Chapter 125: スーパー武蔵、天までダッシュ！！
Suupaa Musashi, tenmade datsushiyu! (Super Musashi, Sprint to the Heavens!) The cast of Urusei Yatsura are placed in the early 1600's into a parody of Japanese samurai movies and mostly the historical tale of Miyamoto Musashi one of the most reknowned Japanese warriors of all time. Onsen-Mark is the vagabond Musashi who aspires to be famous, Ataru is a cattle and food thief and Lum is his alien wife, and Mendo is the wandering samurai Kojirou.
The Keicho era spanned from October 1596 to July 1615 CE. Mimasaka province (or Sakushu) was a province of Japan in the part of Honshu that is today northeastern Okayama prefecture.
Musashi Miyamoto (1584-1645 CE) is considered one of the greatest swordsmen of Japan. He was also a philosopher, strategist, writer and ronin (masterless samurai).
The characters for Shitsubo-ji mean "Seven Treasure Temple." Written with different characters, shitsubo means "hopelessness" or "disappointment."
Kojiro Sasaki (1585-1612 CE) is also considered a great swordsman of Japan and was a longtime rival to Musashi Miyamoto.
"She became a star." - The phrase (星になった) literally does mean “became a star." This is a verb stem that means “to die.” So to say one “becomes a star” is to say one has died. This is shown in later manga and anime such as Ranma 1/2, when for example Ranma punches Happosai, launching him into the air until he disappears in a twinkle, he has “become a star” or figuratively “died” which is what the characters wish upon him.
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Chapter 126: 武蔵、ただいま修行中！！
Musashi, tadaima shugyochou (Musashi, In Training!) Still in the Musashi tale, Ataru is travelling all over Japan stealing food. Lum, Cherry and Ten are on a hunt for him but soon they become his accomplices. Sakura's character, her sister played by Shinobu, Mendo and Onsen-mark have all become fugitives along with Ataru.
Fujihiko Hosono's Gu Gu Ganmo (Gu-Guガンモ) debuted in this issue of Shonen Sunday.
Yoshioka-ryu is a sword fighting martial art which became famous in the latter half of the 16th century. It was founded by Kenpo Yoshioka, who became the instructor of the shogun Yoshiharu Ashikaga during his reign from 1521 to 1545.
Ichijoji is a three-storied pagoda in Hyogo Prefecture that is designated one of the National Treasures of Japan.
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Chapter 127: ダメッ子武蔵、男やないか！！
Dametsuko Musashi otoko yanaika!! (Bad Boy Musashi, Be a Man!) Ataru is still on the loose sampling famous foods from all the major areas of Japan. The party of travellers are hunting Ataru all over Japan. To raise money they become an intinerant circus troup. They eventually part ways, and then find each other once again.
This issue of Shonen Sunday contains a daily calendar with all the characters from their various series in color.
Takuan is a pickled daikon radish. Apparently Musashi thinks Cherry looks like one.
Champon is a representative dish of Nagasaki and inspired from Chinese cuisine. It usually includes pork, seafood, vegetables and thick noodles immersed in a rich soup.
Ganryu Island is located between Honshu and Kyushu and is the famous location of the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sssaki Kojiro.
Himeji is a city in Hyogo Prefecture.
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Chapter 128: 柳精翁の恐怖！？
Ryuuseiou no Kyofu!? (Terror of the Willow Ghost?!) Onsen-Mark tells the students of a vengeful tree spirit that resides in a tree in the schoolyard which came out when students tried to deface it. Ataru carves a diagram which has an octopus face crying "waa, it's dark, it's cramped, I'm scared,"obviously ridiculing Mendo. Out comes an old looking spirit with the same diagram on his back looking to have his revenge and of course Mendo is not too happy to see this old man insulting his family honor.
"Zwilling" is a brand of German knife, considered to be one of the strongest and most durable in the world.
Once upon a time Japanese schools had "night duty rooms" (宿直室) where a teacher would stay overnight to function as a security guard. One teacher reported, "In my memory, the night shift would have been abolished around 1974. After that, for about five years, college students worked part-time and stayed in the night duty room as a "night shift agent". However, some of them got involved with the students, drank alcohol and made noise, problems began to occur here and there, and there must have been murders ... Because of that, it became "totally unmanned". I did it at one point. In my case, it was a local prefectural high school, but when I was young, I stayed in the night duty room for about three years. We (the night duty teacher) would go around the school at midnight and 3:00am to formally confirm everything was safe. I couldn't sleep because I was nervous, and it certainly hinders the next day's lessons. It was hard. Even if I stayed overnight, the night shift allowance was only about 800 yen. Your shift would come around twice each month. Female teachers didn't do a night shift, so I wish I had been born a woman. To be honest, the night shift had no meaning. Popular teachers had problems such as students wanting to hang around with them, and for female students, the problem was even more troublesome. In my case, it was a big problem.". Government offices, town halls and banks also had similar overnight shifts.
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Chapter 129: テン敵
Ten toki (Enemy Ten) Ten's really tired of being bullied by Ataru. Cherry gives him what are supposed to be strengthening wooden shoes but they only prove to be too heavy for Ten to move properly. So it becomes even easier for Ataru to pick on him. Lum gives him restraints which are supposed to help but only make matters worse.
Chapter 124 originally followed after this chapter in the original weekly publication order.
Buddha from Shake Your Buddha (がんばり末世) is on TV in the Moroboshi household once again.
The spring-loaded harness and iron sandals that Ten wears during his training are references to Kyojin no Hoshi as the main character, Hyuuma Hoshi's father creates this same harness for him to wear as he trains to become the best baseball player in Japan.
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Chapter 130: 化石の僻地
Kaseki no hekichi (Fossil Backcountry) Lum, Ataru, Shinobu, Mendo and Ten are having a picnic in the mountains, which happen to be Cherry's training grounds. Ten and Lum uncover a lot of fossils. Lum brings the bunch of fossils to life which makes a really freaky looking creature. Ten rides him all over the hills running into a group of documentary TV crew searching for the mysterious monk of the mountains. Cherry and the fossil creature lead them on a chase.
Chapter 124 originally preceeded this chapter in the original weekly release order.
Golden Week contains a string of holidays starting with April 29th for the Showa Emperor's Birthday through May 5th for Children's Day.
The television crew filming Animal Paradise may be a parody of Kawaguchi Hiroshi's Expedition (川口浩探検隊). The series aired on Wednesdays and ran from 1978 to 1985 and featured actor Hiroshi Kawaguchi going on survival adventures, encountering wild animals, exploring jungles and meeting ethnic minorities across the world. Here is an episode uploaded to Youtube.
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Chapter 131: 虫歯ＷＡＲＳ！！
Mushipa uaazu (Cavity Wars) Alien toothaches are actually contagious. Ten gets one and bites Ataru because he teases him. Now Ataru has a toothache and finds out that it will go away if you bite five people, then all hell breaks loose. Lum wants to help, but Ataru is afraid that Lum's cure could be worse than the disease.
This may have been a Tuesday release, though the cover date (two weeks in advance of the actual street date) lists it as a Wednesday release day as is typical.
Ascetic training is the practice of the denial of physical or psychological desires in order to attain a spiritual ideal or goal.
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Chapter 132: 湯船に浮かぶ銭の花を流せ！！
Yubune ni ukabu zeni no hana o nagase (Wash Away the Jade Blossom in the Tub) Ataru gets a part-time job at an alien bathouse in a weird part of town that appears to be within another dimension. He tries to look over to the women's side but Lum blocks his path. Ataru finds a way to swim to the other side, but his luck does not exactly change for the better.
Bath house patrons include Kawaii Cook-san and a doodle of an old man. The doodle is known as Tsuru Sanha Maru Maru Mushi (つる三ハまるまるむし). The characters in his name are drawn to make the face with maru being the circle.
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Chapter 133: 夫婦ゲンカ始末記
Fuufuu genka shimatsusa (Domestic Spat Settlement) Lum's father gets kicked out of the house/ship by his wife. He lodges with the Moroboshi family who find him to be a major pain in the neck, but since he is such an intimidating figure everyone is too nervous to object. He lectures Ataru's class about what it means to be a man, but spends much of the time getting his marital frustrations off his chest. Lum's mother shows up and gives him a good beating.
Lum's mother's speech is represented by mahjong tiles.
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Chapter 134: タヌキが”ツルの恩返し”
Tanuki ga "tsuru no angaeshi" (The Grateful Raccoon) Ataru helps a crane out of a bear trap, but it turns out to be a racoon named Oshima. Oshima secretly follows him home to return the favor, just like in an old fairy tale The Grateful Crane. The raccoon tries to repay Ataru, but he is good for nothing and just becomes a nuiscance.
In Japanese folklore, Tsuru no Ongaeshi (The Grateful Crane) is a famous story about a crane who repays her rescuer with gifts. She appears as a beautiful girl and makes something of vaule for her rescuer, but she asks him not to peek into the room she is working in until she is done. When the man peeks in and discovers the crane's true form, the crane flies away and never comes back.
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Chapter 135: 面堂家仮面ぶとう会
Mendoke kamen-butou-kai (Mendo Residence Masquerade Ball) Ryoko holds a masquerade ball, which turns out to have nothing to do with dancing, but rather a martial arts competition in which everyone is given silly masks and weapons of choice. The prize is a kiss from Ryoko. It then becomes a violent free-for-all as everyone begins beating each other up with hammers, clubs, axes, swords and more.
This chapter was originally published between chapters 138 and 139 in the weekly release of Shonen Sunday.
Kuroko are stagehands who wear all black in traditional Japanese theater. Ryoko Mendo employs them as her messengers and assistants.
The t-shirt has the kanji character for gold, or money. The implication is that the person wearing this t-shirt is disguised as Kintaro, a character from a famous Japanese folktale.
List of Masks Appearing in This Story
Ultraman (ウルトラマン) is the legendary Japanese suerhero who has been a staple of Japanese popular culture since his debut in 1966.
The Werewolf mask is not based on the traditional look of Lon Cheney Jr. from the 1941 film The Wolf Man although that film is what popularized the werewolf creature in popular culture.
The Ebisu mask should not be confused with a Taikofu (太弧父) is the "old widower" mask. Usually bald with long, low-hanging earlobes. It was used in Gigaku (伎楽) an extinct genre of dance performance from the Asuka period (538 - 710). The Ebisu mask is based on the character of Ebisu of the Seven Lucky Gods.
Hyottoko (火男) is a comical Japanese character, portrayed through the use of a mask. His mouth is puckered and skewed to one side. Some masks have different eye sizes between the left and right eyes. He is often wearing a scarf around his head (usually white with blue dots).
The Okame mask is an always smiling Japanese woman who brings good fortune to whomever she marries.
