Episode 77

EPISODE 77

霊界探偵の黒い過去 (Reikai Tantei no Kuroi Kako)

The Dark Past of the Spirit World Detective

First Broadcast: April 23, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 127 (WSJ #31, 1993, July 19), first half of chapter 128 (WSJ #32, 1993, July 26)

Summary: Koenma travels to the Human World and explains to Yusuke and co. all about Sensui’s past.  Gifted with high spiritual powers but an overly strong sense of justice, Sensui began harboring doubts about humanity after witnessing human atrocities against demons.  No sooner is the story finished then Sensui himself suddenly attacks, along with “Sniper” (Kaname Hagiri, the one who shot Murota).  Sensui tells Yusuke that the portal will open in 2 days, and the two begin to fight.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• Chapter 127 begins with Koenma already at Yusuke’s apartment, but the anime version has a few scenes before that.  First Yusuke and co. are waiting for Koenma to show up, so Yusuke asks Botan if she knows anything about Sensui, since she’s supposed to be the one who contacts Spirit World Detectives.  But Botan says she’s never heard of Sensui, since Yusuke has been the only detective during her time.

• Next we see Koenma leaving the Spirit World.  Jorge wants to come too, but Koenma says he’d stick out too much.  Outside, Koenma takes off on a little flying cloud thing (Kinto-uuuun!) and head for the Human World.

• After that we see Shizuru bandaging Mitarai.  She runs out of bandages though, so Keiko heads out to buy more.  Then we get back to manga material as Koenma discusses Sensui with Yusuke and the others

• When Koenma mentions the Black Book Club/Black Black Club during his explanation of Sensui’s past, in the anime Kuwabara notes that they were the ones who imprisoned Yukina, probably for the benefit of people who haven't been following the series that long.

• In the manga the younger Sakyo from 10 years ago has short hair, while in the anime he looks identical to his present-day self.  The manga also has a note saying that Sakyo was 26 at the time, putting his age during the series at 36.

• So Sensui runs through the mansion deep in the mountains to stop Sakyo’s demon-summoning operation, when he sees something he wasn’t supposed to, something which changes his entire worldview.  In the manga, you turn the page and BAM!  Pools of severed limbs, gore splattered on the wall, demons in torture devices, naked men standing around with iron clubs threatening naked female demons, demons hanging by their arms with huge nails piercing their legs, eyeballs and severed hands lying around on the floor, more female demons cowering in fear, etc etc.  And Sensui screaming over all this.  In the anime, we see…a pool of blood, with naked men standing around laughing.  Koenma’s narration explains that the humans were toying with the demons they had summoned before slaughtering them, and then we see somewhat odd shots of demons sprawling out in pain and then dissolving.  Then there’s a very shadowy, fuzzy image of a human sticking a demon onto a bed of spikes, and a similar shot of a demon being fed into huge gears.  It’s all very abstract and bloodless.  Well OK, there’s a pool of blood, but it’s kept carefully separate from any images of demons suffering or being hurt.  It might as well just be a bunch of ketchup.  Without Koenma’s narration, you’d be hard-pressed to figure out what exactly is supposed to be happening in this scene, while the manga version has no narration for this part, but the images themselves tell everything you need to know.  I realize they had stricter standards for what they could show in the anime version, but this is supposed to be a rather important scene, the event which changes Sensui’s life, and it kinda falls flat in the anime, in my opinion.

• It’s also notable that all the demons we seeing getting hurt in the anime are generic monsters, whereas in the manga we see several demon woman which are obviously meant to evoke our sympathy.  Interestingly though, later episodes that recap Sensui’s past include images of the female demons from the manga, even though they’re not shown in this episode.

• In the manga only Botan is in the room with Mitarai, while in the anime Shizuru is there as well.  Later filler has Shizuru leave the room right before the explosion where Botan selflessly saves Mitarai though, perhaps to keep her from complicating the “Botan saves Mitarai” scenario.

• When Kuwabara explains to Yusuke that his spiritual power has returned and is stronger than before, in the anime there’s a brief flashback to the Kuwabara defeating Mitarai with his Dimensional Sword.  Also, when Sensui explains that Kuwabara’s Dimensional Sword is what they need to cut the barrier between the Human and Demon Worlds, the anime has a little what-if scene showing Kuwabara doing just that.  It looks pretty similar to how things eventually play out.

• At the start of chapter 128 is a two-page spread explaining where everybody is and what they are doing.  Naturally this doesn’t really fit into the anime and they don’t have any equivalent.  Most of the stuff on the page we already know, but it does have some new stuff.  Kaito and Yanagisawa went home after Yusuke headed to the pachinko parlor, and now they’re heading for school.  Kurama meanwhile had been planning to attend school in the afternoon, but now he’s got no choice but to skip it again.  Meanwhile Kamiya is in jail but planning his escape.

• After Sensui and Sniper start to attack, in the manga Atsuko comes outside to see what all the fuss is about, and she quite nonchalantly asks Yusuke if that guy over there is his new enemy (she’s still got her toothbrush in her mouth).  This is cut from the anime.  In fact, I don’t think we ever even see Atsuko again in the anime.

• Once Sensui shows up, in the anime Mitarai struggles with whether he should continue following Sensui or side with Yusuke and co.  He flashes back to what Sensui told him about the true nature of humanity, to Kuwabara saving him, to abstract shadowy figures committing random acts of violence, and other fun stuff.

• Following that is some more filler.  Keiko inopportunely returns at this moment, and Yusuke warns her to get back.  On the same note, Kuwabara wants to fight but Yusuke says he’s in no condition to; Kurama and Genkai agree.  Then we get back to manga material, with Koenma warning Yusuke that Sensui can fire out his spiritual energy like Yusuke can.  In the manga things go straight from Koenma and Sensui seeing each other, to Atsuko’s comment, to Koenma warning Yusuke.

• The episode ends 9 pages into chapter 128 (11 pages if you count the 2-page exposition spread not covered in the anime), as Sensui blocks Yusuke’s punch and starts to kick him in return.