Episode 76

EPISODE 76

桑原復活?!目覚めた力 (Kuwabara Fukkatsu?! Mezameta Chikara)

Kuwabara Restored?! A Power Awakened

First Broadcast: April 16, 1994

Equivalent Manga Chapter(s): second half of chapter 125 (WSJ #29, 1993, July 5), chapter 126 (WSJ #30, 1993, July 12)

Summary: Desperate to save his friends, Kuwabara’s spiritual powers suddenly return and he gains the Dimensional Sword ability, defeating Seaman.  Seaman realizes that Kuwabara is the kind of person their group has been searching for, someone capable of cutting down the barrier preventing truly powerful demons from crossing over to the Human World.  Kuwabara spares Seaman’s life, taking him back to Yusuke’s apartment, where his injuries are treated.  Under questioning, Seaman reveals that he supports this plot to destroy the Human World due to having his view of humanity warped by watching the “Black Chapter”, a secret Spirit World video documenting the worse aspects of human nature.  This confirms for Koenma the ringleader’s identity: formal Spirit World Detective Shinobu Sensui, who vanished ten years ago after stealing the Black Chapter tape.

Anime/manga differences after the jump.

Differences from the Manga

(What's all this about?  Read here)

• There’s some fighting filler at the start of the episode as Seaman has his water monster pummel Kuwabara, after Kuwabara says he’ll rescue his friends.  Kuwabara seems dead, but he manages to get back up.  Why?  Because his friends are in danger, of course.  Seaman is disgusted and starts to drown Kuwabara’s friends.  In the manga he does this right after Kuwabara says he’ll rescue them.

• After Kuwabara starts to unleash his true power, in the anime we briefly see Yusuke and Botan as they run to find Kuwabara.  They sense powerful spiritual energy (Kuwabara’s), and head off in that direction.  Later, after Kuwabara carries Seaman and his friends back to Yusuke’s apartment building, they follow Kuwabara’s energy trail there and discover him and the others passed out in front of the door.  Kuwabara asks Yusuke to take care of the rest before passing out.

• As Kuwabara struggles to carry Seaman and his friends back to Yusuke’s place, Seaman asks why he’s saving him.  In the manga Kuwabara replies that Seaman is an important witness, and can tell them all about the other members of his group.  Plus, Kuwabara wants to know why Seaman wants to destroy the Human World.  The anime leaves this part out here, but instead when Yusuke is later talking with Seaman he mentions Kuwabara saying he saved Seaman for questioning, which Yusuke dismisses as merely an excuse.

• In the manga Seaman later explains that he witnessed Gourmet devouring Elder Toguro, meaning this event happened prior to Seaman battling Kuwabara and switching sides.  However, the anime depicts Gourmet eating Toguro as happening after Seaman and Kuwabara’s battle, in a filler scene which follows the this episode’s mid-episode eye catch.  Sniper enters Sensui’s apartment, and Sensui says he’s found someone with the power to cut through the barrier.  This means it’s time to move onto the next phase of their operation, and Sniper has already brought along Gourmet for just that reason.  Sensui tells Elder Toguro it’s time for them to use his abilities.  Elder Toguro starts to explain that he’d love to help them out, but he still hasn’t regenerated his body enough to do much of anything.  But before he can finish, Gourmet picks him up and begins eating him, and the scene ends as we hear him scream.  In keeping with the earlier anime-only material, we see here that Elder Toguro has regenerated not just his head but also an arm, while in the manga he’s just a half a head.

• In the manga only Yusuke, Kurama, and the sleeping Kuwabara are present during Seaman’s questioning, while in the manga Genkai, Shizuru, Keiko, and Puu are there as well.  Botan and Genkai are however around in the manga for the later scene where Koenma (via the mini-TV) explains about Sensui.

• As Kuwabara lies sprawled out asleep, the manga has a little black box censoring what it presumably his balls peeking out of his boxers.  The anime leaves this joke out.

• Yusuke tells Seaman that it’s no use keeping quiet.  In the manga he says this is because they have Yanagisawa, while in the anime he just says they have a friend who can read minds, leaving it ambiguous whether he means Yanagisawa or Murota.  For that matter, neither the manga nor the anime really explain where Murota went off to following the battle with Doctor, other than that Gourmet eventually eats him.

• To illustrate Kurama’s description of the Black Chapter video’s contents, the anime has some brief scenes of shadowy, non-descript people committing acts of violence.

• When Seaman talks about the Black Chapter showing him all the terrible things humans have done, in the manga he mentions rows of children lined up to be killed.  The anime changes this to rows of people, softening it a little.  Keiko (who as mentioned isn’t present in the manga) eventually breaks down crying after hearing Seaman’s descriptions of human atrocities, and Shizuru has to escort her out.

• After deciding to let Seaman rest for a while, in the manga Kurama and Yusuke talk in another room of the apartment, while in the anime they talk out on the balcony.