Episode 27

EPISODE 27

死の船出!地獄の島へ (Shi no Funade! Jigoku no Shima he)

Departure of Death!  To the Island of Hell

First Broadcast: April 24, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): second half of chapter 52 (WSJ #1-2, 1992, December 23), chapter 53 (WSJ #3-4, 1992, January 6), first page of chapter 54 (WSJ #5, 1992, January 20)

Summary: Onboard, the masked fighter easily gets them through the preliminaries, but the gang must fight the rest of the demons too.  On Kubi-Kukuri Island, site of the tournament, they meet their first opponents, the Roku-Yukai Team.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• The episode opens with the explanation of the Dark Tournament that in the manga comes at the beginning of chapter 52, before we see Yusuke and co. arrive at the departure point for the tournament.  In the anime we get to see various demons fighting it out as the explanation goes on.

• The episode opens with Kuwabara wondering who the masked fighter is.  Hiei comments on how dismal the ship is, and Kuwabara says they could at least give them some sake to drink (in the manga random demons speak these two lines).

• As Mask heads up to fight in the preliminaries, we get a Koenma and Jorge scene.  Jorge asks who Mask is, and Koenma complains that even he doesn’t know, despite being Team Urameshi’s owner (Koenma being team owner isn’t mentioned until later in the manga).  Seems nobody tells Koenma anything anymore, and even Botan hasn’t come in to report.  Koenma wonders where she is, and the scene changes to Yusuke’s apartment.  Keiko and Shizuru are bullying Botan into telling them where Yusuke and Kuwabara are going off to, so she reluctantly tells them (meanwhile Atsuko’s passed out drunk).  Keiko begs Botan to take them to the tournament, and Botan agrees.  This scene sets up how Keiko and co. get to Kubi-Kukuri Island; in the manga we just see them there, and there’s talk about how they got Botan to tell them what was up.  What’s more, this scene also sets up a major difference between the manga and anime versions of the Dark Tournament.  In the manga, Atsuko goes there with Keiko and the others, while in the anime she stays home because she’s passed out drunk at the time.  Various conversations throughout the next 40 episodes have to be rearranged to assign Atsuko’s lines to other people.  I guess the anime staff figured that four (later five, with Yukina) women who only watch what’s going on and never do much of anything besides occasionally offering comments was overkill, and Atsuko got voted least necessary.

• Once Mask effortlessly beats all the other team representatives in the preliminaries, the other members of the enemy teams get mad and attack, resulting in a big brawl.  In the manga, during all this some demons try to attack the sleeping and (apparently) helpless Yusuke.  Kuwabara sees this and tries to come to the rescue, producing two Spirit Swords simultaneously, but Yusuke beats up the attackers literally in his sleep.  As the brawl continues, Kuwabara fights off demons with his two swords.  In the anime Yusuke is only attacked at the very end of the brawl, and Kuwabara never produces the two Spirit Swords.

• After the gang arrives at the hotel on Kubi-Kukuri Island (appropriately enough labeled “Hotel Kubikukuri” in the anime), there’s a Koenma and Jorge scene.  Koenma’s too worried to do his job, so he decides to head to the tournament.  Jorge chews him out for being so apathetic about his job, but changes his tune when Koenma offers to let him come too.  Then we get a scene with Sakyo and Toguro at the hotel, discussing how Yusuke’s team outclassed the demons onboard the boat, and how they’re set to fight the Roku-Yukai Team.

• The manga scene where we see Keiko and co. at the hotel is left out in the anime.  Instead, the conversation Keiko and Botan have in it is moved to the next episode (Keiko’s mad at Yusuke for getting her involved in such dangerous stuff and then leaving without telling her where he’s going).

• The episode ends with the first page of chapter 54, with Koto announcing the start of the tournament.  This gets recapped at the start of the next episode.