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This article is about the manga and anime franchise. For the band, see Urusei Yatsura (band).
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.[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 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.[3]
[edit] Title explanationThe 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!"). However, instead of the normal hiragana for sei (せい), 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 Tennōsei, Neptune is Kaiōsei, and Pluto is Meiōsei). 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. 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] [edit] ProductionTakahashi said that she had been dreaming about the overall universe of Urusei Yatsura since she was very young. She said that the series "really includes everything I ever wanted to do. I love science fiction because sci-fi has tremendous flexibility. I adopted the science fiction-style for the series because then I could write any way I wanted to."[6] [edit] PlotMain article: List of Urusei Yatsura characters The plot concerns the adventures of a group of teenagers who live in Tomobiki, a fictional area of Tokyo in the Nerima area. The name comes from the Rokuyō calendar, in which Tomobiki translates as "dragging friends along"; while that day is not especially auspicious or unauspicious, 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 lady 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 girlfriends. As such, it is a rather peculiar thing to name a town. The story centers around an extremely lecherous and very unlucky high-school boy, Ataru Moroboshi, and the female 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 for Ataru; upon returning home, the boy encounters a very nasty surprise: a party of oni (demon) 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, of course - win, they will withdraw. It turns out that his competitor is not their rather robust leader, but his stepdaughter, 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, the seductive 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 currently platonic friend, promises to marry Ataru if he catches Lum and saves the Earth. With newfound motivation, Ataru steals her (Lum's) top, tricking her (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 she believes 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 slyly 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. [edit] Media[edit] MangaThe series began serialisation in 1978 in the manga anthology Shonen Sunday, and ended in 1987.[7] At the conclusion of the series, a total of 34 individual volumes had been released in Tankoban form. The series was later reprinted in 15 'Wideban" volumes, with each volume containing almost twice the number of pages as a tankoban volume.[8] Viz released part of the manga in the United States in 1989 under the titlesLum * Urusei Yatsura and The Return of Lum, but this release is now out of print.[8] [edit] AnimeMain article: List of Urusei Yatsura episodes The series was adapted into a 218 episode Tv series that aired from October 1981 to March 1986.[9] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] Also missing from the anime is the iconic character 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, Tendo, 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. Six different opening themes and credit sequences were used over the run of the show. The first was "Lum No Love Song" by Yuko Matsutani. "Lum No Love Song" was used as the theme for the first seventy-seven episodes. The second theme "Dancing Star" was by Izumi Kobayashi opened the series for the next twenty-eight episodes. The next three themes - "Pajama Jama Da", "Chance On Love", and "Rock The Planet" - were utilised for around twenty episodes each. These were performed by Kanako Narikiyo, Cindy, and Steffanie respectively. The final opening theme - "Tonogata Gomen Asobase" by Shoko Minami -was used slightly longer period covering the remainder of the series. Aside from the opening themes were closing themes. Most of the performers of the opening songs produced music to accompany the closing credits. The performers Izumi Kobayashi and Steffanie each performed music for the movie series. The opening theme song "I, I, You and Ai" was produced by Kobayashi for Only You (1983) and was also used for the closing accompaniment for ten episodes of the TV series. Steffanie performed "Born to be Free" and the title song for Remember My Love (1985) The series was released in North America with english subtitles on DVD by Animeigo. The series was available in box set form as well as individual releases. A total of 10 boxsets and 50 individual dvds were released. Each dvd contains Liner notes explaining the cultural references and puns from the series.[10] AnimEigo released 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. [edit] MoviesMain article: Urusei Yatsura movies Six movies were released for the series, with the first four released during the TV series' run. Only You (1983) and Beautiful Dreamer (1984) were directed by Mamoru Oshii. The first played-out a kidnap story in which Ataru is to marry Elle; an alien princess. The second of the two films was more ambitious and deviated greatly from one of Rumiko Takahashi's early manga stories. Remember My Love (1985) and Lum the Forever (1986) followed Oshii's films, but were directed by Kazuo Yamazaki. Once again the first film was conventional while the latter was strange and out of step with the tone of the TV series. The Final Chapter (1988) directed by Satoshi Dezaki was released a year after the end of the TV series and was intended to conclude the anime. Eventually, in 1991 another film was released. Always, My Darling was a tenth anniversary special and not intended a conclusion to the series. In North America, "Beautiful Dreamer" was released by Central Park Media. The remaining five movies were released by AnimEigo in North America, and MVM Films in the United Kingdom.[10] [edit] OVA releasesMain article: 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. For the American release by Animeigo, they were released over 6 discs that were sold individually.[10] In the Uk, they were released as a value boxset by MVM. On the 20th July a video preview was posted on youtube which showed footage of the new OVA[11]. 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: Za Shougaibutsu Suieitaikai (The 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 12 cm 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. [edit] Soundtracks[edit] Games
A number of video games based on the Urusei Yatsura manga and anime were produced in Japan over the past twenty years:
[edit] ReceptionRumiko Takahashi said that the majority of Japanese Urusei Yatsura fans were high school and university students. Urusei Yatsura's peak readership figures were with 15-year olds, but the distribution of readers was skewed towards older males. She said that this was "very easy" for her since the ages of the readers were similar to her own age; Takahashi said that she felt happy that "people from my same generation enjoy my manga." She expressed satisfaction with the fact that many Urusei Yatsura readers were male; she did not find this fact unnerving since the series was serialized in a magazine for boys. Takahashi said that she felt "a little disappointed" that Urusei Yatsura did not gain much interest from children. Takahashi believed that the series may have been "been too difficult for children." She believed that "manga belongs fundamentally to children, and maybe Urusei Yatsura just didn't have what it took to entertain them."[12] [edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: Manga series | Anime series | Anime OVAs | 1981 television series debuts | Anime of 1981 | Manga of 1978 | Comedy anime and manga | Japanese mythology in anime and manga | Science fiction anime and manga | Harem anime and manga | Shōnen | Urusei Yatsura | Viz Media manga | Shogakukan Manga Awards | Studio Pierrot | Sharp Point Press titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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