Urusei Yatsura series review

[Defectron]

So some of you might be wondering why I'm actually bothering to make a post about this. Well I figured I should urusei yatsura is a series I started watching a long time ago backin 1997 or 98, I forget which, and only now did I finish watching the final episode of this series. I believe my first exposure to it was the 2nd movie which was shown in one of scifi channels anime fests. Boy that sure does bring back memories, I remember I used to watch that along with Zeiram, A-ko, Gall Force, Akira and all the other old school anime movies they used to show.

Unico was my first exposure to anime, the Guyver oav was my first exposure to adult anime and urusei yatsura was my first exposure to experimental anime.

Before I go any further I should probably give a little back story about what this show is about for those who don't know. Urusei Yatsura was the first really succesful Rumiko Takahashi anime, and from what I've seen of her work I consider it to be the best. The story is about an unlucky lecherous boy named Ataru moroboshi who gets selected to represent earth in a game of tag with alien oni. To win he needs to touch the horns of the oni princess lum. Because he's such a horny fool he accepts the role and decides to do it so he can grope Lum. But things aren't so easy, Lum can fly which makes things difficult even for someone as relentlessly persistent as Ataru. Things look hopeless but then Shinobu, the girl he's interested in tells Ataru she will marry him if he can win this seems to motivate him into action. Ataru manages to pull it off by stealing Lums bra and grabbing her horns. Do to a misundertanding she thinks he proposed to her and agress to it. The series is mostly about Ataru attempting to deal with Lum shocking him whenever he tries to hit on girls and all the weird stuff that goes on around them.

However this isn't just your regular rumiko Takahashi comedy, there's a lot of really weird experimental stuff that goes on in this, especially in the movies. This is mostly because of two directors, Mamoru Oshii and Kazuo Yamazaki.

What really got me into this series and experimental anime in general though was urusei yatsura movie 4. Back in 98 I had enjoyed movie 2 and I was over at blockbuster and noticed movie 4 so I decided to check it out. It was easily the most bizzare and maybe the most beautiful movie I had seen at the time. For awhile this was my favorite movie until later when I saw EOE, Kill Bill, Talking head and Gamera 3. But at the time this was my favorite. This is the movie that got me interested in stuff like EVA. It's a real shame but Kazuo Yamazaki the director of this film later said he regretted making it because it didn't go over well with the target demographic.

Personally I miss the era of anime like urusei yatsura where the directors just went "Fuck you target demographic, were going to do whatever we want and you can't stop us". In romantic comedy this is what gave us urusei yatsura, in mecha it gave us eva and in shoujo we got utena. Today we still have experimental anime, but the difference is you can always tell from the start that you'll be watching something a little different, wheras these all take you by surprise when they go into experimental territory. For example at the beginning of FLCL, Paranoia agent, melody of oblivion and Kemonozune it was obvious from the start that all of these series would be something interesting and different but with those other series I mentioned they all started out normally enough. Essentially it would be the equivelent of Narutos director suddenly going buck wild and throwing weird psychological stuff into the naruto movie. You just don't see this sort of thing happen anymore which is one thing in anime I miss.

Anyway getting back to this, today I watched the last episode of urusei yatsura. I was a little hesitant, both the urusei yatsura oav series as well as the movie series had very weak endings. Movie 6, the last urusei yatsura film was essentially just a glorified oav episode and the last episode of the oav series was a damn recap episode. I was half expecting the TV series to end the same way which wouldve been awful since it would have perminantly left a bad taste in my mouth for the series if they did that.

Fortunately this was not the case

The 2nd to last episode was a replay of the fan favorite episode where Ataru thought lum had run away. This annoyed me since they were just playing an ep i had already scene, they couldve left the award show up in a bonus section on the dvd.

But then they played the last episode. While not the best imo it was a pretty good way to end the series. An unknown person sends out letters to the cast and somehow this leads them into reinacting the amaterasu myth, which leads to the real people from the myth showing up and getting confused. Even the giant haunted sakura tree from movie 4 shows up in this forshadowing the events of the coming movie which was released around the time this was aired which was cool. Anyway I finnally finished this, shame Rumiko Takahashi probably won't make anything this cool ever again, too busy making crap like inuyasha these days.

[Gib]

Urusei Yatsura - Beautiful Dreamer is a masterpiece.

[Ornette]

Urusei Yatsura - Beautiful Dreamer is a masterpiece.

Yeah, that was my favorite of all the movies.

I've only seen all the movies, OVAs and maybe half of the series at most. There's just so much to get through.

[DevRei17]

Cool, I'm glad you like Urusei D-Man.

I admit that I essentially didn't like the series at first, but that's only because I was used to the safe boringness of Ranma 1/2 (which for the record I'm pretty much done with.)

The one thing I love about this series besides the funny gags and weirdness is the characters. I like everyone in this show! Lum is the female equivalent of Astro Boy and Ataru is probably the most belivable and in IMO the most likable male lead in a harem/romantic comedy yet. Even Lum's Stormtroopers (who I essentially didn't like at first) grew on me (they offically earn kudos in my book with their Return of the Jedi parody in episode 89.)

I think someone on Otaku USA some it up best that "Rumiko Takahashi was at her best (Urusei Yatsura, Maison I.) when she was writing for people her own age rather then dumbing down for kids and prepubicent thirteen year olds (Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha).

[ran1]

I watched a couple of dozen episodes but I had never been able to devote all that much time to them. I also never saw the first movie, but Beautiful Dreamer is the one Oshii film where I'm not saying "wat the fuck am i watching?" But the series is pretty enjoyable, yeah.

[LeoXiao]

I'm at like 170 right now (this took me about a year;, it seems to have gotten a little boring lately but it's still fun to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing Beautiful Dreamer.

[Defectron]

I'm at like 170 right now (this took me about a year;, it seems to have gotten a little boring lately but it's still fun to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing Beautiful Dreamer.

Yeah some of the 2nd series half seemed a bit weaker, though even those episodes were much better then most current animes in this genre.

One thing I admire about anime at this time, urusei yatsura in particular was that the people making it weren't afraid to toss stuff in you just wouldn't expect to see in this sort of show.

I mean imagine how different ranma or inuyasha would have been had they tried thinking outside the box like the people who did uy?

[DevRei17]

Yeah some of the 2nd series half seemed a bit weaker, though even those episodes were much better then most current animes in this genre.

One thing I admire about anime at this time, urusei yatsura in particular was that the people making it weren't afraid to toss stuff in you just wouldn't expect to see in this sort of show.

I mean imagine how different ranma or inuyasha would have been had they tried thinking outside the box like the people who did uy?

So very true.

A viewer can only take either A. One of Ranma's dozens of fiancees seducing him, to which Akane "Tsundere" Tendo calls him "BAKA!" and hits him with a nearby mallet or B. Happo-ass steals panties and shits on everyone...

...Also a bad ending doesn't help...

P.S.- I watched Maison I. last night and it was overall good.

[BobBQ]

I mean imagine how different ranma or inuyasha would have been had they tried thinking outside the box like the people who did uy?

Ryuunosuke > Ranma. That is all.

[DevRei17]

Ryuunosuke > Ranma. That is all.

"I'm a chick dammit!" - Ryuunosuke in a boyish tone.

[NemZ]

Just for the record, the Ranma 1/2 manga was generally much better than the anime. After the first few episodes the anime staff pretty much ran off on it's own, ignoring almost all of Takahashi's input and expanding the already huge cast with another couple dozen characters.

[DevRei17]

Just for the record, the Ranma 1/2 manga was generally much better than the anime. After the first few episodes the anime staff pretty much ran off on it's own, ignoring almost all of Takahashi's input and expanding the already huge cast with another couple dozen characters.

Very true, the manga is way better and is the one thing that keeps me from disliking the series.