うる星やつら episode 16 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 16 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lum, Ataru, Shinobu, and Shuutarou head to the beach. They discover swimming is not allowed due to heavy surf. Further, the shops on the beach are closed, save one called Hamajaya. Outside the shop, a middle aged man and an apparent teen boy challenge the waves, but eventually lose. The man and the “boy” get into a fight as a result. The foursome buy food and learn that the “boy”, Ryuunosuke, hates the place has “his” father keeps the cafe open even in winter.

Shuutarou and Ataru decide to bail, but when they hear Ryuunosuke loudly reveal she’s a woman, they return. She reveals to Lum and Shinobu that her dream is to wear a sailor seifuku. Her father throws Ryuunosuke to the sea. Ataru tries to catch her, but pays for it. The two fight and knock each other out. Lum suggests chaining the two up to force them to talk. This is done, but the two destroy the Hamajaya to get at each other.

As a result, Fujinami takes their belongings to take on a new job at Ataru’s school. There, he will run the school’s store while Ryuunosuke goes to school. Fujinami teases Ryuunosuke with a sailor uniform the school has. She goes to beat him, but Ataru causes her to lose the fight. In class, Ryuunosuke proves popular with the girls, so the guys beat Fujinami and steal a sailor seifuku. Ryuunosuke decides she can’t wear it until she’s defeated her father.

When Ryuunosuke sees Ran, she decides Ran can teach her how to be more feminine. Since Ran doesn’t believe Lum insisting Ryuunosuke is a girl, Ran goes on a “date” with Ryuunosuke. Ataru is distressed to see an apparent lesbian relationship forming. Ryuunosuke decides being a proper girl is tougher than she thought.

Thoughts/Review:

And so with the 2022 version of Urusei Yatsura 16, Ryuunosuke enters the building as does her massively annoying father, Fujinami.

Ryuunosuke and Fujinami

It is interesting that up until Ran appears, the 2022 Urusei Yatsura 16 is pretty much identical to the OG episode 63. There are some elements that are different. The OG episode have father and daughter fighting a bit more. And Fujinami is VASTLY more irritating in the OG anime, particularly when taunting his daughter so that she can’t land a punch.

I hated a lot of characters during the OG run. But I think it is safe to say that Fujinami may have been the character I hated the most, namely due to the abuse he gave Ryuunosuke. I know the character was always created to be hated, but I just never found his crappy antics funny. And yet, the 2022 production team actually managed to make him SLIGHTLY less rage inducing. For a start, the smug taunt dance was removed. That helped a lot.

Another element I liked in the 2022 version is that the guys went to Fujinami’s school store with the intent of purchasing a seifuku for Ryuunosuke. In the OG anime, they went down and begged for one. The result was the same, with Fujinami getting a well deserved beating. But I liked how in the new version, Ryuunosuke decided to use the seifuku as motivation to beat her dad and that’s the end of it. In the OG anime, Ryuunosuke actually calls her dad about this before Ataru starts chasing her.

As to the “date” between Ryuunosuke and Ran, OG anime episode 65 covered this. Thankfully, the 2022 version cuts ALL of the irritating Fujinami crap and just gets down to the core of the story. And I have to admit, Ataru’s obsession at preventing two babes he’s attracted to from “going lesbian” was pretty funny.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Urusei Yatsura 16 was a pretty strong entry and certainly more enjoyable that the two OG anime episodes, thanks to less Fujinami.