An odd one this in that we get to meet the headmaster of Tomobiki Highschool and a new teacher, neither of whom stick around. We will meet another headmaster, but he doesn’t look or act like this one. And class 2-4 will get two more teachers, one who becomes a main part of the cast (the other occasionally recurring).
—
In the first story the headmaster hires the hard boiled teacher Kuribayashi (and Toshiro Mifune look-a-like) to take care of the troublesome class 2-D. He soon singles out Ataru for special punishment, much to Lum’s annoyance. However when Lum rescues Ataru, Kuribayashi falls for her.
This being 1981 and being Urusei Yatsura, having a teacher fall in love with a 17 year old girl isn’t treated in the otaku wish fulfilment way it would be in a lot of today’s anime.
Oh no.
First we get Cherry lecturing the viewer about the dangers of the Lolita Complex, specifically using the word “lolicon”.
Then, once Ataru figures out Kuribayashi’s intension, he uses this to play a gloriously cruel joke on his teacher. He sends Lum out on on a date with him, which plays out pretty straight in the mock melodramatic manner the series often uses. However when Kuribayashi tries to kiss her, all the boys in the class leaps out from behind a wall and laughs and laughs and laughs at him.
And then the head shows up to yell at him too. The man has been completely destroyed.
—
In the second story, we see the Tomobiki High parents’ evening. Ataru’s mother tries to sneak away, recalling previous meetings with dread, but Ataru spots her before she can get away.
Then Mendou’s mother arrives in a bull-drawn wagon, causing Kuribayashi to lay out the red carpet for her.
Finally, Lum’s mother arrives in her UFO. This scares the bull and it get’s loose, Mrs Invader eventually grapples it and throws it into the spaceship turning it into beef noodles.
This leads to Mendou’s mother declaring war on Lum’s mother and soon the school is the site of war between tanks, jets and UFOs. Mendou and Ten call for peace and Mrs Moroboshi steps up to act as arbitrator.
Her idea of arbitration is to run a roulette wheel… And when both Mrs Mendou and Mrs Invader lose, she takes their pairs money for herself.
Which of course leads to both the Mendous and the Invaders blowing up the Moroboshi house.
This is a great story, and despite some really limited animation (I think in some scenes there are NO inbetweens whatsoever) it looks great due to some great storyboarding and character work.
—
This is the last episode scripted by Shusuke Kaneko, with him taking the credit for both stories.
Likewise Asami Endo is animation director for both stories.
Kozima Tamiko storyboarded and directed the first story, with Motosuke Takahashi handling the second.