うる星やつら episode 44 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 44 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lum’s father marshals his forces to war against the Dark Dominion. However, Rupa’s great grandfather delivers a present–a giant, mushroom bomb that cripples the Oni forces. Meanwhile, Benten and Oyuki come to Earth to find out what is going on after they lost contact with the Oni home world. After getting briefed, they along with Ataru and Shuutarou go to Ran’s UFO house.

Against Ran’s wishes, Benten and Oyuki fly the UFO to the dark dimension, “crashing” into a mushroom ship. Inside, the group, sans Ataru, are captured. Rupa shows this to Lum to prove to her she won’t be rescued. Meanwhile, Ataru emerges and is captured by Karula. She’s not happy about Rupa’s imminent marriage to Lum. She gets Ataru to agree to marry her in order to gain access to Rupa’s palace and wedding.

Meanwhile, Lum throws up massive resistance to the wedding. To that end, Rupa’s grandfather prepares a mushroom double of Lum, just in case they need it. While Benten and company escape their jail cell, Karula enters the chapel with Ataru. Rupa throws Lum down a trap door and activates the mushroom clone. Clone Lum rejects Ataru, so he storms off. Karula starts destroying the place after Rupa rejects her. This causes Ataru and Rupa to flee as Karula and the now freed Lum pursue.

Thoughts/Review:

Source manga chapters for the 2022 Urusei Yatsura 44 came from chapters 359, 360, and 361. And as usual, the OG anime adaptation came from The Final Chapter movie.

Mostly Meaningless Pap

Needs of the plot completely dictate the story of Urusei Yatsura 44. Lum’s father goes to war, so naturally, Upa (Rupa’s grandfather) shows up with a convenient mushroom bomb that they don’t deal with until it is too late. Ataru doesn’t get captured at the start so that Karula (Carla) can nab him for her purposes. Benten and company are all captured, but then escape as soon as the plot allows, revealing that they could have escaped earlier. You get the point.

And then there’s Ataru. On one hand, he’s determined to get Lum. On the other, well, there’s always time to try to hook up with Ran. And then when he meets Karula, there’s time for her too. BUT, he won’t marry Karula, which is our indication that its Lum he truly loves. Of course on the other hand, Ataru gets jealous and in a huff because Lum “cheated” on him. It wearies me.

The only character I felt anything for was Karula. Not sure why Karula would be into a guy who’s okay with kidnapping a woman and forcing her to marry him against her will.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I’m kinda wasted and not in the best of moods. As such, I’ll wrap up my review of Urusei Yatsura 44 by saying that despite what I wrote here, I didn’t hate the episode. At the same time, I was kinda glad when it was over.