うる星やつら episode 36 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 36 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Shuutarou trains in large, octopus jars to try to overcome his phobia. As such, he misses school, causing Ataru, Lum, and others to show up to check in on him and feast. When they learn about his training, Lum sends them back in time to when Shuutarou was a young brat. Ataru takes advantage of the situation to repeatedly whack young Shuutarou on the head for various things. Young Ryoko shows up, providing her Oniisama with her usual “help”.

Eventually, young Shuutarou has Ataru and teen Shuutarou captured. Ataru escapes his bonds and helps young Shuutarou punish teen Shuutarou. Meanwhile, Lum, Shinobu, and Ryuunosuke dress up as Shuutarou’s guards to infiltrate the mansion. Young Shuutarou has a giant bell placed over teen Shuutarou. When Ataru turns on him, young Shuutarou threatens to blow everyone up with dynamite.

Shuutarou breaks the heavy, metal bell. Having snapped mentally, teen Shuutarou chases Ataru and young Shuutarou into the jar room. There, Ataru and young Shuutarou hide in a jar as the insane teen Shuutarou starts smashing jars with an ax. Ataru gets out to foil teen Shuutarou, leaving young Shuutarou alone and afraid in the dark, enclosed jar.

Eventually, thanks to Lum, Shinobu, and Ryuunosuke, teen Shuutarou is distracted enough so Ataru can knock him out. They return to the present, where they lament not knowing what caused Shuutarou’s phobia. However, in the past, the events young Shuutarou went through started his phobia.

Thoughts/Review:

I admit, after the previous episode, I lost my enthusiasm to watch this anime series. I forced myself to watch anyway. That aside, Urusei Yatsura 36 is an adaptation of source manga chapters 178 and 179. The OG anime series adapted this in episode 86.

Slapstick Fun

Not going to lie, I have a weakness for slapstick humor. Thankfully, the story of Urusei Yatsura 36 dishes it out in spades. The recipient of almost all of it is Shuutarou, either in his child form or his teen form. Despite seeing some of the jokes coming miles away, I couldn’t help but grin as Ataru took full advantage of the situation to have a ton of fun at Shuutarou’s expense.

While I got a kick out of Ataru’s slapstick fun, I can’t say the same for Ryoko’s antics. Everyone remarked on how that since a child, she has not changed. On one hand, she reverently addresses Shuutarou as “Onii-sama”. On the other hand, she has complete disdain for Shuutarou, which is expressed in her slapstick actions against him. For some reason, I’ve never found this funny. Fortunately, this “humor” accounted for maybe 10% of the slapstick in the episode.

Finally, the moment the group go back in time to learn what caused Shuutarou’s phobia, one knew that the antics of the group would cause it. Still, it didn’t lessen the enjoyment I had for the episode as a whole.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Urusei Yatsura 36 ended up being more enjoyable than I expected. However, one has to really like slapstick humor to enjoy the episode.