Urusei Yatsura is the story of a lecherous high school student called Ataru Moroboshi and his alien wife, Lum Invader. The partnership is less than mutual though because while Ataru does care for Lum and even finds her attractive, he is unwilling to settle for her alone. He also struggles with commitment, starting to lose interest in Lum as soon as she starts returning his advances. He's a bit of an archetype, clearly the inspiration behind many a leading harem character. But while many of those characters are 'innocent' or 'naive' young men who find themselves wandering or collapsing on top of perverse situations, Ataru actually seeks these out. What this costs in the audience's sympathy is more than made up for in laughs. We can even respect him more than most harem leads simply because he isn't an utterly spineless git.
His spouse, while a weaker character, is an even bigger anime icon. Even anime fans who've never heard of Urusei Yatsura are likely to have seen Lum Invader portrayed or referenced somewhere along the line. If you ever catch a character in a tigerstripe bikini with horns or green hair, it's a nudge to Urusei Yatsura's leading lady. She is sometimes said to be the original tsundere, and although that term has become whittled down almost to a formula at this point, in Lum's day a tsundere personality still came across as human instead of robotic. Unfortunately she retains a number of character flaws common in female anime characters: particularly her excessive doting on Ataru even though he does not treat her with much respect. The premise of the show is dependent on this, but even so all the best episodes are those which deviate from it: either by dealing with an entirely separate matter, or in the rare moments where Ataru's feelings for Lum are central to the plot.
Before Ataru met Lum, he had been dating a girl called Shinobu. In contrast to the docility of Lum, Shinobu is an aggressive girl with an incendiary temper. Earlier episodes focus on Ataru's efforts to continue his relationship with Shinobu, but after some time she finds a new boyfriend: Mendou Shutaro. The eldest son of an exorbitantly rich family, he demands respect at all times even though his behaviour seldom warrants it. Mendou is the strongest member of the cast. Things are never truly 'funny' until his character is introduced, and most of the series humour is derived from his rivalry with Ataru. His vast wealth also provides the opportunity to introduce some ridiculous elements into the show, like his family's private army and castle. It also creates a bit of satire, since for all his pretentions, Mendou is every bit as common as Ataru is. And at least Ataru is aware of his own disgraceful behaviour.
These are the four leading cast members, but there are many more great characters in the show. Mr and Mrs Moroboshi, who Ataru causes little else but grief, are a good example. Ataru's mother in particular has always got a scathing comment to make about her disappointing son. At other times, Ataru's classmates are brought to the forefront. These are young men who are so dedicated to Lum's happiness, that they force Ataru to continue dating her even though they are in love with her themselves. This is to say nothing of the wide variety of alien characters included. Altogether, they make one of the strongest casts in anime and one would have to look at The Simpsons or King of the Hill to find anything that comes close.
But what makes the series difficult to sit through if the cast is so good? There are several reasons. Each episode has a self-contained story and the characters develop very slowly throughout the series. This is perfect for just dipping into every once in a while, as you would if you were watching it on television, but doesn't work so well when you watch a few episodes back to back. It soon starts to become a struggle not to get bored with the lack of progress in the story. This problem is acute in the earlier episodes, which are each split into two separate stories, placing even greater limitations on what any individual story can achieve. However these earlier episodes do have one benefit, which is they allow the creators to introduce most of the very large cast relatively quickly. It is not until around episode twenty, when this split episode structure is abandoned and longer episode format is used that the series really begins to hit its stride.
When each episode is a self contained story, it's also inevitable that some of them will be better than others. As was alluded to above, the stronger episodes tend to be those which feature the relationship between Ataru and Mendou, or Ataru and Lum as major plot elements. The weakest episodes are those with a plot involving one-shot characters. Obviously such episodes are always without consequence and are little more than a distraction, or 'filler' if you will.
Urusei Yatsura was made during the first half of the 1980s, with the spin off movies running all the way into the 90s. During that time period, most Japanese animation underwent a great deal of development and became significantly more "realistic" in terms of proportions. For example, compare the 1979 series of Mobile Suit Gundam with the 1985 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. These two series are roughly contemporary to the start and end of Urusei Yatsura retrospectively and are both from the same series, yet they look radically different. Mobile Suit Gundam almost resembles an American cartoon, while in Zeta there has been a clear effort to make them resemble real people as closely as possible. Such a deviation in style would not seem appropriate in a single series, so improvements within Urusei Yatsura are more modest. Improvements on detail and colouring without tampering with the original, slightly cartoonish art style.
The animation is also simplified. It's common for endless shounen series like this to feature animation that is less than stellar, and while there's nothing groundbreaking here, at least there aren't many scenes where bad animation becomes a problem. When it does stinginess is usually the cause, rather than laziness or ineptitude. Most of the errors do not really stand out, instead a few details are spared when perhaps they shouldn't have been, or a certain sequence will feel like a cell dragged across a background rather than proper 'animation'. It could however be worse, and indeed most would be expecting worse.
Urusei Yatsura may be visually unimpressive, but its soundtrack is spectacular. Everything from the opening and ending themes, to the background music, to the little sound effect when Lum starts flying is fantastic. The main themes are some catchy 80s pop tunes, the best of which is technically not from the TV series. The main theme of UY Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer is "Ai wa Boomerang" and it's a thumping pop tune with a slightly melancholic tone, and I often sing it while showering. The background music and the sound effects all work from a similar palette which complements the series perfectly, capturing the sci-fi wackiness of it all by referencing older science fiction shows like Doctor Who and Star Trek.
Unfortunately there is only so much a good soundtrack can redeem an often enjoyable but overlong and at times slightly tedious anime. Some episodes of Urusei Yatsura are comedy gold, but many of them are just a bit too boring to stomach for long. B nobody said that you must watch all of it, and there's little point in denying yourself something good because of any unhealthy obsession with completing everything you start. Anime is a bit like gambling: you should stop when the fun stops.
And if you're still feel unsure about starting this show, keep in mind that Urusei Yatsura is one of the most influential anime ever made. If you do not bother to at least familiarise yourself with it, your ability to enjoy anime will suffer slightly: obvious references will escape you; old ideas will seem novel. Your understanding of this medium, which is already difficult to comprehend, will always be incomplete. You'll also be missing out on Beautiful Dreamer, one of the better anime films ever made and the 'true' directorial debut of Mamoru Oshii. Last but not least, my darling, you'll also miss out on a series which at its best, is one of the finest comedy anime ever made.
