Lum*Urusei Yatsura

Most if not all cliches you would see in a romance anime/manga of current times have some sort of origin to Urusei Yatsura. A lot of things that I have read here have been deeply explored in other works by different authors who likely grew up with this manga, even the girls who weren't Lum clearly were the favorites of many as I could recognize exactly which modern-ish girls are basically just copies of Oyuki, Ryuunosuke, Shinobu, Sakura, Ran, Asuka or even Benten. Hell, even Kurama, the worst girl, had so many traits which I could instantly recognize. Yes, it went on to inspire many greatworks...despite honestly being just ok from an overall view. Look I like it, I rate it a 7 on personal preference, but this manga has a major flaw, cast bloat. There are so many side characters, main characters, one off characters, it never ends. The ending honestly makes me so mad because there are still so many loose threads left and so many things that could've happened instead of what we got. So many chapters will focus on someone who will either never show up again or show up so late that you forget who they even were. It doesn't matter who you like, if they aren't Ataru, Lum, Mendo or Ryuunosuke you will rarely see them in the spotlight. Even Shinobu who at first was a genuine rival and threat to Lum basically fades to the background for a large chunk of chapters. It isn't until way later where the cast veterans get actually used more. This leads to you either not caring about or straight up not liking many characters because they are about as deep as a puddle. I like it, but it leaves a sour taste in your mouth the longer you read it. It's up to you wheter you enjoy the taste or not.