Urusei Yatsura

I'm still after the last 20 volumes myself. Well, I plan to see how I feel about Kazuo Yamazaki's take on the series first. He takes over from Oshii somewhere around episode 110/volume 28.

How far did you get in the end, chaos?
 
@Ayase - yeah, tell me about it. Can't really say why I didn't like it though, I was man enough to sit it too the end and silly / crazy wouldn't put me off of something. Perhaps I wasn't on the right mood to watch, perhaps I thought it was too predictable to be enjoyed.

@Fabio - I've seen it all, at least one DVD a day for over a month.
 
chaos said:
@Fabio - I've seen it all, at least one DVD a day for over a month.
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Blimey. That would be an impressive feat for a series you liked.

I have to say that Urusei Yatsura isn't the kind of series that lends itself to being burned through quickly. I mean, I love the show and I find it difficult to watch more than two or three episodes per day; any more than that and the insanity begins to warp my mind.

Not that I'm suggesting a different approach would have given you a completely different experience; it's obviously just not for you. Weirdo.

What's notable is that while you found it predictable (and elsewhere mentioned repetition), UY is, for me, infinitely more inspired and fresh than the many, many series that have been "influenced" by it--that is, probably every romantic comedy ever.
 
I have just found it amazing how so far even though they repeat jokes and the like, they actually come up with different ideas for each episode.
 
I finally completed my Urusei Yatsura dvd collection at christmas with the region 1 ova,s and movies,i,ve still got the old american vhs of those,i came into a bit of money a couple of years ago so was lucky enough to get all 50 volumes of the tv series in one go,i,ve still even got the old vhs volumes of the tv series american and uk releases,it was proably one of the first anime shows i saw years ago that got me really hooked on anime in general and is still my most watched and fave show to this day,but i can understand that it is not to everyones taste but i think every anime fan should at least have some Urusei Yatsura in there collection and movie 2 is one of the finest anime movies ever made.
 
Doraemon666 said:
movie 2 is one of the finest anime movies ever made.
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That it is. I read that Oshii didn't really want to make Only You as it was essentially a 100-minute TV episode, but he certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to do something special with the sequel. It's a real shame it was never released here due to licensing issues.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Doraemon666 said:
movie 2 is one of the finest anime movies ever made.
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That it is. I read that Oshii didn't really want to make Only You as it was essentially a 100-minute TV episode, but he certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to do something special with the sequel. It's a real shame it was never released here due to licensing issues.
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yeah movie 2 is crying out for UK release but i dont think that will ever happen,and correct me if i,m wrong did the re-release of move 2 a couple of years ago in the U.S. only contain dubtitles,i,m sure i remember some reviews at the time complaining about it.
 
I have the "Collector's Series" version with remastered video and I don't think it would be dubtitled. Animeigo provided the translation for CPM, so if the dubbed dialogue is similar to or the same as the subtitles, it's more likely that CPM based the dub off the subtitle script. I'll check later anyway.

EDIT: Here's an old AnimeOnDVD thread about Patlabor. A few posters mention that CPM's dubs are often very close to the subtitle script.

Now that I think about it, that DVD has a commentary from Oshii that I've never listened to. I should probably rectify that.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
chaos said:
@Fabio - I've seen it all, at least one DVD a day for over a month.
Click to expand...
Blimey. That would be an impressive feat for a series you liked.

I have to say that Urusei Yatsura isn't the kind of series that lends itself to being burned through quickly. I mean, I love the show and I find it difficult to watch more than two or three episodes per day; any more than that and the insanity begins to warp my mind.

Not that I'm suggesting a different approach would have given you a completely different experience; it's obviously just not for you. Weirdo.

What's notable is that while you found it predictable (and elsewhere mentioned repetition), UY is, for me, infinitely more inspired and fresh than the many, many series that have been "influenced" by it--that is, probably every romantic comedy ever.
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Oh, by it didn't click with me I meant it was not what I expected it to be. I had high expectations for it, and it didn't match those expectations.

I'm wiling to watch some parts of it again later, maybe I change my mind.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I have the "Collector's Series" version with remastered video and I don't think it would be dubtitled. Animeigo provided the translation for CPM, so if the dubbed dialogue is similar to or the same as the subtitles, it's more likely that CPM based the dub off the subtitle script. I'll check later anyway.

EDIT: Here's an old AnimeOnDVD thread about Patlabor. A few posters mention that CPM's dubs are often very close to the subtitle script.

Now that I think about it, that DVD has a commentary from Oshii that I've never listened to. I should probably rectify that.
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cool,thanks for the info,i have the old CPM dvd of movie 2 but i was want to get the collectors series dvd just for collection purposes,thanks for clearing that up for me.
 
Yesterday I watched the "Catch the Heart" OVA. I've been reluctant to watch the OVAs because I really didn't like "Raging Sherbert" and "I howl At The Moon". I thought both were uninspired and too distant from Oshii's vision of the TV series. The updated designs aren't as appealing to me either--a lot of people complain about the animation quality of the early TV episodes, but it has so much more character and Asami Endo's Lum will always be my favourite.

But this madcap episode from 1989 is reminiscent of those early episodes. In her latest attempt to win over Rei, Ran has concocted a special candy that makes a strange heart appear above the head of the person who eats it. That person falls in love with whoever "catches" the heart. When the candy finds its way into Lum's hands, the insanity begins. Though I'm not fond of the generic late-1980s design aesthetic, this episode has some fantastic exaggerated facial expressions (see below for example) and overall it's my second favourite after Inaba.

Megane... so close, yet so far.

catchtheheart.jpg


I realise that nobody's interested in this, by the way, but I don't mind talking to myself.
 
I'm reading, I'm reading. You're doing a pretty good job of promoting UY by yourself, keep it up.

I generally enjoyed the OVAs. It was the last two (I think... it's great there's so much of something I enjoy, but it has rather blurred into one beautiful, insane, technicolor whole) which I thought were the worst. One was a clip show if I remember rightly. I quite liked 'Sherbert' for the Ran action. But then they couldn't really go wrong with the characters, I love them all. I do remember 'Nagisa's Fiance' being disappointing though. I was looking forward to a good Ryuu story and what I got was very predictable and even failed to hold my attention through most of it.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I realise that nobody's interested in this, by the way, but I don't mind talking to myself.
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No, it's interesting - I'll "probably" never get around to seeing UY, but this thread has been nice to see.
 
I'm 46 episodes in, but it's been a little while since I last watched it. I really should get back on track again. One day, I will complete it.
 
It warms my cockles to know that someone is reading my waffle. Let me once again test your endurance.

So anyway, I went ahead and watched the other OVA on the third volume, "Goat and Cheese". I probably liked this one even more. Whereas "Catch the Heart" was slapstick and funny faces, this one was more dryly amusing, mainly courtesy of Mendou's nutty old man. I love that guy.

The tale of a vengeful ghostly goat who eats photographs, killing those depicted in them, it was played like an eerie horror story (with tongue firmly pressed into cheek). After Lum's "phantom-exorcising raygun" predictably failed to exorcise the phantom and instead made it grow to about 100 times its original size, the episode ended with an Oshii-esque scene of fighter jets and stealth bombers waging war on it. Only, well, it's a spirit, so the Mendou estate ended up being destroyed instead.

For nostalgia value, the episode used the very first TV opening and ending sequences, though this only served to demonstrate how much the animation style had changed over the years. And Madhouse did the animation, wtf. Finally, the delightful Ryoko made a cameo. When informed of the situation, she promptly fed a picture of her brother to her pet goat, which everyone thought was the vengeful spirit. She's quite awesome <3
 
ayase said:
I quite liked 'Sherbert' for the Ran action. But then they couldn't really go wrong with the characters
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It's not a bad episode and I quite enjoyed the beginning. My problem is that there's about ten minutes worth of content stretched very thinly over the whole thing. I didn't really need half an episode of Ran and Benten chasing Sherberts and Ataru chasing skirt (he's a much more interesting character, in my opinion, when he's not reduced to a simple lech--that's what killed the sixth movie for me). It seems popular, though, so maybe it's just me.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I realise that nobody's interested in this, by the way, but I don't mind talking to myself.
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I'm reading =)

Like I said, I might give UY another go another time. Maybe it just wasn't the right time for me to watch it.
 
Have only seen the movies and OVAs, but I've got the impression that the TV series is where the action's really at (which I've not seen). The manga's pretty good imo as Lum's more violent and vengeful, lol.
 
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