February 23rd, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy うる星やつら episode 132 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 132 review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Shuutaro learns that his parents have set up an omiai for himself and the daughter of the Mizunokoji family, who have been rivals of the Mendou family but this marriage will officially end that. Shuutaro isn’t interested and Ataru attempts to be set up instead. Shuutaro and Ataru pay the eldest son of the Mizunokoji family, Tobimaru, a visit. He claims not to know anything about a little sister, even after being dunked in a pond. Ataru and Shuutaro end up in the pond as well when two female attendants carry a beaten member of Shuutaro’s security forces on a horse, whereupon they hear about Asuka’s whole life being kept secret until the omiai.
After discovering that Asuka is in full, ancient, plate body armor, Shuutaro fears the worst but Ataru is very interested to find out who this girl is. As such, he gives chase to Asuka, who uses her incredible speed and strength to elude Ataru. Ataru’s strong desire keep him one step in front of Asuka’s aides on 3-wheelers and able to traverse Asuka’s obstacle training course with ease. He finally gets a look inside the face guard when Asuka returns to see if he’s OK, causing her to throw him all the way back to the pond.
The day of the omiai comes and Shuutaro is not happy. Ataru gets Lum and Shinobu to help with a rescue, but fails because no one buys that Ataru is Shuutaro. Ataru crashes the omiai, wherein Asuka still wears her armor, and the chase is on again. This time, all of the girls on Asuka’s staff give chase to protect their ojousama, only Ataru’s very strong desire keeps him one step ahead of them. Lum sees this chase and figures that there must be a pretty girl in the fleeing armor. When Ataru catches Asuka, Lum has had enough and electrocutes them both, knocking Ataru off but destroying the armor off of Asuka.
Thoughts/Review:
Finally! A funny, funny episode!
Things get started with Ataru’s unexpected appearance at the Mendou mansion. He even addresses Shuutaro’s father as “chichi-ue,” the same as Shuutaro (which is an archaic, extremely polite way of addressing one’s own father, not someone else’s father). I found that to be funny, especially with Ataru interested in attending the omiai for Shuutaro.
Having set up the premise that this “ojousama” Shuutaro is 
to marry is very strong and fast (because she trains in 200KG full body armor), I found Shuutaro’s and Ataru’s approach to this problem funny yet completely within character. Shuutaro imagined some freak who wears armor all the time, thus he wanted to avoid her. Ataru, on the other hand, said, “Screw that! I want to see what’s under the armor!”
That’s where the fun kicks into high gear. I remember when Ataru’s lecherous behavior irritated me, but here, it comes 
off in an outrageously funny manner. Asuka initial attempts to flee through her obstacle course whereby Ataru outruns her female aides on 3-wheelers had me laughing, as did his constant “ojousan!” yells. There’s just no obstacle course tough enough to get between Ataru and some potential babe.
I also laughed at how Ataru somehow conned Lum and Shinobu into rescuing Shuutaro from this omiai to allow him to take Shuutaro’s place. Shinobu I can understand since she likes Shuutaro, but Lum…*lol*
Then we have “the chase” part 2 which kept me laughing, even more so because Ataru is actually trying to avoid a bevy of pretty girls (Asuka’s staff) to get to “Asuka-chan,” who’s just a girl in armor that he really hasn’t seen. The pacing of everything combined with Ataru’s rapid chatter when trying to catch Asuka just went over well with me.
Naturally, the solution to get Asuka out of her armor was Lum and I expected that from the moment she showed up. Since this story apparently will be carried over, I look forward to seeing how things are played. ^_^
One final comedy bit, I have to say that seeing Cherry as a cherub was wrong and funny at the same time.
I can’t remember if Tobimaru showed up in the anime before or not. I’m guessing he did since they seem to have a history (that’s the problem with taking so many years to watch this anime). I also can’t remember ever seeing Shuutaro’s mother and father before.
As to the adaptation, I’m puzzled by AnimEigo’s use of 
“omiai.” I’m not opposed to using the term for an arranged marriage meeting, but Ataru, Shuutaro, and Shuutaro’s father used the less formal “miai” (the “o” is an honorific to denote a higher level of politeness and respect) but AnimEigo went with “omiai” no matter if “miai” was the term used.
Well if you’ll pardon me, I feel a strong desire to watch the next episode. ^_^
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Tomibaru is Shutaro’s natural rival because he and his families are both the richest in Japan. Before this arc Tomibaru appeared fairly early during the part of the series that most fans don’t like (you know the reallly early part where you had two episodes in a half-hour).
I wonder if Asuka’s character design was used for Ranma 1/2’s Ukyo Kuonji…
@O-chan — yes, those early episodes were REALLY tough for me to get through so that’s likely another reason I’d forgotten Tobimaro.
@Philip — Possibly. Her character design could have been done for Kyouko as well from Maison Ikkoku. Their seiyuu were the same. ^_^
Actually Kyoko was modeled after Sakura and her boyfriend Tsubame was Godai’s predecessor. It becomes blatantly obvious by the time the later half of the TV Series and OAVs roll around.
I don’t think Tsubame has been around in a long time from my viewing, so I guess he’ll be back down the road a bit.
I had the impression, could definitely be wrong, that “omiai” was the form that gets slightly more commonly used (at least in anime)… if true, they probably figured they should go with recognizability over accuracy.
After some of the “improvements” I’ve seen or heard them make, I’m just glad they’d leave it in at all. I’ve seen them go way too far on Westernizing stuff more often than not, believe it! (^_~)
Onigiri donuts, anyone?
You are correct that “omiai” is the term most commonly heard in anime. In fact, this is the first time I’ve heard “miai” used. And like you, I’m glad they used the term at all in the subtitles. I guess I just had to point it out is all. ^_^;
Sorry if it seemed like I was being sarcastic:
1) I’m never sure of my memory these days; age does bad things to a brain.
2) I’ve heard “miai” when I expected to hear “omiai” a few times over the years, so I wasn’t sure.
There’s never anything wrong with pointing out something that could be better – “It’s better than it was” is no reason to accept a situation that still has loads of room for improvement, as evidenced by the infamous “donuts” incident. Which I feel my own need to keep pointing out to people, even though it’s beating a horse much deader than “miai/omiai”. (^_~)
No, you’re good. ^_^
I don’t know why a lot of fans didn’t like the earlier eps, those were my fav and cemented my love for the show. To each his own. The rivalry between Mendou and Tobimaru is extra funny when Ataru keeps sticking his head in.
When I first watched the series, the early episodes were quite the chore for me. I went back and watched some of the first episodes after completing the entire anime franchise and found that they weren’t as bad as I remembered them. I think that’s because by the time I went back and rewatched, I had come to love the characters, so I watched things with a new perspective.
Tobimaro showed up in early episodes, mostly we learn:
* He hates women due to Ryoko torturing since they were children. This usually leads to women beating him up.
* Ryoko pretends to be in love with him to get Shuutaro to beat him up. She reveals once in the manga, she just likes to see him in pain.
* He spent years training in the wilderness to learn baseball, and all he got was the ability to eat baseballs. Apparently it was all he could do to survive.
Short version of Tobimaro’s character is he rivals Ataru in bad luck.
😆 She is sadistic.