This episode introduces an occasionally recurring character to the series, Mako. She’s an overly aggressive little moppet with her sights set on making Ten her husband. She makes multiple appearances in the manga, but I’m not sure if she appears in any great role again in the anime.
When Mako gives Ten a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day, she tells him that they are now married under Japanese law and if he doesn’t accept it he will be executed. Frightened at no longer being able to chase babes, he follows her home to give her back the chocolates, only to fall for Mako’s mother. Meanwhile Lum has been chasing Ataru trying to give him some chocolates, and they end up running into Mako’s house too.
This leads to Ten and Ataru battling to eat Mako’s mother’s chocolates, while Mako and Lum try to get them to eat theirs. Eventually Ataru manages to eat one of Mako’s mother’s chocolates, and so gets an electrocution for his troubles.
The second half of the episode finds Lum forcing Ten to play with Mako, however when she sends Ataru to pick up Ten, he hits on Mako’s mother again. She’s another rare woman who actually seems to find Ataru charming, by the way.
So he gets electrocuted again. But when Ten calls Ataru and idiot, Lum gets mad, and for once he gets electrocuted too, throwing him into a kiss with Mako.
And then Lum does the same to Ataru, and we get, what I think is the first time the two characters have kissed in the series so far.
This is another episode where my memories of it weren’t that great, only to be pleasantly surprised on the repeat viewing. After a few episodes of variable animation, this looks great all the way through. Scriptwise, the second half, which I think is all original material, is a little weak on story, but the gags are fun and it feeds some interesting visuals.
—
Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Storyboards: Motosuke Takahashi
Director: Junji Nishimura
Animation Director: Asami Endo
