Urusei Yatsura Movie 1: Only You (1983)
Animation Production: Kitty Films
Running Time: 101 minutes
Released by: Animeigo
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Released to the public roughly around the time episodes 55 through 65 were airing on TV Urusei Yatsura: Only You represents perhaps the most faithful representation of the series on the big screen from all the six movies that were produced for the Urusei Yatsura property. I think it’s been close to 10 years since I last saw this film on VHS so the prospect of seeing it again after all this time was one that I eagerly looked forward to.

So on an early Sunday morning I finally had the time to sit down and travel back in time to visit my friends in the Urusei Yatsura universe. The following report is what I re-discovered during my travels.

Story

"Lum doesn't need much assistance going ballistic when everyone in Tomobiki gets an invitation to Ataru's wedding -- and she's not listed as the bride! It seems that some 11 years ago, Ataru played "Shadow Tag" with a young girl named Elle and won unfor-tunately, Elle was yet another Alien Princess; and on her planet, if a boy steps on a girl's shadow, they have to marry.

When Elle's emissary comes to make arrangements, Lum redefines the term "the atmosphere was electric," but to no avail: a force-field now protects Ataru from her high voltage love-zaps. Lum's friend Benten suggests a pre-emptive wedding, and they proceed to abduct Ataru and all of the wedding guests. With some help from her parents, Lum manages to break the force-field.

However, before the emergency space wedding can occur, Elle's fleet attacks, and Ataru and the entire wedding party are re-abducted to Planet Elle.

While Lum & Co. plot to re-re-abduct Ataru, his rival Mendou and his long-suffering semi-ex-girlfriend Shinobu find out that Elle has a hobby: finding handsome men and freezing them! Alas, Mendou is slated to be slotted onto slab 100,000!

After Ataru finds out about Elle's side-line, he calls off the wedding on the grounds that she's been unfaithful (a real leap, considering he's been planning to turn Planet Elle into his own private harem!).

Needless to say, Elle doesn't take this well. She promptly claps him in irons and orders his friends shipped home in popsicle boxes.

And so, as the sky is lit up by colliding battle-fleets, the stage is set for the shotgun wedding of all time! " -- Animeigo's Urusei Yatsura Webpage

Review

Let’s skip the story summary since Animeigo’s overview above covers all bases for the most part. It’s amazing to think that this movie has a vintage of 21 years, I’m really starting to feel old! Despite its age though it holds up remarkably well in terms of production quality and storytelling which is quite an achievement for any animated movie.

In many ways "Only You" felt like a retelling of sorts of how Ataru and Lum met and what happened afterwards, except this time the alien happens to be the Princess of planet Elle. This familiarity makes the movie immediately accessible to anyone whose seen the TV show and sets the stage up for an interesting story that is not only filled with Urusei Yatsura’s very strange brand of humor and eccentric characters, but also moments that test Ataru and Lum’s relationship and manage to show that there is a bond there despite Ataru’s efforts to the contrary.

In fact, even though these moments are very few and far between they proved to be the movie’s highlight for me. During the course of the TV series Ataru was never one to show his true feelings towards Lum unless he was up to something and the same held true for the movies (although to a lesser degree) so when those rare moments do pop up in which he shows his caring side it gives Ataru and Lum a new dimension as a couple and Urusei Yatsura a richer depth.

This movie being early in the show’s run the cast of supporting characters is not complete, but we do get the core ones that defined the series such as Megane, Mendo, Cherry, Shinobu, etc. For the most part all the Earth-based characters behave as we would expect them to with each one trying to find an angle to benefit himself/herself from the situation they find themselves in. Mendo for example wants to steal Elle away, Megane wants to work for Ataru as a Harem guardsman after his comrade becomes king of the planet and Ataru’s dad wants to get a job with the group that Lum’s dad heads up.

The space-based characters (i.e. Lum’s friends and family) appear in this movie to show support for Lum during this trying period and to help her rescue Ataru so that they can get married before Elle gets to Ataru. Their role in this movie was a nice balance to the insane things that other protagonists like Mendo were up to for most of the film and help add a layer of friendship and character development that is seldom seen in Urusei Yatsura.

So, is that unique sense of humor, parody and craziness that is the hallmark of Urusei Yatsura accounted for and present in "Only You"? Yes it is and then some. There are some great laugh-out moments in this movie such as when Ataru reveals his true reasons for coming all the way to planet Elle or when all heck breaks loose at the end of the film in typical Urusei Yatsura fashion with everyone in the planet fighting each other in a chaotic battle that shows Godzilla and Ultraseven as some of the many combatants involved. Probably the one moment in the film that really got me in terms of humor was the scene following Ataru’s kidnapping from the Oni's mothership. Prior to this we had been shown the courage and sacrifice of the Oni warriors as they rushed to defend their leader’s future son in law, but as Ataru comes to in his captor’s ship he begins thanking her for taking him to see Elle as everyone in the Oni ships listen in! I think this was a great example of the type of things that the writers made sure to include alongside the more more serious-than-normal storyline.

On the production side of things "Only You" proved to be a nice step up from the TV show in terms of animation quality, but it’s not as big a jump forward as we would see with the other films in the series. The colors used are varied, but always bright and colorful, even during space scenes. The animation feels solid for the most part with an adequate frame rate and visual effects are limited mostly to laser or electricity attacks. I should also point out that there is some fantastic background animation in "Only You" that was very typical of Urusei Yatsura. Nowadays nothing done by hand comes even close to what some of these guys were able to achieve back then.

The soundtrack is vintage Urusei Yatsura featuring many songs and instrumental pieces from the TV series as well as some new ones. The majority of the time it works well and helps augment all the craziness that’s taking place on-screen. The voice acting is again without equal on the Japanese side with Toshio Furukawa (Ataru) in particular putting in an amazing performance that is both infectious and ear grabbing. I should also give Kudo’s to Animeigo for putting in a good effort for the English dubbed track, although unfortunately the cast just doesn’t come close to what the original actors were able to convey and capture with their performances.

The DVD is classic Animeigo and features a nice set of extras for Urusei Yatsura fans, especially those interested in the localization process for this release. Extras include a behind the scenes feature on the English dubbing process (including audition footage), character bios and an image gallery. Animeigo's trademark insert notes are also included and like always contains some nice info on certain puns and references that could not really be explained through subtitles.

The DVD is well put together and features a great looking transfer of what is admittedly an old film now. Colors were bright and for the most part everything came through sharply. There were no color issues that I could pick up on such as bleeding or pixilation. The audio which is recorded in stereo was crisp and clear with no detectable issues. Subtitles were easy to read and had a good flow.

Conclusion

Urusei Yatsura Movie 1: Only You is the most fun of all the Urusei Yatsura movies and it really manages to capture the magic of the series at this early point in its run. The story while somewhat lacking in originality does end up being interesting and helps put our characters in some fun situations.

I loved this movie and recommend it very highly to all Urusei Yatsura fans. I think most fans of animation who are unfamiliar with the series will also find this to be an entertaining way to enter the universe of Urusei Yatsura even if there might be some unfamiliarity with large cast of characters.

Jeffrey Couto