Urusei Yatsura 98 - 99

SPOILER Summaries/Synopsis:

うる星やつら episode 98

A frustrated Ran attempts to ruin Lum's life by kidnapping her and making a perfect copy of her, which she orders to break up with Ataru and cause him pain. The copy ends up refusing. Ran ends up making six copies, all fails. They all escape, meaning Ataru has seven Lum's to deal with. His plan to have Lum's Stormtroopers take some fails, so Arartu ends up fleeing to Ran's residence to get rid of the copies. Shuutaro orders his military to stop Ataru but their efforts end up helping him. Eventually, Ataru gets to Ran's house and all of the Lum's are trapped. However, Ataru pressing some buttons causes an accident, leading to a sky full of Lums.

うる星やつら episode 99

Megane and Chibi are working at a soba restaurant when Lum, Ataru, Kotatsu-Neko, and Cherry arrive to be fed. A stranger also comes in and Cherry identifies him as a professional fast-food warrior, who can destroy a restaurant and indeed, this pro walks out having defeated the owner and scoring free food. When it is revealed that the town is being invaded by more of these pros, Shuutaro is found to have hired them, wanting to clear the small restaurants in town for his mega restaurant. As such, to defeat him, Ataru organizes a group to face the pro eaters in an eating competition which ultimately Sakura-sensei wins with no problem, meaning Shuutaro's plans are flushed.

Thoughts/Review: I decided that since these episodes of Urusei Yatsura mostly defy much analysis, I'd start fast tracking them. Obviously, I could simply not blog the series and just watch it, but for some reason, I kinda felt like the old school anime titles should be blogged.

Episode 98 was more like a linked, 2-part episode. The first part was mildly amusing and the second half ending up being funny in places, especially with the seven Lum's electrocuted the big-talking Lum Stormtroopers. Episode 99 was rather tedious with the ultimate nonsense about fast-food warriors and an eating contest. I found nothing amusing or interesting here.

Urusei Yatsura 100 - 101

SPOILER Summaries/Synopsis:

うる星やつら episode 100

Shuutaro is not pleased to be compared with Ataru, so he takes Ataru over to his mansion to feel superior to Ataru. Ataru isn't impressed with the vast collection of WWII weapons, so its off to the giant safe. Again, Ataru isn't impressed and causes the safe door to close and lock. Trapped, Ataru and Shuutaro end up playing games with Shuutaro losing a ton of gold and cash. However, when the two start setting off traps including a water trap that fills the room, does one keep the gold or no? Eventually, the safe drains and they end up in the drainage pipe leading outside. However, it has an unbreakable metal net blocking the hole, meaning they are still trapped.

うる星やつら episode 101

Ataru is spotted going to an old sento (public bath house) immediately after school by Lum's stormtroopers, so they decide they need a bath too. Ataru isn't happy to see them since there is supposed to be a party on the female side. He's also not happy Cherry is already there. Megane and company can't get the truth out of him but when Shuutaro shows up and mentions Ryuko attending the party, Ataru is very happy, since all he knew about were Lum and her friends. Plans for peeping are made and when the girls arrive, the guys are excited to discover that it is every girl from the anime. Their efforts for people keep failing, leading them to eventually knock over the dividing wall accidentally, where they discover the girls are all in swimsuits.

Thoughts/Review: For episode 100, I did get some laughs, notably with Ataru wanting to eat and Ataru winning all the games while they were trapped in the safe. Their shifting usage of honorifics was funny, especially as Shuutaro kept trying to note his differences with Ataru. The dream sequence each had of the other dressed as a girl and using the "sama" honorific made me laugh because it was so wrong. However, the episode as a whole was one of, "ugh." At least there were laughs but I'm not really a fan of these dopey stories.

As to episode 101, I have to say that I had more laughs here. The tradition of men peeping at women in a public bath or onsen has long been documented in anime and manga. This episode did the same things one has seen many other times with the guys trying and failing to peep. However, where this got funny is when the guys got desperate and lost there towels. Since we can't show nudity, the "naughty bits" can't be shown -- they have to be censored. However, censoring the naughty parts with guys dressed in black, holding black circles on long poles was completely unexpected and it got funnier as the guys got more desperate. So kudos to the anime production staff for that clever idea.