Made a list of 50 best Urusei Yatsura episodes based on that Youtube video. Started watching it last night with ep 10. Tonight I watched ep 39 and ep 60. 39 is about Lum’s first date with Ataru and features a fabulous scene where Lum roller skates around a park. Ep 60 is one of my favourites, where Ten buys Love Love Catchballs that enable someone looking into them to see the person they will marry and be most happy with. There are so many great bits in this. Ten gets two of them, one for women and one for men, and hides the men’s ball inside Ataru’s guitar. Ataru spies him doing this and the scene where he tries to get it out of the guitar is classic. At one wonderfully ludicrous point he starts playing the guitar in the midst of his efforts. In any case the ball bounces out and lands on Ataru’s dad’s garden. Dad picks it up and looks into it and sees…his wife as a young woman. Later, in a cafe where Ten has gathered Lum, Sakura, Shinobu and Ran to let them look into the women’s ball, Ataru and Mendo turn up and watch proceedings from a balcony above. In short, no one gets the answer they seek in the balls, not even Cherry, who shows up to explain proceedings and upon looking into the ball sees a slinky cat-girl. The punchline is priceless. Ten hears over intergalactic radio that the batch of balls he purchased were the wrong shipment: he got bad luck balls that show the person who will make you most miserable if you marry them!
Watched episode 17 of UY, one of the ‘best 50’. This one featured Mendo’s special camera that transports Ataru into various other realities, including a desert and a castle. Lum joins him and has a hard time bringing him back coz he’s enjoying all the babes he finds there. In the end, she gets back but he is stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Serves him right, that baka! The second half of ep 17 was the tennis match and Ataru’s surprising change in demeanour. Because, it turns out, a Devil has granted him coolness in return for his soul. Seems like a fair trade.
Watched a couple more Urusei Yatsura episodes, namely 21 and 22. In 22 Lum gets invited by her father to go to a Matchmaker’s party on her home planet. Hearing about this, Ataru and Mendo hitch a ride on Ten’s hilarious duck-shaped craft to keep an eye on her. Turns out the father is intent on marrying Lum off to anyone other than Ataru, but the potential grooms do not have, let’s say, potential. In fact they’re a parade of grotesques. But the guy whose ‘talent’ is to dig tunnels is pretty funny.
Watched a couple more episodes of the Urusei Yatsura top 50. One ep was about a flower girl who attracts Ten and Ataru. This was actually a little strange and dull. The plant the girl gives Ten turns out to be sentient and, like Ten and Ataru, has a crush on the flower girl. There’s a wonderfully animated segment where Ataru runs with the plant back to the flower girl, but overall it’s one of the lesser of the Top 50. The other was the classic two-parter about the school excursion by a lake where Ataru gets involved with the Cappa creatures, who live under the lake, and later, he and Mendo, Lum and Shinobu explore a cave. They all have romantic expectations for the cave’s convenient darkness, but problem is, none of them line up. When the time comes, it’s the girls who win out – Lum matching up with Ataru and Shinobu with Mendo. In an attempt to fix this ‘mixup’, the boys try the darkness trick again – only to end up hugging each other! This is the episode where Mendo’s claustrophobia and fear of the dark is revealed – something that becomes a running joke in the show.
Watched another ep of Urusei Yatsura, this time #40. The first half was about a giant watermelon threatening the gang. The other half was about a sentimental yokai pining for the lost summer. This ep featured a scene were Ataru and Lum lounge around a boat and listen to the song Margarita by Helen Sasano. Ataru mentions what a good song it is. He’s right, and I have a copy!
Watched more UY eps 44 and 45. 44 was After You’re Gone, a poignant episode where Ataru puts Lum down one time too many and she seemingly leaves him. He realises his mistake too late and only has the Lum doll she left for him for company. I so want one of those dolls! They’re so cute! His plight is punctuated by the song Don’t Worry on the soundtrack. We get the full version of this fabulous song by Helen Sasano, whose lyrics fit the situation. It turns out the doll has a radio transmitter in it and Lum has been listening in to Ataru’s pathetic cries of loneliness whilst on her father’s spaceship. She only went away to get her interstellar passport updated! Ep 45 was Lum’s Class Reunion. This saw the return of Benten, Oyuke and her other space chums as they plan a surprise Class Reunion for Lum. It’s a real bravura episode with the reunion celebrations making for some stellar animation sequences. You’d think the creators were celebrating the 50th episode rather than just the 45th.
Watched another ep of Urusei Yatsura. This was Take-outers Gather ‘Round, about what happens when the Tomoboki High faculty decide to ban students from eating out for lunch. Well, it’s a move that pits the students against the teachers in an all-out ‘lunch war’, which is a lot of fun. For a show that thrives on and the gang, and especially the school’s Principal, are having a ball planning and strategising. We get a glimpe into some of the other teachers at the school that we hadn’t seen before. I liked the laidback teacher who lets the students get their lunches, when he’s supposed to stop them. He even orders one himself. I get the feeling the entire chaotic exercise was intended as one big educational activity masterminded by the Principal.
I watched another ep of Urusei Yatsura. This was #53, The Do Or Die Subspace Part-Time Job This was an amazing episode that has a lot to unpack. Ataru gets his ideal job in a bathhouse; only, the path to get there is a tortuous one. With Lum’s help he needs to navigate a dimensional portal through an alley then a cemetery, meeting a number of strange characters along the way. There’s even a sidetrip on a train with Lum that gets him back to his arrival point. By this point he’s thinking he’s ‘entered hell’, but he keeps going because he wants to believe this job (which he thinks will entail scrubbing the backs of beautiful naked women) will be worth it. When he finally arrives he discovers, as is usual, there is a section for men and a section for women, and he’s working in the men’s section. This involves him in the unpleasant task of scrubbing the backs of giant monsters, who are surly about the sorts of brushes he should use. It is indeed like ‘hell’, but he works diligently. Then his communication device fails and he can no longer understand what his clients say, so he uses that as the excuse to slack off. At this point Lum’s little nephew Ten shows up in the men’s communal pool telling Ataru the women’s side of the bathhouse, where he has been, is ‘paradise’. This is all the encouragement he needs to try to scale the wall between the two sides. But he is constantly thwarted by Lum, who is onto him and keeps appearing at the top of the wall to stop him. Ataru then figures, if he can’t go over, he’ll go under, and that’s what he does. He follows Ten in his little sub-bike on a voyage deep beneath the bath, which is more like an ocean at this point, to emerge on the other side amidst giggling naked women, including Lum and her pals, Benten and Oyuke. But Lum immediately puts a blindfold on him and sneakily directs him to back-wash a nearby female-shaped statue. Ataru doesn’t know or care that his erotic fun makes him look foolish. But then Ten blows the statue up with a torpedo from his sub and it and Ataru sink into the bath pool, where he is pinned by the statue at the bottom, and the story ends. Wow, make of all that what you will! It’s surreal and epic and mythic and highly metaphorical all in one. The connection between this story and the chapter of the book I just read about monsters and Utopias is pretty clear. The same for the two Twitter posts I mentioned in here as well, for that matter. Everything is connected…
Watched Urusei Yatsura ep 58, Steal the Kiss of Miss Snow Queen. I thought this one of the lesser of the top 50 episodes. It starts with Lum orchestrating a trip to the snow with Ataru, who is reluctant at first, but gets interested when he discovers a resort that has a contest where the winner gets to kiss the ‘snow queen’. The exposition seemed a bit unnecessary as many episodes just plonk our characters down into whatever wacky scenario is required without explanation. And the effort Ataru and the rest of the stormtroopers, who join in, to just get a kiss off some random snow babe hardly seems worth the effort. Geez Ataru, have a look at the girl next to you, will you? Even the reveal at the end that the snow queen was Lum was pretty predictable.
I returned to my Urusei Yatsura collection and watched episode number 61, called The Mendo Family Masked Ball. This isn’t one of the top 50 episodes in the list I’m going through, but I wanted to watch something from disc number 7, which doesn’t contain a top 50 ep, because I needed to check it for playability. For a random episode it was even more nutty and over the top than usual, and I loved it. The masked ball of the title is a martial arts battle designed to inflict maximum pain upon one Ataru Moroboshi, whom Mendo has decided must be eliminated to stop him from making romantic overtures to his sister, Ryoko. The invitation is conveyed via a puppet show put on by Ryoko’s masked minions. The episode ends with Lum knocking out Ataru with a very large mallet. Poor guy cannot take a trick.
I watched the Urusei Yatsura Top 50 eps Rebel Without a Clue and And Then There Were None. Rebel was the episode where Lum and Ataru and the gang make a school film. As usual with them, they go all in and come up with a completely nonsensical though insightful film about who they are. Then There Were None was a nice riff on the old Agatha Christie story with Lum and the gang invited to a creepy house on a deserted island where they each get bumped off till no one is left. The reveal at the end that they were only play-acting to try to ‘scare’ Ataru into forgoing his girl-chasing activities fell a bit flat.
Watched another two eps of my Urusei Yatsura anime. These were one about Ten’s Mother visiting and the other was one of the Top 50 called Miserable: A Loving and Roving Mother, about Ataru’s mother. A couple of mother-themed episodes. In the first Ten’s mother turns out to be a fire-fighter – a funny twist when you consider Ten, with his constant fire breathing, is an arsonist. Ataru has great fun setting Ten up to blow his fire breath, thus bringing his mother running. He’s supposed to be a ‘good boy’ but he keeps nearly getting caught out. The second ep, about Ataru’s mother, was an interesting melancholy episode showing us her frustrations and loneliness.
I watched another Top 50 ep of my Urusei Yatsura animes. This one was number 79, The House of Mendo Summer Xmas. A fun ep where Mendo’s sister Ryoko invites the gang to a summer party. As usual, her plans are lavish and devious, featuring a giant Christmas Tree that the guests are instructed to climb before they can get to the copious food at the top of her apartment. I really loved the detail of Megane ‘dating’ little Chibi, who is dressed as a girl (everyone was required to bring a date, and this was all he could scrounge up). I love how Chibi really gets into his role and worries that he’s not pretty enough. There was even a suggestion that Megane was turned on by girl Chibi, which was funny. This was an hilarious episode, with none of the guests, not even Lum or Ataru, making it to the top, and instead being launched into the stratosphere when it’s revealed the tree is actually a rocket. As it explodes in a show of colourful fireworks, and our characters fall slowly to earth, a smiling Ryoko wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.
I watched more Urusei Yatsura. This time it was ep 84, Terror Attack of the Killer Potatoes, and 90, Lady Ryuunosuke, and 91, Document, Who’ll Be Miss Tomoboki? I also checked out number 85, Galactic Teacher CAO-2 Strikes Back, coz it features Benten. I didn’t love the killer potatoes one. Some of it was nicely surreal, but the premise of Lum, Ataru, Mendo and Shinobu being menaced by killer pototoes whilst on holidays was weirder than usual – even for UY. And there’s a scene where they try to destroy the potatoes by eating them, which is pretty gross. Lady Ryuunosuke was nice for the My Fair Lady references, but I didn’t love how the teacher Onsen was cast as the Henry Higgens character. I too want to see Ryu break free from her father’s psychotic fetish of keeping her looking like a boy, but I fear it will never happen – though this ep makes a good stab at trying.
The Miss Tomoboki episode is a real highlight of the series. After the main contestants – Lum, Shinobu and the other main female characters at the school – voice their feminist disdain for the idea of beauty pageants, the episode settles down into a manic war for who will win. Factions gather around each contestant, and even the other local schools get in on the act. It all comes down to the main judge, who is that cad Ataru Moroboshi, who can never be trusted. He takes shameless advantage of the situation by setting up multiple dates by bribing many of the contestants and other interested female parties. But he knows he can’t follow through on his promises, so he takes off with the prize money before the contest is even called. It’s interesting how here even Lum was relegated to a mere contestant who would not necessarily be a shoo-in to win (even though she’s clearly Best Girl). The CAO episode, although not strictly speaking a Top 50 ep, was a lot of fun. We see a lot of pre-school Lum, Oyuke, Ran and Benten looking very cute as they try to get the best of their teacher, CAO-2, a robot shaped like a giant metal blackboard duster. There’s a strange awkward scene where the teacher bends Ran over his knee and spanks her, which seems so wrong. Give me more Benten, I say!
I watched more of the Top 50 Urusei Yatsura anime eps. These were 94, The Story of a Travelling Snowman, and the big number 100, Big Trouble In Bigger Vault. The Snowman ep was very surreal with Ataru spending a crazy snow-filled night in his backyard interacting with a sentient snowman who shape-shifts into the appearance of some of the many girls and women he has lusted after. He’s a dribbling mess (and very cold) by morning. The experience seems to give him a new perspective on Lum, who calls him inside and suggests he has a hot bath after his ordeal. There’s a weird scene earlier when, while on a school marathon, Ataru thinks Mendo is touching his butt, and it goes on for way too long. Ataru seriously considers the possibility that Mendo is actually gay and lusting after his ‘beautiful butt’. It was actually the snowman trying to get his attention but, like I said, it’s weird. The 100th episode is a two-hander between Ataru and Mendo, who are stuck inside Mendo’s huge security vault where Mendo has been trying to impress upon Ataru Moroboshi his essential superiority over him. Surprisingly, Lum never appears in this episode. The two guys spend much of the episode coming to terms with their relationship while they battle the many security features the vault has to offer, including a water trap that sends them in increments up to the roof. My favourite bit was when they had come to some parity and Mendo calls Ataru Moroboshkun – a nutty endearment. It’s such a funny thing for him to say.
Watched two more of the Top 50 Urusei Yatsuras, these being ep 101 Top Secret Pool Party Peeping Plan and ep 102 Sakura’s Childhood. I feel the peeping parting ep was better done in the earlier episode when Ataru went to the inter-dimensional onsen and ended up lusting after a statue of a girl. The premise in this one was too sleazy (Ataru plus Mendo and the Stormtroopers are hoping for a perve of female flesh at an onsen) and there were some OTT gay fan service (Mendo is kissed by an inebriated guard). Sakura’s Childhood, although nicely surreal and a good character profile for Sakura, spent way too much time on the male characters obsessing over the possibility that she has had an illegitimate offspring. Way too much male privilege. Oh well. This makes it 25 of the 50 for me, so I’m gonna stop here for a while and watch other things.
I started back on my Urusei Yatsura episodes binge today. The plan is to watch the second half of the Top 50 episodes I have listed, having finished the first half many months ago. I started with Episode 105, Scramble Rescue Lum! This is the first of a two-part story that ends with ep 106, Death Match: Ataru Vs Mendou’s Army. Lum gets amnesia and is held by Mendou in his estate. It’s up to Ataru and the Stormtroopers to rescue her and help her recover her memory. When Ataru confronts Mendou and asks where’s Lum, Mendou asks the obvious question: why does he try so hard to save Lum when he says he doesn’t love her? Ataru responds: ‘I hate to be bound by Lum, but I hate Lum being taken away by others more’. These were the last episodes directed by Mamoru Oshii.
I watched some more episodes of Urusei Yatsura. These were episodes 107 and 108, Parallel Worlds, Where’s Darling? and Raging Queen of Rugby respectively. In Parallel Worlds it’s Sakura season and Lum and Ataru are out in the park enjoying the festival. Then Ataru tears a small branch from a sakura tree which sets off a dimension warp within the tree that Lum gets sucked into. She ends up going through various wacky dimensions where things are slightly different in Tomoboki town, such as a world where Megane and his gang are girls, and one where Lum is married to Mendo. Desperate to get back to her ‘real’ world she alights upon a reality where everything seems to look normal. Megane and his gang aren’t girls, and Lum’s not married to Mendo. She finds Ataru, who treats her with gentleness and puts his coat around her when he sees she’s cold. She knows something’s up. Then Ataru tells her with sincerity he loves her. It’s a great moment. Lum has finally found the version of Ataru that she’s always wanted. But she also knows he’s not her Ataru, who would never make such a declaration. Sadly, heartbreakingly, she leaves him, saying ‘Bye bye’. This is definitely one of the best UY episodes that gets to the heart of the dilemma Lum faces.
The Raging Queen episode is a fun pervy ep that features Ryuunosuke. Her breast wrap is in the wash so she has to go around without it on, but her breasts are too distracting to all the boys. Meanwhile a tiny rugby ball-shaped spacecraft buzzes nearby with the intent of conquering Earth. The aliens comprise of one female Queen who rules over a ship load of men. She orders some Earthlings be ‘micronised’ and brought aboard as slaves. The ones they capture are Lum, Ataru and Ryuunosuke. Chaos ensues! I enjoyed the jokey references to Macross Super Dimension Fortress in this.
I watched some more Urusei Yatsura episodes. These were Ran’s First Kiss Has Bitter Taste of Love, and Butch Benten and the Ryuunosuke Kid. In the first Ran makes delicious taiyaki for Rei to devour. The hungry bugger eats it all then finds a slither of red bean paste on Ran’s cheek. In licking it off Ran thinks he’s kissed her and is ecstatic. Later, he finds some on her lips and gives her a proper kiss. But he really doesn’t care about Ran, he just wants her food. The Butch Benten ep is one of my favourites, with the two tomboy characters joining together in an adventure to fight the bikies who get in their way of rescuing a poor little kitty cat. I love how Benten mentions at the end she knows Ryu is a girl. She must have felt her breasts on her back as she rode pillion on her bike! Man, I’d love an entire series featuring the adventures of these two!
Watched another Urusei Yatsura episode today. This was Don’t Die! Ryoko’s Special Straw Doll! Mendo’s deliciously sadistic sister Ryoko makes a voodoo doll effigy of Mendo to enjoy the punishment it brings him. To make matters worse, she entrusts it to Ataru without telling him what it’s for. Chaos (and pain) ensues, especially for Mendo, who has to keep saving Ataru whenever he is threatened by any one of Ryoko’s ingenious punishments, because pain to Ataru equals pain to Mendo. This leads to the wonderfully ludicrous mistake of Ataru thinking Mendo actually cares for him, and he begins to think of him as a close buddy. The episode stretches this buddy situation out to delirious levels of subliminal homosexual silliness until Mendo puts his hand on Ataru’s chest and he recoils at the ‘perverted’ gesture. By this point Mendo has had enough and he admits he’s only doing it to get the effigy off of Ataru. As soon as Ataru finds out what it’s for he starts hammering it with nails. As you do. My favourite part of this was Ryoko, who dresses in a Gothic lace outfit because it fits the whole hexing a person vibe, and who seems to agonise over her masochistic tendencies towards her brother. But she’s just playing – she enjoys agonising over the pain as well as inflicting it. I love how fucked up she is.
Watched a couple more eps of Urusei Yatsura. These were #126 Ran’s Panic, There Is No Tomorrow for Tomobiki Town, and #130 Blazing Hidden Trick. Ran’s panic is about Ran buying a compressed piece of blue supernova as a present for Rei, but she loses it and Lum informs her it will explode as a supernova if it is not found by night. Everyone is too busy panicking about this to notice the Kotatsu Cat has the supernova. Some nice animation but a fairly dull ep. The Hidden Trick ep is a favourite with a really nice intro where Lum does a little top hat and tails routine in a skimpy outfit. The ep is mainly about a talent contest held at Tomobiki High but when the contestants are bad, the ‘judge’ – an alien octopus – makes them disappear. I loved Lum’s own vocal performance, wailing a ridiculous word-less song from her planet.
Watched a couple more Urusei Yatsura eps. These were Lum’s Courageous Duel! Victory by Cheap Means, and Tomobiki High School Survival! Who Are the Survivors? I didn’t love the premise of the Duel episode, where Lum is guilted into fighting a duel with the seal-like Big Boss who has a crush on Shinobu. Thing is, she’s not allowed to use any of her powers – she can’t fly or use her electric shock. But when it comes time for the duel she cheats by using steroids to make her strong. And, of course, she gets hooked on them. Drugs are bad, mmkay? The Survival ep was a kind of Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror story with the students of Tomoboki High trapped in the school as aggrieved chainsaw-wielding tomato growers (yes, their tomatoes were burnt by Ataru and Ten) try to kill them. Very weird, but some striking imagery.
Watched another UY. This was Far Spring, Tale of the Lonely Fairy. A very poetic story as a sad winter fairy tries to entrap Ataru in a snowy blizzard after he’s had an argument with Lum about being late for a date. When the fairy inadvertently causes Ataru to realise the late date was his mistake, not Lum’s, he snaps out of her spell and goes home seemingly to apologise to Lum. But being Ataru, he can’t do it. It’s a beautiful scene though. Lum leans forward for the kiss she deserves; Ataru almost kisses her; then he reverts to type and doesn’t even apologise. As they fight and scamper in his room, outside the window, the fairy watches them and smiles – and immediately turns into the happy Spring Fairy.
Watched one more UY. It was Goodness, Words Aren’t Getting To Darling. This is a groundbreaking episode that answers the question of what would happen if Ataru got to be free of Lum. It’s another one of those episodes where Lum disappears to her UFO leaving Ataru to do his own thing. The reason she leaves is because, through an accidental act of violence on Ataru’s part, Lum can’t speak or understand Japanese anymore. All her speech is in Oni, her planet’s language. For his part, Ataru, now free from Lum, uses this as an opportunity to play the field, hitting on girls everywhere. The fact that he’s always unsuccessful doesn’t dampen his enthusiasm. But the rejections and the lack of sleep due to over-excitement take their toll, and by the end he is an emaciated mess crawling up the stairs to his bedroom, where he finds Lum returned. She’s been in her UFO working on a translation device. This scene is amazing, largely because of the way Lum is drawn. The animators have given her some amazing muscle tone – it’s the most solid-looking Lum has ever been. She’s beautiful and sexy and strong. There’s even a suggestion of a bum crack on her bikini bottom. But that is too crude a term for our darling Lum. Let’s call it bottom cleavage! Anyway, a very tired, withered and contrite Ataru goes to this fully formed and solid Lum and begs forgiveness. A revealing epilogue shows Ataru wearing Lum’s translation device. It looks like a dog’s muzzle. The implications, the ‘meaning’ of all this is all too clear.
