うる星やつら episode 167 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 167 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

An alien centaur lands in Japan in the middle of the night and loudly proclaims the townspeople are his slaves. He gets tons of things thrown at him from very annoyed residents. Three cats just look at him, which the centaur takes as mocking him. So he summons a mecha unit which launches a lot of fireworks into the air. However, the humans are not impressed and decide to ignore the centaur, which he did not expect.  So when day breaks, the centaur attempts personal contact to intimidate humans, but fails eight times as they ignore him. Cherry surprises him and tells him that if he does anything bad, bad will befall the centaur. The centaur decides that it is time for Plan B, which involves him taking on he guise of a human.

Ataru is fleeing Lum when the centaur knocks him out and takes his form. Lum electrocutes Ataru-centaur and drags him back to school where they are met by Sakura-sensei, who thinks that Ataru looks different. Ataru-centaur breaks free and tries to kiss girls to bring them under his will, starting with Shinobu, but gets repeated beatings. Some girls seek help from Shuutaro, who confronts Ataru-centaur. After learning that his attempts to kiss girls is wrong, Ataru-centaur kisses Shuutaro and has to be saved from death by an electric bolt from Lum by electrocuting both him and Shuutaro before fleeing with Ataru-centaur to the roof of the school.

Meanwhile, Ataru wakes up and wonders why a man would kiss him and he doesn’t like it at all. So, he goes to school and attempts to kiss Sakura-sensei, but gets kicked. Shinobu stops him with a fist before he can even do anything and Shuutaro goes on the attack. Back on the roof, Ataru-centaur decides to go for a kiss from the willing Lum.  However, as he moves in on Lum’s lips, Lum lets loose with an electric-charged fist attack.  She tells the fake Ataru that since her Darling avoids kissing her, he has to be an imposter.  The centaur drops his disguise and goes on the offensive to take over Lum but gets an electrically-charged beating instead, forcing him to retreat from Earth.

Thoughts/Review:

Whenever an Urusei Yatsura episode has a boringly long introduction, its never a good sign.   This had a 5.5-minute mostly pointless intro and the episode, with preview, OP, and ED, is 25:38. ^_^;;;

Still, by the time Ataru got involved, things became amusing and even funny, though it was predictable that Ataru-centaur would take a heavy beating by all the girls he tried to kiss. Ditto for the real Ataru trying to do the same thing for different reasons.  I admit that the implied kiss of Ataru-centaur and Shuutaro was probably the funniest moment, followed by Lum’s generous usage of electricity in punishment. Shinobu’s punishing was third.

Beyond that, there’s lots of wasted time in this episode.  I’d guess a good 12-minutes.  So, its a mixed bag as far as watching but that’s not unexpected for this series.