Urusei Yatsura – 36 – His Own Worst Enemy

Urusei Yatsura’s second season resumes after a week off with fresh OP and ED themes from MAISONdes and the origin story of Mendou Shuutarou’s nyctophobia and claustrophobia. Mendou is feverishly training until he literally drops, and when his friends Lum, Ataru, Shinobu, and Ryuunosuke visit to check on him, he wishes he could travel back in time, and Lum tells him that he can with one of her gizmos.

The quintet ends up in the past when Mendou is just a little squirt. His younger self immediately suspects his older self and the others are intruding “hooligans” and summons his army of men in black to deal with them. They manage to give the bodyguards the slip, but Mendou proves such an entitled brat that Ataru can’t help but bop him with a plastic mallet. When an adorable Lil’ Ryouko arrives to defend her brother, she only ends up playing a number of silly pranks on him, as is her M.O.

When Mendou and Ataru are captured, it’s up to Lum, Shinobu, and Ryuunosuke to rescue them, and as is always the case, they’re more than up to the task. I loved how they did the classic “steal uniforms from the enemy”, which don’t fit, only for Lum to whip out another one of her Oni gizmos to make the suits fit beautifully. That said, their hair and figures still somewhat give them away.

Ataru temporarily aligns himself with Lil’ Mendou to tag-team torture Big Mendou, assuring him he’s only doing it to buy time for their eventual escape. The three ladies come in and kick ass, but by that time, Mendou has well and truly snapped, and chases after Lil’ Mendou and Ataru, into the very room full of clay jars where, in the future, he’ll train to overcome his phobias.

This is where we learn that he himself is the reason he fears dark cramped places so much, as Lil’ Mendou has to hide from his unhinged older self stalking him with an axe. Mendou and the others return to the present without resolving his deep-seated phobias, but now we know for certain: due to a temporal paradox, he has only himself (and Lum, who sent him to the past after all) to blame for his fears.

HaruChika – 04

I decided to go out on a limb and watch one more episode of P.A. Work’s generally disappointing HaruChika, intrigued that we might find a chink in the perfect Haruta’s armor in the guise of his family. I did so knowing it could well be a trap that would lead me to keep watching, despite the fact I should have learned from Glasslip that the show isn’t really ever going to actually go anywhere, only tease.

And it was a trap. But while I’m still committed to dropping this, I didn’t dislike my final look. Once one gets used to the look of HaruChika, it really does show good command of animating characters and creating awkward situations for comedic effect. And I liked Haruta’s eldest sister,who’s far from the hell-beast Haruta made her out to be. In fact, her presence and his discomfort with it made Haruta a lot more tolerable.

We learn that Haruta is only one of an entire family of talented people; Mimami is an architect (and a pretty nifty drifter in her Civic Type R), while his other two sisters are an illustrator and a chiropractor. So certainly there’s both pressure on him, the baby, to perform, as well as do whatever his three sisters want. I only have one little sister, so I can’t quite relate, but his discontent with his lot in life is at least more understandable now that I know he comes from a home practiclaly bursting with ability.

In any case, when he was evicted from his old apartment, Haruta took to living with the chickens and being cared for by the animal club. This won’t do, so Minami is there to help him find a new apartment; Chika volunteers to help out (especially when she learns the alternative may be Haru staying at Kusakabe’s place), and drags Miyoko along. When the seemingly perfect place’s only flaw is that it might be haunted, Miyoko’s scaredy-cat side comes out, and it’s fun to watch Chika mess with her at every turn.

The thing is, an exploration into Haruta’s family suddenly turns into another very random mystery-of-the-week involving the recently deceased landlord’s nephew, who believes his prank-loving uncle left the house to him to cause him trouble: the tenants always complain about what sounds like a priest’s staff in the night, and the inheritance tax is more than he and his pregnant wife can afford.

Haru ends up staying at Maren’s house (thanks to an assist by Miyoko that Chika praises her for…wait, wasn’t Chika terrorizing Miyoko all day?) and he puts all the clues that were laid out together. My first thoughts on hearing about the nature of the ghost sound, combined with the will written on the blueprints and mentioning “precious metals”, was that the walls were full of coins.

Mind you, I’m not usually too skilled at solving mysteries before the show reveals them, but this was one of those instances, leaving me tapping my foot a bit, waiting along with Chika and the others for Haru to make yet another big show about what a frikkin’ genius he is. All Hail The Glorious, Perfect Haruta…(farting noise).

Now, I did enjoy details like 1982 being the year the 500-yen coin was first put into circulation, and that all the coins in the walls are 500-yen coins, as well as the warm, casual Christmas flavor that suffused the episode. As for Haru and Chika ending up in Kusakabe’s arms, lying on a pile of cash, well…that was just goofy, and a useful reminder that I need to step away from this show while I still can!

I do so with one final unsolicited, uninformed prediction: Haru and Chika will not be a couple by the end of the show. I know that’s not necessarily the point of the show, but c’mon now. I may check in on the last episode to see if I’m proven wrong.