List of Urusei Yatsura characters
Urusei Yatsura, a manga (1978-1987) and anime (1981-1986) series created by Rumiko Takahashi, has a large ensemble cast which includes many cameo appearances from Japanese mythology and history. Names of some of the characters are below. They are in Western order, with the surname after the given name. Black and white portraits are from the manga.
Main
Ataru Moroboshi
(諸星あたる)
A student at Tomobiki High School, Class 2-4, Ataru suffers from an incredible amount of bad luck, having been born on the unluckiest day of the Buddhist calendar. He is very lecherous, stupid, and lazy. Though he often tries to escape from Lum and flirts with other women, he really does have feelings for her. Ataru's main goal in life is to live in the center of a harem composed of exotic and beautiful women (including Lum and most of her alien friends). His pick-up techniques would creep out most stalkers. Usually, he just walks up to a woman he's never met before and asks for her name, phone number, and address. Once he decides to go after a particular female, virtually no force on Earth (or from outer space) can stop him. He refused to admit it but, deep down, he proved in the later episodes that it was Lum that he truly loved. Voiced by Toshio Furukawa.
Lum Invader
(ラム)
Lum (also referred to in English dubs as Lamu) is a beautiful Oni alien who is capable of flying and generating electrical shocks. She is extremely popular and is famous for ending her sentences with ~datcha (loosely translated as “yes?” or “you know?”). Except when in her school girl’s uniform, she usually wears a sexy outfit consisting of a tiger-striped bikini and knee-high go-go boots. While generally good-natured, sweet, and innocent, Lum also has a very hot temper. Her dream in life is to live in a “Sweet Home with Darling” in which she keeps house and raises babies while Ataru works a job. Unfortunately, Lum's idea of "cooking" is to take very spicy ingredients like jalapenos, cayenne peppers and Tabasco sauce and irradiate them with an alien energy bazooka until they carbonize into inedible, crystallized nuggets. As an alien she has access to many bizarre gadgets whose use she really doesn’t understand all that well, leading to comedic results. Differences between human and “Invader” physiology also drive many stories, like the time Lum’s horns begin to grow larger after she is bitten by a cow, or the time she becomes drunk by eating pickled plums.
Shuutaro Mendou
(面堂 終太郎)
Shuutaro Mendou is heir to the Mendou Zaibatsu with staggering wealth and its own private army. He commutes to school in a gigantic helicopter that is more like a flying mansion. Being a descendent of a samurai family, Shuutaro often carries a samurai sword which he often tries to use on Ataru (who has become expert at blocking it with his bare hands). Although very handsome he is just as stupid and lecherous as Ataru (just much more sophisticated in his approach). He takes his role as heir to the vast Mendou fortune extremely seriously. Mendou is vain, narcissistic, charming, overly dramatic, claustrophobic and afraid of the dark. He loves Lum, tolerating the presence of Ataru in order to be close to her. Shinobu is the closest thing he has to a girlfriend. Voiced by Akira Kamiya.
Shinobu Miyake
(三宅 しのぶ)
Ataru's childhood friend and classmate. Until Lum showed up she was also Ataru’s girlfriend. She is a neat, clean, sweet, and petite young lady who can be viewed as the archetypically perfect Japanese female. Not long after Lum showed up Shinobu began to develop super-human strength. In the third movie, she lost her super strength when Lum left Earth, suggesting that Lum is the source of her strength. Like all female members of her class she has a huge crush on Mendou. She is often part of a "foursome" consisting of Ataru, Lum, Shuutaro, and herself. By the end of the series, however, she'd finally given up on Shuutaro, thinking herself a likely "old maid", until she met a young boy in a rabbit suit named Inaba. Voiced by Saeko Shimazu.
Class 2-4
Ryuunosuke Fujinami
(藤波 竜之介)
Ryuunosuke is a classmate of Ataru's. She is a girl, but her eccentric father has raised her as a boy, going so far as to demand that she wrap her breasts in tight cloth strips to hide them. Even her name sounds masculine, roughly equivalent to “Duke” or “Butch” in English. Ryuunosuke is a kind person at heart, but her father is always antagonizing her and pulling her into very destructive knock-down, drag-out fights, one of the reasons for their extreme poverty. She and her father run the school store, and live on-campus in the back. Her greatest desire is to wear girl's clothing and behave appropriately for her gender, but she has had no female role models in her life. Any attempt to obtain feminine clothing is thwarted by her father. This gender-bending character was very popular with the fans and is sometimes thought to be the precursor to Ranma Saotome, the protagonist of Takahashi's later series Ranma 1/2. Voiced by Mayumi Tanaka.
Kosuke Shirai
Shirai Koosuke (白井 コースケ)
Ataru's classmate and best friend. He is essentially a background character and is often involved with Ataru's usual mischief. Though at times he seems to be in love with Lum (like all of the male students), he has a girlfriend of his own and mainly just serves as a voice for the rest of the class. He does not appear in the anime, and his roles and lines are given to Lum's Stormtroopers, usually to Perm. His name comes from the then chief editor at Shogakukan Kousuke Shirai (白井康介, Shirai Kousuke).
Lum's Stormtroopers
Lum's Stormtroopers are four students from the same class as Ataru who are in love with Lum and have sworn to protect her from Ataru. They are best friends but often end up fighting amongst themselves when the situation involves Lum. These characters do not exist in the manga; however, unnamed characters with similar faces do exist until about volume 5. Along with every major character in the series and some of the more memorable one-shot characters, they were included in the cover art for the final chapter of the manga.
Megane
The leader of the Stormtroopers, whose nickname means "eyeglasses", he has a strong personality and generally directs the schemes of the Stormtroopers to gain Lum's attention (though mostly for himself). Though usually antagonistic towards Ataru, he often hangs out with him in his spare time. He is often given to rambling philosophical musings and outbursts, and seems to have an affinity for fascism and communism. His real name is Satoshi. Voiced by Chiba Shigeru.
Perm
His nickname is derived from his hairstyle ("permanent"), he is tall and skinny. Perm often displays the most character development, including being the only one of the Stormtroopers to have a visible girlfriend. His real name is Kosuke, likely after Kosuke Shirai. Voiced by Akira Murayama.
Chibi
His nickname is derived from his height ("chibi" means "small" or "short"), he is a timid crybaby, and is often beaten up by the rest of the Gang of Four. He is often together with Kakugari. His real name is Akira.
Kakugari
His nickname is derived from his hairstyle ("kakugari" means "crew cut"), he has a large build. He is the least used of the stormtroopers. His real name is Hiroyuki.
Lum's friends and acquaintances
Benten
(弁天)
Lum's childhood friend. Her character is named after Shichifukujin Benzaiten (one of the Seven Lucky Gods), the Shinto goddess of knowledge, art, and beauty. This Benten is a "space biker chick" who wears a plate-mail bikini, sports a "butch" hair style, tears around the sky on a flying alien chopper, curses like a longshoreman, and carries a high-tech bazooka. She holds an annual battle against Lum's Oni clan on Setsubun. Aside from being a good hand-to-hand fighter and having the aforementioned bazooka, she appears to have no special powers. As children, Benten and Lum often instigated trouble that usually resulted in Ran getting hurt.
Oyuki
(おユキ)
Oyuki is the queen of Neptune, which in the series is a frozen, snowy planet populated entirely by women, as most of the men have to go off-planet to find work. As a child she used to hang out with Lum, Ran, and Benten when they were all in grade school. She is clearly patterned after the yuki-onna (literally "snow woman") of Japanese folklore. As such, she has the power to control and create ice, snow, and extreme cold. Typically dressed in a long, elegant kimono, Oyuki is soft-spoken, regal in demeanor and very slow to show anger. However, once roused to actually display her abilities she proves to be the most powerful character in the series. Because of the wrath she displays when angered, Oyuki is the only person in the entire galaxy that Ran genuinely fears.
Ran
(ラン)
Lum's best childhood friend. She appears to be a sweet and lovely redhead, but in actuality has a violent split personality. Her special power is the ability to suck the vitality out of a person’s mouth while kissing them. She can also use this power in reverse. As a child, Ran was often hurt or got into trouble because of the antics of the more carefree and irresponsible Lum. Also, she is in love with Rei who unfortunately still loves Lum. For these reasons, she came to Earth in order to get revenge against her one-time friend. Ran is an excellent cook, always hoping against hope that the way to Rei's heart is through his stomach.
Rei
(レイ)
Rei is a very handsome oni, whose is unfortunately mainly interested in eating. He has the ability to transform into an "ushitora," a huge, fat creature resembling a cross between a tiger and a bull. Rei is so stupid that he can only speak one word at a time. When younger, Ran and Lum were both in love with him, but he became engaged to Lum, breaking Ran's heart and causing her to start to hate Lum. Lum eventually broke up with him, but he came to Earth to chase her and regain her love.
Ten
(テン)
Lum's infant cousin. He is often called “Jari-Ten”(This case, Jari means something "brat" in Japanese) by Ataru or other friends of Ataru. He comes to earth with a potty-seat-type spaceship to live with Lum in the Moroboshi household when his Oni powers first manifest. Ten has a single horn on his head, can breathe fire, and flies very slowly. He and Ataru utterly loathe each other and often fight.
Also holds a cameo appearance in "Gokudo" episode 17.
The Spice Girls
A trio of teenage girls who currently attend the same junior high school that Lum, Benten, and Oyuki did. Due to their seniors' reputation for causing mischief, the Gang of Three seeks to outdo their predecessors by defeating them in combat, but most of the time, they resort to simple pranks and underhanded schemes. Each of the girls have a special ability that they can use at will. They also hold the rare distinction of not being pursued by the lustful Ataru.
Sugar
Sugar is the leader of the gang and devises all plans to defeat Lum, Benten, and Oyuki. She has the ability to blend in with her surroundings to the point of invisibility.
Ginger
Ginger is able to slow down her bodily functions to the point that an untrained observer will believe that she is dead.
Pepper
Pepper can shed her skin at will, which remains a single piece. She remains fully clothed when she uses this power. It is worth noting that other characters can pick up her discarded skin and wear it as a costume, and which Ataru tries, much to his sorrow.
Other recurring characters
Sakuranbou
(錯乱坊)
Sakura's wandering monk uncle. Sakuranbou literally means “cherry” in Japanese. Oddly, most of the time in the series everyone calls him by the English word “Cherry." This is because the word "sakuranbo" sounds like "deranged monk"; hence he wishes to be known as "Cherry". Cherry has amazing spiritual powers (or so he claims) and he often predicts doom for Ataru (no great feat). He has a habit of popping up out of nowhere, often from very strange places. His ugly face and very short stature are frequently used for comedic effect. Cherry has made a vow of asceticism, living in a tent in an empty lot not far from Ataru's house. However, this vow apparently doesn't apply to food, as he is an enormous mooch.
Sakura
(サクラ)
In Japanese “Sakura” means “cherry blossom.” She was once a very sickly girl who suffered from a variety of ailments. Many of them were the result of spirits that infested her body. On the advice of her uncle Cherry, she tried to exorcise Ataru, during which process, the demons who inhabited her transferred themselves to the unlucky young man. Now in perfect health, Sakura is the Tomobiki High school nurse and a Shinto priestess or miko. Unlike her mother (who looks exactly like Cherry), Sakura is tall, slender and physically attractive, which makes her a common target of the lecherous boys of the school and even Mr. Onsen-Mark. The boys have been known to purposely injure themselves in order to see her. Like her uncle, she 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 baleful creatures from Japanese folklore, by virtue of her mystical training.
Tsubame Ozuno
Ozuno Tsubame (尾津乃つばめ)
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, usually a result of Ataru's flirting. When that doesn't do it, something else gets in the way.
Tsubame is voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue (original Japanese), Sean P. O'Connell (dub for public TV), and Eric Meyers (dub for BBC 3).
Kotatsuneko
(コタツネコ)
Literally, "Kotatsu Cat." This is a giant ghost cat that goes to great lengths to sit under a kotatsu because it hates being cold. He originally was a kitten who was abandoned centuries ago and froze to death, so the spirit does little else but seek out warmth. He often can be seen as a companion for either Cherry or the Tomobiki High Principal, usually enjoying tea with them. Kotatsuneko's favorite food is taiyaki and is rarely seen not eating one. Although mostly harmless, he can easily defend himself when threatened. (In one TV episode, he easily defeats an obvious parody of the character Kenshiro from 'Fist of the North Star.) Kotatsuneko doesn't often play a pivotal role in the stories but he always seems to be present in scenes, providing a somewhat comedic presence with the authority that is often given to a school official.
Kotatsuneko is voiced by Tomohiro Nishimura.
Ryoko Mendou
Mendō Ryōko (面堂了子)
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. Sometimes, just for fun, she flirts with Ataru, whom her brother has banned from setting foot inside the massive Mendo Mansion (not that it ever stops him). Her schemes frequently drag Lum and her friends along and result in massive physical damage to all involved except herself. She is attended to by masked kuroko who perform her every wish, including delivering messages and playing her horse. Ryoko says she is in love with Shuutaro's rival Tobimaro Mizunokoji, but we're not sure if she's serious, since she has said the same thing about Ataru and her brother's personal guard, Shingo. She excels at playing the innocent bystander, even as she sets up all the carnage that surrounds her. Ryoko's surname is spelled Mendo in the English manga.
Ryoko is voiced by Mami Koyama (original Japanese), Michele Seidman (dub produced for public TV and movie 3 dub), Toni Barry (dub for BBC 3).
Tobimaro Mizunokōji
Mizunokōji Tobimaro (水乃小路飛麿)
The son of the second richest family in Japan and Mendou's rival. Also called "Ton". Although he and Mendou were childhood friends—they still call each other "Ton-chan" and "Shuu-chan"—they had a falling out concerning a long-standing baseball rivalry, even though neither is any good at baseball -- Ton can't pitch and Mendou can't swing, and so Ton returns to settle the score. At first, he is also disgusted by women, a notion that he is unaware of when he orders Lum off the baseball diamond only to learn that aluminium bats conduct electricity. Tobimaro takes a warrior's approach to the game, training in the mountains year-round. Despite his immense wealth, he does not take advantage of it the way his rival does, choosing instead to dress in a ragged samurai robe and carries his bats on his back. There is a woman in his life: Ryoko Mendo, who scares him to death because of her love of torture. Though he carries himself with an air of nobility, his clumsiness ruins the effect. His eyes have star-shaped pupils, something Takahashi did as a spoof of a 1970s sports manga; she later made it a defining characteristic of the entire Mizunokoji family (except Tobimaro's father, who is the adopted son-in-law of the Mizunokōji family, and Tobimaro inherited the name from his mother).
Ton is voiced by Bin Shimada (original Japanese), Scott Whiteside (dub for public TV and movie 4 dub), David Jarvis (dub for BBC 3).
Asuka Mizunokoji
Tobimaro's sister. The very beautiful and petite girl was isolated, according to the Mizonokoji family's tradition, from any and all males from the day of her birth until the age of 16 (when an omiai will be held for her). Even her brother was unaware of her existence. Due to her daily training and the gene she inherited from her mother, she is insanely strong, once tearing a tank apart and fashioning it into a makeshift suit of armor with her bare hands. Nevertheless she is extremely timid and deathly afraid of males, in part because the first one she ever met was Ataru Moroboshi. Now whenever she sees one, she pushes him away and runs, as she is unusually sporty for her age (being able to run 100 metres within 12 seconds even wearing her 200 kilogram suit of armour).
Asuka is very confused about gender roles and family ties. She feels inappropriate romantic urges toward her brother, Tobimaro, and sneaks into his bed at night to snuggle. In addition, she believes Shuutaro Mendou is also her “big brother” because she once overheard Ryoko Mendou refer to him that way. Asuka is engaged to Shuutaro in an Omiai, by arrangement of their parents, as a means of ending the age-old Mendou-Mizunokoji family rivalry. Unfortunately, as a simple hug from her causes multiple broken bones and internal injuries, it seems unlikely that this relationship will ever be consummated.
Kurama
Kurama (クラマ)
The "crow princess". A humanoid female from an alien race of crow tengu, she is destined to mate with the man that awakens her from her slumber with a kiss. Unfortunately for her, that person turns out to be Ataru. Although she has no real desire to sleep with him, for the sake of her race, she goes to great lengths in an attempt to turn the perverted letch into a man worthy of fathering her children while fighting off both Lum and Shinobu. Her father, apparently, was Yoshitsune Minamoto, one of the legendary figures of Japanese history. Future efforts to find a husband also failed due to some kind of flaw. Mendou was too similar to Ataru, Ryuunosuke was actually a girl, and Rei turned into that hideous Tiger-Bull creature. After about the first dozen manga books, this character stopped appearing for no obvious reason, sparking a term called "Takahashi character death", in which the sufferer stops appearing in a Takahashi manga for no apparent reason. A later, and perhaps more well known victim of this phenomenon is Ranma 1/2 character Tofu Ono.
Kurama is voiced by Rihoko Yoshida (original Japanese), Daisy Talley (dub for public TV and movie 1 dub), Stacey Jefferson (dub for BBC 3).
Parents
Ataru's father
Ataru no Chichi (あたるの父)
A typical salaryman. Wearing a yukata around the house, he desires a nice and quiet homelife. In the anime his home is frequently destroyed, causing him to lament over the mortgage. He's most often portrayed reading the newspaper. Quiet and possessing very little dignity he tries his best to hide his face behind the newspaper during bad situations. Despite this, he loves Lum and Ten like they were his own children.
He is voiced by Kenichi Ogata (original Japanese), Marc Matney (dub for public TV), Alan Marsh (dub for BBC3), Jerry Winsett (movies 1 and 3-6 dubs), Larry Robinson (movie 2 dub).
Ataru's mother
Ataru no Haha (あたるの母)
A typical housewife. In early anime episodes she often says "I never should've had him" (産むんじゃなかった, Umun ja nakatta) when Ataru causes problems. She often hopes that a handsome young man (like Rei) will take her away from her miserable life. Like her husband, she loves Lum and Ten like they were her own children. She plays the lead role in anime episode 78 Pitiful! Mother of Love and Banishment!? (みじめ! 愛とさすらいの母!?, Mijime! Ai to sasurai no Haha!?). She is often portrayed with a kitchen knife.
She is voiced by Natsumi Sakuma (original Japanese), Dorothy Rankin (dub for public TV), Stacey Jefferson (dub for BBC3), Belinda Keller (movies 1 and 3-6 dubs), Jackie Tantillo (movie 2 dub).
Lum's parents
Lum's father, also known as Mr. Invader, is a huge, pudgy oni, and tends to be loud and scary. However, he is just as afraid of his wife (Lum's mother) as Ataru is of Lum, as evidenced by the time that she threw Mr. Invader out of the house for criticizing her cooking (he went to live with the Moroboshi family, much to their horror). Lum's mother is a pretty woman who can only speak in the oni language, which appears in the manga as Mahjong tiles. She can produce electric shocks, like Lum, in the anime. Like Lum, they can fly, but they never show any other obvious powers in the manga.
Ten's mother
Ten's mother is rarely seen, even by Ten. She is a firefighter who takes great pride in her work. When Ten was younger, she would tell him stories of her work in the field, expressing her contempt for arsonists, who she feels should burn in hell. She is very busy and left him with a robotic nanny, which has contributed to his precociousness. Additionally, her arrival at a fire is accompanied by a tidal wave. Since her son breathes fire and uses his power liberally, he lives in fear of what will happen should she ever find out.
Ryuunosuke's father
Ryuunosuke's father is a very creepy individual. His family ran a small seaside teashop called Hamachiya for generations, and he seeks an heir to continue the business after he dies. However, he believes that only a man can run it and his late wife Masako left him only a daughter, Ryuunosuke. Not one to let that get in his way, he proceeded to raise her as a boy and succeeded in making her a man among men, if only she were a man. Mr. Fujinami refused to let Ryuunosuke get a bra, forcing her to wrap her bosom for support, which he claims will reduce the prominence of the sizable "tumors" on her chest.
He usually refers to her as his son, which incurs his daughter's wrath. This conflict, caused by the fact that she wants to be more feminine, leads to constant fights, one of which destroyed Hamachiya and left them homeless. When Ryuunosuke enrolled at Tomobiki High, he took charge of the school store where they both live. On a side note, he is inspired almost entirely by the sea. If he gets too motivated, he shouts "I LOVE THE SEA!!", which is accompanied by a massive tidal wave regardless of his location. The primary cast generally sides with his daughter in their frequent clashes.
Tomobiki High School faculty
Onsen-Mark
Onsen Māku (温泉マーク)
The teacher of the "Classroom of Failure". A sad, middle-aged man, whose only interest is to teach at Tomobiki High, but he fails due to the constant interruptions during class, when the classroom itself is not destroyed by Lum, Ten or Shinobu. Outside of school, he lives the life of a loser, residing in a flophouse apartment, with an unrequited love for Sakura. Perhaps this is what causes his drive to keep order in his class - his only possible source of pride. His nickname can be roughly translated as "onsen Mark", the hot spring marks on his jacket.
Onsen-Mark is voiced by Michihiro Ikemizu (original Japanese), Bradley Evans (dub for public TV and movies 3-6 dubs), Sean Barret (dub for BBC 3), T. Roy Barnes (movie 2 dub).
Hanawa
(花和先生)
A teacher at Tomobiki High. Overly chipper and naive, his complete reaction to discovering Lum could fly was to urge her to wear gym shorts under her skirt so her underwear wouldn't show. Hanawa is voiced by Rokuro Naya (original Japanese).
Principal
Kouchou-sensei (校長先生)
The principal of Tomobiki High School. He treats all of the weird goings-on at the school as harmless student shenanigans. He occasionally instigates the weirdness, however, like the time the entire student body was called on to compete in teams to create the largest bust of himself possible using only rice paste. The principal is voiced by Tomomichi Nishimura (original Japanese), Jeremy Griffin (dub for public TV and movie 4 dub), Draidyl Roberts (movie 2 dub).
Other characters
Inaba
(因幡)
An employee at the Fate Production Bureau (運命製造管理局, Unmei Seizou Kanrikyoku) which makes doorknobs to the Dream Realm. He wears a rabbit costume which allows him to travel feely to and from subspace. Debuting late in the series (Vol. 31), he still plays in important role. He ends up falling in love with Shinobu after she finds him passed out and hungry in the street and gives him some food. Eventually he and Shinobu become a couple.
Inaba is voiced by Hirotaka Suzuoki (original Japanese), Jonathan Soronen (movie 5 dub), Edward Glen (dub for BBC 3).
Shingo
(真吾)
A young man who grew up all alone in the Mendou Family Electric Jungle and was "raised" by a TV which he believes to be alive (He calls it "Grandfather.") He has built up a resistance to electricity and therefore cannot be effected by Lum's shocks. Shingo falls in love with Lum and kidnaps her, but when she is rescued by Ataru and the others Shingo falls in love with Shinobu. He later becomes Mendou's personal ninja bodyguard.
Shingo is voiced by Tōru Furuya (original Japanese).
Nagisa Shiowatari
Shiowatari Nagisa (潮渡渚)
His father is a close friend of Ryuunosuke's father and the two of them run a second Hamachaya. Though a guy, he was raised as and therefore looks and behaves like a girl. Long ago he was engaged to Ryuunosuke through their parents, and fell in love with her upon meeting her. He is the Yokozuna of the Annual Beach Sumo Tournament and is quite strong, so strong in fact that Ryuunosuke cannot compete with him. Because the Hamachaya had been seeing poor business, he and his father decided to introduce sea urchin-flavored kakigori to their menu, but they both died from overeating. As a result they are ghosts upon introduction, but later Nagisa gets a new flesh-and-blood body and moves in with Ryuunosuke.
Nagisa is voiced by Mitsuki Yayoi (original Japanese).