うる星やつら episode 141 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 141 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Shuutaro, Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu are on a trip in Shuutaro’s prized B-29 World War II Allied bomber. Ataru is not impressed with this mode of transport until Shuutaro offers him a way off, after which Ataru become respectful to the plane the the aviators who’ve flown it. Meanwhile, the plane is short of fuel, so the pilot and co-pilot start lightening the load. That includes dumping the passengers. Shuutaro is furious and promises punishment but when the B-29 crashes into the ocean and explodes, he decides against punishment. Parachuting safely to an island, Ataru wants Shuutaro to kill himself over this disaster. When Shuutaro produces a (large and bulky) cell phone, Ataru changes his tune. However, once the phone is shown to be broken, Ataru again demands Shuutaro off himself.

As the group walks through the forest, they encounter a girl their age. She is afraid of them, more so because Shuutaro and Ataru begin to lust for her. After being restrained by Shinobu and Lum respectively, the group finds itself in the village of the girl, who’s name is Anzu. Her grandfather, the village elder, explains that they have no modern technology here as on this island, they attempt to preserve the traditional Japanese lifestyle and thus they have to stay there. Ataru then basically asks for Anzu’s hand in marriage (to Lum’s annoyance) while Shinobu says she’ll marry Shuutaro and bare his children. As they sit over a meal, both Anzu and her grandfather notice the time and leap to the rafters. To the surprise of the foursome, giant bamboo shoots spring out of the ground all over, including through the floor of the home.

The Elder and Anzu begin cutting the shoots but when asked why this is happening, the Elder simply explains that his grandmother Kinu-sama loved bamboo. After gathering shoots, a helicopter approaches and lowers a basket which is filled with the shoots for which the village receives payment. Shuutaro is frustrated when he learns it is a helicopter from his family’s conglomeration. Meanwhile, a report comes to the Elder that one of the elderly villagers is eating a poisonous food. Once consumed, the man issues forth a bright light and a large, Japanese castle appears. The man, now young, then engages in a sword fight with the famous Musashi. As Shuutaro, Shinobu, Lum, and Ataru look on in stunned amazement, the Elder explains that the poisons in the food cause fantasy to become reality.

Anzu washes some mushrooms and then eats the poisonous part of one. She collapses and the scene changes around the foursome to a western-themed classic horror place. They flee from a pursuing monster and arriving at the Elder’s home, he explains that whomever eats one of the poisoned foods, their fantasy overrides the previous fantasy and revives the previous consumer of poison. The Elder tells them that they must now become food testers to find out which parts of foods are poisonous and which aren’t and before them, he has four dishes of new foods. All four decide to comply and after eating, Ataru transforms. His “world” is one of babes in bunny girl costume with sculptures and trees that look like beautiful naked women. He also has other strange things such as perverted plants and an oni that looks like himself.

A pack of wild horses run over Shuutaro and when passed, he angrily asks the Elder why they must go through this. The Elder explains about building culture and tradition, which doesn’t set to well with Shuutaro, especially when another pack of wild horses run over him again. After getting up, Shinobu comes to see if he is OK. Shuutaro sees Anzu, who smiles sexily at him and winking, calls him “oniisan.” This causes Shuutaro to lose it after he calls her “Anzu-sama” and becomes very Ataru-like. Meanwhile, a Mendou helicopter arrives but now they have a report that there will be no more bamboo shoots from this village so they return to base, which just so happens to be at the other end of the island.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, talk about weird. I’ve mentioned how Urusei Yatsura gets wacky of late, but this is really out there, though not uncommon for the series.

I was kind of surprised that the episode had Shuutaro owning a B-29. After all, the B-29 Superfortress not only rained a massive number of conventional bombs on Japan, but also dropped two nukes on the country. Yet, the episode had no feeling of negativity toward this bomber but rather one of respect. First was the highly detailed manner in which it was displayed. Second was Shuutaro’s considering it a precious part of his collection. Though Ataru badmouthed the plane because of its age and even though the plane went down, it still didn’t come off as anti-American or the like.

While I enjoyed this very nutty episode, the only real funny moment came when the bamboo shoots sprang up all over the village and inside the traditional Japanese homes. The unexpected nature of the bamboo shoots arriving combined with Shuutaro, Shinobu, and Ataru desperately attempting to avoid being impaled made me laugh. Now that I think about it, the foursome’s fleeing the monster was humorous as well. The ending with Ataru taking the poison and turning the land into his fantasy world was predictable and unfortunately not too funny. I will admit that the oni that looked kinda like Ataru and certainly sounded like him made me smile a bit.

Other than that, not a whole lot to say here. So, time to move to the next episode.