うる星やつら episode 26 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 26 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lum waits for Ataru to join her for their 4pm date. At 4:15, Ataru is on a girl hunt and actually scores. At 5pm, he trades off with a friend to meet Lum. However, he discovers Lum embraced by a teen boy in only tiger shorts. The boy is immune to Lum’s electric attacks. Ataru gets angry, but when he sees Lum’s happy face over this, he backs off. As such, Lum goes off with the boy on an elephant.

After spending the evening with the boy in his cabin in a jungle, he refuses to let her go as he has decided to make her his wife. Lum decides to stay to make Ataru jealous. The next day, Lum comes to the school and opens a portal to the boy’s jungle. This causes Ataru, Shinobu, Shuutarou, and others to go after Lum and the boy. Since they are up against an electrical foe, Shuutarou takes them to his mansion to get special suits from an old gardener on the place.

Lum further entices Ataru and company to come after her with a fake broadcast. When the group enters the electric jungle, the boy easily defeats them and hauls Lum away. He cons Lum into feeling sorry for him so he can bind her. Meanwhile, the group discover the boy is the lost grandson to the old gardener. Ataru intercepts the boy and Lum, taking Lum in the process.

During the fight, the boy causes his TV, whom he refers to as his grandfather, to break. Shinobu offers to take the boy (Shingo) back to his real grandfather. Lum apologizes for her role in the mess. Ataru tries to blow it off, but appreciates it all the same.

Thoughts/Review:

I certainly remember the story told in Urusei Yatsura 26 when I watched OG anime episode 192. The original manga story came from chapters 301, 302, 303, and 304. As a story goes, well, stories showing how Ataru actually cares about Lum are always better.

Jungle Life

Clearly, Shingo in Urusei Yatsura 26 is a tribute to Tarzan. As stories go, it is pretty bizarre. Sure, the entire series is pretty bizarre, but having some young boy somehow grow up alone in an artificial, electrified jungle on the Mendou estate has got to be up there in terms of wackiness. I get there was some weirdo experiment with electric vegetables. But why the animals (beyond making the Tarzan reference)?

Stupidity aside, I did like seeing Lum dressed up for her date with Ataru. I didn’t mention it in my review of the OG anime adaptation, but I did always wonder why Ataru would ask Lum on a date. Much like the jungle setting and Shingo’s jungle life, the date felt contrived for the sake of the story. Heck, Ataru was out date hunting and even landed a girl. Still, Lum did look cute.

Regardless, the purpose of the episode was to make a story where Ataru would get jealous and fight for Lum. And to be honest, while the humor did nothing for me, I did appreciate Ataru’s brief honesty in how he views Lum. And Lum certainly appreciated that. It is just a shame that for the sake of gags, Takahashi-sensei never allowed the characters to ever grow. Tomorrow, Ataru returns to normal.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Urusei Yatsura 26 does a whacked, Tarzan parody to showcase Ataru cares for Lum. It wasn’t funny to me, but I did enjoy the episode all the same.