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Urusei Yatsura (うる星やつら) is a well-known 1970s and 1980s manga and anime series created by Rumiko Takahashi. The title is a complicated Japanese pun which very roughly translates as "those obnoxious aliens". The English translation of the manga, published by Viz Communications, is titled Lum, after the main character. The more recent volumes published by Viz are titled The Return of Lum.

The animated version spanned six films, 218 TV episodes, and ten OVAs, and is released, in the United States, by AnimEigo and US Manga Corps.

There was a Glaswegian band which has taken the name of the series for its own name, and internet searches can get the two confused.

Characters

Names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name.

• Lum (ラム, voiced by Fumi Hirano), an alien princess of the Oni, capable of flying and generating massive electrical discharges. Such creatures were held to be quite amorous and have blue or green hair, and wear tiger-skin as their underwear, hence her garb. Like the mythical female oni, she has two horns (symbolizing yin), located near her temples; they can be mistaken for barettes. She also has fangs, and dislikes garlic, though an oni is not a vampire. Lum accepts the accidental proposal of Ataru, but soon comes to truly love him, despite his constant flirting and insistence on seeing other girls. Consistently calls Ataru "Darling!" Lum's personality can range from being incredibly cute to apocalyptically angry, and Ataru has weathered it all. Lum is believed to have been inspired in part by the 70s swimwear model Agnes Lum, a Hawai'ian of part-Chinese descent, who was incredibly popular in Japan.

• Ataru Moroboshi (諸星あたる Moroboshi Ataru) (voiced by Toshio Furukawa), the most lecherous boy in all of creation, Ataru was born during a major earthquake, on Friday the 13th and Butsumetsu (considered to be the unluckiest day of the week in the Japanese calendar). Ataru is generally considered, mostly by Cherry, to be an incredibly unlucky boy. Also, although he rarely admits it, Ataru truly loves Lum, but is not yet ready to give up his "girl-hunting". Ataru is also remarkably intelligent, albeit somewhat limited in application, as demonstrated by his numerous schemes to escape Lum's attention. He also possesses inhuman endurance and determination in the pursuit of his goals.

• Shuutaro Mendou (面堂終太郎 Mendō Shūtarō) (voiced by Akira Kamiya), the heir of the militaristic mega-corporation Mendou Conglomerate, and the "richest boy in Japan" (his family owns 51% of the country). His love for Lum clashes with her faithfulness to Ataru, which makes them bitter rivals. Mendou is also claustrophobic and deathly afraid of the dark, except when being watched by a pretty girl. All in all, Mendou and Ataru are remarkably alike, a fact that neither one really cares to admit. Mendou's name is spelled Shutaro Mendo in the English manga. Mendou sometimes fights with a katana.

• Jariten (ジャリテン) (voiced by Kazuko Sugiyama). Most often called simply Ten (テン). He is the cousin of Lum, still a toddler, but can fly (slowly) and breathe fire. Like the mythical male oni, he has one horn (symbolizing yang), located where his hair whorls. Similar to Lum, he has fangs, wears tiger-skin underwear, and dislikes garlic. Ten came to Earth to find out more about Lum's husband, but after meeting him concludes that Ataru is unworthy and sets about trying to convince Lum to dump him through various schemes, usually by trying to demonstrate how much of a loser Ataru really is. Strangely enough, when pretty girls are around, Ten's behavior is remarkably similar to Ataru, although he masks it well in the guise of "I'm just an innocent baby." The pun in his name is that "Jariten" means "pebble."

• Ran (蘭/ラン) is a red-haired former antagonist of Lum's, who comes to Earth because she is jealous, thinking that Lum took away the male oni whom she loves. Her name is a pun; a name like it commonly means "orchid," but in her case "excess" or "civil war" are more like it. Her personality is exceedingly sweet until she is crossed, in which case her anger goes over the top and she shows her fangs and becomes violent. This she can manifest, because she is a representation of the Japanese mythological figure of the beautiful young girl which, if an adult man has a relationship with her, sucks his youth away with a kiss on the lips. She either wears pastel chiffon dresses or a silver bikini, and has a spaceship of her own. She too ends up going to Ataru's school, but is in another class.

• Shinobu Miyake (三宅しのぶ Miyake Shinobu)(voiced by Saeko Shimazu), is Ataru's girlfriend in the beginning. However, Ataru's constant flirting with other girls, and the arrival of Lum, who loudly proclaims her exclusive rights to her "Darling", soon brings this to an end. Once Mendou appears, she quickly decides that her attentions are best focused on him instead, but his infatuation with Lum rarely allows any satisfaction there. Shinobu's frustration often fuels her incredible strength, and she is often seen throwing about tables and other large, heavy objects.

• Ryuunosuke Fujinami (藤波竜之介 Fujinami Ryūnosuke) (voiced by Mayumi Tanaka), a girl raised as a boy, Ryuunosuke wants nothing more than to allow her feminine side to express itself. Sadly, her upbringing makes this nearly impossible as she finds herself falling back into her tomboy ways over and over again. The attentions of Ataru, the only guy who seems to be able to recognize her as a girl, at least at first, certainly doesn't help, and often makes her question her steadfast resolve. She is often at odds with her father, who steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the obvious and loudly insists that Ryuunosuke is every bit the man he raised him to be. Ryuunosuke is extremely strong and skilled at fighting, due to constant, severe martial arts training with her father. This character was also the inspiration for Takahashi's next series Ranma ½.

• Sakuranbo (voiced by Ichiro Nagai). Always called just Cherry, he is a demented Buddhist monk regularly just popping up (sometimes literally) when least expected. Cherry is convinced that Ataru's bad luck is absolutely without limit, and that it is his personal duty to ensure that the boy is protected, even when he doesn't want to be. Unfortunately, it often seems that Cherry may actually have a point, considering the endless string of misfortunes that plague Ataru. Cherry is also known for his enormous appetite and is always looking for an opportunity to cadge free food from some unfortunate soul. Cherry somewhat resembles a mushroom, both in stature and appearance.

• Sakura (サクラ) (voiced by Machiko Washio). Cherry's niece, Sakura is also the Tomobiki High school nurse and a Shinto priestess. Unlike her uncle and mother (who look almost the same), Sakura is tall, slender and physically attractive, which makes her a common target of the lecherous boys of the school and even Onsen-Mark. Like her uncle, Sakura possesses an enormous appetite and has been known, despite never seeming to gain an ounce, to out-eat him. Sakura is extremely powerful and can summon foul and bane creatures from Japanese folklore, by virtue of her mystical training.

• Tsubame (ツバメ). Sakura's boyfriend, Tsubame is mellow and somewhat weak-willed in comparison to the strong and powerful Sakura. He is also a wizard, trained in Western magic. Tsubame and Sakura's dates are typically watched by Lum, Ataru, Shinobu, and Mendou, which always causes them to fail.

• Lum's Stormtroopers. Four students (Megane, Chibi, Perm and Kakugari) from the same class as Lum, they are best friends but often end up fighting amongst themselves when the situation involves Lum. Megane, whose nickname means "glasses," has the strongest personality of the four and generally directs the schemes of the group to gain Lum's attention (mostly for himself). "Perm" has his nickname from the permanent hairstyle he uses; "Chibi" gets his from being short. They like to hang out with Ataru at the local Beef Bowl, a Japanese fast-food place. These characters do not exist in the manga; however, unnamed characters with similar faces do exist until about volume 5.

• Onsen-Mark (温泉マーク) (voiced by Michihiro Ikemizu). The teacher of the "Classroom of failure". A sad, middle-aged man, whose only interest is to teach at Tomobiki High, but fails due to the constant interruptions during class, when the classroom itself is not destroyed by Lum, Ten or Shinobu. His nickname can be roughly translated as "onsen Mark", the hot spring marks on his jacket.

• Ryoko Mendou (面堂了子 Mendō Ryōko) (voiced by Mami Koyama). The younger sister of Shuutaro, Ryoko is a spoiled girl whose only amusement seems to be the creation and execution of elaborate plans intended to drive her older brother mad. Her schemes frequently drag Lum and her friends along. Ryoko Mendou's surname is spelled Mendo in the English manga.

• Benten (弁天). Benten is a pun of one of the 7 lucky gods (七福神) of Japanese folklore, and Benten basically has the same characteristics and name. She loves to fight, and every year there is a contest between the oni and the fukujin ('lucky gods'), which results in Benten challenging Lum and Ten every year. A childhood friend of Lum, Ran, and Oyuki, they were all in the same class as kids.

• Oyuki. Oyuki is queen of her own chilly planet, and has the power to control ice, snow, and cold. She can also open portals to move from place to place. Typically dressed in long kimono or an icy underdress, she is soft-spoken but actually perhaps the most powerful of the characters.

• Rei (レイ). Rei is a very handsome oni, whose is unfortunately mainly interested in eating. Rei has the ability to transform into a huge, fat creature resembling something in between a tiger and a bull. When younger, Ran and Lum were both in love with him, but he became engaged with Lum, breaking Ran's heart and causing her to start to hate Lum. Lum eventually broke up with Rei (because of his gluttony and other form), but Rei came to Earth to chase her and regain her love. Rei only speaks one word at a time.

• Lum's Parents. Lum's father is a rather pudgy, but huge oni. He tends to be loud and scary. Lum's mother is a pretty woman who can only speak in the oni language, which appears in the manga as random diagrams and signs. Like Lum, they can fly.

Urusei Yatsura is home to an enormous ensemble cast, including Mr. Invader, Lum's Mother, Ataru's Mother and Father, Ran, Benten, Oyuki, Princess Kurama, the karasu tengu and a range of other characters, including many cameo appearances from Japanese mythology and history.

More information about the characters and series can be found at Tomobiki-Cho.

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The Story

The series is very light-hearted in nature and often quite bizarre. It concerns the adventures of a group of teenagers who live in Tomobiki, an area of the Nerima ward of Tokyo on a slightly fantastical and often ridiculously surreal version of Earth. The story centers around an extremely lecherous and very unlucky high-school boy, Ataru Moroboshi, and bikini clad alien princess Lum. Lum is in love with Ataru because he accidentally proposed to her, even though he chases after every humanoid female other than Lum. (It's not that she's ugly, it's just that he lost interest in her as soon as she started chasing him). The series is mainly episodic, with only occasional plots spanning more than one chapter/episode. Each chapter/episode usually concerns Ataru's ill-luck, his lechery (and Lum's jealousy thereof), or the wide variety of weird humans and aliens who love, hate, or simply meddle with Lum and Ataru.

Differences

There are a few differences between the manga and anime stories. The most noticeable is how some of the later stories and characters in the manga (such as Shingo, Inabe and Nagisa) are not part of the regular series, only appearing on the OVAs. Additionally, the anime officially ends with the fifth movie; the sixth was only an anniversary special, not considered strictly canon.

Also missing from the anime is Kosuke, one of the students of classroom 2-4 and the only one outside the main cast who is reasonably developed, replaced by Megane and the remaining Lum's Guards. Finally, some stories are slightly altered (mostly by adding or removing plot detail) to better suit the anime format.

The Movies

Only You

The first movie, entitled Only You. The main characters are:

• Lum, an alien princess who can fire out bolts of lightning
• Ataru Moroboshi, a lecherous human, with whom Lum is in love
• Elle, another alien princess, who is in charge of Planet Elle
• Benten, Lum's friend

The basic plot of the first film is that the five-year-old Ataru steps on Elle's shadow during an impromptu game of shadow-tag; in Elle's culture, this is viewed as a marriage proposal. Twelve years later, Elle returns to Earth in order to marry Ataru - by which time not only had he forgotten the events of his childhood, but he was also going out with Lum. The rest of the plot focuses on Lum's attempts to prevent the marriage.

The film was directed by Mamoru Oshii who was mad at the many requests that the producer made of him to alter the movie. Rumiko Takahashi considers this film her favorite and it is the most true to the original series.

Beautiful Dreamer

The second movie is titled Beautiful Dreamer. The main characters are:

• Lum, an alien princess who can fire bolts of electricity.
• Ataru Moroboshi, the lecherous loser, loved by Lum, and hated (?) by everyone else.
• Mujaki, the dream demon.
• And the rest of the usual cast.

In the second film, the students of Tomobiki High are not surprised to find the day repeating over and over again. And then things start getting really strange. Possibly the best loved of all the Urusei Yatsura films, and certainly one of the most memorable.

Even though many fans in the US love this film, when it was first released in Japan it didn't get quite so good a response. Writer and director Mamoru Oshii, unsatisfied with how the first film came out rejected the idea of catering to the audience and decided to do the film his own way. This almost caused Takahashi to reject the script because it deviated so far from the original story. Oshii got a lot of flack from the otaku community for this film after it was released for deviating so far from the original source material. As a result Oshii would quit working on the production of Urusei Yatsura and go on to do other more experimental projects. This film is seen as the first film where Oshii would develop his unique directing style.

Beautiful Dreamer is also the only Urusei Yatsura film released by US Manga Corps and not AnimEigo.

Remember My Love

The third movie, entitled Remember My Love. The main characters are:

• Lum, an alien princess who has fallen for Ataru, much to everyone else's dismay.
• Ataru Moroboshi, Lum's Darling forever trying, and failing, to escape her grasp.
• Ruu, a mysterious boy bent on fixing Lum's life.
• Lahla, Ruu's tutor, who tries to get things set straight.

The third film finds Ataru transformed into a pink hippopotamus, which sends Lum chasing after the wicked magician responsible, with catastrophic results. With Lum gone, her friends decide that there is no reason to remain, and so Tomobiki slowly returns to normal.

Lum the Forever

The fourth movie, entitled Lum the Forever. The main characters are:

• Lum
• Ataru Moroboshi
• Tarozakura, the great cherry tree.
• And the rest of the usual cast.

The fourth film is the subject of much debate, as it is probably the hardest of all the Urusei Yatsura films to fully understand. Many consider it to be a multi-layered masterpiece, while others feel it is little more than a confused and rambling mess.

The basic plot centers around the great cherry tree Tarozakura and what happens after it is cut down during the making of a movie.

The Final Chapter

The fifth movie, entitled The Final Chapter. The main characters are:

• Lum
• Ataru Moroboshi
• Rupa, Lum's fiancé
• Carla, is said to be Rupa's betrothed.

The fifth film is an animated adaptation of the final story of the manga, in which Lum and Ataru must repeat the game of tag played out in the first episode of the series, or the Earth will be destroyed. Further, should Ataru lose, Lum will leave forever and everyone's memories will be changed so that they don't remember she, or her friends, were ever there. Finally, Lum refuses to allow Ataru to win unless he says, to her, those three words "I love you," that he has steadfastly refused to say over the entire series.

Always My Darling

The sixth movie was actually a tenth anniversary special, and is not widely known. The main characters are:

• Lum
• Ataru Moroboshi
• Lupika, alien princess

Lupika, an alien princess, falls in love with a tofu seller. To make him love her too, she needs to get a love potion, which is in a certain temple. Legend has it that the only person that can obtain this love potion is the most lecherous man in the universe. That man turns out to be Ataru Moroboshi. Lupika kidnaps Ataru to make him get the potion, and Lum and her friends go out to search for Ataru.

External Links

• Tomobiki-Cho - Complete site with information of the manga, anime and characters.
• Project ILM Industrial Lum and Manga—Urusei Yatsura manga translations.
• AnimEigo - United States distributor of the Urusei Yatsura anime.

• Anime
• Manga