Episode 43: Fukumen Senshi no Kubishiki Sugao
The Masked Fighter's *** Face
The Uraotogi team should show up somewhere around here.
Episode 44: Genkai Kara no Saidai no Shiren
Genkai's Greatest Ordeal
Episode 45: Hiei Rensen! Gekite Kokuryuuha!
Hiei's Battles! *** Kokoryuuha!
Episode 46: Senritsu! Kuromomotarou no Henshin
Horrifying! Kuromomotarou's Change
In which Kuromomotarou annoys the snot out of Hiei.
Episode 47: Densetsu no Tousoku! Youko Kurama
Legendary ***! Kurama the Spirit Fox
In which Uraurashima finds religion.
Episode 48: Yami Aitemu Shide no Hagoromo
The Dark Item "Cloak of Death"
In which Shishiwakamaru unleashes an attack which is almost as bishonen as the Rose Whip.
Episode 49: Sareta Chikara! Genkai no Shitoo
Sareta Power! Genkai's Fight to the Death
Shishiwakamaru unleashes the Bakutodokushokusou, which decimates the audience. Shishiwakamaru raises a frothing wall of ki around Genkai and himself so that Genkai can't escape. Much taunting ensues, at the peak of which he tells Genkai to stop teasing him, and leaps at her to set off another Bakutodokushokusou.Genkai catches his blade between her palms. As she fires up the Reikoukyouhanshou, the years fall away from her; Shishiwakamaru has barely enough time to register that something is happening before she blows up the Reikoukyouhanshou in his face and flips him like a pancake.
He doesn't seem to appreciate the chance to learn humility from his mistakes, or, for that matter, to learn anything from his mistakes. He has to use the Wailing Vorpal Sword as a cane to get off the ground, and his hands are shaking when he tries to strike a threatening pose, but he unleashes the Bakutodokushokusou again. Genkai sets up a kekkai which draws the skulls in and siphons away their energy, then skids Shishiwakamaru across the arena again. This time, he's battered and bloodied, and his hair has come loose (kyaa!). However, he has just enough vinegar left in him to tell Genkai that seeing her as a young woman, he fell in love with her a little.
Then he passes out.
Sigh. Genkai no shouri desu! End of Shishiwakamaru's part in the Ankoku Bujuutsukai. His next appearance is as one of Kurama's recruits, right before the Makai Tournament. Anyone have eps they're willing to lend me?
Differences? Differences! Many differences! Big differences! "What you thinking, boy?" differences! Differences what reduced your loyal Shishiwakamaru chronicler to "Me Tarzan, you otaku" talk! Ug!
The biggest difference is that all of the fights have been bulked out. Where there was one sword slash in the manga, there are eighteen in the anime. Entire sections have been spliced into fights to get them to the half-hour limit. Sometimes these are nice—I rather liked the fact that Shishiwakamaru attacked with the Bakutodokushokusou three times, instead of passing out after the second. (And it's not just because his hair came loose after the third time. Not at all. Well, okay, a little. But mainly it was because his extra attack demonstrated the essential insecurity at the heart of any individual participating in a role-based patricarchal dialectic which draws its authority from the secondary progressive tendencies of the—um—of the unbound hair. Um. Shoo.) Sometimes the additions entirely missed the point of the original point—like in the fight between Kurama and Touya, when Touya was originally working against a ten-minute deadline. In the anime, the fight was so bloated with extra footage that I don't think a firm deadline was mentioned anywhere.
Not that there's anything new or unique to YYH in this; ask me sometime what I think about the animated fight between Freeza and Trunks. Deep sigh.
Since the differences are too numerous to list one by one, here are the major changes:
Kuwabara vs. Shishiwakamaru: In the manga, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama play one round of jan-ken-pon; in the anime, not only do they have a jan-ken-ponfest, but Kurama has to teach Hiei how to play. (Kusu!) Shishiwakamaru drops the Cloak of Death over Kuwabara as soon as Kuwabara gets within range in the manga; in the anime, he dodges several minutes' worth of thrusts from Kuwabara's reiken, leaps lightly over him (stepping on his head on the way), then throws the Cloak of Death into the air. The Cloak of Death animates and wraps itself around Kuwabara. Much more dramatic; much more mischievous.
Genkai vs. Shishiwakamaru: In the manga, Genkai's Reikoukyouhanshou KO's Shishiwakamaru; in the anime, he gets up again for another round of attacks. And after she's flipped him like a pancake for the second time, his hair comes undone. Oh, beautiful. *sigh*
And Shishiwakamaru keeps on going horny! *smack* You know what I mean. Four or five times during his fight with Genkai, he loses his temper, and his face hardens, his pupils contract, and his fangs and horns emerge. In the manga, Shishiwakamaru horned out once, after Yuusuke called him a prettyboy. It wasn't an "I've lost my temper" thing, it was a "Let's freak out the ningens" thing. In the anime, Shishiwakamaru can't keep those horns down! What's up, kiddo? Need a rage reduction class? Lessons in cool? A hat? Not that the effect was unaesthetic—but really, gentlemen, can we learn to keep this kind of personal blemish to ourselves?
And no one says a thing when Shishiwakamaru horns out; it's just accepted that occasionally, contestants are going to sprout new body parts. Perhaps it's rude to notice.
An odd thought: If Shishiwakamaru did have to go to class to learn how to keep his horns in, would he be in the same section as Filia from Slayers Try?
(And would they date?)