Urusei Yatsura
Urusei Yatsura is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday from August 1978 to January 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were collected in 34 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of Ataru Moroboshi, and the alien Lum, who believes she is Ataru's wife after he accidentally proposes to her. The series makes heavy use of Japanese mythology, culture, and puns. It was adapted into two anime television series that aired on Fuji TV affiliates.
The manga series was republished in different formats in Japan. Viz Media released the series in North America in the 1990s under the names Lum * Urusei Yatsura and The Return of Lum, but dropped it after nine volumes. The company re-licensed the manga and released an omnibus edition under its original title with new translations from 2019 to 2023. The first television series, produced by Kitty Films, was broadcast from October 1981 to March 1986, with 194 half-hour episodes. Twelve OVAs and six theatrical films followed, and the series was released on various home video formats. A second anime television series adaptation of 46 episodes produced by David Production aired on the Noitamina programming block from October 2022 to June 2024. It is licensed by Sentai Filmworks and is streamed on Hidive.
The original television series, OVAs, and five of the films were released in North America with English subtitles, as well as a dub for the films by AnimEigo. They provided extensive notes on the series to allow people to understand the many cultural references and jokes in the series that would not normally be understood by non-Japanese. The remaining film, Beautiful Dreamer, was released bilingually by Central Park Media. Five of the films, as well as the OVAs, are available from MVM Films in the United Kingdom. The series was released on television in Southeast Asia as Lamu the Invader Girl. The series and films have been license rescued by Discotek Media for a Blu-ray release.
Urusei Yatsura launched Takahashi's career and received positive reception in and out of Japan from fans and critics alike. The manga has over 35 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. In 1980, it received the 26th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category, as well as the 18th Seiun Award for the Best Comic category in 1987.
Plot
An alien race known as the Oni arrive on Earth to invade it. Instead of taking over the planet by force, the Oni give humans a chance to fight for the rights to the planet by taking part in a competition. The competition is a variant of the game of tag, in which the human player must touch the horns on the head of the Oni player within one week. The computer-selected human player is Ataru Moroboshi, a lecherous, unlucky and academically unsuccessful high school student from the fictional Tomobiki Town in Nerima, Japan, and the Oni player is Lum, daughter of the leader of the alien invaders. Despite his initial reluctance to take part in the competition, Ataru becomes interested in the game when he meets Lum. When the competition begins, Lum surprises everyone by flying away and Ataru finds himself unable to catch her. Before the last day of the competition, Ataru's girlfriend Shinobu Miyake encourages Ataru by pledging to marry him if he wins. On the final day of the competition, Ataru wins the game by stealing Lum's bikini top, which prevents her from protecting her horns in favor of protecting her modesty. In celebrating his victory, Ataru expresses his joy at being able to get married; however, Lum misinterprets this as a proposal from Ataru and accepts on the competition's worldwide live television broadcast. Despite the misunderstanding, Lum falls in love with Ataru and moves into his house.Despite Ataru's lack of interest in Lum and attempts to rekindle his relationship with Shinobu, Lum frequently interferes and Shinobu loses interest in Ataru. Still, Ataru's flirtatious nature persists despite Lum's attention. Lum attempts to stop him from flirting, which results in Ataru receiving powerful electric shock attacks from Lum as punishment. Two characteristics of Ataru are particularly strong: his pervertedness and his bad luck that draws to him all bizarre residents of the planet, the spirit world and even the galaxy. Later Lum begins attending the same school as Ataru despite his objections. Lum develops a fan base of admirers among the boys of the school, including Shutaro Mendo, the rich and handsome heir to a large corporation that all the girls from Tomobiki have a crush on. Despite their romantic interest, none of Lum's admirers will risk upsetting Lum by trying to force her and Ataru apart, although this does not stop them from trying to get Ataru punished due to his bad behavior, and interfering every time the two get close.
Production
In 1977, Rumiko Takahashi created the short story Those Selfish Aliens that was nominated for Shogakukan's Best New Comic Artist award. This would serve as the basis for creating Urusei Yatsura which was first published a year later when Takahashi was 20 years old. The series was her first major work, having previously only published short stories, and is a combination of romantic comedy, science fiction, suburban life, and Japanese folktales. The title of the series is an untranslatable pun on the word, meaning "noisy" or "obnoxious", but written with the kanji for "planet"; the title can be translated roughly into English as "Those Obnoxious Aliens". The series first appeared in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday in September 1978. At the start of the series it was only scheduled to run for 5 chapters. Ataru was the central character and each chapter would feature a different strange character. The character of Lum was only going to appear in the first chapter and was not in the second chapter; however, Takahashi decided to re-include her in the third chapter. The series was not an instant success and chapters were initially published sporadically due to Takahashi still being in university at the time. Between May and September 1978 she simultaneously worked on a series called Dust Spot; however, the increasing popularity of Urusei Yatsura caused her to focus on Urusei and the series became a regular serialization from the middle of 1979.Takahashi 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". She wanted the reader to be completely surprised by the next panel and used slapstick comedy to create a reaction in the reader. When Takahashi ran out of ideas she would create new characters. Takahashi shared a small apartment with her assistants, and slept in a closet due to a lack of space. While writing Urusei Yatsura she also began work on Maison Ikkoku and used this experience as well as her university experience as the basis for the setting of that series. Character names often carry extra meanings used to describe a characters personality or other traits. For example, the name Ataru Moroboshi refers to being hit by a star, a reference to the aliens and other people who gather around him. The name Shinobu suggests a patient character; however, this in contrast to the character's actual personality. In a similar way, the setting for the series is "Tomobiki", which means "friend taking". Tomobiki is also the name of a superstitious day in the old Japanese calendar system considered to have "no winners or losers" and occurred on every sixth day. Funerals rarely took place on this day as it was believed more deaths would soon follow. Lum was named after Agnes Lum, a bikini model during the 1970s. Lum's use of the English word "Darling" in reference to Ataru was to emphasize her status as a foreigner, as well as a play on the name Darrin, the husband figure from Bewitched.
The characters of Megane, Perm, Kakugari and Chibi are recurring characters throughout the first anime adaptation; however, in the manga they are nameless fans of Lum who appear less after Mendo is introduced. In contrast the character Kosuke Shirai plays a large role in the manga, but does not appear in the first anime series. His role is often performed by Perm. The second half of the first anime adaptation is closer to the manga than the first half. In 2022, Takahashi said that Urusei Yatsura ended because she saw that Shinobu was happy after the character Inaba had been introduced. Takahashi has stated that she will not produce any more content for the series.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi, Urusei Yatsura began sporadic serialization on August 30, 1978, in that year's 39th issue of Shogakukan's anthology magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday until the middle of 1979 when it became a regular serialization. It ended in 1987's eighth issue on January 21, after publishing 366 chapters and almost 6,000 pages. A total of 34 individual volumes with 11 chapters each were released in tankōbon format between 1980 and March 1987. After the tenth anniversary of start of the series, it was printed in 15 wideban editions between July 1989 and August 1990. Each volume contained around 25 chapters, and were printed on higher-quality paper, with new inserts. A bunkoban edition of the series was released over 17 volumes between August 1998 and December 1999. Each volume contains forewords by other manga creators discussing the influence the series had on them. A "My First Big" edition was printed between July 2000 and September 2004. This edition was similar to the tankōbon but used low-quality paper and were sold at a low price. A shinsoban edition over 34 volumes was released between November 17, 2006, and March 18, 2008. This edition was also similar to the tankōbon but used new cover artwork and included a section that displayed artwork from current manga artists.After requests from fans, Viz Media licensed the series for release in English across North America under the title of Lum * Urusei Yatsura. Despite a strong start, the series was dropped after eight issues. The series was then reintroduced in the monthly Viz publication Animerica and because of the long gap the series was retitled The Return of Lum. To start, chapters were published monthly in Animerica; however, due to reader feedback and an increased popularity of the series it was decided to release it as an individual monthly publication. The English release finished in 1998 and is now out of print. The first 11 volumes of the Japanese release were covered, but several chapters were excluded and a total nine English volumes of the series were released.
On July 19, 2018, Viz announced that they re-licensed the manga with plans to release it in a 2-in-1 omnibus edition with new translations. Based on the Japanese shinsoban, the first volume was published on February 19, 2019, and the seventeenth and last on February 19, 2023.