Busy again, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get an episode synopsis of a seminal 1982 anime.
Another strange, almost dreamlike episode where characters from the books in the Tomobiki school library come alive.
While Ataru, Mendou and The Stormtroopers are perving over a girlie magazine, they bump into a pretty young librarian they haven’t seen before. Meanwhile the senior librarian thinks she is seeing things when tiny soldiers start walking out of a book.
The young librarian explains the world of books is out of balance due to the books being in the wrong order on the shelves. Oh and she also mentions that she’s from the world of books herself. Ataru comprehends none of this. Then, when Lum catches Ataru flirting with the librarian, Lum starts throwing books around, making it worse.
And to top it all off, after a period of chasing around the library (Lum ends up thinking the Dodo from Alice In Wonderland is Ataru!), Shinobu catches Ataru with Lum and Mendou with a lusty woman in swimsuit who escaped one of the books. Hurling an entire shelf at them, she causes all hell to break loose. Which gives the animators a great excuse for four minutes of unadulterated lunacy as anything can happen.
And the good news is this – much of that lunacy is animated by Masahito Yamashita:
During the lunacy the gang manage to put the books back on the shelves in order. With the books finally in order, the librarian goes back to the world of books herself.
Desperate to know her name Ataru grabs the books she flew into and we learn she was Wendy from Peter Pan!
A simply great episode. Great animation, a simple idea run riot and some great gags. Wonderful little things like every time that Wendy explains what is happening nobody understands. One thing I really like is that unlike other times I’ve seen this done, art books and reference books come alive as well as the fiction titles.
—
Another short stint screenwriter pops in for this episode, Yukiyoshi Ohashi. Ohashi’s written on a whole heap of shows in the last 3 decades. Yu Yu Hakusho and Ceres: Celestial Legend are probably the shows he’s been most involved in.
Keiji Hayakawa storyboards and directs, Asami Endo on animation direction. So the same team as the last Yamashita episode.