Customer Reviews

Lum Urusei Yatsura: Perfect Collection

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone who is even mildly into the manga and anime scene will probably be familar with the character of Lum. Sometimes, that familiarity will lead to curiousity (or infatuation as is some cases), and sometimes the curiousity will lead to interest in the source manga. If you are one of these people (and you probably are if you are reading this), then congratulations! You've made the right choice, and fellow UY fans welcome you. Welcome to the wacky world of Urusei Yatsura! Drop your bags and forget about 'em, because chances are you ain't leavin'.

"Urusei Yatsura" is, as you might have guessed, a product of comedy genius Rumiko Takahashi. And with that, you can certainly expect to see her trademark brand of comedy slapstick. "Urusei Yatsura" isn't as action based as "Ranma 1/2" or "Inuyasha", but it has aces on the brand of slapstick that "Ranma 1/2" fans are sure to love. Bizarre occurances and weird antics happens almost round-the-clock -- alien tag races, outer space taxi cabs, Snow Princesses from Neptune, and hibernating Crow Princesses are just a small sample of the things you'll encounter with this series. Intrigued by all this? Good, this is definitely the manga for you.

I won't expand too much on the plot, since I believe that one of the strongest aspects of Urusei Yatsura is its wonderful characters (besides, you can find summaries on the net). If you are male, there's a good chance that you'll fall in love with Lum -- beautiful, exotic, young, and full of sex appeal, Lum is essentially what every man dreams of in a perfect woman. For the ladies, there's the man-beast Rei, who looks like he should be in a boyband when he's under his normal form; but once he gets angry and/or hungry, he transforms into a huge tiger-bull creature with big round eyes. Adorable? I wouldn't know. Rei gets two stories in this collection, and some cameo appearances here and there. And of course, who can forget about Cherry the short Buddhist priest? Male or female, everybody loves the deranged monk from hell. Well, they should, anyway.

Last but not least, there's our protagonist, Ataru Moroboshi. At first glance, he appears to be your everyday teen -- average looks, average height, insecure girlfriend, and even a nagging mom. Someone you could relate to... or not. As the manga progresses, we come to see that he's exactly the opposite -- lecherous, perverted, full of bad luck, and as Lum would say, a "philanderer!" Ataru is normally seen flirting (unsuccessfully) with any attractive female within a 10 feet radius, and he usually ends up paying for it by means of Lum's electrical surges of lightning ZAK ZAK. But don't be fooled by his supposedly repulsive ways -- Ataru is far more complicated a character than he lets on. While he appears to lack a brain most of the time, Moroboshi can be quite the calculating manical genius when he needs to be.

There's so much more that I'd love to say about this series, but I'll stop here. If you enjoy manga with odd instances, eccentric characters, a dash of sci-fi, and a sugary bowl of slapstick comedy, then "Urusei Yatsura" is perfect for you. Or if you find yourself enjoying the comedy featured in Takahashi's later works ("Ranma 1/2"; "Maison Ikkoku"; "Inuyasha") and wondering if UY will work the same charms for you, think no more and pick up a volume NOW! It is, after all, Takahashi-sensei's first and best comedy series.

Welcome aboard, mate.

Urusei Yatsura is my favorite series created by Rumiko Takahashi, and it is even more amazing when one considers that Takahashi-sensei started this series when she was only 20 years old back in 1977. This series is the perfect conglomeration of Takahashi's talents she mixes folklore, japanese lliterature, and almost everything else in an insane mixture of pure chaos. Try this series Ranma and Maison Ikkoky might be better known but this series will blow your pants off. Viz give us more Lum!!!

These are among the best of the classic manga: excellent comic artwork and clever plots, but what makes the Lum stories really remarkable are the inventive parodies of sex role, ethnicity, iconology and other aspects of recent Japanese culture. Much of what Takahashi works into these episodes will be missed by many readers, especially those who have no knowledge of the Japanese language originals or limited knowledge of Japan, but open-minded graphic novel fans of any background should enjoy much that lies on the surface. This particular collection seems to be a fair compendium of her work.
Why only four stars? Certainly the content deserves all five. Unfortunately, the book is poorly bound, so the cover AND the pages fall out within a couple of months of normal usage. If this book is just for you, fine, but if you're buying for a library (and what graphic novel collection would NOT have Takahashi's Lum?) or like to pass your books around to friends, it's going to fall apart.
Not unusual for good manga, unfortunately.

Lum is a totally loopy comedy in manga form. In this work Rumiko Takahashi happily combines the classic droll story themes of Boccaccio and Balzac with totally absurd and preposterous elements to delight the imp or the anarchist in all of us.

The plot draws on the eternal triangle: Ataru, a perennially prurient (and thus normal) teenaged boy, Princess Lum, a gorgeous alien who sports a tigerskin bikini and cute little horns, and Shinobu, a classmate of whom Ataru was originally smitten.

Ataru saves the Earth by winning a game of tag with Lum (an absolutely hilarious episode!), but in the process gives Lum the impression that he has proposed marriage. This provides the basis for a plot involving continual misunderstandings. Lum has to keep Ataru in line by occasionally giving him shocks and making him the guniea pig for her dubious culinary skills. Despite his success in saving the Earth, Ataru gets no respect but a lot of woe. Having two girls is always too many: when Lum and Shinobu are involved, it seems at times that Ataru has two too many! You see, Ataru has a permanently roving eye!

Rumiko Takahashi employs incredible imagination in this work: sweet potato-eating duels, a shower of oil, a short monk, disappointed parents, a crow queen, an ex-fiancé of Lum, and a host of other characters. But the plot centers around the threesome: the fickle Ataru, the long-suffering Shinobu, and the naive yet provocative Lum. You have to like the characters; but secretly feel the most sympathy for the innocent Lum, whose qualities are not recognized by the blockheaded Ataru and who persists in being attracted to Shinobu instead (when not distracted by the babe de jour).

This is about as agreeable an introduction to manga as you might find; and most people will find the story to be hilarious and entertaining, the characters to be appealing and well-drawn, and the pacing to be effective. Read this one first, and then read Ranma 1/2. Both are worth reading.

When I first picked up this big, juicy book featuring the early work on Lum & Co., I did not KNOW that the great creator of this series happens to be a WOMAN and a very talented one! Thus I was really quite surprised - and very impressed!

It all begun with a very idiotic young high schooler with an abnormal sex drive and a whole run of bad luck who was suddenly forced to play a tag game with one of the alien invaders about to overtake the entire planet. And his opponent turned out to be a very beautiful, shapely young girl with demon's horns, a tigerhide binkini suit complete with striped stockings...and teeth just like a real tiger's! Not to mention the fact she could fly and emit very painful electric shocks! So Ataru got spooked by this strange newcomer who WANTS to become his wife AND come between him and his poor, long-suffering girlfriend, Shinobu. And that's not all...the unfortunate boy's life gets turned upside-down with frequent visits from a whole circus parade of bizarre alien creatures, sexy young babes, and folklore characters straight out of ancient Japanese legends!

Those wonderful "Urusei Yatsura" stories are quite full of cunning creativity, fast-paced action, flightful fantasy, sci-fi imagery, and very boisterous juvenile-level humor! And you'll get to meet far more and more of Lum's wacko friends and rivals and get pulled into even more wacko adventures with them in her next book after another!

Lum and Ataru may be the stars of the Urusei Yatsura universe, but the supporting characters play an even bigger role. Mendo is to Ataru what Kuno is to Ranma-a rich playboy who wants the heroine so badly he'll sink to any level to get her. Shinobu is the long-suffering girlfriend of Ataru, who actually befriends her romantic rival Lum later in the series. Lum's younger cousin (Jari)Ten lives to make Ataru's life even more miserable than it was to start with. Lum's childhood friend Ran wants revenge on her for accidents that happened when they were young. The monk Cherry and his niece Sakura are constantly trying to exorcise Ataru, and his parents are always moaning about how he should never have been born.

But in this first collection, we meet a trio of ladies that are not interested in ruining Ataru's life. Benten is one of the Cosmic gods and her people wage a yearly battle with the Oni. Ataru (like always) approaches her in his own fashion, right in front of Lum. And Benten even flirts back!

Oyuki is the Snow Princess of the planet Neptune, and she meets Ataru and his friends when she has her subjects dump several tons of snow into Ataru's bedroom (not on purpose--the computer chose the spot). Her servant takes an instant dislike to Ataru and soon the boy is running for his life, much to the chagrin of the Princess, who actually wanted to get to know Ataru better.

Kurama wants nothing to do with Ataru, but due to a mistake made by one of her people, she is forced to deal with the boy. So, she proceeds to try and reform him, which doesn't work (who thought it would?)

These are all wonderful characters that don't get as much press as Lum and the others. They deserve recognition too!

So, get the Perfect Collection! You'll like it, Takahashi fan or not!

I used to live in Italy... they showed the Anime of this every night. AND I LOVED IT!!!!!
Two years later I spotted this book... I wanted to know how it all started and... THE MANGA IS WAY BETTER THAN THE ANIME!!!

Ataru is a normal girl-chasing teenager. he has a girlfriend named Shinobu, although they usually fight.
One day, he's coming home and then, he finds in his home A GIANT!!! No, he isn't a giant, he an Onu, an alien.
They wanted to take over the Earth, but insisted to play a game of "tag" with Ataru. Ataru had to catch one of the Onu's by the horns, to keep their world safe... he didn't want to, until they showed his the Onu!!! It was a girl, named Lum (Or Lamu in the Italian version).
Ataru saw that catching her was hard, but on the last day, he caught her (How, I cannot tell you, it's so ... funny!) and, since Shinobu said that if he won she'd marry him, he shouted "For the marriage" before catching her, Lum thinking it was Ataru confessing his love for her. And now they are "married".

HILARIOUS! ONE OF THE BEST ANIME EVER!

I write this in response to reviewer "Steve Miller," who expressed an obvious dislikeing towards the earlier Rumiko Takahashi work like Lum: Urusei Yatsura. Personally I completely dissagree with him. If you can't appreciate the old works, how can you appreciate the new?

Anyone who know's Ms. Takahashi's history will completely understand why many of the chapters in this book don't relate to one another (if you look carefully you can see in-jokes from her "rumic world" series), and why it's not untill the second graphic novel that they start to have some correlation. (mostly because her work was being published irregularly and inconsistently)

This book is a fine example about how things so completely bizarre can be taken so seriously. Her writing, although somewhat primitive (obviously showing how her writing has developed) is still as charming and exciting to read as any of her later work like Ranma, or Maison Ikkoku.

All of Rumiko Takahashi's work should be read, and one should not simply quite reading them because of computerized text or primitive drawings. Her work should be enjoyed and not dismissed.

Lum. If you've never heard the name before, then roll it round your tongue, get used to it; you'll be hearing it again in the future. Urusei Yatsura is a classic comic series from Japan, and this book is the perfect introduction. It tells how the Earth was saved from invasion by a lecherous young man called Ataru Moroboshi, and how in doing so he accidentally ends up marrying the princess of the alien race.

So far so good, but what really lifts Urusei Yatsura head and shoulders above any other series is the characterisations. They are the most wonderfully creative group of dysfunctional characters I've yet encountered. Every single person in the book is a wonderfully realised, if vaguely mad, character. No one feels badly developed or two-dimensional. And because they feel like real people, the mad situations feel normal, or at least not quite so mad, and you even care what happens to them.

Urusei Yatsura is a modern classic, and the Perfect Collection is the perfect place to start your collection!

OKKKKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY... Urusei Yatsura is weird. No, I'm not kidding. Somehow, it never fails to amaze me how all of Rumiko Takahashi's characters (and storylines)always make me happy...great book, though.