Episode 47

EPISODE 47

伝説の盗賊!妖狐・蔵馬 (Densetsu no Touzoku! Youko・Kurama)

The Legendary Thief, Yoko Kurama!

First Broadcast: September 11, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 82 (WSJ #34, 1992, August 10), first third of chapter 83 (WSJ #35, 1992, August 17)

Summary: Terrified, Ura-Urashima reveals his secrets, and is killed by his teammate. Kurama returns to normal. With a free choice of who goes next, Kuwabara opts to fight Shishi-Wakamaru.  Meanwhile, with Puu’s help Yusuke finally overcomes his ordeal.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• The episode starts with a brief re-do of Kurama’s transformation into his Yoko form, and Ura-Urashima’s freaked out reaction.

• In the anime Hiei gives a full explanation of Kurama’s history to Kuwabara, including flashbacks to the same images used to explain it way back when Kurama first appeared.  This leads into the manga scene where Hiei flashbacks to when he, Kurama, and Goki were preparing to steal the three treasures.  Goki doesn’t believe this little kid is really the legendary Kurama and wants to fight him to see if he’s really fit for the job.  In the manga Kurama sufficiently intimidates Goki just by talking, while in the anime he uses his Rose Whip to chop down some trees, which does the trick.

• With all the smoke swirling around from Ura-Urashima’s box, there’s a Koenma/Jorge scene where Jorge thinks there’s a fire in their little VIP room, and pours a bucket of water over Koenma.  Turns out Koenma was roasting some fish.  He isn’t happy.

• Besides reverting Kurama to his Yoko form, Ura-Urashima’s box also turns Juri into a little kid.  This is in the manga, but not highlighted very much and easy to miss.  Or at least I missed it my first time through the manga.  In the anime, Koto tries to get Juri’s commentary on what’s happening in the smoke-obscured ring, but Juri is now too young to talk properly.  Koto wonders what that little kid is doing in the ring.

• In the anime, Kurama explains that his demon-eating plant has acidic spit and can dissolve Ura-Urashima’s body in under a minute, bones and all.

• Ura-Urashima says that he’s not really a storybook character; it was just an act.  In the manga he lists Ma-Kintaro and Kuro-Momotaro as also not really storybook characters, before getting killed by Shishi-Wakamaru.  In the anime he says that nobody else on the team was really one.

• As Kurama returns to normal, the anime again shows an image of the four-legged anime version of his Yoko form.

• The anime also shows Juri transforming back into her adult body in a parody of Sailor Moon-style Shojo heroines.

• After the match with Ura-Urashima finishes, there’s another filler scene of the girls lost in the woods.  Puu really seems to be in pain, and Keiko realizes that since Puu’s supposed to be Yusuke’s doppelganger, it must mean something.  Puu breaks free and finally flies to Yusuke.  As noted before, in the manga he’s with Yusuke all throughout his final trial.

• After that filler, the anime has the start of the fights with Shishi-Wakamaru, which comes from the beginning of chapter 83.  In the manga, after the match with Ura-Urashima ends, there’s the scene of Yusuke finally overcoming his trial, which is how chapter 82 wraps up.

• In the anime Kurama says that Shishi-Wakamaru’s description of Kuwabara as having a messed up face is on the mark.  Harsh.  In the manga only Hiei agrees with this description.

• In the anime Hiei attributes his ability to quickly master rock-paper-scissors to the power of his Jagan.

• When Kuwabara goes up to fight Shishi-Wakamaru, he says he can’t lose so long as Yukina is in the stadium watching him.  In the manga, the scene immediately cuts to Yukina and co. way over in the old stadium, baffled to see that nobody else is there.  In the anime we instead get a filler scene of Yukina and co. still lost in the woods, where Yukina sneezes.  Japanese superstition has it that if you sneeze it means someone is talking about you, usually saying something bad.  The manga scene of the group at the old stadium comes next episode.

• The scene where Yusuke finally overcomes his trial starts in the anime with him thrashing around, smashing the cave rocks, before collapsing.  In the manga it starts with him already collapsed.  In the anime while collapsed Yusuke remembers Keiko telling him not to lose.

• In the manga, the sight of Puu looking all beat up and the prospect of him dying due to Yusuke failing his trial is what triggers Yusuke to finally overcome his pain.  In the anime, Puu collapses and a big boulder starts to fall down onto him, so Yusuke overcomes his pain to save Puu from this more direct threat.

• The episode ends 6 pages into chapter 83, as Kuwabara goes up to fight Shishi-Wakamaru.