All the Staff Members are Researching Lum-chan, Who Flies Away from the Mundane World to Another Dimension!

Translated by: Dylan Acres
Thanks to Mitchell for scans and transcriptions.

Urusei Yatsura (serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday) will finally be made into an anime. Kitty Enterprises will produce the project, the first time a record company has attempted to produce a full-fledged anime. ^[1] Kitty's producer, Shigekazu Ochiai, explains the story behind the project; ^[2] "This is not the first time I have been involved in animation, having worked on Jarinko Chie and Makoto-chan in partnership with Tokyo Movie. ^[3] The original author gave me the K-mark that said, "You have to get a strikeout," and I am currently working hard to create a powerful work that surpasses Dr. Slump. ^[4] This year, we decided to make a full-fledged entry into the anime industry, so we set our sights on Rumiko Takahashi's Urusei Yatsura, which also won the Shogakukan Manga Award." Since receiving the K, he is currently working full-time on his production, aiming to create a work that will be even more powerful than Dr. Slump. The story is about a cute alien invader's daughter, Lum, and an ultra-cheater, Ataru Moroboshi. The SF story revolves around the triangular relationship between the cute invader girl, Lum, Ataru, and his girlfriend, Shinobu. How do you make this into an anime? We asked producer Yuji Nunokawa of Studio Pierrot, the production company, about it. ^[5] "The color palette is tropical pink, which gives the story a more sophisticated feel than the gags of the past," he said. For the TV series, one original story will be condensed into 15 minutes, and the two episodes will be broadcast together in 30 minutes, but he intends to emphasize the fast pace and strong personalities of the characters in a story that emphasizes the original manga.

He is trying to create a more active Urusei Yatsura, to create an enjoyable production.

So, how exactly will the series' fast pace be expressed on the screen? "I'm thinking of making a scene that usually consists of 10 shots with only 5 shots," director Mamoru Oshii explains, "for example, in manga, they use the technique of omission to improve the tempo.^[6] When Sakuranbo says, 'Your face is horrible!' then in the next panel he has a lump on his head. In animation, however, the scene between these two frames must be expressed in action. The fewer cuts we make, the more drawings we have to make, but I think this is necessary in order to respect movement. I think it's necessary to make the characters more appealing." How do you bring out the best in each character? Yu Yamamoto, who is in charge of the screenplay, answers as follows: "I want to respect the the dry sensibility and good taste of the original work as much as possible. Although it is a story about a relationship between a man and a woman that could become boring, what makes it crisp is that each character is free and uninhibited, without being wishy-washy. They have the strength to always act with their true feelings. Based on this idea, I'd also like to create new characters while consulting with the original author." Also, the popular character "cousin Ten-chan" from the original work will appear in episode 2 as soon as possible. With the appearance of Ten-chan, it seems that the targeted age range of the work will be widened.

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Footnotes

• [1] Kitty Enterprises began as a record company, and Urusei Yatsura is indeed its first anime production. For more information on Kitty Enterprises, which would later become Kitty Films, please see our article.
• [2] Shigekazu Ochiai (落合茂一) was a producer for Kitty Animation, who got his start as an assistant to Kazuo Koike (小池 一夫) and helped manage Gekiga Sonjuku, the training school run by Koike that Rumiko Takahashi attended prior to her debut. Eventually Ochiai left Koike and found himself working for Kitty Music as they transitioned into the anime business. Because of his connection with Takahashi prior to her debut he was able to use those connections to bring her on board with Kitty Animation. This proved to be a very fortuitious partnership as Kitty went on to produce Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2. A later interview with Ochiai can be found archived here on the site.
• [3] Chie the Brat (Jarinko Chie/じゃりン子チエ) is an anime based on the manga by Etsumi Haruki. Isao Takahata of Studio Ghibli fame was a director on the series. Makoto-chan (まことちゃん) is a film is based on the manga by Kazuo Umezu, and was the manga that Takahahashi actually worked on briefly before making her debut. The film version was directed by Tsutomu Shibayama who would go on to direct episodes of Ranma 1/2.
• [4] Dr. Slump is the popular anime based on the manga by Akira Toriyama. Urusei Yatsura actually originally aired after Dr. Slump on TV Tokyo, Wednesday nights.
• [5] Yuji Nunokawa (布川ゆうじ) was a producer, animator and director. He is also the founder of Studio Pierrot and was a producer on Urusei Yatsura An interview with Yuji Nunokawa can be found archived here on the site. He passed away in 2022.
• [6] Mamoru Oshii (押井守) got his start as a director on Urusei Yatsura but would go on to direct numerous famous anime films and series. We have numerous interviews archived with him here at the website.

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