The story of  Yu Yu Hakusho is one that has a lot of potential. While I’ve never seen it before, after reading up on the series, I found that its concept was pretty cool. Yusuke Urameshi, a delinquent trouble maker, in a surprising act of nobility, saves a child from being run down by a car, and in turn ends up being hit by the same car and killed. His act grants him a series of tests in which, if he succeeds, will allow him to become reunited with his body in the human world. When he succeeds Yusuke is given the title of Spirit Detective, a job that requires him to chase down demons and uncover paranormal phenomenon, hence the under title “Ghost Files”.

Unfortunately coming into the third season I am greeted, not with a mixture of Detective Conan meets Ghost Hound, but with a series that more resembles Dragon Ball Z. The first few episodes are committed to an underworld tournament (The Dark Tournament) in which Yasuke and his friends take on Team Toguro. Its your typical battle on, battle off, super powers unleashed, drama meets comedy scenario. Fortunately the story moves away from this set up and offers up more of a story rather then just never ending battles for the remainder of the set. So how does the show look in its BD transfer?

QUALITY:
From the get go what you can expect from the series is there. Line definition is incredibly sharp with dark edges and color sways from incredible to simply noteworthy, a feat that is still impressive considering the show is over a decade old. The picture isn’t one hundred percent clean, you can still see little white specks here and there, and the art style of the show wasn’t drawn with HD in mind, but nevertheless it is still an impressive and good to look at transfer. Audio (English 5.1 or Japanese 2.0, both in TrueHD) offer up crisp dialogue, a good mix between soundtrack, ambient sound, and special effects. Rear and side speakers do not get as much of a work out though.

BONUS FEATURES: (HD)
Textless Opening Song: Smile Bomb
Textless Closing Song: Sayonara Bye Bye
Textless Closing Song: Unbalanced Kisses
Trailers for other FUNimation Releases