Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer

Ah yes, the only Urusei Yatsura movie people actually give a shit about. Let's talk about it. So, here's a funny joke, I drew a complete blank when writing this review. Talking about this film is going to be difficult for me, and I'm not going to summarize the film like I did for the previous one. I will talk about the premise of the film, however. Tomobiki high school is starting up a cultural festival and the first thing I immediately noticed was that quality of this film was much higher than the previous one. Within the first five minutes of the film, it's ... already pretty hectic with students, props, entertainers, and all kinds of shit running around. The main cast of characters are also preparing by making...what I first thought was a Nazi themed restaurant, but I'm not entirely sure. The Swastika was originally called a "Manji" in buddhist culture. It symbolized peace and prosperity, but after looking at the theme of the restaurant, I was pretty confused.

Grade A asshole, Ataru Moroboshi, and Mendo Shutaro are tasked with bring back food for the rest of the gang, because they plan to stay the night at school to finish up the restaurant. This is where I'll stop describing the film, because shit starts to get unnerving and puzzling for the gang. I definitely see the appeal of this film and why people can't shut the fuck about it. The actual plot of the film is not that good, but I can give you a few reasons why you should watch it through a pros and cons list. Yayyyy!

Pros:
• THE VISUALS. Incredible looking, detailed backgrounds, animation, and just general art design.
• Bizarre Cinematography (The good kind)

Beautiful Dreamer is a beautiful film. Firstly, this movie is the master of darkness. With the digital age of animation, I believe that newer anime have trouble creating true darkness that cel animation can do so easily. Digital anime is too bright and colorful; it has this shiny glow to it. Meanwhile, older anime has this more darker and analog feel to it, and many shows and movies of this era can pull off the darkness in a way digital anime can't. Not trying to disregard digital anime, there's pro's and con's for both styles of animation, it's just that this film in particular is in a completely different solar system when it comes to visual presentation. The scene where Ataru and Mendo are going out to get food downtown in the middle of the night, the background looks like an abyss. The whole scene itself is pretty creepy.
This movie was made to mess with your mind. Strange camera angles and shots of landscapes that look gorgeous, yet also ominous. This movie is a MUST-WATCH for the visuals alone. Like how, and without going into spoilers, the wind chime scene with Shinobu, or the multiple Atarus in the school, or the giant statues of the characters. It's almost like a fever dream at certain points. This does lead into a problem that I have with the film.

Con:
• The Plot.

The concept behind this film and the dream ideas are very fascinating, but the story is not much to write home about. Really, the only reason you would watch this film is for the visuals/mind-fuck scenes and nothing else. The reason for what's going on and the reason for the conflict is not particularly interesting. The pacing is okay. I really like it when an anime takes it's time and let's you process what's going on instead of introducing one thing after another without anytime to breathe *cough* *cough* Crusher Joe *cough* *cough*. I will say, the final stretch of this film where Ataru is stuck in the dream segments goes on for a bit too long. It's the last twenty minutes of the film and it should be cut down a bit, in my opinion. Mujaki's motivation is weird, but I think he's cool. Highly recommend this film. 8 out of 10.

Movies: 1 < 2

Story: 6/10
Art: 10/10
Sound: 8/10
Characters: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

In my early days of anime fandom, Rumiko Takahashi was probably the first mangaka whose works I was heavily into. My favourite of her manga series? Maison Ikkoku. When it comes to anime adaptations though, Urusei Yatsura would top my list.

It says something about Mamoru Oshii as a director, that he is able to achieve something like making this film and not compromise on the humour and tone that run through UY as a whole. All the elements that this film introduces just astounded me upon first viewing, as most hollywood films similar to this weren't to come along for 9 years (groundhog day being ... the key example here).

The quality of artwork is quite a leap from the tv series and also the first UY film. For a film made in 1984, it holds up surprisingly well.

All in all, this film will make you wonder where its story is going, what's going to happen next, etc. As i close, i have to ask, isn't that what all the best fiction does?

So, obviously the main reason I watched this without watching the show was because Mamoru Oshii directed it. But it was also available in English on Amazon Prime when I had other things I needed to do, so that made doing so pretty convenient. It's a good movie. I just felt like I was missing a lot because I didn't know the characters and it's a very characterization-driven story. It seems like it's almost fair to say the story doesn't make sense if you don't understand Lum's dynamic with the rest of the cast. At it's most basic level, it's not too complicated. But, on ... another, there was a really good scene where a character performed some process of elimination to figure out what was going on and it all came down to the relationship web. Which, honestly, was a pretty impressive payoff even if I didn't fully understand.

Oshii is hit and miss for me because I love basically all of his visual ideas in the abstract, but I frequently find the results somewhat or very boring outside of certain highlights. This film is very much in that vein. I like basically all of its ideas, but it didn't seem to come together such that I could watch it in one or even two sittings.