Episode 48

EPISODE 48

闇アイテム・死出の羽衣 (Yami-Aitemu・Shide no Hagoromo)

Item of Darkness: The Mantle of Death

First Broadcast: September 18, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): last two thirds of chapter 83 (WSJ #35, 1992, August 17), chapter 84 (WSJ #36-37, 1992, August 24)

Summary: Shishi-Wakamaru toys with Kuwabara, and ultimately teleports him from the ring, winning the match. Next to fight is Mask, who arrives, but is weak after giving her power to Yusuke. Toguro reveals her identity to everyone. Outside, Kuwabara and co. find the sleeping Yusuke.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• The episode starts with a re-do of last episode’s end, with Yusuke giving Puu to Genkai and passing out after overcoming his trial.  We also get a flashback to the moment Yusuke overcame his trial, and Genkai tells Puu he’ll get better when Yusuke wakes up.

• After that the scene switches to the semi-finals.  There’s some filler with Shishi-Wakamaru’s fans cheering for him and insulting Kuwabara, who doesn’t take it well.  Kuwabara then repeats his “I’ll definitely win as long as Yukina is here watching me” line from last episode, and this time the scene cuts to Yukina and co. at the old abandoned stadium, like in the manga.

• There’s some fighting filler as Shishi-Wakamaru dodges Kuwabara’s Spirit Sword a dozen times.  His fans love this.  In the manga he just does this once before teleporting Kuwabara away.

• Kuwabara calls the new stadium the “Dome of Darkness” in the anime.  I don’t think it really has a name in the manga.

• Once Shishi-Wakamaru slashes off Genkai’s mask and there’s a big to-do because nobody thinks this is the same woman from the Ichigaki fight, in the anime Koto replays footage from the Ichigaki fight.  Which of course is re-used footage from that episode.

• While the tournament head-honchos decide what to do about the claim that Yusuke’s team is cheating by trying to pass off multiple people as the same fighter, in the anime Koto takes this time to interview some audience members.  They don’t say anything helpful.  The old guy she interviews keeps popping up in later filler, making comments on the fights.  I think he might be a parody of somebody, but I don’t know who.  For that matter, the whole “Koto tries to interview people but it goes wrong” scene feels like a big in-joke.

• Then there’s a Koenma/Jorge scene.  Jorge says Koenma should go meet with the tournament directing board and explain that the young woman from the Ichigaki fight is really Genkai too.  To prepare, Koenma goes through a laborious process to transform into his adult form, but by the time he’s finished the tournament higher-ups have already reached a decision.

• The tournament higher-ups don’t penalize Yusuke’s team, which the crowd doesn’t like, so Toguro has to explain about how Genkai gets young again when she fights.  In the manga Toguro is introduced by some nameless committee woman, while in the anime he interrupts the crowd’s complaining on his own, and his voice is enough to quiet them down.  Another instance where the anime uses sound to its advantage.

• When Shishi-Wakamaru explains about his sword, in the manga he says it was so powerful that even Benkei was afraid of it, and sealed it away.  This drops out in the anime.  Benkei was a legendary strongman and faithful companion to Yoshitsune, who Shishi-Wakamaru is based on.

• The scene where Kuwabara and co. stumble upon the sleeping Yusuke is somewhat expanded upon in the anime.  Notably, Keiko notices Puu and picks him up.  In the manga it’s not clear where Puu is at this point.