No.669
Lum has really strange taste in guys. She's the kind of girl that gets in fucked up relationships where she ends up chained to a sink and forced to eat dog kibble while taking a beating every night from the tank top wearing salary man that she's madly in love with.
I actually think Lum and Shinobu are made for each other. Lum's naivety and kindness perfectly balances out Shinobu's maturity and pure rage. Now there's a perfect couple.
No.670
>>669I don't think Lum is THAT dumb. That's basically how Ataru treats her in the Harem's future in OVA 3 and she leaves him soon after, and he ws basically enslaving her. She stayed with him for a while though, so I guess she is that dumb.
Lum and Shinobu is something I never imagined, but it's funny, with how passive-agressive thye often are it would be a fun thing to see
No.671
Begs the question. What did Shinobu see in Ataru to begin with? There's really nothing appealing about him. He's a one dimensional asshole and not even the most handsome guy in the show.
No.672
>>671Because the Japanese aren't very good at writing, anon.
No.673
>>671Nothing, he's better than nothing. he's her childhood friend so he's the safest choice, and they seemed pretty happy in those futures we saw so it worked out. But she definetely was ready to get rid of him the second someone better come (Mendou, Rei...). I always wondered if Shinobu truly liked Ataru or not in the first few chapter or if she was just angry at Lum
No.674
>>669Lum and Shinobu reminds me of this bit from Class of 09, but I'm thinking of early malicious Lum rather than the naive girl we ended up with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvrw-njBFkAAtaru's got his heart in the right place; he'll move heaven and earth for his girl, it's just that he also wants to go for every girl.
No.675
>>674Yeah it's a weird character trait he has. It was really obvious in early chapters when he still wanted Shinobu. "I chose Shinobu not you". There's a big difference between love and Love for Ataru it seems. Rumiko clearly altered him so his lust became his main character traits and shit, but he still have a girl hierarchy in his heart somewhat.
He'd treat Lum's right if they lived together and married, they'd be happy together i'm sure
No.676
>>675Maybe Shinobu feigns interest in Mendou and Rei as a way of getting back at Ataru?
>>674I've heard of womanizers like this who can't keep it in their pants but only really love one specific girl at a time. I don't think guys are built for monogamy.
No.677
>>676> I don't think guys are built for monogamy.I'm demi and a guy, I literally exist in two states: monogamy or nobody at all.
No.678
>>677What the hell is a demi? Sure there's bound to be variations in preference but I think most guys are primed to want to have sex with other people. We might give that up to show we love someone or because we've been brought up to idolize monogamy but I don't think most guys are naturally like that.
No.680
>>678The tl;dr is that demisexuality is asexuality for 99% of people I meet. Nobody I see on the street is attractive. It takes me time before I get any sexual thoughts about a person, kind of like an engine that needs a few months to ignite. Because I don't feel anything for most people, I thought I was asexual until I was in my mid 20s when someone actually broke through that wall, then I thought I was straight with something wrong with me until I found out that this super specific label exists.
No.681
>>679So she's just an average teen girl?
>>680So why not just call yourself straight with a low sex drive? Half of these super specific labels make no damn sense anyway. These labels are bad and worrying about them did a lot of damage to my mental health. Society would be better off without them.
>>679 No.682
This thread is trying way too hard to get a meaning out of something that clearly doesn't have one.
No.684
>>681I don't mind a lot of the specific labels. Some of them I don't understand, but I think that's fine. If they have a meaning that is understood by the people using them then I see no problem. I think it would also be fine if no such terms were used to describe sexuality and people just did what they want. But with the way language works I doubt we are going to go backwards, more and more words will come to exist that describe more things.
No.685
>>684I don't know why people get a kick out giving each other labels. Its like everything has to be tagged and identified. Its creepy. Sooner or later, there will be so many labels that nobody will be compatible with anyone else. Soon there will be one for whatever Ataru is and you won't be able to call a skirt chaser a skirt chaser.
No.686
>>685Nah that's a slippery slope fallacy
No.1312
>>668Lum would be utterly boring if she got what she wanted. She'd basically just raise a kid, walk or fly around town, and maybe have tea time with girls. Lum alone is an utterly boring character, but you pair her with Ataru and she's both hilarious. I think this is why many "Lum clones" failed: they were just pretty girls with colored hair who smiled.
Lum's determination to get what she wants and can't get it makes her interesting. Lum and Ataru are constantly bickering and they're both hilarious.
>>669Shinobu's arguably a much worse person, given how she is open about being shallow and somehow thinks she's above all the craziness around her, when she's just as liable to throw a fit as anyone else.
No.1313
>>1312The whole series is accidental and written as they went, so they didn't have a template to follow. Lum just works better as a "magical" Japanese school girl, and the alien elemnents are the least interesting. lum wearing human clothing is far superior to the bikini, and any story with her "alien" element is usually pretty bland. The supernatural storylines are better too.
Knowing this, the show probably should have just made Lum an actual mythological Oni, with portals to the spirit realm all over.
No.1314
>>671>>672>>673Ataru is head-strong, confident, and normal. The only reason he was flirting with women is because he is rebelling against Lum's rule. If he was with Shinobu he'd just be a regular Japanese guy without all the craziness.
And for all his perviness he never does that with Lum, not once. She can be hovering beside him in a bikini, and he's more interested in getting a lunch.
>>673Shinobu's kind of a bad person, and guilty of what a lot accuse Lum of being. She's Rumiko's author's pet so she gets a literal perfect boyfriend to drop from the sky. Notice how Bunny-boy is passive, does everything for her, but Angry Shinobu is constantly abusing him and yelling at him? This is how Rumiko writes her females and why they come off as mega-bitches.
No.1317
>>1313>and any story with her "alien" element is usually pretty bland.You reminded me of how funny it was during the Asuka/Ton storyline where Mrs. Mizunokoji remembers, "Oh, yeah, there's an actual alien that's been hanging around, could you use your advanced technology to help me with my problem?" and then takes Ataru hostage because she's that serious.
No.1319
>>669>>668They deserve each other. Here's a manga extra on the subject (not written by Rumiko Takahashi, so think of it as officially sanctioned fan content).
This primarily talks about why and when Ataru fell in love with Lum, but honestly, Lum is an easygoing girl for the most part. Ataru makes her laugh and makes life exciting. And despite everything, he's still better than Rei (another manga extra discusses how it seems space has a lot of just awful suitors). The Deranged Marriage arc really showcased that.
No.1323
>>1321wasnt he forced to end his series prematurely and then start a 'new' one with a slightly different plot due to the copyright law shenanigans the japanese publishers were trying to force through?
No.1324
It had nothing to do with copyright, it was the author's wife claiming likeness to the Haruna character, and forcing him to give her money while preventing him from seeing their child. The author probably stared to dislike Haruna. That's why the Haruna/Lala/Rito focus was dropped after the whole ordeal.
No.1325
>>1323It had nothing to do with copyright, it was the author's wife claiming likeness to the Haruna character, and forcing him to give her money while preventing him from seeing their child. The author probably stared to dislike Haruna. That's why the Haruna/Lala/Rito focus was dropped after the whole ordeal.
No.1326
>>1323Nah, the mangaka restructured it because of drama with his ex-wife who claimed likeness to the human lead girl and demanded royalties. Was a whole crazy thing, she kidnapped their daughter and had an affair and everything. They wound up settling the divorce out of court with the mangaka paying his ex-wife (not in royalties) in exchange for full custody of the daughter. The decision to take a break and restructure the series when it came back was creative. Prolly didn't want to draw Haruna much more after that
pic related, the mangaka's daughter draws pictures of his characters and he posts them on twitter now and it's honestly kind of wholesome
No.1330
>>1324>>1326ah okay ty. then do you guys know which manga that effected or am i having a fever dream. was it perhaps Ken Akamatsu works?
No.1337
>>1321Oshii explains on the DVD commentary that Patlabor is a continuation of Urusei Yatsura but strangely there's no Lum or Ataru. In other comments, he's said that he doesn't like the UY cast, yet Patlabor is mostly made up of UY and Maison Ikkoku characters mashed together in a mecha series hanging around some hanger instead of a school or townhouse.
So I take it he doesn't care for Lum. In his eps and movies he almost removes Lum from the stoires. It might be why Noa is so bland adn boring. She's okay as a hero girl but they were clearly going for prime waifu that would capture the nerd boy hearts and it didn't quite happen.
She has the long dead lost love… except it's a dog like Kyoko. She jogs like Lum does late in the UY anime. Clearly has Kozue's design and almost a total Kozue clone. She's a functional protagonist, but at the end of the day I'm not that invested into her.
I think it's the "flaws" of Ataru and Lum that Oshii didn't like, but those said flaws results in conflict and we root for these two to get what they want even though they can't get it. Other than "doing her job" Noa doesn't really seem to have any life goals.
No.1345
>>668They spend the entire day together which functionally makes them closer than most couples. They wake up in the same room, get ready for school, then go to school, come back, eat dinner, hang out for a few hours, then go to sleep and repeat the cycle. Weekends they spend more time together. I don't care what you call that, that's basically marriage.
Post-series, they'd go get degrees, with Lum breezing through some engineering course, and Ataru getting some office worker degree. Lum would throw a fit that she can't live with Ataru in the same dorms.
They get a kid, and a house. Ataru wage slaves away. Mendo keeps trying to get Lum by showing off his wealth, and Lum rebukes him. Sakura has a kid as well by then who's a bit older.
No.1394
>>1337> She's okay as a hero girl but they were clearly going for prime waifu that would capture the nerd boy hearts and it didn't quite happen.With the amount of representation she got in all the anime magazines around the time, it most likely did happen. Noa is very likely based on Leona from Dominion Tank Police as well.
No.1415
>>1345>They spend the entire day together which functionally makes them closer than most couples. They wake up in the same room, get ready for school, then go to school, come back, eat dinner, hang out for a few hours, then go to sleep and repeat the cycle. Weekends they spend more time together. I don't care what you call that, that's basically marriageOr incest
No.1670
Many relationships in Takahashi's works are stockholm syndrome but Lum and Ataru aren't
No.1929
Focus on the times when they are not bickering, and they get along extremely well. They literally go out on dates in matching outfits.
They get angry with each other when Ataru flirts with other girls. If you ignore that, they're a perfect couple with extremely high compatibility.
>>670Boy meets girl is a shit ending, partially because the Inaba the Dream Maker storyline ALREADY is the end, and that should have been it. They get to see the various endings for each other, including Ataru's perfect ending of a harem and Lum has left him.
No.1932
>>1398
>>1398
This is AI dogshit
No.2116
They actually get along really well when they're NOT bickering. They go out on dates constantly.
No.2118
>>671Shinobu and Ataru have known each other since kindergarten, and she just sorta chose him as her future husband right then and there. Ataru kinda went along with it.