Alright, so I watched the recap. This is the only television special I believe, a part from the 195 episodes, the OVA’s, and the movies. I HAD to see what it was about. While the second half was unique, I want to do some reflecting in respects to the first half of this special — the recap part.
SO, I tried getting into this series because I see the character Lum on social media every once and awhile. I take it this is (or at least WAS, back in the day) a very mainstream show. A YouTuber named Whang made a video about the Italian version of the theme song for this show, which I watched because mysteries like this fascinate me. For the record, the Italian version is a SOLID bop, but the Japanese version is slowly growing on me. Any who, I felt like I couldn’t enjoy the Italian theme song without having accustomed myself to the anime — as well as seeing what the hype was about.
I watched the first twenty-or-so episodes and have made it to this point — which I guess one could call somewhat of a milestone. I’m roughly 10% done with the episodes after all, and I’ve survived to the second theme song… and past the amount of episodes in which someone will usually drop an anime.
HAVING said all of that, WTF do I think of this show so far? (That’s right, this is my opinion having made it 21 episodes + 1 special inwards.)
I don’t like it. It’s a 5/10 for me. I don’t care if it’s episodic. I don’t care that (at this point) there’s a lack of character development. I know this isn’t/wasn’t the original intention for the early episodes. Nevertheless, the comedy is very outlandish, random, and overly quirky. Which is 80% of why I dislike the show. The other 20% is because the main character is an asshole. I’m fine with perverted, womanizing traits, but these traits consume this character to the point of ruling out his other positive qualities. I mean… he’s quite the hatable character thus far. Which might’ve been the intention — to derive comedy from the suffering of this jerk (kinda like Squidward in Spongebob) — but then again, an anime with a protagonist that the audience hates? Is that really a good idea?
Well… I’m not saying I’ve been completely turned off. This series is interesting to say the least. It’s a time capsule — a portal — back to the 80’s. I think this was when VHS tapes were starting to gain traction? (I mean, I know I’m on a forum for a TELEVISION special.) But maybe I’m digressing. The point is, we’re looking at the lives people were living back then. This is the animation designs and the animation/sound quality and the music that people were accustomed to on a daily basis. Such a different world. I can’t imagine watching this on the television in the mid-80’s, roughly four decades ago. Additionally, watching these first twenty-one episodes has taught me a lot about Japanese culture. Modern anime can teach you some stuff too, but these older episodes (which were probably produced for the Japanese demographic exclusively, as anime wasn’t a worldwide phenomenon yet) really delved into Japanese culture. There’s quite a bit of concepts that don’t even transfer into subs properly without footnotes.
With everything considered though, the primary reason I’m even commenting right now is because I’m wondering… does the series get better? It’s fine by me that this is an episodic comedy that lacks major character development, but from a meta/productional standpoint, were character personalities and plot potentialities ever tweaked?
Every once and awhile I’ll see comments of the series becoming more ‘tolerable’.
Coincidentally, I just ran into a Reddit post now: “The first twentiesh episodes were still somewhat insufferable to watch because of Ataru being a straight-up asshole, but he became more tolerable as that cruel aspect of his character disappeared.” [Google quote to find Reddit.] Interestingly, the poster specifically mentioned the “first twenty-ish episodes” which is what my whole post is about. And it encapsulates what I’m trying to say about people mentioning Ataru’s characters getting better.
I also hear the dynamic grows between Ataru, Lum, Mendou, and Shinobu and they kind of become a quartet or main cast.
Overall, I’d like the show to be less nonsensical and chaotic in the future. I’d like the comedy to be less zany, and for them to dial it back a notch (despite all of this being their original intention). But this is just MY opinion and what I’m hoping for. Maybe that’s not the way things will actually go. But I just hear that later episodes of the show drastically differ from beginning episodes.
For now, I’m going to force myself to sit through every Urusei Yatsura animation because my motto is “once I start an anime I have to finish it”, because “having an open-mind is good” and “there’s always something to gain from an experience” and all that bullsh*t. Wish me luck as I continue cramming this show down my throat with nowhere to go on account of the COVID-19 quarantine.
P.S. I neglected to mention this, but I’m perfectly aware of comedy styles from 80’s animes. There’s some similarities to Kimgaure Orange Road here, but this show is a near perfect parallel to “Stop! Hibari-kun” which I think aired at the same time, and featured an unwanted female lover pestering the protagonist “darling”. The tropes in all these tame (PG-13) 80’s rom/com animes are all the same. UY is just the most extreme case I’ve seen so far, when it comes to wackiness.
P.S.S. Leaving my thoughts here is my way of saying "I watched this special".
I don't actually log singular one-episode OVA's (of bigger animes) to my database. But I don't want the time I spent watching this to be in vain, so instead of gracing my stats with one extra hour of watch time, I'll leave a trace here, that trace being a stupid assessment that no one (including myself, ever again) will read.
linkjoker said: Man it's surreal going back to this early in the series, hardly any of the characters felt like...well them.
Daaaaaaaaaamn, are the characters really gonna be [i]thatp/i] different in later episodes? It's kinda hard to get myself to watch this show, but I kinda wanna stick around to see how things advance.
I'm still behind you in the series but honestly wondering the same things. Ataru is a piece of shit. And every episode I think "Mamoru Oshii made a good film with this cast?"
I also am reminded of Hibari-kun, which I thought was better so far honestly.
Funny to find someone else watching this around the same time.
Plate said: I'm still behind you in the series but honestly wondering the same things. Ataru is a piece of shit. And every episode I think "Mamoru Oshii made a good film with this cast?"
I also am reminded of Hibari-kun, which I thought was better so far honestly.
Funny to find someone else watching this around the same time.
Yeah, it seems like only a few MAL users post about this series each year, so I was surprised someone already replied to this forum post just a week after I made it.
Also, I'm surprised someone else has seen Hibari-kun. Not many people have heard of it. And now that you mention it, it was] better than this show (when comparing it to UY's first twenty episodes).
ALSO, I wasn't sure what you meant by "Mamoru Oshii made a good film" at first, but oh my god, he made "Angels Egg"!!! I can't believe the guy behind this series was involved with that show!
I only watch five episodes of this show a week, so you're gonna surpass me soon. Good luck fam. (Like I kept saying, I hear it gets better and Ataru's character is dialed back later on, so I suppose there's that to look forward to.)
ALSO, I wasn't sure what you meant by "Mamoru Oshii made a good film" at first, but oh my god, he made "Angels Egg"!!! I can't believe the guy behind this series was involved with that show!
Yeah, though I was mostly talking about UY2: Beautiful Dreamer which is supposed to be amazing, and as a huge Oshii fan it's one of the reasons I'm watching this. I honestly didn't know he did the first 106 episodes as well as the movie but the direction hasn't been bad so far really... just the characters. Ataru is like my least favorite character in anime ever at this point
Ooo, with a little research, I figured out that: it's not the animation that evolves, but the studios flat out change. Studio Pierrot works up through Episode 106 (and Movie 1), with Studio Deen taking over production from there on out (107+ and the other movies). The most noticeable change appears to be the eye shape.
STILL, I'm stumped in regards to the very first theme song. There's something very peculiar about the way the characters are designed and animated. Their eyes are TINY, for instance. I'm definitely wondering about that and nowhere online is turning up any answers.
Nice review, but I’m personally loving this so far. It’s nice to hear the characters get better later, but I find this to be the perfect turn your brain off comedy, I love the episodic nature and Ataru’s character really just makes me laugh more than it makes me hate him lol, in fact I never really hate him, I can see why some do but I really enjoy his lady chasing nature, and I also really like the chaotic nature of the show up to this point. I love explaining what happens in these episodes to my friend and he’s always like “WTF” lol.
I know this post is a bit old but I figured I’d leave some of my thoughts here as well, it’s definitely been a good time for me.
