English Dub Review: Urusei Yatsura “Family Feud!! / Hello, Sailor Suit!!”

Overview:

Ataru and his friends were supposed to have a fun beach trip, but they find themselves swept up in Ryunosuke’s family drama instead!

Our Take:

This anime seems to follow the model of just adding more characters to create content. Instead of focusing on the already huge cast of characters and making them actually likable we just get more one-note, tropey characters. There’s a lot to unpack with the new characters, Ryunosuke, and her dad.

First, of course, she’s a girl because we need more characters for Ataru to harass. I think Mendo was the only male character that has been introduced to have any sort of lasting impact on the story. Everyone else has just been a woman for Ataru to chase and continue to disrespect Lum. Lum isn’t blameless either but I’m getting away from the point.

Second, Ryunosuke’s relationship with her father is pretty much abusive. If they disagree with on anything at all they start hitting each other and in order to get what she wants her father forces her to beat her in a fight. It’s just yet another sign of how dated this story is.

I keep holding out hope that this will start to turn around but something tells me this is just how it is. Not everything needs a remake and this might be the biggest proof of that. As far as I know, this series got a full adaption the first time around so why not remake something that didn’t get that chance?