The following contains spoilers for Episode 17 of Urusei Yatsura, "A Chest Full of Longing/Wish Upon a Star," now streaming on HiDive.
This week's episode features two different stories that don't necessarily have a lot of lore or plot development, but are still hilarious nevertheless. The first part is a rare Shinobu-centric episode that pairs her with the new character Ryunosuke, while the second part features the Moroboshi family engaging in shenanigans once again.
While this week's episode might seem silly and superfluous, it is nevertheless a fun romp that brings back two classic stories from the original series in a new style. All in all, it's a hilarious episode that will make new fans laugh and make old fans feel nostalgic.
"A Chest Full Of Longing"
While walking home from school, Shinobu gets the feeling that she is being followed, and notices that several men have been following her and taking pictures of her. Scared, she grabs Ryunosuke and asks her to help her drive them off. However, Ryunosuke isn't up to fighting, as she just went to purchase a bra for the first time, only to find that the prices are far out of her range. The stalkers approach, explaining to Shinobu that they are delinquents and their gang boss wants to date her. When Shinobu refuses, the delinquents suggest another way to convince their overly passionate boss to give up.
They decide to pretend that Shinobu already has a boyfriend, with Ryunosuke acting as the boyfriend. Ryunosuke isn't a fan of the plan, but she is swayed when the delinquents offer her a gift certificate in exchange. Shinobu and Ryunosuke go on a fake date, with the delinquents taking pictures of them doing normal couple things. Eventually, Ataru begins to interfere with the mock date, offering a free bra to Ryunosuke if she quits the fake date plan. Ataru offers to replace Ryunosuke in the boyfriend role, but he is stopped by a jealous Lum. As the two bicker, Shinobu, Ryunosuke, and the delinquents try to continue the fake date plan, but their boss soon arrives and makes a beeline straight for Shinobu.
When the boss charges the delinquents, the gift certificate that was meant to be Ryunosuke's reward gets blown away by the wind. Ryunosuke chases after it, but the certificate lands in the hands of Cherry and Kotatsu Neko, who immediately use it for kindling. Meanwhile, the boss continues to approach Shinobu, but the delinquents attempt to pacify him by offering the bra Ataru brought, passing it off as belonging to Shinobu. Ryunosuke, who realizes that is her last chance to get her hands on a bra, attempts to grab the bra along with Ataru, who had taken his mother's bra for his plan, but the boss swallows the bra whole, making Ryunosuke's struggles and efforts pointless.
"Wish Upon A Star"
The Moroboshi family have a rather pitiful dinner as they bicker about their financial struggles. As they fight, something suddenly crashes into their home: a star-shaped being that declares itself the Wishing Star, and that the poor family has earned a bit of luck. The star offers them three wishes, but Ataru's parents, angry at being called poverty-stricken, insist that the whole thing is a scam and begin cleaning up the mess. The parents demand the Wishing Star help out, and he does by having them use up a wish to do so.
Realizing that the Wishing Star is for real, the family immediately start arguing over what the next wish should be. While they are distracted, an intruding Cherry makes a wish for yakisoba. After beating him up for wasting a wish, they all realize that they now only have one wish, and begin arguing over what they should wish for. Ataru naturally wants to wish for a harem, while Lum wants to wish for Ataru to be loyal to her. The discussion goes on for quite a while, especially with Ataru trying to sneak his own wish in without anyone noticing, and with the Wishing Star only staying until dawn, the family becomes pressured to make a decision.
While discussing the wish, the Wishing Star asks for a drink, and Ataru's mother says it can have any drink in the fridge. The family decides to make the decision by lottery and end up choosing Ataru's father. Ataru's mother decides to look at his wish and discover that he wants to redo his life. Infuriated, Ataru and his mother feign sorrow, and decide to wish for money instead of letting Ataru's father have his wish. However, they find the Wishing Star dead asleep, having drunk all the alcohol in the fridge. In their craze to wake him up, they accept Cherry's solution: to make a wish to wake the star up. None of them realize that they used their last wish until the Wishing Star wakes up and flies away.
Rampaging Admirers And Selfish Wishes
This episode's stories center around a number of side characters this time around, with the first part involving the delinquents at Butsumetsu High, while the second part features the Wishing Star. These characters are minor and are unlikely to reappear, but they do a good job of showing that our main characters aren't the only crazy people in this series.
Despite its rather inessential nature, this week's episode of Urusei Yatsura does do a good job of continuing to define the series' cast. Ryunosuke's struggle to become more feminine returns, while Shinobu gets a chance to be in the spotlight for once. The Moroboshi family gets a lot more characterization as well, as the second part illustrates just how badly they get along.