Review of Yugo The Negotiator: Vol.3 - Russia 1- Legacy

Introduction

Yugo The Negotiator certainly didn`t get on my happy anime list on the strength of its first two volumes. While it initially showed promise, it quickly squandered that with terrible characterisation, and an uneven story. It wouldn`t make the average person all too eager to continue with the show, but here I am, committed, having purchased all four volumes. What gives me a glimmer of hope is that Yugo The Negotiator in essence offers two stories. The first two discs in the series comprised the Pakistan arc, while these two volumes comprise the Russia storyline. What adds to that hope is that the second arc was produced by a completely different animation house, and in Shinya Hanai, gets a different director too. In essence you get two different takes on the source material, and it may be as different in execution as West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet.

Yugo Beppu is the world`s finest private negotiator. He`s reputed to have never failed, and when the descendant of an exiled Russian nobleman approaches him, looking to be reunited with his distant cousin trapped in the former Soviet Union, Yugo is moved to help. However, Yeltsin`s Russia isn`t the bastion of freedom that was promised by the collapse of the communist state, and there are ulterior motives yet to be unravelled. The first four episodes of the Russia arc are presented in Volume 3: Legacy.

1. Nobility In Exile
Andrei Sergeivich Romanovski contacts Yugo for assistance through his representative Olga Elenova. At the end of the Russian Revolution, Andrei`s father Sergei escaped from Russia on the insistence of his grandfather. Sergei`s younger brother Vladimir stayed with their father to face the revolting peasants, and contact between the two branches of the family was thereafter lost. Following the fall of communism, it came to their attention that Vladimir had a descendant. A photo of a forlorn girl named Nadenka, wearing a distinctive ring (the other half to the one that Andrei wears) is the only evidence that Andrei now possesses, but the new Russian government refuses to allow her to leave the country and meet her cousin. Yugo is to go to Russia and find the girl. It`s a risky assignment, especially as the Romanovski`s are considered enemies of socialism, an attitude that is yet to shift in Russia, and Yugo demands Andrei`s ring as a way to prove his identity to the girl. As he prepares for the difficult conditions he will face, it soon becomes clear that Andrei is not to be trusted, and there is more to this than just a happy family reunion.

2. Deal
Yugo isn`t long in Russia before the secret police are on his tail. He`s met by a friendly (new capitalist) face that offers to help him, for a price. The pimp offers Yugo his choice of women, but Yugo has a distinct preference, a scholarly type with knowledge of Russian history. Asking for a KGB uniform into the bargain just seems kinky, but Yugo has more on his mind than just sex. He needs information, and prostitute Lyuba is happy to help, if it means earning enough to stay in university for another year. Meanwhile, Yugo sets the pimp on a mission to find Nadenka, only for the pimp to walk into a security trap. It`s enough of a distraction for Yugo to sneak onto a train, but on board, a familiar face confronts him, looking for Andrei`s ring.

3. Official Documents
Captain Olga Elenova was an intelligence officer planted in Andrei`s household to try and get the ring. It`s only now that she has managed to snag it from Yugo, although it soon becomes apparent that the ring is a fake. A warrant is put out on Yugo, while he, unaware meets up with Lyuba and heads for the national archives. He`s looking to see just what had happened to Andrei`s ancestors, and the East Siberia Company in 1919, that has necessitated this desperate search for Nadenka. The paper trail leads to evidence of 200 tonnes of gold bullion, which if secreted away in a Swiss Bank Account for the last 75 years would have accrued $200 billion in interest. Which is when the Intelligence Service arrives to take them into custody, and give them all a Cold War era interrogation.

4. Moroz (Bitter Cold)
Shaking off the drugs, Yugo manages to escape from the hotel room where he was awaiting deportation. He heads straight for the hospital, but finds that Lyuba is in worse condition. Swearing to return for her, he gets back on the trail for Nadenka, which leads him towards Blagoveschensk. To get there, he`ll have to trek along a river in the middle of an icy storm at -40ºC. If he survives that, the only way to negotiate an exit visa for Nadenka will be to see the local head of the Intelligence Service, not easy when her underlings are looking to recapture him and snag the Romanovski legacy. He`ll have to turn to someone who has already betrayed him once for help.

Video

Swings and roundabouts in the image department, although the 4:3 transfer remains clear and sharp, with only a minor shimmer around fine detail to whinge about. But whereas the Pakistan arc was notable for some excellent artwork, impressive character design, and a very stylised look, albeit at the expense of the animation, the Russia arc loses the detail and broad scope, resulting in an anime style that is far more generic in terms of the world and character design, but the animation is relatively more dynamic. There are far fewer static shots in the Russia arc.

Audio

You get a choice between DD 5.1 English and DD 2.0 Japanese with optional translated subtitles or signs. I did notice a couple of grammatical errors in the subtitles this time around. As I expected, the Russian accents didn`t bother me as badly as the Pakistani ones in the English dub, and it was on the whole a little easier to listen to. But to be honest, if someone sounding like the English language Yugo turned up as a negotiator, I would be more inclined to think of him as a menace than a mediator.

As for the music, the two credit themes may have been remixed, but they still don`t suit the show at all. The incidental music still seems to have escaped from an eighties daytime soap melodrama, but given the more generic look of the animation, it doesn`t seem as out of place as before.

Features

Once again you get some interesting sleeve notes to read in the Amaray case, with notes on how language was adapted for the English dub, a glossary of Russian terms, a chart of Russian military insignia, and a map of Russia showing the key points in the story.

You`ll find the new clean opening and end credits, as well as a preview for the final volume in the series.

Shinji Makari (author) and Shu Akana (character designer and manga artist) turn up to discuss the research done for both the Pakistan and Russia arcs, and they bring plenty of holiday snaps. The gun culture in Pakistan puts the US to shame. This lasts 6 minutes

8 minutes are devoted to a Character Relationship Chart. This featurette is a glorified biography page, which takes a look at the characters in the show, and how they fit into the story. It comprises clips from the show, and text biographies. The subtitles layer the translation over the original Japanese text, and while the original featurette is complete, the subtitles stop at translating spoilers, pointing everyone to volume 4 to see the featurette translated in its entirety.

Finally there is the Japanese Depiction of Russia commentary. This features ADR director Scott McClennen, who in this volume is joined by cultural advisor Eddie Shannon, and they proceed to talk about the authenticity of the anime, and how it relates to real life in modern post-Soviet Russia. Just as in the Pakistan volumes, it`s presented as commentary specific scenes edited together from all three episodes, and it`s a very useful addition.

The previews on this disc are for Area 88, Madlax, Gilgamesh, and Samurai Gun.

Conclusion

Yugo The Negotiator does it again. It offers an opening volume to a story, which while it isn`t perfect, shows more than a hint of promise. Once again, there is a level of detail, and authenticity of research that makes this much more than the average anime, and the look at Russia just after the Iron Curtain had rusted through already feels a little nostalgic. There is also more than the minimum level of thought put into the start of the story, with the set up of missing Russian heiress having just a touch of Anastasia about it.

It plays out like the last gasp of the Cold War thrillers, with no one truly as they appear to be, machinations and manoeuvrings from all sides, all after a colossal legacy, under the guise of seeking out a twelve year old girl. As per usual hero conventions, it`s only Yugo who has the purest of intentions, while everyone else has a hidden agenda. It`s set in the Russia of the Yeltsin era, but the Intelligence Services play like the KGB of many a spy novel, and when Yugo falls into their hands, the interrogation is typically brutal. For a moment I thought I was watching Firefox.

The thing about the Pakistan arc was that it left introducing its villains until the second half, leaving the resultant character developments as an unpleasant surprise. With the Russia arc, I already had lowered my expectations, and fully expected the character depictions to fall way short of the story. I wasn`t disappointed, as the Russia arc introduces its antagonists early on, and they all turn out to be wincing, gnarling, scenery chewing, moustache twirlers of the old school. There`s nary a nuance to share among them, and I won`t be surprised to hear at least one "Mwahahaha", before the series ends. But, knowing in advance that the character development would be thin, meant that I could appreciate the story more, and I found the first half of the Russia arc much more enjoyable than the Pakistan one.

The animation is a lot more robust, but that means that the art design and level of detail takes a hit. The story gets another strong start, and hopefully, this time it can carry the momentum through to the end. Yugo The Negotiator is hardly breaking new ground, and I doubt that we`ll ever see any actual negotiating from him. In fact, while Yugo Beppu is hardly the catchiest of monikers, he is definitely cut from the same cloth as James Bond, and given the weak characterisations in the story, so is the show. I`m keeping my fingers crossed for the final volume.