Name(s): Yu Yu Hakusho: Chapter of Underworld’s Carnage – Bonds of Fire / Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho: Meikai Shitou-hen – Honoo no Kizuna / Yuu Yuu Hakusho Movie 2 / YuYu Hakusho / Yu Yu Hakusho: Fight for the Netherworld / 幽☆遊☆白書 冥界死闘篇 炎の絆 / Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report / Yu Yu Hakusho (Ghost Files) La Película 2: Batalla Mortal en el Más Allá
Format: Movie
Studio(s): Pierrot
Related: Yu Yu Hakusho (1992-1995) / Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie (1993)

Holy crap, look at all of those alternative names. None of the official English translations are based off of the original Japanese subtitle, as far as I know, so I had to find a literal translation. My goal to maintain original artistic intentions bit me in the ass here. Anyway, the only reason Poltergeist Report doesn’t get a lower score is because I have an attachment to and love these characters. Yu Yu Hakusho is one of my favorite anime. The fact I still gave this a 4 should hint to you how painfully mediocre it is.

The original villains are completely stock, their powers being uninteresting and certainly not used to their full possible effect by making interesting fights. In every fight a character just gets their ass kicked, figures something out, and ends it immediately. There’s no real pushing force felt in the best of the main series’s fights.

The narrative structure of going from one place to the next to defeat a monster to prevent some demonic catastrophe is like something out of your blandest 8-bit RPG and aggressively boring.

Just an absolute chore. No exciting fights. No strong characterization. No nothing. If I wasn’t so upset about there being no more Yu Yu Hakusho that I’d watch this in the first place, this would get an even lower score.