うる星やつら episode 191 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 191 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kitsune heads into the village one snowy evening to help Obaa-san shovel snow. Afterward, Obaa-san tells Kitsune a story of an adult kitsune who encountered an image wherein a young woman had been imprisoned by an oni. Since the only way to free her was to enrage the oni, then touch its horn, the kitsune does just that, causing the now freed young woman to kiss the fox on the cheek.  Kitsune likes the story and upon leaving Obaa-san’s home, he discovers a truck heading to Tomobiki, so he hitches a ride. After arriving in the city, Kitsune’s first encounter is with Soban, who’s running and looking for Shinobu. A photo of Shinobu drops from him, causing Kitsune to think that she’s been imprisoned by an oni. Lum shows up, so Kitsune does a couple of minor things to enrage her, which she finds cute, and so she takes the fox home.

After Lum falls asleep under the kotatsu, Kitsune again tries to do something to enrage Lum, but finds he cannot. Leaving the Moroboshi residence, Kitsune encounters Cherry at his camp side.  Transforming himself into Shinobu-Kitsune, Kitsune pleads with Cherry to find a way to enrage Lum. Cherry decides to take advantage of the situation and instructs the fox to steal Lum’s mochi deserts and bring them to him.  Meanwhile, Kotatsu-neko is in a used goods shop, keeping customers away.  The wife of the business owner wants her husband to do something, so he challenges the giant cat, who is not amused by this.  In order to get Kotatsu-neko out, the owner gives the cat the Polaroid camera that was atop of the Kotatsu it had been looking at, annoying his wife in the process.

Kitsune returns to the Moroboshi home, trashing the place looking for mochi. When Lum enters, Kitsune changes to Cherry-Kitsune and demands mochi. Since Lum has none, she makes her normal, magma-hot food, which when Kitsune tries, it has him fleeing outside for relief by eating snow. However, he’s depressed because he’s not freeing Shinobu.  A teen girl happens by to admire Kitsune’s cuteness when Ataru shows up. To prove he’s harmless, Ataru shows he knows Kitsune and asks the girl out for tea. However, Lum becomes enraged because of this and starts frying Ataru. When she drags Ataru back, Kitsune changes to Ataru-Kitsune, saying the line that enraged Lum, hoping he can tag her horn. Instead, the two take Kitsune to a restaurant for tea.

Kitsune is depressed again when he sees Ten-chan chasing Torajima. Realizing this is another oni, Kitsune rushes out. Ataru gets in on the fun, taking the opportunity to get a “kill shot” on both the cat and Ten-chan.  During the subsequent battle with Ataru, Ten-chan gets thrown into Kitsune, who now has his horn. Meanwhile, Shinobu comes up the hill with Kotatsu-neko to see Ataru tending to the unconscious Kitsune. When Kitsune awakens, he’s in Shinobu’s arms and cries for joy. Shinobu wants Kotatsu-neko to take their picture, which he does. Seeing the Polaroid photo, Kitsune is confused as now he has two pictures of Shinobu plus the real thing. Lum wants a picture of her and the unwilling Ataru, which Kotatsu-neko obliges. At the same time, Kitsune is happy with Shinobu and dreams of being with her in the Polaroid photo forever.

Thoughts/Review:

What the frack did the Japanese see in these hideous, tedious episodes featuring Kitsune. Is it because the little fox is cute?  Surely, that can only go so far as these tales are just “ugh.”

Still, that’s not to say that there wasn’t a moment of humor here. While it was quite clear that Lum’s food would be spicy hot to the extreme, I still laughed at Kitsune’s reaction to it (aided by a visual of Mt. Fuji erupting and Gamera breathing fire), topped off by Kitsune gobbling snow.

I suppose that as Kitsune stories go, this one was probably the least tiresome of the bunch.  I think that’s because Kitsune’s goal was trying to enrage Lum, which he couldn’t do. However, we got to see Ten-chan take a beating, which is always good, and Ataru did his normal thing, with the normal, amusing results.

Hopefully, this is the last Kitsune episode I have to watch.