SeattleOtaku: Review - Urusei Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens)

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Urusei Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens)

A classic romantic comedy with plenty of innuendo and hijinks, Urusei Yatsura (US title often listed as Those Obnoxious Aliens or simply Lum) is a fun romp through insanity lasting nearly 200 television episodes, six movies, and an OVA series. It's probably the best known of the creations by Takahashi Rumiko, who also created other favorites of mine, Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, and Inu-Yasha.

Story Intro

An unlucky high-school letcher named Ataru is chosen at random to participate in a race to save Earth from invasion by a group of alien Oni (demons). At first he refuses. But when he sees the opponent, a bikini-clad curvaceous oni-girl named Lum, he accepts; after all the game is tag, and in order to win Earth's safety he needs to grab her small horns -- figuring he'd need to grab her body first. Unfortunately, no-one happened to mention that Lum could fly.

On the last day of the race, nearing sure defeat, Ataru's girlfriend Shinobu promises to marry him if he can win the game. Spurred on by this (after all, we all know how marriage is consumated), he resolves to win by any means necessary, including a trick only a letcher would try. When that works, and Ataru wins the game, he declares that he can finally be married. Unfortunately, Lum misunderstands the declaration as a proposal and accepts; and she has a shocking method of retribution if her new fiancé even looks at another woman.

What's a high-school letcher to do?

Other Notes

Top it off with a large ensemble cast of aliens and humans, and a new bit of wackiness in every episode, and this show has something for nearly everyone. The early episodes have two short-but-related stories each (the synopsis above covers only the first half of the first episode).

A great database of information about the various incarnations of this series (manga, TV, movies, etc.) can be found at http://www.furinkan.com/tomobiki/uy/.

An email list hosted at the same site as this one has just started up as well. Subscribe at urusei-yatsura-list-request@eskimo.com (for the individual posts) or urusei-yatsura-digest-request@eskimo.com (for the digest collections) with the word "subscribe" in the Subject.

Distributed by AnimEigo:

Urusei Yatsura (196-episode TV)

Urusei Yatsura: Only You (Movie)

Movies 3-6

Distributed by Central Park Media:

Urusei Yatsura 2: Beatiful Dreamer (Movie)

Urusei Yatsura Copyright (C) Kitty Films
All rights reserved. Distributed by AnimEigo.

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