Episode 65

EPISODE 65

闘技場と共に消える野望 (Tougijou to Tomo ni Kieru Yabou)

The Scheme Vanishes, Together With the Stadium

First Broadcast: January 29, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 111 (WSJ #14, 1993, March 22)

Summary: Yusuke’s team has won the tournament, and it turns out Kuwabara survived Toguro’s attack. Sakyo blows up the stadium, killing himself, but the gang escapes. Yusuke declares to Genkai that he’s won.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

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• The episode starts with a lengthy re-do of the climax of Toguro and Yusuke’s fight from the end of last episode.  After that there’s a bit more padding as everyone remarks on Yusuke’s victory, and how much he’s grown.  Yukina tries to bring Keiko back to reality, but to no avail.

• As Yusuke agonizes over having been unable to save Kuwabara, the anime replays the scene of Toguro stabbing Kuwabara.

• Koenma and Kurama’s discussion of Toguro’s true motives is expanded slightly in the anime.  They say he felt empty for abandoning his friends, and so waited to be defeated by a strong person who valued friendship.  In the manga they just say he was waiting to be defeated by a strong guy and don’t speculate on why.

• Following this discussion, in the manga the stadium immediately starts to shake; Sakyo has started to destroy the stadium.  As things keep shaking, Sakyo says that Kurama’s speculation is probably correct, and that though he only knew Toguro for a few years, there were moments where he got that feeling too.  His failure to properly take that into account is the reason he lost his bet with Koenma.  In the anime Sakyo just walks up and starts talking about how Kurama was right, and only after finishing this conversation does he pull out the detonation device and trigger the stadium’s destruction.  His statement about Toguro is slightly expanded on in the anime: he talks about how Toguro seemed happier than he’d been in years after meeting Yusuke, and probably wanted to fight against the greatest opponent in the greatest arena.  After Sakyo says he’s lost the bet, Koenma says he doesn’t want his life, but Sakyo says that as a gambler he can’t just back down now.  It’s at that point he pulls out the trigger.

• Sakyo’s trigger device shows that the stadium will be destroyed in 5 minutes and 19 seconds in the manga, while in the anime it’s 15 minutes.  The anime also has this deadline announced over the stadium intercom.

• After the stadium’s self-destruct mechanism is triggered, in the anime Sakyo walks off into the stadium interior.  Koenma decides to follow him and discuss things a little more.  Shizuru secretly follows them and overhears their conversation.  Sakyo tells Koenma it’s his style to go out like this, and that he has a duty to make sure Toguro’s body vanishes without a trace, which is what he would have wanted.  Then he explains all about his desire to create a hole to the Demon World; the explanation here is taken pretty directly from the one he gave back before the finals started, almost word for word.  At this point Koenma and Sakyo notice Shizuru, and Sakyo throws her his cigarette lighter as a keepsake.  Immediately afterward, rubble from the collapsing stadium falls on Sakyo, as Shizuru cries out.  In the manga Sakyo just keeps standing out in the middle of the arena as it all falls down around him, and he merely thinks to himself about how he wanted to open a portal to the Demon World.

• Besides wrapping up the anime-only subplot of Shizuru and Sakyo’s relationship, I think this extended scene with Sakyo is supposed to fix a manga plot hole.  In the Sensui arc, Yusuke and co. know that it was Sakyo’s ambition to create a portal to the Demon World.  But in the manga he never tells them this: we only see him explain it to the Toguro Brothers and the tournament higher-ups, then when he dies he thinks to himself about it.  So how did the gang know?  Having Sakyo explain his desire to Koenma fixes this.

• Sakyo’s lighter that he gives to Shizuru is initialed “SN”.  So, since “S” presumably stands for “Sakyo” (with the name being written in Japanese order, family name first), we can assume his given name starts with an “N”.  Unless “SN” is some sort of zippo brand.

• In the anime Yusuke bids farewell to Toguro’s body before leaving the stadium.

• While the stadium collapses, in the anime Koto stubbornly sticks around to perform the closing ceremony.  Juri protests, saying she doesn’t want to die without even getting married.  Koto soon comes to her senses and quickly announces that the closing ceremony has been cancelled.  The two announcers then flee.

• In the manga Shizuru is with the gang as Yusuke wakes up Keiko (only for her to knock him out) and they all take off.  In keeping with the earlier Sakyo scenes, in the anime she’s elsewhere and Kuwabara asks Yukina where she’s gone.

• As the gang tries to escape, their path is blocked by a huge pile of rubble.  Yusuke says he’ll blow it away, but Kurama says he’s in no shape to.  Chu and co. then show up and clear a path.  Jin says they’ll definitely win the next tournament.  Puu returns to Keiko; his location is uncertain during the part of the manga.  While Koenma flees, someone suddenly grabs his leg, tripping him.  It’s Jorge, and he’s trapped in some more rubble.  Eventually they manage to escape, together with Shizuru.

• In the manga there’s a great throwaway gag where one panel shows a huge block of rubble falling on someone, producing a big splurt of blood.  A note in the margin says that this is “merely” some random spectator.  Pretty much sums up the series’ attitude towards everyone at the tournament besides Yusuke’s friends.

• As the gang looks on at the ruins of the stadium, in the manga Keiko is still carrying the unconscious Yusuke on her back.  Kuwabara says that it’s all over, and Yusuke agrees.  Keiko, seeing that Yusuke is now conscious, angrily throws him off her back.  Koenma has to calm them down.  In the anime Yusuke was already awake back during the filler where Jin and co. rescued them, so this gets left out.