うる星やつら episode 169 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 169 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ataru, Shuutaro, and Megane meet on a very hot morning to walk to summer school and they are angry, so much so that seeing ants consume a cicada irritates them; seeing Ataru’s fly undone sends Megane and Shuutaro into a rage, and all three rage when a bread truck gets stuck on the road and they are forced to literally throw it off the road. At school, the class is trying to stay cool and Onsen-sensei isn’t happy. It is noticed that Lum has a large chunk of ice floating above her head, which she keeps up with a balanced mind. Handing crystals to the class, they soon have chunks over their heads, but getting stressed or angry causes the ice chunk to crash on a person’s head. Naturally, this leads to Shuutaro and Ataru trying to get a crash on the other. The problem is that the chunks won’t melt for some time and many in the class are having second thoughts about using them, especially since stress makes the ice chunks grow.

The principal comes in and is angry with what he sees, so Lum, Shinobu, Shuutaro, and Ataru have to keep their stress down and get away from him. They try to use a kotatsu to melt the ice, but that fails. Ten-chan arrives and seeing they are using ice coolers, decides to take advantage of the situation and get revenge on Ataru, resulting in his ice chunk becoming enormous and Sakura-sensei encased within. Lum sees that this is a side-effect of ice coolers and is thus thwarted from punishing Ataru, lest more girls appear in the ice and she get and ice chunk on the head. Ataru decides to take a stroll off alone, but is stopped by Megane and Shuutaro, who aren’t about to let Ataru have his way with Sakura-sensei even if they can get their own fantasy girls.

Lum gets Ten-chan to use his fire breath to melt the ice, but instead, the ice chunk grows bigger and he is batted away.  Now within the ice are Sakura-sensei, Shinobu, and Ryuunosuke. Shinobu’s own ice cooler keeps her from getting revenge, so she gets Sakura-sensei and Ryuunosuke, who have no ice coolers, to do it for her. In the meantime, Ataru has grown his ice chunk so that his Ultimate Harem is contained within. Its too much for the guys, who immediately follow Ataru’s example and begin punching themselves, causing all sorts of naked and semi-naked girls in sexual poses to appear in their ice. Lum’s anger causes her ice to fall on her, knocking her out. However, Shinobu, Sakura-sensei, and Ryuunosuke arrive. Sakura-sensei and Shinobu take off their clothes to reveal sexy swimsuits and all the ice crashes down on the guys. When the ice melts, the fantasy girls melt as well, so Shinobu, Sakura-sensei, and Ryuunosuke can now safely leave.

Thoughts/Review:

This was another slow-starting episode that became more amusing as time went on. I realize that showing Ataru, Shuutaro, and Megane angry and hot was to stress how hot it was, but that could have been done a lot quicker.

The use of the ice cooler did provide most of the humor. As much as I detest Ten-chan, I did get some amusement at him abusing Ataru, knowing how it would result in a larger ice chunk to potentially fall on Ataru’s head.

Having the nude, semi-nude, and swimsuit-wearing girls encased in ice was unexpected and thus added more humor, even if ecchi. Granted, the cause of this and ultimate resulting effect of all the guys building their own harems was predictable but still amusing.

On a related note, even though I personally think that the episode could have been made without the nudity, it does amuse me to think that this “cartoon” aired in primetime (19:30 Japan time, if I’m not mistaken).

So, in the end, nothing to write home about, but still amusing and entertaining enough to get by.