Yu yu hakusho: meikai shito hen - hono no kizuna
Tags: paranormal, violence

Plot synopsis:
Yu Yu Hakusho follows Yusuke Urameshi, a 14-year-old street-brawling delinquent who, in an uncharacteristic act of altruism, is hit by a car and killed in an attempt to save a young boy by pushing him out of the way. His ghost is greeted by Botan, a woman who introduces herself as the pilot of the River Styx, who ferries souls to the "Underworld" or Spirit World (霊界, Reikai) where they may be judged for the afterlife. Botan informs Yusuke that his act had caught even the Underworld by surprise and that there was not yet a place made for him in either heaven or hell. Thus Koenma, son of the Underworld's ruler King Enma, offers Yusuke a chance to return to his body through a series of tests. Yusuke succeeds with the help of his friends Keiko Yukimura and Kazuma Kuwabara. After returning to life, Koenma grants Yusuke the title of "Underworld Detective" (霊界探偵, Reikai Tantei, lit. "Spirit World Detective"), charging him with investigating supernatural activity within the Human World (人間界, Ningen Kai). Soon Yusuke is off on his first case, retrieving three treasures stolen from the Underworld by a gang of demons: Hiei, Kurama and Goki. Yusuke collects the three treasures with the aid of his new technique, the "Rei Gun", a shot of aura or Reiki (霊気, Reiki, "Spirit Energy") fired mentally from his index finger. He then travels to the mountains in search of the aged, female martial arts master Genkai. Together with his rival Kuwabara, Yusuke fights through a tournament organized by Genkai to find her successor. Yusuke uses the competition as a cover to search for Rando, a demon who steals the techniques of martial arts masters and kills them. Yusuke defeats Rando in the final round of the tournament and trains with Genkai for several months, gaining more mastery over his aura. Yusuke is then sent to Maze Castle in the Demon Plane (魔界, Makai, lit. "Demon World"), a third world occupied solely by demons, where Kuwabara and the newly reformed Kurama and Hiei assist him in defeating the Four Beasts, a quartet of demons attempting to blackmail Koenma into removing the barrier keeping them out of the human world.
Yusuke's next case sends him on a rescue mission, where he meets Toguro, a human turned into a demon. In order to test his strength, Toguro invites Yusuke to the Dark Tournament (暗黒武術会, Ankoku Bujutsukai, "Dark Martial Arts Association"), an event put on by corrupt, rich humans in which teams of demons, and occasionally humans, fight fierce battles for the chance to receive any wish they desire. Team Urameshi, consisting of Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and a disguised Genkai, traverse through the strenuous early rounds to face Team Toguro in the finals and win the tournament. They learn that Team Toguro's owner, Sakyo, was attempting to win in order to create a large hole from the human world to the Demon Plane and allow countless demons through. With his loss, Sakyo destroys the tournament arena, killing himself in the process.
After the tournament, Yusuke returns home, but has little time to rest as he is challenged to a fight by three teenagers possessing superhuman powers and who end up taking the detective hostage. Kuwabara and the others rescue him and learn that the whole scenario was a test put on by Genkai. It is disclosed that Shinobu Sensui, Yusuke's predecessor as Underworld Detective, has recruited six other powerful beings to help him take over where Sakyo left off, opening a hole to the Demon Plane in order to cause genocide of the human race. Yusuke and his friends challenge and defeat Sensui's associates one-by-one, culminating in a final battle between the two detectives. Sensui kills Yusuke then retreats into the newly opened portal to the Demon Plane. Yusuke is reborn as a partial demon, discovering that his ancestor passed down a recessive gene that would hide until an heir with sufficient power surfaced, when his demonic lineage would be revealed. Yusuke travels to the Demon Plane and defeats Sensui with the aid of the spirit of his ancestor who takes control of Yusuke's body to finish the fight.
As they return to the human world, Yusuke is stripped of his detective title as King Enma orders he be captured and executed in fear that Yusuke's demon blood could cause him to go on a rampage in the human world. Yusuke, unsettled at having been controlled by his ancestor Raizen, accepts an offer by Raizen's followers to return to the Demon Plane. Raizen, desiring a successor to his territory, is on the brink of dying of starvation, a death that would topple the delicate political balance of the three ruling powers of the Demon Plane. Hiei and Kurama are summoned by the other two rulers, Mukuro and Yomi, respectively, to prepare for an inevitable war. The three protagonists train in the realm for one year, during which time Raizen dies and Yusuke inherits his territory. Yusuke takes initiative and proposes a fighting tournament to name the true ruler of the Demon Plane, which is agreed upon by Mukuro and Yomi. During the tournament, Yusuke and Yomi meet in the second elimination round where Yusuke is defeated and knocked unconscious. Yusuke awakens days later to find that the tournament has ended and that a similar competition is to be held every so often to determine the Demon Plane's ruler. Yusuke stays in the Demon Plane for a while longer, but eventually returns to the human world after several years to be with Keiko.

Review: Why not use the show's cast?!. Yu-Yu Hakusho is in my top five list of favorite anime shows, so naturally I got excited when I discovered Poltergeist Report. I was very disappointed when the characters started speaking, however. The dubbed cast for the movie is awful compared to the English cast for the show, which is awesome. I know the movie came to America long before the show (you really don't need to know jack about the show to have some understanding of what's going on in the movie), but I really wish that FUNimation would re-release it with the TRUE English cast. Another flaw with the movie is the same flaw the show has: the animation, well, let's just say it's not offensively horrible, like what one would expect from an episode of Scooby Doo, but it could be better. The story is typical of movies based on action anime (an hour-and-a-half-long episode), but it is still an entertaining plot, so no harm done there. Overall, Poltergeist Report is something worth watching, it just depends on how you tolerate partially-formulaic approaches to movies.. Not bad, but the dub and the continuity errors make it a look like a mess. This Movie is not terrible... It's decent! The English voice acting for this movie is actually hilarious. It made the movie really fun to watch as me and my friends were nitpicking the hell out of it. The plot was okay, though it was a little convoluted at times... but the animation was pretty great for its time... So overall it's not bad but not any good either as the incompetent dialogue completely takes away what made Yu Yu Hakusho's characters great in the first place... Also it's impossible to understand where this movie fits in the cannon.. Not bad Good story!. This was not a very bad movie.  It kept me somewhat interested with the story line.  The dialogue was okay but there was very little comedy relief in the film.  It also was not as graphic violently as I had expected. The fight scenes in the film were great.  Although it may seem that I am downing this movie I am not.  I own the film and recommend it to any anime movie lover.  If you do not know what anime is then do not try to watch this film before learning.. Never say goodbye.. Yu Yu Hakusho is quite possibly the best anime series ever.  With action, comedy, drama, and... more action, a diverse cast of characters, and Kurama, quite possibly the coolest anime character in existence, you have one obvious hit.SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPHThe 2nd movie features one good plot.  In it, Spirit World, or Rei Ki, is mysteriously destroyed by an oncoming flood.  Back on Earth, or Nigenkai, Yusuke discovers the only person to escape the flood-- an extremely injured Botan.  Before falling into a coma, she tells him to go and find the guide to Rei Ki, Hinageshi.  With Kuwabara's help, Yusuke is able to locate her, but she's being attacked by demons!  The two easily defeat the monsters and save Hinageshi, who then is able to tell them how to restore Rei Ki. Soon, the YYH heroes(Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei) are off to unseal five elemental sites and use their power to bring back Rei Ki....... but something goes horribly wrong.  Each of them is ambushed by the movie's villain, Yakumo, and his goons, who then DESTROY the elemental sites as part of the plan to restore their own world, the Netherworld.  But Yakumo's plan is not complete without one object.. something called the power sphere. And it ties in with Botan's current condition.END SPOILERS.Of course, the movie has each of the YYH heroes having their own dramatic 1-on-1 fight with each of the villains in the film.  One nice thing is it also ties in a bit with Kurama's past, showing a bit more of his past life before the series begins.  I won't spoil it, but it's pretty neat.  Also, the animation and music of the film are superb.  They take everything from the TV show and amplify it.  It really does feel like a big budget version of the TV series.Now for the bad...... the horrible English dubbed voices.  Handled by Central Park Media and U.S. Manga Corps., the people behind this decided to use the worst voices from the English versions of Poke'mon and Slayers to do the voices in this.  It is BAD!  Yusuke sounds like some comic book super hero, Hiei ridiculous, and Kuwabara is so awful I shut the mute button anytime he starts speaking.  In fact, the dubbing company even renamed Kuwabara!  Avoid this horrible translation!  The DVD has Japanese and English... don't play the English one!On an end note, the film ends with an excellent piece, titled "Never Say Goodbye."(I think that's the song's title, at least.)  Luckily, no horrible English version of the song has been made, unlike FUNimation's constant trend of dubbing the TV show theme songs.BOTTOM LINE:  An excellent tie-in for those who want to see more YYH.