Another couple of straight forward gag stories.
Ataru is tired of being electrocuted, so he confers with Cherry as to find a way to switch off her powers. Megane later pays Ataru a visit to deliver special ribbons that Cherry has created to switch off her powers.
Ataru then gives Lum the ribbons as a present, much to her delight. However she soon discovers she can’t fly or fire off electricity any longer. Ataru finds her upset, crying as the sun goes down, and actually shows her some sympathy (albeit in a manner that parodies melodramas). Then Shinobu shows up and Lum starts gloating about her ribbons. Angry that Ataru never bought her anything she starts to fight with Lum, but Ataru stops her removing the ribbons. This upsets Shinobu and she runs off crying.
That night Lum starts to prepare a bed, as Ataru realises that without her powers Lum can’t go back to her spaceship. He tries to remove the ribbon but Lum won’t let him.
Ten, Megane & Chibi are eavesdropping and when they hear the fight they burst in. Megane tries to take advantage of Lum’s lack of powers, and so Lum starts hurling the contents of Ataru’s room at him and Chibi. In the tussle the ribbons come off and the letter from Cherry is discovered. Lum punishes Ataru, then threatens that Cherry is next. Cherry overhears from outside and does a runner.
We’re starting to see Ataru soften to Lum now. We’ll see this in full shortly with episode 10, the first episode long story. The other key change will be in episode 14 with the arrival of what is probably fourth biggest character. From there on in, the dynamic between Lum, Ataru and Shinobu is changed, and the series begins to resemble more the show it’s remembered as.
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In the second episode, Lum has some alien voodoo putty. If you make a model of someone with the putty and put a hair in it you can control them.
Soon Ataru has made dolls of the people in his neighbourhood, but Lum plans to get a hair from Shinobu to make a doll of her rival. Ataru chases after her to stop her, but when a cat steals the Ataru voodoo doll from his room, he ends up flying through Shinobu’s window and into her bath.
Meanwhile Ataru’s parents discover the dolls Ataru made, and begin to make the all the people in the neighbour hood wrestle each other, causing chaos on the streets of Tomobiki.
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The first story is written by Akira Nakahara, the second by Takao Koyama. Both stories are story boarded and directed by Kozima Tamiko, with Asami Endo acting as animation director on the first story and Hayao Nobe on the second.