Episode 32

EPISODE 32

ナイフエッジデスマッチ (Naifu Ejji Desu Matchi)

Knife Edge Death Match

First Broadcast: May 29, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 60 (WSJ #11, 1992, March 2)

Summary: Chu and Yusuke begin a Knife Edge Death Match. Yusuke wins, advancing the team to the next round. Meanwhile, Toguro’s teammate Karasu arrives at the stadium.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• The episode starts with the last page of chapter 59, basically recapping the end of the last episode but with Chu finally pulling out the knives for the knife edge death match.  As usual, we get brief extra bits of people reacting to stuff.  Then comes longer filler: when Chu proposes the knife edge death match and explains the rules, Koto protests that they have to get the tournament higher ups to approve stuff like that.  The higher ups refuse at first (causing endless grumbling from the crowd).  Sakyo goes off to make them reconsider.  A sudden storm flares up and lightning strikes the ground around Yusuke and Chu while they stand in place with their bare feet against the knives.  Finally the tournament big wigs approve and the fight starts up again.

• This episode is a rather textbook example of one of the pitfalls in animating action-centric manga.  Chapter 60 is almost entirely nonstop fighting.  A direct adaptation would probably only last 5-10 minutes, possibly less, so they have to add in lots of extra stuff to make a full episode.  Problem is, a chapter like this doesn’t lend itself very well to being expanded upon.  There’s no story to flesh out in potentially interesting ways, it’s just two guys beating on each other, so adding stuff only detracts from the momentum of the fight.  They could have added in more fighting, but it’s a lot easier to just add in more scenes of people standing around talking, which is mostly what we get (even the animation for the fighting is often unenergetic and repetitive).  The biggest problem is that they adapted a single chapter into an entire episode; fights work best with two chapters of material per episode.  But I suppose there were probably complex production reasons why they had to do it like this.  I don’t mean to be so negative, but chapter 60 is one of my favorites, and the anime really doesn’t do it justice.

• There are a lot of side scenes in the anime as Yusuke and Chu pound each other.  Jorge wonders whether Yusuke can use some of the fancy techniques he learned from Genkai to win, but Koenma says he’d need energy for those, which he’s already used up.  Kuwabara envisions Yusuke and Chu fighting on the edge of a cliff (a metaphor for the knives their feet aren’t supposed to go past).

• Most interesting (for me anyway), we see Karasu arrive at Toguro and Sakyo’s VIP room.  He takes down some guards (lizard men wearing ordinary police uniforms, who look rather silly) since you need a special pass to enter.  Karasu tells Toguro he came to see Yusuke, since he’s supposed to be good, and Toguro asks him his opinion on Yusuke.  Then it cuts to the eye-catch before we hear his answer.  In the manga we see Karasu in the shadows near Toguro during the fight, but we don’t get a proper look at him or hear him talk until after.  His conversation with Toguro about what he thinks of Yusuke is in the manga, but not split up across the episode like in the anime.

• Another more interesting filler scene: Keiko gets fed up with the fight, since she’s afraid Yusuke will die at this rate.  She runs off to put a stop to things, heading for the ring…which for some reason involves going into the interior of the stadium rather than straight down to ringside, like she did before.  Shizuru runs after her, but gets lost inside and is attacked by demons.  Sakyo suddenly appears (on his way back from talking with the tournament officials, I guess) and drags her to safety.  He tells her to be more careful, and departs.  This sets up another anime-only subplot, where Shizuru falls in love with Sakyo only to eventually discover what an insane, twisted guy he is.  It’s a nice way of adding more depth to Sakyo (showing he’s capable of good things too, sometimes), and gives Shizuru a little more to do besides be a passive tournament spectator.

• Anyway, Keiko eventually manages to reach the ring, and she begs Kuwabara to stop the fight.  Kuwabara says he can’t do it, and explains about Toguro and how this fight is a necessary stepping stone towards defeating him.  In the process we get reused footage from when Toguro demolished that building.

• In the anime Gonda says he spent all his assets on the Roku-Yukai Team, poor guy, while in the manga he just spent a lot of money on them.

• After Yusuke finally knocks Chu out, in the manga he tells Rinku that he wants to fight Chu again once Chu gets better.  In the anime Chu gets back up again and asks Yusuke to finish him off, but Yusuke directly tells him he wants to fight him again.

• At the end of the episode the Toguro Brothers and Karasu have left Sakyo’s VIP room and are standing outside, closer to the ring.  Toguro asks Karasu what he thinks of Yusuke again, saying Yusuke will fight them in the finals, and Karasu wonders if they will make it that far.  In the manga Toguro and Karasu are shown standing in that spot by the ring during the whole fight, and Karasu concludes the chapter by noting that Yusuke can no longer use his Spirit Gun.  Not sure why they cut that remark in the anime.  Either way, it’s expanded on next chapter/episode.

• In the anime, Yusuke sees Toguro standing there and gives him the finger.