Oh, By the Way, There Was a 'Yu Yu Hakusho' OVA Released This Year

When I got wind of rumors last year that Yu Yu Hakusho a.k.a. Ghost Fighter was going to make a comeback in 2018, I assumed there was going to be a followup series.  Since it’s one of my most favorite anime of all time, I was understandably beyond thrilled; the thought of a Yu Yu Hakusho anime rendered through modern animation techniques and technology will make any fan salivate.

However, as it turns out, it was a mere OVA.  What a letdown.

But I just recently got around my disappointment, and finally saw it before the year ends.  As expected, I was underwhelmed.

The OVA is made up of two short episodes.  The combined runtime is only 29 minutes – just barely over the average runtime of an anime episode.  The first one is titled “Two Shot” (alternatively, “Two Shots”), which tells the story of how Hiei (Vincent) and Kurama (Dennis) met.  The second one is “All or Nothing”, which is set after the events of the anime, and features the reunion of the Team Urameshi quartet as they go on a hostage rescue mission in the Spirit World.

There’s some effort to bring a sense of high stakes to both narratives.  But considering the brevity, it doesn’t really work.  There’s not enough time to start getting into it.  There’s no striking action either.  Overall, this OVA feels dominantly inconsequential.

I guess that’s it.  There’s nothing really much to review about it.  If nothing else, I wrote this just to inform whomever it may concern that I had seen it, and that it only further left me sad because it wasn’t a revival of the anime.