The gang go to the beach again. And end up staying at another haunted inn. Rumiko Takahashi really likes her ghost stories doesn’t she?
Anyway this time it’s not cannibalistic monsters, but a beautiful ghost that is haunting an inn owned by an elderly couple. Wacky old people being another Takahashi staple, of course. The ghost greets the gang and sees them up to their room, mistaking her for the old couple’s daughter. But they put the gang right and tell them that she’s Otama, a ghost.
The big twist is that Otama is more scared of the elderly couple than they are of her. In fact, they are actively trying to scare Otama away. So the gang decide to help her out by giving her a make over and dressing as monsters themselves. However it’s all for naught as the inn owners out-scare them all.
The next day they decide to leave the inn early, however Otama follows them, wanting to go to the beach with them. The others are wary, due to the fact she’s a member of the undead, but Ataru (and his libido) lets her come with them. Then something even scarier happens.
Cherry shows up!
He determines that Otama’s not an evil ghost, so all of a sudden Mendou’s all over her. At first she wants a drink, but when Mendou brings her a Coke, she says she wants a snow-cone. While they eat it, Cherry asks why she is still on the Earth, she wanders out to sea. They follow her and discover here spying on Sakura and Tsubame about to kiss.
It turns out that Otama wants a boyfriend and that is why she can’t rest in peace. Ataru and Mendou offer their services in that regard, but are dismissed as brats. Otama then forlornly wanders back to the inn.
This is a fairly straight adaptation of two chapters of the manga that featured Otama. Outside of some nice backgrounds, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about the episode. The first half, with the couple trying to haunt the ghost is the stronger story and has the better gags.
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Hmm, the second episode in a row with a writer that only has one UY ep to their name. Wonder what was going on there. Konishikawa was mainly writing on Creamy Mami for Studio Pierrot at the time.
Screenplay: Hiroshi Konishikawa
Storyboard: Junji Nishimura
Director: Junji Nishimura
Animation Director: Kazuo Yamazaki