うる星やつら OVA episode 07 (OAV anime)
Urusei Yatsura OVA Ep. 07 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lum finds Ran feeding Rei under a blooming sakura tree and gets permission from Ran to borrow her sakura mochi recipe guide. Ran gives Lum the computer code for it, after which Lum goes to Ran’s ship, inputs an apparent wrong code. Taking the disk manual to her ship, Lum uses a contraption to make the mochi, which she then takes to Ataru’s home. He’s suspicious, thinking her sakura mochi looks like kashiwa mochi, but hearing that she didn’t personally make it, he goes with her to the hanami, where he eats the mochi. Ten-chan joins them and also eats, where in the process, Ataru learns that Lum did make the mochi.  He’s angry, but since nothing bad has happened, he calms down and Lum is happy to have made something her darling likes.

The next day, Ataru discovers he has fangs, but doesn’t let it worry him. As he and Lum head to school, Ataru is feeling great and immediately hits on two girls. Lum tries to zap him, but Ataru is too fast for her. In English class, Onsen-sensei has put everyone to sleep, but when he wakes the class, Ataru doesn’t wake up. Onsen-sensei wakes him up and goes to punish him with a shinai, but Ataru avoids the bamboo sword and flees.  Onsen-sensei gives chase, destroying the class in the process, but never lands a blow on Ataru. The two stop and transform into werewolves, after which, they go to the infirmary to see Sakura-sensei, who determines the two are not being possessed. After Cherry shows up, Ataru learns that Lum gave some sakura mochi to Onsen-sensei, thus this is the cause of their condition.

Lum returns to her ship, wondering how her mochi could be the cause, when she sees the disk she borrowed from Ran is to make Tsukimidango, a dango desert that turns humans into “wolf men.” She only has until 8PM to get Ataru the antidote, otherwise he will turn into a wolf forever. Lum sends Ten-chan to keep tabs on Ataru while she makes an antidote. Meanwhile, Ataru tries to girl hunt, but his werewolf sate makes that impossible. Returning home, his mother weeps because her son is a raccoon man. Ataru is irritated, so he heads out, where the full moon causes him to howl. He then decides to take out his frustrations by crashing other people’s hanami parties and scaring people. His final stop is where Onsen-sensei, Cherry, and Kotatsu-neko are drinking.

Lum has the antidote, which is spicy hot. Onsen-sensei takes it and it returned to human form, but at a painful price. Ataru wants nothing to do with that, so he flees. He finds a group of drunk woman having a hanami, but they aren’t scared of him due to their inebriation, and think he’s a stuntman. Ataru is enjoying their attention when Lum arrives, forcing him to flee again. He puts his shirt onto a dog, causing Lum to think he’s transformed. She gives the dog the painfully hot antidote, which doesn’t work. Lum says she’ll love her Darling just the same. Ataru, hiding nearby, is frustrated that Lum was fooled by the dog, but he cannot call out to her since he has now transformed into a wolf. However, a howl from him lets her know, and he takes the painful antidote, which leaves his lips swollen. Ten-chan accidentally lets out that Ataru was nearly permanently turned into a wolf, so in frustration, Ataru chases Lum.

Thoughts/Review:

I liked this episode more than I expected, mainly because it was a Lum-Ataru adventure. The others, specifically Shinobu and Shuutaro, who often are involved in the adventures, were kept to cameos, as was Ran, Cherry, and Sakura-sensei. Even Onsen-sensei’s role was a small one.

The food jokes with Lum are old, so it was nice to see a different take on that joke. Indeed, I was taken aback when Ataru ate the sakura mochi and didn’t have the expected, spicy hot results. However, making the food have a delayed reaction that turned Ataru into a wolf man was humorous.  The insanely, spicy hot food stuff then comes in as the solution, so it works.

It was kinda nice seeing how Lum would still be faithful to Ataru, even if he were a wolf.

While the story was entertaining and even a bit amusing, especially when Ataru eluded Lum’s attempts to electrocute him, or when Onsen-sensei is chasing Ataru around, there’s just not much here to talk about.  The episode is fun, but there’s nothing really interesting to talk about other than what I’ve said.