Arrrgh! This has post has eaten my evening for reasons that will become apparent in the animation credits section!
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This is an odd one, it’s a very specific parody of the early 80s equivalent of those silly ghost programmes Yvette Fielding makes her money doing. However back then, they were a lot broader and more po-faced. In the UK it was best represented by Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World.
While the Ataru, Lum, Mendou, Shinobu and Ten are on a picnic up a mountain they find mysterious statues resembling Cherry. Unknown to them there’s a TV crew filming a documentary on the “mysteries” of the mountain. Mysteries they are planning on faking if needs be.
While eating their picnic, Cherry appears and helps himself to their food. He reveals that the mountain is a training ground for him. He reveals to the gang that there are fossils on the mountain.
Ten and Lum dig up a whole bunch of fossils, but then Ataru puts them together incorrectly. Now that might not seem too bad, but then the alien gizmo of the week is broken out and the resulting chimera is brought to life!
When the TV crew catch a glimpse of it they decide to try and trap it, by leaving food out. But free food does not only attract the creature, it also attracts a certain deadbeat monk. And soon the creature and Cherry are dueling for the food across the countryside.
Which means it’s time for THE CHASE!
A chase that leads Ataru, Mendou, Shinobu and the TV crew out onto a rope bridge, which begins to fall apart with them standing on it. They all get stuck there, precariously balanced, until THE CHASE returns and plunges them to their doom!
A very silly episode, with the full gamut of UY animation. From very slick (for it’s time) to crazily angular to downright poor. Thankfully the strength of the story and the good animation outweighs some rough spots early on.
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Ugh! Horrible discovery time. Most other sites on UY have é 藤麻未 translated as Asami Endo rather than Mami Endo (which I got from an ANN search for é 藤麻未!). So I’ve gone back and corrected all my previous posts to match the majority of UY staff records I’ve seen in English or partial English.
OK, that’s over with so let’s talk Takashi Anno who shows up this episode. Anno was in charge of Maison Ikkoku for episodes 23-52, and he shows up on a lot of the Pierrot Magical Girl shows. He also has a few OAVs to his name – “Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma”, “Dark Myth”, “Spirit of Wonder Scientific Boys Club” and the original six Hakkenden OAVs. You know, the ones no one really discusses.
Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Storyboard: Kanzaki Mitsugi
Director: Takashi Anno
Animation Director: Asami Endo
