Lum-A-Day 067 – Seeing Shangri-La as a Hell Camp!

Another throwback to the earlier two stories an episode format, the gang are once again in the countryside, this time camping.

In the first story we get an early outing for the boys endure the terrible cooking of a cute girl plot, when Lum’s cooking poisons Megane, Perm and Mendou. Looking to an alternate food source, they discover their snacks stolen by a hare. The hare, a deadbeat along the lines of the various goblins of earlier episodes, leads them on a merry dance all night, until finally leading them to food – namely Lum cooking breakfast.

In the second story they discover Tohgenkyou (the Valley of the Peaches) where peaches and women are promised (see also, the second Ranma 1/2 film). The gang end up in a race to defeat the evil peach that lies within the valley, when the hermits of the valley plan to sacrifice a beautiful girl to it. However it turns out to simply be a ploy between the hermits and the girl to bet on the race.

Not a great episode, sub-par animation and few funny gags. The only relative high spot animation wise is the race which features some ridiculously phallic Itano Circus.

This is only episode that character designer Akemi Takada is credited with animation direction.

Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Storyboard: Kanzaki Mitsugi
Director: Junji Nishimura
Animation Director: Akemi Takada