うる星やつら episode 24 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 24 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Astaru discovers Ten and Kotatsu-Neko chewing a magical space bubble gum that causes your fantasy object to appear in the bubble. As such, Ataru steals it with the notion of creating hot babes. Meanwhile, Ten complains to Lum, who suspects what Ataru is doing. She catches him after he creates a version of Oyuki and Benten hugging. Thus he flees, and in doing so, wastes all his gum creating decoys for Lum and weapons to fight Mendou.

Lum gets some gum from Ten to set her own trap. She creates seductive versions of Sakura-sensei, Ryuunousuke, and Shinobu. However, the real versions find their gum clones and angrily go to find the culprit. Lum hides as Ataru uses his last piece to create a harem. The girls find him and burst his bubble. Ataru is trapped in the gum, allowing Lum to torment him by slowly bursting his fantasy women.

Sometime later, Ten and Ataru battle at breakfast. In the ensuing fight, Ataru hurls a rice cooker at Ten, but hits Lum instead. As such, she loses the ability to understand or speak Japanese. Ataru thinks it is a joke until Sakura-sensei confirms the ailment, saying it will go away in a few days. Ataru starts to take advantage of the situation, but Lum abandons him, returning to her UFO. She’s away for days, causing Ataru to become depressed.

When she finally returns, Ataru apologizes, then embraces her. Lum gives him an ugly mouthpiece to translate Japanese into her language. The following day, Ataru wears the device to communicate with Lum. However, he is angry that it looks so weird.

Thoughts/Review:

The story of Urusei Yatsura 24 originates from source manga chapters 275 and 206 respectively. The bubble gum chapter was never adapted for the original anime series. However, Lum’s loss of Japanese language skills was adapted in episode 163 of the OG anime series.

Magical Bubblegum

I found myself enjoying the first story of Urusei Yatsura 24 more than expected, mainly because I didn’t know it from the first anime. Yeah, the annoying Ten-chan is there, but only as a plot device. I can deal with that. The usual hijinks of Lum angrily pursuing Ataru and failing follow.

What I liked most is how Lum’s plans to snare Ataru sorta backfired on her. She’s literally using the clone girls she made as bait on a fishing expedition. I kinda hoped that somehow, Lum would get busted. But it didn’t surprise me that Ataru took the blame for Lum’s creations. Still, it was fun to watch.

Language Amnesia

I did remember the second story of Urusei Yatsura 24 from the OG anime adaptation. I had to go back and reread my review of the episode. Assuming the modern anime adaptation of the story is fairly faithful to the source manga, then the OG anime added a ton of stuff. After all, that version filled an entire episode. Apparently, the OG adaptation had Ataru partying hard and buying porn. And after several days had past, this excess shattered Ataru.

In the modern story, Ataru’s girl hunt is barely there. Lum acts in an atypical matter in my opinion. She just leaves in a huff rather than fry him. Then Ataru immediately gets depressed and misses Lum, all while denying it. Unfortunately, this comes off as a plot demand rather than a natural occurrence. Ataru’s quick change of heart isn’t earned.

On the other hand, even if the OG anime made up a lot of stuff, Ataru came to realize that he’d rather have Lum than a life of debauchery. That felt earned to me, as I recall things. That aside, I didn’t feel any emotion when Ataru embraced Lum, and I wanted to feel something. Oh well.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Urusei Yatsura 24 with some final thoughts.

• Inuyasha gets a shout-out in the second half of the episode.
• There was too much Ten-chan in the episode, but at least he wasn’t too annoying.
• There was also too much Cherry in the episode, and he was just the gag for the recap.
• The subtitles are below average, like before. Honorifics are gone. Jari-Ten becomes “rugrat”. “What’s this?” becomes “Oh my god!” And so forth. Its the usual “I’m a localizer, so I’m going to change things! Up yours, Weebs! Localize!” 😑

In the end, Urusei Yatsura 24 is mostly fun and a way to get back into the groove of the series after an extended break.