Kaede, the lady ninja from the spring special makes a belated return, as she once again flees the life of a ninja in search of a new job. She’s afraid that if she keeps up the ninja lifestyle it will make her as ugly as her ninja leader.

Of course she is pursued by her leader and the clan of tiny Bomberman-looking ninjas, and after a brief stint as a drive-thru rollerskating waitress (did/do these actually exist? It seems like a piece of Americana I’ve only ever seen in fiction), she ends up in Tomobiki.

Starving and homeless, she is found by Mendou and taken in. After she saves him from one of Ryoko’s attempts to blow him up, he offers her the job of his bodyguard. Ryoko however demands a test, Kaede must run from the Mendou Estate to the school and launch a rocket by a specific time. Ryoko booby traps the route and tips of the ninja clan in an attempt to prevent it.

This leads to a great second half of the episode where we get two comedic devices that Urusei Yatsura does repeatedly well.

The first is the chase. I’ve discussed before how the use of the chase scene is lacking in modern anime. Admittedly, these later UY episodes have a ridiculous budget for their time, but even the lower budget Oshii episodes frequently made use of the device too. I don’t think it’s just down to animation talent and budget though, the nature of the material being adapted has also changed. A lot of recent comedy manga have a stage-y feel that is absent from Takahashi’s work, likely a reflection of the boom in variety comedy Japan has experienced. Just look at Astro Fighter Sunred, that uses a number of stage comedy troupes in its voice cast.

The second device is the reversal of expectations. This does still get used a lot in anime comedy. Here, we have the ninja leader call on the help of sleeper agents who lead normal lives in Tomobiki, but are secret ninjas. The whole sequence is played totally straight, as a parody of serious ninja fiction. That is until the sleeper ninja’s actually try to do something. The first’s sword has rusted into his sheath, the second’s certain death technique is just the ability to climb trees really well and the final one has the special ability of falling.

Despite Ryoko’s and the ninja’s best efforts, it is Lum who accidentally thwarts Kaede at the last second, when she catches Kaede in a lightning bolt meant for Ataru. And so she must disappear from the show once more, in search of a new job.

A great episode, particularly in terms of animation. It pretty much feels they are showing off how great they are for much of the episode, something else that is all too rare nowadays. And despite that sense of showing off it avoids being too self-indulgent, the showing off is in service of the story, rather than an attempt to do a segment that feels like a completely different show (see Episode 130).

—

Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Junji Nishimura
Director: Junji Nishimura
Animation Director: Takafumi Hayashi

A return to a common theme in Urusei Yatsura and a return to a better class of episode.

Something that comes up a lot in Urusei Yatsura is the idea that any woman who is acting overtly “girly” is doing just that, acting. Ran, the obvious example, being a direct parody of the Burriko girls of the time, but other characters indulge in it too – Shinobu often acts weak to try attract Mendou, even though she’s clearly the toughest character in the series, Ryu hangs onto to a warped, overly romanticised, view of femininity, rather than being herself.

In this episode we meet Katsuragi Anna, a Tomobiki High School student from the year below Lum, Ataru et al. She admits early in the episode that she feels like she’s acting like a girl rather than actually feeling like one. And she appears to be a parody of female manga/anime leads, in that she’s excessively girly and has excessively sparkly eyes.

She gets mugged by Soban and Lum comes to her rescue. She asks if Lum could beat him without her powers, and Lum says yes. This is all done in a way that comes across as a parody of the schoolgirl romantic friendship genre, though not as obvious and all-out as Project A-Ko would do it. However, Anna then goes and challenges Soban to a fight on Lum’s behalf, so that she can see Lum beat him and Anna can become really brave.

Lum, foolishly accepts, only to discover that without her powers she is really weak. There’s an hilarious line at this point from Shinobu who claims that “It’s too much for a girl. We just don’t have the strength” that leads to a fun visual gag.

We then get a training montage, and for once it shows great restraint in not doing a Star of the Giants or Tomorrow’s Joe homage. We do however get an Ultraman homage with Ryu and her dad, and a Rocky homage with Lum. There’s some fun physical comedy in this sequence and some very Eighties keep fit outfits.

Lum realises she can’t get stronger naturally in the three days Anna had given her, so uses some power boosting alien bracelets and strength boosting pills.

We then get the fight and the resolution, and this is probably where it comes undone a little. Soban eats Lums bracelets and she has to rely on the pills which only last 3 minutes and get less effective each time. Eventually everything descends in chaos, but as well the Oshii era episodes did. Could have used one really strong punchline to end everything on.

—

Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Iku Suzuki
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo

Rumiko Takahashi amps up the confusion and Yuji Moriyama amps up the carnage.

This episode hinges around two main points. But first there is a manic chase.

What comedy anime shows nowadays are putting in such kinetic chase scenes? At least what I’m watching seems to depend more on dialogue and stage timing, rather than comedy that could only work as cartoons. Keroro? Shin-Chan? Is that it? Certainly doesn’t seem to be the shows that get talked about.

Anyway, once the chase is done, Asuka, Ataru and Mendou are put in chains for their own safety and we can get on with the episode’s plot.

The first point is Asuka’s confusion about men in general. While she eventually learns to not be afraid of her brother, that in turn leads to Ataru, Mendou and Lum worrying that she has a brother-complex. Which she sort of does, but it’s borne more out of ignorance than actual love. Her entire understanding of relationships and gender are reliant on what other people tell her. Which is hard when her initial reference point for men is Ataru Moroboshi.

The second point is that Ryoko decides to declare war on the Mizunokoji estate in order to end her brother’s engagment (in the hope she’ll be engaged to Ton-chan), bringing with her the deadly secret weapon – Octopussy (this is something added to the anime). This leads to a massive battle, and lots of stuff blowing up real good. Finally Ryoko unleashes Octopussy, which turns out to be a BGC-style power armour. Without the bonus of actually working well.

This all ends with everything blowing up, and Ryoko pulling her brother from the rubble. The punchline is that when Asuka hears Ryoko call Mendou “big brother”, she suddenly stops being afraid of him – after all he’s a big brother just like Tobimaro!

While I’m preferring Toshiki Inoue’s scripts, both this and the previous episode benefit from the strong visuals of Moriyama and Dokite.

—

Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Yuji Moriyama
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Yuji Moriyama

This is perhaps the first plot that really approaches the complexities of some of the Ranma 1/2 plots. I don’t mean complex as in deep, I mean in the terms of comically unnecessary twists and turns. Which is why it takes two episodes to handle.

In this episode we are introduced to  Tobimaro’s sister, Asuka Mizunokoji.

Here’s the complexities:

1) Mendou’s dad wants him to get engaged to Asuka
2) Ryoko wants to get engaged to Tobimaro instead.
3) Ataru is perfectly willing to take Mendou’s place.
4) Tobimaro was completely unaware he had a sister.
5) This is because Asuka has been raised away from men since birth, with the intent of getting her engaged when she turned 16.
6) She is also super strong.

Unfortunately for Asuka, the first man she lays eyes on is Ataru Moroboshi, which gives her a dismal view of men and mortally afraid of them. This leads her to want to wear her armour all the time to protect herself from men. Despite Ataru, Lum and Shinobu’s attempts to prevent the engagement, Mendou is dragged by his father to meet Asuka. And then Ataru shows up in drag, leading to Asuka going on the rampage and a manic chase through the Mizunokoji’s estate (makes a change from the Mendou estate). At the end of the episode Asuka’s armour flies off when Lum inadvertantly electrocutes her…

TO BE CONTINUED!

Lots and lots of running and destruction, two things that Tsukasa Dokite does excellently.

Asuka is voiced by Sumi Shimamoto, whose more famous roles include Nausicaa in Nausicaa, Kyoko Otonashi in Maison Ikkoku, Ginrei in Giant Robo. She was also the Japanese dub voice for Carrie Fisher in the Star Wars films.

—

Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Iku Suzuki
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Tsukasa Dokite

Let us talk of the love between Pear and Chestnut.

Class 2-4 are once again on a field trip, this time to a pick your own pears farm. The characters actually comment on the disproportionate number of field trips they seem to take the school. They also all sing the theme song on the bus. WHICH IS EXCELLENT. Cast singalongs are always awesome and if they are not quite in tune, all the better. Makes it seem more natural that way.

So anyway, at this farm are Kuriko and Chojuro. Chojuro is a pear who is love with Kuriko, a chestnut of a tree the other side of the gulch there respective trees are adjacent to. Kuriko is knocked off her tree when Ten flies into her during a fight with Ataru. Chojuro is distraught, but then Lum picks him, and throws him at Ataru’s head when she sees Ataru flirting.

This leads to Chojuro being embedded in Ataru’s head and he is able to control Ataru’s body. Meanwhile Kuriko has done the same with Ten’s body, and the pair try and embrace, much to Ten and Ataru’s annoyance. Lum of course mistakes this show of affection for Ataru and Ten finally getting along, until Kuriko is knocked off Ten’s head. Lum then considered putting Kuriko on her own head so she can kiss Ataru, however Ataru has other plans and snatches it away, intent on putting Kuriko on other girls.

First it ends up on Sakura, however she can overcome Kuriko’s control. Then it ends up on Megane’s head. Then Ryuu’s. Then Kotatsu Neko’s head, he however doesn’t seem effect and throws Kuriko away, causing her to land on Mendou’s head. Of course. With Ataru and Mendou refusing to embrace, Chojuro and Kuriko ask if there is no couple in love amongst the field trip.

To which Sakura utters perhaps the truest statement of the series and replies to the lovelorn fruit that no-one present is capable of a true relationship. Then Lum points out that the Chojuro and Kimiko could just snuggle together without needed to be on two different people’s heads.

And so we end with the class back at school and Ataru with both Chojuro and Kimiko living on his head…

Like the Kitsune episode, this maybe as near perfect as the UY TV
show gets. And once again Yuichi Endo is the animation director. So
hooray for Yuichi Endo.

Not only is Yuichi Endo neat, scriptwriter Shigeru Yanagawa is too. This is fantastically written episode from top to bottom. So far 2 for 2 on funny, funny scripts from Yanagawa. All round great episode.

—

Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Director: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo

It’s that time tested comedy plot – the computer dating parody!

Fed up with her crows not finding her a handsome man to mate with Princess Kurama lays down the law. So the crows enter the details of every man in the universe into a computer to find her best match. Given her very shallow taste in men, it returns Rei, the gluttonous Oni, former boyfriend of Lum and the heart’s desire of Ran. She kidnaps him from a “date” he’s on with Ran (though their dates feel more like someone taming a wild animal), mistakenly bringing Ran along too.

Ran goes to Lum for help, while Ataru hitches a ride on a cart of food one of the crows is bringing. The rest of episode involves the crows trying to hide Rei’s true nature as a shape-changing tiger-cow from Kurama, while Ran tries to lure him back, and Ataru hits on Kurama and Ran. Lots of good gags as always from the crows, they are so pathetically lazy and underhanded. It all ends with Rei finally showing some sign of affection for Ran, saving her from a fall rather than the food she’s carrying and Kurama finally seeing Rei’s cow form. They then all wonder what goes on inside his head, which as this is a cartoon we get to see – a bizarre world of food, Ran and Lum.

—

Lot’s of new creative people on this episode!

Shigeru Yanagawa shows up as a screenwriter here, he’d go onto to act as Series Co-ordinator on Ranma ½ as well as writing a glut of Sailor Moon episodes.

Mamoru Hamatsu makes his only storyboard/director credit here. Other credits include an awful lot of Giant Gorg, Glass Mask (2005), Heroic Legend of Arslan, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland and Ronin Warriors.

Tsukasa Dokite is probably best known as the character designer and animation director on Dirty Pair. Most recently worked on Kurokami. And he’s pretty great here and on Dirty Pair. Definitely looking forward to seeing the rest of his episodes on UY.

Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Mamoru Hamatsu
Director: Mamoru Hamatsu
Animation Director: Tsukasa Dokite