AX actually threw its own style of LAST COMIC STANDING over the weekend. Around ten stand-ups competing for otakus’ chuckles and, while I’m usually not a fan of geek humor, I was tittering all over the place that night. One guy had a particularly hilarious bit about how the power levels eventually got so high in DBZ that the scanner’s might as well have just started saying “REALLY BIG NUMBER” instead of getting into any specific digits.
(The bit was funnier at the show. Trust me.)
Seeing as how YU YU HAKUSHO is something like the darker Yang to DBZ’s sunnier Ying, it figures that this quality (?) would apply, too. Hiei’s gone through a “face turn” that more-or-less parallels Vegeta’s, already, and this episode accordingly has him take his seemingly maxed-out Black Dragon Hyper Combo to a stage that really makes its previous usage look paltry. Sounds a bit like how Super Saiyan Level 3 makes Super Saiyan Level 2 looks like, right?
The difference I appreciate, though, is that this show (or, at least, this dub) is self-conscious about the absurdity of all this powering-up and just revels in it. When the Black Dragon’s running wild in the stadium and incinerating about 47% of the attendees (to get as specific as an anime does,) and the fox girl jumps up starts hooting about she’s loving this “Hell in a basket”… that’s the definition of YU YU HAKUSHO to me.
(Maybe I should write my own stand-up routine about it.)
Look up this episode, "Wielder of the Dragon” 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
