Episode 53

EPISODE 53

嵐の前！悲しみを越えて (Arashi no Mae! Kanashimi wo Koete)

Before the Storm!  Overcoming Sorrow

First Broadcast: October 23, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 92 (WSJ #45, 1992, October 26), first half of chapter 93 (WSJ #46, 1992, November 2)

Summary: Suzuki gives Kuwabara a stronger sword and Kurama a fruit that will restore him to Yoko form again. A huge crowd starts gathering for the finals. Sakyo reveals to the other tournament officials his desire to open a portal to the Demon Realm. When they object, he has Toguro kill them. Recovering from his grief, Yusuke fires a Spirit Gun as a sign of his resolve.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• Manga chapter 92 starts with Suzuki leaving the hospital to find Kurama and Kuwabara.  Ruka (who is apparently a real nurse after all, besides her other talents) protests, but Suzuki says he’ll be right back.  Risho is also in the hospital, still grumbling about his loss to Kuwabara.  This scene isn’t in the anime at all.

• Instead of that, the anime episode starts with some filler.  Yusuke is sitting and staring at the cave where he underwent his final trial.  There’s a lengthy flashback summing up the trial.  Yusuke thinks to himself that if Genkai had not given him so much of her spiritual power, she might not have been beaten by Toguro.  Koenma (in baby form) is watching Yusuke, and Botan walks up and asks if Genkai’s really dead.  Koenma says that he already told her about how Genkai would raise a successor and then die.

• After that we get back to manga material, with Hiei punching a big hole in the ground, to see how the size of his hole compares to the one Toguro made.  In the manga this comes right after Suzuki leaves the hospital.  This scene has some flashback filler to the scene where Toguro actually made the hole.

• Then there’s the scene of Kurama practicing fighting Karasu in his mind.  Here too, the scene’s padded out a bit with the audio of Karasu’s speech to Kurama from when they met after the semi-finals.

• Continuing this trend, when Suzuki introduces himself there’s a brief flashback to him as Onji turning into Suzuki, and getting clobbered by Genkai.  In the anime Suzuki also protests when Kuwabara doesn’t address him as “beautiful”.

• In the anime, Kuwabara freaks out when he hears that the Sword of Trials sucks the energy of whoever holds it.  He even tosses it back to Suzuki, who quickly throws it back.

• In the manga, Suzuki says that when he fought Toguro, he had the name “Strong Ghostly Warrior, Tanaka”.  This line gets left out in the anime.  The joke is that, like “Suzuki”, “Tanaka” is a very common, plain Japanese name, so to see it preceded by a ridiculous and elaborate title like “Strong Ghostly Warrior” provides quite a contrast.  This line also seems to indicate that “Suzuki” isn’t actually the guy’s true name either, just another of his many aliases.

• As Koenma approaches Yusuke, in the anime we see Jorge with him.  He heads back to the woods to leave the two alone.

• After Yusuke grabs Koenma in anger and Koenma manages to calm him down, in the manga Koenma then gives Yusuke Genkai’s final message to him from the afterlife, and Yusuke fires a massive Spirit Gun as a sign of resolve.  The anime moves this to the end of the episode, after the chapter 93 stuff, and so the first scene with Koenma and Yusuke just ends with Koenma wondering if it’s part of Yusuke’s trial to overcome his grief.

• After Koenma and Yusuke’s scene comes the mid-episode eye catch, and the second half of the episode starts with the opening of chapter 93, as Juri reports the building excitement for the tournament finals.  In the manga Juri interviews some demon who’s been camping out for 2 weeks so he can get a good seat at the finals and eat part of Yusuke’s dead body, but the anime cuts this.

• One of the tournament head-honchos talking to Sakyo mentions the absurdly high sums of money Sakyo will get if his team wins the tournament (trillions of yen), and in the manga Sakyo notes that it’s not even enough money to set up a metropolitan government in the Demon World.  This line gets cut from the anime.  Also left out is a little side bar explaining the rights of the champion team’s owner: they have the right to select the tournament’s main location, the tournament “Guests” (teams forced to fight, like Yusuke and co.), and they get 45% of the tournament earnings.

• Once the other tournament officials hear Sakyo’s plan and realize how crazy he is, they have some demon thugs come in and try to kill him.  In the anime these are shown entering through a secret passage which one of the officials opens by pressing a button, while in the manga they seem to just come in through a regular door.  There’s also some filler as these thugs break a table to show their strength.  None of these guys look much like their manga counterparts, which seems to be the rule for throwaway monster designs.

• Once the thugs enter, in the manga the Toguro Brothers appear and do away with them.  In the anime only Younger Toguro shows up.  In the manga once the thugs charge the Toguro Brothers the scene simply changes to after the fight has finished (its outcome being a foregone conclusion), as Sakyo and Toguro calmly talk in the bloody, corpse-filled room.  Meanwhile the anime sort of depicts the fight.  They don’t actually show Toguro attacking the thugs, but we hear fighting noises and see blood splashing everywhere, including on Sakyo’s face.  He casually wipes it off.

• After the slaughter, Sakyo asks Toguro is he wants anything to drink, and Toguro says he doesn’t drink alcohol, but would like some orange juice.  The anime adds Toguro saying that Oolong Tea would be fine too.

• Following the scene with Sakyo and Toguro, there’s more filler of Yusuke staring at the cave.  He has a vision of Genkai walking out from the cave mouth, but it quickly vanishes.  Koenma walks up again, asking how long Yusuke will keep this up.  It’s at this point in the anime that Koenma gives Yusuke Genkai’s message.  Before Yusuke fires his big Spirit Gun, he again remembers all the times Genkai yelled at him.  Such happy times.  As Yusuke charges up the Spirit Gun, Jorge is suddenly seen standing with Koenma.

• When everyone sees Yusuke’s huge Spirit Gun, in the manga Suzuki is still with Kuwabara and Kurama, while in the anime he’s off somewhere on his own.  The anime also shows Botan and Puu reacting too.

• The episode ends 11 pages into chapter 93, with Sakyo and Toguro’s scene.  But as mentioned, the actual end of the episode is Yusuke firing his huge Spirit Gun, which in the manga comes earlier.