Urusei Yatsura - Reviews

This is personally my favorite i love Rumiko's work and all the others like inuyasha and ranma, but this is really good... if you have ever seen any of her other works you can tell that Lum one of the main chaarcters incorporates a little bit of everything all her other female main charcters has which makes lum the best. i love the love story and thats pretty much it..... its really good trust me :D

Let me start by saying that this anime - pardon my language - GOOFY AS FUCK. This anime is formatted so that there are seperate archs for every episode (since there is not too serious of an overarching story, I would eventually drop the series because I had other things to do) 

The bad is that - similarly to our main character - we get SO IRRITATED by Lum but don't get fooled by your unrelenting anger toward Lum's incessant nagging - we also go irritated by Ataru Moroboshi. I don't know about other veiwers but I just wanted him to accept and love Lum so so bad. Many characters are painfully flat. 

What I can say is that, exactly as I stated at the beginning, the anime is lovingly written and animated. Even though some characters get very grading, a bit of that can be attributed to the fact that it is intentional - nonethless - it doesn't lessen the affect. 

I could talk about the history of anime in the 80s but that would be bias because of my love for early Animes. I would be reveiwing through a pair of rose tinted glasses but as it is, I love it and will continue to come back to it here and there. 

REMEBER THIS IS JUST AN OPINOIN, leave yours in the comments :)

Overview:

Urusei Yatsura is one of my favorite shows. It's very experimental both in story and design. It goes into stuff like cloning, gender transformation, some weird domestic violence, and more. You never know what's coming next with this show. It's pretty bizarre.

The story begins with a lecherous, misfortunate guy named Ataru who is randomly selected by a computer to play a game with Lum, a Oni space alien that can fly and electrocute people. The goal of the game is to touch Lum's horns (horns because she's an Oni) within a week. If Ataru wins, the Earth is saved. But if Lum wins, the planet would be under the Onis control. Ataru wins the game, and through a misunderstanding, he also somehow proposes to Lum, and Lum accepts. That is where the madness begins.

Story: 8/10

The story in Urusei Yatsura is episodic. It's not really continuous, but by not being continuous there are opportunities to really shake up the stories and have each episode be completely different and original compared to the one before it. The story, contrary to a lot of these other reviews are saying on this website, is not supposed to be mainly focusing on the relationship between Lum and Ataru, rather it is about the dynamics between all the characters of the show, and the situational humor there that makes it so funny. Like for example, there is an episode where penguins eat alien foods and grow to the size of Godzilla. Then there's that one episode where there was a giant propane explosion that blew Ataru's house into bits and created a mushroom cloud in the sky. Occasionally, Urusei Yatsura does throw in a serious episode or two, which does change things up a little bit. Like I said, you'll never know what to expect from this show, and you never will, as each episode is its own, unique experience of complete madness. 

One other thing that I find people complaining about is the series's length. It can be a bit overwhelming at first glance. It is a whopping 194-195 episode long show (I think?) with 12 OVAs and 6 movies. But I promise you, if you watch the first few episodes you'll become addicted to it very quickly, and it can be hard to put down. As for the seasons of the show... well... there aren't really any at all. The show didn't stop production until the end of it's run on TV. I've seen some people attempt to divide the show into seasons, but that's such a hassle in my opinion.

The first episodes all the way up to around the 120th episode are pretty solid. The show takes a dip in coolness around the 70-79 mark but makes it's its way back up. Past 120, there are good and some alright episodes, which is why I only gave this show an 8 for the story. But it's still a very good story nonetheless.

Animation: 9/10

The animation in this show varies a lot, because it was directed by a lot of different people and switched between studios during it's run. It has a very vintage 1980s feel. The episodes in the beginning have an art style that is more representative of a Western cartoon. As the series goes on, the animation quality generally increases, stopping at about early ish Ranma animation. The first 9 episodes of Urusei Yatsura have some ok animation, but after episode 10, the animation is pretty solid.

Characters: 9/10

The characters of Urusei Yatsura are probably the best thing about this show. Every single one of them doesn't go through much character development throughout the series, which might tick off some people. But if the characters developed, we probably wouldn't get the signature bizarre episodic humor Urusei Yatsura is known for. You see, each character in Urusei Yatsura has a funny character trait that contributes to the chaos. Lum has her uh, obsession(?) with Ataru, Ataru has his extreme lecherousness, there's a character in the show who is a small, deranged monk, and there's a big giant strong white cat spirit thing, just to give a few examples. We would lose that if there was character development. Also, another plus to having little character development is that it's easy to get into. You can get into any episode of the show with little or no context as to what's going on and still have a good time, because the characters of Urusei Yatsura generally revolve around a single character trait that is made clear upon their introduction to the scene. I got introduced to Urusei Yatsura through OVA 12, the literal last UY thing to ever be released as of the time I'm writing this review, and the characters were the one thing that really brought me in to watching the full 195 episode 12 OVA 6 movie adventure, as well as the soundtrack. Speaking of soundtrack, the next rating category for this review is...

Sound: 9/10

The sounds of Urusei Yatsura are generally very catchy, especially the openings and the endings. They have this retro, pleasent, bubbly nostalgic feel, I guess. I personally like openings 1, 2, 3, and 6. I also like endings 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9, as well as some OVA and movie soundtracks that are also amazing. Uh, I really don't know what to say about this category other than that. You should listen to it and see for yourself. It's just amazing .

Conclusion:

Overall, I give Urusei Yatsura a 9/10 because it is such an amazing show that you should watch right now!

-diabeetuss