starting a new longform series of threads on here twitter & bluesky, figured I'd bring them here as well to spur discussion.why? mostly because i haven't actually read the manga since i did a storytime on /a/ back in 2021, and there's a lot to see from r

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Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:37:35 No.789

starting a new longform series of threads on here twitter & bluesky, figured I'd bring them here as well to spur discussion.
why? mostly because i haven't actually read the manga since i did a storytime on /a/ back in 2021, and there's a lot to see from rumiko's first.

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:38:10 No.790

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>>789
starting off, here's what the cover of the issue of shonen sunday it debuted in looks like. not only is it ataru and shinobu, it's ataru that looks like he wants out! pretty much the opposite emotions of the chapter cover, even if both of them are "shinobu keeping hold of ataru".

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:38:53 No.791

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>>790
and right away the original anime completely changes the opening to not have shinobu involved at all. only recently did i learn this is actually supposed to be a parody of kyojin no hoshi. it's a strange change to be sure, since it cuts out how their relationship is on ice…

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:39:59 No.792

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>>791
the nature of the setup is simple enough to hook the reader. we also can't help but root for ataru who's got to deal with all this bs (he's got his own flaws of course, big ones). flip flopping between absurdity and seriousness helps a lot of these gags land.

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:40:45 No.793

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>>792
i wish they stuck this pickup truck in the adaptations. for a series that's going to go big on machines, it's nice to have something more down to earth.

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:41:10 No.794

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>>793
the night scene of lum and ataru's fight was also cut out, which was a shame. you kind of get the sense that there's a touch of flirty energy here even if it's mostly played straight

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:41:43 No.795

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>>794
the manga ending is clearly better from a story perspective, but i can't help but respect oshii for putting the brazen plunger gun ending which has become iconic in it's own right, even after requests from fuji tv for it to be cut, but now he's stuck with lum.

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:42:26 No.796

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for chapter 2, the cover of the issue features the art from chapter 1 with lum, and yet the chapter inside is totally absent of her, a complete flip of the first chapter. funny how that turned out.

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:43:11 No.797

File: 1738428190877-0.png (297.33 KB, 1359x550, ch2 1.png)

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>>796
not a whole lot to say with this chapter, it's simple and fun. it's more interesting in hindsight because it's the only UY chapter to stick with the initial direction of "weirdness comes to ataru/shinobu" before lum was brought back. i wonder how that plot would have developed.

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:43:39 No.798

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>>797
that aside, the story is lower stakes (necessarily imo), and a lot of these panels are all time greats. it's hard to describe rumiko's early style - it's a touch closer to realism than what it would develop into, giving the characters a "mature" flair, but still clearly cartoony

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:45:54 No.799

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>>798
this chapter's adaptation (ep 6b) felt the need to put lum in the middle of things - all it really serves is to repeat lum vs shinobu story beats
it's also a good example of the "rough" look the early anime had (due to being rushed).

Tomobikanon 2/1/25 (Sat) 16:46:59 No.800

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>>799
it's also the first gag ending where status quota saves the day - and this is a really fun panel, especially with all the imps just fooling around.

i plan to cover two chapters a day. most of the trivia comes from https://furinkan.com/ who's been doing this longer than i've been around.

Tomobikanon 2/2/25 (Sun) 22:34:43 No.801

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>>789
Why don't you storytime the manga here? I was in those threads back in 2021 and they were pretty fun. At least until the ranfren showed up

Tomobikanon 2/2/25 (Sun) 23:51:00 No.802

I wonder what Japanese society was like when this came out in 1978. The late 60s and 70s is sometimes called the cultural Americanization period. I'm pretty sure in 1930s and 50s Japan, dating was pretty much unheard of back then or socially unacceptable? Ataru is skilled with the plunger gun clearly he's done this before.

Tomobikanon 2/3/25 (Mon) 02:17:58 No.803

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>english

Tomobikanon 2/3/25 (Mon) 02:48:51 No.804

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>>803
Were you under the impression that /lum/ could actually read moonrunes?

Tomobikanon 2/5/25 (Wed) 06:50:40 No.807

>>803
The superior language. You can't lie.

Tomobikanon 2/5/25 (Wed) 22:04:33 No.809

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>>807
I was gonna fight this but there's no neighbor-word in moonspeak so you win I guess?

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 00:00:53 No.1334

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>>791
Shinobu was effectively written out of the main story with Lum, but she's Rumiko's self-insert so she never actually leaves and hangs around the series for some reason. I do think that once they move to the school and it becomes the Lum-Mendo-Shinobu-Ataru show, it really kicks off as those four play off each other really well. My favorite stories was just those four going off somewhere, or some kind of school story with them. They felt like an actual group of friends, even if they were often at each other's throats.

I think it was a mistake to not have Lum's space friends and Kurama to not be school students too. Whenever the story switched back to space hijinks it felt like a violent revert, since i couldn't care less about space shenanigans, but loved the Tomobiki setting.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 00:05:20 No.1336

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>>1334
>I think it was a mistake to not have Lum's space friends and Kurama to not be school students too.
Biggest tragedy of the new series was that at least one person on the staff/merch team felt that way and made art, but it was never implemented into the story

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 02:28:05 No.1346

>>795
Keep in mind it's 1978, so the change is likely censorship. A man ripping a bikini top off a young woman would be considered too sexual in nature.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 02:36:19 No.1347

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>>796
>>1336
yes, but it does create some story implimentation issues. Benten and Ryu are almost identical now. They probably should have just been one character from the get-go. There also just might be too many charactes, now that the core of the show is the Tomobiki classroom. Ran is at least in another classroom.

I think Kurama could have worked as a popular competitive gal from another high school. You can tie the Tomobiki High school stories in that way. The two schools square off - oh know it's Kurama as the school rep versus. Lum or whatever. Hijinks ensue. Kurama just fades away as they clearly don't know what to do with her.

>>797
The manga and anime are extremely 1970's fare and then it morphs into a very quintessential 1980's series in both tone, setting, and of course art style. Mrs. Moroboshi is almost unrecognizeable, where she's portrayed as an actual main character and a sturdy mom rather than the goofy joke she became.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 02:45:33 No.1348

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>>1336
The reason Ran works and works so damn well is because she integrates on earth, has a rivalry with Lum, and combines a cutesy girly aestetic with psychopathic rage and scheming mostly seen in outright villains.

I think the core of the UY characters that "work" is that they're schemers who are endlessly trying to get something they can't have so you end up rooting for them. Ran wants some dumbass hunk to love her and sometimes to ruin Lum's relationship. What does Oyuki and Benten want? They don't really do anything and just exist, which is why they're so boring and why you can't get any good interactions out of them. They almost exist in some other series and they're merely doing cross-overs here.

Could you imagine Benten just casually hanging out with the girls? Not really. Ran does that all the time.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 02:51:05 No.1350

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>>1348
A lot of the early series is quite weak and very obviously rushed, but this entire segment with Ran is quite gorgeous and shows off fantastic use of backlighting. Lum ranting and showing her rage while in the forest with red trees around her? Perfect.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 02:58:03 No.1352

Both the anime and manga are too flawed to consider one better then the other. I respect what they try to do but in the end Urusei Yatsura just isn't very good. At least it's fun thou.

>>1348
I agree and disagree, Ran is a great character, and I consider her better then Lum in terms of entertainment value. But I do think Benten does offer a lot of fun scenes. It's just that both Rumiko and Oshii never fleshed her out more as a character and gave her more to do. Oyuki thou really is boring, she doesn't really do anything worthy to mention.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 02:58:39 No.1353

>>1350
And of course being a comedy series: Ran is just really really funny. Ryunosuke is funny. Benten and Oyuki just aren't very funny. Simple as that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdoujeC0lqw

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 03:02:03 No.1354

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Frienimies.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 04:56:07 No.1396

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>>1352
Ran is great because she's actually involved in Tomobiki, while Benten and Oyuki are like actual "aliens" who pop down and then leave. They're disconnected.

>>1336
Based on this art, Benten and Oyuki would be at separate schools which I think would have fit quite nicely and effectively change nothing about the story or plot.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 05:48:00 No.1405

>>1396
So what if they're disconnected? I still like them a lot.

Tomobikanon 4/23/25 (Wed) 06:30:01 No.1411

>>1405
It's effectively a new manga series when they show up, and it's just NOT that interesting. They can't really propell the storyline very well and at most they're just disconnected stories and objects for Mendo and Ataru to gawk at. Ran can start any number of shenanigans - like accidentally poisoning Ataru and Lum thinks he's gonna die so she has to go on an adventure to save him. Or Ran creates some mayhem that gets them all sent to detention. Ran gets taken on a date by Ryunosuke.

Actually Benten's BEST was the anime only ep and the manga chapter where she palled around with Ryunosuke.