Urusei Yatsura - Weirdoes / Characters

Urusei Yatsura character index
Main | Tomobiki | Citizens | Weirdoes

Aliens and supernatural beings of Urusei Yatsura.

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Lum's Family

Lum's parents

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lum_parents.jpg

Lum's parents from her native planet.

Both

Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Lum's dad towers over most of the cast, while her mother is much closer in height to them.
Nice to the Waiter: When Onsen is doing home visits, Lum's parents happily treat him to a lavish meal and drinks on their ship. He bursts into tears because they're the only parents who didn't mistreat or manhandle him as he conducted the visits on Earth.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Lum's father is stout and rather brutish-looking. On the other hand, Lum got her Ms. Fanservice looks from her mother.
Unnamed Parents: We don't get a name for either of them.

Lum's father

Voiced by: Ritsuo Sawa (JP, original series), Rikiya Koyama (JP, All-Stars), David Krause (EN, test dub), Anthony Lawson (EN, movies), Rob Mungle (EN, All-Stars )

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lum_fpc.png

A huge, pudgy oni, and tends to be loud and scary. However, he is just as afraid of his wife as Ataru is of Lum.

Big Eater: He got so big due to eating so much of his wife's food. The second opening for All Stars even shows him happily gorging on sweet potatoes with Rei in his "Tiger-Bull" form, matching his boundless appetite.
Big Fun: He's a large and overweight man who is very affable and lovable even when he's threatening to invade Earth.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: He has possibly the thickest eyebrows out of the cast.
Formerly Fit: He gained a lot of weight because his wife stuffed him up with her cooking.
Gonk: Only a few one panel joke Oni have been as monstrous as Lum's father.
Henpecked Husband: He likes to pretend he's the tough and powerful man of the house, but his wife very firmly puts him in his place, even beating him up if he really makes her mad. He even bonds with Ataru because neither of them can win an argument against their strong-willed Yamato Nadeshiko wives.
I Was Quite a Looker: He used to be handsome and thin. Decades of being spoiled by his wife left him gonky and grossly fat.
The Unapologetic: One time, Lum's father eats his wife's meal after he finishes his. Then he demands that she apologize when she kicks him out to put him in his place.

Lum's mother

Voiced by: Reiko Yamada (JP, original series), Fumi Hirano (JP, All-Stars), Kristen Foster (EN, movies), Christie Guidry (EN, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lum_mpc.png

A pretty woman who can only speak in the oni language.

Good Parents: Lum and her mother seem to have the best mother/child relationship out of everyone else in the series, as the only one who's not abusive or totally absent from the narrative. When Lum's mom arrives for the parent/teacher conference, Lum's overjoyed to see her and rushes into her arms. This is especially prominent when she's contrasted with Ran's mother, to the point of trying to get the other woman to calm down when it looked like Ran wet the bed at Lum's house (of course it was Lum).
In the Blood: Like her daughter, she's an affectionate, dutiful and loving wife not above disciplining her husband when he steps out of the line, managing to get him fear her anger.
My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Lum sometimes translates when her mom is present, but she must be doing something very wrong. In one example, Mendo's mother challenges Lum's mom to a duel. When Lum relays this, her mom begs Mendo's mom to reconsider, since they're both women... and besides, she's already married!
Sdrawkcab Speech: In the 2022 anime, her lines are just Fumi Hirano's lines backwards, and the Japanese broadcast even has an additional track where her lines aren't backwards.
Starfish Language: She does not speak any Earth language, with strange characters and symbols being used in the manga or subtitles whenever she's speaking.
Strong Family Resemblance: She strongly resembles her daughter except with her hair cut short.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Much like her daughter, Lum's mother is a beautiful alien woman who is willing to lavish her husband with affection, but is able to rule her household with an iron fist and unwilling to put up with her husband's rudeness.

Ten

Voiced by: Kazuko Sugiyama (JP, original series), Aoi Yūki (JP, All-Stars), Mindi L. Lyons (EN, test dub), Barbara Barnes (EN, BBC gag dub), Shannon Settlemyre (EN, Movies 1, 3-6), Paula Parker (EN, Movie 2), Sarah Hauser (EN, Animax Dub), Coqui Saporana (EN, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ten_all_stars.png

^{Click here to see him in the 1981 anime}

Lum's infant cousin, who showed up one day and simply moved into the Moroboshi household with Lum. He has a single horn on his head and can breathe fire.

Accidental Pervert: Because of the date plan Ataru made for him, Ten coerces Sakura to bring him to see a pornographic film despite her protests. Ten finds the movie so boring that he dozed off while Sakura, Lum, and Ataru remained totally transfixed. Sakura still doesn't blame him because she knows Ten is too young to even understand what porn is.
Achilles' Heel: Ten is scared of his own mother, who is a firefighter and extremely strict towards pyromaniacs (ironically, Ten can breath fire and shamelessly uses this to his advantage). He seems to be hiding this ability from her so he wouldn't get into trouble with her.
Adaptational Early Appearance: In the 1981 anime adaptation, he's introduced in the second episode. In the manga and 2022 anime, he appears much later.
Adorably Precocious Child: Though the "adorable" part is usually merely an act, he's very smart and precocious for someone still in diapers.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: In the final chapter, the night before the last round of the tag, Ten enters the room of a presumably sleeping Ataru to tell him that the memory eraser will fire if he doesn't touch Lum's horns before the end of the coming day. Whilst he asserts he won't miss Ataru if he's made to leave, a single tear falls from his eye onto Ataru's face before he flies off.
Boisterous Weakling: Ten loves to brag about how strong he is and is eager to attack anyone who ticks him off, but he has all the strength and skill of a child. Aside from his admittedly painful bite and his fiery breath, he has no defensive or offensive abilities to speak of, and once Ataru learns how to use a frying pan against him, Ten finds his fights frequently going against him.
Bratty Half-Pint: He loves to act high and mighty, and puts on a façade of innocence ("I'm a good boy" is his catchphrase), but in reality he mixes a considerable amount of mischievousness with the same lecherous attitudes as Ataru and Mendo. He loves to stir up trouble to keep himself amused, playfully flirts with every girl he sees, and because he's considered an adorable infant, he can usually rely on women to protect him when he gets into more trouble than his ability to fly and breathe fire can handle. And even when they turn against him, Lum almost always supports him, though on rare occasions even she will get sick of him.
Breath Weapon: His alien superpower is fire breath.
Cannot Keep a Secret: Tel him a secret, and soon everyone around him will know it.
Character Catchphrase: "I'm a good boy!"
The Chew Toy: Like Ataru, misfortune seems to visit Ten with considerable frequency.
Children Are Innocent: Aside from constant fights against Ataru and not-so-innocent attraction towards women, Ten causes troubles left and right due to naïve understanding of how the world works, including the consequences of his actions, rather than out of malevolence. When encountering something strange, he usually displays curiosity and observance rather than arrogance. The downside of this is that he's so gullible that even Ataru can fool him. All in all, Ten's character embodies the feeling you have when little kids unknowingly mess with your precious stuffs.
Deadpan Snarker: Especially snarky towards Ataru.
Deliberately Cute Child: Whenever he's around girls — or, more noticeably, his mother — Ten tends to be much better behaved.
Dirty Kid: Despite being a toddler, he adores pretty women just as much as Ataru does.
Disappeared Dad: Ten's dad is never mentioned outside of a brief "both my parents are busy working" explanation in the 1981 anime.
The Fake Cutie: Because of his Deliberately Cute Child act, all the women find him adorable and are protective of him. He just uses his cuteness to get close to girls, but when he's around men he shows his true (and bratty) colors.
Friend to All Living Things: While he can be a brat, Ten has a soft spot for animals.
Hopeless Suitor: He has a big crush on Sakura, but she gently turns him down because he's way too young for her and she already has a fiancé.
Iconic Sequel Character: While he doesn't appear until the 7th volume, he becomes such a prominent character in the manga that he gets an Adaptational Early Appearance in the 1981 anime, where he's introduced in the third episode.
Irony: His relationship with Masako is very similar to Ataru and Lum's relationship.
Jerkass Has a Point: He may be a brat, but he's kind of right when he says that Lum deserves better than Ataru.
KidAnova: Flirts with every girl he sees. However, Ten is still essentially a child and quite naïve; around women he is usually cute and diminutive.
Likes Older Women: He only likes older women and has no interest in girls the same age he's in. He's very annoyed when a local girl named Masako develops a crush on him, especially because she has Clingy Jealous Girl traits similarly to Lum's. The fact Lum encourages this behavior, at least in the 1981 anime, doesn't make Ten any more favorably inclined towards her.
Man Bites Man: He prefers to use his fiery breath when angry, but if he has to, he can deliver a painful bite, as his jaw muscles are some of the only ones he has.
Meaningful Name: Jari sort of means "brat". So calling him by his full name Jariten is the same thing as calling him "bratty Ten" or "Ten the brat".
Precocious Crush: He once had a crush on Sakura as well as the woman who ran the flower shop, Kurama and a few others.
Raised by Robots: His mother usually left him in the care of a robotic nanny.
Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Ten and Ataru utterly despise each other. Their petty rivalry is very much Played for Laughs. Ten's not much fonder of his self-proclaimed sweetheart Masako, either.
Tagalong Kid: Obviously much younger than the rest of the cast.
The Thing That Would Not Leave: Nobody invited Ten to move into the Moroboshi household, he just showed up one day to visit Lum and never left. Made particularly aggravating because Ten tends to cause a lot of trouble, mostly through property damage with his fiery breath.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Ten has to beg his mother for her to cuddle him as a mother would do with a little son. Even Ataru, by all people, sympathizes with Ten's family situation.
Wise Beyond His Years: Or, at the very least, more intelligent than most toddlers tend to be.

Ten's mother

Voiced by: Keiko Yokozawa

A firefighter who takes great pride in her work. When Ten was living with her, she would tell him stories of her work in the field, expressing her contempt for arsonists and pyromaniacs, who she feels should be sent straight to Hell. She is very busy and would leave him with a robotic nanny, which has contributed to his precociousness. Since her son breathes fire and (ab)uses his power liberally, he lives in terror of what will happen should she ever find out. She loves Ten very much, despite the rareness of her being able to visit him.

She is based on the firemen of Edo Japan.

Abusive Parents: Zigzagged. She genuinely loves Ten, but she also left him permanently traumatized by telling him horror stories about the horrible punishments she would dole out to arsonists and pyromaniacs. She's completely oblivious to the fact that these stories have left Ten literally too scared to cry since he was a little baby, having thought he enjoyed them, so her abuse is completely unintentional.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: She casually pets Ten's head when asking him if he has been a "good boy"
Berserk Button: Arsonists and pyromaniacs. When Ten was living with her, she would tell him stories about the horrific punishments she and her colleagues would inflict on any arsonists that they caught. Considering Ten's own fire-related shenanigans, he understandably is utterly terrified of his mother finding out about the things he has done.
Beware the Nice Ones: When she introduces herself to Ataru, she is perfectly pleasant, polite and nice, even taking Ataru's attempts to hit on her in stride. It's only when the topic of arsonists and pyromaniacs comes up does the temperature drop, showing why Ten is so afraid of his mother finding out about his own fire-related antics.
Blood Knight: She enjoys fighting fires and arsonists with equal gusto.
Character Catchphrase: She screams "FIRE!!" whenever anyone rings a firebell, followed by her rushing to put out the flames.
Doesn't Know Their Own Child: She doesn't know Ten is a fire-breathing Bratty Half-Pint because Ten is terrified of what his mother might do to him if she knew his true self and pretends to be well-behaved whenever she's around.
In Harm's Way: It's implied that she feels the most comfortable when fighting fires — the bigger, the better.
Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Her gung-ho attitude towards punishing people who set fires leaves Ten terrified. She doesn't seem to be aware of his fire-breathing tendencies around Ataru.
Parents as People: She's so devoted to her job that a robotic nanny and Lum raised Ten in her place, but regrets not being able to spend more time with her son.
Unnamed Parent: Like Lum's mother and father (and Ataru's), we never get a name for her.
Workaholic: She constantly carries around her firefighting equipment.

Lum's Childhood Friends

Benten

Voiced by: Yuuko Mita (JP, original series), Shizuka Ishigami (JP, All-Stars) Natasha Malinsky (EN, movie 1), Satu Rautaharju (EN, movies 3, 5-6), Elissa Cuellar (EN, All-Stars)

^{Click here to see her in the 1981 anime}

An alien girl from a race of Human Aliens based on the Seven Lucky Gods, who name is typically translated as the "Gods of Luck Race/Gang", and Lum's childhood friend. In the anime, she's shown to be the head of a hover-biker gang made up entirely of Lucky God girls like herself, all daughters of Lucky God aliens who are named after the other six members of the actual pantheon (whereas Benten is based on the sole female member of the pantheon); Kuro (Daikokuten), Meguro (Ebisu), Shala (Bishamonten), Roku (Fukurokujin), Kotobuki (Jurojin) and Tei (Hotei).

Action Girl: Benten is a female Badass Biker who stands out in a non-fighting series.
Adaptation Dye-Job: She had black hair in the original anime. On the other hand, the All-Stars anime gives her dark red hair.
Ancient Astronauts: Her race is based on the Seven Lucky Gods, a miniature pantheon in Shinto based around the difference facets of fortune and prosperity. But whereas the Oni are a fairly straightforward "sci-fi conversion" of their archetype, the Gods of Luck race are instead characterized as violent, warlike thugs and punks.
Badass Biker: She rides a bike that hovers and can fly through space.
Bifauxnen and Lad-ette: The lad-ette to Ryuunosuke's bifauxnen. Benten is a macho biker in skimpy clothing in contrast to Ryuunosuke who dresses modestly and has a sense of chivalry in how she treats women with care.
Blood Knight: She loves to fight.
Boyish Short Hair: Her short hair helps identify her as the tomboy of Lum's alien friends.
Celibate Heroine: It is unknown by even Lum and Oyuki whether or not she has ever had a boyfriend. However, she's seen supporting Ryuunosuke on her father issues and became excessively flustered when it's stated that Ryuunosuke might be in love with her. She also is unbothered by Ataru's flirtations, and even seems to welcome them, though she's usually far more interested in brawling with Lum whenever she comes to Earth.
Chained by Fashion: She draps a chain over her shoulder. It's actually her house's key.
Chainmail Bikini: Benten wears a red skimpy metal bikini, arm protector, and boots.
Childhood Friends: With Lum and Oyuki. They went to elementary school together and Benten is Lum's most loyal friend in the galaxy. Subverted with Ran; they know each other through Lum, but they dislike each other.
Fashionable Asymmetry: She wears a shoulderpad on just one shoulder, simply because it makes her look cool. In her intro in the manga, she wears a full-fledged sleeve-like piece of armor on just one arm.
Fiery Redhead: The All-Stars anime makes her a redhead to emphasize her Hot-Blooded personality.
Fire-Forged Friends: When they first meet, Benten and Ryuunosuke don't get along; Benten just thinks "he" is another boy to pick a fight with, whilst Ryuunosuke is offended by Benten's macho behavior, which flies in the face of how the bifauxnen believes girls should act. It goes so far that they get into a fight over which of them is more ladylike; fortunately, this ends in them having to team up to fend off Tomobiki's horny male students, and the fighting engenders a mutual friendship.
Foil: Ryuunosuke and Benten make a very interesting contrast to each other. Both are super-macho girls with Super-Strength, pronounced fighting skills, and an aggressive temperament. However, Benten has absolutely no doubts about her womanhood, which is emphasized by how she competes with Lum for the the title of "skimpiest dressed girl in the series", and her masculine tastes are just part of who she is. This contrasts the crossdressing, self-loathing Ryuunosuke, whose macho persona was literally beaten into her by her father.
Hot-Blooded: She is very strong-willed and her mood is usually either laid-back or violent.
Human Alien: Easily the most human-looking of the aliens — no horns, fangs, pointy ears, or shiny hair.
It Was a Gift: In the Spice Girl Gang's intro story, Benten is very determined to recover her stolen chain, causing Lum and Oyuki to speculate it was given to her by a guy who liked her. Then it's subverted when Benten does recover the chain and reveals it's just the key to her house.
Japanese Delinquents: Downplayed. She deliberately invokes a number of "Biker Gang Girl" tropes common to Japanese manga of the time, mostly in her costume; that said, while she's tomboyish and rather ungraceful, she doesn't seem to be guilty of delinquency.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although she can be impulsive, unpredictable, and has a really short fuse, Benten's a really good friend to have.
The Lad-ette: She's the most boyish and masculine-acting of Lum's circle of alien friends.
Meaningful Name: She is named after Shichifukujin Benzaiten (one of the Seven Lucky Gods), the Shinto goddess of knowledge, art, and beauty. In her case, it's ironic, since she's the least feminine member of the three main alien girls.
Red Is Violent: Her theme color is red and she's the most battle-loving of Lum's friends.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The hotheaded and passionate red to Oyuki's chilly and stoic blue. She also once served as the blue to Ran's red.
Small Girl, Big Gun: She can use her bazooka, machine gun, and explosives to cause massive destruction.
Stripperific: Her skimpy, body-flaunting mode of dress wouldn't be suitable for battle in a more realistic setting.
Super-Strength: Not as much as Shinobu, but she's shown to be quite powerful.
Tomboyish Voice: In the anime, she is given the standard "Tomboy" husky vocal tones, which perfectly fits her attitude.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Downplayed. Whilst Benten is a battle-loving hoverbiking punk girl, she does express some feminine traits. In the "Woman vs. Woman Showdown" arc, she appears to be quite pleased when Mr. Fujinami claims that Ryuunosuke is a boy with a crush on her. She is subsequently shown moodily reflecting on how nobody has ever told her that she needs to act more like a lady before, then studies her reflection in the mirror, noting to herself that she is an attractive girl and practicing a traditionally feminine gesture of smiling behind her hand. She gets very embarrassed when Lum stumbles across her doing this, and is so flustered she proceeds to break several things in Lum's UFO. When she discovers that Ryuunosuke is actually a girl, she's very offended that the crossdressing brawler would lecture her about acting more feminine. When she gets groped by Ataru in the final battle of the principal's psychodrama, she lets out a very girly scream.
Town Girls: The tomboyish, bad-mouthed, and violent Butch to Lum's Neither and Oyuki's Femme.
The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Implied. In the Oniboshi Setsubun Festival story where she is introduced, Benten is, like Lum, the only beautiful young girl amidst a mass of ugly, scarred, macho thugs. Also applies to her anime-only gang.

Oyuki

Voiced by: Noriko Ohara (JP, original series), Saori Hayami (JP, All-Stars), Jaime Phelps (EN, movies), Teresa Zimmermann (EN, All-Stars)

^{Click here to see her in the 1981 anime}

Lum's other childhood friend and the Queen of Neptune, which in the series is a frozen, snowy planet populated entirely by women, as most of the men have to go off-planet to find work.

Accomplice by Inaction: In her school days, Oyuki never joined Benten and Lum when they bullied or picked fights with other students, but she acted like a disinterested bystander through all of her friends' mischief. As a result, she got labeled as a delinquent too, much to her dismay. That said, their teacher CA0-2 has a higher opinion of Oyuki than he does of the other girls in the 1981 anime.
Adaptation Dye-Job:
- In the manga, Oyuki has snow-white hair, but the color got changed in every anime adaptation. In the 1981 anime, she has cornflower blue hair. In the 2008 OVA, her hair is light blue. In the 2022 anime, she has icy blue hair with orange highlights.
- Likewise, the leotard under her kimono is orange in 1981 anime, but it's light blue in the 2022 anime.
Adaptational Jerkass: The 2022 anime gives Oyuki a strong mean streak. While her original introduction story has Ataru trying to force himself on her, the All-Stars version shows her willingly throwing herself at Ataru the first time she gets him to be alone with her (despite being one of Lum's best and oldest friends) and even admits she only did it to "wrap him around her finger". In a later episode, she freezes Mendo's grandfather for not giving her the New Year's money he promised her, despite being a queen with no need for further riches.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's usually gentle and is very rare to see her angry, but Ran has very good reason to be completely traumatized by the first time she saw Oyuki get angry when they were kids.
Childhood Friends: With Lum and Benten. They went to elementary school together. As with Benten, she's known Ran for just as long, but she doesn't like her.
Covert Pervert: In her intro chapter, Ataru pushes Oyuki onto the bed, only to be interrupted by Oyuki's yeti servant B-Bo. Despite her demure behavior, Oyuki looks mildly disappointed that Ataru got chased away from her before things got hot and steamy.
Deadpan Snarker: She has a great ironic wit, although it's hard to tell when she's joking.
Elemental Hair Colors: Icy blue hair for the ice woman.
Elemental Hair Composition: Her hair appears to be literally made of ice. Although, the 1981 anime made it look more like normal hair, possibly to make it easier to animate back then.
Elemental Personalities: As expected of An Ice Person, Oyuki is unemotional and tranquil.
Emotionless Girl: She never shows strong emotions and remains the picture of demureness under any circumstance.
Formal Characters Use Keigo: Oyuki uses very formal Japanese speech patterns compared to other aliens, likely to indicate that she's the queen of her home planet.
Greed: It's repeatedly shown that Oyuki does not treat money lightly, despite being royalty. She is quick to remind even her friends that she expects her loans to be repaid, and when Ran comes to her looking for money, she only agrees to help if she gets a cut of the profits — and when Ran tries to run away with all the money, she imprisons her in a block of ice and then takes all the money for herself.
The High Queen: The very placid and graceful Queen of Neptune.
Hime Cut: She's a Yamato Nadeshiko, wears a kimono and is royalty. To give her a suitable hairstyle, she has blunt bangs, cheek-length sidelocks, and long hair worn in a ponytail.
Human Alien: If not for her hair (and ice powers), one could easily mistake her as human.
Hypocritical Humor: Back in middle school, Oyuki chastised Benten for stealing other student's lunch, all while she also ate from said stolen lunch.
An Ice Person: She has the power to generate ice and snow, sometimes by blowing across her hand, but also simply radiating cold. She can selectively grow ice in any shape, size and quantity that she likes, and has repeatedly been seen imprisoning people in ice blocks as well as creating ice "spears" to threaten or capture people without freezing them.
Kid with the Leash: She's the only person capable of making Ran behave, as Ran is terrified of her (she has seen what she can do, after all).
Kimono Is Traditional: She's a Yuki-onna and Yamato Nadeshiko who is often dressed in a white kimono.
Meaningful Name: Oyuki means "honourable snow".
Navel-Deep Neckline: The casual red swimsuit type outfit she wears when not sporting a Kimono is open in the middle, exposing her navel and cleavage.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The chilly and stoic blue to Benten's hotheaded and passionate red.
Silk Hiding Steel: She's a very demure and polite lady, but she's quite possibly the most powerful character in the series and making her angry can leave anyone traumatized for a lifetime.
The Stoic: Oyuki does have emotions like everyone else but her expression never changes much.
The Tease: In her introduction story, Oyuki undresses in front of Ataru to show off her skimpy leotard before inviting him into her bedroom. The 2022 anime takes it even further, as Oyuki wraps her arms around Ataru's neck and leads him to lay on top of her in bed.
Town Girls: The calm, demure, and feminine Femme to Lum's Neither and Benten's Butch.
Tranquil Fury: On the rare occasions where Oyuki does get mad, she doesn't appear to be angry on the surface, but she gets a serious look on her face as the temperature surrounding her starts to drop drastically. Suddenly, her ice powers go absolutely haywire. Ice, wind and snow rage causing unparalleled carnage and sealing any unfortunate passers-by in a block of ice or skewering them on huge icicles.
Winter Royal Lady: Oyuki is a Yuki-onna queen who rules over the snow planet Neptune. As for her name, Yuki means snow and the O as a prefix is an honorific character which is one way of adding a level of politeness when referring to a certain word.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Calm, feminine and graceful, wears a kimono, and is highly cunning and calculative.
Yuki-onna: She is a Trope Codifier in modern Japanese depictions of the yokai. Due to Oyuki's popularity, many modern depictions of yuki-onna have them with crowns on their head.

Ran

Voiced by: You Inoue (JP, 1st half of original series), Kazue Komiya (JP, 2nd half of original series + OVAs), Kana Hanazawa (JP, All-Stars), Morgan Jarrett (EN, movies), Andrea Kwan (EN, Animax Dub), Donna Bella Litton (EN, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ranpc.png

^{Click here to see her in the 1981 anime}

Lum's "best" childhood friend. She appears to be a sweet and lovely redhead, but in actuality has a violent, evil side. She is a succubus who has the ability to suck the vitality out of a person through kissing them on the lips.

As a child, Ran was often hurt or got into trouble because of the antics of the more carefree and irresponsible Lum. Also, she is madly in love with Lum's ex-boyfriend Rei (who still likes Lum, much to both girls' horror). As a result, she hates Lum and often wants to take revenge on her.

Accent Slip-Up: Whenever she drops the Kawaiiko act, she slips into a Kansai accent. This might be because aliens from Lum's planet tend to use said dialect.
Adaptational Badass: Actually helps deal the Finishing Move to the zoo animal fighters in the 2022 adaptation of the Miss Tomobiki arc, grabbing and slamming the anaconda into the pile when she was originally completely unhelpful in the manga.
Adaptational Curves: Downplayed. She has a slightly thicker build than any of the other mainstay alien girls. In the 1980s anime, this modest bulk would harden into outright muscle when she was angered whilst in her more revealing outfits or in a state of undress.
Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: When not in a frilly dress, she often wears midriff-baring bikinis, and she's a succubus who poses as a sweet and nice girl.
Beast and Beauty: She loves Rei's beast form just as much as his handsome human form.
Becoming the Mask: She desperately tries to do this with her kawaiiko persona, with rather dubious success.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: On the outside, she's a cute redhead who likes frilly clothing, baking, and flirting with Ataru. In reality, she's an embittered childhood rival of Lum who is out for some very violent revenge on the girl for a lot of things that aren't entirely Lum's fault.
Butt-Monkey: She's the most prone to slapstick of any of the female cast. As a child, she was always punished for Lum's mistakes and misdeeds (even when Lum owned up to them). Plus, Rei chose Lum over her (and then Lum dumped him). And her revenge plots always fail.
Chainmail Bikini: If she's not in a school uniform or a cutesy dress, she'll be wearing a silver bikini.
Character Catchphrase: "Ran-chan is sooo happy!"
Childhood Friends: Lum thinks Ran is one of her childhood friends, but the feeling isn't mutual because all Lum ever did was getting Ran in trouble with her mother and letting Ran get all the punishment.
Clingy Jealous Girl: She goes crazy mad whenever another girl, usually Lum, steals Rei's attention away from her.
Cloudcuckoolander: She is a bit spacey and unstable, to say the least.
Cute and Psycho: She is the poster child for (and likely the inspiration for all other) characters of the type, at least in anime. Ran normally acts with a sweet façade before flipping out with her true violent and malevolent personality.
The Dreaded: Downplayed in that this really just applies to Lum, but as the series progresses, Lum becomes more and more likely to break out into a cold sweat when Ran is around, and especially if Ran's looking for her.
Driven by Envy: Ever since childhood, everyone around Ran has favored Lum over her. Lum was everyone's perfect child, causing Ran to end up ignored by most, even cruelly punished by her own mother because she couldn't match Lum's perceived perfection. The final straw was Ran's crush choosing Lum as his girlfriend. Ran has sworn to steal Ataru from Lum and suck the life out of him to get back at Lum for getting all the positive attention Ran wanted for herself.
Easily Forgiven: Lum may get annoyed, but eventually ends up always forgiving Ran despite all her revenge plots and is still hanging out with her later in the series.
Enemy Mine: In Movie 1, Elle learns the hard way that you do not steal a girl's boyfriend from her when said girl's rival was planning to use him to torment her. Needless to say, Ran assists Lum in rescuing Ataru from the planned shotgun wedding.
Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: Ran often curtsies when she introduces herself to others.
Evil Redhead: She has dark pink hair and is a vengeful Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
Evil Sounds Deep: Ran usually speaks in a cutesy voice, but in the 1981 anime, it abruptly changes to a deep, gruff voice when the nastier side of her personality comes out.
The Ex's New Jerkass: Later on, Lum's ex-boyfriend Rei starts dating Ran, even if only to get food from her. While this makes her less actively antagonistic towards Lum, Ran still dislikes her and gets paranoid whenever Lum is in close proximity to Rei, accusing Lum of still having feelings for Rei and planning to steal him back from her, even though Lum clearly hates Rei.
Expository Pronoun: When she's acting like a Kawaiiko, she either uses the feminine first-person pronoun "atashi" or refers to herself in the third person to seem cuter, but when her true self comes out, she switches to "washi" — a form of "I" stereotypically used by old people in Japan.
Extreme Doormat: As a child, Ran got constantly dragged around by Lum and sometimes Benten as they forced her to participate in their mischief, often to Ran's detriment.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Ran seems like an adorable Kawaiiko with fluffy pink hair, but she's obsessed with getting revenge on Lum and will use any devious means available for that goal.
The Fake Cutie: She deliberately styles herself as a sugary sweet Kawaiiko, but her real personality is short-tempered, bitter, and violent.
Feminine Women Can Cook: She's a cutesy girly girl (when not in psycho mode) and an excellent cook.
Fiery Redhead: She has dark pink hair and tries to act like a sweet-natured, domestic girl, but she's actually quite violent and quick to anger.
Freudian Excuse: She grew up with a very strict, abusive mother who punished her when Lum did something bad and let Ran get blamed for it. Then she fell in love with Rei, who is implied to have dated her only to then cheat on her with Lum, ultimately getting engaged to her — before Lum broke it off. No wonder she's so messed up and hates Lum so much.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Lum genuinely likes Ran, and is willing to ignore Ran's one-sided vendetta because of that friendship. On the other hand, neither Oyuki nor Benten like Ran, despite the fact that they've known her just as long as Lum, and they make it clear that they're watching her when they interact with each other.
Game Face: Ran seems perfectly human most of the time... until she gets mad. Then her hair puffs out, her ears become pointier, and her fangs are more pronounced.
Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She's extremely girly, and both her hair and clothes are pink. When angry, however, she behaves more like a gangster and her speech patterns turn much more crude.
Green-Eyed Monster: She feels Lum "stole" Rei from her, even though Lum now hates Rei and already broke up with him, and seeks to get revenge by planting her Kiss of Death on Lum's current "fiancé".
Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much from Lum, even unintentionally (which is most of the time) to set Ran off.
Hilariously Abusive Childhood: When she was a child, she was usually violently punished by her mother which could have traumatized Ran to develop her split personalities. This is Played for Laughs, of course.
Hopeless Suitor: She's hopelessly in love with Rei even though he chose Lum over her and still wants to get back together with Lum after their breakup. However, he eventually begins to cling to Ran, mostly because she keeps feeding him.
Human Alien: Except for the Cute Little Fangs and pink hair, she usually appears to be a normal human—until she puts on her Game Face, which gives her Pointy Ears and more pronounced fangs. Her actual race is never identified by name.
Improperly Paranoid: Given that Lum "stole" Rei in the past by getting engaged, Ran frequently accuses Lum of wanting to do it again despite Lum's many assertions that she's devoted to Ataru now.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Lum mostly sees Ran as a nuisance for her attempts at using her Kiss of Death on Ataru and Ran's schemes fail so miserably that it's impossible to take her seriously as an antagonist.
I Reject Your Reality: Ran is constantly shown misinterpreting Lum's words to cast Lum in a bad light, likely due to Psychological Projection. In particular, she's quick to assume that Lum is jealous, especially if Rei is involved, despite Lum's repeated assertations that she doesn't like Rei anymore.
Jerkass to One: Her true personality isn't anywhere near as nice as she pretends to be, but she can act civil towards about anyone but Lum due to her intense hatred towards the latter. Lum's mere presence usually is enough to send her into psycho mode.
Kawaiiko: The surficial part of her personality is the definition of "cutesy".
Kiss of Death: Ran has the power to suck the youth from someone by kissing them. She tries to use the power on an unsuspecting Ataru, who had just downed a vitality elixir two minutes earlier (so the effects cancelled out), so he just assumed she likes him. She can also reverse the process with another kiss.
Know When to Fold 'Em: When Oyuki quietly-yet-sternly tells Ran to stop fighting, Ran immediately stands down. She's seen what Oyuki can do, after all.
Mad Bomber: When her Berserk Button gets hit, one of her favored methods of retaliation is to either unleash robotic dolls in her likeness that explode upon reaching their target, tossing hammer grenades, or just throw subtlety out the window and haul out a rocket launcher.
Meaningful Name: Ran has two meanings, both of which are suited to her warped personality. One meaning can be taken as "orchid", the other as "civil war".
Miko: She works part-time as a miko at Sakura's shrine.
Misblamed: She is both guilty and a victim of this. Her mother was so strict that she deemed even the smallest and innocent of mistakes worthy of a severe spanking and tended to focus on Ran's mistakes. This caused her to paint the image in her mind that Ran was a bad kid which made it easy for her to blame (and then punish) Ran whenever something bad happened (though usually it was Lum's fault). Ran in turn blames all these instances solely on Lum disregarding that her mom was the true aggressor.
Mood-Swinger: The two sides of her personality constantly compete for dominance. Because of that, she switches from psycho-bitch to airhead and vice-versa rather suddenly and frequently.
Mythical Motifs: Ran's large fangs, succubus-like style, and Vampiric Draining ability are all reminiscent of a vampire, even if she's never actually called one.
Never My Fault: Even with the Freudian Excuse, a lot of the misfortune that befalls her is just karma due to her selfishness and irresponsibility. She always blames Lum, Benten, and Oyuki for it.
Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: Ran is a very feminine girl who wears pink dresses and is an excellent cook. She's also bipolar as hell and constantly plotting to get revenge on Lum.
Pet the Dog: In "My Darling's Peril", Ran's about to let Lum have it for interrupting her date with Rei, but then sees Lum weeping over Ataru's (presumed) death, and gently tries to reassure her that everything's all right.
Petty Childhood Grudge: Even as teenagers, Ran still holds a grudge against Lum for wetting the bed and lying about it so Ran would be punished instead of her. She's also bitter about young Lum forcing her to buy her an ice cream for losing a race from a monster even though Ran got injured because Lum let her crash against a cliff.
Pointy Ears: While she has regular human ears most of the time, she gains much pointier ears whenever she becomes angry enough to put on her Game Face. This shows that despite how human she looks, she's still an alien.
Psycho Pink: Ran is a Cute and Psycho girl who has dark pink hair and usually wears pink dresses.
Rejection Affection: Rei completely ignores Ran's existence whenever food and/or Lum are around, but Ran still loves him and is happy with him just eating food she made for him even if he doesn't pay attention to her.
The Resenter: While she has a lot of grudge towards Lum, what has her so bitter and resentful is that Rei chose Lum as his girlfriend instead of her. Even though Lum already broke up with Rei and wants nothing to do with him anymore, Ran still hasn't forgiven her for dating Rei.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: She has dark pink hair and she seems to fit the sweet and romantic variety, but she's actually a subversion due to being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing with a major violent streak.
The Scapegoat: In their childhood, Lum let Ran get blamed for her misdeeds, even in her own home, and poor Ran was always punished by her mother for what Lum did.
Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: She blissfully thinks Rei goes on "dates" with her because he likes her, but he only really likes eating her homemade lunch and kisses her just to taste the food left in her face. When Ran isn't feeding him, Rei goes back to completely ignoring her in favor of Lum.
Single-Target Sexuality: She's madly in love with Rei and no-one else. She initially flirted with Ataru in hopes of punishing Lum by draining his youth, and once goes on a date with Ryunosuke Fujinami because she thought it would make Lum mad, but none of those were serious.
Small Girl, Big Gun: When she gets ahold of Benten's missile launcher. She's later seen hauling out bazookas of her own for combat.
Supreme Chef: She is a superb cook and is often cooking special dishes for Rei, whom she frequently dates.
Third-Person Person: She often refers to herself in third person as part of her Kawaiiko persona.
Through His Stomach: The only way she can get Rei's attention is by cooking for him since food is the one thing he likes more than Lum. They kinda start dating thanks to this, although Rei still seems more interested in the food than Ran herself (not that she minds as long as he hangs out with her). It's even compared to raising a pet in the manga's omake.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Eventually, Rei starts hanging around her quite a bit, if only because of her good cooking. However, he's actively put her safety ahead of the food, as seen in the climax of "Lover Thief."
Token Evil Teammate: Out of Lum's friends, she's the only one who has devious and malicious intentions to the point of often being a False Friend to the others, especially Lum.
Trapped in Villainy: As her grudge against Lum begins to cool, she expresses frustration that her bipolar condition borne from several years of being collateral damage in Lum's childhood hijinx is not subsiding at the same rate. This is not to say that she can't be conniving and malicious when she's calm though.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In the childhood flashbacks with Lum, Ran was an innocent, well-behaved little girl. After she repeatedly got punished because of Lum's irresponsible behavior and her crush chose Lum over her, Ran grew up into a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing whose only goal is taking revenge on Lum.
Vampiric Draining: She has ability to literally suck the life from others with a literal Kiss of Death. As shown later, this only provides basic additional sustenance to Ran, and it doesn't necessarily make her stronger no matter how much she drains.
Villain Decay: Ran gradually moves from being the closest thing the series has to a villain to an occasional nuisance and Token Evil Teammate.
Vitriolic Best Buds: By the later chapters of the manga, Ran and Lum have this dynamic. She gets triggered into psycho mode quite a bit, but she's not out for revenge as badly as she was in her introduction.
What Does She See in Him?: Zigzagged. Most of the girls around agree with Ran that Rei's good looks make him an excellent catch. The guys, as well as Lum, consider Ran to be throwing herself at somebody who has literally nothing else going for him outside his looks, given he is stupid, gluttonous and shallow.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Since they were children, she's absolutely terrified of Oyuki, having been present (and apparently barely surviving) a moment of her wrath at someone else.
With Friends Like These...: Despite Lum viewing Ran as a friend, Ran hates her and is out for revenge for all the times Lum inadvertently made her suffer.
Yandere: She's hell-bent on keeping other girls away from Rei, especially Lum. At one point, she declares would rather killing Rei and then herself than letting another woman have him.

Other Aliens

Rei

Voiced by: Tesshō Genda (JP, original series), Katsuyuki Konishi (JP, All-Stars), Jeremy Griffin (EN, movies), Brandon Hearnsberger (EN, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reipc.png

^{Click here to see him in the 1981 anime}

Lum's ex-boyfriend. Rei is a very handsome Oni, to the point that most girls fall for him just by seeing his face. However, he regularly shapeshifts into an ushitora — a huge goofy-looking cross between a tiger and a bull. He speaks almost no Japanese because what little intelligence he has is channeled into eating or looking for things to eat. Lum dumped him some time before the start of the series because she got tired of his stupidity, but he followed her to Earth to try and get her back. Ran is madly in love with him and plies him with her cooking in hopes of getting his affection.

Abhorrent Admirer: To Lum. Rei looks handsome in his humanoid form, but he often changes into an ushitora, which is one of the reasons why Lum broke up with him. That he's a mindless eating machine also repulses her.
Big Eater: He's a non-stop eating machine who is hardly ever seen not stuffing his face, or looking for eats.
Brainless Beauty: He can woo any human woman, regardless of her age, with his beauty, but he's also dumb as a post.
Character Catchphrase: "Lum!" and "Food!" are the main words that come out of his mouth. "Ran!" starts coming up later, though.
Chick Magnet: Rei breaks up loving couples just by walking past them, and causes squees whenever anything of the female gender sees him. His being dumb as a plank and loving only food does nothing to dissuade the girls... except Lum.
The Comically Serious: His reserved, emotionless nature, and overly terse way of speaking contrast with his stupidity and general ignorance and apathy towards anything that isn't food.
The Ditz: He's incredibly stupid, and he largely uses what little intelligence he has for eating and looking for things to eat. He's so stupid that the only reasons he's The Quiet One are because his Japanese isn't very good, and also because he can only say one word at a time.
Dub Name Change: Changed to Raymond in the BBC Gag Dub.
Eating Contest: He actually loses one against Ataru (Rei did manage to barely out-eat Ataru in a sweet potato eating contest, but the effort caused him to lose control of his shape-shifting and collapse while Ataru was still somewhat okay).
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: It's implied he can actually put together complex sentences in his own alien language, given the "translations" provided by Lum and Ten.
Hidden Depths: Despite being a Flat Character, there's hints of some complex thought in there somewhere. In the two-part story "Lover Thief", Rei's first instinct when he sees Ran falling alongside the platter of snacks she made is to save her rather than grab the food. Yes, he goes after the food next, but only when Ran's safe. Furthermore, when we get a glimpse of Rei's subconscious at the end of the anime adaptation of this story, we see multiple images of Lum... and one of Ran, sitting right next to Rei.
Hopeless Suitor: Lum can't stand Rei, but he still pursues her, which is honestly kind of pathetic to watch.
Human Alien: He looks just like a handsome, green-haired human man... unless he transforms.
Innocently Insensitive: Compared to others in the cast, Rei is more a gluttonous idiot rather than a jerk, but he's still astonishingly insensitive to people's feelings since all he cares about is food. One story notes that when Lum got him a locket as a symbol of her love, he ate it, sending her away in tears.
Language Barrier: Unlike other aliens, Rei doesn't speak Japanese fluently and rarely says full sentences.
Love Triangle: Rei wants to be with Lum, who can't stand him, and is ardently pursued by Ran, who he barely acknowledges existing.
Meaningful Name: Rei means "zero". This is a good approximation of his IQ. Or his "deep" personality.
Morality Pet: Ran is only ever genuinely nice and sweet to Rei because she has a huge crush on him. The few times when she isn't trying to get revenge on Lum is when Rei is around since she completely focuses on feeding him.
Never Gets Fat: All he ever does is eat large amounts of food, but his human form never gains weight and keeps a good figure.
Not What It Looks Like: Most displays of romantic affection from him are actually his pursuit of food — one time, he kissed Ran because she had bean paste on her lips that he was trying to snag.
Obsessed with Food: He doesn't care about anything else other than food. Though, as we see in "Lover Thief", Ran and Lum may be equal to it in what passes for his mind.
Platonic Kissing: He kisses Ataru's mother's hand in his introduction. Later on, he kisses Ran on the cheek and the lips. The girls take it as a romantic gesture, but Rei is just tasting food crumbs left in their bodies.
Power Incontinence: He has a tendency to shift to his bestial form without thinking about it when he gets angry or excited, which is implied to be one of the reasons Lum dislikes him.
The Quiet One: He's not very talkative because he doesn't know how to speak Japanese and even if he did speak the language, he's too dense to be eloquent.
Satellite Love Interest: He likes food, wants Lum to be his girlfriend again, and hates Ataru for being Lum's new fiancé. That's the entirety of Rei's character. Later in the series, he shows up even less and ends up in the role of Ran's crush who hangs out with her just to eat food.
Single-Target Sexuality: Lum is the only girl (or person) he has ever shown interest in, otherwise he only cares about food. He's probably too stupid to realize she hates him. Still, he hangs around Ran willingly enough, if only because she prepares a lot of delicious treats for him.
The Stoic: In his human form, his expression is always dull and only smiles when eating. Not so much when he gets excited and turns into a monster.
Terse Talker: Rei doesn't speak much. Whenever he does, he is only capable of uttering one word at a time. This is mostly because Rei doesn't know how to speak Japanese, but also because he's just so incredibly stupid.
Through His Stomach: He reveres anyone who brings him food... or whatever can even be considered food. He dates Ran pretty much because she keeps feeding him, and Rei just learns through conditioning that Ran=food. It's been compared to keeping a pet.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can transform himself into an ushitora -– a big demonic bull-tiger hybrid –- whenever he's excited or angry.
Wasted Beauty: It's been stated that looks are all he has going for him. Lum dumped him because he's stupid, often cares more about food than her, and tends to transform into a tiger-bull monster. Ran seems to be the only girl who still seriously wants Rei despite his many faults.

Princess Kurama

Voiced by: Rihoko Yoshida (JP, original series), Nana Mizuki (JP, All-Stars), Daisy Talley (EN, movie 1), Stacey Jefferson (EN, BBC gag dub), Chaney Moore (EN, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kuramapc.png

^{Click here to see her in the 1981 anime}

The "Crow Princess". A humanoid female from an alien race of crow tengu, her culture's laws state that she must mate with the man who awakens her from slumber with a kiss. Unfortunately for her, that person turns out to be Ataru. While she has no desire to mate with him, she initially tries to turn the perverted lech into someone worthy of her... but gave up once it became obvious that reforming him is impossible, and subsequently runs in the opposite direction whenever he shows up. She has the ability to create powerful gusts of wind with her multi-use giant leaf.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Not that she wasn't already pretty, however, many fans have noted that the adjustment to her look in All-Stars, such as her more natural lip color and brighter eyes, have made her even more attractive in that version.
Adaptation Dye-Job: The "wings" in her hair are green in the original anime and purple in the All-Stars anime remake.
Alien Princess: She's the princess of an alien Tengu species.
Anime Hair: Her hairstyle resembles a pair of crow wings. In the 1981 anime, it's established that they really are little wings on the side of her head.
Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Males of her people look like bipedal crows that are a few inches tall and have beards when they're older. Kurama looks nearly identical to human women. Possibly subverted, as it's shown there are female karasutengu who look just like the males serving her —anthropomorphic tiny crows, suggesting she simply takes after her human father.
Blow You Away: She has the ability to create powerful gusts of wind with her multi-use giant leaf.
Combat Hand Fan: Her weapon is a giant leaf that she uses as a hand fan.
Daddy's Girl: She really loves her dad Minamoto no Yoshitsune and holds him as the standard for a man. She even takes Ataru into the past, so he can learn a thing or two from her dad. Instead Ataru tries to teach Minamoto how to be a playboy.
Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Her outfit consists of a black leather leotard with Navel-Deep Neckline, a long black latex glove on her left arm, a choker on her neck and high-heeled boots.
Dude, She's Like in a Coma: She was going through with a tradition where she put herself in suspended animation till a prospective mate woke her up by kissing her.
Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In early chapters, Kurama wears a lace up bustier with a yellow sash around her waist, a spiked collar, and long boots. In later chapters, her outfit changed to a skimpy leotard, with no sash, a non-spiked collar, and shorter boots. The 2022 anime uses her second outfit from the get-go.
Everyone Has Standards: Kurama draws the line at forcibly changing someone's gender, and was not amused when she discovered Ryunosuke was a girl and the Karasutengu were trying to turn her into a boy.
Fantastic Racism: In her first few appearances she expresses disgust with Lum for being a “demon”/Oni. She seems to get over this later.
Fanservice Pack: Her initial outfit is already Stripperiffic but her second outfit gives her a neckline that reaches to her navel, ditches the lace in front of her cleavage, and shows off more of her legs thanks to the leotard. All- Stars gives her this outfit right from the start.
Fashionable Asymmetry: In the manga, Kurama wears an opera glove on her left arm and only wears a bracelet on her right arm. This was brought back for her design in the 2022 remake as well.
Half-Human Hybrid: Her mother was an alien tengu, while her father was Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a famous Japanese warrior.
Human Alien: The only visibly alien traits about her are the little crow wings on her head, which could just be an elaborate hairstyle, and her Pointy Ears.
Hypocrite: Initially, she wants to change Ataru's behavior and turn him into someone worthy of her, but she's actually very shallow, despite looking down on Ataru. When she chooses Mendo as the best man for her in a later chapter, Mendo is quickly revealed to be a perverted jerk like Ataru (as pointed out by the other characters), but, by her own admission, she doesn't care and still wants Mendo only because he's more handsome. She eventually decides to leave Mendo only after finding out that he's easily scared, so "not a real man", which makes her even more shallow.
I Can Change My Beloved: She tries to reform Ataru — indeed, she puts a great deal of effort into it, while fighting off both Lum and Shinobu — but eventually gives up once she realizes that Ataru's set in his ways.
Jerkass: She's usually a mean person towards others; particularly if they try to interfere with her attempts to land a worthy man. This includes Ran, who was dating Rei when Kurama tried to seduce him.
Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Every potential mate is a failure. Ataru is a pervert, Mendo turns out to be too pathetic and cowardly, Ryuunosuke isn't really a man like she thought, and Rei seems like the one until she sees he is really an idiotic tiger-cow.
Love at First Sight: The first time she sees Mendou, she immediately deems him her ideal man and is eager to marry him instead of Ataru. Her infatuation only lasts until she finds out about Mendou's fear of the dark.
Ms. Fanservice: She wears a skimpy outfit, has several bath scenes and in one occasion her breasts are visible when one of her tengu removes her bodice.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her bodice (and later, leotard) has a neckline that plunges down to her stomach.
Pet the Dog:
- When Ten got caught up in her vortex, she was quick to scoop him up and cradle him gently until he regained consciousness. She was also quite patient when he tried to hit on her, compared to her treatment of the similarly presumptuous Ataru.
- In one of the movies, she goes with Lum and several other people to help rescue Ataru.
Really 700 Years Old: She has a youthful appearance, but her father was Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a famous warrior and one of Japan's greatest heroes, who lived in the 12th century.
Royal Brat: A princess with a rude and unpleasant attitude. The only reason she even tried to reform Ataru in the first place (aside from her culture's law) is because Lum dragged him away from their first meeting, prompting this:
Kurama: What is it about other people's things that makes me want them?
Sexy Backless Outfit: Her leotard is backless, leaving her back bare.
Stripperiffic: Kurama has an outfit well established in all the episodes in which she appears, composed of a bodice black / blue laced on the breasts with a yellow bow, boots, several bracelets, and a black collar. In the manga, she later swaps it out for a leotard with an Impossibly-Low Neckline.
Surrounded by Idiots: Her retainers are notably lazy and incompetent, with the exception of her advisor.
Tengu: She is a Cute Monster Girl version of the Tengu (though she trades the long nose for little crow wings on her head and is thusly Bird People). She's also served by more traditional Karasu Tengu (which are runty little humanoid crows).
Vapor Wear: Her leotard is strapless and backless, with a Navel-Deep Neckline exposing her cleavage and making clear she doesn't wear a bra.
Weaksauce Weakness: As a side-effect of spending so long in cryo-sleep, she gets sleepy whenever she's cold.
What Happened to the Mouse?: After Kurama's plan to woo Rei failed, she vanishes from the series and never returns.

The Spice Girl Gang

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvtropes_spicegang_2.jpg

^{Click here to see them in the 1981 anime}

Sugar, Ginger, and Pepper. A trio of teenage girls who attended the same junior high school that Lum, Benten, and Oyuki did. Due to their seniors' reputation for causing mischief, the Gang of Three seeks to outdo their predecessors by defeating them in combat, but most of the time, they resort to simple pranks and underhanded schemes.

In General

Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga, Sugar's hair is pink and Ginger's hair is black. In the 1981 anime, their hair colors were changed to black and blonde respectively. However, later anime adaptations make Sugar's hair pink like in the manga. Meanwhile, Ginger's hair is blonde in the 2008 OVA and black with a dark green tint in the 2022 anime.
Big Bad Wannabe: They want to be a feared trio of delinquents, and frequently menace Lum and her friends to pull it off. Unfortunately for them, their complete incompetence prevents them from being a real threat.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: In the 2008 OVA, Sugar has pink hair, Ginger has blonde hair, and Pepper has black hair.
Bratty Half-Pint: They're a bunch of stupid brats who play pranks on their "senior delinquents" so they can pretend to be a gang, but are just annoying more than anything.
Bullying a Dragon: They pick a fight with Benten, Lum, and Oyuki, despite each of them being known as a force to be reckoned with. Even the Spice Girls know they're screwed if Benten's "gang" gets serious against them.
The Dividual: The three of them are often seen together, causing trouble for Lum and her friends.
Edible Theme Naming: All three of them are named after spice-related condiments.
Establishing Character Moment: In their introduction, they "greet" Lum, Benten, and Oyuki by sticking out their tongues, just to make clear they're obnoxious brats right away.
Goldfish Poop Gang: These three lack the sense, power, or competence to be any real threat most of the time.
Human Aliens: Like other aliens in the series, Sugar and Pepper look just like humans. Ginger mostly looks human too, but has cat-like ears.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: They're such stupid and incompetent antagonists that all their evil plans either backfire or fail humiliatingly.
Karmic Butt-Monkey: None of their schemes really work out, often with humiliating results. Being thoughtless jerks with a high opinion of themselves, they tend to have it coming.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: In their last appearance, they try using animal minions to even the score with Lum and company. Their first attempts with Benten and Oyuki fail miserably... and then they bring out a giant electric eel to use against Lum, leaving her lightning powers useless. They only fail because their attacks on Lum keep hitting the eel too, ticking it off to the point where it pulls a Heel–Face Turn to help Lum.
Red Baron: They call themselves "Seven-colored" Sugar, "Buddah" Ginger, and "Poisonous Snake" Pepper.
Small Name, Big Ego: They give big speeches about how they're superior to Lum, Benten, and Oyuki. They... really ...aren't.
"Super Sentai" Stance: They did this at least once in the anime, ironic since none of these girls are heroic.
Terrible Trio: An especially inept example. Sugar tends to be the leader, but they're all equally dumb. They consider Lum, Benten and Oyuki their rivals, but are ignored by them.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: While Chameleon Camouflage, Faux Death, and Giving Them the Strip are powers that could be useful in the hands of skilled people, Sugar, Ginger, and Pepper are not bright enough to use them to their best effect. Plus their opponents are usually Lum, Benten, and Oyuki, who are flat-out leagues above them.

Sugar

Voiced by: TARAKO (JP, original series), Misaki Kuno (JP, All-Stars), Juliet Simmons (EN, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sugerpc.png

The leader of the trio. She wears a Chinese-style tunic and bun hairstyle. She has the ability to blend in with her surroundings to the point of invisibility.

Anime Chinese Girl: Although she's an alien, Sugar wears a Chinese-style outfit and has the double bun hairstyle that's common for Chinese girls in anime.
Chameleon Camouflage: Sugar's special ability allows her to blend in with her surroundings. While this would be useful for sneak attacks, Sugar's habit of announcing the technique as she's using it makes it easy to track her down.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: Inverted. Sugar's hair is pink (except in the 1981 anime), but she's every bit as bratty as Ginger and Pepper.

Ginger

Voiced by: Chika Sakamoto (JP, original series), Chitose Morinaga (JP, All-Stars), Natalie Rial (EN, All-Stars)

A girl with cat ears. She is able to slow down her bodily functions to the point that an untrained observer will believe that she is dead.

Cat Girl: Despite being an alien, Ginger looks like a girl with cat ears.
Faux Death: Ginger is able to slow down her bodily functions to the point that an untrained observer will believe that she is dead.
Race Lift: Ginger's skintone is much lighter in the 1981 anime. The 2008 OVA and 2022 anime do give her the dark skin from the manga.

Pepper

Voiced by: Rumiko Ukai (JP, original series), Rie Takahashi (JP, All-Stars)

A girl wearing a teal amored top and pants. She can shed her skin at will.

Animal Motifs: Her title is "Poisonous Snake" and her power is to shed her skin like a snake.
Giving Them the Strip: Pepper's power is a full-body example of this, where she sheds her skin like a snake to escape being grabbed.
Magic Pants: Pepper can shed her skin at will. This includes a replica of her clothing, leaving Pepper fully clothed.

Ran's mother

Voiced by: Yukiko Nashiwa (JP, original series), Kazue Ikura (JP, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ran_mom_2023.png

An extremely strict parent. She always blamed Ran for many misdeeds that Lum committed as a young girl and constantly punished her with a severe spanking.

Abusive Mom: She was a very strict parent and her go-to whenever (she thought) Ran did something wrong (like wetting the bed) was to violently spank her to the point of making Ran cry. And thanks to Lum, Ran was often blamed for things that she didn't even do. What separates her from a parent that is strict and harsh because they think it will help their child be better, is that it is clear her punishments are more because she’s mad at Ran than anything else. She also hit Ran while harshly comparing her to Lum, made it clear she liked the other girl better and verbally assaulted Ran while spanking her which can be considered emotional abuse. Her very first appearance even has her automatically blaming something bad that happened on Ran without considering it could have been Lum, then spanking Ran and verbally assaulting her for lying when she said it was actually Lum.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Her bikini is black in the original manga and anime, but the 2022 anime made it golden.
Adaptational Dumbass: In all three versions, she automatically believes that Lum was trying to take the fall for Ran breaking one of her antiques then punished her daughter for it. While she actually was right, her reasoning is less reasonable in the original anime. In the manga and 2022 anime, she sees through it because she sees the darts in Ran's hands match the one in the doll. In the original anime, she thinks for a moment then concludes that it was really Ran since Lum is the "good girl" and Ran is "shameful."
Cassandra Truth: Ran tried telling her while she was being spanked that it was actually Lum who wet the bed. She never believed her and punished her even harder for "lying" or "letting (her) friend take the fall for (her)".
Character Exaggeration:
- In the first anime, she automatically assumes that it was Ran who flooded the bathroom and doesn't believe her daughter when she (truthfully) says it was actually Lum. Then proceeded to spank her for "lying", which in turn made Lum scared of her and frame Ran for her bed-wetting. There's no scene like this in the manga or 2022 anime.
- Inverted example: In the manga, when Ran was tricked by a conman into buying lots of expensive gadgets, her mother grounded her for half a year. In the original anime, she just took away her allowance for that time-period.
- Another inverted example: The 2022 anime tones down her abusive treatment of Ran by removing the scenes where she gives her physical punishments, but she still screams and verbally assaults her.
Didn't Think This Through: After Ran told her mother that it was Lum who wet the bed, not her, she proceeded to harshly ask Lum if that's true, even saying that she would spank Lum for it. Why she would think that a little girl would admit to her fault knowing that after seeing her violently spank her own daughter beforehand is anyone's guess.
Disappointed in You: She called Ran a shameful daughter for her (supposed) bedwetting and for (supposedly) not being as good of a child as Lum. She especially called Ran shameful for "letting" Lum try and take the fall for her on one of the few things Ran actually did do wrong (it was to try to make up for getting her in trouble before but she didn't know that).
Disproportionate Retribution: She was a FAR stricter parent compared to Lum's and much harsher when it came to discipline. An action that Lum's parents would deem innocent (like wetting the bed), she would viciously spank Ran for. And for an action that caused Lum's parents to spank her, she punished Ran by grounding her for half a year.
The Dreaded: Both Ran and Lum were afraid of her.
Establishing Character Moment:
- In her first scene in the manga, it's her telling her daughter right before she goes to sleep that if she were the bed she will spank her, and Ran replies with a scared “yes ma’am”.
- In her first scene in the original anime, she automatically assumed the bathroom flooding was Ran's fault. This is just one of the many misdeeds Ran got blamed and unfairly punished for.
Fiery Redhead: Her daughter got her red hair and explosive temper from her.
Hair-Trigger Temper: She was quick to anger, her spankings were violent and she even smacked her daughter and made her cry for no other reason than was reminded of how much Lum is a sweet girl compared to her.
Hate Sink: She has little to no characterization aside from being Ran's Abusive Mom who traumatized her daughter into becoming a psycho and contributing to the latter's resentment towards Lum.
Horrible Judge of Character: She thought her daughter Ran was a naughty brat while Lum was an angel. She couldn't have been more wrong at that age.
Irony:
- She thought Ran was a bad kid when she was little, but her constant punishments in return ended up making Ran into a psycho as a teenager.
- She always fell for Lum's attempts at framing Ran for her bed wetting, but when Lum tried to take the fall for Ran accidentally breaking one of her antiques (a dancing robot toy) she immediately saw through it.
Jerkass: Strict parenting aside, she wasn't very nice to her daughter overall, harshly judged her for unintentional mistakes, seeing the worst in her and tended to automatically assume Ran did something bad (then promptly punish her) without bothering to determine if it was another person, such as blaming Ram of flooding the bathroom when it was really Lum (which then made Lum scared of her and start framing Ran onward) to naturally assuming that a pee-stain in a drying bedsheet came from Ran (again it was Lum).
Misplaced Retribution: She harshly punished Ran for things that Lum actually did. Most of the time it was because Lum framed Ran, but a few times it was because she automatically assumed the worst in her daughter.
Pet the Dog: She was actually very nurturing to Ran when she was sick and threw her a decent birthday party.
Posthumous Character: We only ever see her in flashbacks. Her current status and relationship with her daughter is unknown.
Selective Obliviousness: Ran did do a few things that she considered bad behavior when she was young (Ran admitted to Lum that she wet the bed once) and Lum didn't do anything bad (in front of her) whenever she stayed at her house. So she was quick to assume that Ran was responsible for anything bad that happened (even when Lum didn't even try to frame her, or even when Lum tried taking the fall for her) because she got it in her head that her daughter was "shameful" and Lum was an angel.
Sexy Backless Outfit: Her bikini top only covered her breasts, leaving her back fully bare.
Strong Family Resemblance: She looks exactly like an older Ran.
Unnamed Parent: We never get a name for her.
Walking Swimsuit Scene: Flashbacks only show her wearing a bikini.
Why Are You Not My Son?: Thanks to Lum framing Ran for her bed wetting, she thought Lum was a better child than her daughter and made that clear to Ran. She once smacked Ran in the back of the head so hard it made her cry, while harshly asking her why she couldn't be more like Lum.
Would Hurt a Child: She would (rather violently) spank her daughter to the point of tears for perceived bad behavior. Also, the reason Lum let Ran take the blame for her was because Ran's mother specifically said that she would have spanked Lum too for misbehaving, even though she wasn't her daughter. She also wasn’t against smacking her daughter on the back of the head while harshly criticizing her, once again hard enough to make Ran cry. Keep in mind they were FIVE at the time.

Rupa

Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa (JP, Movie 5)

The prince of a world of total darkness, giant mushrooms, and flying pigs. It was arranged by his great-grandfather Uba that he would marry Lum. He is the central antagonist of the final manga arc, which was animated as the movie The Final Chapter.

And Now You Must Marry Me: He kidnaps Lum and tries to force her to carry out their Arranged Marriage.
Arc Villain: He's the antagonist for the final arc where he goes to Earth to claim Lum as his bride.
Arranged Marriage: It was arranged by Rupa's great-grandfather that he would marry Lum.
Being Evil Sucks: He ends up admitting to Carla that his blind adherence to his grandfather's wishes in trying to marry Lum caused more trouble than it was worth, and that it made it harder for him to admit to himself who he really loves.
Beta Couple: With Carla. Their dysfunctional relationship parallels Ataru and Lum's in the final arc. Unlike the main couple getting an open ending, Rupa proposes to Carla and they look happy despite how rocky their relationship has been.
Beware the Silly Ones: He's not an intimidating figure in the slightest. But he unwittingly achieves something that nobody else has in the entire story; destroying Ataru and Lum's trust in each other and causing them to legitimately break up by swapping out the real Lum for an obedient mushroom duplicant at his wedding, causing Ataru to believe that Lum really had chosen Rupa over him and causing him to denounce the real Lum as a two-timing traitor when she broke free in the confusion.
Big Bad Wannabe: He triggers the start of the final arc with his engagement to Lum. Ultimately, however, the final conflict boils down to Lum and Ataru's mutual stubbornness, and Rupa finds himself sidelined.
Childhood Friend Romance: With Carla. They were close when they were children, but her going Yandere because of his engagement to Lum made him terrified of her. At the end, however, Rupa admits that he doesn't really want to marry Lum and asks Carla to marry him.
Disposable Fiancé: He intended to marry Lum, but ultimately ends up not going through with it.
Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His Yandere childhood friend Carla has repeatedly assaulted him for most of their lives, sometimes even blasting him with a bazooka. Flashbacks to Carla abusing his child self are Played for Laughs.
Honor Among Thieves: Despite his antagonism towards Ataru, and his breaking things off with Lum, he agrees to have his pigs eat the mushrooms threatening the Earth regardless of whether Ataru wins or loses the match.
Honor Thy Abuser: After giving up on marrying Lum, not only does Rupa instantly forgive Carla for terrorizing him, assaulting him, and almost killing him for years, he even asks her to marry him.
In Love with Love: As Lum and Ten point out, Rupa would have been fine with an Arranged Marriage with anyone as long as his fiancée was cute. He's confronted about how he's completely disregarding his childhood friend Carla's feelings for him, causing her to go mad over Rupa preferring to marry a stranger over her.
In the Hood: He's rarely seen outside his hooded black cloak.
Knight of Cerebus: His arrival kicks off the final arc, which ultimately has the highest stakes seen in the whole story.
Love Before First Sight: His great-grandfather gave him a picture of a little Lum when he was a kid. Since she's cute, he decided to go through with their Arranged Marriage even if he had to force her into it.
Loving a Shadow: He thought he would like Lum more than Carla, only based on the assumption that Lum wouldn't be as possessive and violent. Lum herself points out she is very possessive and violent towards the man she loves, so there's no reason why Rupa should like her, especially when they're complete strangers.
Marry for Love: At the end, he realizes he isn't in love with Lum and breaks off the Arranged Marriage to marry Carla, the woman he really loves.
Stupid Evil: While his schemes actually do manage to work to some extent, he fails at being imposing. In his entrance scene, he crashed into a wall and had to be brought into the infirmary to recuperate.
Unknowingly in Love: Since he was told that he would marry Lum from a young age, he couldn't understand he didn't want that or that he wanted to marry Carla all along, until the penultimate chapter.

Carla

Voiced by: You Inoue (JP, Movie 5)

Rupa's childhood friend. Ever since they've been children, Carla has loved Rupa. When one day Rupa showed Carla a picture of Lum, his bride-to-be, Carla changed from a childhood friend to a violent arch-enemy. Like Rupa, she is a central character in the final manga arc, which was animated as the movie The Final Chapter.

Abhorrent Admirer: To Rupa. He did think she was cute when they were kids, but after he told her about his engagement to Lum, Carla became an unhinged Yandere who obsessively stalks and attacks him because he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. Rupa naturally ended up terrified of her after years of abuse.
Beta Couple: With Rupa in the final arc. Their relationship problems and Carla's abusive possessiveness make them an obvious parallel to Ataru and Lum, but unlike those two having an open ending, Carla gets a definite happy ending with Rupa admitting he loves her and asking her to marry him.
Chainmail Bikini: Beneath her robe, she wears a skimpy armor that looks like a bikini.
Childhood Friend Romance: She has been obsessively in love with Rupa since they were kids, but their relationship soured a lot since Carla went crazy with jealousy because Rupa is engaged to Lum. At the end, however, Rupa gives up on Lum and asks Carla to marry him.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Ever since Rupa told her about his engagement to Lum, she has constantly threatened and terrorized Rupa out of jealousy.
Cry into Chest: When Rupa finally admits he was wrong about wanting to marry Lum and asks Carla to marry him, Carla hugs him tightly and breaks down in tears.
Disproportionate Retribution: Carla does have a legitimate grievance against Rupa, as he readily agreed to marry a complete stranger when he (sort of) had a relationship with Carla when they were kids. However, Carla definitely went overboard by turning to dangerously possessive and jealous behavior, to the point she has repeatedly assaulted and almost killed Rupa over the past decade.
Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: She has spent most of her life attacking Rupa with heavy weaponry, but this is treated as merely a comedic flaw, even somewhat justified, and Rupa ultimately proposes to her after Lum talks him out of the Arranged Marriage, even though realistically he has every reason not to want to marry the crazy girl who has obsessively stalked and attacked him for a decade.
Driven by Envy: Carla was pissed when Rupa told her he was going to marry some girl he'd never even met when he already had her. She has spent years making his life hell since then, and after he kidnaps Lum to force her to marry him, Carla is hellbent on ruining their wedding.
Early-Bird Cameo: At the start of Episode 18 of the 2022 anime, there's a glimpse of Carla's silhouette.
Evil Wears Black: She wears a black wedding dress as she crashes Rupa's forced wedding with Lum, fully intending to stop it even if she has to kill both Rupa and Lum.
If I Can't Have You…: After Rupa claims to hate her, Carla bursts into tears and declares that she's going to commit a Murder-Suicide with him, as she won't let anyone else have him.
Inconsistent Spelling: She's called "Kurala" in the Viz Media translation of the manga.
Karma Houdini: After spending years making Rupa's life hell because he kept refusing to marry her, Carla ultimately gets a happy ending with Rupa proposing to her.
Love Hungry: When she was a child, she forced Rupa to say he loved her by holding him at gunpoint. After she learned he was already engaged to another girl, Carla has been obsessed with assaulting Rupa until he agrees to marry her.
Murder the Hypotenuse: She was willing to kill Lum to prevent Rupa from marrying her, either unaware or not caring that Lum wasn't on board with this engagement.
Never My Fault: She blames Rupa's engagement to Lum as the only reason why he refuses to marry her instead, but a lot of Rupa's reluctance to accept her "advances" could be easily explained as her own fault for resorting to attacking Rupa repeatedly on end for years after hearing he was in an Arranged Marriage. Rupa even lampshades that this behavior is why he grew to fear her and want nothing to do with her.
Not Good with Rejection: Carla loves Rupa, but he's engaged to another girl. In response to feeling rejected by Rupa, Carla constantly chases him down, attacks him, and even tries to kill him.
Satellite Love Interest: All aspects of her character tie back into Rupa and her obsession with making him marry her.
Small Girl, Big Gun: The weapons she hauls out tend to be as long as she is tall.
Stalker with a Crush: After Rupa told her he would marry Lum, Carla began chasing him around to blast him with her bazooka while shouting out her love for him. No matter how far he ran, she would find him and attack him again.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She offers the Moroboshi household some Dark World mushrooms that grow explosively when exposed to heat and light, causing the city to become rapidly overgrown with them and potentially nearly smothering the world with them. This directly leads to Lum's challenging Ataru to a second game of tag, with the continued presence of the aliens on Earth and all their memories of them as the stakes, in exchange for getting rid of the mushrooms.
White Hair, Black Heart: She's a murderously possessive Yandere with white hair.
Woman Scorned: She was in sort of a relationship with Rupa when they were kids, since he told her he loved her (albeit under Carla's violent threats). Then he told her his great-grandfather had already chosen Lum as his fiancée and Carla went ballistic. For the following years, she has attacked him and almost killed him constantly.
Yandere: She used to be Rupa's childhood friend with a crush on him. After he told her he was engaged to Lum, Carla has spent most of her life chasing him, violently assaulting him, and trying to kill him for not returning her affections.

Ghosts

Kotatsu-neko

Voiced by: Tomohiro Nishimura (JP, original series), Joe Daniels (EN, All-Stars)

^{Click here to see him in the 1981 anime}

A giant ghost cat that goes to great lengths to sit under a kotatsu because it hates being cold. He originally was a kitten who was abandoned centuries ago and froze to death, so the spirit does little else but seek out warmth. He often can be seen as a companion for either Cherry or the Tomobiki High Principal, usually enjoying tea with them. He also occasionally acts as a companion to Ten which could be in part due to Ten's ability to breathe fire.

Badass Adorable: He is a cute giant human-cat, but also very strong. The only character stronger than him is likely Oyuki.
Gentle Giant: Despite his monolithic size (for a cat), Kotatsu-Neko is nonetheless one of the most demure and zen-like denizens of the series' universe.
Mega Neko: He's a human-sized cat.
Mighty Glacier: Arguably qualifies as the series' main example, owing to his simultaneous potent physical strength and demure, leisurely natural demeanour.
Odd Friendship: He gets along well with Cherry and Ten, but he seems to be closest to the Tomobiki High School Principal, whom he is often seen drinking tea with.
Our Ghosts Are Different: He is a giant ghost cat who is fully corporeal.
Super-Strength: He's the strongest character in the series, easily capable of overpowering Benten (another character with Super-Strength) and in a gag from the 1981 anime, defeating Kenshiro in five seconds flat.

Nozomi

Voiced by: Matsumi Oshiro (JP, original series), Manaka Iwami (JP, All-Stars)

A sickly girl who fell in love with Ataru without ever actually meeting him. After dying from her illness, she becomes a ghost and goes on a date with Ataru to pass on.

Adaptation Dye-Job: She had brown hair in the 1981 anime series. The 2022 anime gives her black hair instead.
Cute Ghost Girl: She looks just as cute as a ghost as she did when she was alive.
Delicate and Sickly: When alive, she had a serious sickness that left her bedridden from childhood.
Ethereal White Dress: She appears wearing the white nightgown that she wore at the hospital before her death.
Friendly Ghost: Even after becoming a ghost, she's a very sweet and innocent girl.
Girlish Pigtails: She's a Cute Ghost Girl with her hair tied into twin braids.
Go Out with a Smile: After she watches the fireworks with Ataru, Nozomi no longer has any regrets and passes on to the afterlife with a smile.
Loving a Shadow: She watched Ataru running to school from her hospital window every day. Since he seemed energetic and enjoying his life, Nozomi created an idealized version of Ataru in her mind and fell in love with him without knowing his heavily flawed personality.
Meaningful Name: "Nozomi" means "wish" in Japanese. She can only pass on after she gets her wish to go on a date with Ataru.
No Full Name Given: We never get to know her surname.
Textile Work Is Feminine: Before she passed away during Winter, she knitted a scarf, a wool hat, mittens, and leg warmers for Ataru. She then makes him wear them all for their date during Summer.
Tragic One-Shot Character: She only appears in one chapter, which ends with her spirit passing on to the afterlife.
Twisted Christmas: She passed away during a Christmas Eve.
Unfinished Business: Her ghost can only pass on after she goes on a date with Ataru and watches the "snow" (actually fireworks since their date takes place during Summer) with him.
Youthful Freckles: She appears as a young girl with freckles over her nose.

Mr. Shiowatari

Voiced by: Kaneta Kimotsuki (JP, original series), Koichi Sakaguchi (JP, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nagisa_fpc.png

Nagisa's father, a kind-hearted man but a terrible businessman who ate himself to death trying to perfect a recipe for sea urchin-flavored kakigori (shaved ice). He somehow arranges for his former property to be sold to his old friend, Mr. Fujinami, for 300 yen, in hopes of attaining spiritual peace.

Back for the Dead: He only appears in the two-parter "Nagisa's Fiance" manga arc in chapters 341-342 (and the OAV adaptation of said arc). At its climax, as the sun rises, he returns to the afterlife, saying that with his "daughter's" reunion with her "fiance" Ryuunosuke, he can now pass on with no regrets.
Believing Their Own Lies: He describes Nagisa as a "late-blooming girl" after Nagisa shows off his bare, masculine chest to Ryuunosuke.
Cordon Bleugh Chef: When he was alive, he tried making sea urchin-flavored kakigori (shaved ice). However, every time he tried it, the result was disgusting and he died alongside Nagisa because of his futile efforts to at least make it edible.
Death by Gluttony: He died after eating his 98th successive bowl of kakigori.
Detrimental Determination: He literally ate himself to death trying to come up with a recipe for sea urchin-flavored kakigori (shaved ice) that didn't taste disgusting.
Foil: To Mr. Fujinami. They're both stupidly incompetent businessmen and forced an opposite gender identity on their children from birth. However, they're starkly different in their personalities since despite his faults as a breadwinner and father, Mr. Shiowatari is a decent and good-hearted person who truly wishes for his child's happiness, as opposed to Mr. Fujinami being an abusive Jerkass who actively tries to foil his daughter's attempts to do what she wants.
Friendly Ghost: He's a ghost by the time of his first appearance, but still friendlier than most of the living characters in the cast.
Good Parents: He's the complete opposite of his buddy Mr. Fujinami in that he's shown to be a loving, gentle, and caring father, delusions aside. Nagisa absolutely dotes on him, and he's even willing to give up the chance to be restored to life to let his "daughter" be revived instead. He even passes on to the afterlife at peace once Nagisa is revived and given a chance to find love with Ryuunosuke.
I Reject Your Reality: He's in complete denial that his son Nagisa isn't a daughter.
Incompetence, Inc.: He was a nice guy, but a lousy businessman. For starters, he thought a deserted island four miles offshore from the nearest beachside town would be a great place to set up a beach cafe. Then he decided he needed a gimmick to lure the customers in... and decided on sea urchin-flavored kakigori, a dish nobody except maybe an alien would find appetizing.
Loon with a Heart of Gold: He raised his son as a girl because of how badly he wanted a daughter and literally ate himself to death from disgusting sea urchin-flavored kakigori and is a very strange man in general, but he's also a very nice man as well and a loving, gentle, caring, and selfless father.
The Prankster: His first appearance has him pulling a practical joke on the Fujinamis, Ataru, Lum, Shutaro and Shinobu, and Nagisa comments on his love of pranks.
Strange Minds Think Alike: He shares similarly terrible business sense with Mr. Fujinami, and likewise his delusions about his offspring's gender.
Unnamed Parent: As it's the norm for the parents in this series, his name isn't mentioned and he's only known as "Nagisa's father".
Wanted a Son Instead: Gender-flipped. He wanted a daughter so badly that he decided to bring up his son as a girl.

Other Supernatural Beings

Pochi

Voiced by: Joji Yanami (JP, original series), Shuhei Nakano (JP, All-Stars), Mark X Laskowski (EN, All-Stars)

A little monster who lived at the bottom of a pool at Mendou's private hotel.

Benevolent Monsters: He's a cute and friendly monster who just wants to befriend humans. Unfortunately, most people freak out when he comes out of the pool, so Mendou has to kick him out.
Hates Being Alone: When Ataru tries to abandon him at the beach, he realizes he doesn't want to be alone and tries guilt tripping Ataru's group into not leaving him. To his luck, a little boy picks him up as a pet.
I Just Want to Have Friends: He just wants to become friends with the humans who come to visit his "home" at the pool.
Nice Guy: He's very sweet and friendly, even trying to serve tea to his "guests" at the pool. However, he doesn't realize humans drown if he makes them stay underwater for too long.
No Name Given: His name is never mentioned. A boy adopts him and names him Pochi, making it the only name known for him.

Kitsune-ko

Voiced by: Masako Sugaya (JP, original series), Rie Kugimiya (JP, All-Stars), Emi Lo (EN, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kitsune_2022.png

^{Click here to see him in the 1981 anime}

A young fox spirit that develops a crush on Shinobu when he first meets her.

Asian Fox Spirit: He's a little fox with the ability to shapeshift.
Interspecies Romance: A young kitsune with a huge crush on the human girl Shinobu. Unfortunately for him, she doesn't return his feelings and only sees him as a friend.
Nice Guy: He's maybe the only character in all the story who isn't obnoxious or dangerous.
Paper-Thin Disguise: His ability to shapeshift is rendered moot by the fact that all of them retain his small stature as well as his cute little nose, small, tiny, mouth, and beady black eyes, as well as his ears and tail being visible too.
Rescue Romance: Kitsune developed a major crush on Shinobu after she saved him from getting beat up by a gang of punk dogs.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: He is a very cute little fox.
Stalker with a Crush: After getting saved by Shinobu, he becomes infatuated with her and starts following her around to see what he can do to earn her affection.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like the fox spirits of Japanese folklore, he's able to shapeshift. His transformation power allows him to make himself look like a short fox version of the other characters.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Nobody seems to care or notice when he shapeshifts into Ataru, and are more concerned about "Ataru" being polite and helpful rather than the Ataru they know.

Mujaki

Voiced by: Kenichi Ogata (JP, original series), Takuya Fujioka (JP, Movie 2), Draidyl Roberts (EN, Movie 2)

A spirit that creates dreams. Unfortunately, most of his pleasant dreams lead to conquest and ruin. Originally a one-shot, non-antagonistic side-character in a single chapter, he made a surprise return as the villain of Beautiful Dreamer.

Affably Evil: He is a genuinely affable spirit that takes the form of a short and squat old man. That being said, he does have a temper and Ataru triggers it.
Anti-Villain: He starts out just wanting to give Lum perfect happiness. However, everyone else is roped into her dream as well, and things quickly start to go Off the Rails.
Arc Villain: He's the main antagonist of the second movie Beautiful Dreamer.
Dream Weaver: His powers revolve around creating dreams.
Let's Get Dangerous!: He's mostly having fun toying with the cast until Ataru sets him off and he starts using his powers to turn Ataru into even more of a Cosmic Plaything than usual.
Making a Splash: One of his reality-warping abilities is to create water, which he does to trap Mendou and Sakura.
"Not So Different" Remark: Ataru calls him an old pervert after Mujaki claims Ataru doesn't deserve Lum's heart. This absolutely infuriates Mujaki.
Obliviously Evil: Sakura calls him out on giving great dictators and warlords inspirational dreams. Mujaki counters that all he gives everyone pleasant dreams, and it was them and them alone who chose to do horrific things with that inspiration, things that horrified and upset him to the point he wants to retire.
Reality Warper: Like many dream weavers, he has endless power at his disposal in the dream world and makes great use of it.
Secretly Selfish: Ataru accuses him of just trying to have Lum all to himself, calling him an old pervert. The accusation drives Mujaki into a rage.
Shapeshifting Seducer: He disguises himself as Ataru, intending to replace him in Lum's dream after he gets frustrated at how callously Ataru treats her.
Taken for Granite: One of his powers is to turn anyone who opposes him into stone statues. He uses this ability on Cherry, Onsen-mark, Shinobu, and Ryuunosuke to keep them from disrupting the dream he's running.
Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: He admits at the end that attempting to keep up with the cast was exhausting for him and he wouldn't do it again.

Fate Production Bureau

Inaba

Voiced by: Hirotaka Suzuoki (JP, original series), Miyu Irino (JP, All-Stars), Jonathan Soronen (EN, movies)

^{Click here to see him in the 1981 anime}

An employee at the Fate Production Bureau which makes doorknobs to the Dream Realm. A bumbling yet kind-hearted young man who wears a rabbit costume which allows him to travel freely to and from subspace.

Adaptation Dye-Job: His hair is blond in the original anime. The anime remake makes his bangs pink and adds light blue highlights on his hair.
Ambiguously Human: Inaba appears to be a human boy in a bunny-suit that allows him to enter subspace, but if he is human then no backstory is ever given as to how he came to work at the Bureau given that all the other workers are anthropomorphic rabbits.
- The anime remake plays with this by giving the other rabbits more flesh-colored mouths, implying they're also just wearing rabbit costumes, albeit more elaborate ones, suggesting they look like Inaba underneath.
Because You Were Nice to Me: He falls in love with Shinobu after she gives him food when she finds him passed out and hungry on the street.
Beta Couple: With Shinobu. They're the only couple in the series who are never abusive to each other and, unlike the main couple, they're officially dating by the end.
Dogged Nice Guy: As soon as he meets Shinobu, he's smitten and starts pining for her. Once she realizes he isn't a creep or a weirdo, Shinobu comes to like him back and they become a couple.
Endearingly Dorky: He's awkward, nervous, and tends to say the wrong things and embarrass himself in front of Shinobu. But he's genuinely innocent (one of the few characters in the series who is not a pervert) and Shinobu begins to fall for him because he's truly a Nice Guy, in contrast to all her previous love interests.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He has blond hair and he's the nicest guy in the series bar none.
Love at First Sight: He falls for Shinobu right away.
Meaningful Name: His name comes from a children's story called "The White Rabbit of Inaba".
Nice Guy: Possibly the only truly nice guy in the series.
Official Couple: He becomes Shinobu's boyfriend towards the end of the series.
Satellite Love Interest: He's introduced very late into the series and his only characterization is being a Nice Guy who loves Shinobu. All of his appearances are about his relationship with her.

Kokeru Moroboshi

Voiced by: Toshio Furukawa (JP, original series), Motoko Kumai (JP, All-Stars)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kokerupc.png

The son of Ataru and Shinobu in a possible future.

Adaptational Late Appearance: In the manga, he appears in an early story where Ataru and Lum travel to the future. The anime has him appear right before the Inaba story arc, which is one of the last arcs of the series.
Dirty Kid: Despite his young age, he's just as perverted as his dad. He gropes Lum's bosom and flips up a female toddler's skirt.
Kid from the Future: He's born to Ataru and Shinobu in the future where they get married.
Strong Family Resemblance: He looks identical to his father Ataru, but with Shinobu's hair bangs.

Movie-Exclusive

Elle

Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara

The antagonist from the first movie, Only You. She is the lovely ruler of planet Elle, who claims that she and Ataru are engaged due to something that happened when they were children. Unfortunately for Ataru, she has a darker side...

Accidental Proposal: When Ataru was a child, he played a game of shadow tag with Elle and it is a custom on her planet that stepping on someone's shadow counts as a marriage proposal. Now she has came to claim her husband. Their engagement becomes null after Ataru remembers he lied about winning their game.
And Now You Must Marry Me: She sends her minions to Earth to claim Ataru as her husband and he's down for it until he finds out about Elle's "hobby" to collect and freeze handsome men. When Ataru tries to call the wedding off, she takes him prisoner and tries forcing him to go through with it, only to be stopped by Lum.
Big Bad: She's the villainess of the first movie.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems nice at first, until she reveals that she makes a "hobby" out of freezing her lovers to add them to her large collection.
Bond Villain Stupidity: If she had just remained focused on Ataru instead of falling for one of those trying to rescue him, Ataru would likely have never found out about her frozen harem.
Canon Foreigner: She's an original character of the first movie and doesn't exist in the manga.
Childhood Marriage Promise: She wants to marry Ataru even if by force because they played a game of shadow tag and on her planet stepping on someone's shadow is considered a marriage proposal. At the end it turns out Ataru never stepped in her shadow in the first place and therefore their engagement is null.
The Collector: She collects all of the handsome men that have ever loved her and freezes them for storage inside a giant refrigerator, to "keep their love forever fresh". She plans to make Mendou the 100,000th (and last, as the next day she'd marry Ataru and settle down).
Dude Magnet: She's attracted a considerable number of suitors by the time she shows up.
Evil Counterpart: To Ataru and Lum. Rather, she's a more flawed and antagonistic counterpart.
- Ataru and Elle are both lusty pursuers of the opposite sex, but Ataru is open about being a Harem Seeker, whilst Elle is a hypocrite who seduces men as a "hobby" and then keeps saying she only loves Ataru. Also, Ataru would never force a woman to join his harem, as opposed to Elle having no shame about cryo-freezing her would-be suitors, treating them more like trophies than Ataru ever would.
- Like Lum, Elle is a beautiful Alien Princess who wishes to claim Ataru as her husband because he beat her in a game of tag. With the difference that it turns out that Ataru actually lied about beating Elle. Both try forcing Ataru to marry them even after he resists, but Lum is one hundred percent committed to Ataru alone. Elle, on the other hand, has amassed a thousands-strong "harem" of handsome men by seducing them and then cryogenically freezing them, but hypocritically claims to only love Ataru alone, despite still maintaining her "collection".
Flowers of Femininity: She's a beautiful queen and wears a white rose in her hair, as well as having a "rose" theme to all her belongings. Even her planet looks like a rose!
Forgotten Friend, New Foe: She met Ataru when they were both little kids, but Ataru forgot all about her until she shows up during the movie.
God Save Us from the Queen!: She's a beautiful queen beloved by the people of her planet, but the men that she takes a liking to will either become part of her frozen collection or her slave.
Leotard of Power: She wears a rose-red leotard beneath a regal white cape.
Light Is Not Good: She's very beautiful and wears a white cape over her body, but she's still a villain and nowhere near as nice as she seems.
Lord Country: Exaggerated. Elle rules over an entire planet that shares her same name.
Naked on Arrival: Her first official appearance shows her naked from the back as she comes out of her bath.
Psycho Pink: She has rose-colored hair and serves as the main villain of the first movie. Although she doesn't seem bad at first, even the perverted Ataru is repulsed by Elle's true twisted and depraved nature.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: Subverted. She has pink hair and presents herself as a sweet woman who is smitten with Ataru, but she's actually a shameless man-eater who treats handsome men as collectibles and tries forcing Ataru to marry her after he realizes her true nature.
Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Her rose hair and green eyes signify her relevance as royalty and the villain of the first movie.
Terms of Endangerment: She calls Ataru "Honey" because she thinks he's her husband. He's pleased with her displays of affection until he discovers what a dangerous woman she really is.
The Unfettered: She's determined to have her way no matter what.
Universally Beloved Leader: She's a beloved ruler on her homeworld.
Villain Ball: She just had to try and freeze Mendou, which only ends up exposing her true nature as an evil man-eater to Ataru and makes him lose any intention to marry her willingly.
Villainous Crush: Elle is the first movie's villain because she wants to take Ataru from Lum and make him her husband. Ataru actually likes the idea at first, but changes his mind after he finds out about Elle's frozen collection of handsome men. Elle still attempts to make him marry her by force.
White and Red and Eerie All Over: Her outfit consists of a red leotard with a white cape and accessories. Her color scheme is a hint at her being dangerous despite good first impressions.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: She's considered the most beautiful woman of the entire universe.
Yandere: She has the "hobby" of imprisoning and freezing the men she's attracted to, even keeping a very big collection inside a giant refrigerator. When Ataru realizes this and changes his mind about marrying her, Elle will not let him go willingly and is determined to make Ataru hers, whether he wants it or not.

Characters / Urusei Yatsura - Weirdoes

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Lum's Family

Both

Lum's father

Voiced by: Ritsuo Sawa (JP, original series), Rikiya Koyama (JP, All-Stars), David Krause (EN, test dub), Anthony Lawson (EN, movies), Rob Mungle (EN, All-Stars )

Lum's mother

Voiced by: Reiko Yamada (JP, original series), Fumi Hirano (JP, All-Stars), Kristen Foster (EN, movies), Christie Guidry (EN, All-Stars)

Ten

Voiced by: Kazuko Sugiyama (JP, original series), Aoi Yūki (JP, All-Stars), Mindi L. Lyons (EN, test dub), Barbara Barnes (EN, BBC gag dub), Shannon Settlemyre (EN, Movies 1, 3-6), Paula Parker (EN, Movie 2), Sarah Hauser (EN, Animax Dub), Coqui Saporana (EN, All-Stars)

Ten's mother

Voiced by: Keiko Yokozawa

Lum's Childhood Friends

Benten

Voiced by: Yuuko Mita (JP, original series), Shizuka Ishigami (JP, All-Stars) Natasha Malinsky (EN, movie 1), Satu Rautaharju (EN, movies 3, 5-6), Elissa Cuellar (EN, All-Stars)

Oyuki

Voiced by: Noriko Ohara (JP, original series), Saori Hayami (JP, All-Stars), Jaime Phelps (EN, movies), Teresa Zimmermann (EN, All-Stars)

Ran

Voiced by: You Inoue (JP, 1st half of original series), Kazue Komiya (JP, 2nd half of original series + OVAs), Kana Hanazawa (JP, All-Stars), Morgan Jarrett (EN, movies), Andrea Kwan (EN, Animax Dub), Donna Bella Litton (EN, All-Stars)

Other Aliens

Rei

Voiced by: Tesshō Genda (JP, original series), Katsuyuki Konishi (JP, All-Stars), Jeremy Griffin (EN, movies), Brandon Hearnsberger (EN, All-Stars)

Princess Kurama

Voiced by: Rihoko Yoshida (JP, original series), Nana Mizuki (JP, All-Stars), Daisy Talley (EN, movie 1), Stacey Jefferson (EN, BBC gag dub), Chaney Moore (EN, All-Stars)

The Spice Girl Gang

In General

Sugar

Voiced by: TARAKO (JP, original series), Misaki Kuno (JP, All-Stars), Juliet Simmons (EN, All-Stars)

Ginger

Voiced by: Chika Sakamoto (JP, original series), Chitose Morinaga (JP, All-Stars), Natalie Rial (EN, All-Stars)

Pepper

Voiced by: Rumiko Ukai (JP, original series), Rie Takahashi (JP, All-Stars)

Ran's mother

Voiced by: Yukiko Nashiwa (JP, original series), Kazue Ikura (JP, All-Stars)

Rupa

Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa (JP, Movie 5)

Carla

Voiced by: You Inoue (JP, Movie 5)

Ghosts

Kotatsu-neko

Voiced by: Tomohiro Nishimura (JP, original series), Joe Daniels (EN, All-Stars)

Nozomi

Voiced by: Matsumi Oshiro (JP, original series), Manaka Iwami (JP, All-Stars)

Mr. Shiowatari

Voiced by: Kaneta Kimotsuki (JP, original series), Koichi Sakaguchi (JP, All-Stars)

Other Supernatural Beings

Pochi

Voiced by: Joji Yanami (JP, original series), Shuhei Nakano (JP, All-Stars), Mark X Laskowski (EN, All-Stars)

Kitsune-ko

Voiced by: Masako Sugaya (JP, original series), Rie Kugimiya (JP, All-Stars), Emi Lo (EN, All-Stars)

Mujaki

Voiced by: Kenichi Ogata (JP, original series), Takuya Fujioka (JP, Movie 2), Draidyl Roberts (EN, Movie 2)

Fate Production Bureau

Inaba

Voiced by: Hirotaka Suzuoki (JP, original series), Miyu Irino (JP, All-Stars), Jonathan Soronen (EN, movies)

Kokeru Moroboshi

Voiced by: Toshio Furukawa (JP, original series), Motoko Kumai (JP, All-Stars)

Movie-Exclusive

Elle

Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara

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