Episode 67

EPISODE 67

新たなるプロローグ (Arata-naru Puroroogu)

A New Prologue

First Broadcast: February 12, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 113 (WSJ #16, 1993, April 5), first page of chapter 114 (WSJ #17, 1993, April 12)

Summary: Koenma tells Botan that something new is up in the Human World, and demons aren’t to blame. While Botan goes to inform Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama notice some odd things themselves. Yusuke seems to be having trouble re-adjusting to school after the tournament; he happily goes off to fight 3 strangers who challenge him, and ends up getting kidnapped.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• Now that we’re entering a new major story arc, it’s probably a good time to note where the manga was up to at this point.  At noted above, episode 67 first aired February 12,1994.  At about the same time, chapter 154 came out in Weekly Jump, marking the start of the Demon World/Three Kings story arc.  So in other words, as the Sensui storyline began in the anime, it had just ended in the manga.  That’s a decent head start, but still a dropdown from the huge lead the anime had on the manga when it first began, with the manga already being up to about chapter 90, more than halfway through the Dark Tournament.  If the manga hadn’t ended so soon, the anime might have had to eventually resort to filler story arcs like other Shonen anime.

• Notably, instead of a last episode recap, this episode begins with a brief scene introducing Sensui, who in the manga doesn’t appear in any form until after the 4-D Mansion business wraps up.  We see Kubi-Kukuri Island with its destroyed stadium, and Elder Toguro climbs up on the shore, wondering how much time has passed “then” (presumably he means the tournament finals).  A shadowy figure (clearly Sensui) then walks up out of the woods and looks down at Elder Toguro, at which point the scene ends and the title card pops up.  This scene is adapted from Elder Toguro’s explanation of how he met Sensui, which comes towards the end of the story arc as he fights Kurama.  There are some key differences between Elder Toguro’s manga explanation and the scene here though.  First, in the manga Toguro explains that after his brother knocked him into the sea, he eventually washed up on “some shore”, while the anime shows him coming back to Kubi-Kukuri Island.  Toguro also says that by the time he washed ashore he had only managed to regenerate half of his head, while in the anime he’s more complete than that, and has at least his right arm and a seemingly complete head.

• Chapter 113 begins with Koenma telling Botan of the strange things going on in the Human Realm, and saying demons aren’t responsible.  Episode 67 though, in addition to the Sensui scene, adds on a scene of Jorge rushing into Koenma’s office with terrible news, scattering all Koenma’s papers in the process.  Koenma is less than happy.  Then we see Botan sitting around a table with Ayame (the black-haired lady introduced last episode) and a purple-haired girl.  They’re all discussing their job of guiding people to the afterlife.  The purple-haired girl says nothing makes her happier than informing cute boys of their deaths.  Botan then gets called to Koenma’s office, leading back into manga material.

• The purple-haired girl from the above-mentioned scene is actually in the manga, sort of.  Back in manga volume 4 (Genkai Tournament/4 Holy Beasts material), one of the extras Togashi threw in for the collected edition was a page featuring the one-shot character Rena, a friend of Botan who explains how much she likes informing cute guys of their death.  She’s just around for one page, has no connection to the story, and simply explains her weird sexual quirk.  So the anime reached back to this old throwaway bonus page and used it to base this filler scene around. 

•  After the scene with Botan and Koenma, the manga goes straight to Yusuke at school, where Botan arrives to try and inform him of his new mission.  The anime instead goes to Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Keiko walking through town.  Yusuke says he’s been constantly tired since the end of the tournament.  He and Kuwabara decide to go to the arcade, but Keiko nags Yusuke about how now that he actually managed to reach his third year of middle school, it’s his duty to attend classes.  Some roughnecks walk up and start giving them trouble, but Yusuke manages to scare them off just by glaring at them.  They can tell he’s been through some real battles.  As Yusuke and the gang walk on, we see Kido and Yanagisawa watching them from a restaurant window, another case of the anime introducing characters slightly earlier than in the manga.

• After that there’s more foreshadowing filler, as Hiei kills one of the Demon World bugs while hanging out in some building that’s under construction (perhaps he lives there).  He notes that there’s an increase in low-class demon activity, but doesn’t think it’s really any of his concern.  The scene then switches to Meio High, Kurama’s school.  The test results show that Kurama (Shuichi Minamino) has taken first place again, edging out Kaito, another character introduced earlier than in the manga (these test results are shown in chapter 114, but nobody discusses them there).  Kaito tells a teacher he doesn’t mind, but thinks to himself that he’ll soon teach Minamino a lesson.  Some girls congratulate Kurama/Minamino on his score, and like Hiei he notices a demon bug on one of the girl’s shoulders (the bugs are invisible to regular humans).  He distracts them and grabs the bug, then wonders what’s going on.

• Even more anime-only stuff.  It’s lunchtime at Sarayashiki Middle School (class is interrupted as everyone eats in the classroom), and Kuwabara’s friends note that he hasn’t had any fights lately, and say that things are so peaceful now they should use this opportunity to take over the entire area.  Kuwabara rejects this idea, saying that if it’s peaceful they should just leave things as-is.  He looks out the window and thinks about Yukina, promising to become an even better man before they meet again.  On this romantic note, Yusuke jabs Kuwabara right in the butt-hole (a standard abuse Japanese children inflict on each other and adults), shouting “Spirit Gun!” as he does so.  They argue and argue, while Kuwabara’s friends wonder if they were a married couple in a previous life.  Botan suddenly shows up and wonders which one would have been the husband and which the wife.  They all make themselves ill picturing this.

• Now that there’s been enough homoerotic subtext to last the rest of the series, Botan finally interrupts the two and tries to tell Yusuke about his new mission.  We’re sort of back to manga material, but things still play out very differently.  In the manga, Yusuke and Kuwabara aren’t eating lunch, they just seem to be talking while they wait for class to start.  They discuss the logistics of Genkai’s resurrection: after her death, Koenma immediately put her body in a cryogenic container to preserve it so she could come back to life, knowing in advance what Yusuke and co.’s wish would be if they won the tournament.  Botan then suddenly shows up and says that Toguro was really the one who arranged all this.  Before giving any more information, she congratulates Yusuke on having miraculously advanced to his third year of middle school (the anime instead had Keiko mention this in the earlier filler scene).  Kuwabara gets meta and notes that Yusuke has never actually worn summer clothing, despite the fact that it logically must have been summer at one point, since they’ve now gone up a grade (Togashi inserts a grumbling little self-portrait into the panel’s corner, apparently in acknowledgement of this mistake).  Botan then explains about how Toguro set up Genkai’s resurrection, and there’s a little flashback to Toguro discussing all this with Koenma.  The anime covered this material last episode, so it’s not gone over here.  After this explanation, Takenaka yells at them that the bell has already rung.  Botan has to leave, and Yusuke wonders to himself why she even came in the first place.

• In the anime though, besides leaving out the explanation of Genkai’s resurrection, things are switched up even more as Yusuke refuses to hear his new mission and tells Botan to give it to Kuwabara, much to Kuwabara’s displeasure.  Takenaka interrupts them and yells that the bell has already rung and lunch is over.  Kuwabara’s friends quickly rearrange their chairs into their class positions, and Yusuke and Botan leave (in the anime Yusuke isn’t even supposed to be in this class).  Outside the classroom, Botan whips out her oar and starts to fly away.  Yusuke asks her what why she even came, but she says it would take too long to explain now, so she’ll come after school.

• Following the mid-episode eye catch, there’s another anime-only scene where Keiko tells Yusuke he can’t leave Puu behind.  She ties him to Yusuke’s book bag to make him look like a stuffed animal, but Yusuke isn’t thrilled at the prospect of carrying him around like that.  Keiko tells Yusuke to be careful as he heads home, which annoys him even more.  It’s not like he’s going to get run over!  Keiko points out that he was run over once.  Yusuke leaves in a huff.  Outside we see Kido and the others approach Sarayashiki Middle School.

• Finally, finally we get back to a straight-up adaptation of manga scenes, as Kuwabara and Yusuke encounter Kido outside the school, and Yusuke goes off to fight them. I do like most of the filler in this episode though. Anyway, after that the only thing really worth mentioning is that while the manga chapter ends right with Puu’s chalkboard message telling of Yusuke’s abduction, the anime episode continues on with Botan and Kuwabara going out to the field where Yusuke fought Kido and finding a note from Kido and co. on top of Yusuke’s book bag.  This scene is sort of taken from the first page of chapter 114, which opens with a close-up of the note.