Urusei Yatsura

This is another really funny anime series concerning a young, incredibly lecherous boy who has to save the earth by catching a girl alien. Of course, he doesn't know she can fly so it makes his task a little more difficult.

He succeeds, of course, and Lum instantly decides he is the one who is her "Darling." The problem with that is Ataru, the teen-age boy, wants almost every girl he sees and is not above grabbing various parts of the female anatomy (and getting slapped in the process) whenever the opportunity arises.

Which would be problematic enough except that Lum, who is rather jealous, can also discharge a rather strong electric shock which causes Ataru to spend a good part of his time recovering from Lum's jealousy.

Beautiful Dreamer

This is a 90 minute movie which is rather strange. The movie centers around Lum and her friends basically reliving the same high school day over and over. When someone finally realizes this and begins investigating the group finds that they are on some kind of floating island.

A good part of the movie deals with various Japanese myths so it's helpful to have some knowledge of their mythology and spiritual systems.

The movie is also rather odd in that the first, say, two-thirds of the movie could have been done with almost any anime characters in the same situation; Ranma and his group, Tenchi and his group, and so on. It's not really a Urusei Yatsura story. The last third revolves more around the actual characters.

This is a very unusual story and not necessarily any kind of comedy in the nature of other tv episodes. I thought it was quite good, worth watching and re-watching although some might not like it due to its more serious nature.

TV Series 3

This 100 minute tape has various of the regular tv episodes on it. These are much more comedic in nature including one in which Ataru ends up being kidnapped by crows (of a kind) and is brought to yet-another-female-alien's-spaceship. He is to awaken the princess with a kiss, after which he is to mate with her, which makes him incredibly happy.

Of course Ataru is not exactly prime mating material, so Princess Kuruma has to figure out what to do about the entire situation.

Another episode revolves around a historical story using the same characters who need to fend off ogres. A third episode a black magician, and the final episode involves Kurama's father teaching Ataru the secrets of swordmenship.

The graphics are quite primitive by the standards of what we are used to today, but I still really enjoyed this tape and plan to get other episodes of the series.

Japanese Urusei Yatsura tankobons numbers 14 and 15. They are unusually thick, about twice as thick as an average Japanese anime tankobon.

This is a thoroughly delightful Urusei Yatsura cd, SM-213. The music is almost all very upbeat; a number of the tracks, though, appear to be conversations between Lum and her "darling" so some tracks may end up being skipped so you can go on to the music. Definitely worth getting!