This is an interesting precursor to the Dirty Pair anime. Norio Kashima & Tsukasa Dokite would go on to pretty much establish the anime look of Haruka Takachiho’s creations in the Eighties and their work here has lots of resonance with that later series. There is little more here than just destruction, but Kashima and Dokite make it look great.

The gang of three, Sugar, Ginger and Pepper, are once again aiming on beating Lum, Benten and Oyuki (no Ran this time). In flashback we see them fail in attacking Benten and Oyuki, before they head to Earth to beat Lum. Meanwhile on Earth, Ataru has agreed to go on a date with Lum if she will control her temper for three days.

What we end up with is Sugar, Ginger and Pepper essentially trying to kill Lum, while Lum keeps getting mad at Ataru for flirting, then running somewhere and venting her anger by launching electrical attacks at the environment around her. And of course her three would be assailants along with them. Lum in fact remains ignorant of their attempts for most of the episode, with the three getting electrocuted/bonked on the head/crushed, behind her back each time.

It kind of fizzles out at the end as the script doesn’t seem to know what to do when Lum wins the bet, beyond the three confronting Lum face to face and getting electrocuted again.

However that’s fine as there’s a couple really good aspects to the episode. Firstly the destruction Lum wreaks on Tomobiki is at a scale never seen before in the show, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what got Kashima & Dokite the Dirty Pair gig. Secondly the three girls really come across as actually being younger than the rest of the cast. This is in the script, the voice acting and the animation. Here they really are the equivalent of the St Trinian’s Fourth Form, bloodthirsty, murderous terrors of girls, whereas in their first appearance the animation didn’t get that across. Here though they’ve definitely got a distinct body language that sets them apart from the other female characters.

—
Notable for having both Kashima and Dokite on it as they’d both be mainstays on the Dirty Pair series.

Screenplay: Tokio Tsuchiya
Storyboard: Norio Kashima
Director: Norio Kashima
Animation Director: Tsukasa Dokite

Ten becomes a superhero!

Ten helps a superhero he finds dehydrated on the roof of a building. This man is Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28.

Yes, that is his name. Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 gives Ten a superhero outfit, a cape, a mask and power belt so that Ten can be a superhero just like Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28. These items should give Ten protection against attacks, superspeed flight and superstrength. These, Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 explains, will help him fight evil. Evil in Ten’s eyes is, of course, Ataru.

However these items aren’t all that useful and so Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 has to keep giving Ten more and more items with which to assist Ten in using them.

When Lum and Ran hear that Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 is in town they suddenly get mad and try to find Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28. It turns out that Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 isn’t a superhero at all, but is in fact a salesman. Back when Lum and Ran were kids, one of his colleagues (either Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #3 or Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #5) had given them similar superhero equipment and then billed their parents.

Eventually they find Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 and confront him. Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 claims that all the items he’s giving Ten are free. BUT there is a charge for the recharging kit! However he can give a 1% discount!

And so it is that Lum and Ran beat up Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28 and he leaves Earth saddened at his life as a Salesman of Righteousness.

Funny stuff, with a nice line in escalation with Ten’s constantly failing superhero suit. And also the repetition of the name Super Delicious Planet Golden Special Reserve Gorgeous Aftercare Kit #28. The Sake volume of Oishinbo that Viz put out this year clarified the joke that’s being made here, as one of the many rants Shirou Yamaoka makes is about the Japanese consumer’s blind acceptance of superlatives added to product names.

—

Screenwriter: Toshiki Inoue
Storyboard: Junji Nishimura
Director: Junji Nishimura
Animation Director: Takafumi Hayashi

—

And it’s new OP/ED time!

OP: “Chance on Love” by Cindy

ED: “Open Invitation” by Cindy

I like Open Invitation a lot as pop music can always use more steel drums. Also worth noting that the lyrics to this are credited to Ralph Mccarthy, who I believe is the same person as translator/author Ralph F Mccarthy AND the Ralph Mccarthy who has written for Ace of Base, Celine Dion and Paris Hilton.

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

An odd combination of characters to focus on, but it works. That combo? Ran & Kotatsu Neko.

Ran buys a supernova star fragment from a Lovecraftian store (owned by the Al Hazard guild), intending to put it in a pendant to give to Rei. However she literally bumps into Kotatsu Neko and drops it. Kotatsu Neko then spends the episode trying to return it, while Tomobiki goes insane.

Firstly Ran accuses Lum of stealing it, so the Stormtroopers and Mendou try to find it (despite not knowing what it is) to prove Lum innocence. Meanwhile Ran explains what it is to Lum and Ataru, and we learn that she forgot to shield the fragment, and if they don’t find it by nightfall, the fragment will turn into a real supernova and vaporise Tomobiki (question for the sci-fi nerds – is there a common source for this and the very similar Warp star that Sarah Jane had in Doctor Who?). So they start searching too.

This all escalates into the entire town thinking that Lum & Ataru are planning on firing a supernova missile at Tomobiki, and there’s a mass evacuation/lynch mob formed and a chase out of town.

All while this is going on Kotatsu Neko is trying to find Ran, often missing her by seconds, and meeting lots of the other characters such as the Headmaster, Sakura, and Ten. Finally just as dusk is about to begin, Kotatsu Neko finds Ran, gives her the supernova and the town is saved.

The animation here isn’t as strong as the last two episodes, except perhaps for Kotatsu Neko himself. It’s clear that the animators love the character, he’s gotten far more screen time in Yamazaki-era than he did in the Oshii-era, and he is the centre of attention here, even if the mechanics of the plot is with the other characters. The manic nature of the humans (and aliens) and the slow, calm, but persistant nature of this giant ghost cat works wonders here. As you can guess from the screenshot of Ryuu and her dad cross-countering, I only scratched the surface of how the hunt for the star plays out, there’s lots of comedic sequences crammed in there, not only do they get an Ashita no Joe gag, there’s a Star of the Giants sequence that is entirely in service one appalling pun. And for that I salute it!

—

This episode marks the sole appearance of Naoko Yamamoto as Animation Director (though I think they were key animators on other episodes).

Screenplay: Yumi Asano
Storyboards: Motosuke Takahashi
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Naoko Yamamoto

A return of sorts to the old two story episodes.

The gang are at Mendou’s aquarium/resort and enjoying the summer once again. Also there, and not enjoying himself is the goblin who was living at the bottom of Mendou’s swimming pool way back in episode 34. But more on him in the second half, all we get here is his pining for a “Kimiko”.

Firstly we have Lum’s insane methods teaching Ten to swim. Including tieing a weights to him and having him chased by piranhas. She then tries to attach a machine that swims in the opposite direction to him, but it ends up attached to Ataru instead. It will only fall off if he swims 200m, so he tries to do this while flirting with various women in the pool. A lot of comedy buisness in this half and little plot. Which is great.

In the second half, we see Lum, Ataru, Mendou and Shinobu help out the lovelorn goblin. Having run away from after falling in love with Kimiko, a puffer fish, he is living in the aquarium. However he has a problem with a shark stealing away his girl. Lum and Shinobu get dressed as mermaids to distract the shark while the boys rescue the puffer fish. Meanwhile the boy who adopted the goblin is returning with a fish tank – his parents say they can keep the puffer fish at home. And so we leave the boys fist fighting the shark while the goblin gets his big romantic ending.

This episode works really well, cramming in so many gags at the start got the ball rolling before the we got to the slightly meatier plot with the pool goblin. And once again it all looks great.

—

Tomokazu Kougo shows up here as director for the first time. Next no credits on ANN, but he seems to be still active as I can find storyboard credits on KenIchi the Mightiest Disciple DVD listings on Japanese sites.

Screenplay: Tokio Tsuchiya
Storyboard: Tomokazu Kougo
Director: Tomokazu Kougo
Animation Director: Kyoko Kato

After Ataru terrifies Lum and Ten by telling them the story of Botan Doro, he appears to become the target of a similar ghost. Every night the ghost arrives, dispatches Lum and Ten (and eventually Cherry) and carries off Ataru to who knows where? Mendou has been observing the situation and when Ataru comes back covered him lipstick kisses, he thinks Ataru is being taken to some harem and jealously wants in on the action.

And so it is that Lum, Ten, Cherry and Mendou follow Ataru and this time find where he’s being taken…. The Girls Dormatory at Ryouko Mendou’s school. At which point the episode wisely abandons any pretence of actual supernatural events and we see Ataru being taken down the school corridor by a wire attached to a digger driven by a kuroko.

It turns out that Ryoko and her schoolmates have hypnotised Ataru into believing he’s their dog. However when she tries to make her brother behave like a chicken, it fails and Cherry points out she missed an ingredient in her hypnosis powder. Which of course means Ataru wasn’t hypnotised, he was just pretending in order to get close to the girls!

Electrocute and end!

A great episode, and probably the best use of retelling folklore so far. With this and Episode 115, I’m realling liking Keiko Maruo’s scripts and Yuji Moriyama’s presence means it looks great too.

—

Yuji Moriyama using the other spelling of his name again!

Screenplay: Keiko Maruo
Storyboard: Iku Suzuki
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Yuji Moriyama

Hoo boy. I have point I will be making about these post-Oshii/Ito episodes in a bit. But first, a possibly rambling synopsis.

Summer’s here and it’s beach times again. Ataru, Lum, Shinobu and Mendou run into some familiar faces at the beach. First Cherry who has been hired to catch a food stealing goblin. Then Ryuu and her father who are raising money to buy a bikini/fix their cafe by selling ice cream.

Then when out swimming Mendou and Ataru rescue a woman who appears to be drowning. She is looking for her child, who turns out to be Ryuu. Her husband seems to recognise her, but Ryuu is not so sure until she sees her punch Mr Fujiyama similar to how she would.

Later they find Ryuu’s mum gazing out sea pining for her child. They also discover she has a tail! So Ataru and Lum find Ryuu and check her for tails too. When they find that Ryuu lacks a tail, they consider telling her that the woman she thinks is her mother may not be, but decide against it as it would upset her.

However, when Mr Fujiyama playfully throws Ryuu at his newly found wife, they all discover her true form, that of a little sad goblin. Cue the locals chasing a second goblin (the one Cherry was hired to get rid of), who turns out to be the child Ryuu’s “mum” was looking for. Reunited the goblins return to the sea, and Cherry claims he’s done a great job despite doing nothing but eat the entire episode.

What I haven’t summarised there is the thick swath of sentimentality that the makers added to original manga’s plot to fill out the time. Specifically how other characters see the goblin mother as a mother figure too, the goblins human forms as they return to the sea, and everyone getting children’s toys in the final scene while crying out mother.

Now the Oshii/Ito era wasn’t free of this, but it had more bite to it. And Ito was just as likely to add more comedic business to bulk out a plot rather than do whatever this was doing. You never got the feeling the viciousness of Takahashi’s original work was getting smothered.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is nowhere near as bad the sentimentalisation of Maison Ikkoku in that anime adaptation. It’s just a bit annoying that firstly some of these episodes aren’t as funny as ought to be, and the moods they seem to grasp for aren’t really reached.

That being said, Takafumi Hayashi was Animation Director again, and so it looked great once again.

—

Hirohisa Soda makes his first UY screenwriting appearance here. He’s much better known as a writer on the Super Sentai Series.

Screenplay: Hirohisa Soda
Storyboard: Junji Nishimura
Director: Junji Nishimura
Animation Director: Takafumi Hayashi

This is an unbelievably sweet episode. And it introduces a new recurring character.

When Shinobu saves a fox from being beaten up by some dogs (she does this by swing a telegraph pole at them), the fox develops a huge crush on her, seeing her as the heroine in an action film he once saw. So he tries to find her and pay her back for her kindness. However it doesn’t quite go right. When Shinobu can’t afford the make-up she wants, the fox puts the make up in her bag as a present, but only ends up getting her accused of shoplifting.

He does manage to get her umbrella back to her when she leaves it at the shop. And when she throws the flowers she was taking to class in order to beat up Soban, he recovers them and puts them in a vase on Onsen-Mark’s desk. However he’s also left little fox foot prints everywhere.

But that’s OK, because “Ataru” appears to clean them up. For this fox has shape-changing powers, unfortunately they are a little incomplete as he remains the same size, and retains his fox ears, tail and his little dot eyes and nose. So this little Ataru tries to clean up the footprints but keeps leaving more. When other class members arrive, they are so shocked they fetch Onsen-Mark. Who is also shocked as this Ataru is so polite.

Then the Headmaster arrives, and for reasons unknown cannot find his glasses (Kotatsu Neko is wearing them). He thinks this is the real Ataru and compliments Onsen-Mark on turning him into a model student. Eventually the real Ataru arrives and the truth is revealed, but Shinobu points out that the fox is just trying to pay her back. She thanks him and he goes off, his debt paid, never to be seen again…

Until a tiny fox-eared Onsen-Mark arrives to teach the class!

This may be a perfect Urusei Yatsura episode. The first half captures the melancholic, nostalgic sweetness at the heart of the anime, and the second half in the class is full of the escalating insanity that comes from the manga. It also helps that it looks fantastic, lots of great shots and a trademark crazy running sequence when Soban appears.

The fox, Kitsune is voiced by Masako Sugaya, who also voiced the very similar character, O-shima, in episode 52.

—

Screenplay: Michiru Shimada
Storyboard: Kazuo Yamazaki
Director: Kazuo Yamazaki
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

A promo VHS tape for a Urusei Yatsura pachinko machine!

The machine it advertises:

(via Pachitalk)