Well, we have another somewhat surreal movie, but not as surreal as the previous one.
Initially, I was kind of bored with this movie. The OP theme has to play an entire song, which made me feel like a teenager again since the song sounds so 80's. Also, the scenes where Ruu, as the Pierrot, caused the others to experience weirdness dragged quite a bit. The movie dragged again when Lum started thinking about her life with Ataru prior to his transformation to a pink hippo. That was followed by a chase that I felt went on too long. And, I wanted to spin on with the scenes where Lum and Ataru are different creatures, mainly because the music drove me spare (so much so that I muted it).
Pacing issues aside, the story itself is pretty much a by the numbers thing. Lum deeply loves Ataru; Ataru loves Lum, but also loves other girls; Ataru doesn't want to admit his love; Ataru is forced to admit his feelings when he's a hippo, and again when he loses Lum; Ataru has to find Lum and bring her back. So plot wise, there were no real surprises other than the parody witch lady having canceled her curse, and I would have caught that had I been paying closer attention.
The part of the movie that was of most interest to me was the aftermath of Lum's abduction. Having Shinobu narrate this transition phase worked quite well. Further, the fact that she lost her great strength since Lum left was quite compelling to me. That was added to by having Shuutaro and Ryoko both lose their abilities to commune with octopi and a tree respectively. The fact that the core group around Lum and Ataru came together in an unplanned moment and burned the mementos of Lum was symbolic of their new beginning without Lum. I wouldn't have been able to do in that situation.
I could understand Benten, Oyuki, and Ran leaving earth for good (along with Ten-chan) since Lum wasn't there, but it seemed odd to me that they wouldn't continue trying to find her. Come to think of it, why'd everyone give up on Lum? Yeah, I'm guessing it was all part of the curse though that was never explicitly stated that I recall.
While establishing that Ruu is the descendant of Lum, I note that they are careful to not say that he's also a descendant of Ataru. I'm guessing that's partially because the manga was still going on at this time, and there was always a possibility that Takahashi-sensei would have Lum hook up with someone else. I figured Lahla might be a descendant as well, but that was never stated. Heck, at some point, before Lahla's identity was revealed, I wondered if she might be Lum from the future trying to get things set back to right.
There were really no funny moments in the movie, though some attempts at jokes were made. While I didn't laugh, I think the most amusing moment came from the embarrassed Ataru revealing he had lots of red strings attached to him, followed by Lum's natural (if delayed) response.
One side note - I know these are old translations, but I had to laugh at the absurdity of the fear of a Japanese title/honorific being so great that a French honorific had to be inserted to try to capture the moment (an "oneesama" was replaced with "mademoiselle"). *lol* Then again, we really haven't progressed too much beyond this when it comes to official anime subtitle translations after FUNimation abandoned their trendsetting ways.
In the end, despite some pacing problems and some music that made me cringe a bit, the movie wasn't all bad. It was predictable in terms of plot, but I was entertained, which is what matters most.
Initially, I was kind of bored with this movie. The OP theme has to play an entire song, which made me feel like a teenager again since the song sounds so 80's. Also, the scenes where Ruu, as the Pierrot, caused the others to experience weirdness dragged quite a bit. The movie dragged again when Lum started thinking about her life with Ataru prior to his transformation to a pink hippo. That was followed by a chase that I felt went on too long. And, I wanted to spin on with the scenes where Lum and Ataru are different creatures, mainly because the music drove me spare (so much so that I muted it).
Pacing issues aside, the story itself is pretty much a by the numbers thing. Lum deeply loves Ataru; Ataru loves Lum, but also loves other girls; Ataru doesn't want to admit his love; Ataru is forced to admit his feelings when he's a hippo, and again when he loses Lum; Ataru has to find Lum and bring her back. So plot wise, there were no real surprises other than the parody witch lady having canceled her curse, and I would have caught that had I been paying closer attention.
The part of the movie that was of most interest to me was the aftermath of Lum's abduction. Having Shinobu narrate this transition phase worked quite well. Further, the fact that she lost her great strength since Lum left was quite compelling to me. That was added to by having Shuutaro and Ryoko both lose their abilities to commune with octopi and a tree respectively. The fact that the core group around Lum and Ataru came together in an unplanned moment and burned the mementos of Lum was symbolic of their new beginning without Lum. I wouldn't have been able to do in that situation.
I could understand Benten, Oyuki, and Ran leaving earth for good (along with Ten-chan) since Lum wasn't there, but it seemed odd to me that they wouldn't continue trying to find her. Come to think of it, why'd everyone give up on Lum? Yeah, I'm guessing it was all part of the curse though that was never explicitly stated that I recall.
While establishing that Ruu is the descendant of Lum, I note that they are careful to not say that he's also a descendant of Ataru. I'm guessing that's partially because the manga was still going on at this time, and there was always a possibility that Takahashi-sensei would have Lum hook up with someone else. I figured Lahla might be a descendant as well, but that was never stated. Heck, at some point, before Lahla's identity was revealed, I wondered if she might be Lum from the future trying to get things set back to right.
There were really no funny moments in the movie, though some attempts at jokes were made. While I didn't laugh, I think the most amusing moment came from the embarrassed Ataru revealing he had lots of red strings attached to him, followed by Lum's natural (if delayed) response.
One side note - I know these are old translations, but I had to laugh at the absurdity of the fear of a Japanese title/honorific being so great that a French honorific had to be inserted to try to capture the moment (an "oneesama" was replaced with "mademoiselle"). *lol* Then again, we really haven't progressed too much beyond this when it comes to official anime subtitle translations after FUNimation abandoned their trendsetting ways.
In the end, despite some pacing problems and some music that made me cringe a bit, the movie wasn't all bad. It was predictable in terms of plot, but I was entertained, which is what matters most.
