Urusei Yatsura – 04

「口づけと共に契らん！！」 (Kuchizuke Totomoni Chigiran!!)
“Sealed with a Kiss!!”

The fourth episode of Urusei Yatsura is its horniest yet as Princess Kuruma awakes from her slumber ready to establish a love nest for the man she’ll deem her next husband. But when Mendou and Ataru bicker and fight over who will be Kuruma’s groom, it creates an amusing, wacky situation that throws yet another wrench in the overly complicated relationship chart.

YOU MUST BE MY LUCKY STAR

I can’t give Urusei Yatsura enough credit for exactly how far it’s willing to go to debase Ataru and Mendou for their shiftier ways. Ataru’s the worst culprit this time around because he’s willing to triple-time Lum and Shinobu by stealing a kiss from Kuruma and taking advantage of the tradition kept up by her kingdom. But while he’s admonished for his shameless lechery, the fact that Mendou was the first man that Kuruma sees actively undoes Ataru’s act as she believes Mendou was the man who woke her up, forcing the cast to be pitted against one another to determine whether to tell Kuruma the truth or not.

It’s pretty funny to see the in-fighting between the crows as they collaborate with different characters based on their personal alliances. The Pro-Mendou faction of the crows collaborates with Lum so that she can have her darling back and have to coach Mendou on being comfortable with marrying Kuruma. Meanwhile, the Pro-Ataru faction is comprised of the chief crow, Ataru, and Shinobu, who all want to tell Kuruma who really kissed her for their own ulterior motives. It’s hilarious that the one instance that Ataru and Shinobu have agreed with each other since their separation is to help each other hook up with completely different people.

Through this though, we learn about what kind of person Mendou is. He’s ruled by his own impulses, but his obsession with appearing proper causes him to constantly second guess his own actions and forces him to procrastinate his every decision with Kuruma. He seems to care enough for Kuruma to want to protect and wed her, but her immediate jump towards procreating for her kingdom is an automatic turn-off that causes him to re-evaluate his life decisions.

SOWING THE SEEDS OF LOVE

While Ataru has been shown to be a pervert just by ogling other women, I wasn’t sure how long it’d take the series to take intercourse into consideration. But as soon as Kuruma awakens from her slumber, she’s all about mentioning how much sex she’ll be having with her suitor as much as she can. I was surprised Mendou got cold feet by the time he realized she was serious about her advances, but I could see why by the time she had her crow allies and Lum build a love nest for her and Mendou.

I’d say that the love nest was one of the funniest things about the episode because of how utterly disgusted most of the cast is by Kuruma just establishing a love hotel in a high school soccer field. Kuruma is desperate to think nothing of it, but the main impression you’re left with is that Mendou is horrified of being dragged into her DBZ capsule while his many admirers tearfully mourn their loss. It’s the kind of gleefully tasteless humor that is often celebrated with the punishment it gives to Ataru, but after everything we’ve learned about Mendou, it’s amusing to see that even he’s not immune to having his resolve challenged to such an extent.

Especially when Mendou constantly has the rug pulled out from under him when he’s been feeling wishy-washy about his connection with Kuruma. He keeps building up the resolve to take the next step, but as soon as he’s ready to cross a bridge with Kuruma, she’ll either throw in a more cumbersome caveat or be interrupted by Ataru being a parasite who thinks Kuruma will just suddenly hook up with him because of the chief’s traditions.

The conclusion did happen pretty quickly, but it adds to the show pulling the rug out from under its characters to have Kuruma completely disillusioned to learn that the tradition was a sentimental lie and that Mendou is frightened by the dark. She’s able to march forward and make the resolve to find her own guy who’s brave and hunky instead of dealing with Ataru or Mendou’s flaws, so it does end on a kinder note for Kuruma.

At the same time, it was still funny to see how the main characters’ relationship dynamics are flipped on their back when each character has their own unique reason to want to cheer for Mendou or Ataru to be linked up with Kuruma. Additionally, Kuruma wound up being an amusing, quirky character who is unashamed by her insistent push to get busy with a man who fits her exact standards.