Monday, November 28, 2011

Episode 68

EPISODE 68
四次元屋敷にひそむ罠 (Yojigen Yashiki ni Hisomu Wana)
The Trap Lurking Inside 4-D Mansion
First Broadcast: February 19, 1994
Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 114 (WSJ #17, 1993, April 12), first half of chapter 115 (WSJ #18, 1993, April 19)
Summary: Botan and Kuwabara gather Kurama and Hiei to go save Yusuke. They confront the first of Yusuke’s kidnappers, Yu Kaito, who steals Hiei’s soul when he says “hot”. Kaito can steal the souls of those who say whatever taboo word he picks and prevent any form of violence, leaving the group no choice but to play by his rules.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga
(What's all this about?  Read here)
  • When the biology club guys beg Kurama to become their club president, in the anime they’re in a school lab and Kurama has a lab coat on.  In the manga they’re in a nondescript room (or perhaps the hallway) and Kurama is wearing his regular school uniform.  The scene is also expanded slightly in the anime: the biology club guy specifically mentions Kurama’s popularity with the girls as a reason why he should be president, and when Kurama refuses he blocks the door and says he won’t let him go until he accepts.  Kuwabara then barges in looking for Kurama, knocking down the door and trapping the biology club guy underneath.
  • After Botan and Kuwabara get ahold of Hiei, but before Botan mentions the detective tools, in the anime there’s a Koenma and Jorge scene.  Jorge informs Koenma of Yusuke’s abduction, and Koenma wonders if this has anything to do with the disturbances he had wanted Yusuke to investigate.  Once things return to Kurama and the gang, they’re now standing on a pedestrian overpass out somewhere in the city.  In the manga they’re still at Kurama’s school when Botan explains about the tools.
  • Botan’s explanation of the detective tools is also slightly different: in the manga she says Yusuke had used them when fighting Rando but that they got broke then and were taken to the Spirit World to be repaired.  In the anime, instead of mentioning the Rando battle Botan says they were used when Kurama and Hiei were on the wanted list and got broken at that time.  Botan also vaguely remembers there having been a third member of Kurama and Hiei’s group, but pointedly forgets his name (poor Goki).  This switch from Rando to Kurama/Hiei is kind of odd, since in both versions Yusuke used the demon detector during the Rando storyline and it busted when trying to sense Rando, while none of the tools actually got broken during the Three Treasures story arc.  Well, whatever.

  • In the manga when Botan mentions the detective items, she and the others have their conversation about which item they should use in the school.  They settle on the whistle, then the scene switches to the park and Botan says she brought all of them just in case.  In the anime Botan mentions the items, the scene switches to the park where Botan says she brought them all, and then they decide which one would actually work best.  In the manga Botan only mentions the demon detector and x-ray lens thing before they settle on the whistle, while in the anime she goes on to suggest using the Spirit Gun-amplifying ring (the thing Yusuke used to beat Goki) to decimate the area.  None of them like this idea. 
  • In the manga the scene in the park is said to be an hour later, while this is left out in the anime.  Earlier in the manga Kurama noted that they had 5 hours left to go get Yusuke, meaning by the time they get to the park there would be 4 hours left.  However, in the anime during the detective tools explanation bit, Kurama says that there’s only 1 hour left.  The anime seems to consistently shorten deadlines like this, I guess to make things seem more exciting.
  • The explanation for how the shaman whistle works is given in a narration box in the manga, while in the anime Botan says it. 
  • When the group arrives at 4-D Mansion, in the manga Kuwabara explains that the strange house was built by an unknown artist, who lived there until his/her death several years ago, leaving the place uninhabited.  This is left out in the anime.
  • After the gang enters the house, in the anime there’s a short scene showing Yusuke and Kido.  Kido tells Yusuke his friends have come to rescue him, and explains that Yusuke can’t escape since he’s in his Territory.
  • The room inside of 4-D Mansion where Kaito confronts Kurama and the gang is a lot more high-tech and abstract in the anime.  There’s a metal door that automatically opens and closes electronically (?), everything seems to slant at odd angles, the room is so vast you often can’t tell where the walls are, and everything is oddly colored.  In the manga there’s a strange chandelier of faces with heads hanging from their long noses, but other than that the room looks fairly normal.
  • When Hiei tries to attack Kaito only for his sword to break, in the manga Hiei notes that his sword broke before it even hit Kaito, while in the anime Kuwabara says this.  Perhaps they felt it more in-character for Kuwabara to say such an obvious thing.  After that, in the manga Kurama notes that the rules Kaito mentions are what the paper stuck to the front door was talking about, while in the anime Botan says this.
  • After Hiei says the taboo word and his spirit is removed by Kaito, in the anime his spirit is surrounded by some sort of transparent crystal sphere, while in the manga it’s all on its own.
  • Near the start of chapter 115 is an exposition page explaining about Kaito and his ability.  This sort of thing doesn’t really fit in 3/4ths of the way through an episode, so it’s left out in the anime.
  • When Kaito explains about how he discovered his ability and whatnot at the start of chapter 115, for some reason the background is outer space.  I don’t know if this is just a metaphorical thing to look cool or a result of the inside of 4-D Mansion being strange, but either way the anime doesn’t follow suit.
  • The episode ends about 8 pages into chapter 115, as Kuwabara tries to hit Yanagisawa but gets stopped by the magic power of Kaito’s Territory.

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