We’ve reached a stage almost every offbeat, comic underrated gem like Uchuujin MuuMuu gets to as it wraps up its run (and next week is the finale, sadly). That is, “plot time”. Things get serious, and the overall tenor of the show changes quite a lot. This is executed with varying degrees of success, of course, but on the whole not usually in a particularly satisfying way. I get the imperative – the sense that it’s something a series needs to do in order to properly wrap everything up. But in practice I’d usually rather it didn’t.
Further complicating things here is that the manga is ongoing. Truthfully I have no idea how much of what we’re seeing here is anime-original – while the manga was just (surprisingly) licensed in English, in the meantime there are no translations that I’m aware of. But in the final analysis that doesn’t matter much – this is very likely to be the final bow for the anime (or at least final for a good long while) and however it chooses to conclude will stand or fall on its own merits.
I must say, my take at this point is overwhelmingly positive. I was a little worried with the first few minutes of this episode, which were pretty dark and humorless – which was very out of character. But then Uchuujin MuuMuu’s trademark cheeky irreverence kicked in, and after that everything clicked. The balance between hard-core plot and zaniness was spot-on. And what’s more the turn in the plot was really clever, not least in the way it managed to keep the secondary leads involved in believable fashion.
In short, this is definitely an end-of-the-world scenario. Which, to be fair, has been teased for the entire length of the show. Dr. Octal is the one behind it, and he and MuuMuu have a deep and dark history together. All three main cats (have I mentioned how this show really needs more Siberia?) seem shocked he’s alive. But MuuMuu is convinced he’s some sort of AI creation, which may or may not be true. We do know the one talking to him here is a hologram, and using haptics to interact with the physical world (and kick tail). He’s been slowly nudging the moon off its orbit (that’s what that eight-month deadline was really about) and now it’s about to crash into the Earth.
Now, the moon getting this close to Earth would itself cause incredible chaos and destruction, but we’ll suspend disbelief on that. Octal has caused a power outage and human-napped all the main cast (MuuMuu calling Tenkubashi “Professor” threw him) except Akihiro (I always suspected Miwa-san was a virgin). Anamori-san is convinced he’s doing it to test MuuMuu, and that seems to be the size of it. Octal spills the beans about MuuMuu’s terrible origins, but Sakurako’s loyalty is unshaken. “MuuMuu is often sarcastic… selfish, moody, and mischievous too. But if you get hung up on a cat’s whims, you won’t be able to live with them!”
Now I don’t want to wax too poetical here, but there’s so much elemental truth packed into that statement. This show gets cats, and always has. It’s yet another case of anime using fantasy to illuminate reality. Their sometimes-challenging nature is why we love cats. They’re complicated, they’re sometimes exasperating. But they’re never boring, and when we bond with them, it’s a bond born of true commitment and really means something. One of my favorite philosophers (and himself a cat lover) Kinky Friedman used to say, “Courtesy is owed, respect is earned, love is given”. And that pretty much sums up the cat-human relationship.
A wonderfully ironic moment comes when the feline trio has no choice but to go the technologically illiterate Akihiro – the only one not captured by Octal – for help. He has no issue with cats talking because he loves them so much, if they say it, it must be true. Sakurako, meanwhile, has the candy store cat repeller with her and uses it to transmit a message to MuuMuu in Morse Code. Surely he listened to her and dutifully learned it – surely! And sure enough, he does show up to rescue the prisoners from the safe room where the Chancellor keeps his embezzlement funds. But he didn’t get the message – he just followed the annoying buzzing noise.
Thanks to Akihiro somehow not electrocuting himself leeching power from the engineering building’s generator, the smart lock password resets to “0000” – which of course Bakahiro inputs as soon as he shows up. Rescue is at-hand – although things are still looking pretty grim with the moon about to crash into the planet. Never sell the Prez short, though – he’s always got a plan, no matter how absurd. Once he’s able to contact Sonoko and confirm that the planet is worth fighting for, he declares a tech war on Octal’s scheme – “stop the Earth”. Whatever that means, and with Tenkubashi behind it you can be sure it’s going to be audacious (and at least loosely grounded in scientific principles).
The post Uchuujin MuuMuu (Me and the Alien MuMu) – 23 appeared first on Lost in Anime.
