Urusei Yatsura (Movies)

Publisher
MVM
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Year
1984

Urusei Yatsura Movie 1: Only You

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
8th Sep 06

Urusei Yatsura ran for about 195 episodes, based on a manga by Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma ½, InaYusha), yet it’s virtually unheard of in the UK. The manga hasn’t been officially released in this country; a dubbed version of the TV series has apparently emerged in the UK featuring Matt Lucas, but didn’t prove too popular. So it seems odd to find the movies (with exception of the second) on UK release.

Some background first…The Oni an alien race return to reclaim the Earth, being a fair sort they give the Earthlings a chance to keep their planet if they can best the Oni’s champion in their national sport…which is tag. Ataru Moroboshi is selected as the Earth’s representative at random, Ataru loves the laides and isn’t the most athletic sort, but on look at the Oni champion the Princess Lum is enough to motivate him. Unfortunately Lum can fly and shoot electricity making her an elusive target. Eventually Ataru does manage to catch Lum, which is also seen as a proposal of marriage, so Lum an Ataru effectively become engaged… Ataru isn’t thrilled at the idea and strange friends, enemies and everthing else turn up causing all kinds of mayhem.

“Only You” the first Urusei Yatsura film begin with Ataru and Lum’s friends all being invited to Ataru’s wedding. The bride mentioned on the invites is not Lum but Elle, who even Ataru claims he’s never heard of. It seems Ataru accidentally proposed to another alien princess when he was just a young kid, and it’s not long before Elle’s representatives come to collect Ataru. Lum plans to marry Ataru first and requests the entire Oni space forces to go get Ataru back.

While the plot sounds bad on paper, the film does more than entertain. On the first viewing of the film, and my first ever encounter with Urusei Yatsura, I found it difficult to follow as there was an extremely large amount of characters, most of whom are already supposed to be known to viewers as it’s assumed that we’ve either read the manga or seen the TV series. Most of the characters are pretty one dimensional anyway, so it doesn’t take too long to figure most of them out (in fact if you’ve read some of Rumiko Takahashi’s other works you’ll do this even quicker”.

The best way to describe the film is a complete an utter farcical affair, and produces more than a few good laughs with quite a few chuckles along the way. There is also an additional factor that holds the film together but it’s difficult to put your finger on. It may be Mamoru Oshii’s (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor) direction, or it may be the mix of weird and wonderful characters, or Rumiko Takahashi’s original work that make this film so enjoyable once you get yourself wrapped up in it…it certainly isn’t the plot.

The more I encounter Urusei Yatsura the more I like what I see, sure there are flaws but there isn’t quite anything else like it on the UK market at the moment.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: Japanese Audio, English Subtitles.

Release information: Publisher: MVM Released: November 12th 2001 Classification: PG Running Time: 101mins

Notes:

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 8th Sep 06