Gentle Imp (やさしい悪魔, Yasashī Akuma?) or "Poor Little Devil" in the first Viz Translation, is the 2nd chapter of the Urusei Yatsura manga.
Summary[]
Ataru accidentally summons a freeloading imp from the mirror world through a series of unlikely events.
Plot Overview[]
Cherry interrupts Ataru and Shinobu on a date, causing Ataru to get hit in the back of the head by a stray baseball from a nearby game. Cherry then follows Ataru home, inviting himself to dinner and into Ataru's bedroom, claiming he wants to protect Ataru from some coming evil. When Ataru wakes up at the cusp of midnight and checks his injury out with the aid of two mirrors, he accidentally summons an imp; when Cherry attacks the imp, he prevents it from returning through the mirror, stranding it. Ataru permits the imp to live at his home until Cherry can figure out a way to send it home, but his tolerance quickly runs out when it starts hitting on Shinobu. Cherry finally attempts a banishing ritual, but botches it and instead summons a horde of imps.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Ataru Moroboshi
- Shinobu Miyake
- Cherry
- Ataru's Mother
- Ataru's Father
- Mirror Demon
Trivia[]
- This chapter's title is a reference to a song called "My Sweet Little Devil" (やさしい悪魔), which was performed by a band called the Candies.
- The interaction between Shinobu and the Mirror Demon introduces a popular gag type that will be used repeatedly in the series' comedy; playing off of Japanese homonyms and synonyms. In the Japanese, Shinobu asks the knife-wielding imp to put away his "deba" (出刃), a word that means "knife"... but which can also mean "protruding teeth". Hence why the imp believes she is complaining about his protruding overbite.
- This is one of the only chapters in the manga to not feature an appearance by Lum. Originally, Lum was intended to be only a single-appearance antagonist, but her popularity with the audience caused Takahashi to change her mind and write her into the story as a new main character.
- The plot of the chapter takes itself from Japanese folklore, in which placing two mirrors so they reflect each other disturbs the spiritual aura of a home and creates a natural weak spot through which yokai, ghosts and all manner of evil spirits can enter.
- Two mirrors reflecting each other is also considered very bad in the practice of feng shui as well, as it leads to spiritual energy merely being bounced back and forth between the mirrors instead of being spread throughout the home.
- We see Cherry here in a traditional Buddhist monk's ceremonial outfit; a hat called a sugegasa (菅笠), outer robes called a kesa (袈裟) (a Japanese adaptation of the original Sanskrit name of "kasaya") over an inner garment called a "jikitotsu" (直裰), and finally a set of prayer beads called juzu (数珠).