by Quatro Bajeena

In Italy the 'Urusei Yatsura' series was running in the middle of 80's ('84-'89). It was called 'Lamu, la ragazza dello spazio', that is 'Lum, the space girl'. Except the name of 'Lum' changed in 'Lamu' (that I admit I like most), the other names weren't changed at all. Moreover the beginning song was replaced by a very gracious italian song.

The first 151 episodes were running on Italian networks and quickly they had very much success. 'Lamu`' is in the memory of the most part of the Italian boys , obviously of the over-twenty boys like I am.

Now, June 1998, Lum is aired in nobody channel but the UY manga has been arrived at episode #111. It is published 10 episodes at month. Also almost all the other manga of Rumiko Takahashi (also called the 'Divina' (Goddess) by the Italian fans) have been published (Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Rumic World, etc..) also the most recent (Inuyasha).

The actors who dub UY have done a good job, especially (Fabrizio Manfredi) the actor who dubbed the voice of Ataru in the first series and (Rosalinda Galli) the actress who dubbed Lum always in the first series. About UY have been published also all the movies (lucky, isn't it?) and probably also all the OVA's will be published in the next future (I hope!).

The UY manga was published first by 'Granata Press' until to episode #65 (1991-1995) then in 1998 'Star Comics' has begun publishing it from the beginning, anyway the end of this very beautiful manga is unfortunately again distant. Various italian fan clubs about Lum were born with, now, their relatives sites on the Web.

Most interesting is their age, people of 20-30 years old that are happy to remember the nice moments of their infancy passed near TV looking the adventures of Ataru & company. The TV series has been running first on 'Euro TV' then on 'Odeon TV', now though the many tentative of the many fans it's not running because the copyright bought by the Italian networks have been expired.

In the future, maybe, we should see the entire series released as home-videos. I hope it though shouldn't be too much expensive for simple students like most part of italian Lum fans are.