Boy Meets Girl, Act 3 - Farewell Morning (ボーイ ミーツ ガール 別れの朝, Boi mitsu garu; Act.3 Wakare no asa?), also known as "Boy Meets Girl; Act.3 The Morning of Separation" in the Project ILM Scanlation, is the 358th chapter of the Urusei Yatsura manga.
Summary[]
Lum finally meets her would-be fiancé, Rupa, face to face. But he has no interest in taking "no" for an answer...
Plot Overview[]
The alien regains consciousness and immediately latches onto Sakura, mistaking her for Lum. He announces himself as Lum's fiancé, Rupa. At that moment, Lum arrives, and although she shocks him, he gives her a ring and tries to make a dramatic exit, only to bonk his head again. That evening, Ataru is sulking over the reveal of Lum having another fiancé, this one at least somewhat smarter than Rei, and his jealousy causes him to make snide comments. In a spaceship on the dark side of the moon, Rupa confers with Uba, who gloats that the ring Rupa gave Lum will accelerate her horn-shedding cycle, making her defenseless and easy to abduct. The next morning, Ataru is still making snide remarks, and Lum finally loses her patience and zaps him before flying ahead of him. She stumbles onto Rupa, and at that moment, her horns finally drop off, removing her powers until they regrow. Rupa quickly subdues her with soporific spores and spirits her away just before Ataru arrives. Finding Lum's shed horns on the street, he picks them up and then looks up to see Rupa flying away with Lum, taunting Ataru as he goes.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
Trivia[]
- When Shūtarō Mendō gets angry at Rupa acting so familiarly towards "Lum" (in reality Sakura), in the Japanese version, he is particularly referring to Rupa referring to Lum without the use of an honorific; in Japan, only family or very close friends are permitted to speak a person's name in such an intimate manner.
- Upa's plot revolves around making Lum defenseless by using a ring that exposes her to age-accelerating "hairee-hooree" mushrooms so that her horns will fall off, robbing her of her signature electrical abilities. This refers indirectly back to the events of Chapter 15 and Chapter 109, which established both the connection between an oni's horn(s) and their powers and the fact that oni shed their horns as part of their aging cycle respectively.
- The "hairee-hooree" mushrooms are named in homage to a 1980s Marudai hamburger commercial, which features two blonde children playing in front of a woodland cabin being visited by a jolly giant singing "hairi-hairi-hoore, hairiho", who encourages them to grow big and strong by eating their Marudai hamburgers.
- At the chapter's climax, when he first ambushes Lum, Rupa refers to them being bound by "姻緣紅線", or "the Red Thread of Destiny" in the English version. Originating in China, the Red Thread - variously titled "of Fate", "of Destiny", and "of Marriage", amongst others - is a mythical symbol that reputedly joins together two beings who have been appointed to wed by the gods, sealing them in an unbreakable bond, and it has become popular in folklore throughout East Asia.