Episode 55

EPISODE 55

爆烈！目覚めた妖狐 (Bakuretsu! Mezameta Youko)

Explosion! The Yoko Awakened

First Broadcast: November 6, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 95 (WSJ #48, 1992, November 16), first half of chapter 96 (WSJ #49, 1992, November 23)

Summary: Karasu reveals his bomb-controlling powers and outclasses Kurama, who returns to his Yoko form just in time. Kurama summons a powerful demon plant, which closes in on Karasu.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• The episode starts with a quasi-retread of last episode’s ending, as Koto re-establishes that the first match of the semi-finals will be Kurama vs. Karasu.

• Before the fight begins, Koto notes that there’s overwhelming support for Toguro’s team, but Shizuru and co. protest that there are people rooting for Yusuke’s team too.  In the manga Shizuru and co. then talk about how they got such great seats, but the anime leaves this out, presumably because it earlier already showed how they got the seats.  Instead, the anime shows that Jorge is sitting with the girls, and he realizes that he forget to give Koenma his spiked bat (a take-off of the traditional spiked clubs Japanese ogres carry).  The manga goes straight from the group talking about their seating to Keiko wondering where Genkai is, causing Botan to leave only for Shizuru to follow her and reveal that she knows about Genkai’s death too.  The anime inserts the scene with Kurama and Kuwabara talking between the “Jorge and co cheering” scene and the discussion about Genkai.  In the manga Kurama and Kuwabara’s conversation comes before we see Shizuru and co. in the crowd.

• As Kurama and Kuwabara talk about Suzuki’s magic fruit, the anime flashbacks to when Suzuki gave it to him.

• There’s lots of fighting filler as Kurama desperately dodges Karasu’s attacks a zillion times.  Kurama tries to use a Rose Whip, but it gets blown up.

• There are also bits of added dialogue for Karasu during the fight.  Most of it’s not terribly notable, but he does explain that the reason he likes killing the things he loves is because otherwise they’ll eventually grow old and die.

• In the manga Karasu blows up Kurama’s shoulder and then explains what his power really is.  In the anime, after Kurama’s shoulder is hit there’s some peanut gallery filler, and then Karasu hits Kurama’s leg too, at which point the eye-catch comes.

• Kurama’s re-appearance in his Yoko form gets drawn out in the anime a lot.  There’s tons of swirling smoke, and we again see the four-legged version of the Yoko briefly before the humanoid version appears.  Yusuke (who was absent during the semi-finals) is confused, and Koenma has to explain things to him.  The weird old demon guy from the semi-finals filler notes that he can no longer tell how the match is going to turn out.

• Kurama tells Juri not to move or his huge demon plant will eat her.  In the anime, Juri says “yes” and raises her hand, causing one of the plant’s heads to approach her.  She freezes in panic.  Also, Kurama’s plant breaths fire in the anime when it attacks Karasu; in the manga it just lunges at Karasu and tries to eat him.

• The episode ends about 10 pages into chapter 96, as Kurama’s plant bears down on Karasu.  There’s lots of peanut gallery filler as the episode closes.