Mangaka Rumiko Takahashi manages to sell Urusei Yatsura's premise. As the title suggests, everyone in this manga is some kind of faulty person. However, none of it is taken particularly seriously. There is no need to get upset over someone being an asshole here, given that it has little overall consequence on the next chapters, or that the characters themselves may kind of deserve it. The result is that the author manages to pull of lots of gags with them, helped by the scenario's she puts them in. These are often rather silly takes on Japanese mythology mixed in with bizarre alien tech or cultures.
On top of that, she seems to be slowly working on a long-term story thread, building the characters relationships. Ataru, a shameless womanizer of a main character, strongly dislikes Lum, the attractive alien girl who was the OG waifu from the 80s, who doesn't always adapt to Earth's customs easily, and who is also infatuated with him. But this guy would much rather go after any hot girl that he stumbles upon, instead of recognizing that he already has what he says he wants, and keeps hooking up with a girlfriend Shinobu who in reality, has long given up on him, except not really. With 34 volumes, it is bound to be a slow journey, but one that takes place in the background of a solid comedy manga.
What Urusei Yatsura ends up as is a fairly entertaining manga with each chapter containing some good gags, but that needs to not be taken too seriously. Only for one to realise some kind of investment when there are genuinely romantic moments involving character development, however slightly.
