It seems like it’s been ages since Oyuki and Benten had shown up in the series, so this episode makes up by having them, Lum and Ran pretty much at the centre of it.
Oyuki calls the four together to warn them that the calcium planet of Uni is being colonised. This alarms Lum, Ran and Benten for that is where they had abandoned their old robot teacher CAO-2 back when they were little kids. CAO-2, a giant board eraser with arms and legs, had been a strict teacher and Lum & Benten were always trying to get their own back on him (and dragging Ran into it too). We see them dropping a weight on his head, electocuting him and shooting a missile at him, before they lured him onto Uni and got him stuck a giant stalagmite.
Sure enough, he had been found and chased the three of them to Earth, where he throws himself at each of them (and Ataru & Mendou). But as Ataru’s narration says, while the story should have ended there (i.e. that’s all the manga material about CAO-2) there is more to come.
Ran spies Onsen-Mark hanging out in town with CAO-2 (hilariously she doesn’t recognise the giant board eraser from the back). The pair have found their kindred spirit in one another. Lum and gang decide this is their one chance to get their own back, and Ataru and Mendou join in as it’s a chance to get back at Onsen-Mark too.
They send Ataru and Mendou to lure Onsen-Mark and CAO-2 to the school, but Ataru gets captured. However the teachers do go the school, to strap Ataru into an alien education machine that will finally make him studious. Lum rescues him, but CAO-2 sets off in pursuit. First he gives Benten a “dusting”, then Ran before cornering Lum. However this time Ataru comes to the rescue, taking a Earth board duster hostage! What he failed to notice was he accidentally switches a gas tap on, so when Lum tries electrocuting CAO-2 once more the school blows up.
Being a robot this doesn’t bother CAO-2 one bit and so he jumps up and down on Lum and Ataru.
The flashbacks in the earlier half are well executed and theres some good action animation in the second half. However a lot of the talking heads segments are lazy. The opening section where the aliens find CAO-2 on Uni, isn’t taken from the manga and is very Oshii-like. Imagine how much religious symbolism you could get from a giant board eraser being found on an alien planet… Well it manages a lot more than that.
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Hey, é³¥å— ä¹ƒ, who I still have no idea about does their first storyboard in 30 episodes.
Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Storyboard: é³¥å— ä¹ƒ
Director: Osamu Uemura
Animation Director: Toshihiro Hirano