With the possible futures mini-arc concluded, Urusei is back to self-contained segments, both of which have to do with the supernatural. First up, Mendou is out of school for a week, and when Ataru, Lum, Shinobu, and Ten visit, they learn he has an invisible ghostly octopus stuck to his head.
His sister painted a floral design to make it visible, but the sheer absurd sight of it tends to provoke laughter in everyone. Sakura and Cherry arrive to describe the phenomenon as a “cowalker”, or the spirit of the missing family octopus Akamaru.
When Cherry gets into a staring and funny face contest with the ghostly octopus, both get conked on the head, but since the octopus doesn’t have physical form, Ataru misses and conks Mendou on the head instead. Mendou draws his katana and a scuffle ensues.
When Ataru uses a pillow to block Mendou’s strike, it rips open to reveal Akamaru had gotten stuck in there while adventuring, as is his wont. Once he wakes up, his cowalker vanishes, and all’s well that ends well. As for why the adventurous octopus ended up in Mendou’s pillow, I think there might’ve been some wordplay lost in translation.
The true gem of this episode, and perhaps this entire season of Urusei, is “Last Date”, which starts from the delicate pastel POV of a sickly girl who often watches Ataru running past the hospital with a big smile on his face. Clearly smitten, she dreams of one day meeting him, as she learns his name from his mother.
Fast-forward to Ataru and Lum being summoned to Sakura’s for a favor: she needs him to go on a date with the ghost of the girl, whose name is Nozomi. The fact that she’s already dead is sad enough, but only by fulfilling her dreams in her diary of dating Ataru can she pass on to the hereafter.
When Lum sees the circumstances, she’s fine with Ataru going out with Nozomi (voiced by the perfectly-cast Iwami Manaka, Honda Tooru herself), and even as Nozomi provides him with more and more warm knit articles of clothing in the middle of summer, he toughs it out because he’s a decent guy, and because Nozomi is so gosh-darn pure, sweet, and charming.
After going on walks, to the movies, out for a bite, and finally on all the rides at the amusement park, the hour is getting late and Nozomi still hasn’t passed on. The reason is revealed at the end of her diary, as Nozomi, who died on Christmas day, last wrote of her wish to walk with Ataru in the midst of the falling snow.
Since they can’t wait until winter for snow to come, Ataru and Nozomi come upon an aesthetic substitute of a bright and beautiful fireworks show. Nozomi holds Ataru’s arm tight, and content that she’s seen and done everything she wrote about, she slowly vanishes from his sight, having passed on to heaven.
The realization that Nozomi is gone washes over Ataru, and the shot of him standing alone as the fireworks continue is heartbreaking as all get-out. Fortunately, he’s not alone, as Lum, Sakura, and Cherry soon join him. But after previously complaining about how hot he was in all the clothing Nozomi knit for him, he decides he’ll wear it all a bit longer. I’m sorry, but is it getting really dusty in here?
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