うる星やつら episode 153 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 153 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

With Asuka still in love with her brother Tobimaru, to the point of getting into bed with him, their mother arranges for Asuka to go on a date with Shuutaro since he’s the only other man Asuka trusts.  Naturally, Ryoko hears about this and so invites Ataru over so that he knows about the date as well.  This brings Lum over, who knows full well what happens whenever Ataru gets involved.  The day of the date arrives and Shuutaro’s bodyguards are forced to dress in costume so as not to frighten Asuka.  Lum has disguised herself as one of Asuka’s bodyguards and is on the lookout for Ataru, whom she knows will be lurking around somewhere.  Meanwhile, a tuxedo wearing Shuutaro greets Asuka’s mother and then Asuka before escorting her in.

Now dressed in traditional Japanese clothing, Shuutaro sits seiza-style as Asuka performs a tea ceremony.  However, she whisks the tea so fast that it turns the tea bowl into dust.  One of Shuutaro’s bodyguards arrives in a monster worm costume to make a delivery but as soon as he reveals himself, Asuka freaks and sends him flying, clutching Shuutaro so hard he passes out.  Ataru, disguised as one of the bodyguards, slips into the still-standing Shuutaro’s clothing and gets her to take a stroll with him on the pretext of helping control Asuka.  Lum quickly finds and unmasks Ataru, which sends Asuka into a panic where she sends Shuutaro’s bodyguards flying.  Shuutaro recovers to find Ataru sharing his clothing as the two spot Lum assisting Asuka escape by showing her a tank.  Instead of driving it, Asuka uses her strength to dismantle it and fashion it into body armor.

Now armored up, Asuka feels a bit more secure but when she sees Shuutaro with Ataru’s head as well, she freaks and the running is on again.  She returns to the mansion to find a couple of Ryoko’s ninja guards who attack her but fail.  Asuka freaks again when she finds they are men, forcing her mother to try to put an end to it.  As such, Asuka challenges her mother.  Lum and the others are stunned to see how powerful Asuka’s mother is as she soon has Asuka chained to Ataru since it was Ataru who caused Asuka’s fear of men in the first place.  Thus, her reasoning is to fight poison with poison.  To help her, Lum offers Asuka a blindfold and then ties up Ataru and gags him much to Shuutaro’s approval. However, Ataru still manages to launch himself on top of Asuka and the running begins anew with Ataru being drug through the air.

Asuka’s mother enters the chase, proving to be quite fast in her restrictive kimono, but Asuka isn’t stopping.  Still blindfolded, Asuka and the tailing Ataru run into Cherry, who races alongside spouting crap until Ataru kicks him away.  Asuka’s mother pleads again and Asuka listens, removing the blindfold and vowing to not run away any more but to fight fate.  Her mother is pleased as Asuka speeds up, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake and Lum, carrying Shuutaro, far behind.  Asuka engages her mother in combat, using Ataru as a weapon while her mother uses Tobimaru as a weapon.  The battle ends with Asuka’s mom and Lum telling Asuka she can’t marry Tobimaru.  This talk of marriage has Ryoko return as Asuka promises not to fear men, only to scream when Lum brings out a battered Ataru.  In the end, she learned nothing and to the frustration of their mother, Asuka returns to Tobimaru’s bed that night.

Thoughts/Review:

Finally, a funny episode…mostly.  ^_^

While I admit that an episode featuring Asuka is going to be very predictable, the humor comes from the journey more or less.  I already know that Asuka is going to scream at the sight of men and go into a rampage.  I know that Ataru is going to try to score with Ataru and stir the pot some more.  Lum is going to be frustrated with Ataru, Shuutaro is going to try to help but get caught in the middle, Tobimaru is going to get the short end of the stick, and if Ryoko shows up, Shuutaro is in trouble.  That all pretty much happened as expected.  However, it was still all pretty darn funny and I laughed hard at Ataru flapping behind the fleeing Asuka and taking damage to boot.

Lum looked pretty cute disguised as one of Asuka’s bodyguards.  I guess it was the ponytail and shades that helped do it.  Ataru’s disguise was just funny to me as was his hijacking of Shuutaro to try to score with Asuka.  I was pleasantly surprised that even after Shuutaro recovered, he didn’t force Ataru to leave his clothing and that added a level of unexpected humor.  Also in the unexpected humor column was Asuka making body armor from a tank while an amazed Ataru-Shuutaro watch while hanging via Shuutaro’s clothing from tree.  Also unexpected was the arrival of Cherry in the chase and he nearly brings the whole episode to a screeching halt.  Thankfully, the writers don’t keep him in too long but a very small amount of Cherry goes an incredibly long way.  *_*

The production team again decide to use this episode to sneak in some tributes.  The Mummy, Spider-man, C3PO, and R2-D2 were the Western nods I saw.  There were Japanese ones as well, but I couldn’t ID them.

The production team also had some fun with the “hidden” images for when a massive blow was delivered, including one spelling out a Japanese sound effect in English.

Then, there was this brief moment with Asuka and Tobimaru’s father playing shogi with a horse.  (The two are shown later as well.)  That was humorous enough but having their father feel the need to cheat against the horse while playing the game was just too funny, completely unexpected, and so brief, I had to rewind a bit to make sure I’d seen what I thought I saw.  ^_^

In the end, there were only a few weak spots and for me, quite a few laughs.  That’s how I like my Urusei Yatsura to be. ^_^