Episode 108

EPISODE 108

蔵馬、過去との決別 (Kurama、Kako to no Ketsubetsu)

Kurama, A Break With the Past

First Broadcast: December 3, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): none

Summary: Kurama fights Shigure and is initially overwhelmed, but shifts into his Yoko form in the nick of time.  However, Kurama decides to settle things in his human form, and narrowly wins by using his plant-manipulating powers to take control of the gigantic tree that serves as their fighting arena.  Shamed, Shigure jumps to his death.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• This is another episode that contains entirely anime-only material.  In the manga it is established that Kurama will fight Shigure in Round 2, but we don’t actually see the fight.  The only information we get over how it played out comes in chapter 170: with the tournament long over, Kurama doesn’t much mind having lost to Kujo in Round 3, saying that even his victory over Shigure was a miracle and he completely burned himself out in that fight.  This whole episode is essentially an expansion on that line.

• In fact, I think this episode could even be seen as an attempt to explain Kurama’s line, which is a little mysterious.  Why was it so darn miraculous that he defeated Shigure?  The episode depicts Kurama as considerably outmatched by Shigure in his regular form, yet he chooses to not fight in his powerful Yoko form and instead defeats Shigure with a clever use of his plant-manipulating abilities.  You could call that a miraculous victory.

• On that note, besides wrapping up Kurama’s character arc, his determination here to forego his Yoko form and stick to his weaker human form might be an attempt to get around a minor plot hole in the manga.  Well, “plot hole” probably isn’t the right word, but it’s…something, I guess.  Anyway, back when he fought Shachi, Yoko Kurama had a spectral power of 152,000 points.  Compare this to Kirin, the strongest of Mukuro’s men (before Hiei came along), who had a power of 89,500 points.  Shigure, meanwhile, is the weakest of Mukuro’s 77 elite warriors.  In other words, Shigure should be much weaker than Yoko Kurama.  Why then would Kurama defeating him be “miraculous”?  It could be that Shigure has powered up since we last saw him, or that he makes up for his lack of brute power with fighting skill, but it’s probably easiest to just explain this by saying that Kurama wasn’t in his Yoko form when he fought Shigure.  Regular Kurama’s power is 1,902 points (8,902 in the anime), and we have no way of establishing how that compares to Shigure.  So that may be why the anime makes a point of Kurama ultimately deciding to defeat Shigure in his regular form.  On the other hand, this is basically the same pattern as the Kurama/Karasu fight, so maybe I’m overthinking this.

• In the anime the narrator seems to consistently use the term Makai Taisen, “Demon World War” to refer to the tournament.  In the manga it’s called the “Demon World Unification Tournament”.

• Kurama reviews his whole life-story during his fight with Shigure, so there’s lots of scenes from prior episodes.  Oddly, mixed in with this reused footage is a rendition of the scene in the manga from when Kurama was a little boy and his mother Shiori shielded him from broken glass shards, injuring herself in the process.  This scene wasn’t adapted for the anime during the actual episode first explaining Kurama’s origins, apparently being too graphic in its depiction of the injuries Shiori gets on her arms.  Even here we don’t actually see injuries, we just hear breaking glass and see a close-up of her face as she asks Kurama if he’s OK, so you pretty much have to already be familiar with the manga to understand what’s supposed to be happening.

• During the fight Shigure reveals the ability to throw his circular sword around like a boomerang, and to create a tornado by spinning it.

• At the end of this episode, Shigure commits suicide after being defeated by Kurama, saying that a swordsman cannot lose twice.  In the manga on the other hand, he’s still alive after the tournament, and accompanies Mukuro and co. as they patrol the Demon World for humans who have wandered in by accident.