Episode 28

EPISODE 28

小さな強敵!鈴駒の秘技 (Chi’isai-na Kyouteki! Rinku no Higi)

The Little Mighty Foe! Rinku’s Secret Technique

First Broadcast: May 1, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 54 (WSJ #5, 1992, January 20), first half of chapter 55 (WSJ #6, 1992, January 27)

Summary: Next day at the first match, Kuwabara starts to fight the child demon Rinku. He takes a strong kick to the head, but gets back up.  Using his Devil Yo-Yo technique, Rinku tries to dash Kuwabara against the ground.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• When announcing the start of the tournament at episode’s beginning, Koto refers to herself by name.  We don’t learn her name until a while later in the manga.

•  Keiko’s conversation with Botan as they stand outside the tournament arena is, as mentioned before, taken from their manga conversation from back at the hotel.

•  In the manga, Koenma shows up at the tournament arena already in his adult “Human World Version” body, and we never see his baby form again until after the tournament, when he returns to the Spirit World.  No real explanation for this “Human World Version” of himself is ever given in the manga, but going by the name, and the fact that it can’t fly the way we see his baby form do (during the tournament finals he gets himself a jetpack in case he needs to escape), it seems that this is a similar case to Botan’s spiritual and physical bodies.  In the manga, whenever baby-version Koenma is shown in the Human World, he floats around in midair, and only interacts with dead people or other spiritual beings like Botan.  Whenever he interacts with the Human World in a “regular” way (ie walking around, talking with ordinary people) he’s seen in this earthbound adult body.  Probably his baby-like spiritual body inhabits this artificial physical body, like we see Botan do later in the manga.  But like with Botan, the anime simplifies things, so that we later see Koenma’s adult body as just his baby body transformed.  Also in the anime we see baby Koenma walking along on the ground like an ordinary person (you know, any old ordinary talking baby), something he doesn’t do in the manga.

•  I think this is the first time we see Jorge inserted into scenes that are otherwise the same as the manga.  Before, he’s only appeared in the numerous filler scenes where he and Koenma watch Yusuke and co.’s adventures.  During the Dark Tournament though he tags along with Koenma to the Human World, so for instance while in the manga Koenma talks to the ticket scalper on his own, in the anime Jorge is with him.   Besides hanging out with Koenma, Jorge is also inserted into scenes with Keiko and co. during the finals, possibly another reason Atsuko is left out of the Dark Tournament arc in the anime (they needed to make room for Jorge).

• In the anime Yusuke actually says stuff while supposedly asleep, telling Kuwabara to fill in for him as team captain, and later cheering him on as he starts to fight Rinku.  In the manga he’s quiet the whole time.

• When Zeru shows off his powerful energy in an attempt to provoke Yusuke into waking up, in the anime he emits flames which burn up several demons in the crowd.  In the manga he just emits generic energy.  Hiei later makes a big deal about being able to tell that Zeru uses flames, so apparently in the manga it’s supposed to be a secret at this point.

• Zeru’s burning up of audience members in the anime also marks the first collateral damage in the tournament, something there will be an endless amount of later in both the manga and anime.  Also, in the anime Hiei remarks on somehow like Zeru being in the Human World, while in the manga Kurama says this.

•   Right before Kuwabara and Rinku begin fighting, there’s a Koenma and Jorge scene as the two head for the elevator to get to their seats.  Adult Koenma suddenly transforms back into baby Koenma, noting that things are a lot easier in that form.  As mentioned before, in the manga we don’t see his baby form again until the tournament wraps up and he goes back to the Spirit World (in keeping with the idea that his adult form is the “Human World Version” of himself).

• Rinku hits Kuwabara a few times in the opening of the fight, before Kuwabara starts to overwhelm him.  In the manga Kuwabara avoids his attacks and seems to totally outclass him at first, until Rinku suddenly nails him with a kick to the head and reveals he was just pretending to lose before.

•  When it looks like Kuwabara’s been defeated by Rinku’s attack, in the anime we see Sakyo and Gonda (the Roku-Yukai Team owner) react, as well as Koenma and Jorge.

• The episode ends 11 pages into chapter 55, as Kuwabara is lifted up by Rinku’s Devil Yo-Yos.