October 21st, 2022 
AstroNerdBoy うる星やつら episode 02 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 02 (2022) review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Lum is all over Ataru while he’s in class, wanting to make out. After giving him a big kiss, Shinobu goes nuts and buries Ataru under a pile of desks. That evening at home, Lum attempts to apologize, but electrocutes him in her exuberance. Ataru runs away, but finds his disguise is already known, thanks to a TV program. He flees a ramen restaurant, only to run into a woman on the street.
The woman complains of chest pains, doesn’t enjoy Ataru coming onto her, but at the same time, seems to lust for him. The woman takes him to her home to exorcise Ataru’s bad luck. There, Ataru discovers the woman’s name is Sakura, and her mother resembles Cherry. Sakura starts the exorcism, but her troubles increase. Then, a hoard of youkai emerge, surrounding Ataru. Suddenly, Sakura is cured and has to dispatch the youkai.
After Ataru gets out of hospital, he goes to Cherry to complain about how Lum constantly electrocutes him. Later, one of Ataru’s friends (Megane, unnamed) visits him at home with a present from Cherry. It is a ribbon that will take away Lum’s Oni powers. Ataru gives it to a happy Lum. However, when Lum goes to show off the ribbon, she falls out of Ataru’s window, powerless.
Lum attempts to try shocking a guy (Chibi), but fails. Ataru and Megane observe then and take Lum’s side. Shinobu shows up, so Lum decides to score points on her. When Ataru stops Shinobu from taking Lum’s ribbon, Shinobu beats Ataru and leaves. That evening, Ataru and Lum are annoyed by Chibi and Megane hanging around.
Lum finds out the truth of the ribbon and attacks Ataru. He’s forced to remove it and gets electrocuted.
Thoughts/Review:
I gotta say, I enjoyed the 2022 version of Urusei Yatsura 02 way more than I did or part 1 of the OG episode 5, and part 1 of the OG episode 7.
Enter Sakura
You know, I laughed pretty hard early in Urusei Yatsura 02, when Ataru ran away and holed up in a ramen shop. He did that in the OG episode 5, but there, it was a very cliched, cartoony experience. In the 2022 version, everything is mostly grounded in reality, sans Ataru’s pratfall, but even there, it wasn’t as cliched as before.
That aside, Ataru meets Sakura immediately after this. There’s no mob chasing Ataru. Ataru isn’t forced to carry Sakura. The two don’t end up in the woods, followed by a long trip up stairs to a shrine. Instead, Ataru assists Sakura as she walks home. Her home is more traditional, in a residential neighborhood. And while Sakura retained her miko powers in the current version, again, she felt more real as a character.
In the OG anime story, things end with the gag of Ataru swarmed with youkai. However, in the 2022 version, Sakura sends all the youkai packing, only to have the Grim Reaper show up and put Ataru in the hospital. I laughed so hard at that as it was unexpected.
One other note — in the OG anime, Sakura addresses Cherry as “Cherry-ojisan”. Here, she addresses him as Ojiue, which is much more formal.
Ataru’s Gift to Lum
The second story in Urusei Yatsura 02 was adapted in the first part of the OG anime episode 7. While the story is the same, the telling of it is so vastly different. For a start, Lum doesn’t go to an empty lot to be depressed. Instead, she seeks comfort from Ataru when he shows up on the street. Thus when Shinobu finds them, it makes more sense. She’s on the way to Ataru’s house with baked goods for him, only to find Lum.
Next was Ataru defending Lum from Shinobu attacking her. The moment is in the OG episode, but here, it carries much more impact. From Lum’s perspective, this is the second nice thing Ataru has done for her that day. She has no clue that the ribbon Ataru gave her is stopping her powers. One one hand it is sad, but on the other, I did like seeing Lum happy.
The ending of the 2022 episode is another massive change that tells the same thing. Lum feels much more aggressive about getting rid of Megane and Chibi. She even throws volume 3 of Maison Ikkoku at them, which made me cheer at the reference.
That aside, in the OG anime, Ataru accidentally releases the ribbon. For the 2022 version, he doesn’t and Lum resorts to physical violence, beating Ataru up. She forces him to remove the ribbon, which again, felt more real to me. I’m more than happy to go this route!
Final Thoughts and Concusion
Let me wrap up my review of Urusei Yatsura 02 with some final thoughts.
- Kotatsu Neko makes his cameo debut in this episode.
- I’d forgotten that Sakura’s mother and Cherry’s sister was in this series. I don’t remember her much from the OG anime adaptation.
- Megane and Chibi are similar yet different in this episode. I’m informed they don’t have as much of a presence in the source manga. And to be honest, if they don’t have much of a presence in the 2022 anime, I’ll be fine with that.
- Lum is much more alluring in this episode than she was back in the day. I had an easier time in the OG anime of seeing why Lum annoyed Ataru in the early episodes. Here, were I a teen boy, I don’t think I could resist her advances. 😅
- NO TEN-CHAN!
In the end, Urusei Yatsura 02 was a really fun and funny episode that entertained me far, far more than the OG episode’s did.
Posted in 
Tags: 
Yup, those are the manga designs of Megane and Chibi in this episode. It should be noted that the credits for this episode refer to Megane as “Satoshi” and Chibi as “Akira.” Promotional materials do the same, though mentioning Megane and Chibi in brief.
Megane’s real name in the original anime was revealed in at least two episodes of the original series to be Satoshi.
and the same materials that revealed Perm and Kosuke were the same character, said Chibi’s real name was Akira.
Based on what we’ve seen from promotional materials and such, it appears that Satoshi/Megane and Akira/Chibi will have larger roles than their manga counterparts, but smaller roles than their old anime counterparts, so kinda of a composite. Episode previews seem to group them with Kosuke/Perm and his Chubby friend (Hiroyuki? maybe, as thats Kakugari’s real name).
Basically it seems like they’re combining Ataru’s manga and anime friend groups into one for this adaptation, though taking mainly from the former.
I’m betting that there are folks (like myself) who’ve never read the manga, but who enjoyed the OG anime. And folks who’ve read the manga, but maybe never watched the OG anime. But there are fans of both. So creating a hybrid adaptation is something I understand.
Totally agree with your review, this was much better than first episode.
The storytelling is a lot more similar to the manga rather than the original anime, which is a plus imho. For example the Lum kiss in the classroom wasn’t fully showed in the OG anime, here instead it was exactly like in the manga.
Some of the most extreme jokes in the manga (also the groping etc.) were removed though, but understandably.
I am laughing a lot to other people complaining about the pace, these episodes are exactly like that in the manga and the early OG anime episodes too (2 episodes in 20 min, so … it’s the same !).
Plus the studio has to obviously add new characters fast: Mendo, Oyuki, Kurama, Ryoko, Ran… it’s a lot of episodes with just them introduced, adding to the sensation of ”fast pace” for the these viewers (not us old school fans… but has to be said that we already know all these characters 🙂
Whoa. Its wild to think that back when the OG anime came out, we got to see Lum’s naked breasts. But when it came to a kiss, we didn’t get to see anything. 2022 doesn’t show naked breasts, and has Lum get back into her bikini top quickly (which I am okay with), but has Lum doing that whole, semi-erotic leg-lock and smooch. Go figure.
And I’m fine with extreme jokes getting cut.
What are they saying? Its too fast or too slow? I haven’t had any problems with pacing. And the OG anime added new characters left and right from the start. I’m just glad Ten-chan hasn’t come back yet. I hated him in the OG anime.
Well, they didn’t show a clear kiss (it was out of frame) in this episode, but they put an iconic one (and anime only !) later, in the Valentine’s Day classic episode.
And also another happened in the very last episode (both manga and og anime), when they were alone inside a giant bell. Maybe there was another kiss in the anime but I don’t remember 😀
Yes there were some really extreme jokes in the original manga… Megane and Chibi groped Lum, for example, when they pulled her behind their backs.
A lot of people are saying the pace is too fast. But it’s more or less the same pace as the manga and the OG anime =)
Thanks for the additional info! I don’t remember all of the kisses in the OG anime, but I don’t think there were many.
That aside, I thought the pacing in this episode was fine. I’m really surprised folks think it is too fast.
You’re welcome ! I have watched the OG anime and read the manga too many times in the last 40 years lol
I just remembered another kiss (though it was just an ”example” made by Ataru while talking with Mendo), it happened in Love Love Catchball – another hilarious episode I wish they would remake !
Stronger than the first episode, though the pacing is a bit too fast for the medium. But I think I know why, the OG series had about 1 and a half to two more minutes per episode to work with, and not only that, this episode had an extended post credits sequence that introduced our favorite foil. If you had to cut a minute or so from the early UY episodes a lot of it would change how much time the show had to breathe.
Overall these are a LOT closer to the manga than the anime was. UY anime spent a lot more time referencing anime and culture of the time, but also had Oshii’s own directorial technique when dealing with comedy.
What amazes me with the new show is just how fast it actually moves. There are some anime where 23 minutes can feel like an hour, in this one 23 minutes feels like 5. Each episode is over before you know it. So, props to David Production.
I’ve been told folks aren’t liking the pacing. I didn’t have a problem with it. Indeed, the loss of some of what I called the cartoonish filler stuff stuff (like the men in the ramen shop chasing Ataru and such) made the modern episode feel a bit more grounded in reality (as much as such a fanciful series can be grounded). I will admit that I was momentarily lost when Ataru is suddenly in the ramen shop, but then the scene is done so that the audience knows why Ataru ran away.
I never read the manga, so I never knew how much was changed. I prefer adaptations to be as faithful as possible. However, I understand that back in the day, it was less about faithful adaptations and more about a new take on the source material.
Thanks for writing! It has been a while!
I love the anime. I love the manga too. Both for different things. I will say the early anime you can clearly see Oshii and crew getting a feel for the best way to tell the stories. I think my biggest issue with the new show has to do with how the comic timing is vastly different than the original. Kind of like watching an old classic sitcom vs a modern one. Both can be hilarious, but the way they go about it is different.
The anime is interesting, I saw some comparisons of the manga to the anime, and there are a lot of reasons for the changes, Ten being brought in early because he was popular. Megane and crew being favorites of Oshii, and having amazing VAs, holiday episodes moved around or changed in order to coincide with airdates and the like. Here, as David Pro is apparently just doing a greatest hits series they have a bit more freedom to stick to the source in many ways.
Ten was popular? I hated that little turd so much. Only later in the OG anime did I enjoy him, but ONLY when Ataru gave him a beating.
I agree with bishopcruz, Ten was popular in the sense that it was necessary for comedy effect, worked great for many added situations in the OG anime where he wasn’t even meant to be there (for example, at the beginning and at the end of the Yellow Ribbon episode).
And his presence was mandatory (plus hilarious in result) in some of the most iconic episodes ever, like St. Valentine Day’s Horror or the one with the burnt scarf etc.
There were several characters I loathed in the OG anime, and Ten was in the top 5 for sure. 😅