Let's put weird and weird together/and make it even weirder!/Weird, weird space is/su-u-pe-er-weird!
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 "fiance" 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. It even manages to invert the genre it helped create (instead of one low-key guy being chased by every girl in sight and in the end choosing one, it's about a perverted guy who chases every girl in sight...except for the one girl in the universe who can actually stand to be around him.) Its popularity even inspired a tenth-anniversary movie, the unusually offbeat Always My Darling.
Urusei Yatsura provides examples of:
Absolute Cleavage: A lot of Sakura's off duty outfits, also a feature of the outfit Oyuki wears under her winter Kimono.
Adaptation Dye Job: A very triumphant example:- Lum originally had iridescent (constantly shifting, rainbow colored) hair. It was changed to the iconic green (which was originally just Ten's) in the anime, which was so popular that it was retconned back into the later manga pages. You can see this in the color manga covers likethese◊ for◊ example. It's also the source of the very odd highlighting in the monochrome versions.
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 tears to flow freely for the first time: embraces her and begs her to remember it.
All Just a Dream: In one episode, Kitsune watches a movie about a fox who uses magical nuts to turn the human woman he loves into a fox. Kitsune does the same to Shinobu (as well as Lum, Ataru, Cherry, and Kotatsu-Neko, by accident). In the end, however, he wakes up to finds himself in the open field where he saw the movie, revealing that the night he turned Shinobu into a fox was just a dream.
Played with very cleverly in the second movie.
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.
Many, many stories involve a love square with Lum, Ataru, and two other characters. The two other characters are often Shinobu and Mendou or Ran and Rei.
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.
Hell, every teenager in the series (and Ten) is a pervert except Inaba, Rei, Tobimaro, Nagisa and certain one-shot characters.
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. The first chapter also features a French announcer saying stock phrases like, "Where is the pencil?" "It is on the table." The Chinese announcer, meanwhile, is listing items from a Chinese take-out menu.
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 business and doesn't gain an ounce.
More accurately Sakura doesn't gain an Inch. In the manga, after completing the "Full Course From Hell" (which near the end featured the cooks offering her whole roasted duck, pig, and cow, which Sakura ate without difficulty), Sakura was shown in the pool wearing a bikini and clearly with the exact same figure as before the gigantic meal. Then she decided to have a nap on the same inflated mattress she had been laying on in the opening splash page, and sank.
Battle Cry: Shinobu always evokes her super strength by getting worked up about boys. "MEN BE DAMNED!"
Be Careful What You Wish For: Ataru is constantly chasing every girl around... only to have the one that can keep up with him and zap the living crap out of him if he gets out of line decide to keep him. Whoops.
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.
Belligerent Sexual Tension: A strange case in that the show itself is not an example, but rather the reason for the trope coming into existence (for anime, anyway)! Rumiko Takahashi intended for the Official Couple to be Ataru and Shinobu... until the editor and the general public made it known to her that they preferred Lum to Shinobu. While Takahashi herself has stated her great liking for Lum since, and has no ill-feelings towards the Lum & Ataru pairing, she created the Belligerent Sexual Tension in every manga since to prevent any fan/editor hijacking of her romantic interests (ironically, though, everyintendedcouplesince has been the favorite of fans and editors anyway, so one has to wonder if there's really a need at all for her to do this: and if she just didn't realize the storytelling gold she had with Ataru and Lum at the beginning).
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!!!"
Bishōnen: Rei, Lum's former fiance, draws squees from every female who sees him. Mendou also qualifies, which is basically his most obvious difference from Ataru.
Big Bad: The movies usually have one in order to focus the sprawling cast into one plot.
In Only You, there is Princess Elle of... Planet Elle, whom Ataru also accidentally promised himself to.
Beautiful Dreamer gives us Mujaki, a dream demon who puts the cast (especially Ataru) through an emotional ringer. YMMV, of course, but he is likely the most personal threat the cast ever faced.
Big Little Man: In the first episode, after being knocked down by a ball, Ataru appears to have an enormous monk towering over him; it's only when he gets to his feet again that we realise the monk is half his size.
Born Unlucky: Ataru; his birthday is even April13th, and the litany of bad luck omens associated with him appeared before he was even born. Not to mention his Meaningful Name (roughly translated, "hit on the head with a falling star").
Bratty Half-Pint: Jariten: he loves to act high and mighty, and puts on a façade of innocence ("I'm a good boy" is pretty much his Catch Phrase), 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 always supports him, to the extent she pays it no mind at all when, say, Ten shows up at Ataru's school and starts randomly biting people to soothe his toothache.
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 fiance 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.
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.
Ataru might also qualify, given his ability to survive crushing, severe beatings and sundry other trauma, and of course Lum's electric shocks, as well as performing some epic gymnastic feats to avoid them.
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.
And the plot of the first movie, Only You, where a six year old Ataru plays shadow tag with Elle, who he later learns comes from a planet where stepping on someone's shadow is considered a marriage proposal.
Blessed with Suck: ...Who can fly, is a Clingy Jealous Girl, and has a built in taser that she uses repeatedly on him if he so much as looks at another girl.
Cute Little Fangs: Lum, although when she's upset she shows a mouth full of big pointy teeth (likewise for the other Oni, natch).
Cute Monster Girl: Lum again. Not to mention her friends Oyuki (Yuki-no-Onna), Ran (Gaki) and arguably Benten (Fukujin), as well as the minor character Kurama (Karasutengu- or "Crow Tengu").
Damsel In Distress: Subverted and possibly inverted by Shinobu. She might believe herself to be one, but her super strength gets her out of most scraps. Subverted by Lum in the Final Chapter: she loses her powers because her horns fall out, but she still bites and uses Ten effectively, almost escaping.
Dartboard of Hate: Parodied, Kurama has one of Ataru. She throws a dart at it, however the image catches the dart in its teeth and eats it.
Deal with the Devil: Ataru forms one entirely by accident with a repeated running pattern matching a demon's personal crest for 13 days and a V Sign, if you'll believe that.
Determinator: Parodied and played straight with Ataru.
Dirty Old Man: When he's not pining for his lost wife, Mr. Fujinami really creeps the girls out. Then again he tends to creep them out anyway, mainly because the guy is also batshit insane!
Disproportionate Retribution: while Lum did get Ran into trouble as a child (sometimes on purpose, most of the time accidentally, but never with the intent to harm her), Ran swore a vendetta against her childhood friend after she hooked up with the guy Ran liked... and then dumped him.
Dogged Nice Guy: Inaba starts out as a decidedly non-threatening version of this towards Shinobu. She eventually reciprocates. Rupa in the 5th movie is a much more aggressive version towards Lum.
Double Standard: Really messed with in some of the Ryuunosuke/Nagisa bits: Culminating in the fight between Ryu (Girl raised as a boy, and looking really masculine) and Nagisa (Boy raised as a girl wearing a dress and looking feminine in it).
Drunk on Milk: Lum and Ten wreak havoc when they get extremely drunk on umeboshi (pickled plums, usually regarded as a hangover cure). It turns out that alcohol actually cures them of being drunk, though all this is somewhat justified by Bizarre Alien Biology.
Dude Magnet: The male population of Tomobiki High School would all give an arm and a leg to have a chance with Lum, not counting her various alien suitors.
Ear Cleaning: Lum can occasionally be seen cleaning Ataru's ears, at home or even at school (episode 17, for example). This is intended to be one of the signs that Ataru does care for her, but is unwilling to commit to her.
Epunymous Title: Takahashi replaced "urusai", which means annoying or loud, with "urusei", writing it with the kanji for "star". That makes the title mean something like "Those Obnoxious Aliens" or "The Annoying Space Guys".
Every Girl Is Cuter with Hair Decs: Early on, Ataru forces Cherry to give him a set of yellow ribbons that, if tied around Lum's horns, make her lose her powers.
In an early Manga episode, Lum decides to try visiting Ataru's class looking like a normal human girl. Part of her disguise was to use a liquid that softened her horns so they could be flattened to look like ornaments. This was also used in the Date episode.
Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: One episode transports Lum, Ataru and Ten into the past, where a dinosaur mistakes Ten for its hatched egg and the egg believes Lum to be its mom.
Failure Is the Only Option: Nearly every character is in love/obsessed with one of the other characters, and their actions are usually driven by this. But no one is ever, ever allowed to get together with the object of their affections, since that would kill their motivations. Hints may be dropped, and there may even be temporary romances, but no one ever "officially" gets together, and any attempts at doing so will result in a breakup by the end of a given episode.
Applies most heavily to Lum's eternal quest to get Ataru to admit he loves her. The very last story in the entire series ends with an angry mob threatening to beat Ataru senseless if he doesn't say it. Ataru chooses the beating.
Both groups are equally horrified when it seems that Lum and Mendou are going to get together; they actually turn to Ataru for help, because a) Lum is the one girl Mendou shows serious interest in throughout the whole story (in the Destiny Production Bureau Arc, one future shows him and Lum happily married, with Ataru as their retainer) and b) outwardly, Mendou is close to perfection in looks, intelligence and money, making it harder to constantly point out how unsuitable he is for Lum. Again, this proved to be a misunderstanding.
Gonk: Cherry, especially emphasized by his sudden entrances and close-ups. Sakura's mom, who looks like Cherry with hair. And, of course, Shinobu's highly persistent suitor, Soban from Busumetsu High, who raises this trope Up to Eleven.
And in just about every theme song: "Dancing, dancing star"; "You are watching me, I am watching you"; etc. Some of the theme songs are sung partially or entirely in English (i.e. "Rock the Planet").
Groundhog Day Loop: The second movie, "Beautiful Dreamer," revolves around this trope. Note that it actually came out nine years before the movie Groundhog Day.
Handsome Lech: Though rich, popular and good looking, Mendou is just as big a pervert as Ataru.
Hello Nurse: Sakura, even though she doesn't have the personality of one. Lum also qualifies, though with her being underage, older men aren't shown lusting after her... most of the time anyway.
He-Man Woman Hater: Tobimaro firmly believes that baseball is no place for women... though most of his issues with the gentler sex can be directly attributed to a childhood spent running from Ryoko Mendou.
Hot Amazon: Shinobu, and Lum. And Benten, don't forget Benten.
Ho Yay: Thanks to a lipstick that draws the lips of the people using it together, Ataru and Mendou end up in a full-frontal smooch by mistake. Both are promptly disgusted: a dappya fish monster even offers the readers three panels to recover from this shock. The participants of the kiss think they require more.
Human Aliens: Averted with every alien aside from the important characters. Most aliens look nothing humanoid: see the omiai chapter/episode and take a good look at Lum's would-be suitors aside from Uni and the Prince of the Underground.
Human Outside, Alien Inside: One episode features Lum and Ten eating pickles and realizing too late that the brine has an effect on them that alcohol does not. (Arguably a Not Himself episode, as we never see them completely drunk at any other time in the series.)
Interspecies Romance: Kitsune develops a very innocent crush on Shinobu after she saves him from a pack of dogs.
Involuntary Shapeshifting: Uber-bishonen Rei turns into an ushitora (a very large, goofy and stupid-looking cross between a tiger and a bull) whenever excited. And that means whenever lots of food is in front of him. Or, early on, whenever his ex-fiancee, Lum, spurns him. The only girl it doesn't bother at all is Ran... and even the girls who see both of his forms still aren't entirely against the prospect of romancing him.
Jerkass: Pretty much everyone in the series at some point.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ataru and Lum in many episodes. Some others characters like Ten or Mendo have their moment too.
Kawaiiko: Ran, whenever her psycho-bitch state isn't taking over. When Lum mentions that she should just be herself, Ran explains that getting back to her Kawaiiko mode is difficult.
Karma Houdini: Ryoko tortures everyone (especially her brother Mendo and Tobimaro) and she is NEVER punished.
Kavorka Man: Mr. Fujinami apparently. He has photos of dozens of women with baby Ryuunosuke and doesn't even remember which one of them is his real wife, Masako. It then turns out that he never actually seduced them; he hired them to pose for the pictures because he wanted to "help" Ryuunosuke somehow.
Keep Circulating the Scanlations: VIZ translated the manga for a while but then dropped it. One could say the series isn't as culturally accessible outside Japan as Takahashi's other series (especially with its many, many puns), but the anime has been entirely translated.
And now the anime is falling into this category. Anim Eigo, which has held the license to the show, OVA's, and all but one of the movies for over twenty years, announced their rights to distribute the title expired as of 9/30/2011. That one movie they didn't have, Beautiful Dreamer, belonged to a company that went bankrupt in 2009, and copies of it are increasingly hard to find.
Kid Anova: Ten charms lots of girls with his cuteness. Also, one of his dreams is marrying Sakura.
Kid Samurai: Mendou, who keeps a katana in his locker and Tobimaro, who leads a hermit lifestyle in the mountains and always wears a ragged samurai robe.
Ladykiller In Love: Possibly subverted, since Mendou might want to marry Lum due to the prestige of having an alien princess as a wife: however, he does seem to have at least some genuine feelings for her. Subverted again in the fact that his relationships with both Lum and Asuka can be interpreted this way. The straight example is Rei; Lum is the only girl in the series who doesn't require food to get him chasing after her. If you don't see the magnitude of that achievement, you seriously need to rewatch the stories featuring him.
Late to the Punchline: So many Anime pros grew up with the show that comic Shoutouts can be found in hundreds of shows. You may not recognize some of them until you see the episode they took it from. (e.g. The lipstick commercial, Ryoko's "operation".)
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In one episode, Ataru is seen reading an animanga version of Beautiful Dreamer. In another, they pass by a movie theater with a poster for Remember My Love. Lum even glances at it briefly.
In the library episode in season 2, a Freeze Frame Bonus reveals that one of the students is reading Urusei Yatsura, with the title written in romaji. More freeze framing shows Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku on the shelves (with normal, non-romaji titles).
There are only three instances where she's seen with her hair down: twice are shower scenes, the third is when she uses the chain that holds her hair in place to disarm Ran (she puts it back up seconds later).
Literal Split Personality: The lecherous aspect of Ataru's personality gets split off in one chapter... but the remaining non-lecherous portion of his personality is so weak that it can't even wake up.
Mind Screw: Miserable! A Loving and Roving Mother! Also, the second and fourth movies, which go off the wall and pull off "What is going on?"-style plot twists to an extreme degree.
Missing Mom: No one can actually figure out if Masako is alive or had just left Mr. Fujinami.
Some letters that Ryuunosuke finds imply that Masako died in childbirth. It's never revealed if those letters were valid or not though.
Miyamoto Musashi: The Heian Era segments reenact this, with Onsen-Mark as Musashi, Ataru as a Big Eater and petty criminal posing as Musashi and Mendou as Kojiro.
Morphic Resonance: Kitsune transforms into the other characters by essentially becoming slightly more human-like, losing the tail and putting on the same outfit and hairstyle as the person he wants to turn into. It never fools anyone.
Ms. Fanservice: Lum. Oh, how we love the tiger-striped bikini.
Lampshaded a bit in the episode where Lum wound up getting drunk on pickled plums. Her first response was to start taking off her school uniform, then the camera cut away to the guy's staring and drooling over the view they were getting, and only cut back to Lum when Shinobu reminded everyone that Lum was just wearing her usual tiger striped bikini.
Well most of the alien girls like outfits that are very swimsuit like: Ran occasionally dons a pink bikini outfit, Oyuki has a crystal surfaced one with Absolute Cleavage, and Kurama a black one piece front laced corset type outfit.
Murder the Hypotenuse : Ran's default reaction to anyone who gets within ten feet of Rei.
Ninja: In addition to the Kyoto story arc featuring a run in with an actual Ninja clan, during Mendo's introduction, Ataru not only used a Ninja style bare handed sword catch, but he also pulled the Ninja Log trick.
Eventually Ataru would catch Mendo's sword bare-handed Once an Episode.
Not just with his hands, either. Later examples include using his feet, teeth and even a pillow.
Noblewoman's Laugh: Ryoko does a more subdued and ladylike version of this at times.
No Fourth Wall: When a classmate asks Ataru if he knows Sakura, he replies, "Go read the first volume!" And when Ataru turns green, Lum comments that at least they aren't published in color.
Non-Identical Twins: The one time everyone believes the kitsune shapeshifting.
Not so Different: Part of the humor is that, no matter how frequently Ten and Shutaro call out Ataru on his lechery, they're invariably shown to be just as bad, if not worse, then him. Lum, meanwhile, is similar to both Shinobu and Ataru.
Elle in Only You, the first movie, is a more succesful female Ataru.
Not So Harmless: The Big Bad of the second film, Mujaki. Once revealed about three-quarters of the way through the movie, he comes across as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who is only trying to do good (his character design reflects this, as he's drawn as a shrunken old man). However, he tricks Sakura and Mendou through this act (trapping them in an aquarium), though he ends up cornered by Ataru of all people. He proceeds to put Ataru through a series of increasingly cruel Mind Rape scenarios, culminating in a threat that he will never allow him to leave the dream world. He's only defeated when he decides that keeping up with Lum and Ataru is too much trouble, and leaves of his own accord.
Oh Crap: Several. One of the most memorable being Megane when he sees Oyuki's yeti friend in episode 8.
Off Model: Too many instances to name. Not surprising considering it was a traditionally-animated TV series from the 80's (i.e. no time & no budget). Especially came up during production of the movies (which have no excuse).
Our Demons Are Different: The Big Bad of the second movie, Beautiful Dreamer, is explicitly stated to be a demon (and it's implied by Sakura that he might be The Devil himself), though his powers and attitude are more reminiscent of The Fair Folk.
Prophetic Names: Metaphorical; Ataru's full name translates to "struck by a falling star." And one of the readings for Mendou is "trouble". Shinobu means "to endure". And Lum, well... Agnes Lum, after whom she is named, was a bikini model...
Public Execution: Averted in episode one, as it is reported on the TV news that a lynch mob is coming for Ataru and his family after his early attempts to beat Lum at tag and save the earth end in failure.
Pulverizes Men Out of Fear: Asuka Mizunokoji. Kept isolated from men according to family tradition, she inherited her mother's super-strength, which is her way of getting rid of all those scary men (the first one she ever met was Ataru Moroboshi). Of course, that's the lesser evil, as her brother Tobimaro can testify, as being classified as a "big brother" ("a special kind of man who's just like you") combined with the fact that Asuka developed a crush on him means rib-crushing hugs.
Raised As The Opposite Gender: There's both a girl raised as a boy (Ryuunosuke) and a boy raised as a girl (Nagisa).
Real Men Wear Pink: The resident uber-studly man-amongst-men is not only female, but dreams of the day when she can wear a frilly dress and high heels. Ryuunosuke certainly doesn't think that Real Women Never Wear Dresses.
Reunion Revenge: Lum and Ran are reunited after a long time at Tomobiki High. This trope starts when Ran finally remembers that she didn't come for a friendly chitchat.
Robe and Wizard Hat: Though he has no hat, Tsubame always wears his wizard cape.
Romantic False Lead: Rupa in the 5th movie, once Lum finally gives Ataru the ultimatum to say he loves her or she's staying on the World of Darkness. In a subversion, she obviously doesn't like him as anything more than a casual friend, and that's after he stops trying to force her into marriage. In a twist, Lum is actually his Romantic False Lead as well.
Royal Brat: Oh Ryoko, how we love you and your kabuki stagehands.
Say My Name: All together now! "DAAAAAAAAARLIIIIING!!!" "AAAAAAATARUUUUUU!!!" "MOROBOSHIIIIIIIIII!!!" "LUM-SAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!" "MASAKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" "I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT! LOUD NOISES!!!"
Secret Test of Character: The crow tengus set a few for Ryuunosuke, since they're looking for a groom for Kurama who has good character in addition to looks. She passes. Hilarity Ensues.
Serious Business: Playing tag (literally, "the game of the oni")
For Tobimaro, playing baseball is serious business, seeing as he lives in the mountains and practices... to no avail.
ET and the xenomorph both appear at Ryoko's masquerade ball.
Megane's room has a poster of Spock from Wrath of Khan (plus about a dozen posters of Lum, naturally).
In one episode, while Princess Kurama's minions are searching for a suitable mate using a database of every male in the universe, a Pierson's Puppeteer briefly appears.
In the first film, when Lum arrives at the church to stop Ataru and Elle getting married, her pounding on the glass and yelling out "Darling!" numerous times is very much like the climatic scene from The Graduate.
Squeaky Eyes: Lum and Ataru do this at least once.
Stable Time Loop: When the gang tries to go back in time to cure Mendou's claustrophobia and nyctophobia, the bratty younger Mendou enrages his future self so much that he chases him into a dark room filled with large vases with a katana in hand and a rather maniacal expression in his eyes. Present-time Mendou begins smashing the vases while snarling out various threats at his child self. By the time the others get him out of there and the MIB find the child, little Mendou is practically hysterical in his vase.
Stalker with a Crush: Played for laughs with Rei, who, despite apparently loving only food (and whatever else can be considered food) still has feelings for Lum, much to Ran's chagrin and rage. How Lum managed to get him to fall in love with her remains a mystery. With a few exceptions, the girls Ataru pursues consider him this.
Also, played straight with Soban, the highly Gonk boss of Busumetsu High, who does little beyond charge at Shinobu yelling: "Shinobu-saaaan! SUKI DAAAA!!!!" Fortunately, Shinobu is stronger than him.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Parodied with Tsubame and Sakura, who never get the chance to kiss because of the constant presence of Date Peepers from Tomobiki High.
Status Quo is God: Many stories end with the town in total chaos, or with Ataru having caused some sort of seemingly irrevocible disaster. But things are always back to normal in the next story, usually without explanation.
Even the final chapter adhered to this trope, with Ataru refusing to confess his feelings to Lum, even at the very end of the series.
Supporting Harem: The series became this, although it started out as more of a Balanced Harem between Lum and Shinobu, only later Lum become more popular and Shinobou got an alternative Love Interest.
Sweet on Polly Oliver: Subversion, the resident Casanovas Ataru and Mendou suspect Nagisa might not be a girl since they feel nothing towards "her".
The straight example is Ryunnosuke:- Crossdresser or no, Ataru's happy to grope her as much as he is with any other girl.
Through His Stomach: Ran is extremely happy when Rei snarfs down her lunch with a little more dignity than those of the other girls, even saying her name reverently and responding with an enthusiastic yes when she asks if the food is good. Then Cherry shows up with a bigger bento... and Rei's reaction is exactly the same.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Ataru is unlucky but he wins the presidency of his class against Mendo and once he is kissed by Rin (the kiss is supposed to be bad for him, but it doesn't work).
Too Long; Didn't Dub: The series is packed to the gills with wordplay and cultural references that are dealt with differently by the various translations from different companies. Most either ignore them or resort to Woolseyisms, but Anim Eigo's releases of the TV series supplement their translations with comprehensive note sheets inside the video/DVD case, explaining in detail the gags and references for the viewer to read at their leisure.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Lum's parents. Ataru's mom seems to think this about her marriage, with her melodramatic soliloquy about her wasting her life on "an idiot son and a good-for-nothing husband" when Rei came along...
Unfazed Everyman: Ataru, though this might be a bit of a subversion, considering his superior running-away skills and indestructibility.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Shinobu, though she ceases to care roughly around the time Mendou shows up.
Unlucky Everydude: Ataru, taking it to epic proportions; he was actually born in the middle of an earthquake on a date that was considered extremely unlucky in both Western (Friday the 13th) and Japanese (Butsumetsu) calendars.
Unwanted Harem: Inverted, Ataru wants a harem to the horror of all the rest of the females
Played straight with Lum's other suitors, but subverted with her reaction to them: she treats most of them (particularly those from Tomobiki) as her friends. A good example of that is how she calls Mendou by his first name without any honorific, which is pretty intimate for Japan. Then again, she's not Japanese.
Verbal Tic: Lum ends most of her sentences with "dat'cha!". Cherry ends most of his with "-ja", which is pretty typical of old men.
Don't forget the Dappya Monsters!
Vitriolic Best Buds: Brought Up to Eleven by Ataru and Mendou, who gave a very destructive relationship despite being the closest thing to best guy friends the other has.
Waif-Fu: Shinobu, of course. Especially when Soban is concerned.
Also, one story revolves around Lum trying to convince a younger girl that courage is all one needs to defeat her enemies. Said girl then asks Lum to defeat Soban ("Shinobu-saaan! I love yooouuu!") without using her powers. She even sends the challenge letter herself. Fortunately, Shinobu turns up before Lum loses all her super-strength pills.
Weirdness Magnet: Ataru, supposedly due to the circumstances of his birth.
Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Ataru and Ryuunosuke, though in the latter case her father chooses to completely ignore the fact she's a girl instead of openly evoking this trope.
Well during the episode where the Tengu's wanted to blast Ryu with a sex change ray and when the bluebird was granting wishes, he stopped pretending Ryuunosuke was a boy in favor of agressively making it real
In the anime, well really Movie 4, Ataru really doesn't want to hit anybody.
A Worldwide Punomenon: Ataru's name, the series name (which is a multi-layered pun), etc. The series, as a whole, is full of them. Most characters have a Meaningful Name, too.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Oyuki is a highly cunning and calculative variant.
Yaoi Fangirl: Mendou's fangirls were cheering a bit too much at the Ho Yay entry situation.
You All Look Familiar: The series as a whole loves to introduce several characters that are only the focus of one episode, but those characters often make token cameos in large crowd scenes in later episodes. This even includes characters from the first three movies appearing in TV episodes.
Several characters from popular series at the time are also snuck in from time-to-time: Kenshiro, Kei and Yuri, Ultraman's lobster rival, and Kyoko- and that's just in one episode!
The 2008 OVA continues the tradition as, at the end, Ataru is hitting on Kagome and Akane.
You Know What You Did: Subversion: since Rei talks very little aside from exclaiming "Lum!" whenever he sees her, Ran is very quick to assume that whatever situation involves the two is an attempt by Lum to get back together with Rei, much to Lum's horror.
Episode 47 featured a television crew that was recording a pseudo-documentary in the forest. They set up a shimenawa across the footpath to make it look more interesting.
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