Everyone already knows that Urusei Yatsura Remake doesn't adapt the entire manga but just a select few chapters. It roughly covers almost 35% of the manga which means a significant portion of the story is missing.
This list is for both showcasing which significant stories from the OG got cut and also being a sort of guide for new fans who have only watched Remake and are interested in watching the OG Urusei Yatsura but don't want to commit to watching the entire series.
If you've watched the Remake, you should already have enough context to jump into almost any episode without feeling lost.
But first, I need to clarify some things. This list mainly focuses on episodes that were cut or not adapted in the Remake. But there will also be episodes in this list that were adapted in the Remake but they were different enough that I think they are worth watching in the OG anime. In such cases, I also wrote the Remake episode numbers beside them.
Second is that, OG Urusei Yatsura had some really unique and creative anime-original or "filler" episodes and most of them were as good as if not better than "canon" episodes. These episodes which were not based on any manga chapters are marked as "anime original" beside their names.
Finally, it's much more convenient to simply watch OG Urusei Yatsura from beginning to end instead of following any list. So, if you can I suggest just doing that.
This list is mostly based on my personal opinion. And there will be some episodes that you'll enjoy a lot that aren't on this list.
Unlike my last post, this time I have divided the list into several different categories so you can choose which type of episodes you wanna watch based on what interests you the most (Like characters, themes, etc.).
AtaLum episodes:
A lot of episodes that are supposed to focus on Ataru and Lum simply did not make it into the Remake which created a lot of weird inconsistencies. Such as Lum saying that she'd have to save Ataru "again" even though she never did so before in the Remake and also Lum saying it's been a while since their "last date" even though the chapter where they have their first date was not adapted. It made Ataru and Lum's relationship seem less organic and more superficial than anything in the Remake compared to the original anime and the manga.
These episodes mainly focus on the interactions between Ataru and Lum and include episodes that develop their relationship.
Episode 1 I'm Lum-chan the Notorious! / It's Raining Oil All Over Town (First half: Remake Episode 1A)
Episode 10 Pitter-Patter Christmas Eve (Remake Episode 5B)
Episode 22 The Great Space Matchmaking Plan
Episode 25 Fly, Imo-Chan!
Episode 39 Pitter-Patter Summer Date
Episode 41 Panic in Typhoon!
Episode 44 After You've Gone (Remake Episode 10B)
Episode 58 Steal the Kiss of Miss Snow Queen!
Episode 59 St Valentine's Day Horror
Episode 66 Happy Birthday My Darling (Mostly anime original)
Episode 107 Different Dimension Switch - Where is Darling!? (Anime original)
Episode 117 Lum-chan's Becoming a Cow? (Remake Episode 29B)
Episode 143 Far Spring! Tale of the Lonely Fairy!! (Anime original)
Episode 155 First Love Again!? A Return to the Past for Lum and Rei!!
Episode 157 I Love Darling's Kindness... (Remake Episode 33B)
Episode 161 Small Magic Bin! What's to Become of Me!? (Remake Episode 22A)
Episode 163 Goodness! Words Aren't Getting to Darling (Remake Episode 24B)
Episode 184 Darling Great Misfortune! Four Dimension Fortune of Fear!!
Episode 195 Great All-Star Banquet! We are Immortal!! (Mostly anime original)
OVA 7 I Howl at the Moon
Episodes focusing on Lum and her friends:
Lum's friends are Benten, Oyuki, and Ran. One of my biggest complaints of Season 2 was that it didn't give much screentime to Lum's best friends: Benten and Oyuki. There's even an inconsistency in the final arc where Benten says she actually likes humans even though she barely interacted with them in this version of Urusei Yatsura.
So, these are episodes that specifically focus on Benten and/or Oyuki.
Episode 8A Neptune is Beyond the Closet (Remake Episode 6B)
Episode 15A The Great Spring War (Remake Episode 6A)
Episode 15B The Benten Gang's Return Match
Episode 45 Lum-chan's Class Reunion
Episode 85 Revenge of the Planetary Instructor CAO-2 (Remake Episode 21A)
Episode 113 Great Horrors! Oyuki is Finally Angered!!
Episode 148 Spring in Full Bloom!? Frozen by Oyuki's Cold!!
Episode 160 Ryūnosuke VS Benten! The Fruitless Charm Duel
OVA 4 Raging Sherbet
Side-character episodes:
Episodes focusing on other side characters of the series. The Remake focused more on introducing new characters every few episodes, so most side characters didn't even get enough screen time. These episodes don't mean that these side characters don't appear in other episodes but that these episodes focus on them more specifically. Characters like Shinobu, Ten, Sakura, and Ryunosuke appear in almost every episode after their introductory episodes.
Shinobu: The original main heroine of Urusei Yatsura. She appears in almost every episode. But I'd say the chapters featuring Kitsune are also Shinobu-focused episodes.
Episode 23 The Spring Blossom Picnic
Episode 71 Shinobu's Cinderella Story (Anime original)
Episode 122 The Fox's Hard Feelings of Painful Love... (Remake Episode 22A)
Episode 134 I Dearly Want to Meet You! Return of the Pure Fox!! (Remake Episode 35B)
Episode 158 The Pure Fox Again! I Love Shinobu
Episode 174 I Want a Bride!! The Fox's Big Love Adventure!!
Episode 191 Devoted Love! The Pure Fox Risking His Life!!
OVA 3 Inaba the Dreammaker (Remake Episode 31-32)
Sakura: Probably the most mature recurring character of the series.
Episode 5 The Mysterious Seductive Beauty Sakura / Virus in Distress (First half: Remake Episode 2)
Episode 12A Love Battle Royale
Episode 13 Hawaiian Swimsuit Thief / Full Course From Hell
Episode 102 Sakura - Melancholy of a Youth Time
Episode 119 Scaring Ghosts! The Beautiful Sakura’s Exorcism!!
Episode 144 To Dream Land! Darling Battle Royal Abduction
Episode 185 New Years Panic! Mendo Family Human Sugoroku Tournament (Remake Episode 11B)
Kurama: Kurama was a character who was probably done dirty the most in the Remake. Basically all of her early episodes got cut and her entire story was basically abridged into one episode.
Episode 48 Princess Kurama - A New Challenge! (Remake Episode 4)
Episode 68 The Groom’s Name is Ryūnosuke
Episode 121 Here Again! Hunter of Love Princess Kurama (Remake Episode 27A)
Spice Girls: I was surprised these characters didn't make a comeback in Season 2 of the Remake.
Episode 97 Duel! Benten VS the Three Daughters!
Episode 129 Attack Your Seniors! Revenge of the Infamous Three Daughters
Episode 145 Three Daughters Again! The Great Darling Seduction Scheme!!
Episode 175 How Persistent! The Three Daughters' Great Animal Operation!!
Ten: Ten is another character who appears in almost every episode since his debut in Episode 2. But he does have a few episodes that are focused on him that are pretty good. Including ones that involve his mother such as Episode 76 and 171.
Episode 24 Beware the Earmuffs! (Remake Episode 30A)
Episode 31 Give Me Back My Horn!
Episode 83 Big Clash! Ten VS Ataru
Episode 114 Ten-chan's Strange Love Story
Lum's Parents: Episodes that show more of Lum's parents.
Episode 16B Terrible Visiting Day (Remake Episode 10A)
Episode 57 Domestic Quarrel – To Eat or Be Eaten?!
Episode 189 Deadly Home Visits! A Teacher's Life is Dangerous Too
Asuka: The only Asuka episode that was in the OG but wasn't in the Remake:
Episode 183 Asuka VS Big Brother! It's Battle of a Certain Love!
Kotatsu-Neko: His introduction episode was skipped in the Remake.
Episode 51 There's a Cat on the Stairs
Episode 146 The Scampering Kotatsu-Neko! Anything to Get Warm (Remake Episode 29A)
Episode 4 Kintaro of the Autumn Sky! / Live Vigorously!
Episode 21.5 It's Spring! Take Off! Urusei Yatsura Special
Episode 29 From Speechless With Love
Episode 30 The Beautiful Maiden Comes With the Rain
Episode 32 All Quiet at the Library!
Episode 69 Bottled Letter Seashore Mystery!
Episode 76 Firefighter Mama Visits!
Episode 94 Tales of a Wandering Snowman
Episode 108 Clash!! Her Ladyship and the Football of Love
Episode 128 Man or Bird? Gokakenran, Champion of Justice!
Episode 138 Big Aspiration for an Employment! Return of Fugitive Ninja Kaede!! (anime original)
Episode 156 Youthful Old Man Appears! Shine, Great Coffee Shop of Dreams!!
Episode 171 Appearance after a Long Time! Worries for Mother the Firefighter!!
This is purely speculation but I wonder if these characters were actually planned to be in the Remake but after the episode count was decided the idea was scrapped. But instead of throwing away the character designs they just reused them as quick cameos. They looked too good to just be used as cameos.
I didn't include episodes of characters who are in the final eyecatch of the Remake for obvious reasons.
Trippy and unhinged episodes:
Original Urusei Yatsura was famous for many weird, trippy, and zany episodes or scenes that simply don't exist in the Remake. Most of them were anime-original. So, a huge part of what made Urusei Yatsura so special is missing in the Remake.
Episode 28 Lum's Educational Therapy for Little Boys
Episode 47 Shiver! Mystery in the Odd of Fossil Land
Episode 53 The Suicide Subspace Parttime Job
Episode 60 Love Love Catchball! (Remake Episode 13B)
Episode 62 Space Cold Panic!
Episode 68 The Groom’s Name is Ryūnosuke
Episode 75 And Then There Was Nobody!? (anime original)
Episode 78 Pitiful! Mother of Love and Banishment!? (anime original)
Episode 84 Terror! Attack on the Killer Potatoes! (anime original)
Episode 92 Bizarre! The Medicine of Selflessness!!
Episode 98 Plenty of Lum-chans! (anime original)
Episode 101 Operation - Peek in the Woman's Bath (Anime original)
Episode 118 Great Achievement! This is Lum-chan's Youth Film (Anime original)
Episode 137 Lum's Courageous Duel! Victory is a Nitpicky Hand
Episode 169 It's Stimulating! Overhead Cooler of Terror!!
OVA 8 Goat and Cheese
As for movies and OVAs, I think you should just watch all of them. Especially the first 2 movies and the OVAs included in the list.
OG Urusei Yatsura is easily accessible and you can probably watch any episode due to its episodic nature.
But again, I'll always recommend watching the full series and there will be some episodes outside of this list that might become your favorites.
My post was originally inspired by this YouTube video about the Top 50 Urusei Yatsura Episodes for Newcomers. I think it's a great list but it's much shorter than mine.
This will likely be my last UY-related post so I decided to put a bit more effort into it. If there are any mistakes then lemme know. Comment if your favorite episode from the OG is missing from this list.
But the one thing I disagree with is watching some late series episodes between episodes 58 and 59. Like I understand the logic here of following the manga order. But it's unnecessary for an episodic series like Urusei Yatsura. I feel like watching those episodes out of order will only take you out of the immersion because of the tonal whiplash you'll get from the difference in animation quality and direction. So, I think you should just watch the episodes in normal release order.
The same goes for watching OVA12 before Episode 166. I think it's best to watch it before Movie 5 at least or after Movie 5 since the OVA was released in 2008 and had lots of original content that made it different from its manga counterparts anyway.
Anime/manga's fan will always have my respect and sympathy for all their love to their pieces and what they are ready to do!💪
Thank you😁I'm a new fan!So I'm gratefull to you,because I just finish it now and I really feel empty!😢
This work really touch me in my soul,more and more I imagined it before finishing it.
All the cast is like a big simple and solp family than you like to enjoy their time.
Lum is easily one of the best Waifu EVER and Top5 most loyal women!🥲
And before I really doesn't interest to the OG,but now I sincerly want more of this very beautiful and unforgettable story.