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Urusei Yatsura
Thus began a great love story...

Darling no BAKA!

An early work by Rumiko Takahashi, Urusei Yatsura is often considered the original Magical Girlfriend parody, enough that the bumbling well-meaning Magical Girlfriend has become an archetype in its own right. The show's poster girl, a cutesy alien named Lum who habitually wears a tiger-striped bikini (at left), is easily one of the most recognizable anime characters in history.

The show centers around Ataru Moroboshi, an Ordinary High School Student who happens to be both the unluckiest and most perverted man in the world, possibly the entire universe. He is chosen by lot to challenge a band of alien invaders in a game of tag to decide the fate of the Earth. His opponent: the lovely Princess Lum, daughter of the invaders' leader. After several false starts, it takes a promise of marriage by his long-suffering girlfriend and childhood companion Shinobu to bolster him to victory. Unfortunately, after his triumphant declaration of "Now I can get married!", Lum thinks Ataru wants to marry her, falls instantly in love with him — and the rest is history. Lum moves in with her "darling" Ataru, and before long, the district of Tomobiki has become a hotbed for intergalactic weirdness involving Lum's friends and relatives, with Ataru stuck in the middle.

Unlike most Unlucky Everydudes who were only Accidental Perverts, Ataru actually was an unrepentant pervert, and generally found his loyal "fiancée" to be little more than a hindrance to his more lecherous pursuits, though even he wasn't below the occasional Pet The Dog moments.

If Maison Ikkoku is the first Pretty Freeloaders-style comedy, UY is one of the earliest tongue-in-cheek harem comedies, combining its outlandish premise to spice up deceptively typical plots, as well as parody the genre nearly a decade before the fact. Its popularity even inspired a tenth-anniversary movie, the unusually offbeat Always My Darling.

Urusei Yatsura provides examples of:

  • Accidental Marriage
  • Adaptation Displacement - The anime adaptation is sometimes more fondly remembered than the original manga, particularly the more surreal and experimental episodes and films (where director Mamoru Oshii started making a name for himself).
  • Alien Invasion - The main premise of the series. At first.
  • Aliens Speaking English - The chapter where Lum gets hit in the head and loses her memory of Japanese and can only speak the oni language is a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming when Ataru - allowing the Water Works to flow freely for the first time - embraces her and begs her to remember it.
  • All Love Is Unrequited - And if it isn't (the rare examples being Tsubame and Sakura and, eventually, Inaba and Shinobu), the rest of the craziness conspires to keep them apart. Arguably, Ataru and Lum also love each other, but analyzing that would require a separate page altogether.
  • All Men Are Perverts - Ataru, in spades. In the 10th anniversary movie Always My Darling, Princess Lupika's computer pinpoints him as the most lecherous man in the universe.
  • Aloha Hawaii
  • Ancient Astronauts
  • An Ice Person - Oyuki, the Queen of Neptune.
  • Anime Anatomy - Averted. If nowhere else, then during Lum's initial Defeat By Modesty.
  • Anime In Laws - Ten, of course.
  • Arthur Dent - Ataru, though this might be a bit of a subversion, considering his superior running-away skills and indestructibility
  • As Long As It Sounds Chinese - The oni language, which Lum's mom speaks, is portrayed in the manga as mah-jong tiles and as gibberish in the anime, complete with weird subtitles that make no sense.
  • Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other - Or simply justification for the continuation of their relationship; whenever it seems that Ataru is going to lose Lum permanently, he abandons everything till he gets her back. Once he does, the balance of the universe is restored.
    Ataru: "I hate being bound to Lum... but I hate people trying to take Lum away from me more!"
  • A Worldwide Punomenon - Ataru's name, the series name, etc. The series, as a whole, is full of them.
  • Baka
  • Balloon Belly - Happens to multiple characters, but Ataru and Cherry are the most prone to it. Inverted by Sakura, who literally eats a restaurant out of its business and doesn't gain an ounce.
  • Barehanded Blade Block - Ataru is a master of this
  • Bare Your Midriff - Are there any Fanservice tropes not related to Lum?
  • Battle Cry - Shinobu always evokes her super strength by getting worked up about boys. "MEN BE DAMNED!"
  • Baseball Episode - You can bet there will be one whenever Tobimaro shows up.
  • Becoming The Mask - Ran seems to like it on Earth when being a kawaiiko student, seeing as she still attends Tomobiki High even after she mostly gives up on her revenge against Lum. Mostly being the keyword. In a subversion, she's still bitter, shrewish and violent on the inside.
  • Berserk Board Barricade
  • Berserk Button - In the Kotaru the haunted kotatsu storyline, information from Mendou is required. He arrives, in full samurai garb, katana at the ready, 0.1 second after Ataru yells out: "MENDOU YOU SISSY!!!"
  • Betty And Veronica - Shinobu and Lum (Lum wins).
    • More like Shinobu moves on, really.
  • Beware The Nice Ones - The only person the bitter and vindictive Ran fears is the calm, feminine and graceful Oyuki. With very, very good reason.
  • Big Eater - Sakura... the pretty one.
  • Bifauxnen - Ryuunousuke, who's studly enough that even girls who are aware of her gender swoon.
  • Big Fancy House - Complete with multiple things that go doink
  • Biker Babe - Benten
  • Biological Mash Up - Ataru and a notebook.
  • Bitch In Sheeps Clothing - "Tee-hee! Ran-chan is sooo happy!"
  • Bokukko - Ryuunosuke. Hard stop.
  • Book And Switch - Ataru
  • Bratty Half Pint - Jariten
  • Break The Cutie - Parodied with Asuka, who would likely be the one to break anyone in half. Now, if only her nemesis wasn't Ataru...
  • Brother Sister Incest - Subversion: the extremely sheltered Asuka fears all men except her "big brother" ("a special kind of man who is just like you!"). She considers Mendou (her fiancé due to a family agreement) her brother because she heard Ryoko refer to him as such once and Ryuunosuke, since she was wearing her sarashi that matched her actual brother Tobimaro's. Guess which "brother" has to endure rib-crushing hugs in his bed or bath? Hint: he's rather terrified of this and their mother blames it on him.
  • Bucket Booby Trap
  • By The Eyes Of The Blind
  • Calling The Old Man Out - Ryuunosuke, several times a day.
  • Cannot Stand Them Cannot Live Without Them
  • Cant Act Perverted Toward A Love Interest - Ataru, partly because Lum would likely consider as his submission to their "marriage".
  • Casanova - At least, Ataru wants to be one.
  • Catchphrase - Several, most often a variation of the following:
    Ataru: "Ojooooou-chan! Let's go on a date! / What's your address and phone number?"
    Shinobu: "MEN BE DAMNED!!!"
    Mendou: "Waa!...It's dark! It's cramped! I'm scared!!"
    Ten: "I'm a good boy!"
    Cherry: "'Tis fate."
    Ryuunosuke: "I'm a chick, damnit!!!" (in a very mannish way of speaking)
    Mr. Fujinami: "I LOVE THE SEA!!!" (accompanied by a tidal wave, no matter where he might be)
    Ran: "Ran-chan is sooo happy!"
    Asuka: "EEEEK! A man!!" (followed by a Megaton Punch)
    Mrs. Moroboshi: "We never should have had him!"
    Lum's Stormtroopers (particularly Megane): "Lum-saaaaan!!!"
  • Charles Atlas Superpower - Shinobu, after Lum arrives (in one movie, when Lum left the Earth, she lost her power). Also Asuka, though she inherited this from her mother and is able to run 100 meters in a few seconds while wearing 200 kg worth of medieval armor.
  • Chick Magnet - Rei breaks up loving couples just by walking past them, 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. His transforming into a giant goofy tiger-bull whenever excited might. Sometimes.
    Girl: Gorgeous!
    Guy: Uh...you know that's a girl, right?
    Girl: Oh, we know. She's dreamy, isn't she?
  • Childhood Marriage Promise - Lum's great-grandfather promised his daughter to Rupa's great-grandfather in exchange for an antidote. Once the latter found out that there is no daughter, he vowed to wait until a girl was born in the oni royal family. As it turns out, his great-grandson is apparently the correct age to marry Lum, and had been brought up with the idea that he would marry her.
    • Also, Ryuunosuke and Nagisa, courtesy of their fathers.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl - Both Lum and Shinobu, to Ataru and Mendou, respectively.
  • Closet Sublet - Lum, at first.
  • Comedic Sociopathy - Everybody that shows up on screen. Everybody.
    • Except maybe Kitsune. Maybe.
  • Cooking Duel
  • Cool Big Sis - Sakura, when she feels like it.
  • Cool Bike - Benten's rocket cycle.
  • Crossdresser
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming - One comes early on when Lum saves Ataru from embarrassment by posing as the girl other guys try to set him up with to humiliate him. Once Lum gets him out of there and explains things, Ataru, though highly irritated by the fact that he owes her one, finally realizes that Lum is actually pretty and stops her from flying off by shyly asking her to walk with him for a while. Of course, the Reset Button strikes back in the next chapter/episode, but it still shows that, Comedic Sociopathy aside, these two are the Official Couple for a reason.
    • But the biggest one comes at the very end of the 5th movie, Final Chapter, which culminates into a repeat of the race that caused Lum and Ataru to meet in the first place - except this time, the stake is that if Ataru doesn't catch her, all the memories of the aliens will be erased from the earthlings' minds. But if Ataru says he loves Lum, she'll allow him to catch her. Despite everyone trying to convince him that he can just lie - something Lum herself decides to accept in her mind - Ataru steadfastly refuses to say the words. On the last day, they face off atop a giant mushroom
    Lum: "Darling you idiot! Do you want to forget about me?!"
    Ataru: I'll never... I'll never... I'll never... I'LL NEVER FORGET!!! About you... Lum...
Ataru collapses from exhaustion and drops the horns that Lum lost when she became an adult, which Lum decides to take as confirmation of his affection, despite him not saying the words - she tearfully flies into him and guides his hands to her horns.
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