Episode 16

EPISODE 16

伸びよ霊剣!桑原・男の勝負 (Nobi Yo Reiken!  Kuwabara・Otoko no Shoubu)

Extend, Spirit Sword! Kuwabara: A Man’s Fight

First Broadcast: January 30, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 36 (WSJ #36-37, 1991, August 26), first half of 37 (WSJ #38, 1991, September 9)

Summary: Kuwabara begins to fight the Holy Beast Byakko, who attacks with doppelganger beasts, which Kurama skewers.  Byakko then grows gigantic by absorbing Kuwabara’s Spirit Sword energy.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• After Kuwabara starts showing off his Spirit Sword, there’s a filler scene where Koenma is so impressed by this that he wants to make Kuwabara a Spirit World Detective.  Jorge thinks this isn’t a great idea.  There’s another brief scene of the two later as Kuwabara fights Byakko, with Koenma cheering Kuwabara on.

• Then after the rest of the Spirit Sword demonstration and before the fight with Byakko starts, there’s another filler scene where Yusuke gets a call from Botan, who’s still patrolling for demon bugs.  They’re at a kindergarten now, and while they normally can’t live off kids, if they try hard enough they’ll manage it but kill the kid in the process.  Botan gets attacked by a possessed guy and beat him up.

• When Byakko creates his doppelganger beasts, in the anime Kuwabara wonders whether he’s Sun Wukong, the legendary Chinese monkey king and quasi-hero of the ancient fantasy novel Journey to the West.  One of Wukong’s many abilities was the power to turn his hairs into clones of himself.

• The episode ends 8 pages into chapter 37, as Kuwabara starts attacking Byakko again after realizing that Byakko’s just absorbing the energy from his Spirit Sword.  Chapter 37 goes to after Kuwabara overloads Byakko with energy.