Urusei Yatsura (2022)

I originally watched this because of two J-pop songs I was listening to: "Tokyo Shandy Rendezvous" and "Not Enough" both by MAISONdes. I loved these songs so much that I listened to both of them 40 times in one week, probably being some of my favorite J-pop songs. So when I found out they were the endings to an anime, I thought I had to watch it.

Urusei Yatura is a brilliant comedy anime with intriguing episodes, but it falls short of development in one big spot. The characters in this show are its strong point, (except for one) from Lum, a cheery, bubbly, and energetic beam of light in the series, to Mendo, a cocky at first but eventually lovable character, these characters are brilliant and hilarious reasons to watch this show. The biggest problem with this series though, is Ataru. I didn't know it was possible to make such a lovable and hateable character possible, but somehow, Ataru accomplished that. Ataru is a guy who goes for any woman he sees, except for the main love interest. And that is the problem. Suppose there wasn't a main love interest in this series. It would be completely okay to frame his character like this. But as the series goes on, the Ataru trope starts to get annoying. The best episode of this was for sure episode 10. In this episode, Lum leaves for a while, going to do stuff in her spaceship, while Ataru thinks she left him for good. He starts to miss her and tries everything he can to get her back, but at the end of the episode, when she returns, he goes right back to his roots. There is such a great opportunity for slow growth in his character, but it's all thrown out the window in the same episode trying to fix it. Don't let this make you think I don't like him as a character though, he's a funny guy who gets you to laugh every episode with his absurd facial expressions and his outrageous ways of picking up women. Though I have been grilling Ataru this whole review, I'm hopeful for more progression. Setting aside Ataru's “hate”, this series NAILS facial expressions and conveys emotion beautifully through its animation and visuals, while also creating a wide variety of characters you are sure to like. The charm of not knowing what's going on in this series is what makes it so awesome, from people attacking their robot teacher to playing tag with an alien to save the world.

Overall, Urusei Yatsura is a brilliant and lovable 80s remake with a loveable cast and fun visuals. If you're looking for a comfort show that gets you laughing every episode, and has you hilariously questioning what's going on 24/7, this is the perfect anime to get you in high spirits.