うる星やつら episode 29 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 29 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kotatsu-Neko buys a kotatsu from a thrift shop. Later at Ataru’s home, the two are playing Othello while Kotatsu-Neko attempts to put a blanket on the kotatsu. The kotatsu avoids it, ruining the game. When the kotatsu is pinned, it creates a blizzard in Ataru’s room. Lum sees the squid symbol emblematic of the Mendou family on the kotatsu.

As such, Ataru screams out that Suutarou is a “bakayarou”.  Shuutarou appears to attack Ataru. After calming him down, Shuutarou confirms they owned the kotatsu. He gives the backstory of it and why they failed to tame it. Kotatsu-Neko and to kotatsu fight over a period of time. They come to an agreement, where the kotatsu pulls a large sled, driven by Kotatsu-Neko.

Lum and Ataru go to a pet shop. A cow there bites Ataru, then bites Lum. She fries the cow, then goes to her UFO to treat herself. When Lum wakes up, her oni horns have become cow horns. Lum freaks out and starts skipping school. Ten-chan shows up at school one day, where he lets it out that Lum is ill. Lum shows up with her hair in a bun, and she summons Ataru.

After paying Sakura-sensei a visit, Ataru and Lum walk home in the rain. Lum requests that if she goes missing, and a cow shows up at his door, she wants him to name it after her and treat her well. She attempts to flee, but Ataru stops her, causing her hair buns to collapse. When Ataru sees the cow horns, the two weep. Ataru vows to take care of her and soon starts making a cow barn. Meanwhile, Lum learns that her horns will soon return to normal.

Thoughts/Review:

And so we get a dud and a nice story in Urusei Yatsura 29. The dud originates from source manga chapter 250, adapted in the OG in episode 146. The nice story comes from manga chapter 221, and was originally adapted in anime form as episode 117. Also, OG episode 189 covered the Onsen-sensei visit, which originally came from chapter 298.

Pointless Kotatsu-Neko Story

The first story of Urusei Yatsura 29 was quite boring and tedious to me. Kotatsu-Neko only works as a background character, or a brief cameo character. So centering an episode around this giant cat attempting to conquer a magical kotatsu is just pointless rubbish. I didn’t care about Kotatsu-Neko’s efforts, and none of it was funny to me.

I looked back at my OG episode review and man, that was even worse due to story padding. So thankfully, I didn’t have to suffer through additional mindless pap. Still, even without the extra bits, this part of the episode made me want to “spin on” to skip through it. 😅

That aside, there was one humorous moment. When Ataru yells out the “bakayarou” insult at Shuutarou, effectively summoning him, that made me laugh a bit.

Lum the Cow

The second story in Urusei Yatsura 29 fared much better. I find that Lum’s electrocutions don’t work as well for me as they did in the OG anime adaptation. When Lum fried the cow back in the day, I laughed out loud. This time, it merely amused me. I think the OG anime production team tried for a more gag approach to Lum frying things.

Nevertheless, this modern adaptation of Lum’s oni horns turning to cow horns was touching. Even without all of the added filler the OG adaptation did, the 2022 adaptation does what it has to do. To that end, I believed Ataru’s concern over Lum potentially turning into a cow. The fact that he was willing to build her a cow barn to take care of her shows he does love her, even if he’s loathe to show it.

The bizarre part of the episode is the fact that Lum didn’t know know that oni horns grow when the oni get a harmful bacteria in their system. I noticed I didn’t remark on this back in the day, so maybe I didn’t think about it then. But for this current episode, I’m thinking, “How would she NOT know this?” Clearly, when Takahashi-sensei wrote the original chapter, the moment trumped the logic of things.Well, it is a minor point, but still…

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Urusei Yatsura 29 with some final thoughts.

• I guess the current, anime production team are going to keep taking segments from Onsen-sensei’s home visit story and use them to round out episodes that come up short. I’m okay with that.
• Cherry got into the first story, and it was way too long.
• The official subtitles are rubbish, as usual. That said, seeing the word “kotatsu” untranslated surprised me.

In the end, Urusei Yatsura 29 is a mixed bag. The first story is forgettable and boring, while the second story is touching, even if ultimately meaningless.