English Dub Review: Urusei Yatsura “YOUNG LOVE ON THE RUN ;BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE”

 

Overview:

To save Earth, unlucky Ataru must win a high-stakes game of tag against a beautiful alien. Luckily his friend Shinobu has offered a helping hand (in marriage) as motivation!

Our Take:

I’ve found that I really like Rumiko Takahashi’s works, most of hers have anime adaptions and are pretty good. Some of her works include Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, and Maison Ikkoku. Urusei Yatsura is a remake of the anime from the 80s and I was really looking forward to it. I knew that it involved the main guy getting engaged to an alien but other than that I didn’t know much else. Turns out there are a few outdated things that I hope get tweaked a bit.

Ataru is not what I would call a good protagonist, at least one episode in anyways. If there was one thing I could nitpick about Takahashi’s works it would be that the male lead almost always sucks. Godai in Maison Ikkoku was pretty awful but luckily he went through some good character development so I will hope for the same with Ataru. Ataru’s biggest problem is he can’t stop hitting on every woman that moves even though he has a loving girlfriend. So I thought his getting engaged to Lum would have been great for him. I appreciate that he showed some backbone and tried to stick with his girlfriend Shinobu but even she starts to shit on him from time to time. The annoying thing with these stories is the guy gets shit on when doing good things but then all the chances in the world when being a total scumbag.

With how I’ve led this review you might be thinking I don’t like it. I would understand but I do like it I just think you have to manage your expectations. It is a remake of an old show so there are some old tropes that might be annoying by today’s standards. Urusei Yatsura is considered a classic anime and beloved by a lot of people so I’m excited to see why.