The Successor to Genkai
- The Tournament Begins

Yu Yu Hakusho episode 9
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For a detailed overview of this episode, click here.

Yusuke is sent on a new mission: stop the secrets of spirit wave master Genkai from being taken by the demon known as Rando.
Original Japanese broadcast date: December 5th, 1992

Contents

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


Synopsis

Yusuke has been sent on a new mission: to stop the demon Rando from stealing the secret techniques of Genkai, master of the spirit wave. Genkai is looking for a pupil for her to pass on her secrets to, and her place is packed with potential candidates. Kuwabara, who had hoped to see Genkai so she could help him with his out of control spiritual sensitivity powers, is also present. Genkai appears and holds a lottery -anyone who opens a piece of red paper passes. Genkai had crafted the papers so they will turn red when held by someone with enough spiritual power. Both Yusuke and Kuwabara open red papers, as do a lot of others. Yusuke then tries using his compass to see if Rando is still here, and it explodes, meaning he is.



The remaining candidates then enter a game center next, where the games they play measure different categories of their spiritual power. Everyone has to pass two of the three games on offer, and once everyone's finished, just over twenty candidates are left. Genkai takes them outside to an enchanted forest, and explains that they must reach the great tree beyond it within two hours to pass. She races off and waits at the tree, whilst the candidates enter the forest. Several of them are caught by the traps, but eventually seven are able to get to the tree. However Yusuke, having decided to take the straight path, encounters a creature known as the Bat Tamer.



Time runs out, just as Yusuke makes it to the tree. He explains that he defeated the Bat Master, leaving Genkai to wonder just who he is. Kuwabara says he's out of time, but Genkai decides that she'll overlook it this time. In the Spirit Realm, Koenma has been watching and tells Yusuke not to forget his mission, as Rando is among the seven remaining candidates... he mustn't get careless!



Manga differences

-In the manga, Yusuke doesn't think back to what Botan told him until he's with the crowd of people, in the anime he thinks about it earlier, when he's walking up the steps.

-Kuwabara wears casual clothes in the manga, in the anime he wears his school uniform.

-After the first test, as Yusuke and Kuwabara walk along, Yusuke tells Kuwabara he's definitely not Rando, and Kuwabara wonders what he's talking about. This got cut from the episode.

-Genkai is not on a separate platform in the game center in the manga like she is in the anime.

-Genkai also tells everyone the games cost money to play in the manga, she doesn't mention this in the episode.

-In the manga, before the forest race starts, Kuwabara thinks about how with Genkai's techniques, he could realize his fondest wish: beating up Yusuke. This dialogue isn't in the episode.

-The manga has some different forest traps. One guy gets stuck in a place where he keeps going in circles, and another gets attacked by a really ugly monster. Another two get attacked by a demon plant, which ties them up with vines. The vines are seen in the episode, but the plant demon itself isn't.

-The wolves were not in the manga, they are only seen in the anime.


-The bat tamer has a completely different design in the manga, and looks a lot less menacing.

-The fight between Yusuke and the Bat Tamer isn't shown in the manga.

-Yusuke also brings the beaten up Bat Tamer with him in the manga, but in the anime he leaves him in the forest.

-The manga ends with a joke, where Genkai announces a fourth test, then realizes she didn't think she'd need one and needs to think about it. This isn't in the anime.



Notes

-The ticket Botan shows Yusuke has '92 on it, so the series is presumably set in 1992.

-Several people in the crowd shots resemble characters from Street Fighter II, which was wildly popular in arcades and on the Super Nintendo when this episode originally aired.


In the first screen, a woman resembling Chun-Li can be seen in the middle, the second screen features a Dhalsim look-alike, and the third screen shows a guy with Guile's hairstyle on the far left, with a Ryu clone next to him.

Above, another Dhalsim can be seen in the first image, the second screen features someone who's probably meant to be E. Honda, and the third screen features Zangief. One of the guys somewhat resembles Retsu from the first Street Fighter game.



Errors

-When Genkai is about to start the race, Yusuke can be seen without his jacket on.

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