Plot: Yusuke’s match with Kibano is not going well. While Yusuke is entirely blind in the pitch-black room, Kibano can see perfectly fine with his special helmet that allows him to see spirit energy. In addition, every time Yusuke gets an opportunity to hit him, Kibano is able to counter his attacks with his advanced martial arts skills.
Just as Kibano is about to finish Yusuke off, Yusuke manages to shoot him point-blank in the helmet with a Spirit Gun blast as he approaches. Yusuke took a discarded cigarette that Genkai threw at him earlier and planted it on Kibano during one of the moments he got close to him. Using the glowing ember, he was able to spot Kibano coming and finally get a good shot off.
Kibano is unable to recover from this attack, and Yusuke is declared the winner. However, he’s not out of the woods just yet. Genkai starts the semi-finals, and Yusuke has the bad luck to be chosen next against Kazemaru. To make matters worse, Genkai brings them to a swampy area rife with spirit energy. While their new battlegrounds help Yusuke a little, it helps Kazemaru even more, and Yusuke still can’t gather enough energy to use the Spirit Gun a second time.
The match begins, and, predictably, Yusuke quickly starts getting his ass handed to him. He’s too tired to dodge, the swampy ground makes it impossible to get a good grip, and Kazemaru is more powerful than ever. Yusuke does manage to get a good swing in, but Kazemaru dodges. However, he receives a deep cut on his face from merely the pressure of Yusuke’s fist barely missing his face.
Choosing to fight long-distance, the ninja throws his special shuriken which lock onto an enemy’s spirit power and don’t stop pursuing the target until they’ve hit it or something else. Yusuke manages to dodge long enough to trick the knives into embedding themselves into a tree.
Kazemaru continues to be full of surprises because, upon hitting the tree, several of the shuriken explode, knocking Yusuke several feet through the air. There is gunpowder stored in the tip of each blade, making these a much more severe threat than your typical throwing stars.
Yusuke’s more screwed than ever, and with another batch of shuriken heading his way he decides he has no other option. He believes Kazemaru is Rando, so he can’t risk dying at his hands or letting him get Genkai’s powers. Firm in his resolve, Yusuke tells Kuwabara that it’s up to him to win the tournament and heads off to do the only thing that will end this fight for both of them – letting the shuriken hit him as he’s right next to Kazemaru, taking them both out.
Privy to his plan, Kazemaru prepares to hit Yusuke with his own Spirit ‘Gun’ technique to ensure his victory, but as he’s about to fire, Yusuke suddenly vanishes, leaving Kazemaru alone with the shuriken. He shoots the shuriken, but the subsequent explosion is too much for Kazemaru, and he’s defeated.
Botan and Kuwabara scramble to find Yusuke – and they do….He’s drowning in the mud. Yusuke didn’t pull off some sort of amazing strategy, though. He did intend on sacrificing himself, but he accidentally slipped on the swampy ground and got lost in the mud. The shuriken switched their target to Kazemaru since he was emitting so much spirit energy, and they were too close to stop without suffering the explosion.
Everyone agrees that Yusuke’s win is a fluke, but anything goes in Genkai’s tournament so he’s still declared the winner.
Next match of the semi-finals is up, and it’s Kuwabara vs. Shorin. Dread comes over Botan and Yusuke, however, because, with Kazemaru’s defeat, they have eliminated him as a suspect for being Rando, meaning Shorin must be the demon in disguise.
Can Kuwabara manage to defeat Rando on his own, or will Yusuke be left to avenge his friend?
Breakdown: I’ve watched this series several times, and this is one episode I tend to forget about. Admittedly, the match against Kazemaru is cool and exciting, but Kibano’s defeat seemed a little cheap. He was really down for good just because Yusuke shot off his helmet? I mean, yeah, ow, but he’s a master martial artist who hasn’t really taken any damage up until that point. One shot was enough to defeat him entirely, especially when it was a hit in a protected area?
I guess we’re also supposed to take into consideration that him using his spirit power to bulk up his muscles probably exhausted him, but he was showing no signs of fatigue beforehand.
Both wins were pure dumb luck, too. If Genkai hadn’t thrown that cigarette at the start, he never would have won. And I find it hard to believe that Yusuke not only saw the teeny tiny light (that probably would have been covered by Kibano’s kimono anyway) in a quick enough manner to find Kibano but also could shoot him before he could get to Yusuke first.
At least they admitted his second win was a fluke, and lucky him too, because, as we know, Kazemaru wasn’t Rando so he would have sacrificed himself for nothing.
This episode isn’t really bad when you get down to it, especially Kazemaru’s portion, but it’s just one I tend to forget.
I’ll tell you an episode I will never forget, though….The next episode. I have a hard time watching the upcoming episode, because it contains a scene that I still have difficulty watching. It legitimately makes me uncomfortable. It’s not even the most graphic or gory thing I’ve ever seen, but it left a mark on me years ago that never went away.
Next episode, Shorin shows his true colors as Rando starts to emerge. Kuwabara will not be having a good day…..
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