or has left for a period of time, despite the fact he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Relationship with Lum In the beginning he is cold-hearted towards Lum and sees her as a nuisance preventing him from girl hunting, but by the time of the story (Vol. 18), he was completely okay with sharing a bed with her. Though he may not seem to really care for her, it is clear that Lum is the only one he truly cares for, something that she is grateful for. She just wishes Ataru would show it more often. In the story (Vol. 21), in which he accidentally puts on boxing gloves that force him to grab and punch anyone who gets close enough to him, he continuously puts his own face in front of Lum's each time she gets too close, punching himself instead. This is just one of many instances when Ataru does everything he can to protect Lum from physical harm. When faced with the prospect of losing Lum, Ataru goes all-out to try to prevent it from happening, even at the expense of his own health. Near the end of the series, in the story introducing Inaba, he decides to protect the future where he and Lum get married after he sees how happy she is in this future. In Ataru's own ideal future, he had a harem containing every prominent female in the cast, but he decided to abandon it after he learned that Lum would not be with him, further signifying the love he has for her. But once the danger has passed, he goes back to his girl hunts as though nothing happened. Even so, the fact that he sacrifices himself to rescue Lum is enough to prove he truly cares. Also, when she leaves for an extended period of time, he becomes very depressed and lonely in her absences. As highlighted in the final story arc, where, even faced with the prospective of losing Lum and all his memories of her he refuses to give in her request of a proper love declaration, most of the friction between Lum and Ataru stems from their clashing personalities: while Lum is utterly naïve and innocent about Earth customs and uses, but still truly wishes to be a proper and mature wife for Ataru and a prim daughter-in-law for her family, Ataru is more world-weary and