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Urusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love (うる星やつら3 リメンバー・マイ・ラヴ, Urusei Yatsura 3: Rimenbā Mai Ravu?) is the third film in the Urusei Yatsura franchise. It was produced by Kitty Films, primarily animated by Studio Deen, and released by Toho to theaters on January 26, 1985.

Synopsis[]

During a circus magic trick, Ataru is transformed into a pink hippopotamus, which sends Lum chasing after the wicked magician responsible for the trick, with catastrophic results. With Lum gone, her friends decide that there is no reason to remain, and so Tomobiki slowly returns to normal.

Plot Overview[]

In 1967, in an alien castle, a witch known as the Old Woman of the Oak Forest is angered by the refusal of an unknown set of parents to invite her to the celebration of their newborn daughter. In her rage, she vows to place a curse on the girl, one that will ensure that she will never be one with the man she loves the most.

300 years into the future in 2267, on a different planet, a young boy named Ruu discovers a strange artifact whilst scavenging in a rubbish heap on the outskirts of a futuristic, alien city: a crystaline orb, with a flickering, color-shifting flame within.

In 1985, on Earth, it's a break period at Tomobiki High School, and Shinobu Miyake is telling Lum the legend of the Red Thread of Destiny, which ties fated lovers inextricably together. Lum thinks that's very romantic, and is convinced that such a red thread must bind herself and her beloved Ataru Moroboshi. After school, as the two head home, Lum tells Ataru that she wants to take him on a date, and after a little "light persuasion", he agrees. The two draw to a halt in their journey as they see a blimp scattering pamphlets floating past; the pamphlets are advertising a new amusement park, "Tomobiki Marchenland", and Lum decides that this would be the perfect place to go.

The two head there at the first opportunity, and lose themselves in the crowds, stalked by the jealous Shūtarō Mendō (followed by Shinobu, hoping to convince him to love her) and Lum's stormtroopers. All the while, they are watched by a sinister clown, who sends strange illusions to scare and tease Lum and Ataru's pursuers. Ryūnosuke Fujinami and her father also show up; Mr. Fujinami intends for his daughter to work whilst he goofs off, but she punches him out and is then harassed by one of the clown's magic tricks. Sakura and Cherry arrive at the park, drawn by a sense of supernatural energy, but find they are magically unable to enter.

The nine teens meet up to get some food and drink, when an announcer declares that a super magic show will soon be performing. The girls are all excited to see it, and so is Ataru when he sees the beautiful woman offering brochures. When they arrive, that same woman effortlessly coaxes Ataru into volunteering for a magic trick. The magician puts Ataru in a cabinet, covers it with a cape, and then shoots it, before taking the cape and whirling it around himself and the woman, causing them to disappear and leaving the audience very confused. Lum and the others race to see if Ataru is alright, but when they break open the cabinet, they find that Ataru has turned into a pink hippo!

They return to the Moroboshi household, where Sakura and Cherry catch up. Unfortunately, they are less than helpful; they can identify that Ataru was changed as part of a curse on Lum, but they don't know who did it, why they did it, or how to break the curse. That evening, as rain pours down over Tomobiki, in a rare moment of vulnerability Ataru asks what Lum is going to do now that he's been cursed, and could remain cursed forever. Lum assures him that they will return him to normal, and even if they fail, she will never leave him.

Later that night, after Ataru has cried himself to sleep, the magician appears outside of Ataru's bedroom window, and taunts Lum into a furious chase through the night-time streets of Tomobiki. The chase ends when he leads her into the mirror maze at Tomobiki Marchenland beneath the light of a full moon, where he triggers a dimensional tunnel and spirits Lum away. She has a strange vision of herself as a little girl, playing in the forests of Oniboshi, and a voice asks her if she remembers before she is suddenly sucked into a void. At that exact moment, Ataru starts awake, looking around in concern when he realizes Lum has vanished, whilst at the amusement park, a woman named Lahla curses herself for being too late.

The next day, Ataru goes to Tomobiki High, despite still being in the form of a hippo, which immediately sets the gossips talking. Meanwhile, Lum regains consciousness in a strange room, guarded by a female tanuki named Oshima. Here, the magician reveals his true identity as Ruu, and explains his plan is to separate Lum from Ataru, who he declares has made Lum unhappy. To this end, he has imprisoned her in a strange dimension hidden behind the mirror, allowing Lum to look out through a window and see Ataru on the opposite side of the boy's washroom, sadly wondering if Lum has abandoned him despite her promise. Lum tries to flee to get back to him, but discovers she cannot escape this prison Ruu has crafted; a strange realm of mist, crumbling ruins, and bizarre plants of fracturing glass, all centered around what looks like an old-fashioned Western sailing ship. Whenever she flies too far in any direction, she just returns to Ruu's ship.

Looking for signs of Lum, Ten discovers that Kotatsu-neko saw her disappear in pursuit of the magician the previous evening. They rely this to Mendō, who in turn relays it to Ataru and the Stormtroopers. The group search Marchenland, but find no sign of Lum. Sakura arrives and explains that her equipment has revealed that this park was open to some other world the previous day, but that link has now been severed - Lum must be in this other realm, wherever it is. Ataru tries to put on a brave face of being glad that Lum is gone, but his words are obviously hollow. Lahla watches the proceedings and smiles in approval.

That evening, Ran and Benten arrive at Ataru's room, and then whisk him away to a meeting with Oyuki on Neptune. After everybody is caught up, they contact Lum's Father and Lum's Mother, who, after unthinkingly traumatizing Ataru by suggesting Lum may have finally gotten fed up and left him, reveal the story of the Old Witch of the Oak Forest, and how they angered her when they seemingly snubbed her from Lum's birth celebration - the reality was the invitation got lost in the mail. Ataru and Lum's friends go and confront her next, and she assures them that she ordered her curse cancelled after the whole misunderstanding was cleared up, as well as telling them how the curse was created. With some guidance from Ran, they next head to the "Curses-R-Us" management center, which is where the curse would have been executed, storming in and holding the place up. One of the managers explains to them how curses work under their system, and assures them that the Witch's curse on Lum was never activated, but when they check their vaults, they discover that it's online.

Meanwhile, in Ruu's prison-world, Lum is seething over her failure to escape. Oshima pleads with her not to be too mad with Ruu, assuring him that he's a good boy at heart. She explains his backstory, but is interrupted by the embarrassed Ruu. He takes over, telling Lum how he found his crystal orb and admitting that it is the source of his powers, which even include traveling through time. He admits to having visited Lum at various points in her early childhood, though she doesn't remember them, and that is why he is so convinced that she must break up with Ataru. Lum protests that his reasoning is flawed, pointing out that every little girl has to grow up someday, but Ruu won't listen to reason.

Back on Earth, Benten summarizes that they can't really do anything about the curse, so Ataru will just have to tough it out. That unpleasant news is washed down with even more bitter medicine when Ataru is told that, as Lum is gone the resident aliens have decided there's no point staying on Earth. Ten lingers just long enough to wish Ataru good luck in returning to humanity, then he chains his space scooter to the back of Benten's hoverbike. She flies it up to where Oyuki's UFO is towing Lum's, whilst Ran takes off from her longtime residence in the Tomobiki park, and the aliens fly away into space.

Several days later, Ataru returns to his human form and resumes his girl-chasing, whilst a strange sense of tired malaise washes over the rest of Tomobiki. The supernatural powers of the residents mysteriously fade away; Shinobu Miyake discovers she no longer possesses superhuman strength; Shūtarō Mendō can no longer talk to octopi, and his sister Ryōko Mendō finds her beloved pet, the cursed sakura tree, no longer moves, eats or talks. Even Megane and the other Stormtroopers lose their all-consuming fixation on Lum, going so far as to burn their assembled photographs, posters and other paraphenalia. Life quiets down to a dull mundanity as everyone moves towards their senior year... and they seem to just forget that Lum ever existed.

And then, one day in the park, Ataru cuts his finger whilst opening a can of coca-cola. The sight of the blood trickling like a crimson thread down his finger stirs a memory of Lum's excited proclamation that she and he are linked by the red thread of fate, and from there the memory of Lum hits Ataru like a punch, causing him to collapse to his knees in emotional overload. That evening, he confesses to himself that Lum's absence explains why he has been feeling so wretched - that girl-hunting hasn't really brought him any joy, not when Lum is gone. Whilst he initially says it's because it's just not fun without the thrill of having to evade Lum's interference, that it's just not challenging, he ultimately confesses that he misses her. He wonders where she went, and why... which is when a mysterious feminine voice speaks to him.

Lahla steps through the window and, after gently reprimanding Ataru when he instinctively tries to flirt, she explains her connection to Ruu, and that Ruu is being controlled by the curse - he has no idea he's just a puppet, dancing to its strings. She offers Ataru a chance to free Lum, and he accepts.

As the moon rises into the sky, Lahla flies Ataru to Marchenland on her hoverbike and explains that the only way to reach where Ruu is hiding is if Ataru can concentrate all his thoughts on Lum whilst they stand in the center of the mirror maze. Ataru admits he's not very good at it, but he tries... only to transport them to a strange realm styled after his dream harem. Much to the disappointment of Lum, who can see through her window in Ruu's lair. Lahla warns Ataru that if they don't reach Ruu's realm before the full moon moves out of alignment, they won't be able to open the link at all until the next full moon. Galvanised by the thought of genuinely losing Lum, Ataru doesn't even protest as Lahla flies him out of the harem, and he tries to concentrate on Lum with all her might once more.

Meanwhile, Ruu heads to the hidden control room of his ship, planning to fly it to a new hiding spot somewhere in the dimensions, but Lum pursues and struggles with him. Thoughts filled with Ataru and her wish to see him, the rift opens and Ataru and Lahla pass through - and crash right into the control room. Their joyous reunion is cut short when Ruu's control console explodes, knocking almost everyone briefly unconscious.

Ruu and Lahla wake first, and Lahla tries to talk sense into Ruu, revealing the orb's true nature as a 300 year old curse, and that Ruu is actually Lum's distant descendant, something only Ataru overhears. Her words reach Ruu, but the orb suddenly yanks free of his hand and flies into the air, pulsing menacingly. When Lum wakens, she immediately tries to run to Ataru, only for the orb to glow bright and swallow them both into a dark void. As they are yanked apart, Lum defiantly cries that she will never let it separate her from Ataru. Upon regaining control of her body, she flies forward, intent on seeking out Ataru. As she flies, she is assailed by bizarre visions of herself and Ataru in the forms of fairies, dinosaurs and seagulls, all drawn together and becoming lovers, whilst in Ruu's realm, the orb becomes increasingly riddled with cracks and fractures.

Suddenly, Lum finds herself in a strange misty realm - and more importantly, there is a red thread looped around her left pinky finger, which trails off across the ground through the haze. Remembering the story Shinobu told her, an excited Lum flies after the string, and finds herself face to face with Ataru. Overjoyed, she throws her arms around him, but he doesn't seem as delighted to see her. Baffled, she pleads with him to talk to her, eliciting only nervous chuckles, before she realizes that Ataru is hiding his right hand from her. She insists on seeing it, and finally she pulls it out from behind his back. Ataru's face is covered in fear, and possibly shame, guilt, maybe even sadness as she sees that every finger on his right hand has a red thread tied around it as well. They look into each other's eyes, with Ataru weakly saying her name. Each sheds a tear before Lum's temper boils forth; she screams that she is ashamed of Ataru and electrocutes him.... then softly calls him an idiot once she's done.

The curse-crystal shatters into pieces. Ruu, Lahla and Oshima travel back to their own time, musing that because of this, everything that happened when they meddled in Lum and Ataru's life will be undone as if had never occurred, though Ruu notes he will always remember Lum.

Time resumes its natural course. Class 2-4 is abuzz with excitement, everyone looking to visit the grand opening of Tomobiki Marchenland. Onsen-Mark storms in and demands quiet, but things only get worse; Lum zaps Ataru for trying to invite Shinobu to the park instead of her, Rei comes charging in looking for Lum, Ryūnosuke's Father floods the classroom with a freak wave, and Benten accidentally blows everybody up with a missile. As Onsen-Mark protests once more that it's time for class, Lum speaks up and declares they should all go to the amusement park together, an announcement that makes everybody cheer in delight.

Characters[]

Main Cast[]

Guest characters[]

Cameos[]

Trivia[]

  • It is the first film in the franchise to be animated by Studio Deen.
  • It was released between the TV series episodes 140 and 141.
  • Maris and Sue from Maris the Chojo (a one shot series made by Rumiko Takahashi) make a cameo as part of Ataru's fantasy harem.
  • Characters of Maison Ikkoku (Rumiko Takahashi's second major manga series) make a cameo in the opening.
  • Bulma from Dragon Ball makes a cameo at the end, making it her first appearance in the anime media. She wears the outfit from the cover of the fourth chapter.

Gallery[]

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