Episode 9

EPISODE 9

幻海の継承者トーナメント開始 (Genkai no Koukeisha Toonamento Kaishi)

The Successor to Genkai Tournament Begins

First Broadcast: December 5, 1992

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 25 (WSJ #25, 1991, June 10), chapter 26 (WSJ #26, 1991, June 17)

Summary: Yusuke enters the old martial arts master Genkai’s discipleship tournament to stop the demon Rando. He meets Kuwabara there, and the two pass the preliminary lottery and the arcade game test, before finally moving on to the Diabolic Forest. Kuwabara reaches the goal first, while Yusuke beats the Bat Tamer along the way.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• In the manga Yusuke’s flashback to Botan explaining his current mission comes after he reaches Genkai’s house and gets a look at the crowd there.  In the anime it comes while he’s still walking up the stairs.  I love how in the middle of Yusuke’s flashback to what Botan told him, we get Botan flashbacking to what Koenma told her. 

• When talking about his love of martial arts, in the manga Yusuke describes himself as a “fan”, using the actual English word, while in the anime he says “otaku”.

• In the anime we see that Genkai’s house has some kind of spiritual barriers protecting it.

• Kuwabara’s wearing street clothes in the manga (including a shirt with “Motor Head” written on it), while in the anime he’s in his typical school uniform.

• In the manga, Kuwabara says his sister told him about Genkai and that he should go to her for help, while in the anime he already knew who she was and thought of coming himself.  Kuwabara’s sister Shizuru still hasn’t appeared in the anime by this point.

• While Kuwabara explains to Yusuke why he’s here, in the anime several Street Fighter characters can be seen in the crowd.

• Kuwabara’s explanation of Genkai’s Reihado technique is extremely simplified in the anime; he just says she can use it both to heal people or knock them down.  The manga has a little more information on what Reihado actually is (basically just the spiritual energy surrounding people’s bodies), how concentrating it allows you to break extremely hard objects, and how by sending your own life force into others you can heal them.  Again, in the manga Kuwabara says his sister told him about all this, but in the anime it’s just something he already knew.

• In the anime Shorin’s the guy who asks Genkai what the heck her arcade games have to do with testing their spiritual abilities.  In the manga it’s not him, though it’s someone dressed similarly (they’re both in fairly standard martial arts monk get-up).  In the manga Shorin isn’t show until after everyone but Yusuke clears the Diabolic Forest, so the anime gives us an early glimpse of him.

• The manga has more detailed explanations of the spiritual faculties Genkai’s games measure inside little exposition boxes, including the passing score needed for each game.

• The guy who scores a measly 18 on the punching machine (which measures one’s ability to combine both physical and mental attack power) protests that he held the punch machine high score in Nishiogi.  “Nishiogi” is, I think, short for Nishiogikubo, a district in Tokyo.  The anime changes this to Shibuya, maybe because that’s a much more well-known part of Tokyo.

• Similar to before, in the anime Shorin says that the entire Diabolic Forest seems to be emitting yoki (spectral energy), while in the manga this line is said by some anonymous crowd member.

• The anime has a brief scene of the contestants in the Diabolic Forest being attacking by moving vines and packs of wolves.

• When Genkai checks out how everyone is progressing through the Diabolic Forest, she sees that the closest person is 500 meters away.  In the manga the scene cuts to Kuwabara, who an exposition box labels as the one in first place.  We then see some of the less fortunate contestants getting attacked, tricked, or just plain scared by demons.  All this is left out in the anime, and from Genkai the scene cuts to Yusuke as he encounters the Bat-Tamer, giving the impression that he’s the one in first place (he’s labeled as in 10^th place in the manga).

• The Bat-Tamer looks completely different in the anime compared to the manga.  In the manga he’s a rather cute and cartoonish vampire guy, complete with bowtie and cape, while in the anime he’s a more fearsome looking man-bat, naked and with actual wings.  We also get to see Yusuke fight the Bat-Tamer in the anime, while in the manga the scene cuts away right after the two encounter each other, and next we see Yusuke he’s already beaten the tar out of the poor guy.  Yusuke also physically carries the Bat-Tamer along with him all the way to Genkai in the manga, but in the anime he only tells her about beating the guy up.

• The manga chapter ends with a look at the 8 who passed the Diabolic Forest trial, and Genkai admitting that she hasn’t thought up the next trial yet.  In the anime the episode ends with Genkai saying she’ll overlook the fact that Yusuke showed up late (he’s technically late in the manga too, but apparently not by enough for Genkai to bother mentioning it).  Kuwabara and Yusuke celebrate, while we see Koenma watching them from the afterlife, reminding Yusuke of his mission.