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.

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.

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.

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.

Thoughts/Review:

And so it begins anew in 2022 with 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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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

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!

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.

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.