselves. They are good because of the writing and execution. This reminds me of a Discord talk about why One Piece is the best. The person praising it did not like shounen and he said OP was the best shounen ever because of its non-shounen elements. I disagree but it was an interesting take and, more relevantly, he claimed the most memorable moments of OP are all outside of fights. Again, disagree but I'm connecting this to YYH. YYH certainly has memorable fights but it's more for emotional peaks in the fights and not because the fights are particularly interesting. And YYH certainly has many non-standard shounen elements that I think make it stand out and help make Yusuke my favorite shounen lea ever. Stexils posted:in retrospect i think the only reason puu was in the show was to give keiko something to do with her hands And to give us a scene I still cry at nearly twenty years later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfhzuNmMi-k
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Aug 3, 2021 03:10
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 22:33 |
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OnimaruXLR posted:...what do you think makes a good fight, exactly? The writing and execution dictate as much about the internal logic and mechanics of battle scenes as it does plot and the characterization. Like, take Yusuke vs. Toguro as an example. Really, nothing happens in that fight outside of a few Big Moments. Moreover, Yusuke and Toguro have pretty simplistic powers compared to everything we've seen in the Dark Tournament. But it still works because of the characters and emotions. But I don't see why you think cartoons can't have good-looking fights without great writings just like in an action film.
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Aug 5, 2021 00:17
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