Episode 73

EPISODE 73

忍び寄るドクターの魔の手 (Shinobi-yoru Dokutaa no Ma no Te)

The Stalking, Demonic Hand of the Doctor

First Broadcast: March 26, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): last 2/3rds of chapter 121 (WSJ #25, 1993, June 7), chapter 122 (WSJ #26, 1993, June 14)

Summary: “Doctor”, one of the seven opening the portal, actually works at the hospital and begins attacking Yusuke and the gang with disease bugs.  Asato Kido (one of Yusuke’s former abductors) learns Doctor’s identity, and though paralyzed by Doctor his shadow-based abilities allow him to warn Yusuke just in time.  Yusuke begins fighting Doctor (Minoru Kamiya), who in addition to creating virus bugs also has hands which can cut human skin as easily as a scalpel, with which he has surgically enhanced his own body to give him further superhuman abilities.  Yusuke blows Doctor’s arm off, but he uses his surgical powers to quickly reattach it.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• The episode starts with a re-do of last episode’s closing scene (and chapter 121’s opening scene), as Murota explains about the seven code names and all the other things he read in Sensui’s mind.  It then skips over Genkai’s explanation of Sniper’s abilities to go right to Doctor expanding his Territory, which alerts the group to his presence.

• In the anime Murota screams that the person behind this Territory is one of the seven he heard about, and that “Doctor” must be a real doctor.  He then explains (apparently reading Doctor’s thoughts) that Doctor can inflict illnesses on all those within his Territory.  In the manga Yusuke and Genkai simply speculate on the nature of their adversary.  Genkai wonders if a virus is what’s causing the people around them to collapse, and says their enemy is “probably” Doctor.  In the manga after Doctor reveals himself to Kido, there’s a non-story page listing Doctor’s real name and explaining about his abilities, and it’s from this that Murota’s explanation in the anime is taken.

• Going off of that, after Doctor paralyzes Kido, the anime superimposes his full name and ability name on the screen, and he explains that his hands can cut human skin as easily as a scalpel.  This bit about his hands is likewise taken from the non-story manga page explaining his abilities.

• After Kido uses his Shadow ability to keep Yusuke from leaving, in the anime a (non-homicidal) doctor comes over and tries to move Kido away, so he paralyzes him too.

• When Kido uses his shadow to write Kamiya’s name in his own blood, in the manga he manages to write it out in distinct hiragana letters.  In the anime though all the letters are written as a single line, like you’d expect if it were written by something that couldn’t move off the ground.  Nice touch.

• After Doctor/Kamiya’s identity is revealed and he takes out everyone in the room but Yusuke, in the anime he tells Yusuke that “Dark Angel” told him about Yusuke and his group (in the manga Doctor never mentions Dark Angel, but in the anime he does so twice during his fight with Yusuke).  The scene then switches to Koenma and Jorge watching on their magic TV.  Ayame enters and says they really were wrong about the location of the hole’s center, and that it’s actually centered several hundred meters underground.  Koenma tells Jorge this may mean the situation is worse than they thought.  This sets up the latter plot development that the hole will be fully open much sooner than the estimated three weeks.

• After that is another filler scene, showing Kurama’s group walking through the city streets.  Kaito notes that the demon bug infestation is even worse than before, but Kuwabara can’t even see them, what with his spiritual power still being gone.  Kurama notes that they’ve managed to shake the person who was following them.  A police car passes by, and the group decides they’d better follow it.

• Then there’s another little filler scene, as Seaman reports to Sensui about Kurama’s group.  Sensui says they should be left along, since it looks like they’ll soon be entering Doctor’s Territory anyway.  He wonders how Yusuke and co. will handle fighting a human.

• Following this is a bit of manga material: a nurse at the hospital tries to call the police, but one of Doctor’s virus bugs takes her out before she can say anything.  In the anime this seems a bit odd, since here it comes right after the filler scene showing a police car already heading for the hospital.

• Once that’s finished there’s some more filler with Keiko and Shizuru.  They’ve followed Puu to the hospital, and Shizuru can tell right away that something is wrong.  Puu warns them about the virus bugs, which Shizuru manages to destroy with surprising ease (maybe she really is stronger than her brother).  Elsewhere in the hospital, Genkai is also fighting off the bugs.

• As Yusuke and Doctor start to fight, there’s some fighting filler as Doctor runs out of the room and Yusuke loses sight of him.  Doctor’s actually clinging to the ceiling, and when Yusuke passes underneath him he jumps down and attacks Yusuke from behind.

• After Yusuke blows Doctor’s arm off with his Spirit Gun, in the anime Kurama’s group notices the blast and realizes Yusuke is fighting inside the hospital.

• In the manga Doctor sows his arm back on with rapid hand movements (there’s a spurt of blood as he does this), while in the anime his fingertips glow and he slowly moves them over the wound, which heals as if by magic.