うる星やつら episode 22 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 22 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A space scarecrow manages to sell Ten-chan an empty bottle that will shrink things down. Ten-chan takes it to Earth to show Lum, only to have her shrunken down. Lum angrily sends Ten-chan to buy the enlarging bottle. Ataru comes home and finds the tiny Lum. She decides to take advantage of the situation by claiming she can only return to normal by being loved by Ataru. Reluctantly, he agrees, but changes his mind when he overhears her talking to Kotatsu-Neko.

The next time he sees Lum, he stuffs her in a bird cage and goes off on a girl hunt. Meanwhile, Ten-chan learns from a space turtle that Gosaku the Scarecrow is destroying his bottles out of frustration. Ten-chan returns to Earth to get Ataru to help. Initially, he’s skeptical, but eventually agrees. However, Lum is angry, so Ataru has to put up with electrocution as they manage to get to Gosaku in time before he destroys his final bottle. Lum is restored and later crams a birdcage on Ataru’s head.

Another day, Shinobu saves a young kitsune (fox) from a pack of dogs. Kitsune wants to repay her. As such, when she loses her rose after the big-lipped gang boss comes after her, Kitsune uses magic to look like Ataru. However, he retains his normal small stature and fox tail. The real Ataru arrives, forcing Kitsune to return to his true form. Shinobu protects Kitsune from attack, thanks him, and sends him on his way. However, he returns as a small, Onsen-sensei. To that end, the class tie up the real Onsen-sensei as a youkai.

Finally, a beauty contest is started at the school with Shinobu, Lum, Ryuunosuke, Ran, and Sakura-sensei as the finalist.

Thoughts/Review:

So, we get some fun, some sweetness, and some tediousness (to say nothing of crappy subtitles) in the 2022 version of Urusei Yatsura 22.

Tiny Lum

The first story of Urusei Yatsura 22 was originally adapted in OG episode 161, which I have reviewed. The story beats are the same, but as is the norm, the OG episode stretches things to the max to fill an entire episode. Also, Ten-chan initially meets the scarecrow on Earth, and it is an ice cream cone that he has to sacrifice for a bottle. Further, there’s a whole thing about Lum and Ataru going for a long stroll where things happen.

That aside, Lum getting shrunk down to about six inches did remind me of Hand Maid May. As I speculated in my review of OG episode 161, I wonder if the creators of that series took a cue from this story.

Regardless, this story was enjoyable. I LOVED how Ataru read a volume of Maison Ikkoku in the episode. Though the annoying Torajima has barely been in the 2022 version of this show, I still enjoyed Lum frying that bastard cat. And of course, it was nice seeing Ataru eventually go all out to help Lum recover.

Kitsune

Next up in the 2022 version of Urusei Yatsura 22 is Kitsune. I know this tiny fox is supposed to be cute, but my memory of the OG anime series is that Kitsune episodes were tedious and boring. To that end, it amuses me that the modern remake of this story doesn’t even take a half episode, whereas OG episode 122 was a full episode that drug until the big-lipped gang boss showed up.

That is one thing the modern version of the series has done well for the most part. It took terrible characters and reduced their terribleness by a massive factor. To that end, I didn’t hate Kitsune at all in this episode. The writers just got on with it and didn’t attempt to pad things out with tedious rubbish. As such, I kinda liked the story in a slightly better way than the OG version, though I didn’t have any laughs this time.

Boring Prelude

The third story element in Urusei Yatsura 22 is a prelude to a story in next week’s episode. I didn’t remember this at all, but it was originally adopted in OG episode 91, which I also reviewed. Looking back at my review, I still don’t remember this, but apparently, things got interesting after this boring stuff. I did note that apparently in the OG episode, the beauty contest sprang from an unofficial voting thing, run by Ataru.

That aside, this part of the episode was boring and tedious.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, three annoying characters (Ten-chan, Torajima, and Fujinami) showed up in Urusei Yatsura 22, but none triggered my irritation alert. As a result, I didn’t mind the first two stories, but the prelude story was tedious rubbish.