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Forget-the-Year Party! ((忘年会じゃあ!, Bounenkai jaa!?), or "Year-End Party" in the Project ILM Scanlation, is the 113th chapter of the Urusei Yatsura manga.

Summary[]

When a well-meaning Lum offers to host the year's end party for Class 2-4, she goes way overboard.

Plot Overview[]

Class 2-4 is ready to hold its end-of-year party, which Lum has volunteered to host. Ataru wants nothing to do with it, pointing out that Lum's combination of naivety and advanced alien technology can be quite hazardous to the health. He is, of course, ignored and ultimately forced through one of the portals that Lum has prepared. He ends up in a pocket dimension that Lum created, where everybody's memories are blanked and they assume the identity of various historical, fictional and mythical characters from Japan, creating a madcap ad-lib history-drama hodgepode; Ataru believes himself to be Heiji Zenigata, whilst Onsen Mark, who stumbles in afterwards, comes to believe he's Taro Urashima. In the end, Onsen Mark unknowingly activates a failsafe that dumps them back in reality, but wipes their memories of the party, causing Lum to volunteer to create it all over again.

Characters in Order of Appearance[]

Trivia[]

  • With Viz Manga having officially ended its first English translation of the manga with Chapter 112 in 1998, Urusei Yatsura's English-speaking fanbase took it upon themselves to begin translating the remaining chapters starting with this one. The project to do so is known as the Project ILM Scanlation, the first online-accessible iteration of the manga, and the only complete English translation until Viz Media launched its second and complete series translation in 2019.
  • The plot of this chapter centers on a Japanese tradition called a bōnenkai (忘年会, literally "forget the year gathering"). The practice was introduced in the 15th century during the Muromachi period as the nōkai (納会, "great achievement gathering"); parties held by samurai lords on the 30th of December and largely centered on feasting and upper-class activities such as poetry writing and recital. The name bōnenkai didn't develop until the 18th century, and even then, the practice didn't pass on to non-samurai until the abolishment of the feudal hierarchy in the late 19th century. In modern days, bōnenkai are usually held by businesses at any date in December and primarily center on drinking alcohol (also performing karaoke and amateur comedy) under a mentality of bureikō (無礼講) - letting one's hair down and not worrying about the boss/employee formal relationship or the rank and age divisions. However, it's also held amongst groups of friends, club members, and college organizations.
  • The character Ataru believes himself to be, Zenigata Heiji (銭形 平次), is the protagonist of a series of historical crime fiction novels written by Kodō Nomura, first published in 1931 and running until 1959, for a total of 383 stories. Zenigata is a Sherlock Holmes-esque figure; a police officer stationed in Myōjin-shita during the Edo period (1603-1868), Zenigata solves crimes through a combination of deductive reasoning and his combat skills with both the jutte (a two-pronged baton and traditional hand-weapon of Japanese police) and using zeni (traditional Japanese coins) as throwing weapons. Zenigata has been the star of multiple films and television series that have appeared in Japan for decades, well outliving the original novels.
  • The character Inspector Koichi Zenigata from the manga Lupin III' is stated in-universe to be a descendant of Heiji Zenigata.
  • Onsen-Mark believes himself to be Urashima Tarō (浦島 太郎), the protagonist of a famous Japanese fairytale; in the story, the goodhearted fisherman Taro rescues a turtle that is being abused by several children, and in gratitude the turtle takes him to Ryugujo, the undersea palace of the dragon-god of the sea, Ryujin. There, Taro whiles away what he believes are several pleasant days with Ryujin's daughter before returning home, only to find that decades or even centuries have passed in the world of men. This is why, when Onsen-Mark gets dressed up, he is suddenly sitting on a turtle's back on the beach and proclaims that he just got back from Ryugujo.
  • Mendō's assumed identity is Sherlock Holmes, the most famous detective novel protagonist of Western crime fiction.
  • Although Sherlock Holmes is famous for smoking briar, clay, and cherrywood pipes, which is why Mendō is shown smoking a fake pipe when Onsen-Mark meets him, few people are aware that in the novels, Sherlock Holmes also made recreational use of cocaine and opium, drugs that were considered harmless during the Victorian period.
  • When we first look into Ataru and Mendō's shared office, a poster on the back wall reads "Yokozuna Kitanoumi". This is a reference to Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, a famous rikishi who dominated the sumo wrestling ring during the 1970s and who became the youngest man to ever achieve the rank of Yokuzuna - the highest rank in sumo - when he did so at the age of 21.
  • In this delusional dream-world, Shinobu has taken on the role of Zenigata Oshizu, the wife of Zenigata Heiji.
  • A kiribi (切火, Kiri-bi, "Cut fire") is an ancient tradition where an individual strikes flintstones together to generate sparks; this can be done either to purify offerings and ceremonial tools for Buddhist or Shinto ceremonies, or done over a person to expel evil spirits or attract good luck. Setting the person the ritual is being performed for on fire is not part of the ceremony, and is instead a bit of comedic slapstick. In Viz Media's English translation of the chapter, the extended and redundant term "kiribi fire purification ritual" is used, which although wordy does accurately convey the basic idea of the term without requiring an extended explanation in the chapter's notes.
  • When Ataru, Mendō and Onsen-Mark head back to the beach, they pass by multiple bizarre figures, including Godzilla, Santa Claus, the Little Matchgirl (from the European fairytale of the same name), a stereotypical ninja, an Egyptian mummy, and an Indian fakir.
  • Lum's role in this chapter is, of course, the Genie of the Lamp from the story of Aladdin.
  • When Ataru makes his second wish and is attacked by sword-wielding girls, it is a classic Urusei Yatsura homonym pun; in the original Japanese, Ataru uses the verb tsukiau, which can mean either "to date" or "to jab each other" depending on the kanji used. Due to this pun not translating directly into English, Viz Media's translation attempts to work around by having Ataru wish that the girls will "go crazy over him", thus setting them up to become "crazy violent" instead of "crazy in love" like he wanted.
  • This chapter was originally published in the double issue Shonen Sunday 1982 Vol. 3-4, created to make up for the New Year's holidays gap.
  • In between publishing this chapter and Chapter 114, Rumiko Takahashi would submit the two yonkoma (4-panel strip mini-stories) Elfairy (where a mischievous fairy bedevils a man) and Sprite (about a fairy hogging a mirror).
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