Urusei Yatsura

This article is about the manga and anime franchise. For the band, see Urusei Yatsura (band).

Urusei Yatsura
File:Lum-Uresei-Yatsura.png Video CD cover of the 2nd OVA.
うる星やつら
Genre	Comedy, Romance, Science fiction
Manga
Written by	Rumiko Takahashi
Published by	Shogakukan Viz Media (dropped)
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Sunday
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	1978 – 1987
Volumes	34
Anime
Directed by	Mamoru Oshii & Kazuo Yamazaki
Studio	Studio Pierrot & Studio Deen
Released	14 October 1981 – 19 March 1986
Anime
Released	1985 - 1993
Movies
Only You Beautiful Dreamer Remember My Love Lum the Forever The Final Chapter Always, My Darling

Urusei Yatsura (うる星やつら) is a manga series by Rumiko Takahashi that was published in the Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1978 to 1987. It was adapted into a TV anime series which aired on Fuji Television affiliates from 1981 to 1986, lasting 195 episodes. The show is also known as Lum/Lamu, the Invader Girl, and, Those Obnoxious Aliens. The English translation of the manga, published by Viz Communications, was short-lived, and was divided into two series titled Lum and The Return of Lum, named after the female protagonist. The manga received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1981. The series is considered an excellent source for references to Japanese culture and mythology.

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 Italy from 1983 on many local channels, in France from 1988 on TF1 and later across the United States on PBS, from 1998. 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 two episodes (four stories) translated and dubbed in the United Kingdom and shown as Lum the Invader Girl on BBC Choice shortly after its launch. Urusei Yatsura is set to make a return in 2010 for an OVA as part of a Rumiko Takahashi project called "It's a Rumic World" which will also feature revivals of Ranma and Inuyasha.

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". 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.

AnimEigo did in fact release a few episodes in English-dubbed form under the title Those Obnoxious Aliens, but the dubbed VHS tapes sold poorly and production of the dubbed version was aborted after only two episodes. Aside from this release and several of the movies which feature a different English voice cast from Those Obnoxious Aliens, the series is only available in English in the United States in subtitled form. Viz Comics released part of the manga in the United States in 1989 under the titles Lum * Urusei Yatsura and The Return of Lum, but this release is now out of print.

Plot

It concerns the adventures of a group of teenagers who live in Tomobiki, a fictional area of Tokyo in the Nerima ward. The name comes from the Rokuyō calendar, in which Tomobiki translates as "dragging friends along"; while that day is not especially lucky or unlucky, it will cause one's luck (whether good or bad) to transfer to another person. The name likely refers to how the arrival of Lum the alien has made the town a very weird place, with other aliens often visiting and various disasters befalling it, usually the local high school or protagonist Ataru Moroboshi's house, and usually having something to do with Lum and her friends. As such, it is a rather strange thing to name a town. The story centers around an extremely lecherous and very unlucky high-school boy, Ataru Moroboshi, and the bikini clad alien Lum.

On the first day of the story, Sakurambo - "deranged monk" in Japanese (or Cherry - the word's other meaning - as he prefers to be known), a Buddhist monk, suddenly predicts very bad luck to Ataru; upon returning home, the boy encounters a very nasty surprise: a party of oni aliens have come to conquer Earth. They give mankind a fighting chance, however; through the computer, they have randomly selected a human to compete against their representative in a game of tag (or onigokko, as the game is called in Japan, providing yet another pun). Should the chosen human - that being Ataru - win, they will withdraw. It turns out that his competitor is not their rather robust leader, but his daughter, the bikini and go-go boots-wearing princess Lum. If Ataru can grab her horns (a characteristic of oni or ogres, in English) within ten days, he wins. However, Lum easily outruns him without even trying because she is capable of flight. After nine days, the whole world is beginning to feel highly agitated when he repeatedly fails to even touch her. But Shinobu, Ataru's childhood friend and current girlfriend, promises to marry Ataru if he catches Lum and saves the Earth. With newfound motivation, Ataru steals her top, tricking Lum into flying at him to get it back and thus catches her horns. In his moment of triumph, he yells "Now I can finally marry her!". Lum, misunderstanding this as a marriage proposal for her, accepts on the spot amidst the general celebration that Earth is saved.

Lum falls in love with Ataru after he accidentally proposes to her, while Ataru is always chasing after every girl he sees (despite their not being interested in him) leading Lum to physically punish him with electric shocks, another ability of hers (in the story, flying and electricity are not related to any technology). Lum never calls Ataru by name, even to other people she calls him by the English word, "darling". This is the main reason for the many occurrences of the word throughout the titles and songs of the series. The series is heavily 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.

Characters

Main article: List of Urusei Yatsura characters

Media

Anime

Main article: List of Urusei Yatsura episodes

The series was adapted into a 195 episode Tv series that aired from October 14, 1981 to March 19, 1986. It was originally shown on the Fuji Television network between, and was later rebroadcast by the anime satellite television network, Animax. Movie and OVA adaptions followed.

There are a few differences between the stories of the manga and anime series. The most noticeable (bar Lum's hair being green from originally being iridescent) is how some of the later stories and characters in the manga (such as 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 and therefore theoretically would take place before the fifth movie.

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. (In the Urusei Yatsura 2008 OVA special accompanying the tour of the Takahashi-themed It's a Rumic World exhibit, Kosuke finally made his first "official" animated appearance, voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi, best known as the voice of two other popular Takahashi characters: male Ranma Saotome and Inuyasha). 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. Additionally, Lum's cousin, Ten, was introduced much earlier in the TV series (episode two) than in the manga. Finally, some stories are slightly altered (mostly by adding or removing plot detail) to better suit the anime format.

Movies

Main article: Urusei Yatsura movies

OVA releases

File:UruseiYatsuraOVAvolume2-DVDcover.jpg

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. For the American release by Animeigo, they were released over 6 discs that were sold individually. In the Uk, they were released as a value boxset by MVM. 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):

• Ryoko's September Tea Party (了子の９月のお茶会, Ryōko no Ku-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)
• ) (January 29, 2010)

New 2010 OVA - Obstacle Course Swim Meet

On the 20th July a video preview was posted on youtube which showed footage of the new OVA. Japanese film distributor Pony Canyon has announced a January 29, 2010 release for a limited edition “It’s a Rumic World Special Anime Box” DVD collection. The 19,950 yen collection will include the Urusei Yatsura: Shougaibutsu Suieitaikai (Obstacle Course Swim Meet), Ranma ½: Okumu! Shunmin Kou (Nightmare! Incense of Deep Sleep), and Inuyasha: Kuroi Tetsusaiga (Black Tetsusaiga) 30 minute movies, the original opening animation clip, a 32 page booklet, and 12cm figures of Lum, female Ranma, and Inuyasha. The films were exclusively screened during the “It’s a Rumic World” art exhibit held in Tokyo’s Ginza district from July 30 - August 11, 2008.

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

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	Nintendo Family Computer	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
My Dear Friends	Game Arts	Sega Mega-CD	visual novel	1993
Endless Summer	Marvelous Interactive	Nintendo DS	dating sim	2005

External links

• AnimEigo - United States distributor of the Urusei Yatsura anime.
• Lam, the Invader Girl
• Urusei Yatsura Template:Ja icon
• Furinkan.com
• Urusei Yatsura (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia