Yu Yu Hakusho is one of those classic action anime that I loved as a kid but have sadly never had the chance to revisit, so Netflix's new live-action adaptation of the series is the first time I've revisited the adventures of Yusuke Urameshi in damn near twenty years. As such, I didn't have a whole lot of major expectations going in so far as what to expect from the story, outside of the most basic elements that I could still remember after all this time. My hopes were high, though, since Netflix very recently proved with its incredible One Piece series that it has finally figured out how to make live-action anime adaptations right. With Yu Yu Hakusho being a full-on Japanese production, the odds felt pretty good that even a short mini-series like this could do at least some justice to its legendary source material

Let me tell you, too, that everything about Yu Yu Hakusho works incredibly well…at least, for a little while. The first two episodes, as a matter of fact, are generally great. The show sets up the familiar origin story of Yusuke Yurameshi (Takumi Kitamura). It really sells what makes him cool and interesting as a lead protagonist. Then it sets about introducing fan favorites like Botan (Kotone Furukawa), Koenma (Keita Machida), Kuwabara (Shūhei Uesugi), and Kurama (Jun Shison) with a good sense of pacing and dramatic weight. The cast all play their roles with gusto, and the costume design stays true to the original character designs (sometimes to the point of feeling a little too cartoony, but that's an issue I have almost every live-action anime adaptation). Yusuke's hunt for the missing supernatural relics makes for some great fights that surprisingly solid CGI bolsters, so the show is no slouch for anyone looking for some kickass action to dig into. Honestly, by the end of Episode 2, I was ready to sing this show's praises six ways to Sunday.

Then we get to Episode 3, which sees Yusuke and Kuwabara meeting Genkai (Meijo Kaji) and beginning their spirit training, and that's when things begin to fall apart with shocking speed. Now, as I said, I am the furthest thing from an expert on the source material, so I can't tell you exactly how this part of the story went in the original manga and anime. Still, I'm pretty damned sure that Yusuke and Kuwabara's growth as fighters had to feel more satisfying than the rush job the Netflix show gives us. In the span of one hour, Yu Yu Hakusho crams in a couple of montages, some weak speechifying, and even a major character death, and it all just feels so sloppy and unearned that I felt like I was watching a completely different show.

That isn't even the worst of it, though, because Episodes 4 and 5 decide for some unfathomable reason to drag the story careening through an entirely new and different storyline, introducing characters and plot threads at such breakneck speed that it is impossible to take any of it very seriously. The Dark Tournament Arc was one of the standout storylines of the original that even I can remember some of the key moments from, and the whole thing has been reduced to an incoherent parade of action scenes and nonsense exposition. Poor Hiei (Kanata Hongō) suffers the worst from it so far as the heroes go, since he gets to show up at the last minute and participate in a couple of action scenes before the credits roll on the whole series. Worse yet is how dirty they do the story's villains, though. Because of this mini-series' ridiculously truncated pacing, the likes of Sakyo (Gorō Inagaki) and the Toguro Brothers (Kenichi Takito plays the Elder while Gō Ayano plays the Younger) are little more than monster-of-the-week goons for the heroes to beat. Sure, the fights remain fun until the very end, but without any of the build-up or emotional investment that comes from, you know, telling a complete story, none of that action amounts to anything but empty noise and broken promises.

It's a damned shame that Yu Yu Hakusho takes such a sharp downturn, because this could have been another one of the great live-action anime adaptations, if only it had been given the time and space to tell a proper story. It's not like making smart and creative changes to the source material couldn't have still worked out in the show's favor – again, I point out One Piece, which somehow covered a hundred chapters of manga in only eight episodes without feeling like giant chunks of the story were missing. The same cannot be said in this instance. Instead of being an excellent show in its own right, Yu Yu Hakusho simply stands as an incredibly expensive and nostalgic commercial that will, at best, convince disappointed viewers to check out the original show.