With the massive cast the series has established now, it can start to mix and match characters we’ve not seen together so far. This episode brings back Princess Kurama and her search for a mate. Only this time her Karasutengu have their sights are set on Mendou.
Kurama has convinced the crows to put her back into stasis and pretend they never met Ataru. However they accidentally run into Ataru, Lum, Mendou and Shinobu playing tennis. Seeing Mendou as an improvement on Ataru, they try to get him to kiss Kurama, but Ataru thwarts them. Not wanting to upset her they pretend Mendou was the culprit, but when she drags him into a “nest” to mate, Ataru is waiting and destroys their lie.
Frustrated at the rule about mating with the man who awakens her with a kiss, Kurama asks what’s the punishment for breaking it. It turns out that the elder crow doesn’t actually know what the punishment for breaking the rule, so he confers with the recorded memories of his predecessor and it turns out that generation after generation of the elders didn’t know the punishment.
Fed up with this stupidity Kurama goes after Mendou again, but then Ten starts hitting on her too. And then he warns her that Mendou is as big an idiot as Ataru. While she believes him, she has “a thing for handsome guys” and decides to mate with Mendou anyway.
But then the memory of the 1st elder appears to tell the story of why the rule exists. Which of course, being Urusei Yatsura is completely selfish. He only set the rule because that’s how he met his wife and wanted everyone to remember him.
With the rule out the way Kurama sets off to find a strong suitable mate (Mendou having been ruled out due to his phobias). As we shall see in later episodes, even without the rule, Kurama’s judgement is rather flawed…
This feels like pure Takahashi, both due to the relative absence of the Stormtroopers and more importantly the way the psychoses of various characters interact. Handling of Shinobu is a little odd, as midway through the episode, they have excuse her not going berserk in order to get to a punchline. It’s bad writing, and even if it it’s from the manga, Ito draws attention to it rather than hiding it.
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Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Storyboard: Kozima Tamiko
Director: Kozima Tamiko
Animation Director: Asami Endo
