うる星やつら episode 144 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 144 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lum visits an alien computer for an exam to create a custom dream fruit plant, who’s fruit will allow Lum to have a peaceful sleep with dreams about her desires, in this case, Ataru. Lum tell Ten that he can’t have any but when Sakura complains of insomnia, Ten thinks that the fruit will allow her to sleep. Sakura takes one even though she doesn’t believe it will work and in her dream, she’s Snow White and Cherry is all seven dwarves. Sakura is horrified when Ataru shows up as the prince and kisses her. The next day, the exhausted Sakura is met by Lum and the very flirtatious Ataru, who despite beatings doesn’t stay gone long. That night, Sakura again dreams about Ataru and has had enough. She races to Ataru’s house to beat him. Ataru takes advantage of the situation and takes another beating but Lum realizes what has happened. As such, Sakura is destined to have a dream of marrying Ataru and Lum takes a fruit to stop it while Ataru takes one to make sure it happens.

In the dream realm, Sakura fends off Dream-Ataru while Ataru and Lum get on a pterodactyl to locate her. Because it is a dream, Sakura finds herself in various situations with Dream-Ataru, including a wrestling ring, a kaiju (monsters like Godzilla) attack, and more. Everything is leading to her wedding Ataru and she’s desperate to stop it. When Lum and Ataru arrive, Ataru also goes after Sakura, forcing her to fend off both Ataru’s. Lum is frustrated and challenges Dream-Ataru to a battle. Unfortunately, Lum’s electrical attacks don’t work here and Lum is defeated by Dream-Ataru, resulting in him imprisoning her within a sphere. Dream-Ataru takes Sakura to a church after defeating Ataru and Lum electrocutes herself to escape the sphere. Ataru decides to bring her despite not initially wanting to, which makes Lum happy. Getting to the church, Cherry marries Dream-Ataru to Sakura and she’s furious. Waking up, Sakura beats Ataru for the mess while Lum feels rested and has had a good dream.

Thoughts/Review:

Well, the writers wanted to do more parody stuff, I see. Having a dream setting allows them to do whatever parody they like, which included Snow White among other things. I mention the kaiju stuff, which Japan is famous for (Godzilla obviously being the most famous of the kaiju). I’m not sure if the monster in the episode is representative of a specific kaiju or just a generic representation. Ditto Dream-Ataru being partially robotic to fight both Lum and Ataru. Dream-Ataru having a chest full of rockets reminded me of Ambassador Magma (or as he was known to us in the U.S. during the late 70’s, “Goldar” from Space Giants). That too was a tokusatsu series which had the heroes battling kaiju and Magma/Goldar often fired rockets out of his chest. Whether that was the specific show the writers were parodying or not, it was still fun to watch.

Regarding the dreaming, if the fruit is supposed to give the eater dreams of Lum’s desire for Ataru, then (1) Lum and Ataru really shouldn’t have just been able to enter Sakura’s dreams and (2) Lum and Ataru should have dreamed up two more Atarus as I see it. I suppose that was too much and the episode didn’t go that route. I was rather hoping for an amorous Dream-Ataru to hit on Ataru because I think that would have been a riot. Instead, the best we got was a short fight between Ataru and Sakura’s Dream-Ataru. That was somewhat amusing, especially when Ataru defeats Dream-Ataru’s rocket punches with “paper” from Rock-Paper-Scissors. ^_^

In the end, this was an entertaining episode with humorous (but not laugh out loud funny) moments and a lot of punishment for Ataru (and lest I forget, a bit of punishment for Cherry as well).