Episode 59

EPISODE 59

戸愚呂兄の無気味な影 (Toguro Ani no Bukimi-na Kage)

The Eerie Shadow of Toguro the Elder

First Broadcast: December 4, 1993

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 100 (WSJ #1 1993, published December 21, 1992), first half of chapter 101 (WSJ #2 1993, published December 28, 1992)

Summary: With the stadium in shambles, a recess is declared to fix things up before the next match. Toguro carries in a new ring, while Kuwabara is nervous at the prospect of fighting Toguro’s elder brother. In their match, Elder Toguro reveals Genkai’s death. Furious, Kuwabara begins his counterattack, but is immobilized by Elder Toguro.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• Chapter 100 opens with Hiei waking up out by the ring and asking how the rest of the matches went.  Kurama explains that they haven’t happened yet, since they had to pause the tournament due to all the damage to the arena Hiei caused in his fight with Bui.  Kurama goes on to tell how Younger Toguro carried the ring from the old stadium all the way to the new one (there’s a picture of this), as a performance in gratitude to Hiei having shown him the Koku-Ryu-Ha.  At this point the tournament resumes and Kuwabara goes to fight Elder Toguro (apparently Hiei’s timing is impeccable).

• The anime episode on the other hand starts immediately after the end of the last episode, as the group surveys the damage Hiei caused.  Elder Toguro glares at Kuwabara to intimidate him, which freaks him out.  Koto then announces that the tournament will be taking a break while they repair the ring.  Jorge approaches Koto and offers to help her with the ringside commentary.  He starts singing random songs and generally acting like an idiot.  Meanwhile Elder Toguro approaches Kuwabara and notes that while Kuwabara has gotten much more powerful in the last few months, he still has no chance of winning and will die.  The scene switches to the gang hanging out in some waiting room inside the stadium, with Hiei stretched out asleep on a bench.  Kuwabara says that if Genkai were here, she could fight Elder Toguro and he could just deal with Sakyo.  Yusuke tells him not to rely on Genkai.  Shizuru and co. show up, and Shizuru can tell that Kuwabara’s spiritual energy is different than normal.  Yukina has brought Kuwabara some energy drinks to help him in the match.  Suddenly everyone hears Younger Toguro’s thundering footsteps as he carries the new ring in.  Seeing this, Kuwabara starts to lose his confidence again.  The scene skips ahead to Hiei waking up, still in that waiting room rather than by the ring like in the manga.  Things basically go like the manga again at this point, although Kurama never mentions that the reason Toguro carried the new ring was to thank Hiei for showing him the Koku-Ryu-Ha.

• Before the fight starts, Kuwabara makes another remark about wishing Genkai were here.  In the manga Hiei asks Kurama if Yusuke really hasn’t told Kuwabara about Genkai’s death yet.  Hiei thinks he ought to have just personally told Kuwabara.  In the anime though, Kurama asks Yusuke about Kuwabara still being in the dark.

• As Kuwabara rushes in to slash Elder Toguro, in the anime Yusuke wonders why Elder Toguro doesn’t try and dodge the attack.  In the manga some random crowd member says this.

• Before Elder Toguro does his little puppet play to explain to Kuwabara about Genkai’s death, in the anime he pierces his fingers into Kuwabara’s chest and threatens to squash his heart.  Then he pulls his fingers out and does the play.  Kind of a dumb move, in retrospect.

• More peanut gallery filler from Shizuru, Jorge, and co. throughout the episode.  Most notably, after Elder Toguro tells Kuwabara that Genkai’s been killed, Koto announces this to the entire stadium, and we see Keiko react to hearing the news for the first time.

• The episode ends about 7 pages in chapter 101, as Elder Toguro’s tentacle-like fingers pierce through Kuwabara again, and he starts to dash him to the ground.