Season
overview:
With the first 22 episodes having been a success, the show feels as if it gets a boost in quality from this point forward. This had an enormous impact as the stories are better constructed than the previous season. The past season felt like a light snack compared to this season which provides anime you can really sink your teeth into. It is not easy to discern Oshii's influence this early on, but there are glimpses of his style here and there.
Many of the episode notes below are from Animeigo, the original English language license-holder for Urusei Yatsura.
Episode 23: 春らんまんピクニック大騒動! （前編）&（後編）!
Haru ranman pikinikku daisoudou (zenpen) & (kohen) (The Spring Blossom Picnic Part 1 & Part 2)
In the first part, Ataru is kidnaped by a kappa, a kind of turtle/lizard humanoid, and taken to her palace beneath the water. But he returns with a mermaid to an unwelcoming group. In the second part, Lum, Ataru, Mendo, and Shinobu explore a cave and get lost. They eventually wind up in a buried UFO and snack on the canned goods therein.
"Surume" is a Japanese snack food, a sort of squid jerky.
When Shinobu refers to the "dried and impaled prey of a shrike," she is referring to the Mozu, or butcher-bird, which stores food by impaling it on thorns.
Kappa are mythical creatures, similar to vampires, which look like frog-men with sharp beaks and a set of 'head fins' that hold water. Kappa are amphibious, but can only survive on land as long as there's enough water on its head. A few shrines in Japan are said to have fragments of Kappa mummies and Kappa legends recorded on old scrolls, so perhaps the Kappa actually did exist. Kappa love cucumbers, and it is said that feeding them their favorite food will keep them from sucking blood. Ataru, apparently, doesn't like cucumbers much, which is why he isn't impressed by the delicacies given to him, which are all made of cucumbers.
Dragon Palace ("Ryuujuugoo") which the Master Kappa takes Ataru to is a reference to the legend of Urashima Taroo; this legend is also the basis for the second Urusei Yatsura movie, "Beautiful Dreamer." In the story, Taroo found a sea turtle that had washed up on a beach, and was being tormented by some cruel children. He rescued the turtle, and in return, the turtle took him to Dragon Palace, where he was wined and dined by the Princess of the Palace. This is why Ataru asks where the Princess is, and why he is disappointed by the answer he gets. When Taroo decided to leave, the Princess gave him a box as a going-away present, with a warning that he must never open it. After returning to the land, Taroo discovered that over 100 years had passed, even though he had only been away a few days. He finds that all his friends have aged and died, and that his village has changed so much as to be unrecognizable. Finally, Taroo opens the box, and the gas that was contained within released him from the magic that had retarded his aging, swiftly turning him into an extremely old man.
When Ataru torments Mendo by saying "Look! Over there!" to Lum and Shinobu, he is making a reference to a children's game ("Atchi muite hoi!") of the same name; the object of the game is to avoid looking in the direction the caller is indicating.
Mendo's speech that culminates in his saying he must "bear the unbearable, and eat" is yet another in a series of takeoffs on the famous speech the Showa Emperor made when Japan surrendered at the end of the Second World War. The original line is "Taegataki o tae, shinobigataki o shinobi" (bear the unbearable, conceal the unconcealable); Mendo mangles this into "shino-bigataki o tae" (conceal the unbearable).
Episode 24: イヤーマッフルに御用心!
Iyaamaffuru ni goyoujin (Beware the Earmuffs!)
An alien sells Ataru and Ten some earmuffs that have a slight effect of switching maids. Ataru tries to use these to his advantage and ends up dragging Ten, Cherry, his parents, Lum, Shinobu, and Sakura into a mess.
The Sukiyaki which Ataru's parents are secretly feasting on when Sakurambo (Cherry) surprises them in Ataru's body is a Japanese delicacy, all the more prized because it has a lot of meat in it, which is very expensive in Japan. Sukiyaki actually means "cooked meat that I love," so it's no wonder that Ataru's parents were trying to trick everyone into eating cheap instant noodles so they could hog the good food for themselves. For more Sukiyaki tidbits, see Ep. 15, Story 29, "The Great Spring War."
Episode 25: 翔べよイモちゃん!
Tobeyo Imo-chan! (Fly, Imo-Chan!)
At school, a little worm starts eating everyone's food and Ataru and Lum try to save it from the wrath of the others. By the end of the day, the worm has spun a cocoon and hatches into a beautiful fairy.
"Imo," the name Ataru gives to the caterpillar, is actually a cute short form of "imomushi," which is Japanese for caterpillar.
The small wooden or plastic lunch-boxes (and the lunch within them) that everyone uses are called "Bentoo," or "Obentoo ." Inside the box is rice, pickles, and all sorts of other tidbits, all neatly packed together, as well as a few treats to eat and trade. Just as American kids lust after lunch-boxes with their favorite characters on them, Japanese kids bug their parents to get similarly adorned Bentoo.
The scene with Megane and Ataru making weird noises like "Acho!" is an homage to the king of martial-arts films, the late, great, Bruce Lee. See Ep. 20, Story 39, "Sleepy Springtime Classroom," for more details.
Episode 26: テンちゃんの恋
Ten-chan no koi (Ten-chan's Love)
Jariten and Sakura go on a double date with Lum and Ataru in order to appease Jariten's recent moodiness. Kintaro also appears every so often. The story ends with an emotional scene between Ten and Sakura.
The Carp Streamers, or "Koinobori," which are fluttering in the Spring breeze at the start of this episode, are traditionally flown on May 5th, Children's Day (formerly Boy's Day). They are also a pun on the episode title; depending on the Kanji character used, "Koi" can mean "carp" or "love." The name of the coffee shop where Ten and Sakura meet, "Pigmon," is most likely a reference to a spiny red monster of the same name who appeared in Tsuburaya Productions classic series, "Ultraman."
"Ocharaka," the game Kintaro and his bear play while they are waiting for Lum to talk to Sakura, is a Japanese kids' game; it is sort of a cross between Patty-cake and Rock-Scissors-Paper.
After Ten's phone conversation with Sakura, Kintaro says, "All right, Ten! Tomorrow, a homerun!" This is a play on a famous commercial for a Gyudon (Beefbowl) fast-food restaurant chain named Yoshinoya. In the commercial, a father comes home bearing a gift for his little-league son, a baseball promotional item he got when he ate at Yoshinoya. Upon seeing the gimmick, the son is so inspired that he exclaims, "All right, Dad! Tomorrow, a homerun!"
When Kintaro sees Ten off on his date, the subtitle reads "You look great." The original Japanese is "Otokomae," a compliment to men that means he looks neat, handsome, and generally good-looking. However, it is an old term not currently used by the current generation, but rather by their parents or grandparents.
At Pigmon, Ataru orders "Two extra-large American coffees." American coffee is just that: coffee that Americans drink. It is weaker than normal, Japanese coffee, which it itself weaker than European coffee. Also, the word Ataru uses to mean "extra-large," "oomori," is usually used to refer to extra-large portions of food, not drink.
Finally, in the next episode preview, mention is made of Dracula's assistant, Komori. This is the Japanese word for "bat." However, since the word is used twice in the sentence, as a name and a description, we subtitled it as "Komori the Bat."
The episode title itself has a great pun in it that we couldn't translate. The original Japanese line was "Tonda Dracula." "Tonda" can either mean "flying" or it can mean "ridiculous" or "stupid." Both of these meanings are quite accurate, as we shall see next time.
Episode 27: 翔んだドラキュラ
Tonda Dorakyura (What a Dracula!)
An elderly vampire wants blood of a young girl, and with the help of his daughter, he gets Ataru and Lum to help. They end up tricking Ran into coming to the vampire and Ataru tries to kiss the daughter. When Ran figures out what is going on, she sends the vampire to a blood donor wagon.
The title of this episode is a joke. "Tonda," the past tense of the verb "Tobu" (to fly), normally means "flew." But when used as it is here, it is an adjective, with the added meaning of "What a..."--usually meaning "What an idiot." Therefore, it has both a literal and figurative meaning in this case: Dracula both flies, and is also a "flying" (flipping) lunatic.
"Komori" is Japanese for "bat," but it is also the name of Dracula's bat servant.
This episode brings up the Japanese writing system, in the form of Dracula's love letter to Lum. A serious dissertation on the subject is beyond the scope of these notes, but in brief, there are three different writing systems used in modern Japanese: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The first two are syllabaries (i.e., one symbol for each sound used in Japanese), and the third is pictograms, originally taken from the Chinese writing system. The main difference between hiragana and katakana is in usage: the former is used mainly for Japanese words, and the latter for words borrowed from other languages, such as English, German, and French. Not using kanji in one's writing makes it seem childish and unsophisticated; this is why Koomori chides Dracula for not using kanji in his letter. Another problem with not using kanji is that Japanese has a lot of homonyms, and very often one can tell which of several words with similar pronunciation is meant only by seeing the kanji itself. Dracula's retort that "you can't write the word 'date' in kanji" refers to the word "date" being a foreign word, and thus cannot be written in kanji: that's what katakana is for.
Komori and Lum talking about Dracula's "misspelling" was an attempt to deal with a concept that doesn't exist in English: that of "Ateji," or substitution, whether arbitrarily or incorrectly, of kanji, usually ones that have readings similar to those which one wants to write, but that one either doesn't know or can't remember. Ateji is also used when a writer wants specifically to have a reading for a given set of kanji that is not its normal reading. The title of this series is an example of that.
Dracula saying that "Tonight is awfully bad" is a reference to a type of fortune telling which was popular around the time this story was made, based on calendar calculations about an individual--birthdate, age, etc. The word he uses in the original, "Tenchuusatsu," means, in this fortune telling style, that one is having, or is going to have, a bad time--day or year, usually. It soon passed into common use, being used whenever one was having a bad time: "Today is my Tenchuusatsu," "This year is my Tenchuusatsu," etc., and Dracula uses it in this latter manner.
Episode 28: ラムちゃんの男のコ教育講座
Lum-chan no otoko no ko kyouikukouza (Lum's Educational Therapy for Little Boys)
Lum goes back in time through a tea cup in order to train Ataru to be a faithful boy by planting a doll of her on his head that zaps him any time he touches another girl and gets ideas. The older Ataru accidentally falls through the time tea cup and tries to stop Lum's plot. In the past a young Shinobu, Lum's guards, a high school Sakura, and a newlywed Mr. & Mrs. Moroboshi all appear, however Cherry is still the same.
The caption on one of Ataru's childhood photographs reads, according to Lum, as "The embarrassment of 7-5-3 Day." The original, "Shichigosan," is a festival for girls of 7 and 3 years of age, and boys of 5 years of age, intended to celebrate the attainment of these ages, which takes place on Nov. 15. Their parents take them to Shinto shrines to receive blessings from the gods for their children's health. The children themselves are dressed in their very best, and parents often spend large amounts of money buying or renting traditional costumes. In modern times, it has become standard practice to mark the occasion with a formal photograph.
The sound effect Lum makes when she dives into the teacup, "Shuwachi!" is the sound which Ultraman made when taking off into the sky.
The songs that Ataru was trying to sing and couldn't remember are songs about pigeons and rain, songs which preschoolers learn and normally can memorize before entering grade school. That Ataru, as a first-grader, not only cannot remember them but also gets them mixed up only serves to emphasize that, even as a little kid, he was a moron.
Ataru's Father saying (in the subtitles) that "It's that new house state of mind" was another attempt to deal with a difficult pun in Japanese: the word "shinkyo," used by Ataru's parents, is a homonym, in that it can be written in two different ways, each with a different meaning. When Ataru's Mother says "shinkyo," she means "new house," as in "Let's take a commemorative photo in front of our new house." When Ataru's Father says "shinkyo," he is using its other meaning, "state of mind." But because of the way he says it, "Soo iu shinkyo da na" (It's that sort of shinkyo), the word ends up having both of the above meanings, creating a pun which would come out more literally in English as something like "It's that kind of new house state of mind." Not nearly as eloquent or as funny in English as in the original Japanese.
Episode 29: クチナシより愛をこめて
Kuchinashi yori ai wo komete (From Speechless With Love)
Ataru and Ten buy a flower in an attempt to appeal to the flower shop girl. They almost kill the flower, but Jariten uses a device to make the flower grow to about 3 meters. This also happens to give the flower more life and a will of its own.
The central pun of this story is the name of the flower itself. Kuchinashi (Japanese for "Gardenia") can also be written with kanji that mean "without mouth," or "without speech." This joke crops up several times in the course of this episode, in various forms. First is when Ataru tries to ask the flower-shop girl for her name and phone number. Her reply is that "Gardenias don't make phone calls!" In the original, she says "Kuchinashi," giving it the double meaning of both the flower, and those (people and things alike) that cannot speak. Naturally, neither is capable of using the phone. Later, when the giant gardenia appears, it clearly has a mouth, even though it is "Kuchinashi." It also proves to be quite garrulous, again in contradiction of its "name." Finally, there is Ten's line, "Die! Die! Dead men tell no tales." This line in the original, "Shinin ni wa kuchinashi da," is normally the Japanese equivalent of the idiom, "Dead men tell no tales." But in this case, because of the double meaning of the word "kuchinashi," it ends up meaning much more... and less.
Ataru's Father saying "Well, it might work..." is a reference to a phrase, "Ataru mo hakke, ataranu mo hakke," which means that things like fortune telling, weather forecasting, etc. have a 50/50 chance of being right. However, used in reference to Moroboshi Ataru, it becomes a pun on his name as well.
Ataru telling Ten that he's "not Mito Komon" is a reference to the hero of a popular, long-running "jidaigeki" (Samurai Drama), which are roughly the Japanese equivalent of American Westerns. For more information, see Ep. 13, Story 25, "Mendo Brings Trouble!" (Mendo wa Trouble to Tomo ni!)
At traditional omiai (matchmaking meetings between prospective marriage partners), where both interviewees kneel on tatami, in front of a low table, it is common for the woman to seem very shy and unsure of herself, and typically she will trace the hiragana character "no" on the tatami, as a sign of her shyness and embarrassment. It is this action to which Ten is referring when he points out that the Gardenia is doing the same thing. It indicates the Gardenia's bashfulness.
There is a joke in the flower-shop girl's choice of flower to which she chooses to dedicate her life. Japanese quince, in Japanese, is called "boke," which can also mean "a senile person," or "a person who is stupid in a senile fashion."
Episode 30: 美少女は雨とともに
Bishoujo wa ame totomoni (The Beautiful Maiden Comes With the Rain)
Ataru manages to get a date with a new girl at school, Tsuyuko, who is always preceded by rain. This is caused by a curse put on Tsuyuko's dad, who as a child made friends with a bad weather spirit and promised never to lever her. However, his family moved so she cursed him.
Amamori Tsuyuko's name is a couple of jokes in itself. Literally translated, it means "Rain-forest Dew-girl."
Tsuyuko calling herself "a rain woman" has a larger meaning in the original Japanese. The word "ameonna" (or the male equivalent, "ameotoko") refers to a person who seemingly attracts rain wherever he or she goes. If one is having some sort of outdoor activity and invites this person, one can expect that outing to be rained out, or so the story goes.
Some of the ways in which Tsuyuko's Father mangles Ataru's name are actual words themselves. "Morokoshi" means "corn," "Monohoshi" means "clothesline," and "Morodashi" means "totally exposed," particularly of something embarrassing.
"Daruma-san koronda" is a Japanese children's game. One person, the Oni, stands at one end of the playing area, facing away from the other players, who are at the other end. The Oni chants "Daruma-san koronda," during which time the other players advance on the Oni, and when the Oni finishes, he turns around, and catches anyone he finds still moving. Those people have to link hands with the Oni, while those who are still free try to reach the Oni and touch the hands that are holding the other players, to set them free. The specific rules for a given game are often negotiated by the players at that time, and thus can differ from one game to the next.
Episode 31: わいのツノを返してくれ!!
Waino tsuno wo kaeshite kure! (Give Me Back My Horn!)
Jariten loses his horn and powers in a nasty fight with Ataru, who then begins to really torment Jariten. Ran, finding the horn thinks it is Lum's and she uses it to curse the horn's owner to grow a cactus in its place.
In the opening fight scene, some of the thrown objects include Shoonen Sunday magazines (the Shoogakkan manga magazine in which Urusei Yatsura was serialized) and early collected volumes of Maison Ikkoku, another excellent Takahashi creation, which began serialization at about this time in Big Comic Spirits, another Shoogakkan weekly manga magazine. Ms. Takahashi was, for several years, doing two weekly manga serials at the same time!
After Ten belittles Ataru for being so dumb as to throw burnable things at him, Ataru responds by throwing a bag of unburnable trash. The reference behind this joke is that for a number of years, some parts of Japan (most notably Tokyo) have required that garbage be separated into burnable (things which can safely be burned) and unburnable (those which cannot).
"Deer Brand Rice Crackers," or Shika Sembei, are a type of rice cracker sold to tourists in Nara Park, so that they can feed the resident deer population. Of course, Ataru is just cracking wise about the horn of Ten's dilemma.
In the scene where Ran calls up Lum to come outside, a fleet of hearses (Japanese style, of course) goes by. One suggested explanation for this scene comes from a superstition which says that it's a bad omen to stick out one's fingers when one comes across something having to do with the dead. Ran is sticking out her finger to dial the phone while the hearses go by.
An additional point about "crane, turtle:" images of these supposedly lucky creatures are often displayed at weddings and other events where one wishes to bring good luck. But one doesn't normally say the words themselves for that purpose.
Episode 32: ドッキリ図書館お静かに!
Dokkiri toshokan oshizukani! (All Quiet at the Library!)
In the school library, Ataru meets a girl named Wendy who he helps with her library chores. After Lum arrives, the books start coming to life and the characters within help to cause a lot of chaos. Eventually it is revealed that Wendy herself is from the book Peter Pan.
Organized sex education in Japanese schools is practically nonexistent. Most young people, boys and girls alike, get their initial information from videos and photo collections such as the one Ataru and the Gang of Four are reading at the beginning of this story.
The "Chirico Collection" on the librarian's desk refers to Georgio di Chirico (1888-1978), a pioneer of the surrealist movement in art.
Lum shouting "Week after week!" as she chases Ataru and "the assistant" refers to the series originally being a weekly one on Japanese TV.
The character who asks Ataru how to get to Takadanobaba (a real area in what is now central Tokyo) is an actual figure from Japanese history, Horibei Yasubei (1673-1703). He was one of the Akoorooshi, the people featured in the Edo-Period revenge epic, "Chuushingura" (The tale of the 47 Ronin). Supposedly a master of archery, he and his fellows waited many years to avenge their master (who had been trapped into committing seppuku) and then killed themselves. Known to be good-looking and aggressive, Horibei Yasubei was a central figure in this story, with side stories of his own. The story has become a classic piece of Japanese literature, with numerous Kabuki plays and puppet shows written concerning it. A TV drama about the incident airs annually in Japan at year's end, and movies about it have been made and remade. Takadanobaba was where Horibei supposedly killed a number of samurai at one time in the course of the Akoorooshi, but historically, he is supposed to have killed only one or two people in Nara. That may not have been thought interesting enough to write an epic about, thus causing the Takadanobaba story to come about.
There are lots of visual jokes at the end of the episode, featuring popular characters from Japanese and American TV and comic books. The dancing peasants, however, are a reference to the peasants' revolt at the end of the Edo Period, c. 1867. It was based on the rural custom of visiting Ise Shrine, in Kinki (Western Japan). Over a wide area, including Kinki, Shikoku, Tookaido and Kooshu, mass frenzy overtook the peasants, who chanted "Ee ja nai ka" (What's wrong with it), and danced like crazy. But so long as they danced on their way to Ise Shrine, saying this phrase, the samurai couldn't do anything to them. Since the event took place during the overthrow of the Tokugawa Military Government, the phrase has taken on a sense of reform, especially political.
Episode 33: 花和先生登場! これが青春だね
Hanawa-sensei toujyou! Kore ga seishun da ne (Teacher Hanawa's Arrival! Such is Youth!)
It is Hanawa's first day as a teacher and Lum's first day as a student. Ataru tries to make Hanawa go crazy by showing Lum's abilities, but Hanawa is too placid. Later, Natsuko the volleyball coach arrives as Lum and Ataru join the volleyball team. Natsuko has had a great hatred of men since she was dumped by her boyfriend, whom she thinks Mendo looks like. Ataru, Lum, and Mendo try to give Natsuko a second chance at love.
Like some American schools, Japanese schools, in general, assign homeroom numbers. These numbers are usually of the form "Year-X Group-Y," where X is the year that the students are in, in their school, and Y is an arbitrary number. Unlike the American system, Japanese schools do not number their grades 1-22 straight through. Instead, it goes 1-6, 1-3, 1-3. The years 1-6 are spent in Shoogakkoo ("little school"). The next 3 years are spent in Chuugakko ("middle school"). The last 3 years before college are in Kookoo ("high school"). In each grade, the student body is randomly divided into several groups, depending on the number of students enrolled. Each "group" is then assigned a number or letter code, just to differentiate them from one another. Ataru's homeroom is thus 2-nen 4-kumi (2nd year in high school, 11th US-grade, group 4).
Okamoto Taro, a leading modern artist who achieved his greatest fame in the 1970's, made the phrase "Geijutsu wa bakuhatsu da!" (Art is explosive!) famous. In the scene where Mr. Hanawa runs the students' gauntlet, the class puns on that line, saying, "Geijutsu da! Bakuhatsu da!" (Artistic! Explosive!).
When Mr.Hanawa tries to ask Ataru about Lum's horns, he tries to come up with a proverb that will get his point across, scanning through a couple of bad examples:
"Tonbi ga taka..." -> "Tobi ga taka o umu" (A black-eared kite gives birth to a hawk). The tobi (tonbi) is considered a very average bird in Japan, and the taka, conversely, a very rare and special one. So when average parents give birth to exceptionally talented children, this expression is used to describe it.
"Shusse no himitsu..." (The Secret of One's Birth) is something similar, referring to something hidden concerning one's birth or upbringing.
The net result is nonsense, as Mr. Hanawa tries to approach with delicacy what he thinks is a delicate issue.
Japanese girls would probably name Buruma (Bloomers) the number one most hated apparel, as they are short pumpkin-shaped trainer-pants that were (in general) required to be worn during gym classes. They're considered just plain ugly. There are many nicknames that exist for these generally regarded as hideous pieces of clothing. One which Ataru mentions is "Chouchin buruma." Chouchin is a round lantern made of paper, which is typically displayed during festivals. They were much more common 30-50 years ago then they are now (they began disappearing some twenty years ago, and are now practically nonexistent). That Mr. Hanawa would spring them on Lum just goes to show how old-fashioned he is.
When Perm refers to Ataru as "...the boys' volleyball team's sixth man..." he is making a pun on the title of Graham Greene's "The Third Man."
Episode 34: 悲しき妖怪人恋しくて
Kanashiki youkai hitokoshikute (Yearning for the Sad Monster)
At a pool at one of Mendo's hotels, a little blue monster has set up his home and is visited by an unconscious Ataru. Eventually the creature is seen by all, and all evacuate the pool. Mendo orders the goblin to leave, so it does... for the Moroboshi house. So the next day, the kids take the goblin to the beach to find it a new home.
Green tea over steamed rice is called "Ochazuke," and is popular when one doesn't feel like cooking anything elaborate, as it is easy to make, or when one doesn't have much of an appetite, as it is easy to swallow (though it isn't very good for digestion, as one doesn't chew it very much). The time most popular for eating such food is summer, which gets very hot, and even more humid, taking away most people's appetites and energy. This phenomenon is so standard in Japan that it has its own name: "natsubate." All of this added together with the Goblin's statement that he does have an appetite is an outright contradiction in terms.
Mendo saying, "Good thing I didn't take that trip to Florida," is another seemingly offhand sign of his being a really rich kid. Going to Florida is considered more like a rich man's trip than the usual Guam or Hawaii, for Japanese, if only because of the greater distance.
Tsubame saying "Come on over" is another line that's funnier in the original. "Oidemasse" is from a famous advertising slogan of the time, "Oidemasse Yamaguchi e!" (Come on out to Yamaguchi, y'all!) The slogan was invented to drum up interest in visiting Yamaguchi Prefecture, and is done in the dialect of the area, which is roughly to Tokyo-style Japanese as a Southern accent in the US. would be to the accent of a big Northern or West-Coast city. For more information, see, Ep. 12, Story 23, "Battle Royal of Love."
The Dappya Monster crying, "Help me, please!" when the kids beat it up is a reference to the story of Urashima Taroo, who saved a turtle when some kids were torturing it on a beach. For more information, see Ep. 23, Stories 45-46, "The Big Picnic Uproar."
No new episode was aired the following week.
Episode 35: ダーリン絶体絶命!
Daarin zettai zetsumei! (Darling's Had it This Time!)
In an ice cream cafe, Lum and Ran are reminiscing about childhood times. of course, Ran is getting very angry and their waiter very hurt. The next day Ran leaves some candy for Ataru which, when he eats, causes him to get sick. As he goes to the nurse, Ran grabs Lum and ties her up in a closet. Ran then also goes to the nurse's office feigning sickness so she can try to kiss Ataru and suck his youth, but Sakura is careful to prevent this.
Mama's Boy: When the waiter says, "To my dearest mother, she is pretty," there are some additional nuances in the original. Normally, when writing a letter to one's mother (as he is mentally doing here), someone of his age would say "hahauesama," (most honorable mother) as a salutation. But instead, he says "mamauesama," which, being the sort of thing that only someone much younger would say, and even then, not in a letter, makes him out to be something of a mama's boy. Also, words such as "hahaue" are not modern colloquial Japanese. They date back to the Edo Period, and were primarily used by samurai and other nobility, not the common people. Such words largely went out of fashion during the Meiji Period. On top of which, "mamaue" isn't even a real word. All the speaker did was substitute "mama" for "haha," making a word which sounds strange to native Japanese speakers.
The Terrible Fields: "Hidoiwagahara" is a strange, made-up name based on the occasional practice of naming fields in Japan using the words "ga hara," meaning, roughly, "field" or "fields." Normally, such names would be one or at most two kanji, followed by "gahara," as in "Sekigahara." So "Hidoiwagahara" is an extreme example. On top of which, it seems likely that the name itself derives from the monster running around saying, "Hidoi wa!" which is a feminine way of saying "How Terrible!"
The Price is Right: In the scene afterward, where Lum and Ran buy ice creams, the robot says the price is "20 Torajima." "Torajima" literally means "tigerstripes," which would seem to be a perfectly logical name for the Oni monetary unit.
Being Sat Upon: Later, Ran says, "Lum, you've been living your life at the expense of mine!" The original, "Agura o kaku," literally means "to sit cross-legged," but also has an additional idiomatic meaning of taking advantage of someone, as if by sitting on them.
Fish paste: "Chikuwa" are straw-shaped pieces of fish, about an inch in diameter, with a hole through the center about a centimeter wide. The edge portions are white, and the middle part is baked. It's typically cut into segments and used in oden (explained below).
Put a lid on it: "Seeing as how I'm sick, your treating me like a pervert is just too much!" The original has an idiomatic expression, "Mi mo futa mo nai." Literally, it means "there is neither jar nor lid," idiomatically meaning that what one says lacks subtlety or sympathy, in other words, that one's words are too direct.
Episode 36: レイ復活! 自習大騒動!!
Rei fukkatsu! Jishuu daisoudou!! (Rei's Return! Crisis in the Classroom!!)
Rei comes to school and spends all day eating other people's food much to the irritation of Onsen-Mark. Ran tries her best to win Rei's affections. He then leaves so he will not be late for dinner.
Historical note: this episode marks the first appearance of Onsen-Mark.
Winter Soup: "I'll bet a bowl of Kotobuki-oden on Mendo." Kotobuki is the name of an oden shop (possibly fictional). Oden is a sort of shoyu (soy sauce) "soup," with seaweed, egg, potatoes, various types of processed fish, konyaku (a kind of processed potato), radish, and various other things mixed in. Sometimes it's served in special sets in shops, or from traveling carts, together with sake, where you pay by the item. It's especially popular in winter.
Tune In, Turn On, Eat Out: "Channel 8, 9, Ten." "Channel 3, 2, 1, Rei." These are bilingual puns on the names of these characters. "Ten" is used here as both Ten's name and as the English number 10. When written with a certain kanji, "Rei" is the Japanese word for "zero," which sets up the pun on Rei's name in this instance.
Translator's Excedrin Headache #3276541: Chibi's response to Ataru saying that Rei's coming, is, in the subtitles, "Ah! Rei!" But in the original, he puns on the expression "Are?" which roughly means "Huh?" or "What?" by saying, "A-Rei?!"
Sneaky Snacking: "Boys who haven't eaten their lunches yet, fork them over." In Japanese high schools, there are typically four morning classes, and then lunch. Normally, one isn't supposed to eat lunch before lunch time, but some students eat the lunches (bentoo) that they've brought from home during the five-to-ten-minute breaks between classes. Others, like Ataru, prop up their books on their desks and actually eat during class. These two activities are known as "hayaben," which is what Ataru is referring to when he talks to those students who haven't yet eaten their lunches. It isn't lunch time yet.
We're not here, and you never saw us: "Young Master. Young Master! Can't you hear me? Young Master!" "Waka," or "Young Master," and "Wakaran," "don't understand," are juxtaposed here, for another pun. The black-garbed servants are "kuroko." In certain types of Japanese theater, such as Bunraku puppet theater, they are "officially" invisible helpers. Since Mendo made a point that the Beefbowl delivery should be discreet, it isn't surprising that the family kuroko squad would deliver the food. This episode marks their first appearance, and they will soon become known as the willing servants and co-conspirators of Shutaro Mendo's dangerous little sister, Ryoko, who will soon appear to make her big-brother's life hell.
Episode 37: 怪人赤マントあらわる!
Kaijin aka manto arawaru! (Appearance of the Red Phantom)
There is a dance at school and Onsen-Mark tells of how when he was a student, a mysterious phantom man in black and red stole away with Onsen-Mark's girlfriend. This same phantom shows up again this year, but by now he's fat. Lum tries to lift his spirits, but the fat phantom makes a fool of himself and gets carried off by his wife, Onsen-Mark's girlfriend from years ago who is now grotesque.
The Hell of Study: Mendo mentioning preparation for college entrance exams refers to "Exam Hell," perhaps the most trying period in a typical Japanese student's life. Exam Hell is the period of preparation for the college entrance exams, the outcome of which largely determines one's future. Mendo saying that he doesn't have to worry about it understandably infuriates Ataru.
Quoth the Teacher: "No, not that! Like a mystery man with 20 faces, and also a mystery man with 40 faces, and a mystery man with 100 faces and a mystery man with a 1000 faces, and 10,000 faces..." This line is a reference to "Kaijin nijuumenso" (The Mystery Man With 20 Faces), a popular mystery-suspense novel by an author who wrote under the penname of Edogawa Rampoo, which is a made-up Japanese reading of "Edgar Allen Poe." Since 1954, Edogawa's contributions to the Japanese mystery-novel genre have been remembered in an award for new mystery writers bearing his name. As a side note, the award is currently worth a whopping 10,000,000 (about US$100,000 as of this writing (1994)), in addition to the winning work(s) being published by Kodansha, one of Japan's biggest publishing houses, and royalties from said publication.
"Bon" appetit: "Yes, we also held cool of the evening "bon" dances sponsored by the student council." Bon dancing is a type of traditonal outdoor dancing, in which the participants wear yukata (cotton kimono), and make large circles. This type of dancing happens during the festival of Obon, the time when people return to their homelands to visit the graves of their ancestors, which takes place in either mid-July or mid-August depending on the region.
Not a pushover: "Last ditch! Crashing wave push! Heave!" "Dosukoi" is an expression used in Sumo when one is making a serious push, which is why it fits this scene.
That woman again: Megane saying, "Am I that pretty?" is a reference to an urban legend which circulated among Japanese children in the mid-to-late 1970's, about a woman known as "kuchisake onna," which roughly translates as "the woman with a slashed mouth." Supposedly, this woman, who wore a veil over her face, would walk up to schoolchildren (up to and including high-schoolers) and say, "Atashi kirei?" (Am I pretty?) No matter what answer she got, she would keep asking it over and over again. Eventually she would take off her veil, revealing a mouth the corners of which were slashed back to her ears. She also supposedly carried a kama, or grain sickle, which might have been used as a weapon. No confirmation has ever surfaced as to this woman's existence.
Cameos: In the final dance scene, several interesting figures show up, most notably the two original Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) super heroes, Tiger Mask, and a batter for the Hanshin Tigers baseball team.
Episode 38: ダーリンを奪え! コピー作戦!!
Daarin wo ubae! Copii sakusen! (Steal Darling! The Copy Operation!)
After their usual fight Ran plans to kiss Ataru, but Lum finds out and uses a gun that makes an Ataru double. Ran also has a gun, and by the end of the show there is an army of Atarus.
A Fishy Compliment: "Ran, you're so cute, pretty, fantastic, oh, you tease." "Hamachikko" is a pun. "Burikko," the word normally associated with Ran (see Spring Special Part 1 for Ataru's Mother's explanation), refers to being too cute for words. But Buri and Hamachi are both types of fish, so what Ran has done here is, in an act of especial cuteness, switch one fish for another, thus making "Burikko" into "Hamachikko."
Perhaps a Summit meeting would help: "What will you do with that mountain of Darlings?" "Kuroyama no hitodakari" refers to having a crowd of people so large that they look like a black mountain, or "kuroyama." In that expression, Lum substitutes Darling for "hito" (person or people), resulting in the phrase "kuroyama no Darlingdakari."
"I've got a good idea. If we cut them off at the source, like an odor, it'll be OK." "The source?" "Let's snuff the real one." "Are you saying Darling's a stink?!"
The above lines are based on a Japanese commercial for a chemical used to treat odors in septic tanks and traditional Japanese toilets, which are basically just holes in the ground. The original line translates as follows:
"Kusai! Kusai! Kusai nioi wa moto kara tatanakya dame." (It stinks! It stinks! You have to stop stinky odors at the source.)
Episode 39: どきどきサマーデート
Tokidoki samaa deeto (Pitter Patter, Summer Date)
Lum blackmails Ataru into dating her by taking his book of girl's addresses. On the date, Lum tries to act like a normal Earth girl. They go swimming and rollerskating, and later meet Perm who also has a date.
"And the batter for Pierrot Academy..." This school name is a pun on PL Gakuen (PL Academy), a school renowned for its baseball. "PL" comes out as "Pieru" in Japanese pronounciation, and it's not far from that to "Pierrot." And, of course, Studio Pierrot did the animation for this episode of Urusei Yatsura.
"The whole Ookanei High School team is crying." In Japan, it's common knowledge that players in the summer national high school baseball festival all cry like babies. Supposedly, teenagers crying their hearts out takes on an almost religious significance.
"I guess I'll have to make do with Tamiko." Kojima Tamiko, one of the series's main directors, is also a disciple of chief director Oshii Mamoru.
"Come on, Darling, let's go on a date! Come on, let's go on a date! Hey!" The LP Ataru is cleaning here says "YMC." In all probability, this is a pun on YMO--Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto Ryuuichi's legendary technopop band.
"Yes, this is Moroboshi. Is this Iyo? Huh? Your tastes have changed?" Iyo is most likely meant to be Matsumoto Iyo, a well-known TV talent.
"Let's go have a bite. I know a great Beefbowl place!" It goes without saying that Beefbowl joints are not the sort of place one normally takes a girl on a date!
The Restaurant Sign: "Ikakucho Restaurant": The characters used in the sign are ateji (Chinese characters substituted, arbitrarily in this case, for proper ones) for a word which in Japanese means "gastric dilation." The joke is that Lum and Miki are eating enough to cause themselves just such a condition.
Episode 40: さよならバイバイ夏の日々
Sayonara bai bai natsuno hibi (So Long, Bye-Bye, Summer Days)
Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu are looking for a watermelon to eat on the beach, but no one will sell one. They do happen to find a giant watermelon which turns out to be a watermelon god; and he attacks them. Soon, they join Sakura and Cherry for a party. But they are joined by a lizard-goblin who is always crying.
Mr. Tebasaki Yoshinori, the character actor who was hospitalized for an enlarged appendix which is said to have been 7.5 times normal size, left the hospital yesterday in good health." "Tebasaki" is Japanese for "chicken wing," so a guy with that name having an abnormal appendix is a pun.
"...that boy was plagued by a terrible stomachache for ten days!" "Oh! A stomachache!" "And he only had ten watermelons of about this size!" "Ten!" "I usually have twenty!" "I can handle eighteen." "Ah, indeed, so can I." This sequence is simply a reference to what monstrous appetites Sakura and Cherry have. For the definitive reference, see TV set 4, episode 13, story 26, "Full Course From Hell."
"So "goblin," what do you want to be "gobbling?"" This was an attempt (made by one of us whose name is being withheld to protect the guilty) to deal with one of the most outrageously untranslatable puns yet seen in the series. The original line reads: "Yokai, nani ga yokai?" The pun is that the first "Yokai" means "demon/goblin," and the second, together with the "nani ga," means, "What do you want?"
No new episode aired the following week.
Episode 41: パニックイン台風!
Panikku in taifuu (Panic in the Typhoon!)
A typhoon is set to hit Tomobiki and the Moroboshis are preparing by boarding up the house. Lum has a small capsule that has an effect on water which ultimately causes Lum and the Moroboshis to be in a level of air between two levels of water in the house.
"...potato chips, Nichibei Caramel, and Umauma Chocolate!" These are brand names--made up for the story, in all likelihood.
"Oh! Hold it! You thieving cat!" The word Ataru uses in the original, "doroboneko," is equivalent to the English "cat-burglar"--when applied to humans, that is.
"The splashing of the oars is like flowers..." This line is from a song called "Hana", by Taki Rentaro, one of Japan's great composers.
Episode 42: 酔っぱらいブギ
Yopparai bugi (Drunken Boogie)
At school, Ataru feeds Ten and Lum each an umeboshi, a plum flavored with alcohol. Thanks to this he discovers Lum's race has no tolerance to alcohol. In a drunken rage, Lum flies about zapping people and trying to get more alcohol. Onsen-Mark thinks someone has sake in school because it is impossible to get drunk just on umeboshi.
Tomoko Konparu, the script writer for this episode would go on to write a number of prose adaptations of Takahashi's work for Mermaid Saga and Inuyasha. She also wrote a series of detective stories illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi entitled The Young Lady Novelist. Konparu also wrote Only You, Remember My Love, and The Final Chapter films. Beyond Urusei Yatsura, Konparu has written a handful of episode for Maison Ikkoku such as episode 3, though her name was written with different kanji on that episode.
Umeboshi (pickled plums) have a preservative effect on rice, due to being soaked in vinegar. Also, the single red circle in the field of white rice gave rise to the term "Hinomaru Bento" (Hinomaru Box Lunch), because of its similarity in appearance to Hinomaru, the Japanese flag. For more about Hinomaru Bento, see TV Set 4, Episode 13, Story 26, "Full Course From Hell."
"They really hit the spot! Want to have them with hot water?" This is a nod to a relatively recent trend in alcoholic drinks. "Mizuwari" means adding water to a drink, as in whiskey and water. "Oyuwari" means adding hot water instead.
"Here, spray some of this alcohol on them, and they should be OK!" The spirits which Cherry is carrying around are "shochu," or fermented potato liquor.
"Alcohol! Alcohol!" The word "sake" is often used to mean alcohol in general, as well as the specific fermented-rice liquor.
This episode is a good place to talk about the delinquency that was prevalent in Japanese schools/society at the time in the 1980s. This article discusses the problems of delinquency in 1980. A very good film that covers the topic as well is Keisuke Kinoshita's 1980 film The Young Rebels (called Father! Mother! (父よ母よ!) in Japan) which follows a journalist as he interviews various high school drop outs and their families about the trouble with families at the time.
