Kurama's Secret?!
The Ties Between Mother and Son

Yu Yu Hakusho episode 7
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For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Yusuke clashes with Gouki for a second time, but then finds out that Kurama is after him.
Original Japanese broadcast date: November 21st, 1992

Contents

1) Synopsis
2) Manga differences
3) Notes
4) Errors


Synopsis

Gouki is about to kill Yusuke, but thanks to Botan causing a distraction, he retreats. Botan takes Yusuke back to his home, where he wakes up and realizes he's been saved. Atsuko says it was Botan, and Botan explains to him that Koenma has let her have a real body that any regular human can see. She also gives Yusuke two items: a compass which can locate demons, and a ring which can greatly boost the power of his spirit gun, but will leave him exhausted after using it. Yusuke confronts Gouki again, and is eventually able to defeat him by blasting him through his mouth. By defeating Gouki, the spirits he had devoured are released, and return to the children he had taken them from.



Yusuke and Botan head back into town, but they find that a demon is approaching them: Kurama. However, Kurama says he doesn't want to fight, and asks that they just wait 3 more days, and he'll return the mirror. Yusuke and Botan head home, and discuss what to do. Yusuke thinks Kurama may not be that much of a bad guy, as when he first encountered them, Kurama seemed to want to leave the group. 3 days pass and Yusuke meets with Kurama at a hospital. Kurama introduces him to his mother, who is ill. He then takes Yusuke aside and explains his story: he is actually a fox demon, who came to the Human Realm after being badly injured by a hunter. There, he entered a woman, and became her child. After he regained his spiritual powers he intended to leave her, but now finds he does care for her and wants to save her. Just then, Kurama finds out that his mother's condition has gotten worse, and she is now in critical condition.



Kurama uses the Darkness Mirror, knowing that in order for his desire of saving his mother, it will take his life. But before it can do this, Yusuke intervenes, asking the mirror to take his life instead, as the crying face of a mother after losing her son -it's unbearable! The mirror sends out a powerful blast of white light, and Kurama sees he is still alive. He rushes off to check on his mother, who is suddenly getting better and is no longer going to die. Yusuke has also survived, as Botan arrives back. The mirror tells them that that in light of Yusuke's actions, it has decided to grant the wish without taking a life. With two treasures secured, Yusuke says there's one more to go. Koenma has been watching and warns that the third treasure is going to be really difficult to get back, as Hiei is no ordinary guy!



Manga differences

-The short scene where Koenma tells Yusuke not to be anxious is not in the manga.

-The manga also has Botan warn Yusuke about the ring not being enough to lethally damage Gouki after she gives him the ring -in the anime, this was changed so Yusuke remembers what she told him whilst he's fighting Gouki.

-Gouki and the little girl are at a park in the manga, whilst in the anime the location was changed to a forest.

-In the manga, as Gouki stomps on Yusuke, a little kid sees them. Gouki, not wanting a witness, takes his soul. He then goes back to Yusuke to finish him off, only for Yusuke to shove a bit of tree in his mouth. The anime changed this so the kid doesn't appear, instead, Botan does. She basically takes over the kid's role, only she tries to attack Gouki and doesn't have her spirit eaten.

-In the manga, after Gouki is defeated, Yusuke tells the little kid who just had his spirit eaten that they were just shooting a scene for a movie, and to not tell anyone. As the kid doesn't appear in the anime, this was cut from the episode.

-Botan is also not present in the manga when Kurama appears. She is there in the anime.

-The manga has Kurama go to Yusuke's school to find him after the 3 days, in the anime this doesn't happen. Instead, Yusuke goes to meet Kurama directly at the hospital.

-Botan isn't seen going to the Spirit Realm, or coming back from it in the manga, like she does in the anime.

-The manga also has a flashback scene which the anime cut completely. In the manga, Kurama's mother has scars on her arms, and she got them stopping a younger Kurama from hurting himself when he fell off a stool.

-In the manga, Kurama's mother is seeing someone else, who is briefly seen a couple of times -he's the one who runs out to tell Kurama her condition has gotten worse. The anime doesn't show him, and a nurse informs Kurama instead.

-The manga ends with Yusuke telling his mom that he'll make dinner for her tonight, prompting her to ask what's gotten into him. This joke was cut from the anime.



Notes

-From this episode and onwards, the music used for the opening recap segment is different to the music used in previous episodes.



Errors

-Why didn't Botan try asking Koenma about the mirror earlier -she has 3 days to do it! She leaves it to the last minute for no reason.

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