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Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter (うる星やつら 完結篇, Urusei Yatsura: Kanketsuhen?) is the fifth film in the Urusei Yatsura franchise. It was produced by Kitty Films, and is the first UY production to be primarily animated by Magic Bus. It released to theaters by Toho on February 6, 1988 alongside Maison Ikkoku: The Final Chapter.

Synopsis[]

Lum and Ataru must play another game of tag, or the Earth will be infested with mushrooms larger than buildings. Further, should Ataru lose, Lum will leave forever and everyone's memories will be changed so that they don't remember she, or her friends, were ever there. Finally, Lum refuses to allow Ataru to win unless he says "I love you" to her, that he has steadfastly refused to say over the entire series.

Plot Overview[]

A spaceship resembling an enormous knot of fungus descends upon an unsuspecting Earth. Inside its control room, a humanoid figure wreathed in black robes fingers a loveheart-shaped locket, bearing inside its folds a picture of a young Lum.

In Class 2-4 at Tomobiki High School, Lum has fallen asleep in class, and has a vivid dream of being a little girl and confronted by a sinister robed figure whilst playing in the fields outside of her family's UFO. In the dream, the robed figure asks her to confirm that she lives in her parents' UFO, and when she does so, it cackles about a girl having been born at last before warning her that when she comes of age, it will come for her.

Suddenly, hands clamp onto her shoulders, jolting her awake in a full-blown panic. She instinctively discharges lightning, only to realize she just electrocued Onsen-Mark.

After school, she tells Ataru Moroboshi about her nightmare, only to find him abandoning her to hit on some passing girl. Enraged, she starts throwing lightning, and he runs away from her. The fight can be heard from blocks away, and Sakura comments on how they nev er seem to stop this silly argument. Ataru comes sprinting past her, then doubles back to hit on her. Irritably, she swats him aside with her exorcism rod and starts off back down the road, only for her brand new sandal to suddenly break its thong, which in Japanese folklore is an ill omen.

After a brief interjection by her uncle Cherry, Sakura comments on an ominous heavy feeling, only to realize that Ataru has cuddled up to her whilst she was distracted. Before she can strike him again, a black cat suddenly leaps over a fence, yowling angrily before running across the road. And no sooner has it crossed the street than a hearse drives past. Both of these are signs of terrible misfortune to come, as Cherry points out.

High above Tomobiki, Lum hangs up her uniform in her UFO whilst complaining about Ataru's latest insensitivity to Ten. The young oni simply reiterates yet again that Lum should dump Ataru. Before Lum can reply, she gets a videophone call from her father, who tells her that her great-grandfather's cryosleep capsule has been rediscovered since an unfortunate incident that saw it misplaced 20 years ago, and now he's been thawed out and wants to meet her.

Back down on Earth, as the setting sun stains the sky blood red, Sakura leads Ataru and Cherry into a room at her shrine to perform a divination with a crystal ball. After some coaxing, it finally comes to life; darkness wells up within the crystal's depths, then clutches around an image of Lum. Sakura and Cherry deduce that this is a warning that Lum will soon be swallowed by darkness, and send Ataru on his way with a warning to not let it take her.

As he heads home, Ataru tries to puzzle what the pair of mystics could have actually foreseen. Suddenly, Lum's description of her nightmare springs up from his memory. Gripped by concern, he sprints home, only to find his bedroom dark and empty. Ten emerges and tells Ataru that Lum went back home, and when Ataru asks when she'll return, taunts Ataru that she might not return, pointedly reminding Ataru of how he made her angry earlier that afternoon.

On Oniboshi, Lum's father is eager to introduce Lum to her great-grandfather, making small talk with the elderly oni as they wait for her to arrive. He is excited to meet his great-grandson... but when Lum's father corrects hi that Lum is a girl, he is horrified. The old oni bursts into tears, sobbing about how this revelation is terrible, and is so caught up in his misery that he won't answer his grandson's increasingly irate demands for an explanation.

This is the scene into which Lum walks, but sadly she can't coax an explanation either; her great-grandfather has gone more than a little senile in his old age. Suddenly, a voice rings out that he can explain why the ancient oni is so distraught. The door opens and a figure steps in; ancient, humanoid, and wreathed in black robes. Also so short that he needs to climb onto the table to look Lum's great-grandfather in the eye, but that doesn't stop Lum from recognizing him as the menacing figure from her nightmare earlier.

After some false starts, the stranger and the elder oni explain that the two of them met 120 years ago, when they were both young men. Lum's great-grandfather was a starving traveler, and the stranger a traveling mushroom seller who offered the oni a "game" in lieu of paying money for his food; He presented the oni with two mushrooms - one delicious, the other poisonous - and let him pick one for free. When the oni picked the poison mushroom, he demanded the oni's daughter as his bride in exchange for an antidote.

Lum's father interjects at that point, confusedly commenting that that his grandfather only had sons. The two elderly aliens then explain that when Lum's great-grandfather revealed that little fact, the mushroom seller refused to be cheated. Instead, he vowed he would claim the first girl born into the oni's family afterwards instead. And Lum is that girl.

He grabs Lum's hand and orders her to come with him, but she refuses, shocking him for emphasis. Lum's father protectively points out that a young bride is useless to a withered old man, but the robed alien retorts that he has a great-grandson named Rupa, who is to marry Lum in his place. And he doesn't care if Lum already considers herself married to Ataru Moroboshi.

Sick of the old alien's attitude and rejecting his claims, the oni literally throw him out of his ship, and then bury him with some well-aimed garbage. He warns them that he won't give up so easily.

Back on Earth, a new day has dawned and class is beginning at Tomobiki High School. Taking his seat in Class 2-4, Ataru casts an unhappy look at Lum's empty seat next to his. He doesn't have more than a moment to dwell on it before Shutaro Mendo asks him where Lum is. When Ataru replies that she went home, Mendo attacks him with his sword, which Ataru deftly catches. Before they can really begin to argue, the sky darkens and the fungal-looking ship descends. It turns a blazing light in the direction of Tomobiki High, and from it emerges the ship's captain, riding in a chariot drawn by flying pigs. He attempts to make a dramatic entry by crashing through the window, only to accidentally hit the upper sill and knock himself unconscious, forcing the teens from Class 2-4 to drag him off to see Sakura.

The alien is, of course, Rupa, and whilst unconscious he remembers the day that his great-grandfather presented him with the locket containing the picture of the youthful Lum and told him that they were to wed. The sound of conversation draws him back to the land of the living, and the instant he sees Sakura, he wraps his arms around her, believing her to be Lum!

Ataru beats him over the head with a mallet for his presumption, whilst Mendo draws his sword and demands to know how Rupa could speak to "Lum" with such familiarity. Rupa simply brushes Mendo's sword with a mushroom spore bag, causing it to bloom with puffballs that spray irritating spores into his face, leaving him hacking and coughing.

Rupa then announces that he is Lum's fiance, and thus can speak to her as he likes, before grasping Sakura's hnd and pleading with her to come home with him so they can be wed at once. Something Sakura doesn't find funny. As the assembled students start to whisper about Lum having a fiance, Lum suddenly arrives, having just made it to school after returning from her home planet.

As she asks what everybody is doing before happily flying over to her beloved Ataru, Rupa briefly checks his locket, and is embarrassed to realize that this is the real Lum and he's been propositioning a stranger. He tries to launch himself across the room to hug her, but Ataru beats him into the floor with a mallet before he can reach her. Still crouched over Rupa's prone form, Ataru asks Lum to explain Rupa, elaborating about Rupa's claim of being her fiance when she reacts with confusion.

Before she can respond to that, Rupa surges to his feet, flings Ataru away to smash into a wall, and wraps his arms around Lum. Before he can properly begin his doting boyfriend routine, however, the indignant oni zaps him. Rupa visibly grimaces in pain, but then smiles and declares that Lum's strong will makes her all the more beautiful, tucking a finger under her chin. This display of resilience briefly awes the onlooking students... before a wrathful Lum gives him a second, even harder zap and this one leaves him unconscious on the floor, letting them realize he just toughed the first one out.

Extricating himself from the wall, Ataru notes she's never mentioned having a fiance before (evidently having forgotten Rei), and she irkedly retorts that this is news to her as well. Whilst she's distracted, Rupa regains consciousness and slips a ring onto her left ring finger. When Lum icily demands an explanation, he tells her it's to help her "become an adult" more quickly. He declares he'll be looking forward to that moment, before marching dramatically over to the window, flinging it open, and whistling to his faithful pigs. They come flying towards him... and then fly over the building, much to Rupa's chagrin at this obviously unplanned display. They then come charging up the hall from behind, smashing through the nurse's office and nearly trampling Rupa in the process. He climbs into his chariot and tries to make a dramatic exit... only to bang his head against the upper window frame and knock himself out cold again, admittedly with a little help from Ataru.

As the pigs carry their master back to the ship, Sakura declares that they have seen an evil omen. Ataru watches Rupa leave with an unusually intense expression, with Lum staring in surprise and confusion at the look on his face.

That evening, Lum wrestles with the ring that Rupa gave her, but she just can't get it off. Ataru asks her why she doesn't just break it, and Ten explains that she's tried, but even her strongest shocks do nothing to it. Now Ataru gives it another look, genuinely surprised. But its immovability isn't the only odd thing; when a curious Kotatsu-neko taps it with his pipe, the ring emits a puff of fungal spores.

High above Earth, Rupa and his great-grandfather discuss the success of the first part of their plan; Rupa's ring contains a living specimen of Hi-Refrain Mushroom, whose spores accelerate growth, and oni shed their horns as part of the maturation process. And when an oni sheds their horns, they become powerless until the horns grow back in...

The next morning, Ataru is not happy to see that Lum is still wearing the ring that Rupa gave her, and he does not deal graciously with the unusual feeling of being jealous over Lum. He throws some barbed comments at Lum about her actually being happy to receive a ring from a guy like Rupa, ignoring her protests and even going so far as to call her a flirt. The rank hypocrisy quickly sets off Lum's temper and she calls him out on it, both verbally and with a lightning bolt. She barely lingers long enough to tell him to just admit he's jealous before she flies aheade, still fuming over his behavior, whilst a smoking Ataru denies being jealous.

Further down the street, an angry Lum kicks a garbage bag, which turns out to be Rupa. He tries to smooth talk her, pausing only to verbally smack down Ten when he tries to stand up on his cousin's behalf. When Rupa takes Lum's hand, she tries to shock him for his temerity, only to realize she can't generate any voltage. The reason why becomes evident seconds later when her horns spontaneously detach from her head and fall to the ground. The two oni are so distracted by this horrifying sight that Rupa is able to whip out a mushroom and squeeze its spores into their faces, putting them both to sleep.

Ataru finally reaches the point where Rupa confronted Lum and Ten, and despite his sour-grapes grumbling, he immediately spots her horns and reaches down to pick them up. Suddenly, Rupa flies overhead, Lum in his arms, taunting Ataru as he makes for space.

Soon afterwards, on Oniboshi, Lum's parents receive a gloating videomail from Rupa's great-grandfather, taunting them about how he has successfully captured her for the wedding. It is at least some small comfort that even without her horns, the oni is giving her captors true hell. Lum's father tries to muster his forces to go and save her, but they are interrupted when Rupa's own underlings drop a massive array of enormous mushrooms on their mustering point. And when a timer goes off, they find they have a brand new problem to contend with...

Back on Earth, Ataru storms into Class 2-4, a huge bundle on his back. He swats Onsen-Mark aside without even stopping to look and marches right up to the desk of Shutaro Mendo. He unslings the bundle onto Mendo's desk, revealing it to be full of portfolios. This, he declares, is his accumulated data on the prettiest high school girls to be found throughout Tokyo, including phone numbers, addresses, and high-quality pictures. Mendo is understandably confused, and Ataru elaborates that he will not owe Mendo anything, but he will bargain; all of these beauties, in exchange for the use of Mendo's personal spaceship.

Mendo replies that he doesn't have a personal shuttle, before more quietly offering to trade a Leopard-model tank for all the girls ifo. Ataru shoots the counter-offer down, declaring that he needs something that can take him off-planet. Mendo promptly whips out his sword and tries to cut Ataru, demanding to know why he wants to go off-planet and where Lum is.

That's when Benten and Oyuki arrive on Benten's hoverbike. They explain that Oniboshi is currently unreachable by either commuicator or spaceship, and they were hoping that Lum could explain why. Ataru explains about how Lum was kidnapped, and after the obligatory hostile reaction from Mendo, Oyuki interjects that she may know who the strange man in black is - none of Class 2-4 were actually told Rupa's name when he invaded their classroom yesterday. She double-checks her business ledgers, and identifies him as Prince Rupa of the World of Darkness, a dark and fearful world without a sun.

Her words remind Ataru of Sakura's prediction, and he instantly decides that she needs to be rescued. He is so determined to save her that he leaps out of the still-broken window without thinking, only avoiding a nasty fall by grabbing Benten's hover bike at the last moment.

As Benten's bike can't carry everybody, she decides to comandeer the one spaceship on Earth which can; Ran's. Much to her shock and rage when Benten, Oyuki, Ataru and Mendo come storming into her place, climb into her cockpit, and launch her ship as she's in the middle of a date with Rei. As the g-force rattles his body, Ataru takes a moment to look at Lum's horns, clenched protectively tight in his hand, and vows that he'll save her.

In her prison on the World of Darkness, Lum spontaneously perks up and delightedly announces that Ataru is coming to save her. Ten simply scoffs at the claim, asserting that Ataru doesn't have the guts to do something like that.

In space, Ran angrily chews out Benten for hijacking her ship, but Benten ignores her to check out Ran's stockpile of food, weapons and ammo. Ataru apologizes for dragging Ran into this mess... and then offers to take her on a date when they get home safely, much to Mendo's annoyance. They reconvene with Oyuki in the cockpit, who confirms that accessing the World of Darkness requires using the warp tech whilst in the shadow of Earth's moon. But when they do this, they collide with another spaceship coming the other way, crashing into the spaceport on the other side of the warp tunnel.

This, naturally, throws Rupa's underlings into a panic and he immediately deduces that this must be a rescue party, whom he orders captured and detained. In her cell, Lum realizes that her friends have come to save her, and decides it's time to bust out and meet them halfway. She bludgeons a guard unconscious and tries to flee, but is caught by Rupa (forgetting she has no powers and trying to fly didn't help). He scolds her that her resistance is futile, and orders her to be a good girl, stop fighting him, and go to the wedding hall.

Lum promptly uses Ten to blowtorch Rupa, which is at least cathartic. His men subdue her, before Rupa drags her over to the window and shows her the captured forms of Ran's UFO and her friends. Lum is initially just happy to see that her friends came to try and save her, until she realizes that Ataru isn't amongst the prisoners.

Suddenly, one of Rupa's men points out that the smaller UFO crashed into Ran's belongs to a "Miss Carla". This revelation seems to absolutely terrify Rupa, who orders that the wedding be held immediately.

Meanwhile, in a backwater of the glowing lake that serves as the World of Darkness' spaceport, Ataru emerges, marveling at the strange choice of ports as he swims to the shore. Once there, he finds himself held at gunpoint by the owner of the ship that crashed into Ran's, who blames him for it. He tries to talk them down, but the stranger, a member of the World of Darkness' nameless alien race, instead orders him to sign a wedding license. Realizing she's a girl puts Ataru at ease, and he politely turns her down, whilst suggesting they could at least have a kiss before she leaves. She shoves him back into the lake, screaming at him that this is just a fake marriage, which is part of her plan to ruin a certain person's upcoming wedding...

Back in Rupa's palace, Lum has finally been dressed in her wedding gown, although the guards literally had to wrestle her into it. Rupa thinks she looks beautiful, but one of his guards points out that if she's been behaving this badly so far, she may go completely insane in the wedding hall. Rupa concedes his point, but Rupa's great-grandfather declares he has a plan for that. He uses a Copying Mushroom to create an exact duplicant of Lum; the oni is incensed by this, even if she isn't sure where the old Darkwolder intends to use it for yet, but the guards keep her from attacking it.

Meanwhile, Ten is taken and thrown into the prison cell where Mendo, Benten, Oyuki, Ran and Rei have been imprisoned. They ask him where Lum is, and he tells them that she is being taken to the wedding hall.

In the wedding hall, people have gathered for the ceremony, but Rupa is having no luck in making Lum come along quietly. She keeps trying to break away, forcing him to drag her up the aisle by the wrist. Losing his patience, Rupa tells Lum again that her friends have all been captured and nobody is coming to save her, so she might as well give up. Lum scoffs at his logic and continues to struggle and call for Ataru.

Outside, a large number of guards are nervously watching for the mysterious "Miss Carla". This is observed with some distaste by the Darkworlder woman that Ataru has allied himself with. He suggests they look for a back door, but she assures him that with her wedding dress and phony marriage license, they can just walk right through the front door. Ataru is a little skeptical... and distinctly nervous when he hears his ally-of-the-moment muttering to herself about killing Rupa and his bride.

Arm in arm, the two walk up to the steps leading into the wedding hall. The guards initially try to turn them away, but once they present their fake wedding license, after a moment's deliberation the guards wave them on. Unfortunately, the train of her veil catches on a rock, causing it to be pulled off as she walks forward. The guards instantly recognize her as the dreaded Carla. Refusing to back down, she triggers a flash grenade hidden in her bouquet and charges the wedding hall, Ataru hot on her heels.

She storms into the wedding hall, and all the guests immediately recoil in terror. Wise behavior, considering the large gun she is now aiming squarely at Rupa. From Rupa's terrified reaction and Carla's words, the two clearly know each other. Lum, however, only has eeys for Ataru. She joyfully tries to run to him, but Rupa catches her and holds her back. This attracts Carla's attention, and she turns her gun on Lum! Luckily, Ataru throws off her aim with his trademark disturbing back-poke technique, but the confusion and the smoke from the explosions gives Rupa a chance to hide Lum in a concealed underground chamber, whilst his great-grandfather switches in the clone he created with the Copying Mushroom.

Once the smoke clears, Rupa orders Carla to go away, holding the copy-Lum tight. Carla protests, but Ataru cuts her off, calling Rupa out as a kidnapper and telling copy-Lum, who he thinks is the real Lum, that it's time to go home. The mushroom clone, obedient to Rupa's orders, simply hides behind Rupa and pulls a face before asserting her intention to marry Rupa. Offended, Ataru tells her to stop playing around before he gets mad, reminding her that he came all this way to save her.

Carla cuts Ataru off, asserting that Lum is "tricking" Rupa. Ataru interjects again, demanding Lum come with him once more. Rupa cuts them both off, telling them to be quiet, whilst the copy-Lum asserts that she's staying right where she is. Ataru is briefly hurt by her words, before quickly burying it in anger; the guards are barely able to keep him from lunging forward.

Meanwhile, Lum is still trying to escape Rupa's safe-room, which she notes would be easy if she had her powers.

Up above, the guards wrestle Ataru to the floor, but Carla is still free. She angrily demands to know if Rupa's claim to love her was a lie, and Rupa incredulously points out that he said that when they were kids, and only because she was holding him at gunpoint. Ignoring those inconvenient truths, Carla again demands to know if Rupa doesn't love her, and the angry prince declares he hates her. Somehow surprised by this answer, Carla starts to cry... and then she declares she'll kill Rupa and then herself before she starts blasting away with her gun.

The explosions rip open the concealed door; the copy-Lum falls inside and the real Lum escapes in the confusion. She spots Ataru and tries to go to him, but when he sees her, Ataru, still believing Lum betrayed him, angrily orders her to stay away, to Lum's confusion. She asks him what's wrong, but Ataru declares he doesn't want to see her cheating face again and storms off.

Then Rupa runs in his direction and Ataru finds himself forced to flee alongside the Darkworlder prince as Carla blasts away indiscriminately. With Carla and Lum hot on their heels, the two boys flee all the way up to the wedding hall's roof.

Meanwhile, in the prison, Ten finally finishes telling his fellow prisoners about how Rupa made Lum's horns fall off. They finally decide it's time to escape, smashing down the cell-door and busting out aboard Benten's overladen hoverbike. They can see the explosions of Carla's rampage as they speed towards the palace, aiming for the roof as they go.

On the wedding hall's roof, Carla holds Rupa at gunpoint and demands he marry her; the Darkworlder prince refuses, and she shoots at him, catching Ataru in the blast. Lum finally intervenes, pushing Carla's gun away and telling "Darling" to come and join her. Unfortunately, it's Rupa who moves to seek shelter behind the oni, which only makes things worse as Carla becomes more convinced that Lum wants to steal Rupa away.

Observing the fireworks as they approach, Benten can only comment on how this looks to be getting messy.

Lum tries to talk sense into Carla, who won't listen to reason. Suddenly, Rupa's great-grandfather flies into view aboard a blimp, casting down a rope-ladder for Rupa to escape on. The Darkworlder prince grabs the ladder in one hand and Lum in the other, and the blimp starts to take off; Carla fires at them, but is unable to hit the two.

Wrestling against Rupa's grip, Lum pleads for Ataru to save her, but Ataru, believing it was the real Lum who declared she wanted to marry Rupa in the hall earlier, can't bring himself to move. Feeling betrayed, he pointedly turns his face away from Lum and stays put. This action leaves Lum heartbroken; she cannot fathom why her beloved Ataru, who has always come to her aid when she needed it in the past, is suddenly treating her so coldly. Now she feels betrayed...

Then Ataru grabs Carla's gun, forcing her to stop firing, before he shouts up at the departing Rupa and Lum that he intends to wed Carla. Both Lum and Rupa are shocked by this assertion, with Rupa even asking Carla if she really intends to marry Ataru. Carla simply asserts that they can't talk when Rupa is so far up in the air, and orders him to come down.

That's when Benten's rescue party arrives. Wanting to show off, Mendo dramatically cuts the rope ladder, sending Rupa and Lum falling to the roof... where they crash into Ataru and Carla, and the four of them go tumbling towards the edge of the roof. Oyuki tries to help by bombarding the roof with icicle spears to create some kind of stopping mechanism, but her efforts are only half-successful.

Rupa is slowed by the icicles to the point he can arrest his descent, and he lunges forward and grabs Carla, saving her life. She immediately turns to him, overjoyed, but he protests that there was nothing behind his saving her.

Unfortunately, Ataru and Lum aren't so lucky. An icicle nails Ataru to the edge of the roof through his wedding hakama, but Lum is only held in place by an icicle through the edge of her wedding dress. A dress that rips under her weight, sending her plunging forward and hurtling clear over the edge, plummeting to the ground below...

Benten kicks Ran, Rei and Ten off of her overburdened bike and guns it for Lum, whilst Ataru frantically shrugs off his hakama and dives to catch Lum. Of the two, Ataru reaches her first... and Lum promptly slaps him in the face. He angrily demands to know why she did that, and she accuses him of flirting with Carla whilst she was Rupa's captive. The angry Ataru accuses her of wanting to marry Rupa, with Lum shooting the same back of Ataru and Carla. By now, the two are so enraged that they have forgotten their imminent deaths; Ataru is so angry he declares he does intend to marry Carla, showing Lum the phony marriage license they signed. When she slaps it out of his hand, he declares he intends to leave Lum.

This is the last straw for Lum. Miraculously, right at that moment, her horns grow back in. An enormous lightning bolt lights up the World of Darkness, eventually resolving itself into the hovering form of Lum, a charred and smoking Ataru dangling from her form.

Oyuki, Mendo and Ten are all delighted to see Lum is okay, but are distracted as they realize Rupa and Carla have started arguing about Carla's supposed plans to marry Ataru. Lum interrupts them by dropping Ataru onto Carla, grabbing Rupa's collar and asserting that she's going to stay on the World of Darkness with him. Lum's friends can only watch as she, Ataru, Rupa and Carla all bicker.

Soon afterwards, Ran's spaceship - with Carla's still embedded in it - is prepared for launch. Benten and Oyuki try to talk Lum into forgiving Ataru, showing her the copy-Lum and explaining how it tricked him in the wedding hall. Lum simply declares that after the blatant lack of trust Ataru showed by being willing to believe she would abandon him for Rupa, she can't forgive him, and that she won't leave unless he apologizes.

Aboard the ship, Mendo is trying to bully Ataru into doing just that, but Ataru refuses. Oyuki and Benten return, and share the bad news that Lum won't leave unless Ataru apologizes. They try to convince him to do so with more tact, but he refuses, pointing out how much his feelings were hurt by the copy-Lum... but he undermines his point by using it as an excuse to try and embrace both of them, with Oyuki punishing him by sealing him in a block of ice.

Resigned to the fact that Lum is so stubborn that they can't talk her out of this, the rescuers resign themselves to leaving her here. As they make their preparations, Carla looks over the starport from her own ship, sadly notes Rupa's absence, and ventures inside. Ten tries one last time to talk Lum into going back to Earth, but she refuses, and the two aliens watch as the conjoined ships sink into the glowing lake and warp back to their own part of the galaxy. Once they're gone, Lum sadly heads back to the palace with Rupa.

On Earth, Shinobu and Inaba are meeting up in a restaurant. Inaba tells her that he's finally finished with his punishment detail from when they first met, before asking how Ataru and Lum are. Shinobu explains about the kidnapping, And then Cherry suddenly pops up, steals their drinks, and tells them about the bad omens. He takes them to Sakura's shrine, where her crystal ball is still displaying the same ominous image as Ataru was shown. But now, they watch as first Lum's image is swallowed by the darkness, to be replaced by an image of Earth - which is also devoured by the dark. This is obviously a very bad omen...

Ran's ship rematerializes on Earth, and Benten breaks Ataru out of his icy prison. Unaware that time has passed, Ataru protests that he will not apologize and demands they head home - only to be taken aback when he's told that they are back on Earth and Lum stayed behind.

That night, in the Moroboshi household, Mrs. Moroboshi grumbles to herself about having to feed Ataru's guests as well as she prepares dinner, only for Sakura, Cherry, Shinobu and Inaba to pop up behind her, having let themselves in. She demands to know why they're there, and they reply that they're there to discuss a matter of grave importance... of course, they also invite themselves to partake of the nabe that she's made for dinner.

Over the food, the story is recounted, with Ataru claiming to be happy that Lum chose to stay with Rupa. Sakura demands he go back and rescue her, but Ataru refuses, declaring that Lum should be the one to come to him with apologies. Carla gets offended on Lum's behalf and asserts that there's no way a woman can do that of her own initiative, a sentiment that Benten agrees with. At the same time, Carla looks quite distraught.

Back on the World of Darkness, Lum and Rupa are having a stroll in the countryside. Rupa explains that he and Carla are childhood friends who've known each other since they were babies. He notes that she wasn't always violent, but when she learned that Rupa was engaged to marry Lum, she flipped out and began constantly chasing and assaulting him. He declares Lum is a clear improvement over Carla.

Lum interjects; she blasts down one of the giant mushrooms to emphasize her point that she is also "plenty violent", before asking how Rupa can fall in love with her when they don't even know each other. Rupa can only look gloomy, especially after Lum declares taht Carla was hurt too and flies off.

Back on Earth, the group are discussing how to avert the dark fate that Sakura foresaw. As they talk, Ran spots some mushrooms poking out of Carla's bag, and she immediately grabs some to put into the remaining nabe, thinking they will be a tasty treat. Carla tries to stop her, but Ran accidentally drops them in the stew anyway. Disavowing responsibility, Carla explains that those mushrooms are a species from the World of Darkness that grow gigantic when exposed to heat or light, whose spores she tried to avoid bringing here. Her words have barely sunk in before the Moroboshi household is torn apart by gigantic mushrooms. Sitting amidst the wreckage, they can only wonder what will happen when the sun comes up in the morning...

The answer is that the mushrooms quickly take over Tomobiki, growing and multiplying with alarming speed. Aboard Carla's spaceship, Sakura and the others try to talk Carla into contacting Rupa, who is the only one who can destroy these mushrooms, but she throws a tantrum at the idea, refusing to talk to him after he claimed to hate her.

Back on the World of Darkness, Rupa treats Lum and Ten to tea and snacks in his room, which is full of Carla paraphenalia; pictures, portraits, dolls. Rupa defensively asserts that she kept sending him all of them whenever she wasn't stalking and attacking him. It's quite clear to the oni that Rupa isn't as unattracted to Carla as he tries to act. The conversation is interrupted by a guard telling Rupa that Carla is calling him, and Rupa goes to answer it, trying not to seem like he wants to.

On seeing each other, the two Darkworlders start to bicker. Carla tells him about the mushroom problem, and technically asks him to help fix it, but their conversation swiftly devolves into an argument, with Ataru and Lum being dragged in as proof that each Darkwolder is happy with their newly chosen "partner". Then Lum and Ataru start to bicker in the exact same way, each refusing to apologize and only making the other feel angrier and more hurt.

Finally, Sakura loses her patience and interjects, ordering Lum to ask Rupa for his help. But she refuses, unless Ataru tells her that he loves her. Sakura, Benten, Shinobu and Mendo encourage Ataru to do just that, even saying it's fine to lie about it in the name of saving the Earth and pointing out that he's told other girls he loved them in the past as part of his flirting. But Ataru refuses: he visibly wrestles with his response for several moments, before screaming at Lum that he hates her guts. Even as the others on Earth bludgeon Ataru for his stupid pride, an affronted Lum cuts off the transmission.

On the World of Darkness, Lum and Rupa are left fuming over Ataru and Carla's behavior. Lum eventually breaks into tears as she mentally notes that Ataru has never said "I love you" to her in their entire relationship, leading her to wonder if he really does hate her. She leaves the palace and goes for a flight through the mushroom forest to try and clear her head. She even goes for a swim in the glowing lake, in a vain effort to conceal the tears pouring from her eyes.

Back on Earth, now in the streets of Tomobiki, Ataru takes out Lum's old horns and stares at them. Mentally, he chastises Lum as an idiot, wondering if she really needs him to say the words before she understands how he feels about her.

Aboard the ships, Ran and Sakura calculate that the mushrooms will envelop the Earth in 10 days; the "consuming darkness" foretold by the miko's crystal ball.

Suddenly, an enormous swarm of flying pigs darkens the sky. They devour some of the largest mushrooms before flying away. Then a hologrammatic transmission of Rupa and Lum dominates the skyline with a message for Ataru; Lum is challenging Ataru to a game of tag, just like the one in which they met - the traditional oni method of settling great disputes, as Benten explains to Sakura. If he can touch her horns within 10 days, Rupa will set his pigs to devouring the mushrooms. But Lum warns Ataru that she won't be holding back - but if he tells her that he loves her, then she'll forfeit the match to him. As the transmission fades, Ataru's stubborn pride makes him shout a refusal of winning, which elicits anger from the locals, who have also seen the message.

Later that day, the game begins. Once the starting block is set up, Rupa explains the rules, adding that Lum can only fly as high as the "canopy" of the mushroom forest - not much of a handicap, given the mushrooms are over 60 meters tall! The starter's gun fires, and the game begins; Lum mentally vows to not let Ataru catch her unless he says "I love you". Ataru, however, mentally assures himself that he can make Lum come to him, rather than needing to catch the flying alien on foot or swallow his pride and say those words.

He runs over to a nearby gaggle of pretty girls and starts aggressively flirting - to his disbelief, Lum just turns up her nose and flies way, with Shinobu and Benten commenting on how that plan would have worked in the past; Lum is definitely playing for real this time!

Ataru chases after her, only for Megane and the stormtroopers to drive up after him. Megane uses a loudspeaker to profess his own love for the oni and asks why it has to be Ataru whom she marries. Ataru doubles back, steals the loudspeaker, shouts at Megane to go away, and then starts talking to Lum. First he tries to reason with her, asking why words are so important for determining whether he loves or hates her. When she won't respond to that, he starts hurling insults, which does make her double back - just close enough to hit him with a lightning blast.

In the comfort of an observation tent, Sakura, Mendo and Rupa watch the proceedings grimly.

On Oniboshi, Rupa's great-grandfather delivers another swarm of flying pigs to devour the mushrooms that were used to sabotage the planet prior to Lum and Rupa's disastrous wedding. The elderly Darkworlder announces that Rupa has canceled his engagement to Lum, and also passes on a message to Lum's parents...

Back on Earth, Ataru continues to fruitlessly chase Lum day in and day out. The sixth day comes, and still he chases her, refusing to simply say those three words and win by forfeit. Shinobu grimly notes that both Ataru and Lum have serious attitude problems.

Suddenly, the huge ship of Lum's father arrives in the sky over Tomobiki. He summons Benten, Ran and Oyuki to his side, and tells them Lum's message: if she wins this match, proving that Ataru doesn't love her, then she wants her father to erase the memories of Tomobiki. Not just of Lum herself, but of every alien!

That night, the alien teens report what they were told to their human allies, who realize just how serious the situation is. They wonder if they should tell Ataru, but the decision is made not to do so; Ataru has always been stubborn, so just putting more pressure on his victory will only stoke his obstinate pride. Unfortunately, Ataru heard it all anyway. Shinbou and Benten ask him to just say he loves Lum already, but he refuses, and tells them that they should tell "the coward" that he won't back down.

And of course Lum happens to be flying by right at that moment. She angrily asks who it was who pushed her to this point, an aura of electricity crackling around her body. Ataru retorts that she's the one using all the cheap tricks. Caught up in the argument, Ataru declares he wouldn't be bothered if he forgot Lum in the slightest, and challenges her to just skip the game of tag and get it over with - to the horror of their onlookers. The livid oni zaps Ataru and rises into the air, declaring that she'll do just that, if he wants to forget her so badly.

As the angry Lum flies off, Benten and Oyuki go after her, and catch her aboard her father's ship. Benten tries to talk sense into Lum, asking her to be reasonable and reminding her what kind of personality Ataru has. When Lum just tells her to butt out, Benten loses her temper. She angrily asserts that she happens to like the Earthlings she's met in Tomobiki, and whilst she can understand Lum wanting to break up with Ataru and return to Oniboshi, wiping the memories of the Earthlings is going too far. She warns Lum that if she goes through with this plan to activate the memory-erasure device upon winning, their friendship will be through!

Unfortunately, when Benten tries to dramatically slam her hands upon a nearby table for emphasis, she hits the switch to turn on the memory-eraser! The device launches itself, automatically set to go off at sunset of the tenth day of the contest.

Meanwhile, Ataru sits in his bed, straring at Lum's old horns and vows to himself that he will not forget Lum.

The next morning, Ataru wakes in a brief panic as Lum's angry farewell plays through his mind, only to relax as he realizes his memories are intact. He sets out to play tag with Lum, whilst Mendo scrambles his air force to find and destroy the memory-eraser.

Benten and Oyuki interrupt Ataru's game of tag, warning him that the memory-eraser will go off and asserting that he has no chance of catching Lum on his own. They beg him, in their own ways, to just say he loves Lum, and when he refuses, they storm off, with Benten cursing that "Lum is Lum, and Moroboshi is Moroboshi!"

High over Tomobiki, Mendo and his allies track down the memory-eraser and set about trying to destroy it. Unfortunately, as silly-looking as it is, the device isn't that easy to destroy. They need to hit a deactivation switch to turn it off without instead triggering the device, and it is both fast and surprisingly well-armed, with the programming to defend itself. A jet-pack assault, massed tanks, and even the Mendo family's experimental giant robot warrior, all fail to destroy the device, and so the assembled teens (plus Sakura and Cherry) grimly resign themselves to the fact that Ataru is their only hope.

On the ninth day, Ataru continues fruitlessly chasing Lum, who sadly wonders to herself why he won't just say those three words she wants to hear so badly. Watching the chase from atop a mushroom, Carla ponders that same question, but as she asks it aloud, Rupa answers her from behind, telling her that it can be hard to say the words if you've failed to say them before.

Trying to be cool, Rupa continues by explaining that his plan was to save the Earth regardless of who wins the game of tag, but now he has a price: he won't have the mushrooms cleared away unless Carla agrees to return to the World of Darkness with him. Unfortunately for him, Carla doesn't pick up the insinuation right away, and the two briefly bicker before he spells it out that he's asking her to marry him. It takes Carla a moment to recognize what he just said, but once it sinks in, she flies into Rupa's arms, bawling with joy that he has finally come to return her feelings.

As the sun sets on the ninth day, Sakura and the others can only observe Ataru's exhausted state from their private tent, noting that tomorrow is their last chance to keep their memories of the aliens. The dark mood is momentarily alleviated when Ryunosuke Fujinami gets into a quarrel with her father, who is trying to use the disaster to rake in the funds to rebuild the Hamachaya.

That night, Ten sneaks into Ataru's room, confronting a sleeping Ataru. He complains about Ataru being willing to just let them all go when he loses tomorrow, and then asserts he won't miss Ataru at all, whom he decries for having bullied him since he came to the Moroboshi household. His words are belied by the tear that falls from his eye onto Ataru's cheek before he says goodbye and flies away. Once he's left, Ataru opens his eyes, having been awake and heard the whole thing.

The next morning, the final match begins. Ataru runs and climbs and jumps, falling painfully to the ground over and over again, getting back up each time and continuing the pursuit. But still he won't say those three words.

Seeing that departure is inevitable, Sakura, Shinobu and Mendo exchange tearful goodbyes with Benten, Oyuki, Ran and Rei. Meanwhile, both Ataru's and Lum's parents wonder why their children have to be so hardheaded.

That evening, as the sun b egins to set, Lum's flight brings her to Tomobiki High School, Ataru in dogged pursuit. She mournfully reflects on the good times she shared, dodging Ataru's attempts to catch her, and mentally pleads for him to just give in and say that he loves her - she vows to herself that doesn't care if it's a lie, she just wants to hear him say it!

Ironiclly, below her, Ataru is mentally cursing her as a fool; doesn't she realize that if he says "I love you" now, she'll never know if it was true?!

Pushing himself to his limit, Ataru continues to chase Lum in those last few precious minutes before the match officially ends. Even the onlookers can't believe how he continues to get up, despite how obviously exhausted he is.

Lum flies to the school's roof, and Ataru follows, literally crawling after her. As the fateful timer ticks ever downwards, Lum finally loses her nerve and speaks, tearfully demanding to know if Ataru really wants to forget her. Ataru just keeps clawing his way towards her, vowing over and over in his head that he will not forget her, memories of Lum playing in his mind's eye.

Finally, they stand on the peak of the roof at opposite ends, and Ataru yells his refusal to forget Lum at the top of his lungs. Lum stares at him in shock, and he steps towards her, only to stumble and fall to his knees, dropping Lum's old horns, which he has kept close to hand all this time. As they go tumbling across the rooftop, Lum sees them, and she finally realizes that even if Ataru can't say it, he truly does love her in his heart of hearts.

She can't stay angry with Ataru anymore. As he staggers forward, a teary-eyed Lum flies into his arms and carries him up into the sky. She affectionately chides him as a hard-headed fool, and he tiredly calls her an idiot in the same tone, before Lum takes his reaching hand and guides it to her horn, officially making Ataru the winner of the game.

Down below, the onlooking crowd erupts into cheers of relief. The memory-erasing device deactivates and plummets to the ground. Rupa sets his pigs to work clearing the planet of its mushroom infestation before he and Carla can return to the World of Darkness. Lum's parents happily observe the make-up between Lum and Ataru, and then return to Oniboshi.

But down on the ground, the assembled crowd of Tomobiki residents and aliens alike have harsh words for Ataru and Lum. They are angry that it came so close to the wire because Ataru wouldn't say three little words, chastising him (and by implication Lum). Benten angrily asks if they're going to continue dancing around their feelings forever. That sends the crowd over the boiling point, and both Ataru and Lum go running (or flying, in Lum's case) away from the angry mob chasing them down.

Despite the enraged people on their heels, however, the boy and the oni share fond looks, with Ataru playfully poking his tongue at her. Before they pick up speed, Lum vows she'll make Ataru say those three words if it takes her a lifetime, whilst Ataru vows he'll say them on his deathbed.

Differences from the Manga[]

  • In the manga, Carla deliberately offers Ataru's mother some of the giant mushrooms from the World of Darkness to bulk out the dinner, only to underestimate how quickly they would grow in response to Earth's ambient heat and light. In the movie, Carla tried to avoid bringing them to Earth and it was Ran who caused them to sprout by dropping them in the nabe.
  • In the manga, Oyuki and Benten don't tell Ataru about the memory-eraser having been deployed during the ninth day's race; he instead learns that from Ten on the final night.
  • The sequences of Mendo attacking the memory-eraser with tanks and a giant robot are unique to the anime; in the manga, the jetpack squad instead spends the day chasing it off-panel.
  • Due to Oyuki and Benten giving the reveal earlier, Ten's night visit to Ataru is changed to instead him trying to put on a tough face and deny that he will miss Ataru.
  • Rupa asks Carla to marry him in the manga's penultimate chapter, before the memory-eraser is deployed, whereas in the movie he "proposes" to her on the ninth day.
  • Lum and Ataru's final confrontation takes place on a random street in the manga and is comparatively brief, compared to the big final showdown they have at Tomobiki High in the movie.
  • In the manga, the story ends with some minor grumbling about Ataru and Lum's behavior, with the only violence being somebody throwing an empty can at Ataru's head in the last panel as he and Lum head to school. The movie instead replaces this with a big chase scene, as Ataru and Lum flee an angry mob.
  • The original manga has a sequence where Inaba and Shinobu consult with Sakura after their date, which the movie cuts.

Characters[]

Main Cast[]

Additional cast[]

Cameos[]

Trivia[]

  • The film is based on the last eleven chapters (356-366) of the Urusei Yatsura manga, which is the entirety of the 34th and final volume. This is also the only film in the franchise to adapt chapters from the manga.

Gallery[]

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