うる星やつら episode 193 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 193 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lum finds Ataru flirting with Ran after school. After sending him packing, Ran sweetly wants to walk home with Lum. Lum is suspicious and worried, but agrees to do so. As Lum feared, Ran recalls a childhood incident where she was chased by bees after receiving a crown of flowers from Lum, causing Ran to become angry. Lum tries to have Ran recall a happy moment and mentions birthdays. Ran remembers a childhood birthday where Lum gave her a pendant necklace as a gift. However, as the two played outside, a thunderstorm causes lightning to strike Ran. Ran gets angrier and storms off home, where she decides to get revenge on Lum via Ataru. She activates her tiny, Personal Controller device (Persocon) in order for it to take control of Ataru and make him mean to Lum. The device takes its time smoking a cigarette, irritating Ran who kicks it out the door.

In town, Ataru is trying to pick up chicks when he spots the tiny, red Persocon hovering nearby. Ataru chats with the device for a bit before running off to chase girls. Personcon gives chase but ends up on Ryuunosuke, causing her to remember an incident as a child where Fujinami tricked her into stealing a pheasant from the zoo, then denied being her father. Persocon gets caught up in their fight, but eventually makes it to Ataru’s home, where he again spots it. Persocon takes over Ataru, causing Lum and Ten-chan to notice his change in behavior. Since he’s acting like Ran, especially after recalling a moment where Lum ruined his chances with a girl, Lum spots Persocon on Ataru’s shirt and forces it to reveal the truth. Ataru returns to normal as he and Lum then hear the device complain about life with Ran.

Thoughts/Review:

This wasn’t a boring episode, but there really wasn’t much here. The jokes about Ran’s bipolar condition aren’t funny to me, and having Ryuunosuke and Ataru experience similar moments didn’t really work either.

Sadly, the one moment I found awesome was Persocon smoking. It just goes to show how far we’ve come since showing someone or something smoking on TV is almost as bad as child porn, especially since it was on one of them there cartoon things. *_* Though I don’t smoke and don’t like smelling cigarette smoke, here’s a totally enjoyable, “offensive,” “up yours” screen capture. >:-}

The bad of the episode, besides the boring bits of Ran’s negative memories, were seeing more of Fujinami’s scrawny keester. Seriously, I’m looking forward to NOT seeing him ever again short of him getting 200% of the comeuppance due him.

Two more TV episodes before moving onto the OVAs and movies. ^_^