URUSEI YATSURA

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MOVIE ActionUrusei Yatsura: Itsudatte My Darling
MANGA ComedyUrusei Yatsura
SPECIAL ActionUrusei Yatsura: Haru da, Tobidase!
MOVIE AdventureUrusei Yatsura: Only You
MOVIE ComedyUrusei Yatsura 4: Lum the Forever
MOVIE ComedyUrusei Yatsura: Kanketsu-hen
SPECIAL ComedyIt's a Rumic World: 50th Anniversary Weekly★Shonen Sunday
SPECIAL ComedyUrusei Yatsura: The Shougaibutsu Suieitaikai
OVA AdventureUrusei Yatsura OVA
MOVIE ComedyUrusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
MOVIE ComedyUrusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love
OVA ActionThe Supergal
ANIME ComedyUrusei Yatsura (2022)
ANIME AdventureMeitantei Conan
ANIME ActionHokuto no Ken
ANIME ComedyMaison Ikkoku
OVA ActionRanma 1/2: Akumu! Shunmin Kou

REVIEWS

• 

  myvelouria

  85/100
  Let's put weird and weird together and make something you'll never forget.

  Welcome to the world of “Urusei Yatsura”. A 195 episode long comedy series based on a manga by Rumiko Takahashi of “Ranma ½” and “Inuyasha” fame. It was one of the landmark anime of the 1980s and created one of the most iconic female characters in the medium. For the first 106 episodes the series director was none other than Mamoru Oshii, who would go on to direct “Ghost in the Shell” and “Angel’s Egg”. And yet this series had eluded me for so long. I had been aware of it for years, but for one reason or another just let it continue to slip by me. Now that I have experienced it in full I can confidently say it’s a real treat deserving of the praise it receives filled with lots of charm and heart. As always we start with the story.

  Ataru Moroboshi is a 17 year old wannabee ladies man with the most unfortunate luck in the world for he has been randomly selected to represent Earth against alien invaders from the planet Oniboshi. The game is tag and his opponent is the beautiful and feisty Lum. Through a misunderstanding Lum believes he has asked her to marry him which she immediately accepts to Ataru’s bewilderment. As the episodes play out more characters enter the story bringing in their own form of unbridled chaos. And life as Ataru knew it would never be the same again.

  For me the real key to the anime’s appeal lies in our main characters. Lum has reached a level of fame that many anime characters don’t achieve. There are people who don’t know what “Urusei Yatsura” is, but they know Lum due to her iconic look. She isn’t just a cute girl in a bikini though. Her personality is so fun and energetic and, like the other female characters Takahashi would create, she has a bit of a bite to her. As much as she loves Ataru she also lacks patience for his antics and it leads to so many hilarious scenes of slapstick between the two of them. When it comes to Ataru I think he was a great protagonist to place at the center of all this. I know there are some people who vehemently hate perverted male characters, I’m honestly not one of them. I think when done right they can be very fun and Ataru’s definitely done right. He’s a really fantastic example of an amoral character and how you can fill someone with so many flaws yet keep them likeable. He’s lazy, stubborn, impulsive, he won’t commit to Lum because he wants to be with all the girls, he’s selfish. However at the same time we see in various episodes that Ataru does truly love Lum and has a genuine kindness in him. When faced with situations where he could really lose Lum we see that he needs her around and how far he’ll go to bring her back. And in episodes like the one with the caterpillar or the one with the ghost girl we see that his heart is in the right place. Ataru is a flawed person, but I don’t think he wants to be a bad person either. He might not always communicate his feelings, but they’re there. And those episodes were some of the best in the entire series.

  Generally with me I am not someone who likes to watch romantic couples who bicker and argue constantly. I’ve dropped anime for having that kind of dynamic. But I find that Takahashi finds a way to make dysfunctional relationships that work. I think its because she manages to strike a great balance between conflict and moments of happiness. Ataru and Lum have many hilarious scenes that involve him saying or doing something stupid leading to her electrocuting him. But we also get several scenes of them that truly feel sweet. Takahashi can get cheeky when she wants to, but she always fills her stories with an emotional warmth that makes me keep going back to them. Even after over 100 episodes of this anime I kept going back in having a fantastic time with these two. And, of course, there’s other characters that added to the experience. Mendou is perhaps one of Takahashi’s funniest creations, Shinobu was the focus of some great episodes, Ryuunosuke was a lot of fun, I always looked forward to the episodes with Benten and Oyuki, I wasn’t sure about Ran at first but she really grew on me and became one of my favorites by the end, Ten was adorable, and I always got a smile whenever Kotatsu Neko graced us with his presence. I could go on, the cast of characters in this anime is massive and so likeable.

  Now the anime is not without its flaws. Some episodes were not as great as others, some jokes have not aged well, there are some recap episodes that I honestly found unnecessary, and I can understand why people may recoil at the thought of watching 195 episodes. In spite of that I felt the strengths far outweighed the flaws. Oshii’s time with the series gave us some of the best episodes in the series and we even can see some where his signature directing style seems to take shape. One might think after losing such a talent the show would hit a nosedive, it does not. The remaining episodes are just as lively and fun as the earlier ones. While the series was made during the early 80s and comes with the limitations of that era, it does have a very appealing visual aesthetic and some episodes are honestly very beautiful to look at. The animation at times is limited, but when they needed things kicked up a notch the animation rises to the occasion and can look great. I also love this voice cast. There are so many names attached to this series that its really impressive. Toshio Furukawa, Akira Kamiya, Mayumi Tanaka, Shigeru Chiba, there’s even appearances by Masako Nozawa, Tohru Furuya, and Norio Wakamoto. Just wonderful.

  All in all my time spent with “Urusei Yatsura” is something that I’m incredibly happy to have. It gave me so many moments, so many characters that I just know I am going to look back on with fondness for years to come. Its funny, its charming, its creative, its strange, its energetic, its one of the great comedy anime for a reason. I know that the length is intimidating, and I know some people might think a premise like this couldn’t possibly stay fresh for that long, but trust me it does maintain its charm and once you click with this series you are hooked. I really could not believe how easy it was to slip myself into this world and grow attached to it. Its some of the most fun I have had with an anime in recent years and I absolutely recommend trying it on for yourself. You won’t regret it, Darling.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  JabroniPie

  80/100
  Turning the mundane into the insane.

  This series took a while for me to finish since personally it just wasn't one of those series i'd binge in a week or two, but here is my personal review and thoughts on Rumiko Takahashi's classic manga adapted into an anime, Urusei Yatsura. The story starts off with a boy named Ataru Moroboshi, a high-schooler who is very perverted and literally only thinks about women (plus he's an idiot). He is suddenly kidnapped by enforcers and is sent to his home where he and his family (and Shinobu, the one he calls his supposed "girlfriend" at this point) see a big, giant Oni monster that talks and explains their intention to invade Earth. For this to all be prevented, he has to defeat this bikini-dressed female named "Lum", the big Oni's daughter, in a game of oni tag where he wins if he grabs the horns. Which, he eventually wins after a lot of struggling and prancing, but is suddenly dragged into miscommunication madness as Lum had interpreted Ataru's intention to get married to her, kicking off the series on a chaotic note. The plot from then on is pretty much 99% episodic comedic madness. Sure, they do have few episodes that are more serious-toned and different, but generally the lighthearted wacky atmosphere stays the same from the first episode up to the last 195th episode. Now, you may be thinking, a 195 episode comedy series? Yep. But honestly, even with the outrageous episode count, I really didn't feel the repetition catching up with me as almost every episode tries to twist and turn each and every comedic narrative and joke into something fun and entertaining. Which means the comedy pretty much is generally high-tier. Now why do I think that it almost never gets repetitive in spite of it being 99% episodic comedy combined with it's enormous episode count? Well we have to go through the part which honestly makes the Urusei Yatsura series, in my eyes, a very memorable and enjoyable thrill-ride. The characters. You have the male main protagonist Ataru Moroboshi, who like prior mentioned, is an idiot obsessed with women and is very perverted to the point where he has a daily routine called "girl-hunting". From trying to persistently ask for their phone numbers and addresses to chasing certain female characters down to the end of earth where literally no other human or alien species can stop him, this man defies logic and reasoning with his mere personality and presence alone to the point where surreal things are always attracted or bound up happening to him. With all those traits and the way they execute his personality traits in each and every episode, Ataru Moroboshi is pretty much a walking charisma magnet. Not charismatic as in very hot and appealing that all the ladies would get him, charismatic in a way where you are entertained and want to see more of his idiosyncrasies just because you enjoy him doing his weird, idiotic way of living. The female protagonist Lum, who forces herself into Ataru's life by being his wife and lover thanks to the shenanigans of the first episode. She has a really iconic and simple character design, and her personality traits are on the more good-natured side, but can obviously get jealous and hot-tempered due to Ataru's insane code of life with flirting. On top of being good-natured, she also shows her occasional airheadedness like assuming her taste for really spicy foods works with humans, or the fact that she thinks she can generally cook well (which everybody except for her thinks she can't). Overall a likable female protagonist of the series. You also have a wide, insane variety of supporting casts. some (Shinobu, Mendou, Sakura) being more prominent than others. What makes this supporting cast overall good and entertaining is their personalities and interactions meshing well with each other and the main protagonists. From Cherry's ugly-faced demeanor and snarky-gluttoneous attitude to Mendou being very scared and pussy-whipped about being inside a dark place to a big Kotatsu-neko, you could tell that these traits show life to the characters and gives us a reason to see them more.

  Moving on to the OP/ED's, they are pretty good and catchy 80's styled J-Pop songs. The melodies and singing just get you into the groove and at some points can make you addicted listening to certain songs. There are also additional ones in the OVA's and Movies, which there are several of them, so if you want to see more Urusei Yatsura and listen to more of their musical catchy-pop hits, you can go watch them in whichever site or service that has them available.

  OST's/BGM are pretty good and complements the series really well. Not much I can say here other than the fact that it's varied. Moving on with some flaws I felt and noticed throughout the series, some episodes may not be as good or as entertaining as others due to the fact that it's a very long series. Plus the artstyle, while in my eyes good and appealing for an 80's series, can at times feel inconsistent. Sometimes it feels updated and fresh, and other times it kind of reverts back to the artstyle of the first episodes. A couple of jokes have also aged terribly and wouldn't fit much or at all in this society and television standards today, even if I did enjoy them. Overall, I enjoyed this series to the core. The peak definition of comedy/slice of life in my eyes with entertaining characters and cool, catchy music combined with the serene and surreal BGM tracks. While the thought of watching 195 episodes may recoil or bring someone down to a screeching halt, and I do understand and can see why, a series like this is worth someone's time, especially if you want to have fun and be entertained by whatever comedy, shenanigans, and interactions the characters are gonna be involved in or do next.
  Continue on AniList
• 

  JMack24

  60/100
  Stockholm Syndrome the anime

  Nearly a year ago now, out of sheer boredom, I decided to watch Urusei Yatsura. I really don’t have any specific reason why I started this show like I wanted to see why this was so big back in the 80s. Nope. I genuinely just did it cause I was bored and had little to nothing better to do. But at the start of the new year, after only watching the first ___17 episodes in 3 months___ I decided to make it my New Year's Resolution to finish this show before the years end. Little more than 6 months later I’ve seen all 195* episodes of the TV series, 2 specials, 6 movies, and the 11 episode OVA series. So how was it? What about the show made me want to watch everything the series had available at the moment? Easy. Stockholm Syndrome. Plus I’m a moron and refuse to drop a show once I’ve started them. But why did I watch everything else the show had available, I didn’t have to watch it all? Well, it’s not like there’s a S2 that was 150 episodes long. What was left to watch, outside of the TV series, wasn’t a hell of a lot more and I enjoyed the show enough that I thought, sure why not?  The series is extremely influential and is seen as the original harem anime. But instead of all the girls loving the main character, Ataru, for little to no reason, most of them can’t stand him, as he’s nothing but a lecherous, perverted, little shit with a libido high enough to penetrate earth’s atmosphere. That’s also the only thing he’s penetrating. The one girl who actually does like him is of course from another planet cause no girl on earth wants him in their pants. That space alien being, Lum. Likely the only character most of you even know from the show with her tiger-striped two-piece and go-go boots. She’s usually pretty chill but can be quick to anger, especially when her darling starts flirting with another girl, and she can also fly and shoot lightning cause she’s an alien so why not? The entire series is built on a misunderstanding between Lum and Ataru in the very first episode, Lum claims Ataru as her darling and refuses to leave him alone from that point on, determined to get this dumbass to fall for her as she has for him. Crazy and wacky hijinks ensue for the next 194 episodes. Roll credits.  Part of your enjoyment of the show will hinge on if you like the show's wacky cast of characters. From Lum’s alien friends, two of which are unarguably better than Lum, this isn’t debatable. Ataru’s class and his school’s faculty, and basically everyone else who resides in this town, terrorized by Ataru’s sexual assaults on women and Lum’s electric blasts destroying city blocks. If you don’t enjoy at least a decent amount of the cast after say 20 episodes then I wouldn’t blame you for stopping there, because aside from a few exceptions where Ataru shows his true feeling for Lum, most of the characters are the same as they were when they first showed up. The rich kid, Mendou, the childhood friend, Shinobu, the tomboy with a shitty father, Ryuunosuke, Lum’s annoying af little cousin Ten, the old Munk, Cherry and his exorcist niece who’s also a school nurse cause why not, etc etc etc. if you don’t like a decent chunk of this cast of wacky characters, then you will not enjoy the vast majority of this show. Personally I liked Ran, Benten, Ryuunosuke, Sakura, Ryouko, and Lum. Did you notice how every character I mentioned wasn’t a guy? Yea cause about every guy in this show can be seriously annoying and unlikable and god it shows that Rumiko can create some great female characters but she makes male characters that are just kinda there or flat-out annoying. The only one I’d say I kinda like is Cherry but god he was really annoying at the start of the show for me. The most annoying character for me had to be Ryuunosuke’s dad. Erase that shit stain from my memory, please.  Ok moving away from that, and onto the soundtrack, which in my opinion is the best part of this show. I’m serious. I’ve been listening to it while writing this fucking essay. The show has a lot of great music from start to end and that’s something that followed the series through its movies, specials, and OVA series. Hopefully, the new show doesn’t fuck it up. Most of the OP’s and ED’s are really good too, my personal favorite OP & ED being OP2 - Dancing Star and ED2 - Kokoro Bosoi na. The series has really good music basically the entire way through in nearly everything the series has to offer.

  The show's comedy is incredibly reliant on if you enjoy slapstick. Ataru gropes Sakura, Sakura hits him with a comedically large hammer. Laugh. It’s not all the show has to offer but man, it sure is the majority. At least there’s always a slight feeling of gratification when Ataru gets the shit kicked out of him for being a perv. But like, little shit doesn’t learn and yea that’s part of the joke but still, that one joke is used an ungodly amount of times and I can only laugh at someone being hit with a hammer that looks like it belongs in a Kirby game so many times before it’s not funny anymore. Some of the dialogue is actually pretty funny though, with Ran and Cherry being some who would regularly get a laugh out of me when they show up and some of the shit they’d say. The art of the show improves throughout the show's run, starting off as close to something like some more grown-up Peanuts characters' designs to actually being recognizable as anime. I don’t entirely know why but episode 129 is the best the show looked to me. Something about the characters in the episode just looked really great to me and I wish more episodes used this style. There are times in the show where it genuinely looks really good and the animation and some of the shots. From episode 107 onwards the show was made by Studio Deen, replacing Studio Pierrot, and I think the show once it made that shift to Studio Deen was for the better animation-wise. They lost the director, Mamoru Oshii, in the process but I think Oshii was happy to not be tied down to this series anymore. Losing him as the director on the show is hardly noticeable most of the time anyways, he was rarely able to do shit he wanted to in his 106 episode run as the director, only being able to spread his wings in a couple of episodes sporadically and in the second movie, Beautiful Dreamer.  If you are curious enough to want to start this but don’t know if it’ll be worth the time, here’s my suggestion. Watch episode 1 of the TV series, then watch the OVA series and maybe Beautiful Dreamer while you are at it. If all that doesn’t sell you on wanting to watch more, then well you’ll have your answer. I have my fair share of gripes with the show but I think I enjoyed it more than I didn’t. Ya, some episodes aren’t good and drag on for what feels like forever but hey, god made a 1.25x speed button for a reason. I’d say I’m happy to be done with this franchise but David Production’s decided to fuck with me for not watching JoJo’s and are making a new UY later this year so…. Yeah… Someone end me. Little over 10 months in total is what it took for me to finish this show. It's far from perfect but had enough charm to it too keep me chugging along. Literally did the math for how many episodes a month I needed to watch to finish it in December and fuck me I enjoyed it enough to finish it in the Summer. Now I wait for the new one.... _great._
  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ANIME

  ActionRanma 1/2
• ANIME

  ComedyStop!! Hibari-kun!
• ANIME

  ActionInuyasha
• ANIME

  ComedyMaison Ikkoku
• ANIME

  ActionKimagure Orange☆Road
• OVA

  ActionKenritsu Chikyuu Boueigun
• ANIME

  ComedyOnegai☆Teacher
• ANIME

  ComedyTrouble Chocolate
• ANIME

  ActionYume Senshi Wingman
• OVA

  ActionTenchi Muyou! Ryououki Dai 1-ki
• ONA

  ComedyVlad Love
• OVA

  ComedyGosenzo-sama Banbanzai!