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Let's rewind a bit and recap what had happened in this final story arc. Yuusuke, Kurama and Hiei were each visited by representatives of powerful demons that rule the Demon World. Yuusuke then join his demon blood-related ancestor Raizen; Kurama joined the blind demon Yomi; while Hiei joined Mukuro. Not long after that, Raizen passed away and Yuusuke inherited his throne, and suggested to held the Demon World United Fighting Tournament (that is not the official English name by the way, I directly translated it to English from the Malay-translated manga that I bought in my country) which anyone can enter, and whoever wins will rule the Demon World. The preliminaries had begun and the final 128 contestants will move on to the final stage where they will have a one-on-one fight. So what happen next?
The first two chapters just showed bits of the fights for the final stages of the tournament. The first chapter had the fight between Chuu (you might remember him from the Dark Tournament story arc) and Natsume (one of Raizen's friend who came to pay respect at his grave) as its main focus, while the second chapter shift the focus to the fight between Yuusuke and Yomi. Nothing much was shown, to be honest, the fights featured were short and brief. Then the third chapter pretty much just summed up this final story arc in an anti-climatic manner which is through conversations between Kuwabara, Kurama and Yuusuke back at the human world. Some might be disappointed with this but I don't really mind since I already appreciate the story as it is, and I was already satisfied with its world-building and characters development that had been explored in the previous volume. So for me, it was all good.
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The schedule for the final stage of the Demon World United Fighting Tournament
There are 8 chapters altogether in this final volume, and the final story arc already finish by the third chapter, so you might wonder what about the rest? What happened in the last 5 remaining chapters? Most of them are short stories following the characters and their whereabouts/what they were doing after the event of the last story arc. The fourth chapter shows Yuusuke and Kurama doing some detective work when Keiko came to them asking for their help with a mysterious case that involved some kind of a haunting at a girl's college dormitory. It's a fun story and showed, once again, how intelligent Kurama is (he really is brilliant!). The fifth chapter is quite interesting too where we follow Hiei in the Demon World as he became one of the demon being tasked as some kind of patrolers, and Mukuro who (I believe) was leading the team. Some of Mukuro's past was explored, and Hiei did something to cheer Mukuro up. It was quite a dark story but definitely fascinating.
The next chapter was a random of 1-to-3 pages of even shorter stories that involved some of the characters featured in the manga; from main characters like Yuusuke, Keiko, Koenma and Botan, to the smaller characters like Yanagisawa, Kido, Kaito (both from Shinobu Sensui's story arc), Koto, Jury, Ruka (the ladies involved in the Dark Tournament) and Chuu (also from the Dark Tournament story arc and the final story arc). Even Yuusuke's father made an appearance in this chapter.
The seventh chapter featured one last crisis that the characters had to overcome. Yuusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei once again had to team up to save Koenma, Botan, and the rest of the crew in the Underworld from a group of extremist. Since it was only for one chapter, the story was (obviously) short with lots of plot points conveyed through conversation with simple action sequences. It was also end in a cliffhanger, which again resolved in an anti-climactic manner (second anti-climax for this volume alone) in the next and final chapter for the manga series. The story ended with a happy ending with the final chapter brought almost all the main characters together for one final goodbye to the readers. I understand if some people might feel that the ending was kind of sudden, to be honest I kind of feel the same way as well, but it was still a satisfying ending for me, and have some kind of nostalgic feeling to it, so I'm happy with how the story ends. The few final pages of the volume also include illustrations for all the main characters, some supporting characters and also some of the villains that had been featured throughout the manga series.
As the final volume for the manga series, the ending was a bit sudden (like what I've mentioned before). But I also said that I'm quite happy with it. This is because I feel that the story were tied neatly (even though it seemed rushed), all the main characters were in a better place and happy, and it ends beautifully. How could I ask for more, right? And since this is also the end, what do I feel about the whole series? Well, it is a great manga series. Even though the beginning of the series had the detective type of story and as the manga continued it evolved to become more action-oriented and became totally different than it originally was, the series continued to capture my heart with its stories - regardless what type it was. My favourite story arc is between the Dark Tournament or the Shinobu Sensui's story arc - I can't pick one! But my favourite villain is definitely Karasu (he was such a mysterious guy). As for my favourite main character - I think most of you who had been familiar with my review for this manga series could guess - that would be Kurama. He's the best and his plant-controlling demon power was just so beautiful to watch.
YuYu Hakusho is a great manga series and I enjoyed it a lot! Thank you to the mangaka, Yoshihiro Togashi, for his great work.
Before I end this review, I want to say thank you for those who had been reading my reviews for this manga series, and my apologies again for procrastinating to do this post. Have a good day everyone!
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