Episode 79

EPISODE 79

幽助激走！桑原を救え！ (Yuusuke Gekisou! Kuwabara wo Sukue!)

Yusuke’s Mad Dash! Save Kuwabara!

First Broadcast: May 7, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 130 (WSJ #34, 1993, August 9), first quarter of chapter 131 (WSJ #35, 1993, August 16)

Summary: Mitarai switches sides, joining Yusuke and co. Yusuke almost catches up with Sensui’s truck, but Hagiri (riding a motorcycle) destroys his bike and affixes him with odd markings.  These markings attract whatever projectiles Hagiri sends, and countless knives bear down on Yusuke.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• Chapter 130 starts with Sensui and co.’s truck already out in the countryside, while the episode opens with them driving out of the city.  Game Master (who’s 11 years old) is behind the wheel, and he drives in the oncoming lane, passes through red lights, and generally makes Alex from A Clockwork Orange look like a model driver.  Along the way he causes numerous accidents as other cars veer out of his way, some of which involve cars bursting into flames.  You have to figure somebody died or was seriously injured during all this, which makes it a lot harder to feel sorry for Game Master when Kurama kills him.  Still, it’s fun to watch.  We also see Yusuke pursuing the truck through the city on his bike, and Sniper starts following behind him on motorcycle.

• In the manga the scene where Mitarai explains how Botan saved him comes after Yusuke chasing Sensui’s truck through the mountain road and dumbfounding a couple whose car he easily overtakes.  The anime moves this to before the mountain road scene, and expands on it by showing Koenma and Genkai reaching Yusuke’s apartment (the manga scene only starts when Kurama gets there).  The two speculate that Sensui attacked the apartment to get rid of Mitarai, and Genkai uses her powers to blow out the smoke in the apartment.  Then when they discover Botan knocked out, Genkai uses her powers to heal her.  She also yells at Mitarai for doing nothing to help Botan.  Mitarai says that Botan’s his enemy and that he’s on Sensui’s side, but Koenma wonders if Sensui thinks the same way about Mitarai.  Kurama, Keiko, and Puu then show up, and Puu finds Shizuru passed out nearby.  Kurama carries Shizuru in for Genkai to heal.  Botan wakes up and Genkai says she must have really dull reflexes to have been hit like that.  Botan agrees, but Mitarai says she only got hit because she was trying to save him, at which point things go basically like the manga save for Keiko and Shizuru’s presence.

• In the manga the explanation of how Botan saved Mitarai and Kurama telling Mitarai he must decide whether to join them or stay with Sensui is all one scene, while the anime splits them up and puts the mountain road chase between them.  In the manga as Kurama and co. leave Atsuko (who’s in just her bra for some reason) says she’ll try and explain things to the police.  This gets left out of the anime just like Atsuko’s earlier appearance when Sensui and Yusuke fought. 

• In the anime the mountain road scene is expanded with a conversation between everyone in Sensui’s truck.  Game Master seems to be having the time of his life and says that driving a real car is nothing like in the video games (I guess that explains his wild driving), while Gourmet tightens his grip on Kuwabara in the idea that making him suffer will heighten his abilities faster.  Sensui explains to Kuwabara all about how they need his abilities, and says even if Kuwabara doesn’t want to join them they can just feed him to Gourmet, like they did Elder Toguro.  Kuwabara thought Elder Toguro was dead, but Sensui explains that he survived the tournament and they fed him to Gourmet, which is why Gourmet now has his abilities.  Fortunately they won’t feed Kuwabara to Gourmet until his abilities have been perfected. 

• After Sniper affixes Yusuke with his target marks, he gives more information about his ability in the anime, and says his true name (Kaname Hagiri) and code name (“Sniper”).  The scene pauses and the narrator then also states Sniper’s true name and code name, and goes on to explain about Sniper’s abilities even more, including that his Territory has a radius of 200 meters.  All this information is taken from the title page of chapter 131, another non-story exposition page.

• After all the explanation of Sniper’s abilities, the scene switches back to Yusuke’s apartment, where Shizuru wakes up.  After learning that Kuwabara’s been kidnapped, she and Mitarai explain about how Sensui needs Kuwabara’s Dimensional Sword ability (this includes yet another brief flashback to Kuwabara defeating Mitarai).  Genkai says they should contact Kaito and Yanagisawa, and tells Keiko and Shizuru to stay put at the apartment.  After that we get back to manga material, as Kurama tells Mitarai he can decide who he wants to side with, but if he sides with Sensui then the next time they meet it will be as enemies, and Kurama won’t hold back.  Mitarai then opts to join Kurama and co.  In the anime as Mitarai struggles over what to do, Shizuru tells him it’s up to him to decide.

• After that we get back to Yusuke being hunted by Sniper in the woods.  In the anime Yusuke thinks he hears Sniper, but it’s apparently just the wind.  We see Hiei in a tree watching Yusuke.  After that it’s back to manga material as Yusuke discovers Sniper’s motorcycle, and a gazillion rocks fly at him, followed by knives.

• The episode ends about 5 pages into chapter 131 (6, counting the exposition title page), as countless knives bear down on Yusuke.