Urusei Yatsura

Episode 28

Oh man, this episode was weird, guys. I will give it a lot of credit; this is probably the first time an episode of Urusei Yatsura kept me guessing about where it was going, and by the end, I'm still not sure what my major takeaway is supposed to be outside of a new character to add to the main roster. Still, this is by far the most over-the-top way the series has ever established a character, and I am constantly wondering how we got to this point. I mean, I know the meta reason of how we got to this point, it's funny and there were a lot of moments where I found myself laughing pretty hard at the absurdity of it all. However, in the universe, there are just as many moments where I was scratching my head about why some characters needed to go through what they went through.

Our new character, Asuka, is a sheltered princess raised her entire life not knowing what a man is because of some weird family tradition that her father and brother didn't even know about. At least the father was told at some point when his daughter was born, even though it's a little messed up. Ton hadn't even known he had a sister until now. That's got to be traumatizing, bordering on child abuse. Their mom might just be one of the evilest characters in this franchise, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from her interactions or explanations. She always has the same facial expression, and at the end of the episode, it's revealed that she might be incapable of changing her face at all, depending on how she's feeling. I'm unsure if that's a direct result of her twisted upbringing, but I legitimately do not know what anyone thought would happen if everything went according to plan.

Don't get me wrong, Ataru is probably the worst person you can choose to represent all the guys on the planet, but Shutaro isn't much better, and yet he was legitimately being propped up as the first guy this poor girl would ever see. At least introduce Asuka to her brother and father first to ease her into all this. Speaking of her brother, this guy really can't catch a break. Ton's parents lied to him, and he now has a secret sister who is constantly harassed. His protecting said sister may or may not awaken something dangerous in her, and the episode ends with a section of his house getting destroyed. I didn't think much of Ton during season one, but now I legitimately feel for this guy.

I don't know how to rank this episode because it might be one of the funniest episodes with its gags and wordplay (props to whoever subtitled this episode), but it's also probably one of the most out-of-pocket. It could be considered one of the best-animated episodes with that chase sequence during the first third of the episode, particularly with everything being incredibly smooth. I know we probably won't return to these characters for a while, given the show's overall structure. Still, I'm curious to see how the relationship between Asuka and Ton will develop from this point forward. It'll also be nice to see how they interact with the rest of the main cast. But I'm going to have to wait a bit.

Rating:

Urusei Yatsura is currently streaming on HIDIVE.