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Nov 30, 2012 12:46 PM
#1
The Shrike

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Nov 2009
11580
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
Sweet little film, but a bit of a letdown after the amazing Urusei Yatsura Beautiful Dreamer.
"Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii

There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov

Jan 21, 2015 6:48 PM
#2

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Jun 2010
1873
Some decent stuff in here but it honestly takes until fully half-way in before anything worthwhile even starts. Terribly flabby.

The way everything became mundane after Lum left (e.g. Shinobu losing her inexplicable super-strength) was interesting, especially the way she noted everyone becoming seniors in high school. Like in most silly comedy series, the progression of time is unheard of, so this apparently banal normality is actually freakishly abnormal; they'd been second-years for the past four years of the TV show running, after all.

Not terribly surprising, but that Ataru is the last to hang on to Lum’s memory (even Megane gives up!) was decently executed.

The villain was a little flat; he gives up because he’s told to.

Ataru's harem scene contained a bunch of cameos from other Studio Pierrot or Takahashi works, such as Yuu and Mami, Kozue, and Maris. I'm sure there's more I missed.

The classroom scene at the end had too many cameos from the TV series to mention, as well as what seems to be Bulma from Dragon Ball. That manga had only been running for a few months at the time this film was released (January 1985), but Akira Toriyama was already popular due to Dr. Slump so a fan on the animation staff putting one of his new creations into the film isn’t implausible.

FronzelApr 27, 2023 4:46 PM
May 7, 2015 7:03 AM
#3

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Aug 2013
2073
While no film in this franchise can come close to the masterpiece that was movie 5, I actually really enjoyed this one, and my god that chase scene with Lum and Ruu was absolutely stunning.
Jul 18, 2015 6:21 PM
#4

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Apr 2012
845
Yeah I've cooled on this since my first watch while I love Beautiful Dreamer even more. Like Fronzel said, it takes a long time to get anything going, but the stuff later on about losing close friends and suddenly finding a hole in your life (or well, being the absentee yourself) gives me some of those "feels" or whatever the kids say.

Plot gets more interesting towards the end but there's far fewer comedy moments than I remembered, let alone ones that make me laugh much; BD just has everything to the max.
Jan 10, 2017 6:15 PM
#5

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May 2009
421
I found this movie to be okay, it wasn't as good as the first two were storywise though. But I found the part where everyone in Tomobiki just moved on after Lum's disappearance relatable, like when you break up with someone you were with for a long time or when a loved one passes away, you just continue on living without that person's presence. Now maybe it would have been more interesting if Ataru stayed a hippo and the only way to break it was for Lum and Ataru's love for each other overcome the obstacle. Anyways, at least time was fixed and it never really happened LOL (I still can't believe Ataru had more red strings, that cheater!)
Jan 30, 2017 5:45 PM
#6

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May 2012
25828
Quite a lovely movie I must say, it started as a generic episode, but near the ending the tone and atmosphere sure changed dramatically, especially to the point where it almost felt too mature!

Pretty lovely movie in general, quite loved that ending!
Feb 1, 2017 2:39 PM
#7
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Mar 2016
55
Sweet movie, with interesting things that happened at certain points. I mainly liked it. I have to say though I'm not such a big fan of English music becoming so popular in anime in the mid 80s.
Mar 23, 2018 11:32 PM
#8

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Jun 2007
2253
The gulf in class between this and when Oshii wrote/directed was staggering--even compared to the first movie he did, which also felt like a heavily padded TV episode. It felt like a bad TV episode that was incoherent visually with clowns, witches, etc... with characters chucked together into a theme park randomly. In comparison, Beautiful Dreamer got off the ground running and did a wonderful job getting the core cast all in one place.

I noticed the comedy was also lacking: without watching the TV series, I knew the tomboy character gag before seeing it in the movie. Oshii is pretty damn good at writing comedy that doesn't insult viewers intelligence.

Even once the film got beyond the first 20mins, it was painful: Ataru turned into a pink hippo and, rather than that being used for a laugh, he and Lum instead had a good ol' cry about it as if it was srsbiz drama. That was a genuine WTFAMIWATCHING moment. Then there were pointlessly endless flying chase sequences in quick succession. Ugh. Had to drop it, 40mins in. As well as the bad-in-a-different-way 4th movie.
AironicallyHumanMar 23, 2018 11:55 PM
Jan 24, 2019 11:39 PM
#9

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Sep 2014
268
Another great Urusei Yatsura film!
Jun 1, 2019 2:44 PM

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Jul 2015
9999
Pretty decent movie, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous two movies.

The story was pretty weak in my opinion, the first half didn't contain much content while only in the second half things started to get somewhat exciting.

"I'm becoming abnormal" Ataru, We all know you already were abnormal.
UnkrownedJun 1, 2019 11:53 PM

Apr 11, 2021 9:18 AM

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Jan 2018
3812
It was ok. The bar was set high after the 2nd movie (Beautiful Dreamer), but I wouldn't say this movie is better than the 1st movie (Only You), which may be disappointing to some.
Apr 11, 2021 9:20 AM

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Jan 2018
3812
Fronzel said:
Some decent stuff in here but it honestly takes until fully half-way in before anything worthwhile even starts. Terribly flabby.

The way everything became mundane after Lum left (e.g. Shinobu losing her inexplicable super-strength) was interesting, especially the way she noted everyone becoming seniors in high school. Like in most silly comedy series, the progression of time is unheard of, so this apparently banal normality is actually freakishly abnormal; they'd been second-years for the past four years of the TV show running, after all.

Not terribly surprising, but that Ataru is the last to hang on to Lum’s memory (even Megane gives up!) was decently executed.

The villain was a little flat; he gives up because he’s told to.

Ataru's harem scene contained a bunch of cameos from other Studio Pierrot or Takahashi works, such as Yuu and Mami, Kozue, and Maris. I'm sure there's more I missed.

The classroom scene at the end had too many cameos from the TV series to mention, as well as what seems to be Bulma from Dragon Ball. That manga had only been running for a few months at the time this film was released (January 1985), but Akira Toriyama was already popular due to Dr. Slump so a fan on the animation staff putting one of his new creations into the film isn’t implausible.

damn didn't catch that
Aug 2, 2022 2:20 AM

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Dec 2021
2660
I gotta say, this was my second favorite UY movie. I've watched plenty of emotional anime, but this one takes the cake for the longest length of time it kept me crying, and for the most tears shed overall.
Oct 2, 2022 1:32 AM
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Jan 2021
525
Acceptable. Took a while to get going and the hippo thing was dumb. The good part was the tone it took during Shinobu's narration but that was only a very short segment. The best thing over all was the GOAT end song Remember My Love this movie gave us. I've had that song saved for over 20 years as an .mp3 and only just now got around to watching the movie. The butterfly, dinosaur, seagull scene is not really what I'd have paired it with, but the song is still amazing.
Oct 24, 2022 10:09 AM
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Nov 2015
55
Mixed. AGAIN they play up the Ataru loves Lum trope only if she is gone. Seen it way too many times at this point. Still amazing amination and fun characters. Kind of imploded in the end, like they had no ideas what to do.
Jan 24, 2023 7:31 AM

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Jan 2018
3812
The beginning with the orb reminded me of the Shikon Jewel. It'd be pretty weird if the 3rd Urusei Yatsura movie ended up predicting Inuyasha.

I don't have many good things to say about this movie. In terms of positives, Remember My Love is visually stunning. Especially the mirror chase scene which definitely was hard to animate without the help of computers. The OP, ED, and the insert song were great too. Steffanie Borges and Ralph McCarthy are great.

I like the story concept but the execution mostly falls flat and most of it is because of weird pacing. The first 30 minutes were ok then Ataru turns into a hippo and then everything just sort of happened. There's no energy and it's all very exposition-heavy. The movie looks good but the story just isn't that interesting. The new characters Lahla and Ruu were both very mediocre. More like plot devices than characters. Ruu's mother's face was never shown and his being Lum's descendant didn't add anything to the story. It felt like a cheap plottwist. The existing characters also weren't that good. I can't say most of the side characters did anything significant to progress the plot except maybe Shinobu.

Ataru missing Lum is not a new concept. It's something we've seen executed many times and Episode 44 "After You've Gone" is what did it best. But the concept of Lum and her alien friends going away so the lives of people in Tomobiki becoming mundane was new. Albeit it doesn't make much sense cos the world of Urusei Yatsura was already wacky without Lum. But it was still a cool concept nonetheless.

The ending of the movie with the multiple red strings on Ataru's fingers is what killed it for me. The previous two movies no matter how lecherous Ataru got ultimately showed that Lum is the only one for him without setting it in stone and ruining the episodic nature. This movie did the exact opposite by basically implying Ataru got the harem ending. But to be fair to them, at that point the manga was still ongoing and the producers had no idea how the series was gonna end. So maybe they tried the harem ending to be original.

The last movie Beautiful Dreamer also had a scene where Ataru goes through different eras for his love for Lum. This movie has a similar scene except it's Lum going for Ataru in different forms of animals including dinosaurs. I guess they picked animals instead of people/aliens to differentiate it from Beautiful Dreamer. It's kind of a sweet scene. It was supposed to be emotional but personally, I found the whole thing goofy. The scene is then ruined by Ataru having more red strings than was necessary.

The biggest failure of this movie is that it's not funny. Which would be fine if it was a more serious movie. But I can't tell if this is supposed to be a serious movie or a funny movie. For example, Ataru turning into a hippo is at first shown as a sad thing. But there are other times when it's played for laughs. I couldn't laugh at him because it made me feel more like an asshole. So it just came off as awkward. You can make a serious Urusei Yatsura anime without sacrificing the comedy. Many episodes show this perfect such as episode 143 "Far Spring! Tale of the Lonely Fairy!!" which has similar themes to this movie but is significantly better despite being shorter. There are some moments in the movie that made me chuckle but for the most part it's unfunny. The humor is executed very artificially.

Not a terrible movie but not a great movie either. It's just painfully "okay". Even after a rewatch, my thoughts on it are the same as they were in my previous comments. I don't think I'll rewatch it again.
0451Jan 24, 2023 7:37 AM
Jun 8, 2023 8:36 PM
Deadhead

Offline
Dec 2018
3959
I want to start by saying that I really liked this movie, all the Urusei Yatsura movies have been great so far and this one is no exception, but that being said Movie 2 set a really high bar and this one did not quite reach it, and I didn’t think it would either which is probably why I wasn’t disappointed or anything like that. This one was closer to the first movie, the plot felt more like an Urusei Yatsura episode at certain points but also had parts that felt very much like a movie.

I’ll start with some of my issues, and I think my main one is that they did a lot of cool stuff early on with the amusement park but once it was revealed who Ruu actually was and they went to the mirror world they kinda dropped the amusement park completely and the mystery was mostly gone. My other issue is that Ataru becoming a Hippo started out as a big deal but was also forgotten about once the mystery of the curse was revealed and he just became regular Ataru again, I was thinking him turning back would be a lot more dramatic. And I think my last issue is that Lahla was underused, she was just kinda there until near the end when she was needed and this upsets me mainly because she’s another amazing movie waifu that will sadly never be seen again and I just wanted more time with her lol, that and I think her being important would have been better if she was part the plot earlier on. (Also her name is really similar to Lala from To Love-Ru lol)

But despite all that, I had a lot of fun watching this one just like the others, there were a ton of cool scenes and great moments, some beautiful art as well as some nice ost which the movies have been consistent with so far, I especially loved the opening and ending themes, so damn good, I love 80s jams, hard to beat this kind of music. And one really interesting aspect I thought this movie did was explore a reality where Lum and her friends weren’t there, the show did this a little bit but we never saw it to this extent so that was cool and depressing to see lol. And that final scene had so many cameos it wasn’t even funny, I tried to catch all of them but I’m sure I missed some, the movie itself had quite a bit of cameos as well, and so did the credits which was very nice. And of course this movie was amazing for Lum and Ataru romantically, especially that sequence where they broke the curse, really loved that. But with that, I guess I’m done with the 3rd Urusei Yatsura movie, once again I really loved it despite the high bar set by the 2nd movie and I look forward to the 4th one, whenever the time comes to watch that one!
TheColonel76Jun 8, 2023 8:55 PM
It’s time to ditch the text file.
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