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Author Topic: Retcon  (Read 6370 times)

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Offline Oldfan

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Retcon
« on: August 03, 2017, 03:58:10 AM »
Since this applies to the Manga and the Anime (specifically an OVA), I think this probably belongs here rather than in the manga section.

Pretty early on in the Manga, we get a story called We Are The Children. The gist of the story is that in an attempt to help Ataru get to school, Lum creates a portal that should get him there faster. She partially succeeds, making a portal to the school in 1991 - 12 years later as Ataru discovers when he gets inside and sees people he knows and then sees the blackboard saying "Class of '91 10 Year Reunion". Everyone that sees him notes he's the spitting image of Ataru and they go to get Mrs. Moroboshi's attention. Said ID of this wife is unknown at this point because she's not inside.

Ataru is hungry, goes to sit down and eat and a drooling kid appears by him and Ataru dives for cover, citing the kid has a horrible face. The kid sees his lunch and starts eating it and Ataru snatches it back and of course, the kid starts crying. Ataru gives in and gives the kid his lunch and he's crying, meanwhile, Lum appears (she was hiding from him initially) and starts feeding the kid, Ataru is his early jerk self of course, and starts yelling at Lum and citing all the bad habits the kid has, which include the kid being a pervert because he's squeezing Lum's chest. Lum does the math and says he looks just like Ataru (there is a moment of sadness on Lum's face in this), and Ataru is shocked.

Meanwhile, back in the school, the unseen wife appears looking for her son. People comment after she goes back outside that her son is just like her husband. Even as people are also looking for Ataru. A panel with the mother calling for her son says his name is Kokeru. Lum and Ataru have the boy and they're in town and buy the kid an ice cream cone as they are looking for his parents. Ataru complains about $10 for the cone (which is really outrageous, even by today's standards). The kid says he wants to go home, and seems just a little slow, but Ataru coaxes his name and the kid tells them Kokeru Moroboshi which shocks Lum and Ataru. Lum then checks the kid and sees no horns and she's very upset. Ataru does the math and takes the kid, wanting to see who he marries. Of course, as he gets near the school, the kid has an accident and Ataru is now all wet and he lets the kid run to the grounds as he wants to see his wife. Ataru sees a woman that frightens him because the kid ran to her screaming Mommy, but that's not the mother as we (not Ataru though) learn it's Shinobu. In the midst of this, Lum finds Ataru and she's even sadder looking. They get back, Ataru's mother is yelling at him because he missed school and what he did to his pants, Ataru is defending himself even as Shinobu and some classmates are there and Lum is REALLY clinging to Ataru.

End of story - the future has Ataru marrying Shinobu via a scientific means of going to the future, no Lum in sight.

I know to a certain extent the Manga is somewhat like the Anime, the stories are all their own and don't really lead into each other all that much, but the Manga IS more cohesive overall. Also, oddly enough, this is one of the few stories that never saw an anime conversion. Lum and Ataru have been in the past, once as Lum tried to break Ataru of his being flirty, and the other to break Mendou of his fears. Both those were made into anime stories and they were pretty exact in many ways from print to screen.

----------------

Now comes the Retcon comment, which is also a question. All the way at the end, not too long before Boy Meets Girl / The Final Chapter - we get Inaba the Dream Maker. I won't recap the Manga / OVA, but anyone that knows this (just look at the prior topic here), Rabbits create the Futures the world has, and in none of them does Ataru end up with Shinobu and it's by sheer luck Ataru finds one where he marries Lum (and Ataru fights to save it no less). The stark difference with the manga and the anime is the sequence after Inaba and Shinobu talk in the anime where Inaba finds the doorknob Lum made and places it on a door. Heavily implying her "Sweet Home" is very possible.

With that aside, I'm curious why Rumiko basically retconned a prior story. I know that Lum was never intended to stay in the Manga, she was supposed to be one of several unique people Ataru met, but the call for her to come back was so strong from everyone that she was brought back after just one story she was not in. Said story was the bucktoothed little demon that in the anime freaked Lum out.

But still, I wonder why she did this. Was the fan and editorial call for something with Lum being with Ataru THAT overwhelming?
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Megane

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Re: Retcon
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2018, 06:53:33 PM »
Since this applies to the Manga and the Anime (specifically an OVA), I think this probably belongs here rather than in the manga section.

Pretty early on in the Manga, we get a story called We Are The Children. The gist of the story is that in an attempt to help Ataru get to school, Lum creates a portal that should get him there faster. She partially succeeds, making a portal to the school in 1991 - 12 years later as Ataru discovers when he gets inside and sees people he knows and then sees the blackboard saying "Class of '91 10 Year Reunion".

If that is correct, that the blackboard did indeed say "Class of '91 10 Year Reunion", then that would mean that Ataru is visiting the year 2001, ten years after the class of 1991 graduated. That doesn't seem to make sense if it were indeed an early episode of the manga, however (most likely taking place prior to 1981).

But even so, having visited A future timeline, when Ataru returns to his proper time in the past, his awareness of any future events are likely (either through his conscious or UNconscious actions) to alter that timeline, creating another, entirely different alternate timeline. There is always more than one possible future.