うる星やつら episode 04 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 04 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Shuutarou and Shinobu are partnered for tennis doubles against Lum and Ataru. Meanwhile, a group of Karasutengu (crow tengu) are carrying the pod of their monarch, Princess Kurama, down the hillside. An accident causes the pod to smack Shuutarou. Upon seeing Shuutarou, the Karasutengu fly close, encouraging him to kiss Kurama and wake her. Once accomplished, Shuutarou will be her husband and she will start baring his children immediately.

Lum punishes Ataru for wanting to kiss Kurama. Shuutarou hesitates, giving Ataru the opening to kiss her, despite his bonds from Lum. Kurama wakes and is excited to think that Shuutarou will be her husband. The Karasutengu decide to keep the truth from Kurama for now, despite the Elder’s objection. Lum agrees to help them pair Shuutarou with Kurama.

Meanwhile, Kurama pays Shuutarou a visit in class. Ataru tries to tell her the truth, but the Karasutengu stop and gag him. Lum encourages the Shuutarou-Kurama pairing. Shinobu tries to tell the truth and is also bound and gagged. Lum and the Karasutengu build a small, sphere home for Kurama. She drags Shuutarou inside and tries to seduce him. Ataru manages to get in and reveals the truth. Shuutarou confirms it, leaving Kurama devastated.

The elder doesn’t know where the tradition that the princess has to marry the man who kissed her came from. Using their advanced tech, Kurama is able to talk to the first elder from 120 generations past. Learning the tradition is rubbish, she decides to marry Shuutarou. However, Ataru reveals Shuutarou’s fear of darkness and closed spaces. As such, she sets off to find a man.

Thoughts/Review:

The story of Urusei Yatsura 04 is a radical departure from what the OG anime episode 9 (first half) did. Not sure how different this is from the source manga through.

Enter Kurama!

And so after a cameo in the previous episode, Kurama arrives in full for Urusei Yatsura 04. Subtitle rubbish aside (more on that in a bit), I couldn’t help but laugh at the antics here. I’m guessing some of it had to do with the fact that there was very little in common between the OG episode and the 2022 episode. In fact, about the only things they have in common are the introduction of Kurama, her Karasutengu, and the fact that she doesn’t want to mate with Ataru.

The slapstick humor caused me to laugh for sure. Ataru not actually warning Shuutarou about the pod about to land on him was funny. And for me, the funniest slapstick moment happened when the Karasutengu notices their Elder was unconscious. The beating they pummeled the Elder with was so unexpected, I nearly spewed my water.

Of course Ataru’s desperation to land a kiss on Kurama was hilarious. Likewise, Lum’s actions to stop Ataru were amusing, both in her punishments of him and her partnership with the other Karasutengu.

The OG anime episode didn’t have Shuutarou in it. As such, Kurama decides she must train Ataru before he can become an acceptable husband. I admit I do miss some of those story beats, but on the whole, the 2022 version is funnier to me.

Cringe Subtitles

Man, watching Urusei Yatsura 04 was a very painful experience, thanks to a crappy adaptation. In the spirit of “localization”, the subtitles contained some “cringe as F” sentences. No doubt, the people behind this thought these cringe things were hilarious. And maybe a ton of people also thought this was hilarious. But for me, I didn’t laugh.

More than that, the subtitles had characters saying a lot of stuff they didn’t say in the Japanese.For example, Ataru calls out to Shuutarou when Kurama’s pod is about to hit him. After saying “Mendou,” all Ataru says in the Japanese is the equivalent of, “Um!” (ano na). He isn’t saying, “Think fast!” as the moronic adaptation states. But the adapter probably thought it was more clever to make Ataru say something pithy rather than “Um!” 😒

And there were tons of such rewrites throughout. A character calls out someone’s name? Change it to something pithy. An elder talking about something that happened when he was a boy? Change it to “fledgling” ’cause Karasutengu are youkai birds, so it more funny. 😑 And on and on and on…

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I need to get back to work (it is NUTS, which is why I no longer stream nor blog much). But before I go, let me wrap up my review of Urusei Yatsura 04 with some final thoughts.

• While I don’t dislike Shuutarou, it amused me to see Ataru expose Shuutarou’s phobias to Kurama.
• Speaking of Shuutarou, was he always so chaste as he was in this episode? My recollection is that Shuutarou had just as much an eye for the ladies as Ataru. But I could be forgetting a lot.
• Considering that the episode ended with Kurama going off to find a man, I’m wondering if we’ll actually see her again. After all, the OG anime gave her a reason to hang around — trying to tame and train Ataru. The 2022 anime gives her no reason to return.

In the end, Urusei Yatsura 04 was a very enjoyable episode from a story perspective. It is a shame that the English adaptation was such rubbish.