The following contains spoilers for Episode 16 of Urusei Yatsura, "Family Feud!!/Hello, Sailor Suit!!," now streaming on HiDive.
The newest episode of Urusei Yatsura is once again an introductory episode, bringing to the new series the androgynous Ryunosuke and her outlandish father. Ryunosuke was one of the last few classic characters to finally arrive in the new series, and with her, nearly the entire classic cast of Urusei Yatsura has been assembled.
This episode is also yet another high-octane duo of stories, both centered around the antics of this aggressive parent-and-child pair. While Ataru and the others certainly make an appearance, the main show here is about the Fujinami family and their violent antics.
"Family Feud!!"
Ataru and friends head to the beach, only to find that the entire place has been shut down due to how violent the waves are. As the group walks along the deserted beach, they come along two people who are bizarrely yelling at the ocean, then running away when the waves come crashing in. After missing the timing, they get hit by the waves and start bickering over why they got hit.
The parent-and-child duo turn out to run one of the beach side restaurants and were yelling at the ocean for chasing customers away with its violent waves. The child, Ryunosuke, starts to complain about the restaurant, but the father won't listen to any complaints and insists on Ryunosuke inheriting the shop. Seeing them fighting again, Lum and Shinobu want to help them out, but Ataru and Mendo think it's better to leave. However, when Ryunosuke reveals herself to be a woman, Ataru and Mendo take an interest in her and decide to help her out.
Ryunosuke reveals that her father raised her up as a boy, but she always wanted to wear women's clothes. Ryunosuke's father insists that she needs to be a man to run the beach restaurant, which only inflames the argument. As the fight burns on, Ataru and the others wonder what they can do to stop them from fighting, and when a simultaneous attack knocks the both of them out, the group takes the chance to put a plan into action.
Ryunosuke and her father wake up to find themselves chained to opposite sides of the restaurant. Ataru and Lum tell them to resolve things with their words instead of their fists, but their verbal argument gets so heated that they end up breaking their bonds, causing the shop to collapse around them. As the pair continue their fight now freed from their bonds, Ataru and the others decide to go home, a day truly wasted.
"Hello, Sailor Suit!!"
As Ataru and Lum walk to school, they once again encounter the Fujinami family having a fight in the street. Ryunosuke's father explains that after their beach restaurant was destroyed, they managed to get a live-in job working at a school's supply store. The school in question turns out to be Tomobiki High School, and Ryunosuke is going to be attending as well.
Ryunosuke's father then pulls out a sailor uniform, the one thing Ryunosuke has been yearning for since she was a child. Her father tells her that she can wear it if she manages to beat him in a fight. Ryunosuke accepts the challenge, but when Ataru interrupts by making a move on Ryunosuke, her father takes advantage of the opening to kick her in the face, winning the fight. As a result, Ryunosuke introduces herself to Ataru's class in a boy's uniform.
Seeing Ryunosuke's androgynous appeal makes her popular with the girls causing the boys to worry about their own standing. When Ataru remarks that he'd like to see Ryunosuke in a girl's uniform, they decide to get her to wear the uniform in order to reduce her popularity. They manage to wrest a uniform from Ryunosuke's father by beating him up, then offer it to Ryunosuke. She is touched, but decides not to wear the uniform until she has properly beaten her father.
As Ryunosuke admires the sailor uniform, she finds that she is still lacking something necessary in order to wear the uniform properly. When she sees Ran, she realizes that she is the picture of femininity that she always admired as a child, and sends a letter to her asking her to hang out. Ran mistakes the letter for a love letter, and when Lum tries to tell her that Ryunosuke is a girl, she doesn't believe her. Believing that Lum is jealous, Ran accepts Ryunosuke's offer to spend time together.
Ryunosuke and Ran hang out after school, with Ryunosuke doing her best to study Ran's feminine behaviors. Their time is interrupted by Ataru, who is barely reined in by a disinterested Lum. The date ultimately ends disastrously after Ataru rams into Ryunosuke in a fit of jealousy during a boat ride. Ran ends the day yelling at Lum, never realizing Ryunosuke's actual gender.
An Extreme Family
Ryunosuke is a classic character and a core part of Urusei Yatsura, albeit one that appeared much later in the series compared to characters like Mendo and Sakura. Her constant fights with her father and endless struggle for achieving her own femininity has earned her a lot of fans, many who are happy to see her back for this reboot series.
The episode itself does a perfect job of establishing Ryunosuke's relationship with her father, showing their endless belligerence that never cools down for even a moment. With Ryunosuke now fully established as a member of Ataru's class, we're sure to see her and her father in future episodes, which is certainly something to look forward to.