Episode 36

EPISODE 36

野望を粉砕！光りの洗礼 (Yabou wo Funsai! Hikari no Senrei)

Ambition Crushed! A Baptism by Light

First Broadcast: June 26, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): last part of chapter 64 (WSJ #15, 1992, March 30), chapter 65 (WSJ #16, 1992, April 6), small part of chapter 66 (WSJ #17, 1992, April 13)

Summary: Mask stops Yusuke from firing his Spirit Gun, and tells him to let her handle things. Mask’s special technique frees Ichigaki’s fighters, and they reunite with their master. Ichigaki tries to fight himself, but is quickly beaten by Yusuke.  The gang must fight the next round without rest, and their next opponents arrive.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• The episode starts with a retread of 35’s ending scene.

• Once Mask says she’ll take care of Ichigaki’s fighters, there’s a Koenma/Jorge.  Jorge says it’s not right to kill them, but Koenma thinks Mask has something up her sleeve.  Botan and Kuwabara then discuss basically the same thing.  We get more filler reactions from the usual suspects as Mask charges up her big shiny attack and after Ichigaki’s fighters all get knocked out by it.  I suppose it might be notable that in the manga Hiei and Kurama aren’t shown being impressed by the attack (they’re not shown unimpressed, we just don’t see their reaction).

• There’s a brief scene showing Hiei and Kurama beating up Ichigaki’s assistant to learn where he hid Mitamura, and the two going to rescue him.

• Kurama isn’t too impressed with the stuff Ichigaki poisoned Mitamura with.  In the manga he offers to teach him how to raise better ones, while in the anime he offers to try out some better ones…on Ichigaki.

• After his fighters are beaten, Ichigaki injects himself with some drug, becoming a big monster and attacking Yusuke.  In the manga this fight is purely a gag: Yusuke beats Ichigaki in one punch, the end.  In the anime though he gives Yusuke some trouble, and even manages to draw blood.  Hiei tries to help, but Yusuke is determined to beat him on his own, which he does.  Monster Ichigaki is somewhat bigger in the anime, and attacks with rubbery, stretchy arms.

• Even more filler reactions at the end as Mitamura reunites with his pupils.  At least Koenma and Jorge’s silly over-the-top crying helps deflate the overall sappiness of the scene.

• Ryo (M-3) wants to fight on Yusuke’s team in Kuwabara’s place, but Yusuke says Kuwabara would kill him if he let Ryo do that, and it’s against tournament rules anyway.  In the manga Ryo just says “oh, right” and that ends the conversation.  Later we see him and the rest of his group react to stuff as Round 3 begins, but that’s about it for them as characters.  In the anime after Ryo’s “oh, right”, Yusuke tells him to go take care of his master.  Ryo thanks Yusuke and runs off to join the others, and we see them leave the stadium.  So there’s a bit more closure for them.

• After it’s announced that Yusuke and co. have to fight Round 3 immediately after the end of Round 2, in the anime Toguro, standing somewhere up in the stadium, says to himself that this is tough but if Yusuke can’t overcome at least this much, then…um, something.  He just trails off.  Probably “then you’ll never beat me” or the like.  Then we get a scene of Kuwabara asking Botan to take him up to the ring with Yusuke and the rest.  Botan doesn’t want to, but he insists.

• The episode ends about 5 pages into chapter 66, as the Masho-Tsukai Team makes their entrance.