Urusei Yatsura – 42 – Stolen Hearts

This week starts off with Lum finishing a personalized scarf Lum poured all of her love into. Watching her hop up and down in joyful anticipation of giving it to her darling simply melted my heart. But when she gives it to Ataru he’s in the midst of a fiery argument with Ten, and Ten destroys the scarf with his flame breath. Ataru uses this to make Ten feel bad and run off.

While Ataru tries to impress upon Lum the importance of disciplining the brat now and then, and Lum struggles to summon the same intensity she does when disciplining Ataru, Ten consults with others about the proper way to apologize. Shuutarou isn’t capable of bowing, while Ryuu bows then gives her dad a cheap shot. Sakura suggest he write her an apology, which he does—on the back of Ataru’s sweater.

In part two, Ran buys some red heart candy that conjures a floating red heart over the head of the one who eats it. That person will fall instantly and madly in love with whoever “steals” the heart from their head. It doesn’t work for Ran on Rei, since he’s able to eat the heart on his head before she can reach it. But when Ataru takes it, Lum loudly proclaims her love for him while shocking him worse than ever.

Turns out whoever takes Lum’s head heart gains her sudden undying love. Ataru first tries to get Shuutarou shocked like he was, but ultimately all the boys get shocked when they try to make Lum fall for them. Ataru gives all the boys candy to prevent Lum from telling his heart from the others, but then Onsen-sensei confiscates those hearts, making all the boys in class fall for him and forcing him to take a leave of absence.

Those two segments only take up three-fourths of an episode. After the credits we check in on Lum’s dad as he finds a suspicious character in stasis, while at the same time Oyuki and Benten find a gift with the same mushroom symbol. It’s the symbol of the World of Darkness, from a universe with no sun. Their patriarch encountered Lum one day when she was little and promised her he’d be back to turn her into a bride.

That day seems to be drawing near, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes the main focus of the remaining episodes. As always, Ataru has taken Lum’s presence in his life and her love for him for granted. What if someone tried to snatch her away to marry her off? From what we’ve seen in his better moments, I don’t think Ataru will take that sitting down.

Urusei Yatsura – 35 – What’s at Cake / A Fox’s Tale

Atari spots Ran in the park but loses her, but not before she drops a neatly-packaged cake from her basket. A cake she said would “knock him dead”. Hearing her use those exact words puts us in the Lum’s state of mind, because when she finds Ataru, he’s flat on his back and in bad shape.

Lum, noted inventor and tinkerer, turns to her robodoc, who confirms poison, but no treatment: just funeral preparations. Hooking him up to a vital sign monitor of her own design that she can check on with a handheld remote, Lum heads out to save her Darling. She manages to find the warp gate Ran used to travel to a fantastical (and gorgeous) forest, but she’s always a step behind her.

When a napping Cherry snags a wire, Ataru’s vitals flatline on Lum’s remote. But as expected, “knock him dead” was just an expression: Ran made the cakes for Rei specifically, and the galoot does seem to enjoy them. But Lum doesn’t know that, assumes Darling is dead, and her wailing lament draws both Rei and Ran to her. Ran is pissed at first, but when she sees Lum won’t stop crying, she seems genuinely concerned for her old friend.

She’s able to calm Lum down, assuring her there must be some mistake. Sure enough, they return just as Ataru is reovering a bit, but is still wretchedly bloated. Turns out the cakes were specifically formulated to be one hundred times more filling than normal, in order to satisfy Rei. Pissed that Ataru ate one, Rei goes after him, while Ran lays into Lum for ruining her date.

It’s a raucous, unpleasant ending, but it can’t ruin the previous display of Lum’s genuine love and devotion for Ataru (and despair upon believing him dead) as well Ran showing she’ll be there for Lum if she needs her.

The second half marks the return of the adorable little fox (we’ll call him Kitsune) from last season. It starts with a positively gorgeous folktale of a fox who fell for a human girl and used charmed horsetail shoots to turn her into a fox for a night. Kitsune just happens to have some of spring’s first shoots, and sets out intending to play out the folktale with his beloved Shinobu.

Between the folktale and Kitsune finding Ataru and Lum, his journey to the big scary city and issues with big dogs and cars is played out with scarcely any dialogue. Kitsune, the dogs, and his Kotatsu Cat hero simply make expressive sounds. The music is also superb in this sequence, as it perfectly complements Kitsune’s unique POV in the otherwise familiar town setting.

When he spots Ataru and Lum at a vending machine, he disguises himself as Shinobu (which of course means he looks like a little fox Shinobu and isn’t fooling anyone). Shinobu feels bad about simply sending the little guy on his way, and agrees to help him find the horsetail shoots he lost.

They take him to Shinobu’s, where he disguises himself as Ataru and Lum and even adopts (and mixes up) their unique manners of speech. Kugimiya Rie is the perfect button-cute voice for Kitsune, no matter who he’s imitating. The four eventually encounter Cherry and Kotatsu Cat, who are cooking something (I love how everyone ignores Cherry until they simply can’t anymore).

They initially offer Kitsune some of their soup to comfort him after they were unable to find his shoots. But Kitsune, Cherry, and Kotatsu make the soup seem so tasty, Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu have a bowl as well. And because Kotatsu Cat put the horsetail shoots in the soup, they all turn into foxes!

This reveal, complete with soaring music, cozy lighting, and adorable character designs is masterfully directed and timed for maximum emotional impact. The whole episode was a feast for the eyes and ears, but you simply cannot go wrong with a Kugimiya Rie-voiced little fox. I’d watch a whole season of his adventures and terrible disguises!

Urusei Yatsura – 32 – No Place Like Home

Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu continue to explore possible futures, including a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic world where Ataru is a warlord, Shinobu is his concubine, and they are hunting Lum down. Needless to say, this doesn’t appeal to any of them, so they move on to the next door.

When Ataru finally does find what he believes to be his “ideal” future—one in which he lives with a harem all of the girls—he learns there’s a catch. He lives in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, and his harem has everyone in it but Lum, who has left him. This is an unacceptable future for Ataru, because no harem is complete without her.

Shinobu’s ideal future is one in which everyone is older but maintains the exact same dynamics as they have in the present. No one is married to anyone else, but Ataru continues to mack on her and every other girl while Lum chases after him. Inaba can sense that this future in which everything remains the same as it currently is is fun for Shinobu, who can see herself being content with the status quo.

When Inaba’s co-workers start sending all of the future doors into the abyss, Ataru happens to fall into the one where he and Lum are happily married, and he tries to protect it at all costs. Despite all of the rancor and bickering, Lum sees that Ataru does care about a future that puts her front and center. It’s clear that she’s important to him, even if he’d rather not admit it.

But eventually Inaba’s co-workers continue their advance, and Inaba has no choice but to head them off while allowing Shinobu, Ataru and Lum to return to their own time. Even if it’s good to be home, Shinobu is devastated to suddenly lose someone with whom she felt a profound bond.

But it turns out she bawled her eyes out for nothing: Inaba may have been given extra work to do, but that was the extent of his punishment, and he’s still able to have tea with Shinobu, Ataru, and Lum the next day, for which she’s happy. Lum and Ataru also come out of the whole time travel thing feeling better, since they now know there is a future where they’ll end up together.

Urusei Yatsura – 31 – Shinobu in Futureland

Miyake Shinobu has terrible luck in men, who always seem be freaks like the lip monster or pervs like Ataru. She asks Sakura to examine whether it’s the result of a curse, but the onmyouji nurse can’t find anything. Sakura tells Shinobu it’s just her fate, but she’s still young, and her ideal man will surely come along someday.

Shinobu assumes Sakura is simply telling her this to make her feel better, but on her way home from food shopping she encounters a handsome, princely lad starving behind some trash cans. Then he eats one of her raw carrots and she sees that he’s wearing a white rabbit suit. So, another freak!

When the rabbit lad asks her on a date and won’t take no for an answer, Shinobu has the same thing for him she has for anyone who messes with her: a knuckle sandwich that sends him flying. He almost collides with an airborne Lum, but vanishes into a hyperspace portal.

Shinobu discovers he left a mysterious old fashioned key behind. Upon returning, the rabbit guy, named Inaba, rejoins his co-workers, also guys in rabbit suits. When he realizes he doesn’t have the key, they all panic, for the key in the hands of a “normie” could be catastropic.

But then they realize there’s no way a normie would be able to use a key, because they assume Shinobu doesn’t know an alien girl who can build a door for the key. Once opened, Shinobu, Lum, and Ataru all fall through and enter the same dimension full of doors where we saw Inaba running around in last week’s closing scene.

Since Shinobu opened another door while falling, the trio decide to go through it. They end up in a place that looks and feels like their town, but everything’s a little different. Then a ganguro cycles past, Ataru chases after her, and Lum chases after him, leaving Shinobu all alone in this strange place.

It isn’t long until she encounters someone addressing a woman with a kid as “Shinobu”—someone who looks and sounds a lot like her. When the kid addresses an older version of Ataru’s mom as “grandma”, it confirms it: she’s in a future where she married Ataru. This is … not optimal for Shinobu, and Inaba pops out of a trash can to confirm she doesn’t accept this particular fate.

Meanwhile, Ataru and Lum spot Sakura’s fiance with two kids, one of whom looks like Sakura. Ataru assumes the guy is two-timing Sakura, but when they follow him home they find they got married after all. Once her husband has seen their kids to their respective rooms, he and Sakura start getting hot and heavy, which not only Ataru and Lum but also Shinobu and Inaba can’t help but watch until Sakura sends them packing.

What of old Ataru? Well, Mendou arrives by Toyota Century to personally fire him from his corporation, once and for all severing all connections with his high school nemesis. Present-day Ataru ends up catching Future Mendou’s sword, but Lum spots Ataru talking with a future Lum (when she switched from bikini to a dress, we may never know).

Unfortunately for our Lum, this Ataru is speaking to Lum like a friend, not his wife. He also mentions her husband, who turns out to be Rei, while Ran is revealed to be a miserable spinster devoted to making Lum and Rei’s lives a living hell. It’s just not a particularly optimal future for anyone.

Before they can make another move, the four are swiftly captured by Inaba’s co-workers with the “Fortune Manufacturing Office.” They ponder whether to send these contaminated normies to a dark dimension or simply drug them, and settle for serving them tea Mad Hatter-style before bonking them on the heads with wooden mallets.

Alas, these FMO officers don’t know who their effing with. Between Ataru’s elusiveness, Lum’s flight ability, and Shinobu’s strength, the three are able to easily give their captors the slip, taking Inaba along with them. He leads them to an FMO locker room where they all don bunny suits so they can travel freely through possible futures.

Did I mention that Lum and Shinobu are made to wear bunny girl costumes, not bunny mascot costume like Ataru? Anywho, they try another door hoping to find a better future, only to find an even worse one where Lum is married to Lum and now does ojou-sama laughs, while Ataru is a literal footstool, and Shinobu is the spinster still pursued by the lip monster.

The next handful of futures they try out are basically the same, except for small aesthetic details. So as Inaba said, finding one’s ideal future is extremely difficult and not something that can be left to chance. Even so, Shinobu, Lum, and Ataru are all heartened that none of these futures are set in stone.

Lum could presumably find a future where she’s married to her darling, Shinobu could find one where she’s married to her ideal man, and Ataru could find one where he has a harem of all the women in his life and more. But it’s more likely they’ll ultimately end up back where they started, in the present day where anything and everything is still possible.

Urusei Yatsura – 27 – Fullmetal Cutiemist

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Princess Kurama and her murder of crow attendants, but there’s not much to catch up on: she’s still single. She scolds the crows for just lazing around eating and sleeping, but they assure her they’ve developed a computer program that is searching the universe for the ultimate studmuffin.

Of course, they’re talking out of their bird-asses. They’ve been lazing around eating and sleeping and there is no such computer, but they do their best to build one that can scan for her ideal mate. The hastily slapped-together computer’s choice is … well, it’s a choice.

Make no mistake, Rei is a handsome young man. But he has more letters in his name than brain cells, will always want food more than the heart of any woman at any given waking moment, and is not always a young man, but a giant tiger-bill thing.

In any case, Kurama’s ship abducts him while he’s having a date with Ran on the branch of a very spooky tree, and ends up abducting her too. It’s great having legends Mizuki Nana and Hanazawa Kana in the same episode, playing two women claiming Rei’s heart while Rei only seeks to claim his next meal.

When Ran is tossed off Kurama’s ship, her fall is arrested by Lum. Lum would rather not get entangled in a relationship drama with Rei, Ran, and Kurama, but Ran is able to convince her to tag along and help her get Rei back. At the same time, Ataru spots the crows buying more rice and insists on paying a visit to Kurama-chan.

Lum was right to dread this scenario. Ran comes to save her man, only for Rei to embrace Kurama when she offers more food. When he spots Lum, he embraces her. Ataru tries to get with Kurama, then Ran. It’s a big ol’ mess, full of wooden mallets.

Thanks to a trap door from the main hall to Kurama’s bedroom, Rei’s version of the Trolley Problem comes to bear on this chaos. He must choose between a Ran, and giant bindle of onigiri Ran made to lure him to her, before slipping and falling down the shaft.

Surprising everyone, Rei chooses Ran over the food, and for a moment seems to exhibit signs of human (or rather Oni) sentience. But then he notices the pile of onigiri and starts stuffing his face. Kurama finally sees him in his tiger-bull form, gives up her pursuit of him, and goes to bed cranky. Ran may not be able to claim Rei, but she can take comfort in knowing neither will the Crow Princess.

All that could have been a fine episode in and of itself, but wait, there’s more: the obscenely ultra-wealthy Mendou clan has chosen a wife for their firstborn son, something he’s not interested in … until his otherwise serious and traditionally-dressed pops starts going on about the “nudie lewdie.”

Ryouko sends one of her ninjas to clobber her brother with a hammer while delivering a message of her displeasure with his impending nuptials. However, Mendou is even less enthused with the idea than she is when he learns the family name of his fiancée: Mizunokouji, as in the chief rival of the Mendous and Tobimaru’s sister.

Mendou visits Tobimaru at his family’s estate (with Ataru tagging along) and both accuse him of keeping all knowledge of his sister from them. They demand to be told everything about her. The thing is, Tobimaru didn’t even know he had a sister either. Mendou learned of her existence before him.

Their bickering is interrupted by the arrival of three women in olive green safari gear and another one of Mendou’s spies sent to investigate the Mizunokouji girl. They’re soon approached by a giganic suit of armor with “MAIDEN” painted in red on the chestplate. This must be Tobimaru’s sister.

When she trundles off with her tough-but-beautiful bodyguards, Mendou laments having to marry a suit of armor, while Tobimaru laments finding out his only sister is made of metal. Ataru, meanwhile, is smart enough to know there’s a girl under all that metal, and he wants to know what she looks like.

He happens upon an Olympic-style track and field center where he watches the armored girl sprinting ridiculous speeds and performing ridiculous jumps while wearing 200 kilos of armor. Ataru manages to catch up to her and catches a quick glimpse of her delicate face and starry eyes.

The girl then freaks out and shot puts him so far he ends up landing in the pond with the other boys. It looks like the Mizunokouji girl has an all-female staff and was terrified of Ataru because she’s never seen a man before. That should make her first meeting with Mendou interesting!

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 – 22 – Darling, I Shrunk Myself

When Ten buys an innocuous glass bottle from a scarecrow inventor in the trippy “4D Forest” then points it towards Lum, it sucks her in and shrinks her to just a few inches tall. She decides to use this mishap as an excuse to get Ataru to pamper her, but Ataru suspects something is up. When he overhears her owning up to it, he stashes her in a birdcage so he can (fail to) pick up chicks.

Ten, who “rushed” off at his normal leisurely pace to purchase a “big bottle” to restore Lum to her normal size, learns that the scarecrow has become disillusioned and has started to destroy all his bottles, he “rushes” to grab his scooter so he can actually rush with Ataru and Lum back to the forest before the last big bottle is smashed.

They just make it in time to restore Lum, by which time a tearful Ataru is relieved. Lum, who had finally decided she couldn’t trust Ataru, isn’t sure how to react to his affection, except that it’s what she wanted all along, so I guess it worked out. She punishes him by making him wear the birdcage on his head while they walk to school arm in arm.

The next segment features an adorable little sentient fox who takes one look at Shinobu and falls desperately in love, only to find her walking with Ataru. Identifying his rival, the fox disguises himself as a diminutive Ataru and goes to school, convincing everyone that something has happened to Ataru until the real Moroboshi arrives with Lum.

The fox’s gig is up, and the boys go after him, worried he’s a fox demon trying to possess Shinobu. But it’s Shinobu herself who stops them, insisting he doesn’t mean any harm and was only paying her back for picking him up and taking him to the authorities when she thought he was a lost pet. The fox then transforms into a miniature version of their teacher, with which all the students are on board.

After the credits, a show-within-a-show called the Tomo-1 Queen Contest  begins, whittling down eight candidates for the title of Queen of the School down to Lum, Shinobu, Sakura, Ran, and Ryuu, to be picked up next week in at least part of next week’s finale. What Urusei Yatsura may have lacked in serialized development, it mostly makes up for with its vast variety of characters, entertaining situations, effective voice performances, and slick retro visuals.

Urusei Yatsura – 16 – Ryuunosuke-chan Is a Girl!

Ataru, Lum, Shinobu and Mendou head to the beach, but the waves are too hazardous to swim, and all the beach shacks are closed. What they do find is an extremely spirited and energetic father-son duo telling the waves to screw off, then darting away before they get hit. When the son messes up the timing, the dad punches him, he punches back, and they just start brawling.

Turns out they’re hating on the ocean because it’s killing their business right now. As our guys have lunch at their café, they learn the boy’s name is Fujinami Ryuunosuke. His dad has groomed him to take over the family business when he’s gone, even though Ryuunosuke doesn’t want to. Oh, also? Ryuunosuke is a woman. Ataru and Mendou were ready to peace out until they heard her say this, then they’re all-in to help her out.

The best way to do that is to keep Ryuunosuke and her dad from whaling on one another, so after they knock each other out, Ataru, Lum, Shinobu and Mendou literally chain them to the pillars of the shack so they have to use their words. That doesn’t work out so well, as the two Fujinamis are so strong they snap the wooden pillars and bring the whole café down, then start using their chains as weapons.

Because there’s no such thing as a coincidence too farfetched on ol’ Urusei Yatsura, Ryuunosuke’s dad takes over the school store…at Ataru and Lum’s school. This means Ryuu is transferring there. Her dream since childhood is to wear a beautiful sailor fuku, and her dad agrees to let her…if he can beat her. Ataru is so excited he hugs Ryuu, leaving her open to be easily defeated by her dad.

Despite clearly stating she’s a girl when she introduces herself, Ryuunosuke becomes the new toast of the class, and all the girls fall for her, leaving Ataru, Mendou, and the other boys eager to make her more feminine. They beat up her dad and purchase a sailor fuku, but while she’s genuinely happy to see it, she’d rather beat her dad on her own before she wears it.

She also wants to learn more about what it means to act like and carry oneself like a woman, and in Ran she finds a muse. But while she just wants to befriend Ran and learn from her, Ran mistakes her letter for a love letter, and when Lum says Ryuu is a girl, Ran assumes Lum is trying to sabotage her love live as usual. To stick it to Lum, Ran agrees to go on a date with Ryuu, who is amazed how long it takes Ran to run to the school gate to meet her.

Naturally, Ataru cannot allow anyone to have Ryuu or Ran, so he shadows their date with Lum in tow (who apparently is content to get a quasi-date with the distracted Ataru out of it). Of course, Ran thinks it’s Lum who is following her and Ryuu so she can meddle. When Ran cuddles up to Ryuu on their boat ride, Ataru can’t abide it, and launches himself like a missile and causing both boats to capsize.

By day’s end, Ryuu observes “Dark Ran” laying into Lum and feels she has a long way to go to understand the complex secrets to being a woman. I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction of Ryuunosuke (and Takagaki Ayahi’s voice performance) and can name her among my favorite Urusei Yatsura characters after just one episode. She paved the way for characters like Tomo-chan.

Urusei Yatsura – 15 – Airing of Grievances

In an effort to woo Rei, Ran buys a giant bag of bean-filled taiyaki and dresses in her best Barbarella outfit. It seems to work when Rei thanks her for the food by planting a tender kiss on her cheek. Ran declares it the happiest moment of her life.

She invites Lum to her place to gloat about it celebrate her newfound happiness. Considering Ran’s personality changes at the drop of a hat, Lum is initially unsure why she’s there, as more often than not Ran treats her like an enemy these days. But when she hears about the kiss she gives Ran and Rei her blessing.

It’s odd, then, when she returns to Ataru’s house, Rei is there waiting for her. Ran also shows up for more girl talk, and finds Lum in Rei’s arms. When the giant cat (who is also there for some reason) gives Ran a commiseratory taiyaki, she scarfs it down…and Rei kisses her again. Turns out he’s eating the bean crumbs off her face. Classic Rei.

Another day, Ran invites Lum out for coffee and pudding, declaring that Lum will be treating her. She unleashes a litany of events from her past, giving us adorable Lil’ Lum and Lil’ Ran. From pinning the blame on Ran when Lum wet the bed during sleepovers, to Lum being a lousy liar when trying to cover for her, Ran blames Lum for causing her to develop her current volatile personality—though her intense mom probably deserves more blame.

Lum doesn’t remember these events in quite the way Ran does, though why would she, when Ran casts her as the bad guy in every one? Even so, when Ran completes her exhaustive rundown, Lum can’t help but feel somewhat responsible. Ran has given her a lot to think about…and she thinks about it so strongly, she ends up leaving the café before Ran, thus leaving her with the bill! I guess there’s no changing this frenemyship dynamic…

The final segment involves Lum and Shinobu spotting Sakura roasting a newt. When Sakura lists all the traditional medicines it’s used for, they lose interest and start to walk away…until she mentions love potion. Sakura, who swears she’s never used it herself, nevertheless agrees to whip up a batch for Lum (for use on Ataru) and Shinobu (Mendou).

Ataru is the first guinea pig, and while he initially starts behaving affectionately (and monogamously) towards Lum, much to her delight, as soon as they interact with other people he starts spouting blatant, elaborate lies. Then he spots Shinobu and starts acting like she’s the only one in his heart. Clearly something is off about the love potion, and they head back to Sakura.

Sure enough, she made the “loud” potion, the recipe for which is right next to the love potion, and causes those who take it to lie, loudly. That certainly doesn’t bode well for Lum or Shinobu, but in particular it’s a step backwards in Lum and Ataru’s relationship. But just like Ran, and Rei, and Lum, Ataru is a creature of habit—in his case being an unrepentant horndog lothario. No potion can cure him of that, only time patience, and luck.

Urusei Yatsura – 13 – Snack Wars

When the faculty arranges for a blanket crackdown on off-campus snacking, the students are ready to fight back, with Ataru and his boundless charisma leading the charge. Mendou joins the adults as part of the “Covert Civility Patrol”, but allows all the girls (and guys disguised as girls) to pass when they sweet-talk him.

A madcap game of guy in cat mascot costume-and-mouse around the nearby shopping district ensues, complete with dramatic music to punctuate the “snack wars”, with the store owners and employees helping out the students since they give them their business. Unfortunately for Ataru, he’s force-fed a chili-filled okonomiyaki by Lum when she sees him flirting with a server.

The battle ends in a stalemate, and the episode moves on to Lum, Shinobu, Sakura, and Ran at a café, taking turns feeding the adorable Ten while Ataru stews outside. When talk turns to Sakura’s fiance, Ten space mail-orders a “Lovey-Dovey Crystal Ball” which tells each of the girls who they’re destined to marry. A lot of bombshells drop: Ran with…Ataru? Lum with…Rei? Sakura with…Ataru and Mendou??

The kicker is when Shinobu reveals that she saw Sakura’s fiancé. Then the three guys come in and much relationship rancor ensues, as no one is happy with the prospective husband they saw in the crystal ball (except for Ataru and Mendou, of course). Ten learns that the ball actually shows you your worst match you should avoid at all costs, but gets the real Lovey-Dovey Crystal Ball too late to stem the chaos the first ball wrought.

Urusei Yatsura – 12 – Little Trouble

With Urusei Yatsura’s second half comes a new OP and ED (neither quite the equal of their earworm predecessors) and another new character: Lum’s tiny cousin, Ten. He’s discovered stuffed into the mailslot by Ataru, who is fleeing his parents fawning over having a girl in the house. Ten is a sweetie-pie to everyone but Ataru, on whom he breathes fire with regularity.

Ten accompanies Ataru and Lum to a formalwear get-together at Sakura’s place; her uncle, Ran, and Shinobu are also in attendance. Ataru is predictably jealous by all the attention Ten gets from the ladies, while Ten burns Ataru’s hand when he abuses the ensuing game of karuta as an excuse to caress the girls’ hands.

Ataru then loses his temper and grabs some cookware with which to attack and defend, but everyone is uniformly embarrassed on his behalf for fighting so seriously with a tiny little kid. Sakura judo-tosses him into the zen pond to cool his jets. It’s gotta be hard to keep your cool when Ten is literally burning him!

In the second half, Ten is writing a love letter to Sakura, who like many a man finds that she has stolen his heart. Ataru decides to offer him some advice as a self-professed casanova, and Ten, while weary of his cousin’s lame human husband, is also just young and naive enough to buy into Ataru’s experience.

Ataru ends up ghostwriting the love letter, which is full of words that can’t be said during normal broadcast hours. Sakura is furious, and waits at the agreed-upon meeting place just so she can slug the author. When it turns out to be Ten, she kinda just goes with it, knowing she can’t very well beat on a little kid.

That said, when Ten tries to take her to a seedy club, goes to see a raunchy film full of double entendres, and intends to end their evening at a love hotel, Sakura starts to get suspicious. Lum gets overexcited by the film, which confirms to Sakura that Ataru was behind this questionable date.

When the evening ends, Ten goes for broke and asks Sakura to marry her. She turns him down gently but firmly, which isn’t anything Ten didn’t expect, considering, ya know, he’s still just a little kid. But also Ataru and Lum are surprised that Sakura is wearing what looks like an engagement ring. Ten then consoles himself by flambéing Ataru once more.

Urusei Yatsura – 09 – Dine and Dash

Cherry senses doom in the air (and in his stew)—and it arrives while Ataru is cleaning his room for Shinobu while Lum is bored out of her mind and simply wants to cuddle. Shinobu is accosted on her way to Ataru’s, and ends up arriving through the window, leaving Lum and Ataru to mistake her as a ghost.

Turns out she’s on the shoulders or Rei, Lum’s fiancé who takes the form of a giant tiger-ox-thing when he’s mad. When he’s not mad, he’s a ridiculously good-looking young man, which is all Shinobu cares about. In this regard, she’s basically a male Ataru!

Love is more than looks for Lum, who won’t give Rei the time of day. Every time she clings to Ataru, Rei gets upset and transforms into the beast. He’s only quelled by the arrival of Ataru’s mom, who is immediately smitten and dolls herself up to bring roasted potatoes for the handsome new guest.

In addition to being a Jekyll-and-Hyde menace who won’t leave Lum alone, he’s also an unrepentant glutton, eating all of the potatoes meant for everyone and at least breifly forgetting that he originally came there for Lum.

When Lum reasserts her prefrence for Ataru, Rei chases them out of the house (blasting a hole in the wall) and into a park full of lovey-dovey couples. Only every time he calls out to Lum to marry him, each on of the women in the park fall for him and accept his proposal.

After running around the park winning the hearts of the gals and the ire of the guys and eating all of the food vendor’s wares, the chase comes back to Ataru’s house, and all the people from the park follow them there. Basically, thanks to being Lum’s main squeeze Ataru now has the most chaotic and troublesome alien yet all up in his space.

It isn’t long until school and free study time is infected by a toxically persistent Rei. Mendou vows to protect Lum and the other girls in the class from Beast!Rei, which Lum is fine with, but then she runs into Ran in the hall.

An enraged Ran demands that Lum help hook her up with Rei, as she’s painfully shy around him. Meanwhile Rei transforms and all the girls flock to him, leaving Mendou with all the other dudes and pathetically trying to flaunt his wealth to get the girls back.

When Lum comes back in the classroom, Rei has already eaten most of the other girls’ lunches, so he prepares to pounce on her. But she’s only a decoy to allow an opening for Ran to swoop in with her lovingly-made bento just for Rei.

He slowly, politely eats the lunch, which makes Ran think her feelings are getting through to him, but then Cherry arrives with an even bigger bento and Rei eats it the exact same way, igniting Ran’s demon mode. Then, just as quickly as he arrived, Rei announces he’s hungry and rockets home.

Rei hopes he’ll come back soon. Lum and Ataru hope he never comes back, something they can share in as a couple. Alas, when Rei said “home”, he didn’t mean the Oni homeworld, but Ataru’s house, where he is eating when Lum and Ataru arrive … and then promptly faceplant in exasperation.

Rei may not technically be a one-note character, but his two notes (raging beast and hunky yet remorseless eating machine) played ad nauseum throughout the episode grew quite exhausting … which I guess is the point! I truly empathized with Ataru and Lum (and Ataru’s dad!) enduring Rei’s foolishness.

Even if I can’t always understand Lum’s love and loyalty to Ataru, I totally get how whatever fleeting feelings she may have once had for Ataru in the past have long since dissipated, and now she wants nothing to do with him. I hate to say it, but really does makes Ataru look like the more desirable man!