After hearing her out, and being confirmed by Koenma, it is discovered that someone is opening a new tunnel to the Demon World and at the rate that Mushiori City is filling up with strange bugs and lesser demons, the hole is growing fast. If the hole reached two kilometers in diameter, it could never be closed. And those responsible for it are not demons themselves, but seven warped humans lead by the previous spirit detective Shinobu Sensui. He has shown The Black Chapters tape to other ordinary humans that had developed special abilities from the opening of the hole and brainwashed them into thinking that humankind deserves to be expunged by the demons they are trying to loose on the world.

The story is a race against time as the hole begins to grow of its own volition and the projected time limit to stop it rapidly shrinks from 3 weeks to just hours in only a few short days. Not only that, but Sensui finds a human with the ability to cut through dimensions, so now he can completely destroy a wall that separates the most powerful of demons from the human world. It all boils down, as is typical in a shonen series, to a showdown against the remainder of the enemies as Yusuke and the others frantically try to make it in time to close the dimensional tunnel.

Presentation

The set’s presentation is fairly standard. You get two discs stacked in an ordinary DVD case. No frills or bells, it is what it is. The opening menu sports some unique music that sets the mood for the largely serious story arc that’s about to unfold as you press play, and the menu is laid out in a fairly clear-cut manner. This is a good thing, because it meant I didn’t have to go hunting through pointless menu options just to find the features I wanted. The actual episodes are not re-mastered, but this isn’t much of an issue as there is still great image quality and sound to begin with. You still get a good bi-lingual track with quality voice acting in either Japanese or English, and the dub translation into English is one of the better ones you can find.

Extras

Less is more with the first disc of the set. It only has a few trailers for Samurai 7, Black Cat, and Anime Online. However, this is understandable when you’re cramming eight full episodes onto a single disc. Disc two is more promising. It also has trailers for Slayers, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Z-Store. But, as this disc only has five episodes on it, its extras are a little bulkier with textless opening and ending songs as well as character profiles. I do have issue with the profiles, however. On an ordinary TV (no hi-def or any shiny enhancement) the profile pictures and text seem somewhat pixilated. I found that if viewed on a PC, the issue clears up, so there are definitely some resolution issues with this added feature. That may not sound like such a big deal, but to old prudes like myself who prefer watching anime on a TV from the couch like in days of yore it can be, especially if your far vision’s not the greatest. The character images aren’t all that gets distorted, but so does the text. I can only assume that on screens with higher definition this isn’t an issue, but let’s be real. The percentage of people that actually have brand new televisions isn’t all that large yet. Still. They do get my props for giving decent information about all the new faces appearing in these episodes.

Overall

By and large I enjoyed these DVDs immensely. I’m a whole-hearted fan of fast-paced fight scenes and gratuitous violence. However, if you’re only use to seeing Yu Yu Hakusho as it aired on TV, be warned. These DVDs are uncut and they do have a LOT more blood and violence in them. A good example is the normally tame and quiet Kurama slicing off the time of someone’s head with his rose whip. This doesn’t change the fact that the series is just as engaging as it had been when it first began. It pretty much sticks to a core cast of main and supportive characters and just introduces new faces for the new story arc, and fights last no longer than two episodes. To some of us who don’t like to spend a week watching a single fight scene (yeah, DBZ, I’m lookin’ at you here), this is the perfect sort of series to watch. The presentation and extras really take a back seat to the treat of thirteen episodes of blood-pumping action, which could even stand alone without any extras at all. To a long-term YYH fan, the massive beatings being distributed, the intriguing story, and the occasional comedic relief will be a balm to the soul on dull weekends.

Overall: 9.0