Urusei Yatsura Movie 1: Only You

Out of 100 Nobles watching… 72 were impressed! 18 Want generally more out of the story 10 got bored of slow reused animations Here I am reviewing the first Urusei Yatsura film in my chronological watching quest of this entire franchise. I will say outright that overall I was impressed with what was shown here given how I feel about the show in general. I mean no disrespect to Urusei Yatsura as it is an absolute powerhouse in iconic Japanese culture. The early years of the show are from a VERY dated time however and with that and the show being a regular episodic broadcast there are certain quirksabout it that lose some points with me. What pleased me about this movie was that it definitely embraced that it was a film. The quality of the animation was rather enjoyable, the plot was more or less succinct, and it had a good number of legitimately funny gags. The movies shortcomings were the usual fair I’ve come to expect from the franchise. Ataru the protagonist is an absolute degenerate and I hate him, but on the other hand everyone in the series is kind of terrible which gives it a weird charm. Despite the higher quality animation there are a number of segments that reuse a fair number of animations. It’s more or less understandable as this is from a time where everything was made with cells, but it’s still noticeable. Lastly a grievance I’ve had with the series as a whole so far let alone this movie is that no matter how dramatic things get, that tension is always broken with something that feels cheap. I felt the plot of the film was actually quite sad and could have been something further explored, but nope we gotta revert to our status quo for when the show keeps airing. Can’t have our characters experience any real growth, now can we? Sigh… I really enjoyed some of the musical numbers and I felt they gave the movie some extra push where it needed it. I’ve been enjoying this series as a bit of a Japanese learning tool and to place myself in the shoes of a Japanese generation older than myself. This movie was very fun sitting comfy with a blanket and a bowl of cereal and I look forward to the many others. Just make no mistake, it’s not great, just a longer, higher quality episode of Urusei Yatsura and if you’ve signed up for that you know what you want any way.

Quick take: “Only You,” is one of the most important turning points in Lum and Ataru’s relationship. The story is very well written and is worth a watch. I do suggest you watch this as part of the series, not as a stand alone as it expects you to have a working knowledge of the characters and premise. If you’ve been waiting for some Lum and Ataru romance, you’ll find a bit of it here. Rewatch value: extremely high. Score relative to the series. My Original series score: 10 “Only You,” is a fun story that is key in the relationship between Ataru and Lum. It was wellwritten and easy to follow. There are quite a few gags and classic UY bat-shit insanity that will make this a favorite if you enjoyed the original series. The references to pop-culture are plenty and unmistakable. There are two ways you can look at the movie and get the same level of enjoyment. Like I did on my first watch, you can take the story at face value and find it incredibly entertaining, or you can think about the points it conveys underneath the surface in relation to Ataru. Art is on par with the series and sound would be slightly worse, mostly due to the music which is just okay for this movie when compared to the rest of the series. Voice acting is on par. Characters remain high as they are all well thought out and acted, including the new characters. This movie, although seemingly lighthearted, is an important development point for Ataru. To me, this movie marks the turn in where the tension in Lum and Ataru's relationship stems from. I found this movie highly enjoyable and is a must watch for anyone looking to complete the UY storyline. I would also suggest this be watched in release order.

NOTE: I have yet to watch Urusei Yatsura itself as series, so that may be why I feel the way I do. I watched this a few years ago and I loved it, but upon looking back it wasn't as great as it first seemed to me personally. The story is a solid setup and I have a soft spot for the anime art style of the 80s, as well as the music in the movie. However, I thought the characters were only really okay, but some were better than others, i.e. I really like Lum, but I dislike Ataru. Again, I first watched the movie with zeroprior knowledge of Urusei Yatsura as a series, so this may have hindered my experience watching the movie.

I made the horrible decision to watch and review all of the Urusei Yatsura movies. Hopefully these next reviews that I write don't become dull and monotonous. Lord give me strength. I'm going to spoil this movie, by the way. Eleven years prior, a young boy and a young girl meet each other in a playground and play a game of tag with each other. Everything is fine until the young boy steps on the young girl's shadow. The young girl tells the boy that on her home planet, if a boy steps on a girl's shadow then the two must marry someday. The youngboy agrees to marry the girl someday, not even aware of the concept of marriage. The girl leaves and they never meet again, until eleven years later in present day, present time ha ha ha! The young boy's name was Ataru Moroboshi and grew up to be quite the unpleasant person. I've watched a large chunk of Urusei Yatsura up until this point, and I can safely say with absolute confidence that I really hate Ataru. Without going into too much detail, because let's be real, if you're reading this review you've seen or at least watched some of Urusei Yatsura, Ataru has the tendency to cheat on Lum. He's a complete scumbag because he cheats on her right in her face, begs for forgiveness after realizing how much he misses her, they make up, and then a week later he's cheating on her again. The dude is oblivious of how lucky he really is and takes advantage of Lum's kindness. Which leads to the plot of this film. Anyone with a connection to Ataru in any way is given a letter of invitation to Ataru and Elle's wedding. The young girl that Ataru played with all those years ago, her name is Elle, and she is the queen of her own planet. Everyone almost instantly finds out about the wedding, including Lum, and no one is happy about it. Except for Ataru. He's ecstatic for the wedding; which is concerning because he has no memory of the promise he made eleven years prior. When meeting with the aliens who work for Elle, Ataru easily accepts his fate to marry Elle while knowing jack diddly shit about her. Lum is understandably pissed about the whole situation, but quickly falls into a depression. The first-third of this film is pretty slow with not much going on. That is until Lum meets Benten, an old friend who convinces Lum to fight and take back Ataru. They even planned a wedding for Ataru and Lum inviting most of the cast from the show. Well, not invite, more like forcefully brought along. The midsection of the film starts to pick up by having a long, intense action scene where spies working for Elle kidnap Ataru. There's a brief scene of Ataru talking shit about Lum and how she's annoying and persistent all the time, and everyone hears it. What an absolute fuckface. Lum can be annoying at times, but she always means well and has the best intentions. Pretty sad how she fell in love with Fuckface Mcgee and he doesn't care half the time. There's a scene where Lum is chasing down the spy to rescue Ataru and she didn't realize that the ship she was using was going to explode. When it does, Ataru sees this and he's immediately concerned. I appreciate this scene because the writing in the series loves to show how terrible of a person Ataru is, but this scene in particular proves that he isn't heartless. I like that. Lum is unharmed and it leads to a sweet yet somber song about Ataru and Lum's relationship. It was really beautiful and it was a touching moment. And now, we finally meet Elle and honestly, she's not as cute as I thought she would be. She mistook Mendo, the rich asshole character, as Ataru and that got a laugh out of me. Elle portrays herself to be a sweet, prim and proper queen. She keeps her Moet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet. "Let them eat cake," she says, just like Marie Antoinette. She seems pleasant, but there's a twist. Mendo and Elle split off alone because Elle finds Mendo more attractive than Ataru. She then reveals to Mendo that she has a harem of one hundred thousand handsome men. She keeps them all in a large freezer so she can have an eternal harem. This may come off as nitpicky, but this brings up an issue. If she was a young girl only eleven years ago, how did she have the time to manipulate and capture one hundred thousand men. That's physically impossible. She would have to manipulate and capture nine thousand ninety one men a year. And yes, I did the math. 9,091 × 11 = 100,001 I mean, I'm a tad bit off, but whatever. The rest of the gang overhear this information and are quickly thrown into prison. From this point forward the movie becomes a "We have to stop the wedding" story, and right before Ataru and Elle are officially married, Lum interrupts the wedding and somehow the harem of one hundred thousand men are released. Shit gets wack after this point. The last twenty minutes of the film is insane and it definitely reminds you of an Urusei Yatsura episode, which is something I'll get into later. The coolest scene in this entire film was also the shortest. The warp scene! Lum and Benten invade the wedding and try to leave by warping back to Earth. It's the only scene I found pretty to look at. Great animation, vivid and bright color choices, and the background looks like an acid trip. In fact, the whole sequence looks like an acid trip. The characters are thrown eleven years in the past do to the warp machine not functioning properly. That makes no sense, but whatever. They soon realize that Ataru never stepped on Elle's shadow and fibbed about the whole thing. What a massive fibber. I'm not entirely sure why, but Elle is devastated to see the truth. At the very end of the film, the characters make their way back to planet Elle and they're banished forever. When they make it back to Earth, a new wedding is prepared for Ataru and Lum, and of course, Ataru rejects it. That's how the film ends. This was an okay film. My biggest complaint with it is that it felt like a twenty minute episode of the show stretched out to be a one hundred minute feature length film. The production quality of the movie doesn't look any better than the actual show. Maybe just slightly higher. The background art looks better and it's more detailed, other than that, it looks like an episode of the show. Most of the soundtrack is just music from the show, with the exception of a few new emotional tracks that sound great. The animation, like I said, is just like the show. Things do get a bit crazy near the end, especially with that mob of handsome men. I like this movie, but not all that much. If you like Urusei Yatsura, then just watch it. When I say it's just like an episode of the show, it really is just that, exactly. It's nothing all that special and the stakes are not that high, because stuff like this happens all the time in the show. Rumiko Takahashi's writing is peculiar. I'll give this film a 6 out of 10. Story: 6/10 Art: 6/10 Sound: 8/10 Characters: 6/10 Enjoyment: 5/10 Overall: 6/10