Urusei Yatsura

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Urusei Yatsura


caption = Video CD cover of the 2nd OVA.
ja_name = うる星やつら
ja_name_trans =
genre = Comedy, Romance, Science fictionInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Rumiko Takahashi
publisher = flagicon|Japan Shogakukan
flagicon|Canada flagicon|USA Viz Media
publisher_other = flagicon|Italy Star Comics
flagicon|France flagicon|Spain Glénat
demographic = Shōnen
magazine = flagicon|Japan Weekly Shōnen Sunday
first = 1978
last = 1987
volumes = 34Infobox animanga/Anime
title =
director = Mamoru Oshii & Kazuo Yamazaki
studio = Studio Pierrot & Studio Deen
licensor = flagicon|United StatesAnimeigo
network = flagicon|Japan Fuji Television, Animax
network_other = flagicon|Singapore flagicon|India flagicon|Indonesia flagicon|Philippines flagicon|Hong Kong Animax
flagicon|France TF1
flagicon|United Kingdom BBC Choice
flagicon|United States PBS
flagicon|Italy GBR, Odeon TV, Italia 7, Cultoon (Sky It)
flagicon|Portugal SIC, SIC Radical
first = 14 October 1981
last = 19 March 1986
episodes = 195Infobox animanga/OVA
title =
director =
studio =
licensor =flagicon|United StatesAnimeigo
flagicon|United KingdomMVM_Films
episodes = 11
released = 1985 - 1993Infobox animanga/Other
title = Movies
content =
# "Only You"
# "Beautiful Dreamer"
# "Remember My Love"
# "Lum the Forever"
# "The Final Chapter"
# "Always, My Darling"

nihongo|"Urusei Yatsura"|うる星やつら| is a well-known late 1970s to 1990s manga (1978-1987) and anime (1981-1993) series created by Rumiko Takahashi. 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 main character. The manga received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1981.cite web | url=http://comics.shogakukan.co.jp/mangasho/rist.html | title=小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者 | publisher=Shogakukan | language=Japanese | accessdate=2007-08-19] The series is considered an excellent source for references to Japanese culture and mythology.cite web|url=http://www.koyagi.com/Mentions.html|title=Mentions of Me|author=Poitras, Gilles|date=2006-01-02|accessdate=2007-12-18|quote=Urusei Yatsura was one of the most fruitful sources of information for "The Anime Companion".]

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. [ [http://absoluteanime.com/ustv.php "Urusei Yatsura"] at http://www.absoluteanime.com/] 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.

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 nihongo|"yatsu"|奴, the low-respect pronoun for "the person over there" and carrying the connotation of a hooligan or jerk. However, the kanji for nihongo|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". [http://www.animeigo.com/Liner/UYTV.t] 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. [http://www.furinkan.com/uy/faq/faq.htm#Q1] [http://urusei-yatsura.generalanswers.org/]

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.

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 falls in love with Ataru after he accidentally proposes to her, while Ataru is always chasing after every girl he sees (despite them not being interested in "him") leading to Lum physically punishing him with electric shocks. 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 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

Differences between manga and anime

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 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.

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. 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):

*nihongo|Ryoko's September Tea Party|了子の９月のお茶会|Ryōko no Kyuu-Gatsu no Ochakai (1985)
*nihongo|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)
*nihongo|Raging Sherbet|怒れシャーベット|Ikare Shābetto (December 2, 1988)
*nihongo|Nagisa's Fiancé|渚のフィアンセ|Nagisa no Fianse (December 8, 1988)
*nihongo|The Electric Household Guard|電気仕掛けのお庭番|Denki Jikake no Oniwaban (August 21, 1989)
*nihongo|I Howl at the Moon|月に吠える|Tsuki ni Hoeru (September 1, 1989)
*nihongo|Goat and Cheese|ヤギさんとチーズ|Yagi-san to Chīzu (December 21, 1989)
*nihongo|Catch the Heart|ハートをつかめ|Hāto wo Tsukame (December 27, 1989)
*nihongo|Terror of Girly-Eyes Measles|乙女ばしかの恐怖|Otome Bashika no Kyōfu (June 21, 1991)
*nihongo|Date with a Spirit|霊魂とデート|Reikon to Dēto (June 21, 1991)
*nihongo|Memorial Album|メモリアルアルバム|Memoriaru Arubamu (1993)

Theme songs

;Openings:

References

External links

* [http://www.animeigo.com AnimEigo] - United States distributor of the Urusei Yatsura anime.
*
* [http://www.furinkan.com/uy Tomobiki-cho] - English language UY information and fansite.
* [http://www.lum-chan.com Lum-Chan] - English language UY fansite and forum.