Hiei Comes Forward to Battle!
A Slashing Sword

Yu Yu Hakusho episode 18
Previous episode	Next episode

For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Hiei takes on the next of the Saint Beasts: Seiryu.
Original Japanese broadcast date: February 13th, 1993

Contents
1) Synopsis
2) Manga differences


Synopsis

Yusuke's team come across a room with several doors in it. Kurama explains that all but one of the doors lead to rooms filled with traps they won't be able to escape from, but Kuwabara, using his sixth sense, is able to pick the correct door. Elsewhere in the castle, Seiryu tells Suzaku that he will kill them all. On Earth, Botan reports to Koenma that things are getting out of hand, but Koenma tells her all they can do is wait for Yusuke to destroy the Saint Beasts.

Yusuke's team find and enter Seiryu's room, but before anyone can fight him, Seiryu says they have an uninvited guest. Byakko, who is heavily injured, stumbles into the room, asking for Seiryu to help him. However Seiryu considers him to be an eyesore, and freezes him with his matou touryu ken (demon fighting frozen spirit fist) technique, before shattering his body with a jump kick. Yusuke wants to fight him, but Hiei tells him to save his anger for Suzaku, whilst he deals with Seiryu.

The two fight and Seiryu starts repeatedly using the demon fighting frozen spirit fist, resulting in nearly the entire room being frozen. He manages to freeze one of Hiei's legs, but Hiei stabs his sword into the ground and uses it to propel himself forward. The two clash, and Hiei slices Seiryu 16 times in less than a second, without Seiryu even realizing it. Seiryu is going to attack again when his forehead starts to bleed, and he explodes seconds later.

Elsewhere, Suzaku's assistant, Murugu, reports that she has found Yusuke's weakness: Keiko. Suzaku uses the bug flute to direct all of the Makaichu-possessed humans to the school. Iwamoto is possessed by one of the bugs, and attacks Keiko. She runs out of the school, only to find more people waiting for her, and she has to run off when they start chasing her. Yusuke's team continue on their way, and Yusuke hopes nothing has happened to Keiko.

Manga differences

-Yet again, any scenes with Koenma and Jorge in this episode weren't in the manga.

-Botan's scenes in this episode weren't in the manga either.

-The scene showing a guy getting killed by one of the traps, along with Kurama's explanation, isn't in the manga.

-The manga actually shows Seiryu jump kicking through Byakko and shattering him, but in the episode it doesn't show this, it just shows Byakko's body shattering.

-Whilst it's a short fight in the anime, the fight between Hiei and Seiryu is even shorter in the manga -the two only clash once, and it's all over. The anime extended it by having Seiryu use the demon fighting frozen spirit fist several times.

-Seiryu's death is also much more violent in the manga, as Hiei cuts him in half! Seiryu's face is also cut into pieces, along with one of his arms being sliced off.

The episode changed this to Seiryu exploding into nothing when he dies.

-The manga has Yusuke be the one to say he thought Hiei would say something like "of course I would", but in the episode it's Kuwabara who says it.

-The final scene of this episode with Yusuke's team isn't in the manga.