うる星やつら episode 105 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura 105

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After Lum electrocutes Ataru for asking so many girls to do different things, she decides to spend the night on her UFO. She sees a warning indicator when she arrives, but it goes green and she’s not to worried. However, it ends up being bad trouble and her UFO crashes on the Mendou Estate. This is reported to Shuutaro, who’s having a tea ceremony with his sister Ryoko and he helps investigate. At the crash site, Shuutaro discovers that it is Lum’s UFO that has crashed and after his people take out her sleeping chamber, Shuutaro breaks the glass. Lum wakes up but she doesn’t have any memories of who she is or why she’s here. As such, she’s taken to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Ten-chan is not happy at having been caught in Lum’s attack and after arguing with Ataru, Ten leaves. A bummed Ataru sits on his balcony and nods off. When he wakes up, he sees something in the sky and thinks Lum is returning. It is only Ten-chan, who’s in such a state, he crashes into the wall in Ataru’s room. He tells Ataru that Lum’s UFO is missing. Ten-chan rejects the idea that Lum went home alone but Ataru has to “encourage” Ten-chan to take him to his own small craft in the woods, there to attempt to make contact with Lum. Ataru is stunned when one of Shuutaro’s body guards answers instead of Lum. The guard will not answer any questions and disconnects.

At school, Lum’s absence is felt and Shinobu is surprised that Shuutaro is leaving so quickly after school. Ataru won’t tell Lum’s Storm Troopers anything about Lum’s absence and requests a bit of Shuutaro’s time. Chibi tries to eavesdrop but is discovered and sent packing. Ataru calmly tells Ataru to return Lum to him. Shuutaro refuses, saying that Lum has left Ataru for good, not wishing to see him. Ataru knows Shuutaro is lying, so Shuutaro gives Ataru a warning about what will happen if he trespasses on the Mendou Estate.

In the nurses station, Ten-chan is taking with Sakura-sensei about Lum’s departure and they are overheard by Perm. Word spreads quickly and the other Storm Troopers are aware of the news by the time Perm gets there. So they decide that it is time for some words with Ataru on this subject. Ataru doesn’t want their help in getting Lum back from Shuutaro and no amount of convincing will change his mind. So they head to the beef bowl restaurant where Chibi, Perm, and Kakugari have 2nd thoughts about retrieving Lum, especially if it means they’ll be hurt. Megane can’t believe what he’s hearing, but the others leave him and the food bill.

Megane decides to go alone and puts on a protective suit of some kind. As he makes his way to the Mendou Estate, he is joined by each of the Storm Troopers, who’ve all had a change of heart. Megane’s plan is simple — assault the front gate and go from there. Before they can leave, Ataru pops his head from behind a wall. They are surprised to see him and wonder how he found them. Ataru explains that he knew they’d do something foolish like a frontal assault, so he waited at the best place to intercept them. Now that it is clear that Ataru is going to join them, Megane wonder’s how Ataru will fight with no weapon. Ataru shows them Ten-chan’s toy gun, which apparently is more powerful than Earth weapons. With that, it is time to rescue Lum.

Thoughts/Review:

Wow. I know that Ochan mentioned to me that with episode 105, we’d see an improvement in the series. Seeing is believing as they say and it became clear within minutes that this wasn’t the same old tired, boring, stupid, pointless Urusei Yatsura that I’d forced myself to endure of late. Indeed, Ataru’s missing of Lum struck me immediately. His “fight” with Ten-chan, which while still humorous, combined the humor with a nice serious nature. Ataru is not dumb here and not just obsessed with self. Yes, his asking other girls out caused the fight which lead to Lum’s UFO crashing and her amnesia, but because that’s done off camera, it really made the story much better.

Anyway, as I said, Ataru is not dumb in this episode. After learning that Shuutaro has Lum, he knows that this is between himself and Shuutaro. He confronts Shuutaro in a calm, collective manner. Shuutaro has Lum and Ataru wants Lum back, plain and simple. Shuutaro refusing is to be expected. Ataru initially refusing the assistance of Lum’s Storm Troopers (once they learn about things) is expected. Lum is Ataru’s girl and he must fight for her. However, not being stupid, Ataru does accept their help for the task ahead. Man, I just loved that.

The Storm Troopers were done rather nicely this time. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever respected them before this episode. They’ve always just been cannon fodder for comedy purposes as the self-proclaimed protectors (and #1 fans) of Lum. But here, the seriousness of trespassing on the Mendou Estate wherein they might get hurt or worse causes everyone but Megane to question things. After all, it has been a long time since Lum arrived (though of course, no one gets any older) and their feelings toward Lum aren’t quite what they were when she first arrived. Megane’s hasn’t changed but in the end, when the others joined Megane, it was a nice moment, capped off with Ataru joining the group.

There was another nice touch in this episode. Prior to this, episodes have been centered around a specific character or event. However, this episode, while covering an event intelligently, makes use of some of the supporting characters in a nice way. Ryoko gets used for a bit of humor at the beginning. Shinobu and Ryuunosuke have their small parts to play in the normal progression of the plot, as does Sakura-sensei. As such, they come off differently and in a better light then they have been recently and frankly, I rather enjoyed that.

Clearly, for me to have written everything I’ve written, the episode had to do something for me and it did. I’d planned to fast-track the rest of the series but as good as this episode is (and it continues into the next episode), I’m going back to single-episode blogging again for the moment. Hopefully, things will continue to be as good as this episode, which Ochan promises me will happen. ^_^