Episode 35

EPISODE 35

覆面の正体?!美しき戦士 (Fukumen no Shoutai?! Utsukushiki Senshi)

The Identity of Mask?! A Beautiful Warrior

First Broadcast: June 19, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): second half of chapter 63 (WSJ #14, 1992, March 23), almost all of chapter 64 (WSJ #15, 1992, March 30)

Summary: Yusuke and Kuwabara continue to struggle against Ichigaki’s team, while Mask turns out to be a young woman, and Hiei and Kurama reach the ring. As the group tries to save Ichigaki’s brainwashed fighters, Yusuke’s anger restores his power, and he prepares to fire a Spirit Gun to end the fight.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• There’s various bits of filler interspersed with the fighting at the start of the episode.  First, a Koenma/Jorge scene: Koenma says Ichigaki’s fighters are stronger than Yusuke and Kuwabara, which alarms Jorge.  Then Shizuru again says Kuwabara can’t win if he lets his emotions get in the way, followed by Toguro and Sakyo talking about the match being more interesting than expected.  Next up, Botan yells at Kuwabara to fight more seriously, and we get a replay of the dream sequence explaining how Ichigaki brainwashed his fighters.

• The subtitles call Kai’s staff attack “Swing Crush” in episode 33, but here it’s “Swing Crash”  Both are possible interpretations, but I think “crush” makes more sense.

• Once it’s revealed that Mask’s a young woman, there’s more reaction filler from the usual suspects (Koenma, Jorge, Keiko, Botan).  There’s little bits of that for the rest of the episode, as well as part where Hiei and Kurama try to join the fight, but Koto says it’d be against the rules.

• After Yusuke gets his anger-induced power up, in the manga Genkai says it’s the first time she’s seen someone Level Up by snapping, while in the anime she says she’s never seen anyone recover so quickly.  Maybe the anime changed the line because characters who get stronger via anger is a huge cliché, so Genkai saying “wow, never seen that before” sounded dumb (even if in-universe it might make sense). 

• The episode ends 17 pages into chapter 64, as Yusuke prepares to fire his Spirit Gun at Ichigaki’s fighters.