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Urusei Yatsura (うる星やつら) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday from September 1978 to February 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were collected in 34 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of Ataru Moroboshi, and the alien Lum, who believes she is Ataru's wife after he accidentally proposes to her. The series makes heavy use of Japanese mythology, culture, and puns. It was adapted into an anime television series produced by Kitty Films and broadcast on Fuji TV affiliates from October 1981 to March 1986, with 194 half-hour episodes. Twelve OVAs and six theatrical films followed, and the series was released on various home video formats. The manga series was republished in different formats in Japan. Viz Media released the series in North America in the 1990s under the names Lum * Urusei Yatsura and The Return of Lum, but dropped it after eight issues. They re-licensed the manga and released an omnibus edition under its original title with new translations from 2019 to 2023. The television series, OVAs, and five of the films were released in North America with English subtitles, as well as a dub for the films by AnimEigo. They provided extensive notes on the series to allow people to understand the many cultural references and jokes in the series that would not normally be understood by non-Japanese. The remaining film, Beautiful Dreamer, was released bilingually by Central Park Media. Five of the films, as well as the OVAs, are available from MVM Films in the United Kingdom. The series was released on television in Southeast Asia as Lamu the Invader Girl. The series and films have been license rescued by Discotek Media for a Blu-ray release. A second anime television series adaptation of 46 episodes produced by David Production premiered on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block in October 2022, exactly 41 years after the first premiered. That series is licensed by Sentai Filmworks and streamed on Hidive. Urusei Yatsura launched Takahashi's career and received positive reception in and out of Japan from fans and critics alike. The manga has over 35 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. In 1980, it received the 26th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category, as well as the 18th Seiun Award for the Best Comic category in 1987. Plot An alien race known as the Oni arrive on Earth to invade the planet. Instead of taking over the planet by force, the Oni give humans a chance to fight for the rights to the planet by taking part in a competition. The competition is a variant of the game of tag (known as "the game of the Oni" in Japanese), in which the human player must touch the horns on the head of the Oni player within one week. The computer-selected human player is Ataru Moroboshi, a lecherous, unlucky and academically unsuccessful high school student from the fictional Tomobiki Town (友引町) in Nerima, Japan, and the Oni player is Lum, daughter of the leader of the alien invaders. Despite his initial reluctance to take part in the competition, Ataru becomes interested in the game when he meets Lum. When the competition begins, Lum surprises everyone by flying away and Ataru finds himself unable to catch her. Before the last day of the competition, Ataru's girlfriend Shinobu Miyake encourages Ataru by pledging to marry him if he wins. On the final day of the competition, Ataru wins the game by stealing Lum's bikini top, which prevents her from protecting her horns in favor of protecting her modesty. In celebrating his victory, Ataru expresses his joy at being able to get married; however, Lum misinterprets this as a proposal from Ataru and accepts on the competition's worldwide live television broadcast. Despite the misunderstanding, Lum falls in love with Ataru and moves into his house. Despite Ataru's lack of interest in Lum and attempts to rekindle his relationship with Shinobu, Lum frequently interferes and Shinobu loses interest in Ataru. Still, Ataru's flirtatious nature persists despite Lum's attention. Lum attempts to stop him from flirting, which results in Ataru receiving powerful electric shock attacks from Lum as punishment. Two characteristics of Ataru are particularly strong: his pervertedness and his bad luck that draws to him all bizarre residents of the planet, the spirit world and even the galaxy. Later Lum begins attending the same school as Ataru despite his objections. Lum develops a fan base of admirers among the boys of the school, including Shutaro Mendo, the rich and handsome heir to a large corporation that all the girls from Tomobiki have a crush on. Despite their romantic interest, none of Lum's admirers will risk upsetting Lum by trying to force her and Ataru apart, although this does not stop them from trying to get Ataru punished due to his bad behavior, and interfering every time the two get close. Production In 1977, Rumiko Takahashi created the short story Those Selfish Aliens that was nominated for Shogakukan's Best New Comic Artist award. This would serve as the basis for creating Urusei Yatsura which was first published a year later when Takahashi was 21 years old. The series was her first major work, having previously only published short stories and is a combination of romantic comedy, science fiction, suburban life, and Japanese folktales. The title of the series is an untranslatable pun on the word urusai (うるさい), meaning "noisy" or "obnoxious", but written with the Chinese character for "planet"; the title can be translated roughly into English as "Those Obnoxious Aliens". The series first appeared in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday in September 1978. At the start of the series it was only scheduled to run for 5 chapters. Ataru was the central character and each chapter would feature a different strange character. The character of Lum was only going to appear in the first chapter and was not in the second chapter; however, Takahashi decided to re-include her in the third chapter. The series was not an instant success and chapters were initially published sporadically. Between May and September 1978 she simultaneously worked on a series called Dust Spot; however, the increasing popularity of Urusei Yatsura caused her to focus on Urusei and the series became a regular serialization from the middle of 1979. Takahashi said that she had been dreaming about the overall universe of Urusei Yatsura since she was very young. She said that the series "really includes everything I ever wanted to do. I love science fiction because sci-fi has tremendous flexibility. I adopted the science fiction-style for the series because then I could write any way I wanted to". She wanted the reader to be completely surprised by the next panel and used slapstick comedy to create a reaction in the reader. When Takahashi ran out of ideas she would create new characters. Takahashi shared a small 150-square-foot apartm.... Discover the J Lum popular books. Find the top 100 most popular J Lum books.