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Urusei Yatsura

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Captain Impulse (talk | contribs) at 10:42, 17 August 2008 (→Title explanation: Lum's planet is referred to as Oniboshi in the manga, but is often mistaken as Uru due to the multiple layers of pun in the series title.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the manga and anime franchise. For the band, see Urusei Yatsura (band).
Urusei Yatsura
File:Lum-Uresei-Yatsura.png
DVD cover of the 2nd OVA.
GenreComedy, Romance, Science fiction
Manga
Written byRumiko Takahashi
Published byJapan Shogakukan
Canada United States Viz Media
MagazineJapan Weekly Shōnen Sunday
DemographicShōnen
Original run1978 – 1987
Volumes34
Anime
Directed byMamoru Oshii & Kazuo Yamazaki
StudioStudio Pierrot & Studio Deen
Released 14 October 1981 – 19 March 1986
Anime
Released1985 - 1991
Movies
  1. Only You
  2. Beautiful Dreamer
  3. Remember My Love
  4. Lum the Forever
  5. The Final Chapter
  6. Always, My Darling

Urusei Yatsura (うる星やつら), also known as Lum/Lamu, the Invader Girl, or Those Obnoxious Aliens, is a well-known late 1970s to 1980s manga (1978-1987) and anime (1981-1986) series created by Rumiko Takahashi. The English translation of the manga, published by Viz Communications, was divided into two series titled Lum and The Return of Lum, named after the main character. The manga received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1981.[1] The series is considered an excellent source for references to Japanese culture and mythology.[2]

The anime version spanned 6 films, 11 OVAs, and 195 half hour TV episodes (comprising 218 separate stories, as the first season's episodes consisted of two fifteen-minute segments), which originally premiered across Japan on the terrestrial Fuji Television network between 1981-1986, and was later aired across Japan by the anime satellite television network, Animax, who have also broadcast the series across its respective networks worldwide, including Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Asia and other regions. The series was also aired in France from 1988 on TF1 and later across the United States on PBS, from 1998.[3] AnimEigo is the North American distributor for all of these except the second movie Beautiful Dreamer, which is distributed by Central Park Media. There were also about half a dozen episodes translated and dubbed in the United Kingdom and shown as Lum the Invader Girl on BBC Choice shortly after its launch.

Title explanation

The original title is a Japanese pun, and roughly translates as "those obnoxious aliens". The word urusei is a crude way of saying urusai, which means "noisy" or "obnoxious", and is also a slang phrase for "shut up!" (As in, "You're being noisy, shut up!"). The second word in the title, yatsura, is the plural form of yatsu (奴), the low-respect pronoun for "the person over there" and carrying the connotation of a hooligan or jerk. However, the kanji for star/planet (星, sei) is used. Japanese names of other planets end in the suffix -sei (Mercury is Suisei, Venus is Kinsei, Mars is Kasei, Jupiter is Mokusei, Saturn is Dosei, Uranus is Tenousei, Neptune is Kaiosei, and Pluto is Meiosei) Along with the pun, the title roughly translates as "A bunch of noisy Alien People".[4] Oniboshi is the name of the planet from which Lum, Ran, Benten and the other alien characters originate (according to the manga), although it is sometimes (mistakenly) referred to as Uru as well. [5] [6]

AnimEigo did in fact release a few episodes in English-dubbed form under the title Those Obnoxious Aliens, but production of the dubbed version was aborted due to the voices not being well received by viewers (despite the dialogue being very accurate to the original Japanese script). Aside from this release and several of the movies, the series is only available in English in the United States in subtitled form. However, a dubbed version of the first six episodes of the TV series, made in the United Kingdom, was shown on BBC Choice in the U.K. under the title Lum the Invader Girl (though the dialogue was not very accurate to the original).

Characters

Main article: List of Urusei Yatsura characters

Plot

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 the 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 (he lost interest in her as soon as she started chasing him, and also probably because she uses her powers on him many times, which come in the form of electric shocks). Interestingly enough, Lum never calls Ataru by name, even to other people she calls him "darling". This is the main reason for the many occurrences of the word throughout the titles and songs of the series. The series is mainly episodic, with only occasional plots spanning more than one chapter / episode. Each of these 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 between manga and anime

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

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 in the manga. His character, in stories that called for Kosuke, is usually replaced by Perm. Further, Lum's Stormtroopers in general, who early on in the manga were dropped from the cast of regulars in favour of more dimensional characters (such as Kosuke) became major regulars in the anime and were used in many cases when it was necessary for Ataru and (especially) Lum to interact with school chums. Finally, some stories are slightly altered (mostly by adding or removing plot detail) to better suit the anime format.

Theme songs

Openings
# Title Recording artist
1 Lum No Love Song Yuko Matsutani
Episodes 1-77
2 Dancing Star Izumi Kobayashi
Episodes 78-106
3 Pajama Jama Da Kanako Narikiyo
Episodes 107-127
4 Chance On Love Cindy
Episodes 128-149
5 Rock The Planet Steffanie
Episodes 150-165
6 Tonogata Gomen Asobase Shoko Minami
Episodes 166-195
Endings
# Title Recording artist
1 Uchū Wa Taihen Da! Yuko Matsutani
Episodes 1-21
2 Kokoro Bosoi Na Helen Sasano
Episodes 22-43
3 Cosmic Cycling Virgin VS
Episodes 44-54 & Episodes 65-77
4 I, I, You And Ai Izumi Kobayashi
Episodes 55-64
5 Yume Wa Love Me More Izumi Kobayashi
Episodes 78-106
6 Koi No Möbius Rittsu
Episodes 107-127
7 Open Invitation Cindy
Episodes 128-149
8 Every Day Steffanie
Episodes 150-165
9 Good Luck: Towa Yori Ai Wo Komete Shoko Minami
Episodes 166-195

Movies

Main article: Urusei Yatsura movies

OVA releases

Urusei Yatsura also has a number of direct-to-market video releases which include stories not covered in the TV series or movies. All but one of these were released after the ending of the series, so popularity may have also been a factor in the continued release of new animation. Also, unlike the others, Inaba the Dreammaker was first featured as a TV Special before being released on video. Following is a list of these OVAs, official English title in bold, followed by the original Japanese, (a rōmaji transliteration in parentheses), and the original Japanese release date (also in parentheses):

File:UruseiYatsuraOVAvolume2-DVDcover.jpg
DVD cover of the I Howl at the Moon OVA movie
  • Ryoko's September Tea Party (了子の９月のお茶会, Ryōko no Kyuu-Gatsu no Ochakai) (1985)
  • Inaba the Dreammaker (夢の仕掛人、因幡くん登場! ラムの未来はどうなるっちゃ!?, Yume no Shikakenin, Inaba-kun Tōjō! Ramu no Mirai wa Dōnaruccha!?) (July 18, 1987)
  • Raging Sherbet (怒れシャーベット, Ikare Shābetto) (December 2, 1988)
  • Nagisa's Fiancé (渚のフィアンセ, Nagisa no Fianse) (December 8, 1988)
  • The Electric Household Guard (電気仕掛けのお庭番, Denki Jikake no Oniwaban) (August 21, 1989)
  • I Howl at the Moon (月に吠える, Tsuki ni Hoeru) (September 1, 1989)
  • Goat and Cheese (ヤギさんとチーズ, Yagi-san to Chīzu) (December 21, 1989)
  • Catch the Heart (ハートをつかめ, Hāto wo Tsukame) (December 27, 1989)
  • Terror of Girly-Eyes Measles (乙女ばしかの恐怖, Otome Bashika no Kyōfu) (June 21, 1991)
  • Date with a Spirit (霊魂とデート, Reikon to Dēto) (June 21, 1991)
  • Memorial Album (メモリアルアルバム, Memoriaru Arubamu) (1993)

Games

A number of video games based on the Urusei Yatsura manga and anime were produced in Japan over the past twenty years:

Name Publisher System Genre Release Date
Lum no Wedding Bell Jaleco Famicom platformer 1986
Urusei Yatsura Micro Cabin MSX2 puzzle game 1987
Stay With You Hudson Soft PC Engine visual novel 1992
Urusei Yatsura Nintendo Game Boy visual novel 1992
Dear My Friends Game Arts Sega Mega-CD visual novel 1993
Endless Summer Marvelous Interactive Nintendo DS dating sim 2005


References

  1. ^ "小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者" (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved 2007-08-19.
  2. ^ Poitras, Gilles (2006-01-02). "Mentions of Me". Retrieved 2007-12-18. Urusei Yatsura was one of the most fruitful sources of information for The Anime Companion.
  3. ^ Urusei Yatsura at http://www.absoluteanime.com/
  4. ^ http://www.animeigo.com/Liner/UYTV.t
  5. ^ http://www.furinkan.com/uy/faq/faq.htm#Q1
  6. ^ http://urusei-yatsura.generalanswers.org/
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