Episode 37

EPISODE 37

闇の忍・魔性使いチーム (Yami no Shinobi・Mashou-Tsukai Chiimu)

Shinobi of Darkness—The Masho-Tsukai Team

First Broadcast: July 3, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): most of chapter 66 (WSJ #17, 1992, April 13), chapter 67 (WSJ #18, 1992, April 20)

Summary: In addition to Yusuke’s team having to fight two rounds back-to-back, Hiei and Mask are held hostage by the barrier-master Ruka. Kurama fights Gama, part of a team of famous demon ninjas. Kurama kills Gama, but is left weighed down and powerless by Gama’s spells. In this state he must fight the next opponent, the ice master Toya.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• Continuing on from the filler at the end of last episode, at the start of this one Botan drags Kuwabara up near the ring.  In the crowd, Shizuru complains about her brother not being able to fight.

• After Ruka’s appearance, there’s a Koenma/Jorge scene.  Koenma gets Jorge to hit him so he can have Ruka look at the bruise.  Koenma later regrets this when he sees that Ruka’s not really a nurse, and gets mad at Jorge.

• In the anime we get a somewhat longer but not terribly interesting explanation of Ruka’s power, with Botan explaining that she uses barriers as…barriers.

• Ruka’s magic thread things are called Sokujujo, but the subtitles accidentally call them Sokujucho.  A margin note in the manga explains that these are threads of linked spells.  In the anime we don’t get this explanation, and it actually seems more like they’re the electric waves imprisoning Hiei and Mask.  In the manga the term seems to refer to the cords around Ruka’s body.

• After Hiei and Mask are trapped, we get a scene of Butajiri (the Masho-Tsukai Team Owner) gloating, as Toguro looks somewhat less than happy.

• In the manga Kurama thinks to himself that despite the big effort to prevent Hiei and Mask from participating in Round 3, ironically neither of them are in any shape to fight anyway.  In the anime he tells Yusuke this.

• In the anime we see Gama’s arm fall off as he tries to spray his blood all over Kurama.  In the manga it’s not clear when this happens, but his arm is gone by the time he finally collapses.