Urusei Yatsura 97
うる星やつら episode 97 (TV anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Oyuki contacts Lum, worried that Benten hasn’t been seen in some time. Lum finds Benten having just taken a shower at Ataru’s place. Turns out, Benten has been looking for her chain. It seems that Benten had her chain stolen when she stopped to help a girl whom Benten thought had died. Benten is then knocked out by the gas from the field of mushrooms she’s in. At Oyuki’s place, there’s a video message about Benten’s chain from a group of middle school girls looking to make a name for themselves by taking out the fearsome gang of Lum, Benten, and Oyuki. This revelation causes Oyuki to comment to Lum on how one can gain a reputation simply from hanging out with the wrong sort of people. Benten reminds Oyuki and Lum that they were both in on every bit of mischief that happened.

Benten is off to give these young girls a beating and get her chain back, followed by Lum and Oyuki. Meanwhile, the gang girls begin to panic about the upcoming fight until the Chinese-looking girl (Sugar) reminds them they have the SALT-01 computer on their side. So when Benten, Lum, and Oyuki arrive at the fight location, it turns out to be on top of Lum’s school on Earth. The fight begins with Sugar lobbing insults at Benten and company. The three gang girls play keep-away for a while (despite taking some shocks and hits) until Ataru suddenly shows up on the scene trying to get any of the girls to go on a date with him. Because he gets attacked (even by Lum accidentally), Lum has had enough and electrocutes one of the girls with the chain, though the chain then breaks.

Benten arrives with Oyuki and so Sugar calls for the SALT-O1 robot. It then spews out a ton of chains before leaving. So the thre girls grab all the chains to leave the weight stops them. Benten tells Lum to blast them since Benten’s chain would be able to stand up against such an attack. The girls are fried and Benten then gets Oyuki to freeze them. Benten then picks up the blocks of ice containing the girls and throws it. Benten wins and picks up the only surviving chain. The three then return to Benten’s home to learn why that chain was so important. Turns out the chain is also Benten’s key to her home. After Benten unlocks the door, they enter to find the other gang. Turns out, Benten had left her back door unlocked, meaning she could have gotten into her home at anytime without having to have gotten her chain back.

Thoughts/Review:

I have to ask why AnimEigo decided to use the “senpai” honorific (spelled as “sempai”) but use it incorrectly? Honorifics always come after, so it is “Benten-senpai” and not Sempai Benten as AnimEigo did it. Same thing for Lum and Oyuki. Ugh.

But I digress…

I will admit that Ataru just showing up out of the blue to try to score with the three female gang members (to say nothing of Benten and Oyuki) cracked me up. I was just thinking, “I wonder if Ataru is going to show up.” I should have realized the second the school building was shown that Ataru would have shown up, but I didn’t. Good thing I guess because the unexpected for me became funny.

Anyway, the story of gang girls looking to make a name for themselves by defeating their senpai is an old one, as seen by this being the theme of this episode. I immediately thought of Fruits Basket when Uo-chan was similarly challenged. I’m not as versed on this aspect of Japanese culture but it does show up often enough to make me sometimes want to learn more about the thug/gang life in Japan (both on the male and female side).