Urusei Yatsura: Raging Sherbet

"Raging Sherbet" (1988) is the third OAV (Original Animated Video) spin-off of "Urusei Yatsura," the popular Japanese animated series based on Rumiko Takahashi's comic book about horny high-school boy Ataru and his gorgeous, horned live-in alien "wife," Lum, of tiger-skin bikini fame. This particular 26-minute episode spotlights Lum's alien girlfriends, Ran, Oyuki, and Benten, who are first seen visiting the icy planet Neptune, home of a sherbet cone-producing bird, which the money-hungry, boy-crazy Ran sees as a cash cow during Tokyo's hot summer. After persuading Oyuki to let her borrow one of the birds, Ran takes it back to earth and exploits the poor thing until it balks at making any more sherbet cones, breaks out of its refrigerated cage, and flies out over the skies of Tokyo. Ran, Lum and flying biker girl Benten chase after it, desperate to retrieve it before the normally demure, but fiery-in-her-wrath Oyuki returns and learns what happened.

While amusing and fast-paced, this episode is essentially just a half-hour animated sitcom and is a lot less inspired than the earlier Lum movies and TV episodes, chiefly because it takes the focus off the comic, sexually-charged misadventures of Ataru and Lum. While many fans of the series enjoy the antics of Lum's friends, all three of the girls are seen to better effect in the TV episodes and some of the movies. This episode was released in the U.S. on a VHS edition paired with "I Howl at the Moon," also reviewed on this site.