うる星やつら episode 90 (TV anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After learning that Ryuunosuke is popular with the 1st-year girls, Ataru is incensed by this perverted attraction. Onsen-sensei approaches Ryuunosuke about being a girl, which sets her off since she is one. However, hearing that Onsen wants to get her into a sailor school uniform, she is game for some training. Her father, insisting that Ryuunosuke is a boy, does not object to Ryuunosuke being with Onsen for a week but when she goes to leave, he stops her, tying her up. He tries to pretend to be Ryuunosuke, but Onsen isn’t buying it, returning to the school until she shows back up, angry at what her father tried to do to her.

Onsen’s training is all about how to be a traditional Japanese girl, including the forms of speach to use and not use as well as not using violence. Ataru hears the tape Onsen made and decides that his experience with a wide range of girls makes him the perfect teacher. Mendou objects which leads to an argument. Shinobu feels she can best teach Ryuunosuke how to be a woman as does Lum, which leads to the two of them fighting over the matter. Ataru and Mendou both pretend to be women and their manner of speech and actions impress Ryuunosuke a lot until Onsen-sensei starts class.

Onsen takes Ryuunosuke to see Ran, who’s manner of speach is very girlie. That does not succeed. Next, Onsen takes Ryuunosuke to see Sakura-sensei, which also isn’t helpful. Meanwhile, Ryuunosuke’s father manages to get Shinobu and the girls in the class on his side in an attempt to stop the training. Onsen wonders if he’s doing the right thing but when Ryuunosuke is waiting for him after school, the training continues for the rest of the week, teaching Ryuunosuke a feminine way of walking, talking, etc.

The ultimate test has Ryuunosuke in an elegant 19th century dress complete with hat. She attends a wrestling match with Onsen with the goal being to not react as a man. However, the fight goes out of the ring and when her dress is ruined, she’s angry. Ataru, Mendou, her father, Lum, and Shinobu offering their words don’t help, so she beats up the two wrestlers AND her father, leading Onsen to get injured in the process. The next time Ryuunosuke sees Onsen at school, she’s still wearing a boy’s uniform but she does address Onsen-sensei as a proper girl before running off to get to class.

Thoughts/Review:

I’ve never liked Ryuunosuke’s father either, but unlike when Ten-chan takes a beating from Ataru, his taking a beating isn’t quite as satisfying. I suppose it is because no matter how bad the beating, he never learns.

Regardless, why not just put Ryuunosuke into a sailor seifuku if that was the goal all along? Yeah, yeah, I know — do that and you can’t do any more jokes about her wearing one. That’s the downside of going with a long-running gag — it can get stale and very old after a while.

The only real amusing moment for me came when Onsen, the principle, and Ryuunosuke’s father met over whether to allow Ryuunosuke to stay with Onsen, a single, older man. I was surprised that I found Ryuunosuke’s father’s denial that Ryuunosuke is a girl to be so amusing. I guess it was due to the fact that to deny the truth, he’d allow anything to happen although I knew that this would result in his trying to stop her in other ways.

One side note — I didn’t mention it in the summary, but there’s an interlude where Ryuunosuke’s father goes off on this Moby Dick parody story. That was certainly bizarre. I guess there was a lot of time that needed to be killed, so lets get some filler.

So while not a bad episode, it is one that is very predicable simply because we already know there’s no way Ryuunosuke is getting into a sailor fuku EVER.