うる星やつら episode 30 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 30 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ataru goes home with Ten-chan. A disguised, alien vendor manages to sell Ataru a pair of earmuffs. He and Ten-chan try them on, only to discover they are in each other’s body. Ataru decides to take advantage of this and pursue girls as Ten-chan. Meanwhile Ten-chan, in Ataru’s body, cannot convince Lum of the situation.

Ataru targets Sakura-sensei, who senses something isn’t right. Despite the fact that Ten-chan calls her “Sakura-sensei” instead of “Sakura-neechan” doesn’t register with her. Ataru has his fun while Ten-chan gets repeatedly fried by Lum. Cherry shows up with earmuffs. When he puts them on, Ataru goes back into his own, battered body while Ten-chan enters Cherry’s body, and Cherry enter’s Ten-chan’s body.

Sometime later, Ataru struggles to get to school on time now that Lum isn’t getting him up in the morning. Lum offers a shortcut to school, using one of her alien gadgets. While it does take the pair to school, it does so 10 years in the future. Ataru is unhappy when he learns of this. He attempts to eat his lunch, but ends up giving it to a little kid.

Lum joins Ataru and senses the kid is similar to Ataru. Both are stunned when the kid says his name is MOROBOSHI Kokeru, Ataru’s son. Kokeru’s lack of horns crushes Lum as it means the child isn’t hers. Ataru returns the child to school, where Kokeru goes to a heavily made up woman. This depresses Ataru, so he and the dejected Lum return to the present.

Thoughts/Review:

We get a story I vaguely remember and one that wasn’t previously adapted in Urusei Yatsura 30. The earmuff story originally came from manga chapter 72, and was originally adapted in OG anime episode 24. The future visit chapter came from source manga chapter 12, so a really early story. This is the story that was never adapted in the OG anime for some reason.

Earmuff Nonsense Hilarity

For the first story in Urusei Yatsura 30, I have to admit that it made me laugh when I didn’t think it should. I think part of it stems from the fact that when Ataru is beaten and fried, I know it is Ten-chan in there. I cannot stand that little smeghead, even though he’s not nearly as annoying as the OG anime series.

On the other hand, whenever Ten-chan gets a beating from Sakura-sensei, even though Ataru is in Ten-chan’s body, seeing Ten-chan take a beating was awesome. But beyond that, there wasn’t much to the episode.

Back to the Future

I enjoyed the second story in Urusei Yatsura 30 a bit, though there was an element that initially confused me. For a start, it was interesting to see Ataru’s classmates ten years in the future. To be honest, I felt the 2022 production team wanted to do a nod to the OG Lum’s Stormtroopers. That was the vibe I got from the male classmates at the reunion, which I’ve not felt to date.

Despite how terribly Ataru treats Lum at times, she loves him unconditionally. As such, it was pretty heartbreaking to see Lum so devastated when she discovered she wasn’t Kokeru’s mother. Unfortunately, this all means nothing as Takahashi-sensei always does a reset. And this story was from an early chapter, so Lum gets over it ’cause “reasons”. And that’s the biggest crime in most of Takahashi-sensei’s works.

That aside, I did get a chuckle out of Ataru seeing what he thought was his future wife. I was confused when the audience reveal of Ataru’s true future wife was Shinobu. The modern anime adaptation quickly killed the Shinobu x Ataru romance. So it felt out of place for the future to depict Shinobu as Ataru’s wife. However, since the source story was so early in the manga’s cycle, now it makes sense.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

There’s no continuation in the manga for what Lum and Ataru do about the future they saw in Urusei Yatsura 30. However, the rabbit at the end of the episode suggests that an OG OVA episode is going to be used in the 2022 TV series. And we’ll see if the anime team works things so that there is a conclusion with Lum and Ataru.

That aside, in the end, I did enjoy Urusei Yatsura 30 for different reasons. And we’ll see what the anime does next episode.