===== From: philyee@leland.Stanford.EDU (Phillip L. Yee) Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.info,rec.arts.anime Subject: [SYNOPSIS] Yuu*Yuu*Hakusho Episode 1 Date: 16 Dec 1994 20:06:53 -0500 Yuu*Yuu*Hakusho Episode #1 "It Was Surprising When He Died" Aired: October 10, 1993 Opening Song: "Hohoemi no Bakudan" by MAWATARI Matsuko Ending Song: "Homework ga Owaranai" by MAWATARI Matsuko Synopsized for Eikichi A traffic light flashes, and then turns red; a ball bounces into the street as a car screeches around the corner. A child is pushed out of the way, and the surprised young man who pushed the child is hit instead. He opens his eyes to discover that he is upside down in mid-air above the street. The narration states "URAMESHI Yuusuke, age 14. He's supposed to be this story's hero, but... it seems he's suddenly died." And so the story begins... A perplexed Yuusuke floats down and examines his own body as the paramedics arrive. The child is declared to be fine, with only scratches, while Yuusuke is proclaimed to be dead. He does not take this news very well, and attempts to persuade the paramedic that he's wrong in typical Yuusuke style-- by trying to hit him. This is not as effective as he could have wished. The ambulance drives off, and Yuusuke sits down to think back on his day and see if he can figure out what happened. He returned to school after a 10 day absence. Over the PA we hear one of the teachers calling for him. Yuusuke's not-quite girlfriend YUKIMURA Keiko finds him on the roof, and scolds him for not going to the teacher. Yuusuke ignores her for the most part, and then gets her goat by flipping up her skirt and commenting on her underwear. (In the anime, he says her panties are white; in the manga, he comments that they are all dirty). Keiko belts him a good one with her killer slap (obviously practiced for years), and shouts at him that he's a pervert, he should die, and a couple of other insults as he wobbles off. Going down the stairs she complains that he hasn't grown up at all. She is intercepted by a couple of her friends who wonder how she can associate with a guy who has such a terrible reputation as Urameshi-kun. Keiko says he's not all that bad. Yuusuke slouches off outside the school building while over the PA he is still being summoned to the teacher he didn't go and see. He comes across a couple of random schoolmates, one of whom is bragging that he has been spreading rumors around town that he's Yuusuke's cousin, obviously for the purpose of getting money out of them easier. Yuusuke is not pleased to hear this, and is just about to teach the guy a lesson when one of the teachers comes by. Seeing the wallet on the ground, and the two guys up against the wall looking cowed, he jumps to the obvious (but incorrect) conclusion. Declaring that punks like Yuusuke don't need school,he tells Yuusuke to leave. Walking out the gates of the school, Yuusuke is whapped on the head. He turns around to discover Mr. Takenaka, the teacher he was avoiding going to. Mr. Takenaka starts to drag him off, but Yuusuke gets away and tells him to leave him alone. Arriving home, he notices that his good-for-nothing mother, Atsuko, is awake. She tells him to make her coffee, and then lectures him about cutting school. Yuusuke is annoyed that even she is lecturing him, and leaves. Wandering around the town, he complains that this is not his lucky day (slight understatement...). Suddenly a group of schoolmates appear and surround Yuusuke. He recognizes their leader, KUWABARA Kazuma, and complains that he's awfully persistent, doing this every day. Kuwabara snarls at him to shut up, and that today, he is going to pound Yuusuke into shoe leather. Yuusuke states that he's been having a bad day, so.... As he walks away, Kuwabara's friends advice him to stop trying to beat Urameshi-- today's loss is the 156th! Kuwabara stubbornly states that he will keep at this until he wins. A ball bounces, and lands at Yuusuke's feet. He picks it up, and yells at the child who runs up to claim it that that is a dangerous place to play since so many cars pass. The child looks upset until Yuusuke starts making faces at him. Time passes (as do the cars...), and Yuusuke eventually hands the ball back to the laughing child with the admonition that he take it somewhere else to play. He crosses the street, and looks back to see the child still at it. He's annoyed, but thinks "what can you do?" The ball bounces into the street. Yuusuke shouts at the child not to go into the road. A car screeches around the corner as the child starts into the road. Yuusuke dives to push the child out of the way, and is hit in the child's place. Remembering this, he wonders if he's now a ghost. A cheerful voice behind him declares "Bingo!" Yuusuke turns around to see a girl with blue hair, dressed in a pink kimono, floating on an oar. She introduces herself as Botan-chan, the boatman over the Sanzu river (equivalent to the Western River Styx). Yuusuke criticizes her cheery appearance, and Botan digs out her book with the down and dirty on Yuusuke (none of which is very complimentary). Yuusuke is not please, and changes the subject by asking how the kid he pushed out of the way is doing. They go to see, and find that the child is just fine. Yuusuke says that since that's settled, then he's all set to go to Hell, heaven, or wherever. Botan laughs, and tells him that since his death was not on the schedual according to the Spirit World, neither heaven nor Hell is his destination yet. Yuusuke is perplexed, and demands to know if his dying in place of the kid didn't count for anything. Botan says that she had meant to keep quiet until the shock had settled in, but... the child was supposed to miraculously survive the accident without even a scratch! After Yuusuke recovers somewhat from the shock of this statement, Botan explains that since his death was so completely unplanned, and because he did make the gesture of trying to save the child, he could accept a test to return to life. Yuusuke thinks this is stupid, and says that eveyone is probably glad he's dead, and even his mother will have a better life with him gone. Botan thinks this is sad, and tells him not to jump to conclusions. She'll come back for his answer after he attends his wake. At his wake, Yuusuke sees classmates of his hanging out and having a good time, which annoys him. One classmate is obviously not laughing though; Keiko comes out of his house, sobbing. As she leaves, Kuwabara shows up, and screams at Yuusuke for getting himeself killed ("Who am I supposed to fight with?!"). Watching Kuwabara's display, a couple of the teachers from school (including the one who told him to go home) critisize Kuwabara's rather emotional behavior for being ridiculous, and gloat that with Yuusuke dead the school's reputation will rise. Yuusuke is about to try grabbing them (despite the fact that he's had it proven to him many times that ghosts are not good at affecting the physical world), when Mr. Takenaka grabs them for him, and points out that their behavior is more than a bit on the ridiculous side. He goes inside to pay his respects, and wonders what on earth posessed Yuusuke to save the child, since he hadn't noticed a heroic streak in him. Yuusuke is actually touched by Mr. Takenaka's words, and is even more touched when his mother calls his name, and then breaks down sobbing. Coming right on the heels of all this unexpected upset over his demise, the child he pushed out of the way and the child's mother enter to pay their respects. As they leave, Yuusuke watches the child ask what Yuusuke was doing in the box-- was he sleeping? -- and asks if he could come play with Yuusuke when he wakes up, since he was really funny. Yuusuke thinks on the things he has seen, and when Botan returns to hear his answer, he agrees to accept the test. He asks Botan what sort of test it is, but she says that even she does not know. The episode ends with her taking him off to see someone who can tell him about what is involved in this test to return to life. -- ----------------------------------------------------------- I Phillip "Kamisama" Yee philyee@ranma.stanford.edu I ----------------------------------------------------------- "Jyagan no chikara wo nameru na yo !" -Hiei =====