I’m not sure what was going on with this episode. Did someone think, “I know what Urusei Yatsura needs, more dead children!”
For this episode involves a dead girl called Kotori who has come back as a ghost so she can hold a one of her Uncle’s puppies. She bumps into Ten and gets him involved with this plan. And he in turn get’s his “minions” involved, i.e. Ataru, Lum, Shinobu, Mendou, Megane, and Sakura. Touched by her plight, they skip class and search for her uncle.
They find her uncle’s home, but the puppies have all been given away. So they track down the puppies, but they discover as she’s a ghost she can’t hold them. So Ten suggests that she possess him, in order to hug them. After that’s taken care of, she ascends to heaven, much to Ten’s distress. To placate him, she promises she’ll send him presents over the next week to thank him for his help. And so the next night the first present arrives. A meteor with a letter written on it!
Oh boy. This was a little too maudlin for my tastes, though the few notes of humour worked well. Just would have liked there to be more of them. Also, it was more than a little creepy in the way various characters kept telling us how attractive this 10 year old dead girl was. I know from the bits of LA Confidential that didn’t make it in the film that the animation industry is full of perverts, but considering this is a show that’s gone out of it’s way to mock the lolita complex in the past, this was a worrying step.
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Toshiki Inoue shows up as screenwriter here. Probably better known for his work on the Kamen Rider franchise, he also was heavily involved in the Galaxy Angel series and Death Note.
Screenwriter: Toshiki Inoue
Storyboard: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Director: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo