From: kuo@sumax.seattleu.edu (Chih-Ping Kuo)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: Re: Urusei Yatsura popularity
Date: 6 Apr 92 08:43:43 GMT
Organization: sumax city 0092

>>Unfortunately, there don't seem to be all that many UY fans anymore.  :-(

they are just hybernating, there is not much to talk about UY when no
new materials had come out that warrant discussions.

> 1) There's too much of it for completists to get ahold of it all, unless
> you're a very rich completist.

I don't think the core of the UY universe (34 manga books +6 movies) are
that much to handle.  The TV series and OAV series, beyond a few, are
simply adaptation of the manga.

the only thing I haven't seen of the UY universe is the complete TV series
(I seen bits and piece of it).

> 2) It's old.  Well, by anime standards.  Most of the stuff that gets
> the most attention in fandom these days is less than 10 years old.  UY is
> older than that, right.

TV series started on 83, and all the movies beside #1 have good 
anime quality.

and you would be surprised by how good the TV series is.

> 3) It's esoteric.  I have to realize that I will never completely understand
> the humor in UY, and that the humor that is explained to me I won't find
> funny.  I wonder if the know-it-all's on the net, who love to show off their

I am no Japanese, but I have no problem understand most things in the UY
universe.  puns helps, but if you don't understand them, you simply only
enjoy the rest of the humor, not all of it.

a good example would be all the in jokes in Project A-ko, people still
enjoy it w/o knowing why they shall be DOUBLE funny, that is all

I have no problem w/ people explaining the puns of UY, I think they
shall be encourage to share more of their knowledge, not trying to tell
them to stop for fear of discourage people from getting into UY.

beside, is puns like Megane, Chibi, Perm, Ataru, Sakuran that hard to 
understand?  people who do not want to risk in exposing themselves to 
different culture won't get beyond the robot/sci-fi/porno region
of anime anyway. 

> Lum -- control-freak-bitch on the outside, loving, caring, woman inside

all of her characteristics are really on the outside.  Lum doesn't have
another dark/shadow side of her.

> Ataru -- Lecherous nerd out, perfectly honorable gentleman inside.

ummm, I won't go that far, just when thing is on the line, you can
count on him.

think about Dan Fielding of Night Court, then you have a perfect
fix for the earlier Ataru prototype

> Mendo -- Ataru's exact opposite: honorable gentleman outside, petty jerk
> inside.

actually, Mendo and Ataru are really more alike to each other, just Mendo
is born in a rich family and a little handsomer, and Ataru can do EVERYTHING
a little better than Mendo in school

> Comments?

on your desire for someone to subtitle the shows where new characters are
introduced.  since my list for UY characters are more than 100+, w/ at
least 20-30 can be consider the core characters (appear more than once)
it will be a big jobs, and not everyone have the LD set wants to do the
dub anyway.

my recommendation? get the original manga, easily available, essentually
provide 90%+ of the same storys from TV and OAV with little variations.
the only things that are not on manga and deviated greatly from the manga
style is the 5 movies (1,2,3,4,6)  they and the OAV are much easier to obtain
than the TV series.

there are also the TV mook, the movie mook, etc.

any self proclaimed UY fan own him/her self a favor to check out the original
manga, and then you can realize why we are so much shortchanged by the
money driven Viz.


-- 
***************************************************************************
Ping Kuo			"There is not enough darkness in all    
kuo@sumax.seattleu.edu		 the world to put out the light of  
standard disclaimer applied   	 one small candle."