Episode 70

EPISODE 70

恐るべき真実！新たな謎 (Osorobeki Shinjitsu! Arata-naru Nazo)

The Terrifying Truth! A New Mystery

First Broadcast: March 5, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): chapter 117 (WSJ #20, 1993, May 3), first half of chapter 118 (WSJ #21-22, 1993, May 10)

Summary: For the final challenge, Yusuke must determine which of his friends is actually Mitsunari Yanagisawa using his “Copy” ability.  Yusuke correctly settles on Kuwabara, though for questionable reasons. Beaten, the abductors reveal their boss: Genkai. Everything was just her test, to teach Yusuke and co. how to handle opponents with strange abilities. Someone is taking up Sakyo’s quest to open a portal to the Demon World, and the sudden appearance of odd abilities in humans is actually a side-effect of this.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• After Kurama wakes up Yanagisawa to get the third key, in the manga Botan mentions that they used the x-ray lens spirit tool to search the room for it but couldn’t find it, and Yanagisawa explains that it’s hidden at the base of a tree outside.  Both these lines get left out in the anime, but sort of in their place is a line where Hiei threatens Yanagisawa to give them the key if he values his life.

• In the manga Kuwabara says that the artist who designed the house was really crazy, and set things up so that you need to go through three doors to reach the house’s interior.  Then on the next page is a diagram showing the house’s bizarre floor plan.  In the anime though, Kuwabara doesn’t actually know how many doors they need to pass through, and asks about this in aggravation.  The artist who built the house isn’t mentioned, just as the anime removed the earlier reference to the house’s origin.

• Following that is another brief filler scene with Yusuke and Kido.  Kido steps off of Yusuke’s shadow to allow him to move a little bit.  Yusuke takes this opportunity to rush forward and try to punch Kido, but though Yusuke’s speed surprises him, Kido still manages to step back on Yusuke’s shadow and paralyze him again just in time.

• Botan’s explanation of the magic sticker thingies is just a monologue in the manga, while in the anime she uses Kuwabara to demonstrate how they work, and he offers comments.  The whole thing’s even set up as a parody of infomercials.

• In the manga we see Hiei wearing the stickers, and a narrator box explains that he wanted to complain, but figured he’d better go along with this, considering his last big mistake (ie getting his soul stolen by Kaito).  In the anime Hiei actually does refuse to put them on at first, but Kurama reminds him of his prior mistake, so he grudgingly allows them to stick them on.

• The room where Kido has Yusuke held hostage is decorated with various strange pieces of artwork in the manga, presumably left behind by the artist who built the place.  None of these are present in the anime.

• In the manga we don’t see what happens to any of the gang while they head up the stairs to the second floor, but the anime adds this in, to emphasize the odd nature of the 4-D Mansion.  Kuwabara is walking along when he suddenly notices that somehow he’s started walking down the stairs rather than up.  Botan’s stairs are a gravity-defying spiral, which she says is making her queasy.  Kurama encounters numerous doors floating in midair, and the stair segment ahead of him suddenly vanishes only to be replaced by a new segment heading off in another direction to a different door.  Hiei is walking along when a trap door suddenly drops him down to what appears to be an enormous area with countless staircases reaching up out of sight.  This is an illusion however, and Hiei slashes the images away to find the correct door.  These scenes come between Kido saying that his ability really is weak, and him telling the paralyzed Yusuke he could kill him by holding his mouth and nose shut, which in the manga is a single uninterrupted conversation.

• To determine whether Kuwabara is really Kuwabara or just Yanagisawa in disguise, Yusuke asks him what his birthday and blood type are, but it turns out Yusuke doesn’t know either of these things about Kuwabara, so he has no way of knowing whether what Kuwabara says is correct.  In the manga, he then asks Kuwabara about his older sister, and Kuwabara says she’s named Shizuru, recently turned 18, prefers men like (Japanese actors) Bunta Sugawara and Ken Takakura, and is stronger than him.  In the anime Yusuke doesn’t ask a follow-up question, but instead just apparently gives up on Kuwabara and goes straight to questioning Kurama next.

• When Kuwabara is surprised to hear that Hiei has a younger sister (not knowing it’s Yukina), he says she probably looks mean and has a bad personality.  The anime actually shows his mental image of Hiei’s sister.  Oddly, it looks a lot like Kuwabara combined with Hiei, though I guess the Kuwabara element just comes from her wearing the same sort of stereotypical Japanese hoodlum getup Kuwabara is often shown in, complete with wooden sword.

• In the manga Botan gives a slightly longer explanation of the “energy print” which prevents the detective tool stickers from being peeled off by anyone save the one who originally stuck it  on to begin with.  This energy print is like fingerprints or voiceprints: everyone has one, even demons, and each person’s one is different.  The stickers only react to the energy print of whoever put them on, so this is why an imposter wouldn’t be able to take them off.  In the anime she does says humans and demons both have energy prints, but then cuts off there with a shout as she realizes the implications of this.  Kurama ends up being the one to actually say that an imposter definitely wouldn’t be able to remove them, and the comparison of energy prints to finger/voiceprints drops out entirely.

• In the manga Kido explains that the only way to break Yanagisawa’s “Copy” ability is for him to feel strong pain.  In the anime it’s a bit harder though: instead of just pain, he needs to be hit by someone with powerful spiritual energy, like Yusuke.

• Part of Yusuke’s reasoning for deciding that Kuwabara must be the imposter is that he didn’t think Kurama or Hiei would be stupid enough to get captured.  But of course, Hiei had been captured by Kaito.  Genkai later notes how Hiei lost to Kaito, despite Kaito obviously being no match for him in standard fight.  In the manga Yusuke doesn’t react to this (that we see, anyway), while in the anime he complains about Hiei being foolish enough to fall for their traps after all.

• When Kuwabara is freed, in the manga he has only boxers and an undershirt on, since Yanagisawa took the rest of his clothes.  In the anime he doesn’t even have the shirt.  He’s also covered in shadows at first in the anime, so that you only first see he has no clothes after Yusuke comments on his serious expression not matching his getup.

• The episode ends about 8 pages into chapter 118, as Genkai explains that somehow is taking up Sakyo’s plans to open a portal to the Demon World.