Urusei Yatsura Vol-1 (1981)
Animation Production: Kitty Films
Running Time: 100 minutes
Released by: Animeigo
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Urusei Yatsura, a title that brings great joy to my anime fan heart. This is one of those shows that way back in the day I tried out of sheer curiosity after reading a small article about it in an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (at least I think it was EGM). That one shot at the series made me a fan for life and eventually as I saw more of the show, the movies, and the OVA’s it quickly became THE anime series for me, a place it still holds firmly.

From the very beginning of Japan Hero I’ve wanted to share Urusei Yatsura with people who may not be as familiar with it and with fellow fans who understand why I would hold it in such a high esteem and know what it’s all about, but due to time constraints and other obligations I never did get the chance to move forward with it. Now that the site is at a point where I can focus a lot more on content and writing about all the programs and movies we enjoy at the Japan Hero Labs, I am thrilled to begin our coverage of what I think is Rumiko Takahashi’s masterpiece.

Welcome to Urusei Yatsura.

Story

"When the ONI, a mysterious race of Aliens, come to repossess the Earth, they give us one chance to save our planet; a champion, selected at random, must defeat their princess, Lum, in their national sport - TAG! Unfortunately for Earth, the champion turns out to be Ataru Moroboshi, a lecherous lad whose lack of luck is legendary.

When Ataru lays eyes on the curvaceous Lum, he readily agrees to take on the task of touching the tips of her tiny horns. Alas, when the contest begins, he finds out that the Oni forgot to mention one small matter - Lum can fly! When all seems lost, his girlfriend Shinobu promises to marry him if he wins. Inspired to new lows of deviousness by the prospect of getting just to first base, Ataru pulls it off.

Unfortunately, Lum misinterprets his victory cry as a proposal of marriage to HER, and promptly agrees.

So Ataru ends up with Lum living in his closet, planning their wedding, and zapping him with high-voltage shocks if he even looks at another woman; Shinobu isn't sure if she's been jilted or she's been saved from a life of misery; his Lum-crazed schoolmates are plotting to get him "out of the way"; and his parents are loudly wishing he's never been born." -- Animeigo's Urusei Yatsura Webpage

Review

So what is so great about this anime you may wonder? Simply put, Urusei Yatsura is a show that at its core is very much a great love story, an unusual love story that is wrapped in several layers of comedy, love triangles, science fiction, puns, and satire, supported by a cast of characters that have gone on to become the archetypes for all the love/romance anime comedies that followed. Urusei Yatsura was in many ways not only a tremendously entertaining show, but also a pioneering work whose impact is being felt even today, 23 years after it originally aired on TV in Japan.

This series is so rich in everything that makes anime the entertaining medium that it is, that in a way it’s hard to explain and convey in words, why it is such a fantastic TV show. On the one hand you have characters that are so strange and melodramatic that you can’t help but laugh when they give dramatic speeches that border on both being poetic and nonsensical, on the other you have very strange story setups and plots such as aliens holding the Earth’s oil supply hostage because Ataru and his friends took an intergalactic taxi a couple of blocks from school to his house. It all just together in brilliant fashion.

This being a long running review series for us, one for each DVD Animeigo is putting out, I’m going to move ahead and go over this first volume in their release of this classic show. We’ll elaborate on why this series is great through each review and hopefully cover all bases, from characters and stories, to the evolution from these early episodes to latter ones as we work our way through each DVD.

I think the story summary from Animeigo (see above) covers the basics for these first couple of episodes so I won’t try to reword it. Basically what we have in volume one of Urusei Yatsura is the first four episodes in a 195 episode run. As such they serve as base components of what will make up the universe our eccentric cast of characters will live in, a process that will continue through the next ten to 20 episodes or so.

The main purpose of these stories is to introduce us to Lum and Ataru as well as the other secondary characters that surround them and are an active part of their lives. From Ataru’s parents, to the strange Buddhist monk Cherry, Lum’s fire-breathing cousin Ten and his friend Kintaro, Megane, etc.

Since this is early into the series, each episode is broken down into two separate stories each as opposed to featuring one single storyline. This makes for a bigger variety of situations for our characters to be in and allow us to see a quicker evolution of main characters as well as faster introductions of secondary cast members, such as Ten and Rei. The only problem this formats presents is that it does limit the scope of the character development early on, allowing only partial growth to take place.

The production quality of these first four episodes holds up amazingly well even in this day of CGI-enhanced anime. There is such a beauty and flow to the drawings that it’s almost its own animation style in many ways. Granted that the drawings sometimes are not terribly consistent from one to the next, but they have such a rich feel to them it’s almost hard to describe. I would say that overall, the animation has a nice flow to it and the colors still come through nicely.

The soundtrack even today is one of the greatest ever recorded in all anime-dom (I have 10+ official soundtrack CD’s from Urusei Yatsura if that says anything). From the opening theme, to the ending song, and all the memorable BGM pieces sprinkled throughout you’d be hard-pressed to find anything that comes even close to having as much unique character and stickiness as what the creative team came up with for Urusei Yatsura.

The voice acting like the music is some of the best ever recorded for any show. The actors here simply bring their characters to life in a way that is seldom seen anywhere, even in big budget Hollywood films.

Animeigo’s release of this series should be commended in this day and age of fanboy-pleasing licensing from other companies in the industry. Urusei Yatsura volume one features a great looking transfer of this 1981 anime that makes it looks as good as it possibly can (in fact it looks even better than Animeigo’s LD transfer from some years ago), especially when you take into account just how old the original prints are. The soundtrack is recorded in a mono soundtrack, but this is to be expected from an older release.

The DVD package is as simple as can be with a simple menu screen that allows you to skip directly to whichever episode you want to see. Animeigo also threw in some very lengthy linear notes to ensure that we get as good an insight into each story as possible. The packaging is focused on Lum with a small description of the series and episodes featured on the DVD on the backside.

Conclusion

Urusei Yatsura is my favorite anime of all time. For it to be able to hold that spot for so many years and after watching an endless number of shows and movies over the past 10 years I think says something of its power.

I know this review was brief and only skimmed over many aspects and strengths of the show, but remember that there is a long road ahead of us here. We still have close to 200 TV series episodes, 6 movies and several OVA’s to cover so sit tight and hang on to your seats. Forget our battle cry of “Let’s Japan Hero”. When you visit these pages in the special Urusei Yatsura section, its all about, “Let’s Urusei Yatsura!!

Special Note

I would like to dedicate this section and each and every review featured in it to the hard working folks at Animeigo. My thanks go out to you for releasing Urusei Yatsura in the U.S. market with such love and respect for the original material.

Jeffrey Couto