うる星やつら episode 17 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 17 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ryuunosuke is determined to buy her first bra. However, she only has ¥500 and bras cost a lot more. Meanwhile, Shinobu is stalked by a gang. As such, she clings to Ryuunosuke when she sees her since Ryuunosuke dresses as a guy. They guys confront the girls, explaining their boss is desperate to date Shinobu. However, they think that if their boss sees pictures of Shinobu dating Ryuunosuke, he’ll give up on Shinobu. Ryuunosuke agrees to go along when they offer a ¥5000 gift certificate.

Ryuunosuke and Shinobu go on their rocky, fake date. The gang attempt to stage lots of photos that go too far. Ataru crashes the date and offers a bra to Ryuunosuke. Lum punishes him as a result. The giant head, giant lipped boss shows up, desperate for Shinobu. She punches him as a result, but the ¥5000 gift certificate gets burned on Cherry’s and Kotatsu-Neko’s grill. The gang offer a bra to the boss, who eats it, thinking it is Shinobu’s.

Some evening later, Ataru’s mom lays out the rules on eating since they are poor. Ataru eats more than his share of shumai. As they argue, a shooting star crashes into the house, offering three wishes. He gets verbally abused and is about to leave, but Ataru’s father demands something be done about the house. As such, Shooting Star writes it down on a star paper and eats it, causing the house to be fully repaired.

Realizing Shooting Star is legit, the family, including Lum, argue about what the final two wishes should be. Cherry shows up and steals a wish to get yakisoba. Ataru is desperate to get a harem, but his fake star paper wish is rejected. Ataru’s father wants to make a dream come true, but Ataru’s mom wants cash to solve their problems. They argue all night, as Shooting Star drinks all the beer in the house.

With time running out on the wishes, Shooting Star has passed out. They try to wake him without success. Cherry writes a wish to have Shooting Star wake up, thus burning all of the family’s wishes.

Thoughts/Review:

Two stories that comprised Urusei Yatsura 17 were made worse by Cherry’s existence.

Fake Date for a Bra

I hated this story when it appeared in OG episode 96 and I still hate it in the 2022 Urusei Yatsura 17. On one hand, the 2022 version is better because there’s NO FUJINAMI! I think I may have hated his character the most in the OG series, though the competition for that title was stiff. So the whole irritation of Fujinami going on and on with a photo of his “dead” wife, happy that their “son” has a girlfriend is thankfully gone.

But even with that positive, I mostly hated the 2022 take on this story. For a start, the boss character is much more grotesque. In the OG version, he was just an ugly freak obsessed with Shinobu. Here, he’s a mindless, grotesque abomination who happily eats a bra he thinks is Shinobu’s.

Then, there’s the whole “let’s jack with Ryuunosuke” element, that I despised in both version. I never found this funny, but apparently Takahashi-sensei did, considering how often the “gag” comes up in the series.

Finally, can we talk about the terrible dubtitles from Sentai?  Throughout the story, Ryuunosuke says “brassiere”, which is mostly changed in the subtitles to “bra”. That’s not a problem for me. However, whenever Ryuunosuke said “brassiere” as a single word sentence, the subtitles invented BS to “explain” the Engrish way the Japanese say “brassiere”. What the smeg is “Bralright”? Why not just say “brassier”?

Wish Upon a Star

The second story in Urusei Yatsura 17 is the tedious tale of the Wishing Star. This story was covered in OG episode 177. One thing the 2022 version shed was the depressing story of Ataru’s father regretting the choices he made in life and fantasizing about his ideal wife (Sakura-sensei) and child (Shinobu). But the OG episode does actually establish the “we don’t have a lot of money” thing better than the 2022 version.

While the 2022 version removes the irritating Ten-chan, Cherry is still there. Considering how he’s a major “driver” of what passes for a “story”, that was to be expected. However, Cherry is another of those massively irritating characters. So him showing up to steal a wish didn’t make me laugh. And his “solving” the issue of the passed out Shooting Star at the end didn’t make me laugh either.

As I mentioned, the 2022 version isn’t depressing like the OG episode. However, the core story elements remain the same. Ataru’s father wants a life redo for unknown reasons. Ataru’s mom wants cash to solve their problems. Ataru wants a harem, which I don’t think the 2022 version has touched before. And Lum wants Ataru to only look at her. None of this was funny to me, beyond a slight smile at Ataru trying to con Shooting Star and failing.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I’m massively behind here, so let me wrap up my review of Urusei Yatsura 17. Back when I reviewed the OG versions of these stories, I didn’t find them funny or enjoyable. And though there are some improvements in the 2022 adaptation of said stories, I still didn’t find them fun or enjoyable.

Additional: Okay, I was reminded of one very positive thing from the episode — an 80s nod. Back in the day, most people didn’t have cable. And broadcast TV ended at night, resulting in static on the TV set. And the production team here captured that moment, which I loved! The struggle was real back then, ladies and gentlemen!