Episode 30

EPISODE  30

未完の奥義・炎殺黒龍波 (Mikan no Ougi・Ensatsu Kokuryuu-ha)

The Unfinished Secret Technique—Ensatsu Kokuryu-ha

First Broadcast: May 15, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 57 (WSJ #8, 1992, February 10), first half of chapter 58 (WSJ #9, 1992, February 17)

Summary: Hiei fights Zeru, seeming to lose at first, but soon wins with his new Koku-Ryu-Ha technique. Chu appears, causing Yusuke to awaken and step into the ring, and the two start to fight.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• The episode opens with Gonda panicking over the fact that one of his team members lost.  For some reason there’s a slight delay before Zeru comes forward as the Roku-Yukai Team’s third challenger, and some demons in the audience complain.  Also, continuing on from last episode, Botan is now hanging out with the gang at ringside, while in the manga she just keeps to her seat with Keiko and co.

• Before the fight, Hiei notes that Zeru is a fire-master: he could tell because the cup he broke yesterday was slightly melted around the edges.  In the anime Zeru was earlier seen emitting a huge flaming aura that burned several audience members alive (in the manga he emits generic energy), so this subtle insight of Hiei’s seems rather pointless.

• In the anime as Zeru powers up, he again emits flames that go all over the place and kill several audience members.  Yusuke’s teammates dodge these, with Mask protecting herself with some kind of energy shield.  Zeru fires several blasts at Hiei, which he evades.

• After Hiei tells Zeru to get down to business, in the anime Zeru emits some more huge flames, which he then absorbs into his body, turning himself red.  At this point he rushes forward and pierces Hiei’s chest with his hand.  In the manga that is Zeru’s first attack against Hiei (minus the anime’s whole “absorbing fire into himself” bit).

• While Hiei prepares to use his Koku-Ryu-Ha (Black Dragon Wave), in the anime we see that besides Kurama, Botan has also heard of Jao-Ensatsu-Ken (the school of techniques the Koku-Ryu-Ha belongs to).  Koenma tells Jorge he heard about it from King Enma a long time ago, and supposedly nobody has ever mastered it.  We also see the water around Kubi-Kukuri Island turn black as Hiei is about to fire the attack, and lightning strikes various rocks.

• Once Zeru’s dead, we get more brief “people reacting” filler (I probably need a specific name for this stuff).  Gonda’s naturally not thrilled at this turn of events, while Koenma was so astounded at the Koku-Ryu-Ha’s power that he couldn’t taste his snack, so he sends Jorge out to buy him another one.

• The last two main members of the Roku-Yukai Team, Imajin and Gao, panic when they see how easily Zeru was defeated, and start to run away.  In the manga Chu swoops in and instantly swipes their heads clean off.  With them dead, he can participate now (before he was just the team’s spare).  In the anime, Imajin and Gao run down a dark corridor leading to the stadium interior, and we hear Chu beat them to death (later we see that their bodies are still intact). 

• Chu is already blatantly drunk in the anime, stumbling around all over the place and slurring his speech.  In the manga he’s…well, not necessarily sober, but not noticeably drunk at this point.  He stands straight up the whole time and talks normally, and kills his teammates in a controlled, almost graceful manner.

• In the anime Kuwabara goes to wake Yusuke up, only to find that he’s not there: he’s gone to the ring to fight Chu.  In the manga Yusuke wakes up before anyone thinks of getting him.

• In the anime we also see Chu run around chewing out random audience members who doubt his power.

• The episode ends 10 pages into chapter 58, as Chu starts showing off his unusual movements.