うる星やつら episode 135 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 135 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lum sees Ran is growing Ryuugenvillias, a pretty flower that has the ability to repeat certain phrases spoken to it. Lum suspects Ran is going to use the flowers to spread rumors about her and Ran decides to speak a rumor to the flower about Lum. Lum returns the favor with a very long rumor. Cherry comes along and causes all the flowers to fly away with his hand fan, forcing Lum and Ran to attempt to get all the flowers before both girls are ruined in reputation.

Meanwhile the flowers, which can grow on anything, are spreading over the city and taking root on people and things. No flower has the entire quotes from Lum or Ran and so only say fragments. This causes Shuutaro to be seen as a bed wetter. It causes Chibi to be seen as a lolicon by his friends until they too are tagged with that same rumor by the flowers. It causes Onsen-sensei to believe that the students are going to rebel. It causes Fujinami and his daughter Ryuunosuke to go on a treasure hunt.

Lum and Ran think they’ve gathered all the flowers and are disappointed to find this isn’t the case. Lum decides to check on the damage and sees all the chaos the flowers are causing. Because she has decided to pretend not to know anything, people continue to suffer. That evening at Ran’s house, once the sun sets, the flowers all wither and die. Lum and Ran are grateful for this since it means that they’ve dodged a bullet. However, Lum can’t help but wonder if this is too easy. The next morning, Lum’s fears are realized as a new batch of blowers begin to grow from the withered remains of the original flowers.

Thoughts/Review:

I found this episode to be a mixed bag on the whole. Some of the rumor stuff was pretty funny like Shuutaro being a bed wetter or Chibi (and then later all of Lum’s troopers) being lolicon. Others were just “meh” for the most part, such as the principle and Onsen-sensei hearing rumors about being taken down. The stuff with Ryuunosuke and her father Fujinami was tedious to me, but then I’ve never liked Fujinami and I doubt I ever will.

Also on the funny front was Shuutaro being taken to school in a rickshaw pulled by his octopi.

One thing I did note is that Ataru and Shinobu seemed a tad bit friendlier with each other in this episode. I also noted that Lum wasn’t really interested in Ataru at all this episode, which seemed out of place for her. I thought she might be distracted by seeing Ataru and Shinobu together, but I guess she was more worried about her reputation and hiding her role in the whole flower mess. Still, I thought for sure that she might end up zapping Ataru at some point, but it never happened.

So, as I said, a mixed bag of an episode that was entertaining while I watched it (for the most part), but after I watched it, I wasn’t left with much.