Urusei Yatsura 01 (2022)(And So It Begins #UruseiYatsura)

うる星やつら episode 01 (2002)
Urusei Yatsura 01 (2022) review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Alien spacecraft begin to descend to Earth. Meanwhile, MOROBOSHI Ataru argues with his girlfriend Shinobu about his eyeing other girls. Shinobu agrees to give him one more chance, but he can’t help but ogle another baby that jogs by. As such, Shinobu whacks him and leaves. An elderly, short monk named Cherry observes this and tells Ataru that he’s about to have bad luck. At that moment, Shinobu arrives with Ataru’s mom. Government cars arrive to take Ataru away.

Urusei Yatsura 01

At the Moroboshi home, Ataru finds a giant oni waiting. This oni is an Oni space alien. Ataru has been chosen to represent Earth in a competition against the invaders. The Oni’s daughter, Lum, arrives as Ataru’s opponent. As in the Japanese childhood game, Ataru need only grab Lum’s horns in ten days to win. Otherwise, Earth is doomed. Ataru accepts, thinking this will be easy. However, when the contest starts, Ataru learns that Lum can fly, making things difficult.

Urusei Yatsura 01

On the final day of the contest, Ataru is depressed. As such, Shinobu says she’ll marry him if he wins. With this motivation, Ataru manages to grab Lum’s bikini top. She comes after him to get it, allowing Ataru to grab her horns. However, Lum mistakes Ataru’s cries of marriage as a proposal and accepts, becoming his wife. Shinobu is angry as is Ataru when Lum moves in. Ataru throws Lum out.

Urusei Yatsura 01

Lum returns to her UFO in orbit. Ataru attempts to square a date with Shinobu, but Lum interferes. Shinobu and Ataru are determined to get together, so Lum causes lightning to rain down, causing massive damage. Ataru reaches Lum, believing her to be Shinobu. This enrages Shinobu and she attacks Ataru with a telephone pole.

Urusei Yatsura 01

Thoughts/Review:

And so it begins anew in 2022 with Urusei Yatsura 01.

Urusei Yatsura 01

And So it Begins…but Different: Ataru

I’ve never read the source manga, so I cannot say how this was adapted. I did watch the original Urusei Yatsura anime from the 1980s. In the original, Ataru gets hit with a baseball and is introduced to Cherry. Then at Ataru’s home, we see he’s in a relationship with Shinobu. As I recall, Ataru at this point is not chasing skirts. He really is heavy for Shinobu. And I think that’s how the manga was, but I’m not sure.

Urusei Yatsura 01

However, 2022 Urusei Yatsura 01 plays this out much differently. On one hand, making Ataru ogle every girl that comes by is in character with what he would become. On the other, it makes Shinobu kinda dumb for being with him. Further, it made Shinobu’s promise to marry Ataru feel wrong. Even if Earth is on the line, she had grown weary of his constant lusting over other women.

Urusei Yatsura 01

Another big change is the folks visiting Ataru on the final night of the contest. Originally, it was just Shinobu. Now, it is Shinobu and two guys. I guess they are supposed to be Perm and Kakugari, but if so, they have massive character design changes. And why would they be there without Megane?

Urusei Yatsura 01

Continuing the changes, in the original anime, Lum’s Stormtroopers came into play. And there was some weird, alien bus driver or something. Here, we have Ataru and Shinobu attempting to get together in spite of Lum’s interference. To be honest, this second story worked much better for me than the first anime. Having Ataru and Shinobu attempt to resume their relationship felt more natural than the weirdness of the initial anime episode 1.

Urusei Yatsura 01

And So it Begins…but Different: Lum

I wondered how the 2022 anime would handle Lum losing her top. Back in 1981, her breasts were shown in full. Naturally, that’s all gone in Urusei Yatsura 01. Also, the method of Ataru removing Lum’s top has changed. In the first anime, Ataru uses a gun with a small, plunger stick, to yank her top off. In this 2022 version, he manages to grab her and then remove her top.

Urusei Yatsura 01

I think the 1981 way worked best. In the new version, Ataru is wasting time removing her top when he should be going for the horns. As such, it is a happy accident that causes Ataru to win. But in the 1981 version, Ataru is crafty as heck. He knows he’ll never touch Lum, thus the gun and roped, plunger stick ammo.

Urusei Yatsura 01

That aside, Lum in the second half of the episode is pretty much classic Lum from the series. She’s not going to allow Ataru to be with any other girl but herself. The one thing that was different was Lum calling up a lightning storm, and then raining down lightning all over from her UFO.

Urusei Yatsura 01

HIDIVE (Sentai)

On the HIDIVE side of things, Sentai did the subtitles for Urusei Yatsura 01. They stripped out all Japanese honorifics, which sucks. I give them credit for actually using the term “Oni” to talk about Lum’s race. However, I take that credit back and then some when the translator/adapter removed the “oni” gags in favor of “demon”.

Urusei Yatsura 01

In addition, Ataru’s trademark “girl hunt” is removed in favor of whatever the translator/adapter decided to go with. 🙄

Urusei Yatsura 01

Also, the translator/adapter decided to insert profanity into the subtitles when it wasn’t there in the Japanese. I’m old enough to remember when fansub groups would do this and they’d get slammed for it. Such “make it hip” stuff was proof that fansubs were unprofessional rubbish, and official subs were the best. Today, official subtitles add profanity left and right because F you!

Urusei Yatsura 01

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Urusei Yatsura 01 with some final thoughts.

  • In his first appearance, I didn’t find Cherry nearly as irritating as I did in the 1981 anime. I wonder if that will change.
  • I think it is awesome that Ataru’s original seiyuu, FURUKAWA Toshio, is voicing Ataru’s dad in the 2022 anime. Outside of one (purposeful) moment, he sounded nothing like Ataru, which was cool.
  • I believe this 2022 series is supposed to be set in the 1980s. While I see aerial TV antennas on the roofs; boxed, small TVs; and corded telephones, I’m not getting an 80s vibe from the anime. I don’t know why.

Urusei Yatsura 01

In the end, I liked the 2022 Urusei Yatsura 01 more than the 1981 version. I’m really interested in seeing how the 2022 version goes.

Urusei Yatsura 01

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6 Responses to “Urusei Yatsura 01 (2022)(And So It Begins #UruseiYatsura)”

  1. Markko Martin says:

    In all fairness, the original first manga episode it goes like that, Ataru grabs Lum’s bra in error, that exact pose too.

    Also, in the manga story, this error did not happen in the very last day of the tag game, and the funny thing is that Lum does not have a replacement bra ! So she goes to Ataru home that same night to retrieve it, only to discover that Ataru was wearing it under his pajamas rotfl ! 🙂

    This means that in the next tag game day she had to cover her breasts with her arm(s), and this was detrimental for her agility, so she was less fast in evading Ataru attempts to grab her (which in the end happens).

    I think all in all the original anime had the funnier first episode, considering all ideas (how to forget the end with the iconic ”if you ever cheat on me…” and the very first electrocution), and the manga a close second.

    One thing that this new anime first episode sadly missed is the reason why Lum ends up in love with Ataru, it’s suggested that she started to admire him during his last attempts and/or when he was celebrating the victory, but on the manga and the original anime it happens when he grabs her horns and shouts ”now I can marry her !” ! What Ataru did not know (nor most of the people watching Uruseiyatsura) is that when you grab Oni horns you can make a wish and it’s automatically granted (it’s a japanese legend, of course, Rumiko incorporated that in the story, among all other things).

    So when he says ”I can marry her” … it actually happens with Lum ’cause of the misunderstanding of not saying Shinobu name 🙂

    cheers

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      In all fairness, the original first manga episode it goes like that, Ataru grabs Lum’s bra in error, that exact pose too.

      Ah. Good to know. Thanks for the info. How did Ataru manage to snag her in the first place? Luck?

      So she goes to Ataru home that same night to retrieve it, only to discover that Ataru was wearing it under his pajamas rotfl !

      Haha! Wow. That is a radical difference from what the anime adaptations went for.

      I think all in all the original anime had the funnier first episode

      I just didn’t like the second half of the original anime episode.

      Anyway, thanks for writing! Look forward to hearing more of your thoughts in future episodes.

      • Markko Martin says:

        You can read the 1st chapter by yourself 🙂 (link below)

        Originally Lum was planned as a part-time character, the protagonist was meant to be Ataru ! Infact you don’t see Lum in the second chapter at all…. she was back in the third one because a lot of people were asking Rumiko “what happened with her, where did she go, are they still married ?” so Takahashi brought her back due to this success, to actually become the lead character of UY, as much as Ataru (if not more, for example here in Italy the anime was called “Lum the space girl” lol !)

        And yes I already know most of the differences between the original manga and original anime 80s version, will be fun to spot these differences in the new 46 anime remakes…

        ww5.manganelo.tv/chapter/manga-kd957612/chapter-1.01

        • AstroNerdBoy says:

          Thanks for the information! I never know that about Lum. Just goes to show that sometimes, the audience (customers) knows best.

  2. Shingo says:

    Its nice to see you posting about Urusei Yatsura again. Mind if I answer some of your questions?

    This is a little confusing, but TLDR version: “Those two guys visiting Ataru are the manga version of those anime characters you mentinend.”

    In the manga, Ataru has two recurring friends/extras, Kosuke (skinny guy) and a nameless chubby guy, they basically fill the role of Hiroshi and Daisuke in Ranma 1/2. Extras that act as a voice of the class without ever getting any focus themselves. They showed up in the manga version of the first episode/chapter just like they do here.

    Megane in the manga never received any name and disappeared once Mendou started showing up. However in the anime, he became a major character entirely thanks to Shigeru Chiba’s bombastic performance. Megane’s entourage in the manga was composed of unrefined and generic designed characters, with the exception of the character design, the anime later named Chibi.

    In the anime adaptation, the character Perm is officially the same character as Kosuke and is also part of Megane’s fanclub. The only real noticeable difference in appearance is Perm has curly hair instead of spiky hair. Some people consider them separate, but having read the manga first and watched the anime later, I consider them the same, and the creators have stated so in interviews.

    Infact its stated Perm’s real name is Kosuke.

    Kakugari can also be considered the anime version of Kosuke’s chubby hanger-on.

    Anyhow it seems like this anime adaptation is using the manga version of their designs, but they’re still grouped with Megane and Chibi in the intro and promotional images. So for all intents and purposes, they’re Perm and Kakugari.

    I hope that wasn’t too confusing, LOL!

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      Not confusing at all. Thanks for the information! Amazing how the original anime adaptation modified things from the source manga. But the classic nature of the OG anime caused it to have a life of its own.

      Feel free to add any other information as time goes on. I will be blogging the whole series.

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