Young Love on the Run (かけめぐる青春, Kakemegu Seishun?) or "A Good Catch" in the first Viz Translation, is the 1st chapter of Urusei Yatsura manga.
Summary[]
When high school student Ataru Moroboshi is picked as the only one who can save the Earth from an alien invasion, his ordinary life is forever turned upside down!
Plot Overview[]
The chapter starts off with Shinobu slapping Ataru, followed by Shinobu saying that she hates him and is done with him. Ataru wonders out loud why she slapped him, since he only looked at another girl for a second. A mysterious old monk suddenly appears and warns Ataru not to do anything foolish. Ataru jumps into the water. The monk briefly laments that he was too late, and Ataru shouts at him, asking why he said that. The monk implies that Ataru would have jumped off the bridge in an attempt to kill himself, and Ataru denies that he would kill himself because of what Shinobu did. The monk says he saw the "shadow of death" on Ataru's back, which is why he ran to save him and accidentally made him jump off the bridge. As Ataru walks away, The monk warns him not to go in the direction he's going since something "evil" will happen if he does. Ataru punches him, and tells him that this is how he gets home. The monk notices something "horrible" on his face - an "ominous shadow". As the two walk the monk says that Ataru looks as if he's been haunted by an evil spirit. As Ataru denies this, he notices people around his house. Ataru is suddenly approached by reporters, and his mom comes to take him inside.
She warns him to brace himself, and presents him to an enormous oni sitting patiently at the dinner table. Ataru instinctively tries to drive the oni with the traditional handful of beans and chant, but is scolded to stop that. The oni explains he is actually an alien. Outside, his ship appears and a figure descends to the street in a crackling bolt of lightning.
Inside, the oni continues his explanation, telling Ataru that he is the leader of a fleet sent to conquer earth. But, according to oni tradition, Earth has the right to a trial by champion to maintain its freedom; if a randomly selected Earthling can beat the oni's champion, than the oni will leave, and the oni's computer selected Ataru for the role. The mysterious monk gloats that his prediction was right, before Shinobu protests that Ataru can't fight an oni, and Ataru agrees, shouting "Oni begone!" at the oni leader. Instead, the alien tells Ataru that he is the oni, to Ataru's confusion, before a new voice chimes in and explains that the "duel" is to be a game of tag, with Ataru as the pursuer. The speaker is revealed to a be a beautiful oni girl, who introduces herself as "Lum", before her leader explains that the rules of the game are simple: if Ataru can grab hold of Lum's horns before the sunset of the tenth day of the game, then Earth wins. Seeing this beauty will be his opponent fills Ataru with a mixture of lust and confidence, and he eagerly agrees to the match, angering Shinobu to the point she scratches Ataru's face and then leaves in a huff.
That evening, once everyone else has departed, the monk introduces himself as "Brother Sakuranbo", before telling them to call him "Cherry". He warns Ataru's parents that Ataru bears the mark of an extremely unlucky star, and asks them if they had any suspicions. They promptly recount a laundry list of ill omens associated with Ataru's birth; his birthday was both Butsumetsu and Friday the 13th, an earthquake hit Tomobiki as he let out his first cry, which broke all of the Moroboshi's teacups and toppled the family altar, and when his father tried to run away, he broke the strap of his sandal. At this point, Ataru interjects and tells them to stop.
The next morning, the first match of the game begins. Ataru is full of hope, but that hope is swiftly dashed when he leaps for Lum, and she takes off into the air; she has the power of flight! Ataru protests that they didn't tell him this when he was challenged, and Lum shoots back that he should have done his homework. Ataru chases her all day, but by sunset, he's exhausted and Lum hasn't come within reach once. The first match ends in a failure. As does the second match the next day. By the end of day 3, the well-wishing and cheers has begun to change to criticism of his continued failure. On the evening of the seventh day, Lum and the oni leader are televised boasting of Ataru's seemingly inevitable failure and Earth's conquest, with Ataru's father noting Ataru will be shunned for the rest of his life if he fails whilst his mother laments having given birth to him. Upset and angry, Ataru retires to his bedroom, where Shinobu visits him, and scolds him for letting his lust lead him to agreeing to such a rigged game. Ataru admits he was a fool.
As dusk approaches on the eighth, both Ataru and Lum are showing their fatigue. Suddenly, Ataru manages a mighty leap and catches hold of Lum's torso, but she slaps him across the face and hurls him away before he can reach up to touch her horns and claim victory. But Lum doesn't get away scotfree; her bra comes loose in the scuffle, and she flees to her spaceship before her nudity can be properly televised. That evening, she comes to Ataru's room and demands he return her bra but he refuses. She wrestles with him for it, but he puts up a fierce defense long enough to bring onlookers running, causing the ashamed Lum to flee back to her ship. Realizing that Lum mustn't have a spare bra fills Ataru with hope.
The next day, Lum is forced to cover herself with her arms to preserve her modesty, which reduces the power of her flying jumps and how fast she can run. This allows Ataru to get in close and catch her with another mighty flying tackle, but she launches herself into the air with Ataru hanging on for dear life, distracting him from her horns. Before he can recover, she fights him off and sends him plummeting back to earth, where the impact knocks him unconscious. As he is ferried off for medical attention, the onlookers scream at him.
That evening, despite his near success, Ataru experiences an attack of confidence, breaking down in panic as Kōsuke Shirai, Hokuto and Shinobu Miyake come to visit him. They watch him and determine they need to restore his confidence, so Shinobu loudly and firmly asserts that she'll marry Ataru if he wins. Ataru initially dismisses this as her selfishness, but she assures him that she means it. This galvanises Ataru, giving him back his confidence.
As the final game starts, Ataru is fired up like never before. Vowing to do whatever it takes to win Shinobu's hand, he brandish's Lum's bra at her, luring her in close; when she grabs hold of the free end, he uses all of his strength to pull her from the air and slam her back-first into the ground, stunning her. Screaming "I wanna get married!" he lunges for the now-grounded oni and grabs her in a chokehold before clutching her horn.
Cheers erupt from the assembled crowd, who surge forward to offer congratulations that Ataru barely hears, snickering to himself that "now we can finally get married". Whilst he's talking about himself and Shinobu, his words are easily misunderstood; Lum announces that if he wants it that badly, then she'll marry him, and the gathered reporters, noting he was talking about marriage at several points during the chase, begin asking if Ataru truly means to wed Lum. Ataru tries to explain, but is drowned out by the well-wishers. An angry Shinobu tells him that he should go for it, considering he's still clinging to Lum, and stomps away; he tries to go after her to explain, but Lum catches hold of him and holds him fast.
The oni leader tells Lum that it's time to leave, since they decisively lost, but Lum protests that Ataru has proposed to her. The oni leader seems pleased by this, but notes that Ataru will need to come and live on their planet, Oniboshi. An excited Lum notes that they'll get Ataru some horns and make a proper oni of him. As the crowd gathers around the happy oni and wish them well, Ataru can only sob, his gaze following Shinobu through the crowd as she storms off.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
Trivia[]
- This chapter introduces us to the world of Urusei Yatsura, Rumiko Takahashi's first ongoing serial story, as well as to both three of its main characters - Ataru Moroboshi, Shinobu Miyake, and Lum - and to several recurring secondary characters.
- The chapter's title is taken from a 1976 song by the Beauty Pair, a pair of singers and professional tag-team wrestlers.
- When Ataru meets Lum's father, he attempts to drive him away by throwing beans at him and chanting for him to depart, a reference to the Japanese ceremony of banishing ill-fortune that is integral to the New Year's celebration of Setsubun.
- The puns about Ataru being "the oni" and the Oni's challenge being a game of tag homage the Japanese version of tag; "onigokko" (鬼ごっこ), meaning literally "oni's game", uses the backstory that the player who is assigned to catch the other players is taking the role of an oni attempting to capture victims.
- Ataru's birthday is stated to be Friday, the 13th of April. This combines the Japanese superstition of Butsumetsu (the most unlucky day of the week in the traditional Japanese Buddhist calendar) with the Western superstition of Friday the 13th being the most unlucky of all days. Ironically, the single most unlucky day of the year in Japanese superstition is actually April 4th, being the 4th day of the 4th month - 4 is considered a highly inauspicious number, since in Japanese it sounds and is written very similar to shi (死), the word for "death".
- The association of 4, bad luck, and Ataru also extends to Ataru's sports jersey having the number 4 on it.
- The toppling of the family altar, the breaking of teacups, and the breaking of a sandal's strap are all commonly regarded as ill-omens and signs of approaching misfortune in Japanese superstition. The fact that all of these happened in succession when Ataru was born (plus an earthquake) is intended to emphasize just how ill-fated Ataru is and his association with calamity.
- The Japanese Prime Minister who appears on television begging for Ataru to succeed is clearly based on Takeo Fukuda, who was Japan's Prime Minister when the chapter was first released. As further proof, he offers to give Ataru the "People's Honor Award" (国民栄誉賞), a real-life award that Fukuda established in 1977 to recognize people's inspiratory contributions in sports, entertainment and other social fields.
- This chapter marks the first of the ongoing appearance of the Dappya Monsters (or Dappyamen, or Dappya Men), an homage to Takahashi's first ever published manga; the oneshot Katte na Yatsura (勝手なやつら), often translated into English as Those Selfish Aliens, in no small part due to the impact of Urusei Yatsura.