うる星やつら episode 31 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 31 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Shinobu visits Sakura-sensei to be exorcised due to the monsters and pervert males around her. Unfortunately, Sakura-sensei finds no curse or other issue. As such, Shinobu walks home, where she encounters a famished, handsome teen male. After he eats a carrot and revives, Shinobu discovers that the guy, named Inaba, is wearing a bunny costume. When he hits on her, she sends him flying past Lum, who witnesses him pass into another dimension.

Shinobu discovers she has a key, so Lum builds a dimension door. Shinobu, Lum, and Ataru step through the door into a place filled with doors. They manage to get into one door, which is their city. Ataru chases a girl and Lum chases him, so Shinobu explores. She discovers she’s in the future where she’s married to Ataru and has a kid with him. Eventually, she’s found by Inaba.

Meanwhile, Ataru and Lum discover Sakura-sensei has become a housewife. Ataru discovers that he’s a wage slave to Shuutarou. Lum learns that she marries Rei. However, they are captured by Inaba’s “rabbit” co-workers since they have Inaba’s key to open dimension doors. Eventually they escape with Inaba, putting on bunny costumes.

Lum and Ataru look for the “perfect” future. On their first stop, they learn that Lum marries Shuutarou and Ataru is Shuutarou’s servant. Their next stop has a slight variance on that same future. So Ataru and Lum keep searching with Shinobu and Inaba in tow.

Thoughts/Review:

And so the time travel sequel of sorts shows up in Urusei Yatsura 31. Originally taken from source manga chapters 329, 330, and 331, this story was adapted in anime form as Urusei Yatsura OVA Ep. 03: Inaba the Dream Maker. Of course, episode 31 does not tell the full tale, but it is a good start.

Time Travel Again

It is interesting that in the original manga, the original time travel episode was early in the manga’s run. The Inaba time travel story came late in the manga’s run. So I understand why the anime production company would want to bring these two stories closer in Urusei Yatsura 31. And it works, more so since Lum and Ataru reference the events of the previous episode.

In terms of story, I didn’t find anything to laugh about. But I did enjoy seeing a continuation of “what might have been” future tales. I got a kick out of seeing Sakura-sensei looking like Kyoko from Maison Ikkoku. They even had her in the Piyo Piyo apron, which the OG OVA episode did not have. So that was a nice touch.

Beyond that, while I didn’t have any laughs, I did enjoy the adventure in time for what it was. I didn’t remember some of the elements that were told in the OG OVA, so that allowed me to experience things in a somewhat fresh fashion. When the episode came to an end, it seemed all too soon, which is the sign of an enjoyable outing.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Urusei Yatsura 31 makes another foray into the future and what might happen. I look forward to seeing where things go, beyond what I know what’s in store for Shinobu.

Additional: Man, the official subtitles are such TRASH! Two quick examples. In the first, Shinobu calls the men she encounters “monster”, not “freaks”. No doubt, the localizer would say, “Well, what does it matter? She’s calling them a name and I think freak is better than monster ’cause I’m smarter than the Japanese creator!”

Next example (and there were tons others I could do), Ataru simply calls Shinobu by name — “Shinobu.” Yet the localizer said, “Yeah, I don’t think Ataru would do that. I mean normally, he’d say ‘Shinobu-chan’, but since we can’t have that Japanese honorific filth in our English subtitles, we’d change it to something wonderfully superior, like ‘Shinobu, babe!’ So that’s what I’m going to rewrite the moment as and sod those <censored> writers who didn’t do what I think they should have done!” 😑