The grieving process has to be one of the harder things to handle properly in an action show - - next to, or above, a believable romance, perhaps. You want to be true to the characters and how they’d react to a loss, but you don’t want to bum everybody out by having too long of a stretch without the goods they’ve come for. Sorrow’s real difficult to represent in a dynamic and visual way, you know?Yusuke blasting his spirit gun at full bore up into the heavens seems like a properly bombastic option, then. It’s like the equivalent of a Viking funeral in whatever you want to call this loose mythology of demons, ghost detectives and “spirit energy.”
Actually, while we’re talking about that, here’s a question for you more scholarly lunatics. All this flashy stuff should just be understood as an interchangeable synonym for “chi” in this universe, yes? I figured that was the case, but as the show goes on and it gets used more and more, it’s really starting to sound like it’s euphemism that’s been cooked up by the translation team. “Spirit energy” as a term doesn’t require the sort of pesky cultural perspective that “chi” does for proper understanding. Am I on to something here?
Anyway, we’re here at what should be the second season mark (or what was the mark in the original broadcast.) As much as I’m still enjoying the hell out of this show, it’s time to take another hiatus before we get to the real home stretch that’ll take us to the Dark Tournament’s finale. Don’t worry, though - - we won’t be leaving Team Urameshi for too long.
Look up this episode, "Overcoming Grief" and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
