1982 draws to a close, along with the third production batch.
When Lum gets asked to organise the class year end party, she of course holds it in a pocket dimension. When Ataru goes through the door to the party, he finds a costume and when he puts it on he becomes “Zenigata Heiji“.
Yes, it’s another year end episode where history is played with fast and loose. Much like the Tale of Genji episode we have the cast put into historical roles once more. With Ataru cast as a famous Japanese detective, Mendou is cast as Sherlock Holmes. And they compete against one another to try and figure out who Onsen-Mark is dressed as.
Shinobu is Oshizu, Megane is Hachigoro and Kakugari is Dr Watson.
There is then a lot of running about, which the animators use to work in tons of blink and you’ll miss them visual references.
Eventually it looks like Onsen-Mark is cast as Urashima TarÅ and they try to find the treasure box he was given. But instead they find Aladdin‘s magic lamp (or is it Tony Nelson‘s?) and Lum comes out dressed as a genie to grant Ataru three wishes.
Ataru first wishes for “all the girls in the world to think he’s a scream”, but this just makes the women scream in fear when he approaches them.
His second wish is for “a good poke with all the girls in the world”, which of course ends with him being hit with sticks.
Then everyone gets back on with the task of finding the treasure box, which leads to a mass battle between the class to try and keep hold of it. Eventually Onsen-Mark gets hold of it and opens the box returning everyone to the class, with no memory of the “party”, and so it all begins again…
Yes, more Beautiful Dreamer forshadowing with Urashima Taro references and the circular plot.
Unfortunately, Hayakawa was clearly rushed on this episode after the great work on episode 53, the animation is often very choppy, with few inbetweens. And there’s lots of looped animation. Despite that the two chase scenes have some nice stuff in there, and story is a lot of fun.
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Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Storyboard: Keiji Hayakawa
Director: Keiji Hayakawa
Animation Director: Asami Endo
