Urusei Yatsura (2022) – Season 1 Episode 20 Recap & Review

Recovering That Which Was Lost

Episode 20 of Urusei Yatsura begins with Benten flying over a planet and spotting someone’s unconscious body. A strange toxin fills the air and knocks her out. Meanwhile, Oyuki tells Lum that Benten’s missing. Lum heads to Ataru’s place and ponders about Benten’s situation. Suddenly, she spots Benten in his home.

Benten tells Lum that she lost her chain and is hunting for it. Benten and Lum head to Oyuki’s home to discuss the situation further. Benten explains her circumstances surrounding the pink mushroom forest and the woman she found unconscious. This happened a week ago, and she recalls waking up to the woman having disappeared alongside her chain. Before Benten embarks on a hunt to find the woman and her chain, Oyuki presents her with a package from an unknown sender. It contains a videotape, and Lum, Oyuki, and Benten watch it. In the tape, three girls named Ginger, Sugar, and Pepper introduce themselves to our trio.

They’re known as the three rowdy punksters from Planet Middle School. Their mission is to become as hardcore, if not more so, than Lum and her friends. In a flashback, we see how rowdy Lum, Oyuki, and Benten were during their school days. Sugar reveals she has Benten’s chain in her possession. They challenge Lum, Oyuki, and Benten to a duel to see who is the real rowdiest punkster of all time. Benten breaks Oyuki’s television and flees Oyuki’s homeworld to search for these troublemakers. Oyuki and Lum follow her. Meanwhile, Sugar, Ginger, and Pepper discuss their worries about challenging Lum, Oyuki, and Benten.

The former plan to rely on their supercomputer called the #1 Salt to claim victory. At the same time, Oyuki and Lum catch up with Benten, but she doesn’t want them to get involved. Oyuki shares some kind remarks with Benten, who always took Oyuki as cold-hearted. However, she retracts her statement when Oyuki gives her an invoice to pay for the damages to her television. Lum tells Benten she forgot to take the map to Sugar and her friends’ duel spot that came with the videotape. Benten and her friends meet Sugar and her pals in a cafe on Earth. Benten and her friends question Sugar and her allies’ weird behavior. Suddenly, Sugar and her allies leave the cafe with Benten’s chain. Benten and her friends chase after them in Tomobiki Town.

Lum electrocutes a tree to stop Sugar and her friends in their tracks. Ginger and Pepper abandon Sugar with Benten’s chain. Sugar tries using her invisibility powers to fight Benten, but Lum bonks her on the head with a mallet. A wild chase sequence between both groups ensues, and we see Pepper and Ginger’s powers in action. The former can shed her skin like a snake, while the latter can pretend to be dead. Lum chases Pepper into a construction zone and electrocutes her while holding the chain. The chain breaks, shocking Lum. Pepper, Sugar, and Ginger hide behind pipes while Benten and Oyuki confront Lum about Benten’s chain.

Oyuki tells Benten that she should forget about the chain. Benten refuses, making Oyuki wonder if Benten got it from someone special to her. Benten tells Oyuki that’s not the case as Salt #1 arrives. Sugar asks Salt #1 to assist them with the battle, as Lum and her friends find themselves stuck in a pitfall underneath Salt #1’s shoe. Sugar asks Salt #1 for a strategy but realizes Salt #1’s run out of power. Oyuki suggests carving a dimensional tunnel to grab some tea, but Benten’s adamant about getting tea. Lum wants to tell Benten the truth, but she’s worried that Benten will steal Ataru from her in exchange for breaking her chain.

Lum and Benten argue while Sugar and her friends fill Salt #1 with fuel. Salt #1 powers up, throws up chains and leaves. Benten and her friends notice the multiple chains on the ground. After beating Sugar and her friends up for the problems they caused, Benten finds her chain. Benten and her friends flee to her planet to celebrate. When they reach Benten’s home, she reveals that she uses her chain as a key to Lum and Oyuki’s displeasure. Benten and her friends are shocked to see Sugar and her allies in Benten’s home. Apparently, she left the backdoor open. Instead of engaging in another bout with them, Lum, Benten, and Oyuki chat about life. The episode concludes with Sugar and her friends taunting Benten and the others in a corner.

The Episode Review

While the previous chapter wasn’t amazing, it left off on an intriguing cliffhanger. We saw three girls plotting something against Benten, Lum, and Oyuki. This gave fans hope for serious developments to occur within the series. While this chapter doesn’t capture the drama and tension many were hoping for, it gives viewers more time with Benten and Oyuki’s characters.

Unfortunately, the chapter spends more time with the former than the latter. Outside of helping Benten give Sugar and company a beating, not enough time was spent fleshing Oyuki’s character out. As for Benten, we get to see what her home looks like, how she feels about her friends, and a glimpse of how she was during her and her friends’ school days.

Although it isn’t much, many will be happy we got valuable information about her past life. As for Sugar, Pepper, and Ginger, they don’t offer much outside of their weird abilities. Overall, they’re pretty barebones compared to Ryonosuke, Ten, and others. Besides that, the episode’s comedy and action segments were great. With three more episodes of this season left, I’m praying for a decent conclusion.