Urusei Yatsura – 40 – The Young Man Dressed Like a Woman and the Sea

When the newly-resurrected Nagisa has no place else to go, Ryuunosuke and her dad invite him into their house, but he proves to be an annoying freeloader who sleeps in and eats more than his fair share. When Ryuu complains, Nagisa pretends to get upset and cry. Meanwhile, Ryuu’s dad considers Nagisa his “son’s” precious fiancée, and so offers Ryuu no relief.

Things take a turn when Nagisa invades Ryuu’s school life. Lum helpfully informs him that the crying schtick won’t work on Ryuu and a more aggressive approach is needed. When Ryuu evades Ataru’s advances and throws him into a wall, Nagisa does the same to her, displaying strength equal to hers. Everyone is shocked.

As the school day ends, Ryuu has had her fill, and decides to settle her little Nagisa problem with violence. Alas, beneath her girlish appearance, Nagisa is a man of the sea, and thus strong as a mule. Not only that, even the formidable Ryuu can’t land a single punch on him. She’s saved when Sakura uses a ghost-warding talisman on Nagisa, but doesn’t believe their fight to be over.

When Ryuu comes at Nagisa again and Nagisa makes use of her champion sumo skills to artfully dodge every blow, then bear-hugs Ryuu into submission, Sakura (who along with Lum and Ataru are enjoying the match while scarfing concessions) has no choice but to declare Nagisa the winner. Ryuu cries in frustration, telling Nagisa how little he thinks of her and saying she hates him.

In his defense, Nagisa tells Ryuu he could never hit a girl, especially one he has feelings for. He held back because he likes her, not because he doesn’t consider her a worthy adversary. Watching Nagisa sulk away, Ryuu softens her stance and agrees to let Nagisa stay with her. She then proceeds to immediately regret her decision when Nagisa can’t seem to stay in his own futon.

The second segment is all about Onsen threatening to prescribe supplementary lessons to Class 2-4 on account of their constant chatter during lessons. They collectively decide they won’t make a sound, not even when he calls upon them to read from the textbooks, deeming that a trap.

It’s an extremely rare instance of the characters of Urusei Yatsura actually being silent. Onsen is loving that silence at first, but soon it starts to feel mocking, and becomes a different kind of annoying, equally intolerable to their usual chattering.

When Ten shows up in a floating space Yankee bike to exact revenge on Ataru and his friends for ignoring him earlier, the students are put to the ultimate test. Can they maintain their vow of silence as they come under increasingly violent attacks from the tiny alien? The answer is yes.

They outlast both Onsen’s threats and Ten’s assault, and the bell rings announcing that class has ended. I must note that the scenes of the injured students slumped over their desks are a bit too evocative for my tastes, but as with the cute segment with the little fox who loves Shinobu a few weeks back, Urusei Yatsura proves it can still deliver the goods even when its characters aren’t constantly shouting at each other.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Author: sesameacrylic

Zane Kalish is a staff writer for RABUJOI.

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