うる星やつら episode 160 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 160 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Benten takes Lum to school on her air bike when Ryuunosuke comes crashing out of a window, courtesy of Fujinami. Benten grabs her in mid-air and throws her back into the room.  Benten then decides to have some fun with Ten-chan in the classroom before turning her attention to Ryuunosuke to try to pick a fight. Eventually, Benten succeeds in drawing Ryuunosuke outside but Ryuunosuke forcefully tells Benten to behave more feminine like Shinobu. Fujinami tells Benten this is because is son is in love with her. Back on the UFO, Benten considers Ryuunosuke’s words and after accidentally trashing Lum’s shower, she heads to a public bath where she encounters Ryuunosuke. A fight is about to break out when Ataru stops it but when he reveals his motives, he takes a beating from both of them.

The principle writes a play with Benten and Ryuu playing the role of the “new wife” and Onsen-sensei playing the husband. Benten and Ryuunosuke’s lines are to be improved with the school audience scoring who’s the most feminine. Neither girl wants to do this and have to be dragged to the performance by Kotatsu-neko. Lum narrates but when Ataru plays the role of the rice man who’s having an affair with the new wife, Lum gets involved in her usual electric style. Benten and Ryuunosuke attempt to escape but Kotatsu-neko captures them and binds them. Ataru again is on the hunt and the principle has all sorts of weirdness injected from guys in dog costumes and beyond. The duo fight off the guys and Lum destroys the gym the play is being performed in to help them out. When Ataru grabs Benten’s breast, she screams like a girl. Benten, Lum, and Ryuunosuke attack Ataru. The males go after Benten and Ryuunosuke, so they free themselves and beat all the guys before entering a friendly fight against each other.

Thoughts/Review:

I have to say that even though this was a strange episode, it was humorous.  Ataru constantly worked his way into things to flirt with Benten or Ryuunosuke and that would bring Lum’s electrocution down on him.  Often, Benten and Ryuunosuke would get caught in the current as well and of course, Lum’s destruction of the school’s gym got everyone involved in the damage. When Lum wasn’t electrocuting him, either she, Shinobu, Benten, or Ryuunosuke were beating on him with mallets, fists, or kicking the crap out of him. Even though Ataru does not annoy me, I still find it amusing to watch him take beating after beating while never giving up on his quest to flirt (or more as he did with Benten) with girls no matter what.  Its that combination that I think makes things work so well.

You know, I don’t remember Ataru ever addressing Benten as “Benten-sama.”  He may have but it just stood out to me for some reason this episode. After all, he usually affixes the “chan” honorific to a girl’s name, such as “Ryuu-chan” or “Shinobu-chan.”

Beyond that, the episode is rather strange with the principle’s play.  I did like the nod at the alien from Alien and the metal-claw villains that were a huge part of Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro.  I don’t know if that movie introduced these kinds of villains or not but they get referenced from time to time over the years in anime. I tend to suspect that these are nods to Miyazaki-sensei’s work.

So a fun if bizarre episode to be had here.