That… had to be the most deranged and deliriously-entertaining 22 minutes I’ve seen all month.
A huge part of what made YU YU HAKUSHO so entertaining for me was the way it balanced horror with comedy/action. The ol’ sucker-punch/one-liner combo was that much more fun when it cut off 20 minutes of doom-laden, atmospheric tension. Horror’s supposed to instill a sense of helplessness in the viewer. That’s the expectation. So when you thwart expectations, and abruptly fill the viewer with a sense of powerful agency… it’s just so much more cathartic.
== TEASER ==
That’s the best way I can describe the sense of elation I felt, watching Polnareff win this tooth ‘n nail struggle with Devo, the evil doll. Keep in mind, Chucky from CHILD’S PLAY absolutely scared the shit out of me as a kid. That one VHS cover, where he’s about to chop a jack-in-the-box’s head off with a pair of scissors? Utterly terrifying. So there’s probably an added layer of therapy here for me.
Polnareff chiding Devo for his insultingly-stupid attempt to hide in the fridge? Brilliant.
Devo’s sarcastic diatribe about what he definitely isn’t going to use that hairdryer for? Brilliant.
The staff finding Devo’s corpse in a bathroom stall, like he died of auto-erotic asphyxiation? Brilliant.
Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. I can’t write it enough times.
And just when I thought the show couldn’t get any more ridiculous, it ends with that inspired cliffhanger where Jojo #2 learns of the traitor in their midst. He flips through channels on a hotel TV like they're bird entrails.
You know a show’s crew is committed to giving you the biggest bang for your buck (of free time, at least) and I loved how this one episode had so much craziness that it had to push all the through to the credits. Brilliant.
Watch "Devil" and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous batch of episodes.
from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1k9V03x
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