Sake and Tears and Men and Women (酒と泪と男と女, "Sake to Namida to Otoko to Onna"?), also known as "Sake, Tears, Boys, And Girls" in the first Viz translation, is the 27th chapter of the Urusei Yatsura manga.
Summary[]
Ataru is unwittingly possessed by an alien kitsune on a drunken bender.
Plot Overview[]
Some of Lum's fanboys arrive at the Moroboshi household; ostensibly there for a study group, their true goal is to lust over Lum. This already tumultuous mix becomes more unstable when a pair of squabbling spouses, aliens who resemble ghostly foxes, arrive in Ataru's bedroom. The male of the species, drunk like a fool, possesses Ataru and goes in search of yet more liquor, which brings his angry mate after him. She leaps from female host to female host to try and reign her mate in, unwittingly getting Ataru in all manner of trouble. Finally, the duo inadvertently anger Lum to the point she delivers one of her punishing shocks to Ataru, forcibly sobering and exorcising the male alien in the process. The two alien foxes reconcile and depart for their home, leaving the chaos they created behind them.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
Trivia[]
- The couple Menko and Tsuyuo who first appeared in Chapter 7 return and would reappear in Chapter 99. They would appear in several episodes of the second anime adaptation.
- This chapter actually has a much earlier publication date than its placement in tankobons and other volumes suggests. When the collected chapters were assembled, some chapters were reshuffled in order to prevent multi-part storylines, such as the Kurama storyline, being split across multiple volumes. Only the wideban release features this chapter in its original publication order.
- This is one of many chapters whose title was inspired by a song that was popular at the time. In this case, a song by Eigo Kawashima.
- This chapter marks the very last appearance of the manga version of Lum's Stormtroopers, who will never appear again in the manga; when side-characters from Class 2-4 are required, those roles will typically be filled by Kōsuke Shirai, Hokuto, or Ryūnosuke Fujinami. In the anime, the Stormtroopers remain major secondary characters.
- This chapter's plot was likely inspired by the Japanese mythology of kitsunes. These magical foxes are famous for their powers to both shapeshift and to possess human hosts, traits they often use to cause mischief - either in pursuit of liquor, or whilst drunk off their ill-gotten booze! Thus, we have a pair of body-snatching, fox-like aliens causing havoc by temporarily possessing various hosts after one of them goes on a drunken bender.
- The ghostly fox-like aliens first appeared as backdrop characters on the last panel of Chapter 19.
- This marks the penultimate time that the idea of Lum equating an electric shock with an expression of love for Ataru will appear in the manga's run. After this chapter, the only times Lum will zap Ataru whilst trying to be affectionate will be in Chapter 112, when she does it whilst drunk on umeboshi, and in Chapter 354, whilst under the effects of the Soul-Snatch Sugar/Heartstealers candy.