うる星やつら episode 171 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 171 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ten-chan’s mother gives Lum a call to announce a visit.  At that time, Ten is chasing Ataru in an attempt to fry him, causing a lot of collateral damage that he blames on Ataru. When Lum arrives to say that his mom is coming, Ten attempts to behave, giving Ataru an opening to take advantage of this and punish Ten.  When he tells Ten that his mother isn’t there, Ten decides to get revenge but his mother then turns up and Ten is forced to swallow his own fire.  At Ataru’s home, Ten’s mother reveals she’s heard of kids of busy mother’s (like her) doing all sorts of bad things until the parent’s come home, at which time they pretend to be good. Ten is sweating over this and again, Ataru takes advantage, getting Ten angry enough to flame Ataru but again, he’s forced to eat his flame.

Ten goes downstairs to get some snacks and wonders what he can do to make his mother not worry.  He decides a birthday present for her forthcoming birthday will do the trick and consults with Ataru’s mother.  She recommends flowers, which Ten can afford, then takes a megaphone to remind Ataru of her own upcoming birthday. Ten tells his mother he has an errand to run, disappointing her. He arrives at a flower shop, where the girl sells him some carnations and throws in an extra.  On the way home, Ten encounters a suicidal man who lost his money and can’t buy his mother carnations, so Ten gives him one. Torajima spots Ten and attacks, causing Ten to flame him in response, which causes Ten’s mother, a firefighter, to arrive to put out the flames. However, Ten hides from her lest she find out who started the fire.

His own flowers now ash, Ten wonders what he’ll do when a truck filled with carnations passes below and one flower falls off. Ten goes to get it, but group of escaped pigs tramples him, followed by a group of wild boars, then a group of dancing warthogs. Ten survives this, but his flower gets destroyed by a delivery guy on a bicycle. Ten is depressed but finds a pigeon in a nest on a roof with a carnation.  He tries to take it but the pigeon pecks him and beats him up. As Ten’s mother and Lum look for Ten, Ten avoids them and goes to get the carnation back from the depressed man until he sees their poverty.  That evening, he meanders past the flower shop and receives another carnation. He comes home to give it to his mother, but she has gone. So, Ataru whacks him to her, where he’s able to give the present to her.

Thoughts/Review:

Ten-chan took a lot of punishment this episode, which I was glad to see. I can’t stand the little punk.

While being punished by Ataru is always amusing, I have to say that the various pig herds trampling Ten made me laugh out loud even though I knew what was coming. I guess it was the unexpected nature of the type of pigs that did the trampling that made it funny. ^_^

I did like that as he fell asleep in his mother’s arms, Ten confessed to being a brat (bad boy) and though she didn’t believe it, based on Ten’s efforts to get her a carnation, I appreciated his honesty, though I know he’ll be lying again the next time his mother visits.

Ataru didn’t get to do much flirting and did push Lum a bit too far for her normal response.  It didn’t make me laugh, but I do admit I smiled at Ataru’s electrocution. ^_^

The depressed, poor man and his elderly mother was a bit out there and really added an unnecessary dark element (even with a good ending) to the episode.

So, mostly a fun episode with a bit of wasted time at the end.