The following contains spoilers for Episode 6 of Urusei Yatsura, "Good Day for a Depature/Oyuki/Ataru Retires," now streaming on HiDive.
This extremely rare three-parter episode features three very different stories, each one laugh-out-loud hilarious. The first two introduce two new characters with connections to Lum, while the third is simply more of Urusei Yatsura's ridiculous over-the-top humor. While fans might worry that featuring three different stories might crowd out the episode, each story instead feels properly paced and given the proper amount of time to develop.
After taking a break from wacky new characters and outer space shenanigans last episode to focus on Ataru and Lum's relationship, this episode goes back to all-out hilarity, with Ataru getting hit with all kinds of misfortune and punishment. With more new characters to round out the cast, the next episode is sure to up the ante even more.
"Good Day For A Departure"
Ataru heads home, excited for the one chance a year he has to eat sukiyaki. However, he is instead whisked away by Lum to celebrate Setsubun on her home planet. There, Ataru finds a myriad of aliens assembled to participate in a huge contest. Initially fearful for what the contest entails, Ataru's nerves go away when he realizes that the contest is merely tossing balls into a high basket.
Ataru's interest is suddenly drawn by Benten, a beautiful woman on the other side's team who just happens to be Lum's childhood friend. Ataru is immediately smitten and tries to hit on Benten, who finds him annoying but reciprocates in order to annoy Lum. Lum ends up losing her temper and leaves her spot, causing her family's basket to fall. Lum's father, the head of the team, decides to punish Ataru for being the most foolish member of his team, as is the contest's tradition.
Back at home, Ataru's parents are worried that Ataru hasn't come home for his sukiyaki, and after eating his share are worried that he has died and will come back to haunt them. Cherry appears and scams them into making more sukiyaki so that Ataru will be at peace. Cherry performs a fake ritual and conjures a vision of Ataru being pelted with beans by the Onis, which his parents mistake for him being punished in hell.
"Oyuki"
Ataru has come down with a cold, and Shinobu and Cherry visit to see if he is well. Mendo and some of Ataru's male classmates visit as well, using his sickness as a pretext to see Lum. However, Lum has headed off to Neptune to see a friend of hers and is not here. Ataru's room suddenly becomes smothered in snow, and a beautiful ice woman appears called Oyuki.
The beautiful Oyuki requests that someone escort her back to her home through the interdimensional portal in Ataru's closet, and all the men happily agree, including Ataru who quickly begins putting the moves on her. Eventually, they find themselves on Neptune, where Lum introduces Oyuki as another of her friends. Oyuki explains that she was looking for men to help shovel the snow while her planet's men are off somewhere else for work, and the male students happily agree to help.
While running away from a furious Lum, enraged due to Ataru constantly hitting on Oyuki, Ataru eventually finds Oyuki alone. Oyuki invites Ataru to her room, where he immediately begins to put the moves on her. Oyuki is surprisingly receptive, but Ataru is interrupted by B-Bo, a yeti who begins chasing Ataru around the planet.
Ataru runs until he eventually jumps into the portal back home, but B-Bo follows him, resulting in a huge scene outside of his house that is reported on by the news. It is ultimately revealed that the whole situation was a ploy by Oyuki to keep Ataru shoveling snow on her home planet, something Mendo has already been stuck doing for several days.
"Ataru Retires"
In a short post-credits sequence, Ataru announces at the end of class that he is retiring. His teacher assumes that he is quitting school, but Ataru quickly remarks that this is not the case. Mendo then suggests that Ataru is quitting as the main character of Urusei Yatsura, which prompts the other characters to debate over who should be the new main character.
The discussion quickly spirals out of control as every character that has appeared so far as well as new characters that have never appeared show up to make a claim for the main character position. Ataru then exclaims that he only wanted to retire from being class president, to which the others react to with mild disinterest.
More Beautiful Alien Women
This episode introduces two new characters in Benten and Oyuki, both longtime friends of Lum. Their appearances expand the alien aspects of the series, introducing more bizarre characters from other worlds with their own quirks and idiosyncrasies. While they aren't the most frequently reoccurring characters, they are sure to appear again as the series goes on.
Their appearance also does much to define Ataru as a hopeless womanizer, and it is clear through their interactions with Lum that while they are fairly close, they are not above letting rivalry or their own needs get in the way, seen in how Benten uses Ataru to gain the advantage in the contest while Oyuki tried to seduce Ataru to get him to stay on Neptune. While Ataru's portrayal is vastly different from his portrayal in the previous episode, it does a good job of showing the dichotomy between his two sides.