Episode 57

EPISODE 57

脅威！鎧を外した武威 (Kyoui! Yoroi wo Hazushita Bui)

Intimidation! Bui Removes His Armor

First Broadcast: November 20, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 98 (WSJ #51, 1992, December 7)

Summary: Though Karasu is dead, Kurama is judged to have actually lost the match by ring-out. Hiei fights Bui, who removes his armor to unleash his powerful aura. After Bui attacks with this aura, Hiei prepares to fire the Koku-Ryu-Ha.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• The episode starts with Koto re-announcing Kurama’s victory.  We see that the plant Kurama killed Karasu with is now sprouting from his dead body, and has blossomed into a giant rose.

• When Juri announces that Kurama has actually lost the match, even Koto is taken aback, and confirms that Kurama only killed Karasu after the 10 count ended by watching a tape of the end of the match.  In the manga she simply states that she has watched that tape and we don’t see any of it, while in the anime she plays the tape on the huge tournament scoreboard screen.  This is just re-used footage from last episode, with a counter superimposed on the bottom right corner.  Before Juri’s announcement, there’s a tiny bit of filler where Sakyo tells Toguro that they’ve got their first win.  Yusuke also runs up to Juri to demand an explanation of her decision in the anime, while in the manga she just addresses her explanation to the crowd.

• As the crowd chants that Toguro’s team needs only two more wins, there’s some filler of Shizuru and co. beating up random demons nearby to shut them up.

• Elder Toguro says that his wish if his team wins the tournament will be for the death of Yusuke and co., and Hiei retorts that his wish will be to kill all the tournament head-honchos, so that he won’t ever have to come to the tournament again.  In the manga this is followed by a single panel of Sakyo smirking.  There are two things he could be smirking about: a) he already had the Toguro Brothers kill the other tournament higher-ups, or b) he himself is one of those higher-ups (the last one, in fact), so Hiei is effectively asking for his death.  The anime goes with the first of those, and has Sakyo say that there had been some guys in charge of the tournament, and he flashbacks to the scene where Toguro killed them.  Toguro then notes that they’ve already granted Hiei’s wish in advance.

• Following that, in the manga Hiei tells Yusuke that he wanted to fighter Younger Toguro, but in respect for Genkai he’ll let Yusuke have him, and instead he’ll fight Bui.  In the anime, Elder Toguro jumps down from his brother’s shoulder and asks who will be their first victim, but Bui brushes past him.  Elder Toguro says that Bui must want to go first, and it’s rare for him to be so assertive.  Over on Yusuke’s side, Kuwabara says he’ll fight next, while Koenma offers to pick up his bones afterwards.  It’s at this point that Hiei talks to Yusuke about fighting Bui.

• In the anime Koto and Juri formally announce the start of Hiei and Bui’s match, with Koto providing a standard “who will prevail?” spiel.  In the manga Juri just shouts “begin”, after Bui produces his axe.

• Once again, in the anime we explicitly see Bui materialize an axe out of his own energy.  In the manga it’s still not really clear where the axe comes from. 

• There’s some fighting filler as Bui hurls slab after slab of the tournament arena at Hiei.  Hiei dodges them all, and some crash into the crowd, causing collateral damage (of course).  In the manga Bui just hurls one slab, then rushes in to swipe Hiei with his axe at close range.  Hiei nonchalantly melts Bui’s axe with fire.

• While all this slab-hurling is going on, Sakyo and the Toguro Brothers discuss how enthusiastic Bui seems, since he’s fighting such a strong opponent.  Sakyo notes that Hiei’s the guy who used the Koku-Ryu-Ha back in the first round.

• In the anime, Hiei ultimately counters all these flying slabs by using his Jao-Ensatsu-Rengoku-Sho attack (where he wraps his fists in flames and punches a lot).  Bui then rushes in to finish Hiei off with his axe, but Hiei knocks the axe out of Bui’s hand and into the crowd.  Bui materializes another one and throws it, but Hiei melts this one.  As mentioned, in the manga Hiei just melts Bui’s axe right off the bat. 

• After the axe melting, in the manga Kuwabara says Hiei melted the axe like it was chocolate, while in the anime he says Hiei melted it like monja-yaki.

• Kurama notes that Hiei’s flames are many times more powerful than before.  In the anime he goes on to say that Hiei’s yoki keeps rising and rising, and that he has more than enough power to use the Koku-Ryu-Ha.

• Once Bui starts speaking, in the manga Juri notes that this is the first time he’s talked in the whole tournament, while in the anime Koto notes this.  In the anime Bui’s voice also has a weird reverb effect while he still has his helmet on.

• In the anime Bui says that he has only been defeated once before, and that he only wanted to remove his armor when he fought that person again.  This person is of course Younger Toguro.  We know in the manga that Bui fought Toguro before, but there’s nothing about this being the only time Bui ever lost.

• Once Bui removes his armor and shows off his “Battle Aura”, in the manga Hiei immediately unwraps his arm and prepares to fire the Koku-Ryu-Ha, ending chapter 98.  In the anime Bui attacks Hiei with his aura for a bit, while Hiei retaliates by shooting fire.  Bui even uses an anime-only technique, the “Aura Battle Cross Attack”, a blast of his aura which tracks Hiei.  Hiei dodges at the last minute and makes the attack crash into Bui, but Bui isn’t hurt at all.  He tells Hiei to really go all-out, at which point Hiei finally unwraps his arm.