Locker Inspections (所持品検査だ！, Shojihin kensa da!?) is the 117th chapter of the Urusei Yatsura manga.
Summary[]
The teachers' attempts to confiscate illicit items from the students of Tomobiki High escalates into a full-scale war, egged on by Lum's newest crazy contraption.
Plot Overview[]
As another school day begins at Tomobiki High, several of the teachers are digging a pit outside of the school. Even odder is when Lum arrives with a giant robot at her side. She insists it's just to carry her books, but the robot asserts it's a combat model. When she goes inside, the robot takes an interest in the teachers, and after hearing their brief explanation, ushers them inside whilst it continues digging. The purpose of the hole is ultimately revealed; Tomobiki High is holding a school-wide desk and locker inspection, confiscating all contraband personal items. Outside, they discover the robot has dug an enormous hole, far bigger than the original intended burial pit. Upon hearing of the situation, the robot changes sides, inciting the students to fight the teachers to take the property back, which they attempt. After they lose, Lum finally discovers in her manual that she did indeed buy the wrong model; what she bought is a "battlefield morale booster" - essentially a glorified cheerleader.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Onsen-Mark
- Ataru Moroboshi
- Kōsuke Shirai
- Hokuto
- Lum
- Lum's Giant Robot
- Shūtarō Mendō
- Shinobu Miyake
Trivia[]
- This chapter was originally published in Shonen Sunday 1982 Vol. 8, which came with two folding paper covers for cassette tape cases; one for Urusei Yatsura, and the other for Touch, a baseball manga about twin brothers Tatsuya and Kazuya Uesugi and their competition over both the sport and the love of their childhood friend Minami Asakura. The Urusei Yatsura cover depicted Lum in three costumes; her classic bikini look, her schoolgirl uniform, and a seductive red dress. The Touch cover, meanwhile, depicted Minami's face flanked by the brothers Tatsuya and Kazuya, all wearing cowboy costumes.
- When he debuts on the first page, Ataru can seen carrying a traditional Japanese skill toy known as a kendama (けん玉, "sword [and] ball"), which consists of a handle (ken), a pair of cups (sarado), and a ball (tama) that are all connected together by a string.
- Lum's robot is a parody of the titular character from the Daimajin trilogy of kaiju films. A rare fantasy-based kaiju film series, the Daimajin films center on an enormous stone statue of a fictional warrior god ("Daimajin" roughly meaning "Demon God") that animates in response to the depredations of different cruel warlords during Japan's feudal era and proceeds to annihilate the villains. Originally intended as an opponent for Gamera, the Daimajin trilogy were all filmed simultaneously and released consecutively across 1966. Due to the obscurity of the trilogy in American markets, Viz Media's English translation removes the explicit reference of Ataru referring to the robot as Daimajin when it appears, instead replacing it with the generic description of "a giant".
- The first three panels of the first page after the chapter changes its setting to inside of Class 2-4 - Onsen-Mark glowering at his students, Mendō glancing to his side, and Lum wearing headphones as she studies her robot catalog - are actually later additions to this chapter and weren't present in the original iteration printed in Shonen Sunday 1982 Vol. 8. In that original magazine printing, this space contained an advertisement for Rumiko's upcoming short story War Council (戦国生徒会), which she would publish in Shonen Sunday Zokan in between the release of this chapter and Chapter 118. When the chapter was gathered for reprints, the advertisement was cut out, and so Takahashi had to create three new panels to fill the space where it was.
- War Council (戦国生徒会) is a 28-page comedy story about newly appointed Official Student Council President Yu Sanada, who finds himself running for his life to escape the wrath of the Student Councils, who are all desperate to secure the official presidential approval stamp to attain total dominance over the allocation of the budget between the school's various councils. This story is most notable from an Urusei Yatsura perspective because the antagonist character Ryuko Fujinami is a clear prototype for the character of Ryūnosuke Fujinami.
- Hokuto is shown to have a tanuki statue in his locker, much to the disbelief of Onsen-Mark. Such statues are common symbols of good luck and fortune in Japan, especially for shops and similar businesses.
- In the original Japanese, the students liken Onsen-Mark's commands to their playing a game of Daruma-san ga koronda, which translates to "Mr. Daruma fell over"; this is the Japanese version of the game "Statues", which is found all over the world under varying names. In Viz Media's English translation, the name of the game is changed to "Red Light, Green Light".
- The "Forbidden Locker Legend" is a clear homage to the Japanese tradition of the Honjo Nanafushigi - meaning "Seven Wonders" or "Seven Mysteries" - which are particularly associated with schools. The Seven Mysteries are a collection of seven paranormal phenomena associated with a particular place.