Urusei Yatsura – 45 – The End of Darlingelion

While the overall execution of this episode is outstanding—I really will miss Urusei’s gorgeous and inventive retro visuals and its vast ensemble cast—I still felt the need to dock a half-star from last week’s outing. First, because so much relies on Ataru feeling genuinely hurt and betrayed by the Fake Lum. Things happen so fast there’s no time to clear up the misunderstanding. Then Ataru just makes things worse by “settling” for Carla, which infuriates Rupa even though he claims to hate her. The bad vibes never really let up, which hinders enjoyment of the episode.

When Ataru rushes to save Lum from falling, the two end up having an emotional and literal falling out, which is pretty clever (and funny). But again, there’s no doubt that Ataru and Lum care for each other a great deal, and probably Rupa and Carla do to. It’s just that they’re so busy being in denial and posturing and reacting to slights and such that they achieve nothing but making each other extremely angry at each other, and the wrong guys end up with the wrong girls.

Despite everyone telling him about the misunderstanding, Ataru isn’t willing to apologize to Lum, while Lum sees his reaction to the fake Lum as proof he doesn’t trust her, and never did, and probably never will. When he leaves, it breaks her heart, but she soldiers on. The Moroboshi home is then overrun, not just by the rescue party and Carla, but Sakura, Shinobu, Inaba, Cherry, and the Kotatsu cat. It’s fun watching everyone dining together, but it just doesn’t seem right without Lum there.

The reason Sakura & Co. are there is that she saw another vision of the future in her crystal ball: not only is Lum consumed by the darkness, but the entire Earth as well. That’s all due to a careless mistake by Carla providing Dark Dominion mushrooms for the hot pot (Ataru’s mom didn’t have enough food otherwise). The mushrooms grow to immense size in the presence of light and heat, which Earth is full of, and they soon grow out of control.

While I could have sworn Rei had the appetite to eat each and every mushroom, once they release spores it becomes too large a meal even for him. With the fate of the world at stake, the only solution is to contact Rupa, whose flying pigs will make quick work of them. But as soon as Carla and Ataru face Rupa and Lum, their bitterness reignites and they verbally spar with one another, and no deal is struck.

Don’t get me wrong: I know this isn’t going to remain this way forever. I know because stubborn as he is, Ataru does love Lum, and even kept the horns she shed (and then re-grew in a fit of rage he caused). He just doesn’t think he should have to say it. But no progress is made in healing their wounds this week. Instead, we’re left in the deep, dark bottom of their arc.

Eventually Rupa sends a swarm of his pigs to start devouring the mushrooms, and in a giant holographic projection Lum (not donning a dark cloak like Rupa) challenges Ataru to a game of tag, not unlike the one that brought them together. She says she’ll be easier to catch if he tells her he loves her, but he insists there’s no chance of that. Even so, I’m certain they’ll find a way back to each other in a way and looking forward to watching how that happens.

Urusei Yatsura – 44 – Dark Side of the ‘Shroom

Once a VHS tape is delivered to Lum’s parents announcing her impending nuptuals, her Dad musters his entire army (this is when I remember Lum is basically the daughter of a Great House), only for them to fall victim to a mushroom bomb that halts their advance. Ataru has a more basic problem: Lum is now off-world and he’s very much on-world. Thankfully once Lum’s planet goes radio silent Benten and Oyuki head straight to Earth.

Ataru fills them (and Shuu) in on the current situation, and Benten and Oyuki commandeer Ran’s spaceship while she’s feeding Rei as usual. Because Lum has been dragged into the Dark Dimension (just as Sakura’s crystal ball warned), they need to perform a warp jump in darkness—and the dark side of the moon does just fine.

Lum, joined by Ten who stowed away, are holding their own against Rupa, but it isn’t long before their hosts lose their patience and fit them with ball-and-chains. Rupa’s great-gramps also uses a “Copy-shroom” to create a more pliable copy of Lum for the wedding ceremony, just in case she decides to make a big scene. Both Rupa and Upa are trash—I wish Ten’s flames burned hotter.

Upon arriving in the Dark Dimension, Ran’s ship immediately collides with another, which happens to be that of Carla, who claims to be Rupa’s one true love. She heard he was getting hitched to “some harlot” and was on her way to stop the wedding. That makes her and Ataru (the only member of the rescue party not to be captured) natural temporary allies.

Carla has Ataru sign a marriage license that they’ll use to gain access to the “Shadescraper”, the towering wedding venue where Rupa and Lum are located. When that doesn’t work she simply blasts her way in. Lum is delighted to see her Darling has arrived, but when Carla opens fire and creates a huge smoke cloud, Rupa uses that opportunity to swap Lum out with her doppelganger, who tells Ataru to go pound sand.

When Rupa who only told Carla he liked her because she held a gun to his face when they were kids, tells her he actually hates her, it causes Carla (Minase Freakin’ Inori in her Urusei debut!) to suddenly cry and go on a rampage with her giant space gun. This inadvertently blows the hatch where the real Lum was being held.

Unfortunately for her, Ataru believes she betrayed him when it was her double. Also unfortunately, there isn’t time for her to explain this, even if she knew what went on in the last five minutes. Instead, both Rupa and Ataru run from Carla as fast as they can to avoid her arsenal, while Lum runs beside Carla wanting to reunite with her Darling.

As my rating below indicates, this was a damn fine episode of Urusei Yatsura, blending and balancing fun, exciting action and world-building, comedy (both slapstick and surreal), and legitimately compelling character drama. That’s a tough combo to pull off, but Urusei makes it look easy and, like Rei, makes me hungry for more.

Urusei Yatsura – 24 (S2 01) – From Gum to Lum

Urusei Yatsura begins its second season by hewing to its tried-and-true formula of blending situational skits of absurd escalation with genuinely touching romantic or character work. First up, the absurdity: Ataru learns Ten has bubble gum that gives your fantasies form. He steals it and immediately creates Benten and Oyuki, but they don’t speak and don’t seem that interested in him.

Ataru is ready to keep experimenting with the Gum when Lum arrives to put a stop to it. A chase ensues, with Ataru using gum to make clones of himself to throw her off the trail. When he drops some gum, she uses it to make sexy versions of Sakura, Ryuunosuke and Shinobu as bait, but they end up.

The real girls discover their doubles first, and assume someone’s up to no good. Lum hides from them, both both she and they eventually find Ataru on the roof, blowing the biggest bubble yet in order to conjure all of the girls in his network. But when the bubble bursts, he’s trapped under the gum while Lum pops the fake girls one by one.

While sparring with Ten after dinner, a rice cooker thrown by Ataru (and meant for Ten) hits Lum square in the forehead. When asking if she’s okay, Lum responds in gibberish, or at least sounds like it to Ataru. As Ten later explains, she’s forgotten how to speak Japanese. Sakura says it’s temporary memory loss and she’ll eventually turn to normal.

At first Ataru sees this as an opportunity to hit on whatever girls he wants in full view of Lum, but she’s just as angered as she was when she spoke his language, and flies off. When she doesn’t return for days, Ataru eventually grows forlorn, as he tends to do when he worries he’s finally chased Lum off for good.

These are the Ataru moments I like and relate to most, because this is when he’s being most honest with himself about how much Lum means to him. When she does suddenly return, he’s relieved beyond belief, but he still can’t understand her.

Wondering if it would help, he finally does what he should have at the start: prostrate himself, apologize, beg forgiveness, and give Lum a caring hug. These gestures speak louder than words, and Ataru’s feelings reach her as she smiles once in his arms.

Of course, the reason she was gone wasn’t to teach him a lesson, but to construct a translator headpiece for Ataru. IT allows him to understand her, speak Oni to her, and has the additional benefit of making him look extremely unattractive, thus keeping him from hitting on other girls. I assume Lum will be back to normal next week.

Sumippe really outdoes herself speaking Oni with the same patterns and inflections as Lum’s Japanese. She, Kamiya Hiroshi, and the rest of the all-star cast continue to elevate a lovingly retro production with throwback comic hijinks. Throw in the occasional compelling relationship drama, and Urusei Yatsura is back in fine form, marching to the beat of its own drummer.

Urusei Yatsura – 23 (Fin) – They’re All Winners

The season 1 finale of Urusei Yatsura is given over entirely to the Tomo-1 Queen Contest teased last week. Seemingly entirely arranged by Ataru, it’s a multi-faceted competition that draws upon the myriad skills and specialties of its five finalists: Lum, Shinobu, Ran, Sakura, and Ryuunosuke. None of them are especially enthusiastic about participating, but a 150,000 yen prize is nothing to sneeze at.

The challenges range from “guess what’s in the box” (Ten with a watermelon, guessed by Ryuu) to bottomless ramen bowls (won by noted glutton Sakura), culminating in a five-woman final battle in which everyone dons wrestling boots and swimsuits (though Ryuu eschews a bikini top for the traditional binding). Knowing she’s at a strength disadvantage, Ran kisses Ryuu, Shinobu, and Sakura, sapping their energy.

That backfires spectacularly, as the five women aren’t fighting each other per se, they have to go up against five wild beasts from the local zoo (Ataru ensured the event was heavily promoted and full of advertisements). For some reason, the beasts are anthropomorphic, otherwise they’d tear our girls to bits.

When Sakura gets ensnared in an Anaconda’s grip, Lum buys time with her electro-kicks for Ran to re-kiss everyone she kissed and give them back their superhuman strength. The battle finishes with all five women teaming up to K-O all five beasts.

Then, curioulsy, the judges determine that the result of the Queen Contest is a five-way-tie, due in part (or rather mostly) because they forgot to keep score as the battle royale got more chaotic. Ataru presents the consolation prize: 30,000 yen worth of takoyaki waffles, and then all the series’ characters come out of the woodwork to join the lunacy. Even Kurama, who hasn’t been seen in months, makes an appaearance.

At the end of the day, the one to profit the most is Ataru, thanks to all the kickbacks he got from the businesses he advertised throughout the contest. As he counts his money, Lum voices her frustration, and Ataru ends up tripping and almost falling straight into a kiss with Lum. Their lips are only inches apart before Ataru withdraws.

Before Lum can get her Darling to declare her the “Queen of his heart”, a still-furious Sakura and Shinobu track him down to beat the stuffing out of him for everything he made them go through. As they chase him into the sunset, with Lum taking flight to join the pursuit, the sun sets on Urusei Yatsura, but only for now.

After the credits, Ataru and Lum announce a Part 2 will air in 2024. As it’s been a great-looking diversion for these last twenty-three weeks, I see no reason not to tune back in!

Urusei Yatsura – 21 – Urusei Babies

This week we get a flashback to when Lum, Benten, Oyuki and Ran were being oppressed by their teacher when they were little tykes. Only their school is in space, their teacher is a robot, and they’re doing most of the oppressing with increasingly violent pranks. As a fan of Muppet Babies, it was great to see these characters as rugrats but still fundamentally themselves, and the all-star voice cast nails their younger versions, as you’d expect.

We also get a good idea about the group dynamics at this early stage in the four “friends'” lives: Benten is the aggressive ringleader, Lum enthusiastically goes along with her mischief, Oyuki doesn’t stop them but merely observes and keeps her hands clean, and Ran always tries and fails to stop them, and always faces the same consequences they do. We already see her fury-ridden alter-ego being forged.

In the present, the four girls are concerned when Oyuki reports that Planet Urchin is being redeveloped, because that’s where they left CAO-2-sensei—stuck and trapped alone on one of those spikes for the better part of a decade. Luckily for them, once he’s free all he desires to to clap them with chalk dust one last time before going on his way. That clapping does involve destroying the wall of their café, but this show rarely dwells on property damage.

The second segment is a little less inventive due to the return to earth (I love it when we’re out in space, and the alien and school designs are weirder), involving Ryouko deciding to make a voodoo doll of her brother …because she’s bored? When he realizes what she’s done he pulls his katana on her, which does him no favors.

Ryouko cannot resist the temptation to do horrible things to the Mendou doll (and thus Mendou himself), so she leaves it in the care of someone she believes she can trust to keep it safe: Ataru. Ataru wears it around his neck at all times because Ryouko asked him, but this is not great for Mendou, as Ataru takes a lot of punishment throughout an average day, and he feels everything Ataru feels.

Initially, Mendou acts to everyone like he’s suddenly being a stand-up guy dedicated to keeping his friends Ataru safe. But then he confirms that Ataru has the doll of him, and that makes Ataru aware of what the doll can do to Mendou. Mendou in turn, makes a doll of Ataru, and the two spar in the most pointless battle imaginable, in which they each dole out the exact same amount of harm to one another with every attack.

Urusei Yatsura – 20 – Never Break the Chain

UY spends a decent chunk offworld this week as we check in on Benten, who gets knocked out by mushroom gas and has the chain she wears like a sash stolen. After getting a bath at Lums (with Ataru nowhere in sight), the two head to Oyuki’s on Neptune, where she has a package for Oyuki.

It’s a VHS tape of all things, with what amounts to a diss track from three middle schoolers who aspire to be as cool and badass as Benten, Lum, and Oyuki. They are Ginger, Sugar, and Snake, and if nothing else they have decent video production and choreography skills. When Lum and Oyuki bristle at the idea they’re “punksters”, Benten reminds them they always followed her into trouble.

Benten races off (without the map to the duel), and is followed by Lum, who is there for her friend, and Oyuki, who wants to be compensated for the VCR and projector Benten smashed out of rage. They end up meeting the three little twerps in a popular cafe on Earth of all places. They produce Benten’s chain, run off, and basically tell their senpais to come and take it.

In the ensuing chase, we learn Sugar can turn invisible, Ginger can play dead, and Snake can shed her skin. But none of these things are enough against Lum’s flight and electricity, not to mention Benten’s brawn and Oyuki’s…well, Oyuki is just kind of along for the ride!

The chill’uns end up luring Benten, Lum, and Oyuki to a vacant lot where their “computer” SALT #1, a giant metal Big Boy mascot that computed their duel strategy, lands right on top of its targets, who are lucky to have been right below a pitfall. SALT #1 then runs out of juice, and when it is replenished with veggie oil, barfs up hundreds of seemingly identical chains and launches back into space.

But before it does, Benten, Lum, and Oyuki are stuck under its foot in very close quarters. In the heat of the battle, Lum melted Benten’s chain into ash, and while she’s guilty about it, she’s not about to own up to it, lest Benten in her fury take her most prized possession: Darling. So she electrocutes Benten, asking her what’s more important, her stupid chain, or her friends?

While Oyuki comes up with a beautiful and romantic theory about a fellow biker dude giving Benten the chain as a memento, the truth is far more mundane: the chain is the key to Benten’s house. This is why Benten was locked out of her home for ten days and had to bathe at Lum’s—she didn’t have a spare.

To add insult to injury, she unknowingly left her back door open, which allowed the brats to break in, produce another chain, and dare their senpais to give chase once more. But at this point Benten is home and happy, Lum is stewing in her underwhelm-ment, and Oyuki is sippin’ tea. Playtime’s over, punks! Go back to school!

Urusei Yatsura – 11 – The Trickster Ojou

When another slow-moving oxcart escorted by ninja rolled through town, I assumed it was Mendou’s mom again. It turns out to be someone who speaks loudly enough to be heard, and who makes the effort to throw a handkerchief out of the cart so it happens to land on Ataru’s face. He uses his lecher’s sense of smell to track down the owner, and is rewarded with a damn skeleton arm.

The next day, the girl arrives at school resplendent in her kimono and wowing boys and girls alike. She initially introduces herself as Mendou’s fiancée, which gets all the girls fuming and weeping. But she’s really Mendou’s little sister, Ryouko, who loves playing elaborate tricks on people for her own amusement.

She’s come to deliver her dear brother his lunch that he forgot, but he tells her he forgot that lunch five days ago. As the lunch is composed entirely of raw seafood, it is now essentially toxic waste, but that doesn’t stop Ataru, eager to get into Ryouko’s good graces, to try to eat it. When Ryouko sees how lovey-dovey Lum is, she ups the flirtation, and locks Mendou away in a dark cabinet.

Ryouko’s introduction at school is followed by her inviting Ataru to her home for a New Year’s Party, but most of the rest of the cast was invited as well, including Sakura, Oyuki and Benten. Everyone’s in their best New Year’s finery, but I personally think Lum wins for best kimono—the colors are just sublime.

Of course, this is no ordinary party. Not only is the Mendou residence ludicrously huge and complex, but the partygoers are unwitting living game pieces in an elaborate board game being played by Ryouko and her parents. This results in trap doors and hidden passages and various obstacles shifting everyone all over the place and doing all sorts of things.

We get mochi eating contests, badminton, spiked walls, 100,000 and 200,000-kg weights being dropped … it’s a little bit of everything. The chaos all serves one purpose: entertaining Ryouko, a girl with far too much money and far too much time on her hands.

By the time everyone (or most everyone) arrives in the actual party room, they’re all so exhausted from being pushed and prodded around and made to carry out various tasks they can barely sit up. But it’s still not over, as Ryouko presses a red button that sends her brother and Ataru up in a giant bamboo rocket that explodes with fireworks to ring in the new year.

It’s here where I’ll note that now that Lum is back by his side, Ataru is right back to being a lecherous ass, despite being genuinely devastated by her absence which for all he knew was caused by his neglect and constant two-timing.

It wasn’t, and Lum will probably never leave the guy’s side, and maybe I was a fool for thinking any character development would stick around for the next segment, let alone episode. That said, I enjoyed Ryouko as an unapologetic agent of chaos and general shit-stirrer.

Urusei Yatsura – 06 – Earth, Lightning, Fire and Ice

Ataru is a man of simple pleasures. When it’s sukiyaki night at the Moroboshi house, he’s super-pumped. Unfortunately he’s never able to partake in the feast, as Lum grabs him and leaps through an inter-dimensional portal she made in his closet that leads to the Oni homeworld.

Lum is in battle gear, and soon so is Ataru. The lines are drawn between the Oni and the “Lucky Gods”. Ataru feels like some kind of bloody, horrific war is going to start, but the “battle” takes the form of…tower basket ball toss, an even not out of place on school sports days.

This is kinda boring to Ataru, until he spots a major babe in Benten, one of Lum’s old friends (Ishigami Shizuka). Back home, Ataru’s parents wait as long as they can, then eat all the sukiyaki, before hearing their son’s voice and freaking out. Cherry arrives to help them speak to their son, now allegedly dearly departed to the hereafter.

In reality, they can just hear him through the portal as he flirts with Benten. While she’s understandably “who is this guy” at first, once she realizes he’s Lum’s husband she decides to have a little fun at her expense and plays along. This results in Lum and Benten, the two basket minders, ignoring the game completely to fight over Ataru.

Before Cherry summons Ataru’s voice again, he has Ataru’s folks make more sukiyaki, at which point his mom has lost her patience and holds the tiny priest at knifepoint. He does the same nonsensical chanting as his niece Sakura, tuning into Ataru just as he’s facing his “punishment” as the weakest link on the losing team: being pelted with pellets by both sides.

As is typical of Urusei Yatsura, the next morning is a bit of a reset, but Ataru is in bed with a cold. Somewhat surprisingly, Shinobu is by his side tending to him, and Lum is nowhere to be found. Soon Mendou, Ataru’s friends, and Cherry are crowding the room, just as it starts to grow very cold and snowy.

Lum went to Neptune to visit a friend through the portal, so a bit of the icy world seems to be “leaking” into his room, including an avalanche’s worth of snow that buries Ataru. He’s dug up not by Shinobu or his friends, but by a new character who resembles a yuki-onna. She goes back through the portal and then down a deep chasm.

Starting with Ataru (who is pushed), everyone follows suit, and lands upside-down on the snow-packed surface of Neptune. There, Ataru reunites with Lum (in a smart tiger-print two-piece combo more appropriate for the climate than her usual bikini), who reveals the yuki-onna is her old friend Oyuki (Hayami Saori, of course).

Neptune is a world full of nothing but women, which makes it a paradise for Mendou, who is all to happy to dig snow for them endlessly. Meanwhile, Oyuki invites Ataru, Lum, Shinobu and Cherry into her futuristic mansion. Ataru can’t help but flirt with Oyuki, incurring the rage of both Shinobu and Lum (as well as Lum’s lightning).

Ataru begs to go somewhere where he’ll be safe from their wrath, praising Oyuki for being a pure, gentle, and above all non-violent maiden. However he soon finds that Oyuki, who ditched her outdoor robes for a revealing ice-blue one-piece, was planning to seduce Ataru all along. Things are about to get racy when the wall crumbles before them and B-Bo, Oyuki’s yeti attendant, takes exception to Ataru’s presence.

B-Bo chases Ataru through the Neptunian wastes and back through the portal to Earth, where news choppers capture the ensuing rooftop spectacle. Once the King Kong style incident is over, Ataru finds himself in a full body cast, tended to by both Shinobu and Lum, who hoped he learned his lesson about chasing every girl with a pulse. Of course, he didn’t learn, and will never learn—otherwise he wouldn’t be Moroboshi Ataru!

The third and final segment is the shortest, and takes place after the credits. At the end of the semester, Ataru has an announcement for everyone: he’s retiring. His teacher thinks this means he’s dropping out due to his upsettingly terrible grades, but it’s Mendou who shatters the fourth wall by assuming Ataru was retiring … as the main character of Urusei Yatsura.

Everyone goes along with this, because everyone wants to be his replacement. It results in a callback to every character large and small we’ve met so far in the first six episodes, each making their case. Finally Ataru has to disappoint them all: he’s not retiring from being the MC, but from the school presidency.