うる星やつら episode 177 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 177 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ataru’s father, Moroboshi-san, is having to make do with only ¥100 to spend for lunch since they are broke. When the coin is accidentally knocked from his hand into a busy street, he goes after it and gets hit by a truck. While unconsious, he dreams he is married to Sakura-sensei and has Shinobu as his daughter in a very, happy family life at the golf course.  Waking up in the hospital, he finds Ataru, Lum, Ten-chan, and his wife there, but things quickly degenerate into a brawl, causing Ataru’s mother to leave and Ataru’s father to hide under the covers while Ataru dukes it out with Ten-chan while trying to hit on a nurse and avoid Lum’s attacks. He looks at the ¥100 coin and tears up.

Sometime later, Ataru’s mother serves dinner and says that each person can only have three shumai because they are poor. Ataru ends up eating them all, starting a huge fight when Tanabata, the shooting star, drops in on them literally. Because the Moroboshi family is so poor, they’ve won three wishes. Both Mama and Papa Moroboshi are angry because their house is severely damaged and think this is some kind of scam. When Tanabata starts to leave, Mama Moroboshi demands he repair the house.  Tanabata instructs Papa Moroboshi on how to properly make the wish and the house is restored.  Seeing that Tanabata is on the level, both parents become very nice to the star.

The arrival of such good fortune has Cherry and Kotatsu-neko barging in, where Cherry immediately burns one of the wishes on a plate of food. The food is destroyed and Cherry beaten by the angry Moroboshi clan. Ataru gets the star to his room to feed it fake wishes, but his plan is foiled when the star rejects his request for a harem. Papa Moroboshi returns to his fantasy family, but finds it not to his liking any more. Returning to reality, everyone has gathered at the table to argue over the wish, so Papa Moroboshi returns to fantasy land, where he finds himself waiting at a train station, wondering what his wish is.Because there are no working clocks at the station, nor a train timetable, Papa Moroboshi inquires of an elderly couple on a bench nearby.  The couple is in fact himself and his wife in the future, which surprises him.

He wakes up in time to hear the star wants something to drink, so Kotatsu-neko leads it to the kitchen and gives it a beer before it drains an entire case. The clan comes up with a way to decide whom gets the final wish. Ataru’s dad wins, but since is wish is to correct the mistakes he has made in the past, his wife and Ataru take offense and decide to make a money wish, only to find the star passed out and all the beer gone. Cherry comes to the rescue by burning the last wish to wake the star up, who then leaves by breaking the window.  Ataru’s father is exhausted as he goes to work, seen off by his wife. When he arrives at the train station, he puts his hand into his pocket and discovers a ¥500 coin there instead of the ¥100 coin.

Thoughts/Review:

OK, what the heck is going on here (episode-wise, I mean)?

First, I don’t recall Ataru’s parents ever being the stars of an episode. Well, technically, it was his father who was the star, but both parents got a lot of screen time, which is unusual.

Because the premise of the episode is rather depressing (a man who’s hating his life and the mistakes he’s made along the way), the humor just doesn’t fit well.  Thus, the antics of Lum electrocuting Ataru, Ten trying to fry Ataru, Ataru beating Ten, or everyone beating Cherry didn’t do anything for me.

It was strange that Ataru’s father would imagine Sakura-sensei as his ideal wife and Shinobu as his ideal child. But then, he rejected that fantasy in favor of spending the rest of his life with his wife.

I’m not sure what the point of the episode was, other than the failed attempts at comedy. Appreciate what you have, maybe?  I guess with Ataru’s father getting ¥500 at the end, I guess his wife decided to be kinder to him (which would fit in the “appreciate what you have” idea).

Well, its over and I can move onto something else. ^_^;