Now, I'd like to start by saying how fantastic it is that there's any new Urusei Yatsura production at all so long after the series has ended and been followed by two or three successors (depending on whether or not you count Maison Ikkoku). The opening animation involving the casts of Urusei Yatsura, Ranma ½, and InuYasha is an absolute fangasm for anyone who enjoyed all three series, especially considering how disappointingly rare anime crossovers in general tend to be.

That said, this special struggled a little bit in living up to its original series. The general antics of the show were still there, but the whole thing has been modernized to some degree. As far as the production values go, again, it's fantastic to see what the series might have looked like had it been made today rather than 20 years ago, but it fell short in a few other areas.

Writing... now, the story has never been a strong point of Urusei Yatsura. It's just not a show that you watch for gripping drama or to find out what's gonna happen to such-and-such's divorced sister this week. It's a fun, wacky, very episodic ride that you tune into to just have a good time for 20 minutes or so, with a couple of very brief story arcs sprinkled about. The Obstacle Course Swim Meet did not break that pattern. It had a nice little story pulled right from the manga with plenty of wacky antics that wrapped up in a cool 25 minutes, like most episodes. In that sense, it lived up to the series just fine.

Art: If you were to watch the original series, and if you were to then watch this episode, the difference in the production values in terms of the artwork would be plain to see. They were made two decades apart, so it should be no surprise that they really revamped this series for the 21st century... and I don't mean that negatively. It's really fun to see the characters drawn in a modern way--to see what might have been, if only for one brief episode. The most recent animation for the series prior to this was from 1991, so the jump is quite large and fascinating to witness.

Sound: Being one of the series that, despite its immense popularity in Japan (and even on a global scale), never really found its market Stateside, Urusei Yatsura never received a dedicated English dub. One brief attempt was made for the series, and the movies were covered with the same (rather shoddy) cast, but no final cut was made--so, as of right now, no English version of this special exists and I rather doubt there are any plans for one. It is extremely impressive, however, that the studio was able to reunite the entire (to my ears) original Japanese cast of the show from so long ago for this production, and it's great to hear those voices again with a truly astounding level of consistency, given the leap. The music also manages to live up to the original series's soundtrack while still being reworked for the modern era.

What really hurts this special relative to the classic series, OVA's, and movies from years prior, however, is the directing. The style of humor is fairly consistent much of the time, but others... it becomes clear that some crude influences have been allowed into the script. A few tacky fart jokes and other such humor have wormed their way in, as well as one or two "random face" gags... both of which were rarely, if ever, implemented in the original series. The humor was never some persnickety high-brow display of "cultural etiquette," or anything, but it had some standards, and the bar was definitely lowered for this piece of animation.

That aside, as I've said, it was a real treat to see the series re-imagined after all this time, and anyone who's seen and enjoyed Urusei Yatsura should absolutely not miss out on the experience. If you haven't seen the series, however, I wouldn't advise that you make this your introduction to it.

(Unrelated: Keep an eye out for cameos in the episode! Akane and Kagome both make appearances, as do Godai and Kyoko from Maison Ikkoku.)