I really enjoyed this season. but I wish that they had finished the tournament, instead of stopping before the finals were over because there were still three fights to go!

Yu Yu Hakusho, my third favorite anime, is being released in these wonderful season sets just like DBZ. This box set makes brings the episode count up to half the entire series!

I’ll start off by saying that the packaging hasn’t changed from Season 1′s box, which of course is predictable. This is a good thing, as the four discs are packed into two thin cases, making the set compact and versatile for space.

One particular flaw with the set appears in all these sets, unfortunately. There is no Marathon feature which allows you to view all the episodes on the disc in order, but removes the “coming next episode” animation, plus the opening and closing credits. FUNimation does this for DBZ and even One Piece which only comes in 13 episode sets! With so many episodes per disc, this seems like an obvious addition, but alas.

Otherwise, the only extras are character profiles and trailers.

Now lets get to the good, shall we?

The entire set focuses on the Dark Tournament Saga. More than half the saga is covered in this set. The fights include: the remaining battles with Team Rokuyoukai, led by the charmingly drunk Chu, Team Ichigaki, three powerful students seemingly controlled by a devious scientist, Team Masho, ninja-like warriors who specialize in elemental combat, and Team Uraotogi, a team of flamboyant fighters using very unique weapons. The set ends as the first battle with Team Toguro comes to a close.

Along the way, Yusuke is confronted by his team’s own Masked Fighter who reveals her true self. The identity is very predictable, and it isn’t surprising, but it leads Yusuke to take part in a memorable test to prove he is capable of defeating the wicked Toguro. In this test, Yusuke absorbs a ball of pure, concentrated energy, which owing to its power, puts Yusuke in an extreme state of pain. The screams of Justin Cook, Yusuke’s English VA, are so convincingly painful that you just can’t look away. And the death of a particular teammate brings tragedy and resolve to Yusuke, as the dying tells Yusuke of Toguro’s abandonment of his humanity.

Of course, this wouldn’t be Yu Yu Hakusho without comic relief. Key comedic moments include the hatching of Yusuke’s spirit egg which revealing a less than intimidating creature of hilarious design, a hard pressed battle for Kuwabara which results in hilarious victory after seeing the face of the girl he loves, and two particularly entertaining scenes with Yusuke and Keiko, the first where Yusuke gets slapped hard after inappropriately touching Keiko’s behind, remarking its attractiveness, and the second involving Keiko watching over his sleeping body while their friends suggest “taking advantage” of the situation.

The episodes are not without fault, though. The fight with Team Ichigaki is a little too uninteresting, and Ichigaki himself partakes of the “anime bad guy” laugh too much. The fight between Chu and Yusuke starts well, but, unlike the manga, the fight concludes with Keiko making an attempt to stop the fight whilst learning about pride among fighters, instead of being a fast paced brawl without interruption. On top of those, not everyone in the cast is perfect, in both English and Japanese. I generally prefer Japanese dialog, but the original cast has a bad habit of disappointing me a lot. On the other hand, the English dub has a wonderful cast for the main recurring characters, but sometimes falls short on the minor ones.

But if Japanese is still your thing, the subtitles are quite accurate. I know this because they resemble a fan-sub, keeping the honorific suffixes, and translating the name of every item. Unfortunately, like the original cast, the subtitles disappoint me. Not because they’re bad, but because it shows how largely unoriginal the Japanese dialog is. Several characters give the same tired lines used in similar situations in just about every other shonen title out there. It makes you appreciate the random jokes and quirks that FUNimation put in their script to give the characters more personality.

Otherwise, this set is worth every penny, considering the price, which is less than a dollar per episode. Pick this up and all the others. The plot is basic, but the characters, the flashy battles, loud sound effects, and memorable music make this series a classic.