Yu Yu Haksuho: Bonds of Fire (Movie Review)

In my blog post “12 Anime and Manga Facts About Me”, I mentioned that I rented Yu Yu Hakusho: Bonds of Fire (1994) from Blockbuster Video every weekend when I was a kid. Well, excuse me for severely downplaying my enthusiasm for the movie! Between those rentals and my continued viewings of the DVD after I bought it, I must have watched Bonds of Fire a million times. I never get tired of it.

In light of my love for Bonds of Fire, I thought it would fun to rewatch it for the 1,000,001th time — you know, really dig into it and see what makes it tick. Every time I watch it, I catch something that I didn’t see before. This time was no different.

Here’s the summary from the DVD package:

Restored to life by supernatural forces, high school delinquent Yusuke was granted paranormal fighting powers to protect humanity. Demons are poised to take over the Earth, and Yusuke must lead a posse of mismatched superpowered warriors into battle against them. With spirit guns, swords, and good old-fashioned martial arts, our heroes will use any means necessary to wipe out the demons. It’s two-fisted fighting action at its best!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Yusuke Urameshi

Yusuke is a Spirit World detective who expels blasts of spiritual power through his signature moves Spirit Gun and Shotgun. As the movie starts, he’s at school, skipping class and craving food as usual. Suddenly, Botan, a Spirit World reaper and his close friend, literally falls out of the sky and into his arms. Before Botan passes out, she tells Yusuke that the River Styx has flooded the Spirit World.

What Botan fails to disclose is that she has the Power Sphere, an orb that contains a collection of the defunct Nether World’s energy. Koenma, the prince of the Spirit World, gave it to Botan to give to Yusuke for safe keeping, but Botan decided to hide it inside her own body to make it harder to find. Although everyone assumes that she’s suffering from having been struck by lightning on her way out of the Spirit World, her body is actually rejecting the Nether World energy.

Yusuke and his friends (aka Team Urameshi) learn from Hinageshi, Botan’s protégé, that the person responsible for the attack on the Spirit World is a guy named Yakumo. Yakumo was the king of the Nether World until he tried to take over Spirit World and Koenma’s father defeated him. Well, guess who’s back on his BS? This time, Yakumo wants to recreate the Nether World in the Human World. To do that, he needs the Power Sphere and the spiritual energy stored in five elemental idols scattered around the city. Unfortunately, Team Urameshi plans to use those same elemental idols to fix the Spirit World.

The race is on. Team Urameshi splits up. Each person is responsible for finding and unsealing an elemental idol. Meanwhile Yakumo sends out his three “demon god” flunkies to destroy the idols. The two groups inevitably clash, with a member of Team Urameshi matching up with a member of Team Yakumo. A couple of trends immediately emerge. First, Team Yakumo’s members have the ability — because of their unique powers, their obnoxious personalities, or both — to hit their Team Urameshi opponents where it hurts the most. Second, the physical appearances of Team Urameshi’s members directly contrast with those of their Team Yakumo opponent.

Naturally, Yusuke gets Yakumo. The white-haired, cape-wearing Yakumo rubs the black-haired, jean-jacket-wearing Yusuke the wrong way from jump. As a full-grown adult who’s probably thousands of years old, Yakumo takes way too much joy talking down to Yusuke and treating him like the 14-year-old kid he is. To make matters worse, Yakumo is far more powerful than Yusuke. During their first fight in a parking garage, none of Yusuke’s powers or punches affect Yakumo at all. Yakumo, however, knocks Yusuke through a car’s windshield and destroys the elemental idol with zero effort.

Their second meeting is even worse. Yakumo attacks the temple home of Genkai, Yusuke’s mentor. Genkai puts up a good fight, but she’s no match for Yakumo either. Then Yakumo slams Yukina, Hiei’s younger sister, against a wall; blasts Keiko, Yusuke’s girlfriend, down the temple stairs; and kidnaps Botan, whom he realizes has the Power Sphere. When Yusuke tries to intervene, Yakumo calls him a “whipped dog” and tells him to “learn [his] place.” Needless to say, Yusuke fails to get a single lick in.

Yusuke’s ego takes quite a beating from this moment. Fighting is a fundamental part of his identity. It’s something that he’s known for, something that he prides himself on. Such colossal failures do not sit well with him. This causes Yusuke to have an epic “Khan!” moment wherein he gathers his spirit energy around himself and (in the dub) screams Yakumo’s name to the sky for a good 15 seconds. It’s time to take it to the streets!

Unfortunately, Yusuke and Yakumo’s final fight on the roof of a skyscraper starts off with Yusuke once again getting his butt kicked. Yakumo has leveled up with the Power Sphere that he has ripped out of Botan’s body. Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei do what they can, but they’re out of spiritual power from their own fights. Help unexpectedly comes from the pint-sized Hinageshi. Driven by her anger for how Yakumo has treated Botan, she jumps on Yakumo’s back and wrestles the Power Sphere away from him.

Yusuke grabs it.

Finally, the tables begin to turn! Yusuke isn’t strong enough to handle the Power Sphere on his own, so he and the other guys combine their souls and convert the Nether World energy into spiritual power. It’s amazing to watch the power transform from Yusuke’s Spirit Gun to Kurama’s Rose Whip to Kuwabara’s Spirit Sword to Hiei’s Black Dragon as they each take a turn controlling it. Ultimately, it’s Hiei’s dragon that pushes Yakumo to the bottom of the building, killing him.

Or so they think.

Yakumo, who looks like a glorified zombie with melted skin and exposed nerves, lunges back up and pulls Yusuke off the building by his ankle. As they’re falling, Yusuke uses the Power Sphere one last time to create a potent Spirit Gun attack that ends Yakumo and shatters the orb itself. The damage to both the Spirit World and the Human World reverses. The day is saved!

The way I see it, Yakumo loses because of two miscalculations:

1. He assumes that as the king of the Nether World, he is the only one who can wield the Power Sphere. It’s a safe assumption. Botan nearly dies keeping it in her body, and Yusuke has to sacrifice his soul just to hold it. Plus, Yakumo notes, “Even Emperor Enma of the Spirit World could not handle the Nether World Power Sphere and had to seal it up.” The emperor.
2. He dismisses Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei as threats. Kuwabara points this out to Yakumo, saying, “Yusuke isn’t your only opponent. Did you forget that I’m still here?” Yes, I think he does. Yakumo probably assumes that if Yusuke — presumably the strongest one in the group if he’s the leader — can’t beat him, then none of the other guys can either. Again, I can’t argue with his logic.

Therefore, Yusuke has the element of surprise on his side. It never occurs to Yakumo that the Power Sphere could be shared by more than one person, let alone that the plan could actually work. Yusuke learns important lessons in leadership and teamwork, while Yakumo learns what happens when you screw with Team Urameshi.

Kazuma Kuwabara

Kuwabara** is Yusuke’s classmate and occasional rival who can shape his spiritual power into a sword. Kuwabara meets up with Yusuke to gather more information about the Spirit World situation from Hinageshi at Kasane Shrine. The two arrive to find the girl ducking a group of Nether World demons that want to kill her. And like Yusuke, Kuwabara is always down for a good fight!

Once that’s taken care of, Kuwabara heads off to a small shrine situated on a lake to unseal his elemental idol. There, he runs into Yakumo’s flunkie Majari. While Kuwabara has a robust frame and rough facial features, Majari is a slim, pretty boy demon with long green hair and gray, bone-like armor. Majari’s claim to fame is his ability to mimic the powers of the person he’s fighting. He demonstrates this by immediately copying Kuwabara’s Spirit Sword. That’s got to irritate Kuwabara’s sense of originality.

Majari annoys Kuwabara again midway through their fight. When Yusuke and the others show up to support Kuwabara, Majari takes a keen interest in Kurama. He even makes this little “mmm” sound (in the dub) as he checks Kurama out. I guess he likes what he sees. Kurama doesn’t react, but Kuwabara tells Majari, “Stop joking around!”

Majari clearly thinks very little of Kuwabara. Majari can afford to take his eyes off of Kuwabara — the number one no-no in a fight — because he’s not threatened by Kuwabara. He can take the time to ogle Kurama because he thinks he already has the fight in the bag and Kurama is better looking than Kuwabara. Basically, Majari hits all of Kuwabara’s sore spots. For someone who probably takes a lot of crap about his appearance and struggles with constantly taking a backseat to Yusuke, this is a double whammy of insults. This may also be part of what drives Kuwabara to confront Yakumo about ignoring him later in the movie.

In reality, Kuwabara and Majari are equally matched. Majari injures Kuwabara’s shoulder, and Kuwabara nicks Majari’s arm. Kuwabara realizes that they’ll never get anywhere this way. So, he comes up with the clever idea to put all of his spiritual power into a single blast, knowing that Majari will copy him again. Their blasts cancel each other out, leaving both of them without spiritual power. Majari is at a loss for what to do next. Kuwabara’s not. He knocks Majari into the stratosphere as he tells him, “In a true contest of guts, I have never been beaten!”

Kuwabara is the backbone of Team Urameshi. He’s always there to pick up the slack and back everyone up. During Kurama’s fight, he’s the first one ready to jump in and help. After Hiei’s fight, he carries Hiei’s unconscious body to the Yakumo showdown. In the final fight, it’s his idea to join his soul with Yusuke’s to control the Power Sphere. Plus, he does all of these things while providing the bulk of the comic relief. He’s a solid dude who’s second to no one.

Kurama

Kurama (formerly known as Youko Kurama) is a fox demon/ex-thief/plant manipulator whose soul lives inside a human student. Kurama comes to Genkai’s temple where everyone has gathered around the comatose Botan to describe how bad the Spirit World looks from the flooding. After hearing the new details from Hinageshi, he agrees to help with the situation.

Kurama finds his elemental idol and his opponent in an abandoned parking lot. Unlike Kurama, who is almost girlishly beautiful with his long red hair and green eyes, Yakumo’s unnamed demon flunkie looks like a Troll doll with his squat body, dark red skin, and tuft of bright orange hair. However, Nameless (as I’ll call him) can assume the appearance of whomever he chooses. In this case, he makes himself look like Youko’s dead partner Kuronue.

Through a flashback, we learn that the chain of Kuronue’s lucky pendant broke while he and Youko were running away from the Demon World palace after having stolen an antique mirror. When Kuronue turned back to get the pendant, he apparently triggered a trap and ended up impaled on bamboo sticks. Nameless spins the story, saying that Youko cut Kuronue’s chain so Kuronue would get caught and Youko could escape. Kurama is so stunned by the accusation that Nameless gets the jump on him. He slices Kurama across his stomach and destroys the idol.

Poor Kurama replays Kuronue’s death on a loop. It torments him that he can’t remember whether his memories or Nameless’s version of events is correct. Given the way that Youko has always been painted as cold, cruel, and ruthless, it’s difficult to tell if Nameless is lying. I mean, Youko was such a bad boy that even fellow bad boy Hiei lights up whenever Youko’s name comes up. However, Youko was also practical. He wouldn’t have sacrificed a perfectly good partner, let alone an actual friend. The look of horror on Youko’s face when Kuronue was killed was completely genuine.

By the time Kurama and Nameless meet again in battle, Kurama is still struggling with the truth. Nameless doesn’t let up, though. He continues to push his dirty narrative while wearing Kuronue’s face and swinging that pendant. On top of that, Kurama can’t fight properly because his stomach wound is still bleeding.

Thankfully, Hiei realizes that Nameless is working a spell on Kurama. He cuts down one of the scythes that are swinging around the area to break the enchantment. Freed of the hypnotism, Kurama finds clarity. Nameless’s mannerisms and actions don’t match Kuronue’s, which means that Kurama’s memories of Kuronue’s death are correct. Kurama goes into a full-on rage — like, the screen literally flashes red as he screams his fury. Kurama turns a piece of bamboo that he stashed behind his ear into a sword and stabs Nameless in the gut, which is revenge for the wound Nameless gave him. Then Kurama grows a complete bamboo forest and impales the demon on the treetops, the recreation of Kuronue’s death a fitting punishment for the demon who impersonated his friend.

Now, Hiei’s part in Kurama’s fight is interesting to me. When Kuwabara wants to help Kurama, Hiei says, “This is [Kurama’s] problem. He has to resolve it himself.” However, Hiei intervenes in the fight twice. How come he’s allowed to help?

The biggest reason is that Hiei’s the only one who can help. Kuwabara is out of spiritual power from his fight with Majari, and Yusuke needs to save his juice for his upcoming fight with Yakumo. Moreover, Hiei understands that a quick death for Nameless won’t solve anything. Kurama needs to determine the truth about “Kuronue” and what happened back then. Otherwise, he will doubt himself forever.

Therefore, Hiei only assists Kurama in small ways. Nameless wounds Kurama before their official fight and messes with Kurama’s head, so Hiei breaks the hypnotism to even the playing field. Kurama is tapped out (both physically and mentally) after delivering the fatal blows, so Hiei finishes off Nameless with a blast of his own power. That’s it. Kurama still does 99% of the work himself. I like that Hiei matches the symmetry of Kurama’s revenge tactics. Balance is important.

There’s a nice exchange between Kurama and Hiei after the fight too. Hiei says to Kurama, “So even someone like you, who is so cool, occasionally gets angry. That’s good to know.” That’s Hiei’s way of telling Kurama that he did a good job. It’s also a roundabout way of asking Kurama if he’s okay.

Kurama’s not okay. He doesn’t feel triumphant. He’s embarrassed that he let Nameless distract him, but more importantly, he feels guilty about how things went down with the real Kuronue. Even though he didn’t sabotage Kuronue like Nameless said, Kurama did technically abandon Kuronue to his death (in accordance with Kuronue’s wishes). The two stories are too close for comfort. Either way, Youko escaped because Kuronue died. That’s a tough thought to swallow.

However, Hiei offers Kurama this advice: “There is no one who does not have scars on his heart. If there were someone like that, he would be a shallow bastard.” That’s more Hiei-speak. He’s letting Kurama know that he doesn’t think less of him for anything that went down, then or now. Everybody has stuff in their past that they wish they could change. Kuronue’s death sucks, but the circumstances of it ultimately made Kurama the person that he is today.

Hiei

Hiei is a demon associate of Yusuke’s and Kurama’s friend/former partner-in-crime. His arsenal includes a sword; his Jagan (“Evil Eye”), which he can use to hypnotize people; and his Black Dragon, a dragon-shaped manifestation of his spiritual power that extends from his right arm. In true Hiei fashion, he flits in and out as the Spirit World situation unfolds, pretending like he doesn’t care about what’s happening.

To show how much he doesn’t care, Hiei scouts for an elemental idol using his Jagan while standing on top of a pole. Enter Raiko, Yakumo’s second-in-command. Whereas Hiei is known for his small stature and wild black-and-white hair, Raiko is tall and bald. However, Raiko has a Jagan on his forehead just like Hiei’s. Raiko sics two of his flunkies — yes, the flunkie has flunkies — on Hiei. Just as Hiei makes quick work of the demons, Raiko blasts him into a building with his Jagan and destroys the idol. Hiei barely knows what hit him.

If that humiliating loss isn’t enough to dissolve Hiei’s feigned aloofness, the knowledge that Raiko was present during the attack on Genkai’s temple does the job. Hiei doesn’t play when it comes to his sister Yukina. Kuwabara, who has a huge crush on Yukina and is equally mad about what happened to her, attempts to take on Raiko himself when they come across him again downtown. Hiei puts the kibosh on that. Raiko is his.

They begin their battle with a sword fight. Hiei is surprised by how good Raiko is. Raiko notices his reaction and smugly replies, “You cannot treat me like the others, Hiei.” Raiko already saw in that earlier fight that Hiei is a force to be reckoned with. He also correctly guesses that Hiei rarely uses the full extent of his skills because none of his opponents present much of a challenge for him. Thus, his statement is a warning to Hiei: you’ll have to put in real work to beat me. In the dub, Raiko makes the mistake of calling Hiei “little one” as well. I suspect that Hiei is as sensitive about his height as Kuwabara is about his looks and intelligence judging by his reaction.

Raiko then decides to use his Jagan to enslave Hiei. He forces Hiei to assume his demon form and unleash his Black Dragon Wave on everyone. Why does Raiko go this route? Unlike his boss, I think Raiko recognizes that Team Urameshi is a threat that needs to be neutralized. They’re just going to keep interfering with their plans. There’s no point in wasting energy fighting Hiei when Raiko can use Hiei to kill everybody for him. Then when Hiei’s out of spiritual power, Raiko can easily take him out. Additionally, Raiko gets to demonstrate how strong he is while getting his jollies by making Hiei kill his own friends.

Well, the joke’s on Raiko! After a brief demonstration of how powerful Hiei’s dragon is, Hiei reveals that he isn’t actually hypnotized. Then he turns the dragon on Raiko (much like what eventually happens to Yakumo). I guess Raiko isn’t that hot to trot after all.

This fake-out isn’t that surprising if you’ve been paying attention. During his earlier fight, Hiei uses a version of the trick. One of Raiko’s flunkies stabs Hiei in the back, ostensibly right through his heart. That Hiei turns out to be an illusion, and the real Hiei comes up behind the demon and kills him. It’s a foreshadowing scene meant to remind us of Hiei’s abilities. So when it looks like Raiko is controlling Hiei, we (the viewers) have a hunch that it’s all a ruse. Another big clue is the Black Dragon itself, which weaves around Yusuke and crew but never actually touches them.

I’m stuck on Hinageshi’s tidbit that Raiko’s power is supposed to “draw out wickedness.” After the fight, Hiei explains, “Those Evil Eyes could not seduce my Black Dragon.” Besides the fact that Hiei is stronger than Raiko, I think the hypnotism fails because there isn’t enough evil in Hiei for Raiko to latch on to. Hiei’s nowhere near as bad as he was when he first appeared in the series. He’s been humanized by hanging around with Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama. Perhaps that’s another reason why he was willing to give Kurama a break about Kuronue. He’s made mistakes in the past that have ultimately made him a better person too.

Conclusion

Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei are some of my favorite anime characters of all time. Bonds of Fire really does the guys justice. The animation quality is higher and the tone is more serious than usual, but the overall vibe isn’t that different from the anime. That’s a rare feat. The English dub isn’t too bad either. It often includes tiny additions that enhance the dialogue. There are some truly funny moments, like the number of times that Yusuke and Kuwabara yell “Damn!” and “Bastard!” respectively. Oh, and there’s a nice ending song called “Sayonara wa Iwanai” from Personaz.

My one complaint is that Bonds of Fire doesn’t give a recap of the characters or the main plot (like the Inuyasha movies do). Instead, the movie focuses on explaining the ins and outs of the current situation. That’s not a problem if you’ve seen the anime or read the manga, but if you’re a total YYH newbie, you’re left to figure out the finer points of the series through context and the rare bits of information the characters drop. That said, the plot isn’t so complicated that a newbie will be completely lost. I watched it for years without knowing much about the series and I was fine.

On a final note, there’s another YYH movie out there. It’s simply called Yu Yu Hakusho The Movie (1996). It’s a cute, hour-long movie where Koenma gets kidnapped during Yusuke’s summer vacation. Honestly, it’s more like an extended episode of the anime. It even retains the anime’s opening and ending sequences. It’s worth the watch.

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** Kuwabara’s name is pronounced “Kuwahara” in this dub, but in the anime series’ dub, it’s pronounced “Kuwabara.” I chose to uphold the latter pronunciation.

*Yu Yu Hakusho Bonds of Fire DVD cover © TOHO/Studio Pierrot/Movic/US Manga Corps/Yoshihiro Togashi/Shueisha*