A Sorrowful Young Beauty: Yukina

Yu Yu Hakusho episode 22
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For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Yusuke is given a new assignment: rescue Yukina.
Original Japanese broadcast date: March 13th, 1993

Contents
1) Synopsis
2) Manga differences
3) Notes


Synopsis

Yusuke is on his way to school, when Hiei appears before him. Hiei doesn't have much to say, but hands Yusuke a video tape, which was sent from the Spirit Realm. Yusuke goes to school and asks Kuwabara if he can watch the tape on his video player. Kuwabara really doesn't want to get involved with his next assignment, but Keiko then appears and asks Yusuke what the deal with the tape is. Remembering the promise he made, he explains to her that the tape is from the Spirit Realm, but she doesn't understand what he's talking about. Later on, Yusuke and Botan go to Kuwabara's home, and Botan says she had given Keiko a story without mentioning Spirit Realm, since Yusuke's involvement in these matters is meant to be top secret. Kuwabara reminds Yusuke there is no way he's getting involved this time, and plays the tape.

As they watch the tape, Kuwabara's older sister, Shizuru, appears, and also watches. The tape has a recorded message from Koenma on it, who explains that Yusuke's next mission is to rescue an ice maiden called Yukina. Yukina has been captured by a crime lord called Gonzo Tarukane, and her tears form valuable gems, which Tarukane then sells off. The moment Kuwabara sees Yukina, he stops the tape and declares he's in love with her. He gets some money from Shizuru and rushes off, not realizing he doesn't even know where he has to go yet. Yusuke, Botan and Shizuru watch the rest of the tape together. Meanwhile, in a large forest, Tarukane arrives at his mansion via a helicopter. He finds out from his butler, Sakashita, that Yukina hasn't cried, and now no longer displays any emotion at all. Tarukane says he's got someone to help out with that.

The Toguro brothers then step out of the helicopter. They go to see Yukina, who freezes the room. The younger Toguro brother cuts her face, but she still doesn't react. However, some mountain birds, which are the only friends Yukina has, fly outside the window. Yukina tells them to fly away, but the elder Toguro brother extends his fingers to capture them, and crush them to death.

This causes Yukina to cry, and Tarukane is happy that he's got some more gems to sell. Elsewhere, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Botan arrive at the forest, and head in to find the mansion. Kuwabara is really hyped up for this, and tells his friends to stop dilly-dallying. Yusuke and Botan decide not to tell Kuwabara what they saw on the rest of the tape -the fact that Yukina is Hiei's younger sister. They head in, and come across Hirue, who tells them to leave, as this is private property. When they refuse, and mention Tarukane, Hirue transforms into a demon. They asks him why he's working for Tarukane, as he's making Yukina, who's also a demon, suffer, but he doesn't care. He says that humans are willing to sell their souls, and believes that if he piled up a load of money before them, they'd do the same thing.

Kuwabara and Yusuke prove him wrong by killing him -Kuwabara slices him up with his spirit sword, and Yusuke vaporizes him with a spirit gun blast before he can even hit the ground. Yusuke says that it looks like this place is going to be tough to get into...

Manga differences

-The manga has a short story set after the Suzaku arc and before this arc, where some demons cause trouble by pretending to be Yusuke and Kuwabara.

Thanks to some help from Kurama and Hiei, the imposters are defeated. The anime didn't adapt this story.

-Because of the above, the anime has Hiei deliver the tape to Yusuke whilst he's on his way to school. In the manga, he gives him the tape after the imposter Yusuke and Kuwabara have been defeated.

-The over the top production credits for the video weren't in the manga.

-The dialogue Botan says about not saying such things about Lord Koenma isn't in the manga.

-As they watch the message, the group are seen eating some potato chips in the manga, whilst they don't eat anything in the anime.

-In the anime, this episode marks the first time Shizuru appears. However in the manga, she appears much earlier, during the story where Keiko saves Yusuke's body from being burned.

-It isn't clear if Shizuru watched the tape in the manga, but in the anime it's definitely clear that she saw it.

-Tarukane arrives at his mansion via car in the manga, whilst the anime changed it to him and the Toguro brothers arriving via helicopter.

-The younger Toguro brother doesn't slap Yukina in the manga, like he does in the anime. Instead, the manga has Tarukane order a couple of his men to restrain her.

-The death of the birds is more graphic in the manga, the main difference being one of the birds is shown getting stabbed in the head.

-When the younger Toguro brother tells Yukina to learn how to cry, the manga shows that he's eating one of the dead birds. He doesn't do this in the anime.

-In the manga, Botan does not go with Yusuke and Kuwabara. But in the anime, she is with them.

-Hirue has a slightly different design in the manga for his human form -he's a lot shorter, and doesn't wear sunglasses.

-Hirue's death is more violent in the manga, as his body gets badly sliced up into pieces. The anime toned it down be showing that he is about to fall apart, but doesn't actually show him being in pieces like the manga does.

Notes

-As noted above, this marks the first time Shizuru actually appears in an episode, but she has been briefly featured in the intro since the first episode.

Intro	Episode 22

She's had a bit of a redesign between when compared to her intro counterpart.

-Hirue is not named in this episode, but he will be in the next one.