うる星やつら episode 164 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 164 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

On a hot summer day, Ten-chan is chasing butterflies and warned by Lum not to get overheated lest he be unable to land.  He ignores her and does his own thing while in another dimension on the “Fairy Road,” a fairy not unlike Ataru comes to Earth to purchase his yearly order of 100 unagi.  Sakura-sensei heads to that same shop, wanting 50 unagi for herself, but the shop owner cannot sell since the 100 unagi he has are already reserved.  The “Ataru-fairy” cops a feel on Sakura-sensei before making her purchase, offering to sell her his unagi at a discount if she goes on a date with him.  Thinking this is the real Ataru, she declines. Ataru-fairy attempts to return to Fairy Road in the sky but is hindered by Torajima, who wants the unagi. Ataru-fairy is prepared and attempts to fly in a special-suit but goes nowhere fast.

Torajima decides to leave, have some lunch, watch a cat soap opera, and generally laze around before returning to the spot where Ataru-fairy is attempting to pull himself through the invisible dimension hole in the sky. Torajima makes a grab for the large package of unagi but ultimately fails as Ataru-fairy makes it through the ceiling to his dimension. However, he has an accident and his giant package of unagi drops through another “puddle” and returns to Earth, dropping in front of Sakura-sensei, who immediately gives thanks for the bounty of heaven.  Meanwhile, Ten-chan can’t come down due to overheating and attempts to use a tree until Lum finds him. Panicking, Ten-chan lets go and floats up to the sky where he finds an invisible ceiling before finding the opening to the other dimension, where he finds Ataru-fairy and Queen Queen Sakura, who wants her unagi.

After getting the plea from Queen Sakura and her fairy chrysalis offspring, Ten-chan is swatted back to Earth by Ataru-fairy, where he finds himself at Sakura-sensei’s shrine residence. There, he discovers that Sakura-sensei, Lum, Ataru, Shinobu, and Shuutaro are about to have their unagi feast and comes up with a delaying tactic to pour them tea before stealing the whole table. Because he’s too light from overheating, he easily makes it back to Fairy Road where the fairy chrysalis eat to their fill and are reborn as fairies, all looking like Mako-chan. Ten-chan flees and returns to Earth, but is still overheated. Thus, he is subjected to Ataru’s exaggerated cooling techniques, which Sakura-sensei approves of, in order to get his body temperature back down.

Thoughts/Review:

This was one of those episodes where the writers were often looking for filler.  Thus, we had many shots of the girl in hair braids and a straw hat outdoors, I suppose to keep reminding the audience that it is a hot, summer day.  The overall pacing of the episode also reflected a need to kill time but also a general pointlessness to the episode.

The one highlight for me, other than Ataru-fairy whacking Ten-chan, was Torajima’s reaction to Ataru-fairy’s attempt to escape. I admit that I laughed with Torajima decided to have a leisurely lunch, watch TV, and waste time, knowing he’d still be back in time before Ataru-fairy could make it out.

Speaking of lunch, I suddenly crave unadon for some reason. ^_~