うる星やつら OVA episode 11 (OAV anime)
Urusei Yatsura OVA Ep. 11 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Sakura is waiting for the overdue Tsubame to show up for their date when she hears his voice call to her. To her shock, it turns out to be Ataru, who’s practiced sounding like Tsubame. Meanwhile, at Tsubame’s home, he wakes up, realizing he’s late, but discovers there’s someone in his bed. It turns out to be a 15-year old ghost girl named Maiko.  At that time, Ten-chan happens to be wafting past when he sees Maiko embracing Tsubame.  Ten-chan reports this to Sakura, who’s still with Ataru and Lum.  No one believes that Tsubame would two-time Sakura, but when Ataru hears it is a cute, young girl, he’s off to see with the others in hot pursuit. When they arrive at Tsubame’s place, it is as Ten-chan said.

Maiko introduces herself, telling them that although she’s a ghost, she was saved from another type of ghost (Jibakurei), thus she fell in love with Tsubame and wants to stay. Maiko can’t believe that Tsubame is engaged to Sakura, and Sakura is having a hard time accepting what is going on. Ataru disguises his voice as Tsubame’s to try to have him break up with Sakura and allow Ataru to date Sakura, but he’s found out and silenced. Sakura produces an ofuda to exorcise the ghost, but it has no effect on Maiko. Sakura is shocked by this as Maiko takes Tsubame to flee from Cherry. Another chase ensues, ending when Shuutaro senses Ataru approaching and ambushes him on the street. Lum fries Ataru, Shuutaro, and Tsubame in frustration over Ataru’s lechery, eventually ending up with Sakura deciding to leave the area.

Sakura doesn’t get far when she and the others hear another ghost’s voice calling for “Maiko-chan.” Sakura summons the ghost, who turns out to be a boy named Mamoru. Despite Maiko’s earlier claims about never having loved anyone, it turns out that Mamoru and she were a couple in the Spirit World, but when Maiko saw him looking at an attractive, 20-something year old woman carrying a small dog, she broke up with him. A fight breaks out and Sakura tries to leave again, but Mamoru’s camera opens a gateway to the Spirit World, threatening to suck them all in. Mamoru is finally able to tell Maiko that he wasn’t looking at the woman, but her dog. Maiko forgives him and the two return to the Spirit World. Because the poll they are clinging to is about to break, Ataru sends Shuutaro to the Spirit World as well before the doorway closes. Later, the group sees a photo of the ghost couple as well as Shuutaro, who uses it to break free of the Spirit World so that he can get revenge on Ataru.

Thoughts/Review:

This was a pretty fun, partial chase episode, with some laughs, though not as great of an amount of laughs as other chase episodes.  Shockingly, there was no Shinobu in this episode.

While Cherry in an episode often leads to irritation, here, he was used to good effect when Sakura used him as a weapon against Maiko, which I found to be funny.  Further, when he blocked Maiko’s and Mamoru’s path before they reconciled, I had to laugh as well.

I’ve often said that Lum’s attempts to electrocute Ataru are funniest when there is a lot of collateral damage.  I laughed when Ataru made sure Shuutaro would get blasted, and Tsubame was just getting fried for being in the area.

You know, when it comes to the Tsubame-Sakura romance, I’ve never understood it. Other than the two having the ability to exorcise spirits, they seem to have nothing else in common, and there’s no chemistry there.  I felt more chemistry between Maiko and Tsubame than I’ve ever felt between Sakura and Tsubame.

Otherwise, not much else I can think of to say. The episode was enjoyable and fun, which is what you want in an anime.