Episode 12

EPISODE 12

乱童あらわる!桑原無念の敗北 (Randou Arawaru! Kuwabara Munen no Haiboku)

Rando Appears! Kuwabara’s Grievous Defeat

First Broadcast: December 26, 1992

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 30 (WSJ #30, 1991, July 15), first half of chapter 31 (WSJ #31, 1991, July 22)

Summary: Kuwabara fights Shorin, who turns out to be Rando in disguise. Rando shrinks him down and severely injures him.  Enraged, Yusuke pummels Rando in the finals, but Rando finally reveals his true form.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• More filler scenes with Koenma watching events on his TV.  In the manga Koenma only appears at the start of this story arc, in flashback.

• In the manga Yusuke never tells Kuwabara about Rando, since it’s supposed to be a big secret.  He considers telling Kuwabara before he starts to fight Shorin, but Botan warns him not to, so he just tells Kuwabara that his opponent might be a really strong and evil guy, and he should forfeit the match.  In the anime Yusuke already told Kuwabara about Rando, so here he flat-out warns Kuwabara that his opponent may be Rando.

• After Rando shrinks Kuwabara, he compares him to Issun-Boshi, the Japanese equivalent of Tom Thumb.  This gets left out in the anime.

• As mentioned before, Kuwabara wears a completely different outfit throughout this story arc in the anime.  His manga outfit has short sleeves, while in the anime he has on his long-sleeved school uniform.  Because of this, in the anime when Rando breaks Kuwabara’s arm, he first rips off his shirt sleeve.  This seems to have no purpose other than to let us see Kuwabara’s arm breaking in detail, like in the manga.

• In the anime Kuwabara has a few words with Yusuke before passing out, while in the manga he’s already out cold by the time Rando restores him to his normal size.

• Genkai gives a more detailed explanation of Rando’s wind cutting attack than we get in the manga.

• Rando’s wind cutting attack is also a lot more…concrete in the anime.  In the manga you can hardly see it, but in the anime it’s clearly spinning wheels of energy.

• We get a much more elaborate transformation in the anime when Rando shows his true form, with the earth even cracking open.

• The episode ends right as Rando reveals his true form.  This comes midway through chapter 31, and the chapter continues to when Yusuke falls into the demon fish filled pond.