Shelf Life

The RideBack Diaries

That said, I have problems with the rambling premise of Yu Yu Hakusho. Brawlin' high school punk Yuusuke Urameshi gets hit by a car (a leading cause of death in anime) and dies in the first episode. He is given a second chance at life as a “spirit detective,” except maybe it would be more accurate to say “yokai pro wrestler,” because instead of “solving” cases, Yuusuke and his friends end up squaring off against yokai (demons in the dub) in a series of fighting arcs, some of which— this being a Shonen Jump title— involve tournaments.

I'd seen some episodes of YYH on Cartoon Network back in the day, but I never seemed to watch enough of it sequentially to know what was going on. Even in 2002, Yuusuke and his bully friend Kuwabara had incredibly dated hair. I know that's a shallow criticism, but you get a lot of time to contemplate Yuusuke's highly reflective widow's peak as the show goes on.

It takes about four episodes for the first plot arc to get started. After eight episodes, I started to suspect that Yoshihiro Togashi created a bunch of characters and a premise, and then started writing the plot based on reader popularity polls. Otherwise, YYH is impossible to explain. For example, episode 14 kicks off like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Yuusuke, Kuwabara, and their new fighting pals have to dungeon hack a tower in another dimension to stop a demon from releasing zombie-creating bugs on Earth. How is that detective work? Yuusuke “solves” the case by fighting yokai one-on-one.

Even if the plot of YYH is total nonsense, it is fun spending time with the characters, who have appealing personalities and unique fighting styles. Hiei is fast and angsty, pretty boy Kurama fights with a rose whip, and Kuwabara can take a serious beating. Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and even Yuusuke feel as if they're based on someone's friends in real life. Sitting down to watch YYH is suspiciously like participating in a weekly gaming night with your buddies.

The dub is the same dub from the old CN days. Christopher R. Sabat as Kuwabara sounds totally ridiculous, but the Japanese actor also sounds looney. Cynthia Cranz affects a weird semi-British accent for Yuusuke's spirit guide Botan that doesn't really work, but you eventually get used to it.[TOP]

Rin Ogata suffers a career-ending ballet injury just as she's about to go pro. She enters college having given up ballet, and a chance rain storm lands her in the garage of her college Rideback club. You see, in this alternate near-future, a military organization called the GGP has introduced freakish standing motorcycle robots to the world. The war they were used in is over, but Ridebacks aren't street legal yet.

Rin's ballet balance and dexterity make her an excellent Rideback rider, and soon she's challenging seasoned veterans on the racing circuit. Unfortunately, everyone is more than a little touchy about terrorism in this militant future. Although politics weren't part of Rin's world before, controversy over Ridebacks suddenly push Rin onto the national stage.

There are a lot of interesting plot threads in Rideback, but the TV series fails to tie up any of them in a satisfactory way. Twelve episodes doesn't seem long enough to cover the political intrigue, Rin's feelings about ballet, and cool race scenes, yet the show still feels poorly paced. A little bird told me the anime went into production when very few chapters of the manga had come out. After the first four episodes of the TV series I would be more interested in following the manga (which runs in IKKI magazine).

The Ridebacks are all CG in the anime series, and sometimes they look cool. Other times, I'm stuck wanting to laugh at the very idea of a motorcycle having arms and hands. I initially watched some episodes of RideBack streaming, and I have to say watching it on Blu-ray made the CG far more impressive.

The dub didn't knock my socks off, but I enjoyed J. Michael Tatum as a deep voiced politician and Stephanie Young as his sultry sister. Trina Nishimura as Rin's cheerleading fangirl friend Suzuri was a little grating at times. The dub actors do a commentary track of one spoileriffic episode.

The limited edition set comes with a keychain that just says "Rideback" on it. Just a logo? Really? It'd be better if it was Rin's ride, Fuego, instead. To be fair, RideBack is certainly not a show that screams "character goods".

Indeed, RideBack is one of those shows that is Stream Worthy but not necessarily worth owning. If you do stream it, you might miss some of the nice CG, so I recommend renting the Blu-ray discs if possible.[TOP]