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Author Topic: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it  (Read 24792 times)

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Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #45 on: August 12, 2017, 04:10:03 AM »
- Unfortunately that's how some people and even some of the teenage boys in the series sees her as.

- Lol, Lum was gonna commit lover's suicide. She legit didn't care if they died there. To go that far... It's not worth your life, especially when you've only been alive for around 16-17 years. Well Lum did technically conquer earth in the space taxi story. Earth was literally at her mercy and she got what she wanted out of it. Ataru went from hero to zero real quick. I really do wish Takahshi had a few more stories actually take place on Lum's home planet. Always an underrated aspect, especially since she never delved too much into the Oni customs or even how they live.

- Onsen has to be the bachelor and has to remain the biggest loser in the series. He's there as a reminder for the other characters that they still have hope not to end up like him. Lol, they were throwing soda cans and other garbage at Ataru in the manga version. It really puts into perspective just how immature some of these people still are. To be a young adult and still acting like you're 16-17 years old at a wedding? That's pretty low. Not to mention, characters have a bad habit of seeing and hearing only what they want to see and hear. Like they could clearly see that Lum was happier than they've probably ever saw her, and she was even crying tears of joy at the thought of marrying Ataru. You'd think they'd get a clue that Lum is pretty much the "aggressor" in her relationship with Ataru. She's usually the one that has to force him to do anything with her. But they've got this mental picture in their heads of how Ataru "mistreats" Lum (as in forces himself on her when she's trying to avoid him). Though Lum even told the guys, "My body belongs to darling." That pretty much destroyed any sort of fantasy they could imagine where Ataru is forcing himself on Lum when she pretty much tells the other guys that she willingly gives herself to Ataru and Ataru alone. These guys will remain bitter for their entire lives.

- She does indeed have that problem. So many characters even get introduced late in a series but never really get things resolved. I'm amazed Megane never commented on how his parents thought of his obsession. Like I'd imagine they'd walk in his room on rare occasion (not often as I'm sure once they see the Lum propped up covered room they'll make it a point to not go in there often) and have their own ideas on just how sick Megane really is.

- Ah when he saved Ran, his only ever truly decent character moment. I love how they put Mendou in the watermelon episode (he wasn't there in the manga version) for pretty much the sole purpose of being clowned. Like he doesn't take part in learning about the watermelon curse alongside Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu. He's just there to get crushed by the watermelon. Well when you're getting older, you'll have to start settling down. What better way to do so then with the only person you love?

- No way in the world their kids would be peaceful. They'll probably have enough of either of there parents' traits to where it'd be another living nightmare for someone like Onsen, who'll be tormented by Moroboshi until the day he dies. Ataru certainly wasn't making it easy for Lum telling her he hated her and all. The real dumb thing was how when they got the World of Darkness, the others get captured, but could have left the cell at any time, and might have had a chance of preventing the situation from getting as bad as it did as if they had just left the prison cell, they could have tried making their way to the wedding hall themselves. Tsubame... I really just can't have an opinion of the guy. He's really just kind of there. Makes sense how it would only be them having a cameo in Maison Ikkoku if they're depicted as being young kids, makes sense for Shinobu and Megane to be there, as he's known Shinobu since they were young, and presumably Megane too.

- It does get a lot crazier. The quality of the episodes also improve later on too. As your GF progresses throughout the series, while the resolution to Ataru and Lum's relationship is real subjective, their genuine moments along the way to the finale are really sweet.

- Her father was pretty cruel too. Like they checked the family album, and they see pictures of several women who he says is all her mother. He won't just come out and give her a straight answer. I really did like the story where Ryuunosuke stayed over at Ataru's house for a bit and consoled in Ataru's mother. She really needs a break from a father as terrible as the one she has.

- Good boy Ten! Gets even farther on a date with Sakura than her own boyfriend.

- Lol the typhoon story. She has this romantic moment with him, and Ataru genuinely doesn't mind her sitting up close to him. But then he just ruins the mood by asking for more food.

LOL - You must either have a crazy schedule like I do, or just be in a totally different timezone than me.

And sadly, I can only imagine how they view her. I mean, within the cast she definitely stands out, and at the time when anime was coming into its own, you had either normal anime or you had Hentai. With Lum being openly sexy and there being fleeting nudity at times, the dots were too easy to connect for some people.

You're right, she pretty much did conquer the world, she did better than her father did in fact - all thanks to the hormones Ataru's classmates. But with the Lover's Suicide, in thinking about it, Final Chapter was like that in reverse. Even if Ataru could survive that fall with his insane durability, no guarantee for Lum so who knows maybe he jumped to be with her and not have to be alone if something happened to her. But I think we can count on one hand stories that took place on Lum's world, and have fingers to spare. When we saw Neptune for Oyuki's intro I remember thinking it looked strangely too normal. The flashbacks with Lum and Ran as little kids I don't really count as full stories, but if they're indicators of Lum's home, it's definitely very weird, like the Oni in general.

Sad too, Onsen's not an unlikable character. He just gets put on the most by a class that clearly doesn't respect him. They were even nicer to their homeroom teacher than they were to Onsen. Of course while the anime version is nicer in tone than the manga version with the wedding, the fact that the effort he makes in either one is a nice thing to see. Even just before that when she's clearly very upset that they haven't found a married future and blames him and he goes into comfort mode, the expression on his face sells the moment for him. He's known ever since the end of the first tag match his mouth is what started this going, but seeing her be visibly upset like that was like a wakeup call. I know this is my opinion on it, but his expression seemed to say "She really does want this, despite eveything I've done, I have to do something". Also, maybe it's me, but I got the impression that the anime version took place over two days, but I could be wrong. AnimEgo's translations sometimes are less than perfect, but if it was a two day span, when Lum starts arguing about why they didn't see her future, she blames Ataru. So when you say characters see and hear only what they want, that very much so applies to Lum because when she did that, my reaction was "Uh, Lum....he tried to save that other future. You forget already?" But, it's her temper there.

Pretty sure as far as full sets of parents are concerned, we only saw Ataru's, Lum's, Shinobu's, and Mendou's. We saw Sakura's mother (that Cherry look-alike made me shudder) and then we saw Ton and Asuka's mother, Ten's mother and Ran's mother. But none of the Stormtroopers. lol Maybe Megane offed his parents after they said something about his room, I wouldn't put it past him at all. But Maison had a few too many characters I felt too, even though that was a more cohesive story overall. Probably all because the goal was defined up front. That leads me to a question, I stopped following Takahashi after Ranma 1/2, and I know what happens in InuYasha thanks to my girlfriend, but the idea of "Boy meets Girl" is in each of them. Are you following Kyokai no Rinne? Is that feeling in that one too?

Poor Rei and his limited vocabulary, but when he saved Ran he redeemed himself for being that annoying comedic plot device to make Ran jealous and Lum crazy. He likely figured if something happened to her, there goes his constant supply of food. That was one of the somewhat rare moments where the anime and manga aligned well. I will say the manga version of Kurama was the better looking version in this case. But Mendou and the watermelon, I loved how they ran past him and said help us, and he readies himself only to see how big it was and then get clobbered. Poor Ataru got walloped too though, but then Lum got angry and did the Ultraman pose with a zap. Always enjoyed that they paid homage to Ultraman in UY with Lum's poses.

I see their kids as being terrors not just to others, but to Ataru too. If they inherit Lum's Oni abilities Ataru will find himself way outnumbered, and if they inherit his crazy abilities too? Nothing's worse than invincible kids, period. And it's not like Ataru can use a frying pan on them like he did with Ten. But with Final Chapter, while I know it's really just about Lum and Ataru, the only thing that was jarring was the fact that all the usual voices of reason didn't speak up until it was too late. Sakura's line of 'Going through all this for three simple words', for someone that is a school counsellor, the nurse and a priestess, she has no idea how hard it can be to say three simple words.

I warned her, I even told her from about 70+ onwards there's going to be some really strange moments and that she has to watch 105 and 106 back to back so she gets the full effect of the story which is Oshii's swan song of the series. As far as their relationship and it's resolution, I have to fall in the camp of 'of course they stayed together' otherwise, it would almost feel like I watched it all for nothing (Note I say almost). And I can't say I ever saw a post in which a person said they thought Lum dumped him and left for good. Ataru would probably go insane with depression.

Funny how she took more consolation and solace from Ataru's mother than he did. But her father was definitely a rotten specimen of life in all ways, tricking your own kid so they wouldn't eat something just so you could is pretty low.

The typhoon episode and the summer date one both are good in that Lum gets to enjoy some time with him and he really doesn't mind. When she saw his reaction to her looking like an earth girl she was overjoyed. The music that played in those episodes for the candle scene in typhoon and when Ataru is wondering why Lum left after the date and she appears in the UFO overhead, it's pretty much a theme song for them early on.

I just watched some of the video footage from the 10th anniversary special that is still out there, 2021 is coming up faster than we realize, UY will be 40 soon.
- It's probably my schedule. I'm up late many nights.

- Unfortunate and expected.

- Early in the series, the trick is if you do something bad, pin it on Ataru. You'll likely be successful lol. Lol you're right, he didn't exactly have a safety plan for jumping off to save her. One of those in the heat of the moment deals. That aspect of Lum's life could have been expanded on more than it had been, I liked most if not all the stories that focused on the memories she spent with her childhood friends.

- It definitely must be hard to teach a class full of students who belittle you, disrespect you, and harm you physically with no regard for how you feel or your well-being. Lol, I remember that. It was the end of the OVA. She's all like "Darling, why didn't we get to see my future." Ataru's just like "Well cause you dropped it." She asks him why was hers the only one to drop. How is he suppose to answer this? Even funnier when she does drop her doorknob because of the rabbits slamming a door in her face, Ataru chooses to troll Lum by saying at least he has his future. It was a moment I found funny, but definitely a moment he deserved the electric lynching.

- Takahashi's latest story Rinne does fully the general structure that each of her other series follow, the "Boy Meets Girl" template. It's just her theme of tackling the couples. Of course, the way she goes about it has many similarities while the characters in question are not the same in personality necessarily (Ataru and Ranma are not the same, just like how Lum and Kagome aren't the same).

- Rei just sort of fades into the background after that, probably because there's really not much more you can do with him than that. Same issue Kurama's character ran into. Really only so much you can go through the same story just with some different details. Eh, Ataru and Mendou will be fine. They've got Takahashi manga durability. They practically have Takahashi's own take of "toonforce".

- Yeah, that was pretty jarring. You'd think Sakura of all people would understand. Then again, thinking about it, maybe she doesn't understand as much as we and she thinks she does. In the "Happy Birthday My Darling episode" she completely failed to understand the situation between Ataru and Lum, and insisted on Lum to dump him, when it really wasn't an issue like that, more so an issue of a misunderstanding (I wonder where we've seen a misunderstanding get out of hand before). Moroboshi children would hold a clean record against Ataru.

- It does improve later on, that's for sure. As for dumping, I find it interesting that for most of the series, characters have been telling Ataru that he'll get dumped by Lum and have even tried to tell and get Lum to dump him at times. But when they actually do break up (in the last story briefly until that story's climax), Ataru is the one who dumps her.

- That's what I find troubling about Ryuunosuke's stories. She's a great character herself, but the way her stories are structured and framed makes any sort of possibility of progression impossible. Takahashi's couples tend to take one step forward and two steps back, but there is progression there. Ryuunosuke doesn't get much of anything. It makes it frustrating to read or watch through some of her stories.

- Well when your boyfriend/fiance willfully chooses to reject you most of the time, you take any moments you can get and capitalize on when he's being more open towards your affections.

- Yeah, that series is going to be 40 soon. Since Ataru was likely born in '62 since the series started in '78, that makes him 16 at the start. That would make Ataru and Lum like 55 currently now in 2017. Time sure does fly.

Offline Oldfan

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #46 on: August 12, 2017, 06:06:40 AM »
- It's probably my schedule. I'm up late many nights.

- Unfortunate and expected.

- Early in the series, the trick is if you do something bad, pin it on Ataru. You'll likely be successful lol. Lol you're right, he didn't exactly have a safety plan for jumping off to save her. One of those in the heat of the moment deals. That aspect of Lum's life could have been expanded on more than it had been, I liked most if not all the stories that focused on the memories she spent with her childhood friends.

- It definitely must be hard to teach a class full of students who belittle you, disrespect you, and harm you physically with no regard for how you feel or your well-being. Lol, I remember that. It was the end of the OVA. She's all like "Darling, why didn't we get to see my future." Ataru's just like "Well cause you dropped it." She asks him why was hers the only one to drop. How is he suppose to answer this? Even funnier when she does drop her doorknob because of the rabbits slamming a door in her face, Ataru chooses to troll Lum by saying at least he has his future. It was a moment I found funny, but definitely a moment he deserved the electric lynching.

- Takahashi's latest story Rinne does fully the general structure that each of her other series follow, the "Boy Meets Girl" template. It's just her theme of tackling the couples. Of course, the way she goes about it has many similarities while the characters in question are not the same in personality necessarily (Ataru and Ranma are not the same, just like how Lum and Kagome aren't the same).

- Rei just sort of fades into the background after that, probably because there's really not much more you can do with him than that. Same issue Kurama's character ran into. Really only so much you can go through the same story just with some different details. Eh, Ataru and Mendou will be fine. They've got Takahashi manga durability. They practically have Takahashi's own take of "toonforce".

- Yeah, that was pretty jarring. You'd think Sakura of all people would understand. Then again, thinking about it, maybe she doesn't understand as much as we and she thinks she does. In the "Happy Birthday My Darling episode" she completely failed to understand the situation between Ataru and Lum, and insisted on Lum to dump him, when it really wasn't an issue like that, more so an issue of a misunderstanding (I wonder where we've seen a misunderstanding get out of hand before). Moroboshi children would hold a clean record against Ataru.

- It does improve later on, that's for sure. As for dumping, I find it interesting that for most of the series, characters have been telling Ataru that he'll get dumped by Lum and have even tried to tell and get Lum to dump him at times. But when they actually do break up (in the last story briefly until that story's climax), Ataru is the one who dumps her.

- That's what I find troubling about Ryuunosuke's stories. She's a great character herself, but the way her stories are structured and framed makes any sort of possibility of progression impossible. Takahashi's couples tend to take one step forward and two steps back, but there is progression there. Ryuunosuke doesn't get much of anything. It makes it frustrating to read or watch through some of her stories.

- Well when your boyfriend/fiance willfully chooses to reject you most of the time, you take any moments you can get and capitalize on when he's being more open towards your affections.

- Yeah, that series is going to be 40 soon. Since Ataru was likely born in '62 since the series started in '78, that makes him 16 at the start. That would make Ataru and Lum like 55 currently now in 2017. Time sure does fly.

With me being inbetween job contracts, my schedule has gone completely out the window. Other than the weekends, I'm usually asleep around Midnight EST.

I would say kids will be kids, but...I'll leave it as hormones will be hormones.

Ataru was the best patsy early on, most people found it easy to believe that if something bad happened he caused it somehow. With his jumping after her, I really got nothing other than he either figured on a suicide with her or he hoped that someone would save them. Honestly, given that Benten's bike has gone really fast previously, she should have overshot them and been able to do something. (Un)fortunately for Ataru, he managed to tick Lum off enough that she grew new horns. But when he first jumped down and caught up to her, that wallop of a smack she gave him was priceless. And her childhood was funny, no wonder they called her The Notorious Lum, she was trouble with a capital T.

I found it funny that aside from when they met their new homeroom teacher, there was like only a couple episodes where they were in classes other than Onsen's at the beginning. That new ace teacher that had it in for Ataru didn't last too long, and they had a science class once and then that was it. You'd think they spent their whole day learning English with Onsen. And my thoughts exactly, how was he supposed to answer that? He was right there with her, did she think that it somehow happened diferently for him? The first time I saw the OVA and he trolled her my thought was that pretty much, Ataru is going to pay for that. So what does he do, he blames her for wrecking his perfect future which is really all his own fault. He deserved it, and she really was relentless that time too.

Well then I think since it's ongoing still, I'll wait until it's done before I tackle getting into that one. I've heard it's good and she handles things in it better than she has in the past, but once bitten...

Rei made his token appearances for the sake of 'Here's the whle cast...again', same with Kurama. She was present on the final day of the tag race and my thought was, why? She couldn't stand either of them, especially Ataru and her story wasn't getting resolved anytime soon regardless. For all Mendou's talk, he was more uptight than Ataru just when the Karasutengu were trying to get him to kiss her to wake her. Although it was funny to see his true colors when he first realizes Kurama is attractive - Akira Kamiya did a good job with the voice reaction.

Sakura strikes me as being very book smart, but not wise when it comes to others. Maybe because of her own life and being sick all the time until Ataru came along. Handy that he's a magnet for evil spirits, I liked the manga version when Sakura exorcised all the other spirits and Ataru basically had the Grim Reaper sitting over him then. And for the life of me, if that's what her mother looked like, I'd be scared to know who the heck wanted to marry that. Even at the end of Happy Birthday, it struck me as odd that Lum still looked down, given that she went and got him a present. In the meantime, direct contrast, he saw Lum and he was the happiest person in the world. He couldn't even last a whole day this time without seeing her, and for once his mother actually was worried about him being out in the rain. Lum and Ataru have a misunderstanding? Never... And their kids would likely blow up the school if they had even a hint of a chance.

I can't even call that a real dumping, she obviously didn't accept it, and if he were even halfway serious about it, I doubt it would have gotten to that point when he could have told her off long before the mushrooms began to grow. The look on his face when they got back to Earth and Lum wasn't with them was pretty much an "Ooops, I really screwed up this one".

The manga stories were a little harder to get through for me, her father just looked like a psychotic, abusive jerk. And those facial expressions he made were awful. The one where he has the long hair and beard of a hermit and he sticks his tongue out, that's one of those, 'What has been seen cannot be unseen' moments.

Speaking of the typhoon episode, my girlfriend ended with that one tonight. She looked at me and flat out said that for someone that tries to get away from a girl, he risks his life without a second thought. All I said was welcome to how Takahashi handles character relationships, that Final Chapter movie is based on the last manga story, and it's just as crazily handled as the very first story was. I just left it as, Lum made up her mind to love him, and while he does love her, he can't admit it to anyone, especially himself that he's not free anymore. (I was kind and explained the basis of the main characters for her)

Another time gaff, the manga has them born then, but the anime sure doesn't reflect it and Lum the Forever has Lum born in 1967. But, we know time is just 'a little skewed' in UY. I wonder if we'll get something for the 40th anniversary aside from a drawing from Takahashi. Toshio will be 76 and Fumi will be 65/66, might be a little late for something animated from them at that point.
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #47 on: August 13, 2017, 09:18:25 AM »
- It's probably my schedule. I'm up late many nights.

- Unfortunate and expected.

- Early in the series, the trick is if you do something bad, pin it on Ataru. You'll likely be successful lol. Lol you're right, he didn't exactly have a safety plan for jumping off to save her. One of those in the heat of the moment deals. That aspect of Lum's life could have been expanded on more than it had been, I liked most if not all the stories that focused on the memories she spent with her childhood friends.

- It definitely must be hard to teach a class full of students who belittle you, disrespect you, and harm you physically with no regard for how you feel or your well-being. Lol, I remember that. It was the end of the OVA. She's all like "Darling, why didn't we get to see my future." Ataru's just like "Well cause you dropped it." She asks him why was hers the only one to drop. How is he suppose to answer this? Even funnier when she does drop her doorknob because of the rabbits slamming a door in her face, Ataru chooses to troll Lum by saying at least he has his future. It was a moment I found funny, but definitely a moment he deserved the electric lynching.

- Takahashi's latest story Rinne does fully the general structure that each of her other series follow, the "Boy Meets Girl" template. It's just her theme of tackling the couples. Of course, the way she goes about it has many similarities while the characters in question are not the same in personality necessarily (Ataru and Ranma are not the same, just like how Lum and Kagome aren't the same).

- Rei just sort of fades into the background after that, probably because there's really not much more you can do with him than that. Same issue Kurama's character ran into. Really only so much you can go through the same story just with some different details. Eh, Ataru and Mendou will be fine. They've got Takahashi manga durability. They practically have Takahashi's own take of "toonforce".

- Yeah, that was pretty jarring. You'd think Sakura of all people would understand. Then again, thinking about it, maybe she doesn't understand as much as we and she thinks she does. In the "Happy Birthday My Darling episode" she completely failed to understand the situation between Ataru and Lum, and insisted on Lum to dump him, when it really wasn't an issue like that, more so an issue of a misunderstanding (I wonder where we've seen a misunderstanding get out of hand before). Moroboshi children would hold a clean record against Ataru.

- It does improve later on, that's for sure. As for dumping, I find it interesting that for most of the series, characters have been telling Ataru that he'll get dumped by Lum and have even tried to tell and get Lum to dump him at times. But when they actually do break up (in the last story briefly until that story's climax), Ataru is the one who dumps her.

- That's what I find troubling about Ryuunosuke's stories. She's a great character herself, but the way her stories are structured and framed makes any sort of possibility of progression impossible. Takahashi's couples tend to take one step forward and two steps back, but there is progression there. Ryuunosuke doesn't get much of anything. It makes it frustrating to read or watch through some of her stories.

- Well when your boyfriend/fiance willfully chooses to reject you most of the time, you take any moments you can get and capitalize on when he's being more open towards your affections.

- Yeah, that series is going to be 40 soon. Since Ataru was likely born in '62 since the series started in '78, that makes him 16 at the start. That would make Ataru and Lum like 55 currently now in 2017. Time sure does fly.

With me being inbetween job contracts, my schedule has gone completely out the window. Other than the weekends, I'm usually asleep around Midnight EST.

I would say kids will be kids, but...I'll leave it as hormones will be hormones.

Ataru was the best patsy early on, most people found it easy to believe that if something bad happened he caused it somehow. With his jumping after her, I really got nothing other than he either figured on a suicide with her or he hoped that someone would save them. Honestly, given that Benten's bike has gone really fast previously, she should have overshot them and been able to do something. (Un)fortunately for Ataru, he managed to tick Lum off enough that she grew new horns. But when he first jumped down and caught up to her, that wallop of a smack she gave him was priceless. And her childhood was funny, no wonder they called her The Notorious Lum, she was trouble with a capital T.

I found it funny that aside from when they met their new homeroom teacher, there was like only a couple episodes where they were in classes other than Onsen's at the beginning. That new ace teacher that had it in for Ataru didn't last too long, and they had a science class once and then that was it. You'd think they spent their whole day learning English with Onsen. And my thoughts exactly, how was he supposed to answer that? He was right there with her, did she think that it somehow happened diferently for him? The first time I saw the OVA and he trolled her my thought was that pretty much, Ataru is going to pay for that. So what does he do, he blames her for wrecking his perfect future which is really all his own fault. He deserved it, and she really was relentless that time too.

Well then I think since it's ongoing still, I'll wait until it's done before I tackle getting into that one. I've heard it's good and she handles things in it better than she has in the past, but once bitten...

Rei made his token appearances for the sake of 'Here's the whle cast...again', same with Kurama. She was present on the final day of the tag race and my thought was, why? She couldn't stand either of them, especially Ataru and her story wasn't getting resolved anytime soon regardless. For all Mendou's talk, he was more uptight than Ataru just when the Karasutengu were trying to get him to kiss her to wake her. Although it was funny to see his true colors when he first realizes Kurama is attractive - Akira Kamiya did a good job with the voice reaction.

Sakura strikes me as being very book smart, but not wise when it comes to others. Maybe because of her own life and being sick all the time until Ataru came along. Handy that he's a magnet for evil spirits, I liked the manga version when Sakura exorcised all the other spirits and Ataru basically had the Grim Reaper sitting over him then. And for the life of me, if that's what her mother looked like, I'd be scared to know who the heck wanted to marry that. Even at the end of Happy Birthday, it struck me as odd that Lum still looked down, given that she went and got him a present. In the meantime, direct contrast, he saw Lum and he was the happiest person in the world. He couldn't even last a whole day this time without seeing her, and for once his mother actually was worried about him being out in the rain. Lum and Ataru have a misunderstanding? Never... And their kids would likely blow up the school if they had even a hint of a chance.

I can't even call that a real dumping, she obviously didn't accept it, and if he were even halfway serious about it, I doubt it would have gotten to that point when he could have told her off long before the mushrooms began to grow. The look on his face when they got back to Earth and Lum wasn't with them was pretty much an "Ooops, I really screwed up this one".

The manga stories were a little harder to get through for me, her father just looked like a psychotic, abusive jerk. And those facial expressions he made were awful. The one where he has the long hair and beard of a hermit and he sticks his tongue out, that's one of those, 'What has been seen cannot be unseen' moments.

Speaking of the typhoon episode, my girlfriend ended with that one tonight. She looked at me and flat out said that for someone that tries to get away from a girl, he risks his life without a second thought. All I said was welcome to how Takahashi handles character relationships, that Final Chapter movie is based on the last manga story, and it's just as crazily handled as the very first story was. I just left it as, Lum made up her mind to love him, and while he does love her, he can't admit it to anyone, especially himself that he's not free anymore. (I was kind and explained the basis of the main characters for her)

Another time gaff, the manga has them born then, but the anime sure doesn't reflect it and Lum the Forever has Lum born in 1967. But, we know time is just 'a little skewed' in UY. I wonder if we'll get something for the 40th anniversary aside from a drawing from Takahashi. Toshio will be 76 and Fumi will be 65/66, might be a little late for something animated from them at that point.
- When you're labeled the village idiot, it's always easy to just blame you for everything. Just another inconsistency. Same with Ataru's durability, Benten's bike speed had to be nerfed to prevent her from rescuing Ataru and Lum (something she'd be able to do in any other story of the series). She was a pretty rebellious youth herself that Lum. She probably does find that side of Ataru attractive to some degree.

- Onsen is just the favorite guinea pig is all. More specifically, I guess Takahashi just found it more appropriate to use Onsen because he was a good butt monkey to the students. Ataru couldn't realistically answer that question for Lum, but he already knows, once she's angry, there's no reasoning with her til she calms down. So, why not make sport of it, and run away from her? He definitely deserved the electrocution she gave him this time, doubled over. I liked how the OVA highlighted a major flaw within Ataru and Lum's communication (or lack thereof) as a couple. Lum despises that Ataru constantly flirts with every woman he sees, and Ataru hates how Lum always electrocutes and how clingy she can be. Valid points they bring up about one another that prevents their relationship from truly progressing I'd say.

- Yeah, it's still on-going. I have to catch up to it personally. I've been occupied with other series like Hajime no Ippo, Black Jack and BnHA.

- Yeah, there was never any point to having Kurama appear again after a certain point. Only You has Kurama in a small but decent role that has her state perfectly why it makes no sense for her to appear anymore. Like I get what they went for with having all those characters reappearing again in the finale, but it just made no sense in the context of her character since she hates both Ataru and Lum and has zero reason to be on earth to watch the events of their lover's quarrel when she wants nothing to do with either of them. Mendou had ample time, and Ataru was even being restrained, yet Mendou still got beaten by Ataru out of scoring a kiss. Pretty pathetic of Mendou tbh.

- Sakura's family is arguably even more strange than Mendou's family. Largely due to the fact that there's more questions for that family than I would have for Mendou's family. Lol, I can see it now: A married Ataru and Lum get into a feud and their children take their feelings about it out on the school, and there's not a damn thing really anyone can do about it.

- No, he obviously wasn't completely serious. The biggest clue to that was the sheer fact that we as the audience realize that he had kept her horns with him (this was before Lum herself knew he had them). He clearly never meant it.

- The manga was usually a bit more mean-spirited and blunt than the anime was most of the time. The anime actually somewhat tones down how some of the cruel acts characters commit in the manga come off. I can't really think of a story that heavily focuses on Ryuunosuke and or Mr. Fujinami and enjoyed her father's presence there.

- The good old Takahashi couples. You can truly grow attached to them, but you get increasingly frustrated with some of the turns in the progression of each couple at times.

- I'd love a fun little sketch or mini comic from Takahashi featuring the UY crew just for fun for a 40th Anniversary.

Offline Oldfan

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #48 on: August 15, 2017, 09:39:36 PM »
- When you're labeled the village idiot, it's always easy to just blame you for everything. Just another inconsistency. Same with Ataru's durability, Benten's bike speed had to be nerfed to prevent her from rescuing Ataru and Lum (something she'd be able to do in any other story of the series). She was a pretty rebellious youth herself that Lum. She probably does find that side of Ataru attractive to some degree.

- Onsen is just the favorite guinea pig is all. More specifically, I guess Takahashi just found it more appropriate to use Onsen because he was a good butt monkey to the students. Ataru couldn't realistically answer that question for Lum, but he already knows, once she's angry, there's no reasoning with her til she calms down. So, why not make sport of it, and run away from her? He definitely deserved the electrocution she gave him this time, doubled over. I liked how the OVA highlighted a major flaw within Ataru and Lum's communication (or lack thereof) as a couple. Lum despises that Ataru constantly flirts with every woman he sees, and Ataru hates how Lum always electrocutes and how clingy she can be. Valid points they bring up about one another that prevents their relationship from truly progressing I'd say.

- Yeah, it's still on-going. I have to catch up to it personally. I've been occupied with other series like Hajime no Ippo, Black Jack and BnHA.

- Yeah, there was never any point to having Kurama appear again after a certain point. Only You has Kurama in a small but decent role that has her state perfectly why it makes no sense for her to appear anymore. Like I get what they went for with having all those characters reappearing again in the finale, but it just made no sense in the context of her character since she hates both Ataru and Lum and has zero reason to be on earth to watch the events of their lover's quarrel when she wants nothing to do with either of them. Mendou had ample time, and Ataru was even being restrained, yet Mendou still got beaten by Ataru out of scoring a kiss. Pretty pathetic of Mendou tbh.

- Sakura's family is arguably even more strange than Mendou's family. Largely due to the fact that there's more questions for that family than I would have for Mendou's family. Lol, I can see it now: A married Ataru and Lum get into a feud and their children take their feelings about it out on the school, and there's not a damn thing really anyone can do about it.

- No, he obviously wasn't completely serious. The biggest clue to that was the sheer fact that we as the audience realize that he had kept her horns with him (this was before Lum herself knew he had them). He clearly never meant it.

- The manga was usually a bit more mean-spirited and blunt than the anime was most of the time. The anime actually somewhat tones down how some of the cruel acts characters commit in the manga come off. I can't really think of a story that heavily focuses on Ryuunosuke and or Mr. Fujinami and enjoyed her father's presence there.

- The good old Takahashi couples. You can truly grow attached to them, but you get increasingly frustrated with some of the turns in the progression of each couple at times.

- I'd love a fun little sketch or mini comic from Takahashi featuring the UY crew just for fun for a 40th Anniversary.

He's the village idiot and the village curse all rolled into one, until something happens and only he can save Lum (let's face it, everything was either one or the other in danger). Biggest inconsistency - Benten couldn't get there in time in Movie 5, and the bike did warp speed in Movie 6. That was a huh what moment right there. I also find it funny that at least in the english translated manga, Lum says she's a pacifist, she's got the worst temper next to Ran.

There are times I felt bad for Onsen-Mark, the amount of disrespect he got was incredible. He didn't help his case though since he was enthralled with Sakura, something the students recognized early on and actually called him out on. But yeah, their major fault as a couple is they don't communicate, and the fact that Ataru was actually the initiator of that discussion was interesting because no one is more horrible at communicating than he is. Not that he had good examples to follow; his father barely spoke and his mother punctuated things she said with "I never should have had him".

I found a site that streams Rin-ne, so I guess I have something to watch when I have downtime. Hajime no Ippo is another I'm way behind on though.

Kurama has one quality she shares with Lum, bad taste in men (even if Lum is the only one that can get Ataru's good points to come out.) From Ataru to Mendou to Rei with a dash of Ryuunosuke thrown in because everyone thinks she is a boy at one point or another. Another amusing Mendou fail, when Ryoko appeared and Mendou had to admit Ataru is more tenacious than him and then later Mendou's fatehr even admits Ataru is superior to Mendou.

Cherry and his sister are SO short, and then you get Sakura. Never a mention of who her father was, and probably for the better as her mother was basically Cherry with a wig. If classes were called off a lot when it was Ataru causing problems, I could almost see weeks being called off because of their kids as sections of the school are vaporized.

Classic "Never thinks of the consequences", unless he benefits. Which I assume he must if we are to take that ever mentioned Inaba story into account. Unless of course Lum loses her patience and asks him to marry her, which she's not above doing.

There's another murder I see, one day Ryuunosuke murders her father because of how much of a jerk he is.

She made it to the dolphin episode last night. This morning she goes, "So he yells out loud she's his woman - what happens now?" I just laughed. She was not amused.

Takahashi is horrible with couples, I'm convinced to a degree she might dislike them as only one couple has ever been truly successful. I guess they all are to a degree, but Maison is the only series that cleanly ended.

There are people that have expressed a desire for a continuation or new UY, but it would need Takahashi's blessing to be done. I'm not against it, as long as the people don't do something drastic. If they can keep the spirit of the original somehow and make valid character progress, I'd give it a shot.
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #49 on: August 16, 2017, 02:43:55 AM »
- When you're labeled the village idiot, it's always easy to just blame you for everything. Just another inconsistency. Same with Ataru's durability, Benten's bike speed had to be nerfed to prevent her from rescuing Ataru and Lum (something she'd be able to do in any other story of the series). She was a pretty rebellious youth herself that Lum. She probably does find that side of Ataru attractive to some degree.

- Onsen is just the favorite guinea pig is all. More specifically, I guess Takahashi just found it more appropriate to use Onsen because he was a good butt monkey to the students. Ataru couldn't realistically answer that question for Lum, but he already knows, once she's angry, there's no reasoning with her til she calms down. So, why not make sport of it, and run away from her? He definitely deserved the electrocution she gave him this time, doubled over. I liked how the OVA highlighted a major flaw within Ataru and Lum's communication (or lack thereof) as a couple. Lum despises that Ataru constantly flirts with every woman he sees, and Ataru hates how Lum always electrocutes and how clingy she can be. Valid points they bring up about one another that prevents their relationship from truly progressing I'd say.

- Yeah, it's still on-going. I have to catch up to it personally. I've been occupied with other series like Hajime no Ippo, Black Jack and BnHA.

- Yeah, there was never any point to having Kurama appear again after a certain point. Only You has Kurama in a small but decent role that has her state perfectly why it makes no sense for her to appear anymore. Like I get what they went for with having all those characters reappearing again in the finale, but it just made no sense in the context of her character since she hates both Ataru and Lum and has zero reason to be on earth to watch the events of their lover's quarrel when she wants nothing to do with either of them. Mendou had ample time, and Ataru was even being restrained, yet Mendou still got beaten by Ataru out of scoring a kiss. Pretty pathetic of Mendou tbh.

- Sakura's family is arguably even more strange than Mendou's family. Largely due to the fact that there's more questions for that family than I would have for Mendou's family. Lol, I can see it now: A married Ataru and Lum get into a feud and their children take their feelings about it out on the school, and there's not a damn thing really anyone can do about it.

- No, he obviously wasn't completely serious. The biggest clue to that was the sheer fact that we as the audience realize that he had kept her horns with him (this was before Lum herself knew he had them). He clearly never meant it.

- The manga was usually a bit more mean-spirited and blunt than the anime was most of the time. The anime actually somewhat tones down how some of the cruel acts characters commit in the manga come off. I can't really think of a story that heavily focuses on Ryuunosuke and or Mr. Fujinami and enjoyed her father's presence there.

- The good old Takahashi couples. You can truly grow attached to them, but you get increasingly frustrated with some of the turns in the progression of each couple at times.

- I'd love a fun little sketch or mini comic from Takahashi featuring the UY crew just for fun for a 40th Anniversary.

He's the village idiot and the village curse all rolled into one, until something happens and only he can save Lum (let's face it, everything was either one or the other in danger). Biggest inconsistency - Benten couldn't get there in time in Movie 5, and the bike did warp speed in Movie 6. That was a huh what moment right there. I also find it funny that at least in the english translated manga, Lum says she's a pacifist, she's got the worst temper next to Ran.

There are times I felt bad for Onsen-Mark, the amount of disrespect he got was incredible. He didn't help his case though since he was enthralled with Sakura, something the students recognized early on and actually called him out on. But yeah, their major fault as a couple is they don't communicate, and the fact that Ataru was actually the initiator of that discussion was interesting because no one is more horrible at communicating than he is. Not that he had good examples to follow; his father barely spoke and his mother punctuated things she said with "I never should have had him".

I found a site that streams Rin-ne, so I guess I have something to watch when I have downtime. Hajime no Ippo is another I'm way behind on though.

Kurama has one quality she shares with Lum, bad taste in men (even if Lum is the only one that can get Ataru's good points to come out.) From Ataru to Mendou to Rei with a dash of Ryuunosuke thrown in because everyone thinks she is a boy at one point or another. Another amusing Mendou fail, when Ryoko appeared and Mendou had to admit Ataru is more tenacious than him and then later Mendou's fatehr even admits Ataru is superior to Mendou.

Cherry and his sister are SO short, and then you get Sakura. Never a mention of who her father was, and probably for the better as her mother was basically Cherry with a wig. If classes were called off a lot when it was Ataru causing problems, I could almost see weeks being called off because of their kids as sections of the school are vaporized.

Classic "Never thinks of the consequences", unless he benefits. Which I assume he must if we are to take that ever mentioned Inaba story into account. Unless of course Lum loses her patience and asks him to marry her, which she's not above doing.

There's another murder I see, one day Ryuunosuke murders her father because of how much of a jerk he is.

She made it to the dolphin episode last night. This morning she goes, "So he yells out loud she's his woman - what happens now?" I just laughed. She was not amused.

Takahashi is horrible with couples, I'm convinced to a degree she might dislike them as only one couple has ever been truly successful. I guess they all are to a degree, but Maison is the only series that cleanly ended.

There are people that have expressed a desire for a continuation or new UY, but it would need Takahashi's blessing to be done. I'm not against it, as long as the people don't do something drastic. If they can keep the spirit of the original somehow and make valid character progress, I'd give it a shot.
- Lol, Lum a pacifist. I believe that as much as I believe that Lum will ever stop loving Ataru. Lum's saving grace compared to Ran is she doesn't just get angry abruptly and at the drop of a hat. Lum is usually more composed than Ran is.

- Yeah, he was a character you could really feel bad for. Though as you mentioned, he didn't ever really help his own case. He knew many times he was playing with fire when he tried messing with them or being strict with them. He's been at this too long. I imagine his parents being quite happy with one another and even with Ataru early on in their marriage and within Ataru's first few years.

- Ippo takes forever to get through for a variety of reasons (some fights and plot lines get dragged out or repeated as well as the fact that this series focuses on several different characters which is a huge plus for me). I've been going through the Second Rookie Kings tournament now between Itagaki and Imai. I'm fond of many of the characters though my favorites consist of Ippo, Miyata, Kumi, Mashiba, Volg and Date.

- Lum, Elle, Kurama, and Ran all have terrible taste in men. That's just a fact. As for Mendou, his father always seemed to be neutral with Ataru and even greeted him when Ataru first showed up at the Mendou Estate in Ryoko's debut. Hilarious really. Must be frustrating being told by characters (Cherry and your own father), or even just shown to be inferior to the one guy you hate the most but have no chance of ever coming out on top of him. Mendou "has it all" except Lum, but that's the "only thing" Ataru has over him (as far as the characters in the series want to believe), but that's all he really needs to be over Mendou. His enemy managed to attract the girl he wants but can't ever get. Really must eat him up inside to have to deal with it lol. Can't say I feel sorry lol, he was never an ideal choice for Lum, nor has she ever expressed interest in him romantically either.

- The students probably at certain times make it a point to have the classroom trashed enough so that they wouldn't have to come to school the following few days. I'd imagine that while Onsen wanted them to be at school and wanted to teach even when the school was in ruins, a small part of him probably cherished the fact that he would have time away from them.

- I could see Lum herself pressuring him into it at some point about asking for him to propose to her. Of course, if Ataru was to either propose or accept, that would be him essentially declaring his love for her, which is something he said he'd do pretty much when he felt ready. Meaning, marrying Lum would already mean he loves her, but he'd pretty much would have to confess that he does openly by that point.

- He's got that annoying father toonforce going for him. He'll likely outlive most characters on that fact alone, because he's such a vile person.

- Lol, to answer your GF's question, simply put what happens next is: The series goes on the same it's always been. She's at that point where their relationship is at the level where the love is mutual between the two, Ataru rarely shows it, but definitely makes it a point to show he cares when he has to. The relationship doesn't really make a big leap in progress again for some time.

-  I guess part of it might be because Takahashi clearly wrote Maison Ikkoku as more romance focused than her other series. UY is arguably the least focused on romance thinking about it. To many, it feels like Takahashi trolls the couples. The worst part is, since Maison is really the exception and not the standard, you don't even get surprised when somebody tells you about their irritation or frustration or issues with how each relationships resolution is handled in her works.

- Personally, I don't even think the series really needs to continue with another series. I think maybe a few new stories or like an original special or OVA could potentially be a great thing for UY. To really send it off with an even bigger bang.

Offline Oldfan

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #50 on: August 18, 2017, 04:03:10 AM »
He's the village idiot and the village curse all rolled into one, until something happens and only he can save Lum (let's face it, everything was either one or the other in danger). Biggest inconsistency - Benten couldn't get there in time in Movie 5, and the bike did warp speed in Movie 6. That was a huh what moment right there. I also find it funny that at least in the english translated manga, Lum says she's a pacifist, she's got the worst temper next to Ran.

There are times I felt bad for Onsen-Mark, the amount of disrespect he got was incredible. He didn't help his case though since he was enthralled with Sakura, something the students recognized early on and actually called him out on. But yeah, their major fault as a couple is they don't communicate, and the fact that Ataru was actually the initiator of that discussion was interesting because no one is more horrible at communicating than he is. Not that he had good examples to follow; his father barely spoke and his mother punctuated things she said with "I never should have had him".

I found a site that streams Rin-ne, so I guess I have something to watch when I have downtime. Hajime no Ippo is another I'm way behind on though.

Kurama has one quality she shares with Lum, bad taste in men (even if Lum is the only one that can get Ataru's good points to come out.) From Ataru to Mendou to Rei with a dash of Ryuunosuke thrown in because everyone thinks she is a boy at one point or another. Another amusing Mendou fail, when Ryoko appeared and Mendou had to admit Ataru is more tenacious than him and then later Mendou's fatehr even admits Ataru is superior to Mendou.

Cherry and his sister are SO short, and then you get Sakura. Never a mention of who her father was, and probably for the better as her mother was basically Cherry with a wig. If classes were called off a lot when it was Ataru causing problems, I could almost see weeks being called off because of their kids as sections of the school are vaporized.

Classic "Never thinks of the consequences", unless he benefits. Which I assume he must if we are to take that ever mentioned Inaba story into account. Unless of course Lum loses her patience and asks him to marry her, which she's not above doing.

There's another murder I see, one day Ryuunosuke murders her father because of how much of a jerk he is.

She made it to the dolphin episode last night. This morning she goes, "So he yells out loud she's his woman - what happens now?" I just laughed. She was not amused.

Takahashi is horrible with couples, I'm convinced to a degree she might dislike them as only one couple has ever been truly successful. I guess they all are to a degree, but Maison is the only series that cleanly ended.

There are people that have expressed a desire for a continuation or new UY, but it would need Takahashi's blessing to be done. I'm not against it, as long as the people don't do something drastic. If they can keep the spirit of the original somehow and make valid character progress, I'd give it a shot.
- Lol, Lum a pacifist. I believe that as much as I believe that Lum will ever stop loving Ataru. Lum's saving grace compared to Ran is she doesn't just get angry abruptly and at the drop of a hat. Lum is usually more composed than Ran is.

- Yeah, he was a character you could really feel bad for. Though as you mentioned, he didn't ever really help his own case. He knew many times he was playing with fire when he tried messing with them or being strict with them. He's been at this too long. I imagine his parents being quite happy with one another and even with Ataru early on in their marriage and within Ataru's first few years.

- Ippo takes forever to get through for a variety of reasons (some fights and plot lines get dragged out or repeated as well as the fact that this series focuses on several different characters which is a huge plus for me). I've been going through the Second Rookie Kings tournament now between Itagaki and Imai. I'm fond of many of the characters though my favorites consist of Ippo, Miyata, Kumi, Mashiba, Volg and Date.

- Lum, Elle, Kurama, and Ran all have terrible taste in men. That's just a fact. As for Mendou, his father always seemed to be neutral with Ataru and even greeted him when Ataru first showed up at the Mendou Estate in Ryoko's debut. Hilarious really. Must be frustrating being told by characters (Cherry and your own father), or even just shown to be inferior to the one guy you hate the most but have no chance of ever coming out on top of him. Mendou "has it all" except Lum, but that's the "only thing" Ataru has over him (as far as the characters in the series want to believe), but that's all he really needs to be over Mendou. His enemy managed to attract the girl he wants but can't ever get. Really must eat him up inside to have to deal with it lol. Can't say I feel sorry lol, he was never an ideal choice for Lum, nor has she ever expressed interest in him romantically either.

- The students probably at certain times make it a point to have the classroom trashed enough so that they wouldn't have to come to school the following few days. I'd imagine that while Onsen wanted them to be at school and wanted to teach even when the school was in ruins, a small part of him probably cherished the fact that he would have time away from them.

- I could see Lum herself pressuring him into it at some point about asking for him to propose to her. Of course, if Ataru was to either propose or accept, that would be him essentially declaring his love for her, which is something he said he'd do pretty much when he felt ready. Meaning, marrying Lum would already mean he loves her, but he'd pretty much would have to confess that he does openly by that point.

- He's got that annoying father toonforce going for him. He'll likely outlive most characters on that fact alone, because he's such a vile person.

- Lol, to answer your GF's question, simply put what happens next is: The series goes on the same it's always been. She's at that point where their relationship is at the level where the love is mutual between the two, Ataru rarely shows it, but definitely makes it a point to show he cares when he has to. The relationship doesn't really make a big leap in progress again for some time.

-  I guess part of it might be because Takahashi clearly wrote Maison Ikkoku as more romance focused than her other series. UY is arguably the least focused on romance thinking about it. To many, it feels like Takahashi trolls the couples. The worst part is, since Maison is really the exception and not the standard, you don't even get surprised when somebody tells you about their irritation or frustration or issues with how each relationships resolution is handled in her works.

- Personally, I don't even think the series really needs to continue with another series. I think maybe a few new stories or like an original special or OVA could potentially be a great thing for UY. To really send it off with an even bigger bang.
[/quote]

Ran is about the prime example of bi-polar in UY, but when Lum does lose it, forget it. Of course, she never blew up the house, Ten did though, when he first appeared and Ataru swatted the propane delivery guy with the frying pan. Ten torched Ataru and the tanks, that house was annihilated lol.

Onsen-Mark was the example of the devoted teacher, who believed in what he was doing. He just got stuck with that class, and despite all the claims it was Ataru's fault that things were disrupted, others had a hand in it too. The one thing I always felt was odd with Ataru's parents was their distinctly different personalities. His mother was definitely an opportunist, while his father was definitely a quiet, reserved type. I can only imagine that Ataru changed them into that, but I can also clearly see their influences o in Ataru. He's definitely an opportunist, and his personality is shy and reserved.

I'm probably not nearly as far into Ippo as you are, the last I saw was that Ippo had to stop fighting, I could be industrious and look it up but is that still the case?

It's too bad Elle was a one shot for the first movie, she could have been a good returning character to use for some kind of revenge. After all, Ataru and company basically destroyed the bubble she called her life. Mendou's father I found entertaining, his time in Goat and the Cheese OVA was fun, unfortunately that's a prime example of letting a good character go to waste while the amount of kitsune episodes was silly. But it was good to see how fast Lum shot down Mendou, even if he never accepted it. The scales episode when she compared them and basically they were equal. "It means you're just as much an idiot!" But then Lum says it's up to her decide, and without even hesitating, she went right to Ataru. In Ep 106, it would have been more satisfying to see her completely zap Mendou once she had her memory back. But still, must have been a nice dig, she was drawn to Ataru even when she forgot who he was.

I'd say he looked forward to summer vacation more than the kids did. Funny how his opposite was Hanawa, "Embrace the spirit of learning", and the fact that he couldn't accept in any fashion that Lum was an alien.

I'd have to say that it'd happen by their mid-20's at the latest. The Oni seem to be all about families and such, and Lum is about the most eager to settle down of everyone in that show, and I'd even say to combine the others and she still has them beat. I also think that because slowly but surely Lum knows what buttons to push, by that time he'd pretty much be cornered.

Sad but true, and I really have no words to express how much I hate his presence in the manga. He's actually more of a complete dirtbag in that than the anime.

In the past couple of days she's binged all the way to Ep 93. She was wondering why they did a highlights episode, I told her this was around the time Beautiful Dreamer was about to hit, and this is a prelude in a way to Ep 105/106. Then she asked if the little creepy monk knows he loves her, do the others? I said, they do, they just don't talk of it.

While I liked Maison, I will admit to it being one of the more painful romance stories in anime that comes to mind. Which makes me think you're right in that Takahashi does troll her couples. I actually follow some Japanese people on twitter, mostly because they all seem to be artists who do amazing work, but it's their private passion and not their profession. The sheer amount of UY fans there still is staggering, and they HATE the way Takahashi does relationships in her work.

If it was to be a series, it could be done in 12 episode countdown to a full and complete end. This way they don't rush a lot into one slot, and can maybe even take care of more than one character.
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #51 on: August 18, 2017, 06:26:54 AM »
He's the village idiot and the village curse all rolled into one, until something happens and only he can save Lum (let's face it, everything was either one or the other in danger). Biggest inconsistency - Benten couldn't get there in time in Movie 5, and the bike did warp speed in Movie 6. That was a huh what moment right there. I also find it funny that at least in the english translated manga, Lum says she's a pacifist, she's got the worst temper next to Ran.

There are times I felt bad for Onsen-Mark, the amount of disrespect he got was incredible. He didn't help his case though since he was enthralled with Sakura, something the students recognized early on and actually called him out on. But yeah, their major fault as a couple is they don't communicate, and the fact that Ataru was actually the initiator of that discussion was interesting because no one is more horrible at communicating than he is. Not that he had good examples to follow; his father barely spoke and his mother punctuated things she said with "I never should have had him".

I found a site that streams Rin-ne, so I guess I have something to watch when I have downtime. Hajime no Ippo is another I'm way behind on though.

Kurama has one quality she shares with Lum, bad taste in men (even if Lum is the only one that can get Ataru's good points to come out.) From Ataru to Mendou to Rei with a dash of Ryuunosuke thrown in because everyone thinks she is a boy at one point or another. Another amusing Mendou fail, when Ryoko appeared and Mendou had to admit Ataru is more tenacious than him and then later Mendou's fatehr even admits Ataru is superior to Mendou.

Cherry and his sister are SO short, and then you get Sakura. Never a mention of who her father was, and probably for the better as her mother was basically Cherry with a wig. If classes were called off a lot when it was Ataru causing problems, I could almost see weeks being called off because of their kids as sections of the school are vaporized.

Classic "Never thinks of the consequences", unless he benefits. Which I assume he must if we are to take that ever mentioned Inaba story into account. Unless of course Lum loses her patience and asks him to marry her, which she's not above doing.

There's another murder I see, one day Ryuunosuke murders her father because of how much of a jerk he is.

She made it to the dolphin episode last night. This morning she goes, "So he yells out loud she's his woman - what happens now?" I just laughed. She was not amused.

Takahashi is horrible with couples, I'm convinced to a degree she might dislike them as only one couple has ever been truly successful. I guess they all are to a degree, but Maison is the only series that cleanly ended.

There are people that have expressed a desire for a continuation or new UY, but it would need Takahashi's blessing to be done. I'm not against it, as long as the people don't do something drastic. If they can keep the spirit of the original somehow and make valid character progress, I'd give it a shot.
- Lol, Lum a pacifist. I believe that as much as I believe that Lum will ever stop loving Ataru. Lum's saving grace compared to Ran is she doesn't just get angry abruptly and at the drop of a hat. Lum is usually more composed than Ran is.

- Yeah, he was a character you could really feel bad for. Though as you mentioned, he didn't ever really help his own case. He knew many times he was playing with fire when he tried messing with them or being strict with them. He's been at this too long. I imagine his parents being quite happy with one another and even with Ataru early on in their marriage and within Ataru's first few years.

- Ippo takes forever to get through for a variety of reasons (some fights and plot lines get dragged out or repeated as well as the fact that this series focuses on several different characters which is a huge plus for me). I've been going through the Second Rookie Kings tournament now between Itagaki and Imai. I'm fond of many of the characters though my favorites consist of Ippo, Miyata, Kumi, Mashiba, Volg and Date.

- Lum, Elle, Kurama, and Ran all have terrible taste in men. That's just a fact. As for Mendou, his father always seemed to be neutral with Ataru and even greeted him when Ataru first showed up at the Mendou Estate in Ryoko's debut. Hilarious really. Must be frustrating being told by characters (Cherry and your own father), or even just shown to be inferior to the one guy you hate the most but have no chance of ever coming out on top of him. Mendou "has it all" except Lum, but that's the "only thing" Ataru has over him (as far as the characters in the series want to believe), but that's all he really needs to be over Mendou. His enemy managed to attract the girl he wants but can't ever get. Really must eat him up inside to have to deal with it lol. Can't say I feel sorry lol, he was never an ideal choice for Lum, nor has she ever expressed interest in him romantically either.

- The students probably at certain times make it a point to have the classroom trashed enough so that they wouldn't have to come to school the following few days. I'd imagine that while Onsen wanted them to be at school and wanted to teach even when the school was in ruins, a small part of him probably cherished the fact that he would have time away from them.

- I could see Lum herself pressuring him into it at some point about asking for him to propose to her. Of course, if Ataru was to either propose or accept, that would be him essentially declaring his love for her, which is something he said he'd do pretty much when he felt ready. Meaning, marrying Lum would already mean he loves her, but he'd pretty much would have to confess that he does openly by that point.

- He's got that annoying father toonforce going for him. He'll likely outlive most characters on that fact alone, because he's such a vile person.

- Lol, to answer your GF's question, simply put what happens next is: The series goes on the same it's always been. She's at that point where their relationship is at the level where the love is mutual between the two, Ataru rarely shows it, but definitely makes it a point to show he cares when he has to. The relationship doesn't really make a big leap in progress again for some time.

-  I guess part of it might be because Takahashi clearly wrote Maison Ikkoku as more romance focused than her other series. UY is arguably the least focused on romance thinking about it. To many, it feels like Takahashi trolls the couples. The worst part is, since Maison is really the exception and not the standard, you don't even get surprised when somebody tells you about their irritation or frustration or issues with how each relationships resolution is handled in her works.

- Personally, I don't even think the series really needs to continue with another series. I think maybe a few new stories or like an original special or OVA could potentially be a great thing for UY. To really send it off with an even bigger bang.

Ran is about the prime example of bi-polar in UY, but when Lum does lose it, forget it. Of course, she never blew up the house, Ten did though, when he first appeared and Ataru swatted the propane delivery guy with the frying pan. Ten torched Ataru and the tanks, that house was annihilated lol.

Onsen-Mark was the example of the devoted teacher, who believed in what he was doing. He just got stuck with that class, and despite all the claims it was Ataru's fault that things were disrupted, others had a hand in it too. The one thing I always felt was odd with Ataru's parents was their distinctly different personalities. His mother was definitely an opportunist, while his father was definitely a quiet, reserved type. I can only imagine that Ataru changed them into that, but I can also clearly see their influences o in Ataru. He's definitely an opportunist, and his personality is shy and reserved.

I'm probably not nearly as far into Ippo as you are, the last I saw was that Ippo had to stop fighting, I could be industrious and look it up but is that still the case?

It's too bad Elle was a one shot for the first movie, she could have been a good returning character to use for some kind of revenge. After all, Ataru and company basically destroyed the bubble she called her life. Mendou's father I found entertaining, his time in Goat and the Cheese OVA was fun, unfortunately that's a prime example of letting a good character go to waste while the amount of kitsune episodes was silly. But it was good to see how fast Lum shot down Mendou, even if he never accepted it. The scales episode when she compared them and basically they were equal. "It means you're just as much an idiot!" But then Lum says it's up to her decide, and without even hesitating, she went right to Ataru. In Ep 106, it would have been more satisfying to see her completely zap Mendou once she had her memory back. But still, must have been a nice dig, she was drawn to Ataru even when she forgot who he was.

I'd say he looked forward to summer vacation more than the kids did. Funny how his opposite was Hanawa, "Embrace the spirit of learning", and the fact that he couldn't accept in any fashion that Lum was an alien.

I'd have to say that it'd happen by their mid-20's at the latest. The Oni seem to be all about families and such, and Lum is about the most eager to settle down of everyone in that show, and I'd even say to combine the others and she still has them beat. I also think that because slowly but surely Lum knows what buttons to push, by that time he'd pretty much be cornered.

Sad but true, and I really have no words to express how much I hate his presence in the manga. He's actually more of a complete dirtbag in that than the anime.

In the past couple of days she's binged all the way to Ep 93. She was wondering why they did a highlights episode, I told her this was around the time Beautiful Dreamer was about to hit, and this is a prelude in a way to Ep 105/106. Then she asked if the little creepy monk knows he loves her, do the others? I said, they do, they just don't talk of it.

While I liked Maison, I will admit to it being one of the more painful romance stories in anime that comes to mind. Which makes me think you're right in that Takahashi does troll her couples. I actually follow some Japanese people on twitter, mostly because they all seem to be artists who do amazing work, but it's their private passion and not their profession. The sheer amount of UY fans there still is staggering, and they HATE the way Takahashi does relationships in her work.

If it was to be a series, it could be done in 12 episode countdown to a full and complete end. This way they don't rush a lot into one slot, and can maybe even take care of more than one character.
[/quote]
- There are certainly a lot of violent acts the characters commit in the series, despite some of them presenting themselves as not being so violent in nature.

- Well, Onsen could have transferred to teaching a different class or something, but even he seems to take pleasure in torturing the students whenever he gets the chance to do so. Makes you wonder how they ever got together Ataru's parents. He definitely takes qualities from both, but it's pretty clear his traits from his mother are more dominant and prominent.

- Depends when. He's had to stop fighting for a bit on few rare occasions. Did you get pass the Sawamura fight? If so, then I probably know what instance you're talking about.d

- Elle's one appearance sure didn't stop her from having cameos in the anime and even getting a few drawings from Takahashi. She feels sort of like a tragic villain, but she was sort of a nutcase what with the whole freezing her "beloveds". Yeah, I definitely wasn't ever feeling the Kitsune stories. They were pretty boring to me. It was a done deal for Lum's memory loss from the moment she saw him flying the helicopter. It only was over for Mendou even quicker when she heard that his name was Ataru. Mendou really trying to kill Ataru is just lol. Amazing how Ataru can ride a motorcycle and fly a copter.

- Lol. Hanawa was a funny one. Shame he pretty much became utterly irrelevant. Would have liked to see him appear in a few more stories. He didn't want to believe Lum was an alien, but he definitely wasn't a bad dude at heart.

- He'd be back against a wall for sure. Sure now Ataru has the excuse of being in high school, but after college? All bets are off, the longer he holds it off, the worse it'd get for him. She probably wouldn't mind waiting initially longer after they just get out of college, but it just become a game of time since he's either going to propose himself, or she going to give him a "push" to motivate him to propose sooner or later.

- So you're GF saw the episode Cherry pretty much told Mendou how inferior he is to Ataru. It's common knowledge by that point in the series that everyone knows Ataru loves Lum (hell, Ataru on some level is aware of it himself too) but as you said, it's really one of those things they don't really discuss openly.

- I can't blame them. While I'm fairly at peace with the ending, it's pretty understandable that you'd want a more concrete resolution to a couple you put a lot of investment into and grew to care about.

- Knowing it's a Takahashi story though, chances of most characters getting their plots resolved is slim, especially when there's a case that can be made that her own main couples haven't had proper endings.

Offline Oldfan

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #52 on: August 18, 2017, 06:33:30 PM »
- There are certainly a lot of violent acts the characters commit in the series, despite some of them presenting themselves as not being so violent in nature.

- Well, Onsen could have transferred to teaching a different class or something, but even he seems to take pleasure in torturing the students whenever he gets the chance to do so. Makes you wonder how they ever got together Ataru's parents. He definitely takes qualities from both, but it's pretty clear his traits from his mother are more dominant and prominent.

- Depends when. He's had to stop fighting for a bit on few rare occasions. Did you get pass the Sawamura fight? If so, then I probably know what instance you're talking about.d

- Elle's one appearance sure didn't stop her from having cameos in the anime and even getting a few drawings from Takahashi. She feels sort of like a tragic villain, but she was sort of a nutcase what with the whole freezing her "beloveds". Yeah, I definitely wasn't ever feeling the Kitsune stories. They were pretty boring to me. It was a done deal for Lum's memory loss from the moment she saw him flying the helicopter. It only was over for Mendou even quicker when she heard that his name was Ataru. Mendou really trying to kill Ataru is just lol. Amazing how Ataru can ride a motorcycle and fly a copter.

- Lol. Hanawa was a funny one. Shame he pretty much became utterly irrelevant. Would have liked to see him appear in a few more stories. He didn't want to believe Lum was an alien, but he definitely wasn't a bad dude at heart.

- He'd be back against a wall for sure. Sure now Ataru has the excuse of being in high school, but after college? All bets are off, the longer he holds it off, the worse it'd get for him. She probably wouldn't mind waiting initially longer after they just get out of college, but it just become a game of time since he's either going to propose himself, or she going to give him a "push" to motivate him to propose sooner or later.

- So you're GF saw the episode Cherry pretty much told Mendou how inferior he is to Ataru. It's common knowledge by that point in the series that everyone knows Ataru loves Lum (hell, Ataru on some level is aware of it himself too) but as you said, it's really one of those things they don't really discuss openly.

- I can't blame them. While I'm fairly at peace with the ending, it's pretty understandable that you'd want a more concrete resolution to a couple you put a lot of investment into and grew to care about.

- Knowing it's a Takahashi story though, chances of most characters getting their plots resolved is slim, especially when there's a case that can be made that her own main couples haven't had proper endings.

I'd have to say the only truly non-violent person in the entire show might be Oyuki. Ataru lost a bit of credibility with the boxing glove episode, even if punching Mendou and Megane was for a good cause.

I think the one time he was going to leave, the transfer was declined by the other school - reputation must have preceded him. With Ataru's parents, I found it funny we only saw something of them in the past when Lum traveled back to try and 'correct' Ataru's fickleness. We got more of Lum's parents in the episode where her mother kicked him out than we ever did of his parents, odd but telling that maybe his parents weren't deemed important. Considering their respective traits, other than his father being the employed bread winner so to speak, his mother fell outside the norms of society with her more assertive nature.

I left off right after Sawamura actually. Thanks to YouTube I've seen Takamura's most notable fights, but not the series as a whole.

Everyone pretty much gets a cameo when it's a UY film or OVA. Ruu and Lahla were seen as passersby on the street in an episode when Lum was out on her own around the time the third movie was coming out. Heck, the witch that crafted the curse for that movie was also in the cameo crowd of guests in the Inaba OVA. I just still think the overall reaction to Elle from Ataru was amusing. Yes he was just taken and saw Lum almost die, but he shifted pretty well to discussing a harem, and then he saw Elle. His reaction of all the males was perhaps the most tame along with Mendou's. But as far as crazy is concerned, freezing 99,999 men is pretty much right up there as the craziest woman in all of the UY-verse. As for Kitsune, one appearance was enough. If it weren't for the fact that in those episodes there's some decent interactions with others, I'd probably just hit skip on the player and move on. Ataru just pulls skills out of nowhere, but when she saw him, her eyes brightened up and Mendou sure scrambled fast. Then later she realizes he's the person she can't remember but knows he's important enough that she needs to remember him.

I liked Hanawa, his inabilty to accept that Lum was an alien was funny. You know, horns are the mark of a strange disease, her flight doesn't mean anything because she didn't have shorts on under the school uniform skirt. Nevermind the fact her father is a giant in comparison to humans, and she cheerfully eletrocuted Ataru in class, or that her UFO was brought outside the school. His temper though was the complete opposite of Onsen-Mark's and I had to laugh when he decided it was up to Ataru to be Lum's constant helper in school. Poor Ataru, that worked out just how Lum wanted it to.

She laughed at the episode, and she also likes Ryoko because of the fact she takes it on herself to blow up Mendou. The only thing she says is really creepy about her is that near incestual attachment she has to him. I told her wait until Asuka appears. But tonight she plans on watching 94-104. She was going to stop at 105 and I told her no, if you do that you'll want to watch 106 because it's a two parter and it's important to see them both consecutively. She also wanted to know if I had anything else by Takahashi, I said I have all of Maison on my drive (well, the TV series - I don't have the OVAs). I told her to wait a month before watching that, it's all about the relationship, but it's all about lousy communication in the process.

For me acceptance and peace are different things, I accept the ending, but not peacefully - hence the long discussion we've had lol.

Well, in looking at UY the only plotlines that likely might matter is showing Shinobu's resolution with Inaba, which should get an OVA of it's own and MAYBE poor Ryuunosuke getting some vindication for her torture. Ran and Rei is easy, they go off someplace and kiss, that's all Ran wants. Sakura and Tsubame (who?) is easy, they set a date and leave it at that, no one really cares with Mendou or the Stromtroopers so that leaves Ataru and Lum. They'd have to torture them a little, it's the nature of the beast to do that to them, but it's possible. At least I can think it is lol.
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #53 on: August 22, 2017, 06:12:14 AM »
- There are certainly a lot of violent acts the characters commit in the series, despite some of them presenting themselves as not being so violent in nature.

- Well, Onsen could have transferred to teaching a different class or something, but even he seems to take pleasure in torturing the students whenever he gets the chance to do so. Makes you wonder how they ever got together Ataru's parents. He definitely takes qualities from both, but it's pretty clear his traits from his mother are more dominant and prominent.

- Depends when. He's had to stop fighting for a bit on few rare occasions. Did you get pass the Sawamura fight? If so, then I probably know what instance you're talking about.d

- Elle's one appearance sure didn't stop her from having cameos in the anime and even getting a few drawings from Takahashi. She feels sort of like a tragic villain, but she was sort of a nutcase what with the whole freezing her "beloveds". Yeah, I definitely wasn't ever feeling the Kitsune stories. They were pretty boring to me. It was a done deal for Lum's memory loss from the moment she saw him flying the helicopter. It only was over for Mendou even quicker when she heard that his name was Ataru. Mendou really trying to kill Ataru is just lol. Amazing how Ataru can ride a motorcycle and fly a copter.

- Lol. Hanawa was a funny one. Shame he pretty much became utterly irrelevant. Would have liked to see him appear in a few more stories. He didn't want to believe Lum was an alien, but he definitely wasn't a bad dude at heart.

- He'd be back against a wall for sure. Sure now Ataru has the excuse of being in high school, but after college? All bets are off, the longer he holds it off, the worse it'd get for him. She probably wouldn't mind waiting initially longer after they just get out of college, but it just become a game of time since he's either going to propose himself, or she going to give him a "push" to motivate him to propose sooner or later.

- So you're GF saw the episode Cherry pretty much told Mendou how inferior he is to Ataru. It's common knowledge by that point in the series that everyone knows Ataru loves Lum (hell, Ataru on some level is aware of it himself too) but as you said, it's really one of those things they don't really discuss openly.

- I can't blame them. While I'm fairly at peace with the ending, it's pretty understandable that you'd want a more concrete resolution to a couple you put a lot of investment into and grew to care about.

- Knowing it's a Takahashi story though, chances of most characters getting their plots resolved is slim, especially when there's a case that can be made that her own main couples haven't had proper endings.

I'd have to say the only truly non-violent person in the entire show might be Oyuki. Ataru lost a bit of credibility with the boxing glove episode, even if punching Mendou and Megane was for a good cause.

I think the one time he was going to leave, the transfer was declined by the other school - reputation must have preceded him. With Ataru's parents, I found it funny we only saw something of them in the past when Lum traveled back to try and 'correct' Ataru's fickleness. We got more of Lum's parents in the episode where her mother kicked him out than we ever did of his parents, odd but telling that maybe his parents weren't deemed important. Considering their respective traits, other than his father being the employed bread winner so to speak, his mother fell outside the norms of society with her more assertive nature.

I left off right after Sawamura actually. Thanks to YouTube I've seen Takamura's most notable fights, but not the series as a whole.

Everyone pretty much gets a cameo when it's a UY film or OVA. Ruu and Lahla were seen as passersby on the street in an episode when Lum was out on her own around the time the third movie was coming out. Heck, the witch that crafted the curse for that movie was also in the cameo crowd of guests in the Inaba OVA. I just still think the overall reaction to Elle from Ataru was amusing. Yes he was just taken and saw Lum almost die, but he shifted pretty well to discussing a harem, and then he saw Elle. His reaction of all the males was perhaps the most tame along with Mendou's. But as far as crazy is concerned, freezing 99,999 men is pretty much right up there as the craziest woman in all of the UY-verse. As for Kitsune, one appearance was enough. If it weren't for the fact that in those episodes there's some decent interactions with others, I'd probably just hit skip on the player and move on. Ataru just pulls skills out of nowhere, but when she saw him, her eyes brightened up and Mendou sure scrambled fast. Then later she realizes he's the person she can't remember but knows he's important enough that she needs to remember him.

I liked Hanawa, his inabilty to accept that Lum was an alien was funny. You know, horns are the mark of a strange disease, her flight doesn't mean anything because she didn't have shorts on under the school uniform skirt. Nevermind the fact her father is a giant in comparison to humans, and she cheerfully eletrocuted Ataru in class, or that her UFO was brought outside the school. His temper though was the complete opposite of Onsen-Mark's and I had to laugh when he decided it was up to Ataru to be Lum's constant helper in school. Poor Ataru, that worked out just how Lum wanted it to.

She laughed at the episode, and she also likes Ryoko because of the fact she takes it on herself to blow up Mendou. The only thing she says is really creepy about her is that near incestual attachment she has to him. I told her wait until Asuka appears. But tonight she plans on watching 94-104. She was going to stop at 105 and I told her no, if you do that you'll want to watch 106 because it's a two parter and it's important to see them both consecutively. She also wanted to know if I had anything else by Takahashi, I said I have all of Maison on my drive (well, the TV series - I don't have the OVAs). I told her to wait a month before watching that, it's all about the relationship, but it's all about lousy communication in the process.

For me acceptance and peace are different things, I accept the ending, but not peacefully - hence the long discussion we've had lol.

Well, in looking at UY the only plotlines that likely might matter is showing Shinobu's resolution with Inaba, which should get an OVA of it's own and MAYBE poor Ryuunosuke getting some vindication for her torture. Ran and Rei is easy, they go off someplace and kiss, that's all Ran wants. Sakura and Tsubame (who?) is easy, they set a date and leave it at that, no one really cares with Mendou or the Stromtroopers so that leaves Ataru and Lum. They'd have to torture them a little, it's the nature of the beast to do that to them, but it's possible. At least I can think it is lol.
- I'd argue Oyuki can be violent when provoked. Inaba seems the least likely to resort to violence really ever.

- Onsen just seems like he just sort of gave up after a certain point. I can't blame him, but since he loves to teach, he put it on himself to be responsible of that class.

- Which Sawamura fight though? Both of Sawamura's fights were great against Makunouchi and Mashiba. Takamura vs Bryan Hawk was always a great fight.

- Kitsune was just fairly boring to me in general because while his stories were always one-dimensional like Kurama's, Kitsune didn't have the benefit of having his stories being interesting like Kurama. Ataru when he first met Mendou in the manga he pulled some ninja trick on him. He pulls skills out of his hat whenever the situation arises.

- Shame really that he never really appeared anymore and went the same way the Stormtroopers did in the manga.

- Lol. Ryoko may have tendencies that feel like incest, but she just acts like that towards Mendou, Ataru, and especially Tobimaro. Asuka is definitely the one who really has this weird love for her brother.

- Fair enough on the ending. It is a pretty controversial topic.

- Takahashi always seemed to like Shinobu, so I can understand her giving Shinobu a happy ending for herself.

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #54 on: August 23, 2017, 07:41:25 AM »
- I'd argue Oyuki can be violent when provoked. Inaba seems the least likely to resort to violence really ever.

- Onsen just seems like he just sort of gave up after a certain point. I can't blame him, but since he loves to teach, he put it on himself to be responsible of that class.

- Which Sawamura fight though? Both of Sawamura's fights were great against Makunouchi and Mashiba. Takamura vs Bryan Hawk was always a great fight.

- Kitsune was just fairly boring to me in general because while his stories were always one-dimensional like Kurama's, Kitsune didn't have the benefit of having his stories being interesting like Kurama. Ataru when he first met Mendou in the manga he pulled some ninja trick on him. He pulls skills out of his hat whenever the situation arises.

- Shame really that he never really appeared anymore and went the same way the Stormtroopers did in the manga.

- Lol. Ryoko may have tendencies that feel like incest, but she just acts like that towards Mendou, Ataru, and especially Tobimaro. Asuka is definitely the one who really has this weird love for her brother.

- Fair enough on the ending. It is a pretty controversial topic.

- Takahashi always seemed to like Shinobu, so I can understand her giving Shinobu a happy ending for herself.

Violent in a 'someone gets impaled by a number of ice spears' kind of way, or crushed by a huge ice boulder. I don't ever see Inaba resorting to violence unless he has to like in his second manga appearance. Even then, he wasn't very good at it.

I still like the story with his revenge, and how he and Ataru both dug huge holes right next to each other and never noticed each other despite they were right next to each other practically.

Makunouchi vs. Sawamura, and on a good note I found a site that has a number of anime movies and series open for streaming has Hajime No Ippo so I'll play some catch up this coming weekend.

Kitsune felt like a character created to occupy a space and basically take up some time. Movie 4 was somewhere in that timeframe, but using him even afterwards just felt odd. With Kurama, I wondered why she didn't fire her little Karastengu after they kept finding her bad choices.

Another example of a character introduced and then nothing comes of it.

Ryoko also seemed to be another one, at least in the manga it seemed, to have extra detail placed on her artwork. Sakura's artwork was always highly detailed, Ryoko's seemed to be and then Lum initially had a lot of detail if she dressed up until we settled on her final art design.

The GF finished 105 and 106, I heard her distinctly say "Ha! Screw you Mendou!" when she was done. She had a lot of questions about that two parter as now she wants to read he English translation of the manga when she's done with the series. Thankfully I can make a PDF of all the images and put it on her Kindle.

Also, thanks again for the heads up about Pixiv, I found the artpage of one of the people I follow on Twitter and was able to see their artwork more easily. You might appreciate this fanart that I found on Deviant Art. https://www.deviantart.com/art/Lum-696097005

As for the ending, like I said, 5 more minutes of animation / a couple artwork panels with a private moment between them is all that would have been needed and myself and a number of others would likely be happy.

Considering that, and how much Shinobu suffered, I'd hate to see what she would do to a character she really didn't like at all.

Oh, an additional aside, since it's Wednesday at 1:40am est when I'm posting this, 'yesterday' evening (Tuesday) I went out to my local bookstore and I had my IPod playing the soundtrack for The Final Chapter in the car. A Japanese couple that were in the lot apparently heard the music and approached me saying it'd been a long time since they heard music from Urusei Yatsura and that it was nice to see people still liked it.
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #55 on: August 25, 2017, 03:55:46 AM »
- I'd argue Oyuki can be violent when provoked. Inaba seems the least likely to resort to violence really ever.

- Onsen just seems like he just sort of gave up after a certain point. I can't blame him, but since he loves to teach, he put it on himself to be responsible of that class.

- Which Sawamura fight though? Both of Sawamura's fights were great against Makunouchi and Mashiba. Takamura vs Bryan Hawk was always a great fight.

- Kitsune was just fairly boring to me in general because while his stories were always one-dimensional like Kurama's, Kitsune didn't have the benefit of having his stories being interesting like Kurama. Ataru when he first met Mendou in the manga he pulled some ninja trick on him. He pulls skills out of his hat whenever the situation arises.

- Shame really that he never really appeared anymore and went the same way the Stormtroopers did in the manga.

- Lol. Ryoko may have tendencies that feel like incest, but she just acts like that towards Mendou, Ataru, and especially Tobimaro. Asuka is definitely the one who really has this weird love for her brother.

- Fair enough on the ending. It is a pretty controversial topic.

- Takahashi always seemed to like Shinobu, so I can understand her giving Shinobu a happy ending for herself.

Violent in a 'someone gets impaled by a number of ice spears' kind of way, or crushed by a huge ice boulder. I don't ever see Inaba resorting to violence unless he has to like in his second manga appearance. Even then, he wasn't very good at it.

I still like the story with his revenge, and how he and Ataru both dug huge holes right next to each other and never noticed each other despite they were right next to each other practically.

Makunouchi vs. Sawamura, and on a good note I found a site that has a number of anime movies and series open for streaming has Hajime No Ippo so I'll play some catch up this coming weekend.

Kitsune felt like a character created to occupy a space and basically take up some time. Movie 4 was somewhere in that timeframe, but using him even afterwards just felt odd. With Kurama, I wondered why she didn't fire her little Karastengu after they kept finding her bad choices.

Another example of a character introduced and then nothing comes of it.

Ryoko also seemed to be another one, at least in the manga it seemed, to have extra detail placed on her artwork. Sakura's artwork was always highly detailed, Ryoko's seemed to be and then Lum initially had a lot of detail if she dressed up until we settled on her final art design.

The GF finished 105 and 106, I heard her distinctly say "Ha! Screw you Mendou!" when she was done. She had a lot of questions about that two parter as now she wants to read he English translation of the manga when she's done with the series. Thankfully I can make a PDF of all the images and put it on her Kindle.

Also, thanks again for the heads up about Pixiv, I found the artpage of one of the people I follow on Twitter and was able to see their artwork more easily. You might appreciate this fanart that I found on Deviant Art. https://www.deviantart.com/art/Lum-696097005

As for the ending, like I said, 5 more minutes of animation / a couple artwork panels with a private moment between them is all that would have been needed and myself and a number of others would likely be happy.

Considering that, and how much Shinobu suffered, I'd hate to see what she would do to a character she really didn't like at all.

Oh, an additional aside, since it's Wednesday at 1:40am est when I'm posting this, 'yesterday' evening (Tuesday) I went out to my local bookstore and I had my IPod playing the soundtrack for The Final Chapter in the car. A Japanese couple that were in the lot apparently heard the music and approached me saying it'd been a long time since they heard music from Urusei Yatsura and that it was nice to see people still liked it.
- He sort of just was a punching bag when he had to fight lol. Inaba isn't a fighter. He sure went through hell though to prove his love for Shinobu was strong and everlasting.

- Just goes to show, they think alike a lot of the time. A thing to note though is that several of the male characters are like parallels to Ataru in some form or way in certain aspects. Heck, you could even throw Lum in as a having similarities to Ataru in some ways as well.

- It was a fun fight, Sawamura became one of my favorite characters, though only after his fight with Mashiba.

- Unfortunately so. Par the course of many of the minor characters with specific stories about them that really doesn't go anywhere. Hanawa ain't the only one. Kitsune and Kurama. None of those three characters went anywhere despite all three having appeared in more than 3 stories.

- It'll be interesting to hear her opinion of the comic. As reading through it feels quite different than watching through it. Many of the characters are portrayed somewhat differently between versions and of course some stories are anime original or locked only within the manga.

- Pixiv is a great site to be able to see some really nice pictures of UY. The picture you linked looks fantastic. Always nice to see some great Lum art.

- Who knows, she could have given Lum a worse fate at first. She obviously wasn't on team Lum initially and seemed to dislike being "forced" to switch the main couple from the one she intended, but I do believe she warmed up to Lum over time.

- Now that's amazing. Something like that is just so unexpected and so rare of an occurrence. How old did that Japanese couple look? Either way, it's great to still meet people who have fond memories of the series, as well as the fact that they appreciate others who enjoy the series as well.

Offline Oldfan

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #56 on: August 25, 2017, 08:02:01 AM »
- He sort of just was a punching bag when he had to fight lol. Inaba isn't a fighter. He sure went through hell though to prove his love for Shinobu was strong and everlasting.

- Just goes to show, they think alike a lot of the time. A thing to note though is that several of the male characters are like parallels to Ataru in some form or way in certain aspects. Heck, you could even throw Lum in as a having similarities to Ataru in some ways as well.

- It was a fun fight, Sawamura became one of my favorite characters, though only after his fight with Mashiba.

- Unfortunately so. Par the course of many of the minor characters with specific stories about them that really doesn't go anywhere. Hanawa ain't the only one. Kitsune and Kurama. None of those three characters went anywhere despite all three having appeared in more than 3 stories.

- It'll be interesting to hear her opinion of the comic. As reading through it feels quite different than watching through it. Many of the characters are portrayed somewhat differently between versions and of course some stories are anime original or locked only within the manga.

- Pixiv is a great site to be able to see some really nice pictures of UY. The picture you linked looks fantastic. Always nice to see some great Lum art.

- Who knows, she could have given Lum a worse fate at first. She obviously wasn't on team Lum initially and seemed to dislike being "forced" to switch the main couple from the one she intended, but I do believe she warmed up to Lum over time.

- Now that's amazing. Something like that is just so unexpected and so rare of an occurrence. How old did that Japanese couple look? Either way, it's great to still meet people who have fond memories of the series, as well as the fact that they appreciate others who enjoy the series as well.

I felt really bad for him in that story, I know the whole thing was a test not just for him within the confines of his job, but to prove himself to Shinobu, but seeing him take that beating and essentially be the Ataru of the story made me appreciate him a lot more.

They all have some of his traits, Mendou being the lesser clone overall. But I guess overall, despite that Onsen-Mark was a patsy for them, he was a good character in that he was at least trying despite it all.

I'm actually ashamed I had never heard of Hajime no Ippo before. I happened to be looking for something on You Tube one night and there was a 'Top 10 angriest moments' for anime characters and at #4 was Takamura's fight vs. Hawk when he snapped and went berserk. Someone posted that whole fight as a 'movie' of sorts and I immediately liked it. The characters are all good, and the writer's knowledge of boxing is excellent. I found some of the episodes but not the whole thing. Now that I have it'll be a nice diversion.

The only thing with Kurama that was good was the fact that her appearance showed Mendou's colors for what they are when it comes to women. If there's one thing Akira Kamiya did, he made that first "Oh!" sound like the Mendou version of an lusting Ataru sound. I still laugh when I hear it.

She's still on the TV show, she made it to the boxing glove episode now. She thought it was sweet that Ataru somehow put his own face in front of the hitting glove, and she cheered when Ataru hit Megane and Mendou. And since she watched the OVAs first, she asked me what is it with Mendou and a pink tuxedo and now the dancing tutu thing? I had nothing.

This would be one of those times that I'm glad for fan and editor influence, Lum has been a pretty enduring mascot of sorts for Japan for a long time now.

Given that the Japanese are practically ageless at least until they hit a certain plateau, I'd say the oldest they looked was in their mid-50's, but I wouldn't confidently bet on that. They were definitely from Japan though, I could hear it in their voices.

Speaking of voices, I had NO idea Fumi was voicing a character in Kyoukai no Rinne. I saw mention of it on the message board of Tomobiki-cho's site so I had to hear for myself. At the end of the episode that had a preview, Fumi did a Lum spot and then I caught the episode itself she appeared in (she's been in a few now that I have added Rinne to my queue) and she still sounds wonderful. I have to appreciate all the little nods to Lum in her character, Green Hair, Blue Eyes (a different shade) and her cooking apron is striped with the same colors as Lum's tiger stripes. The character herself apparently reflects Fumi's own general build.

Oddly enough, it sounds almost like a mature, very calm Lum.
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #57 on: August 28, 2017, 06:08:38 AM »
- He sort of just was a punching bag when he had to fight lol. Inaba isn't a fighter. He sure went through hell though to prove his love for Shinobu was strong and everlasting.

- Just goes to show, they think alike a lot of the time. A thing to note though is that several of the male characters are like parallels to Ataru in some form or way in certain aspects. Heck, you could even throw Lum in as a having similarities to Ataru in some ways as well.

- It was a fun fight, Sawamura became one of my favorite characters, though only after his fight with Mashiba.

- Unfortunately so. Par the course of many of the minor characters with specific stories about them that really doesn't go anywhere. Hanawa ain't the only one. Kitsune and Kurama. None of those three characters went anywhere despite all three having appeared in more than 3 stories.

- It'll be interesting to hear her opinion of the comic. As reading through it feels quite different than watching through it. Many of the characters are portrayed somewhat differently between versions and of course some stories are anime original or locked only within the manga.

- Pixiv is a great site to be able to see some really nice pictures of UY. The picture you linked looks fantastic. Always nice to see some great Lum art.

- Who knows, she could have given Lum a worse fate at first. She obviously wasn't on team Lum initially and seemed to dislike being "forced" to switch the main couple from the one she intended, but I do believe she warmed up to Lum over time.

- Now that's amazing. Something like that is just so unexpected and so rare of an occurrence. How old did that Japanese couple look? Either way, it's great to still meet people who have fond memories of the series, as well as the fact that they appreciate others who enjoy the series as well.

I felt really bad for him in that story, I know the whole thing was a test not just for him within the confines of his job, but to prove himself to Shinobu, but seeing him take that beating and essentially be the Ataru of the story made me appreciate him a lot more.

They all have some of his traits, Mendou being the lesser clone overall. But I guess overall, despite that Onsen-Mark was a patsy for them, he was a good character in that he was at least trying despite it all.

I'm actually ashamed I had never heard of Hajime no Ippo before. I happened to be looking for something on You Tube one night and there was a 'Top 10 angriest moments' for anime characters and at #4 was Takamura's fight vs. Hawk when he snapped and went berserk. Someone posted that whole fight as a 'movie' of sorts and I immediately liked it. The characters are all good, and the writer's knowledge of boxing is excellent. I found some of the episodes but not the whole thing. Now that I have it'll be a nice diversion.

The only thing with Kurama that was good was the fact that her appearance showed Mendou's colors for what they are when it comes to women. If there's one thing Akira Kamiya did, he made that first "Oh!" sound like the Mendou version of an lusting Ataru sound. I still laugh when I hear it.

She's still on the TV show, she made it to the boxing glove episode now. She thought it was sweet that Ataru somehow put his own face in front of the hitting glove, and she cheered when Ataru hit Megane and Mendou. And since she watched the OVAs first, she asked me what is it with Mendou and a pink tuxedo and now the dancing tutu thing? I had nothing.

This would be one of those times that I'm glad for fan and editor influence, Lum has been a pretty enduring mascot of sorts for Japan for a long time now.

Given that the Japanese are practically ageless at least until they hit a certain plateau, I'd say the oldest they looked was in their mid-50's, but I wouldn't confidently bet on that. They were definitely from Japan though, I could hear it in their voices.

Speaking of voices, I had NO idea Fumi was voicing a character in Kyoukai no Rinne. I saw mention of it on the message board of Tomobiki-cho's site so I had to hear for myself. At the end of the episode that had a preview, Fumi did a Lum spot and then I caught the episode itself she appeared in (she's been in a few now that I have added Rinne to my queue) and she still sounds wonderful. I have to appreciate all the little nods to Lum in her character, Green Hair, Blue Eyes (a different shade) and her cooking apron is striped with the same colors as Lum's tiger stripes. The character herself apparently reflects Fumi's own general build.

Oddly enough, it sounds almost like a mature, very calm Lum.
- Yeah, Inaba really did go through hell in that story thinking about it. He suffered a lot there to show that his love for Shinobu was genuine. Fortunately for both of them, it paid off.

- I just love how many of the male characters could be viewed as big losers in the series, and within the series Ataru is treated as the biggest loser among his group of "friends" (even though not too long later you learn he's the farthest thing from a loser there especially with guys like Megane being there). But the moment Onsen Mark comes into the equation, he is instantly placed into the biggest loser role.

- The series is definitely a lot more unrealistic than say Ashita no Joe, but the characters are pretty enjoyable. Takamura vs. Hawk was an absolutely legendary fight. I love that fight. I love that about this series. Many characters get their own major fights (Makunouchi has several, Kimura v. Mashiba, Aoki v. Iga, Takamura v. Hawk and Eagle, Miyata v. Randy Boy Jr., Sawamura v. Mashiba, Volg Zangief v. Elliot).

- I'm kind of disappointed considering more could have potentially been done with Kurama Takahashi made the effort to make her more dimensional of a character.

- Lol, you do tend to root for Ataru over most people as the series progresses. As you the more you read/watch, the more you realize that he's improving as a person, as well as the underlying fact that almost every person he's up against are worse than he is. Glad she liked the boxing gloves one. It was a fun one.

- Indeed she has. If you think of anime characters, you're likely to think of people of the level of Son Goku and Lum.

- The anime adaptations of many of Takahashi's works did tend to love having either cameos or homages to the characters from some of her previous series.

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #58 on: August 30, 2017, 04:46:15 AM »
- Yeah, Inaba really did go through hell in that story thinking about it. He suffered a lot there to show that his love for Shinobu was genuine. Fortunately for both of them, it paid off.

- I just love how many of the male characters could be viewed as big losers in the series, and within the series Ataru is treated as the biggest loser among his group of "friends" (even though not too long later you learn he's the farthest thing from a loser there especially with guys like Megane being there). But the moment Onsen Mark comes into the equation, he is instantly placed into the biggest loser role.

- The series is definitely a lot more unrealistic than say Ashita no Joe, but the characters are pretty enjoyable. Takamura vs. Hawk was an absolutely legendary fight. I love that fight. I love that about this series. Many characters get their own major fights (Makunouchi has several, Kimura v. Mashiba, Aoki v. Iga, Takamura v. Hawk and Eagle, Miyata v. Randy Boy Jr., Sawamura v. Mashiba, Volg Zangief v. Elliot).

- I'm kind of disappointed considering more could have potentially been done with Kurama Takahashi made the effort to make her more dimensional of a character.

- Lol, you do tend to root for Ataru over most people as the series progresses. As you the more you read/watch, the more you realize that he's improving as a person, as well as the underlying fact that almost every person he's up against are worse than he is. Glad she liked the boxing gloves one. It was a fun one.

- Indeed she has. If you think of anime characters, you're likely to think of people of the level of Son Goku and Lum.

- The anime adaptations of many of Takahashi's works did tend to love having either cameos or homages to the characters from some of her previous series.

I really would have liked to see that as an OVA, but only if the same people that did the original Inaba worked on it. Considering the ups and downs the animation had in the OVAs (Girly Eyed Measles), it would have been a nice, final OVA before The Final Chapter hit.

Ataru is pretty much the ultimate scapegoat. If something goes wrong, they blame him, even if he was nowhere near whatever happened. Perfect example early on is the episode with the alien that latches onto Mendou because he needs fuel in the form of 100 Yen coins. Everytime someone said something, they threw Ataru's name into the mix. All things considered, by the end of the series Ataru is the only one that can say he dated Shinobu, kissed Ran, kissed Kurama (not that she WANTED him to), had an interesting time with Oyuki, got to wrap his arms around Benten, and has Lum. The next highest record for having a date or girlfriend and being able to TOUCH her is Perm.

There's another series I haven't seen, Ashita no Joe. I really need to expand my viewing list. I'll have to find that when Rinne is done for the season. I like Hajime no Ippo though because they all have a sense of camaraderie amongst them with Takamura acting like an older brother to Makunouchi. I have all the Ippo episodes now, so this weekend I'll start watching them from the start.

Kurama was good at giving Lum a run for her money using that leaf of hers. Unfortunately, the fact that there's only so many males in the cast of UY, she was bound to run out of suitable choices very fast. The episode when she thinks Mendou woke her up is funny because Mendou may well be even more shy about women in public than Ataru is.

Ataru's problem as I see it is he's the product of his home environment. With the friends he has, he really doesn't need enemies and Shinobu and he proved to be the worst pairing. You can honestly say everything Ataru learned about growing up, being responsible and learning about love all came for the most part from Lum. And last night she left off with the Snow Fairy episode when Ataru mixed up the time of the date and then was going to be taken away until his memories of Lum made him stay. Her only question for me was why is memory loss such a thing in the show, I had nothing once more.

Goku, there's another one - hard to believe his seiyu is an 80 year old woman. She might be the most active person in anime history period.

Maison Ikkoku was pretty blantant with theOnsen-Mark cameo as well as child versions of Megane, Ataru and Shinobu. I can't recall if there was any cameos in Ranma 1/2 and I never watched InuYasha so I have no idea.
I remain unhappy that they didn't give the right closure to the relationship and we have to 'decide for ourselves' if Lum and Ataru got together.

Offline Seiryu

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Re: Theory regarding the 'ending' as we loosely call it
« Reply #59 on: August 31, 2017, 05:47:13 AM »
- Yeah, Inaba really did go through hell in that story thinking about it. He suffered a lot there to show that his love for Shinobu was genuine. Fortunately for both of them, it paid off.

- I just love how many of the male characters could be viewed as big losers in the series, and within the series Ataru is treated as the biggest loser among his group of "friends" (even though not too long later you learn he's the farthest thing from a loser there especially with guys like Megane being there). But the moment Onsen Mark comes into the equation, he is instantly placed into the biggest loser role.

- The series is definitely a lot more unrealistic than say Ashita no Joe, but the characters are pretty enjoyable. Takamura vs. Hawk was an absolutely legendary fight. I love that fight. I love that about this series. Many characters get their own major fights (Makunouchi has several, Kimura v. Mashiba, Aoki v. Iga, Takamura v. Hawk and Eagle, Miyata v. Randy Boy Jr., Sawamura v. Mashiba, Volg Zangief v. Elliot).

- I'm kind of disappointed considering more could have potentially been done with Kurama Takahashi made the effort to make her more dimensional of a character.

- Lol, you do tend to root for Ataru over most people as the series progresses. As you the more you read/watch, the more you realize that he's improving as a person, as well as the underlying fact that almost every person he's up against are worse than he is. Glad she liked the boxing gloves one. It was a fun one.

- Indeed she has. If you think of anime characters, you're likely to think of people of the level of Son Goku and Lum.

- The anime adaptations of many of Takahashi's works did tend to love having either cameos or homages to the characters from some of her previous series.

I really would have liked to see that as an OVA, but only if the same people that did the original Inaba worked on it. Considering the ups and downs the animation had in the OVAs (Girly Eyed Measles), it would have been a nice, final OVA before The Final Chapter hit.

Ataru is pretty much the ultimate scapegoat. If something goes wrong, they blame him, even if he was nowhere near whatever happened. Perfect example early on is the episode with the alien that latches onto Mendou because he needs fuel in the form of 100 Yen coins. Everytime someone said something, they threw Ataru's name into the mix. All things considered, by the end of the series Ataru is the only one that can say he dated Shinobu, kissed Ran, kissed Kurama (not that she WANTED him to), had an interesting time with Oyuki, got to wrap his arms around Benten, and has Lum. The next highest record for having a date or girlfriend and being able to TOUCH her is Perm.

There's another series I haven't seen, Ashita no Joe. I really need to expand my viewing list. I'll have to find that when Rinne is done for the season. I like Hajime no Ippo though because they all have a sense of camaraderie amongst them with Takamura acting like an older brother to Makunouchi. I have all the Ippo episodes now, so this weekend I'll start watching them from the start.

Kurama was good at giving Lum a run for her money using that leaf of hers. Unfortunately, the fact that there's only so many males in the cast of UY, she was bound to run out of suitable choices very fast. The episode when she thinks Mendou woke her up is funny because Mendou may well be even more shy about women in public than Ataru is.

Ataru's problem as I see it is he's the product of his home environment. With the friends he has, he really doesn't need enemies and Shinobu and he proved to be the worst pairing. You can honestly say everything Ataru learned about growing up, being responsible and learning about love all came for the most part from Lum. And last night she left off with the Snow Fairy episode when Ataru mixed up the time of the date and then was going to be taken away until his memories of Lum made him stay. Her only question for me was why is memory loss such a thing in the show, I had nothing once more.

Goku, there's another one - hard to believe his seiyu is an 80 year old woman. She might be the most active person in anime history period.

Maison Ikkoku was pretty blantant with theOnsen-Mark cameo as well as child versions of Megane, Ataru and Shinobu. I can't recall if there was any cameos in Ranma 1/2 and I never watched InuYasha so I have no idea.
- I'm not sure on the likelihood we'd get that anyway considering the obvious decline in quality of the art of the OVAs.

- That's cause despite what the characters may think, Ataru after a certain point isn't really unlucky (at least in that the physical punishment he takes, which he laughs off anyway most of the time, pales in comparison to what he was lucky to be given), and really has probably the greatest accomplishments in the manga of most of the characters.

- Ashita no Joe was a masterpiece. Though depending on the person, the show might come off as slow paced or a bit of a slog to get through initially. I got into boxing series here from watching actual boxing. I grew up with Cassius Clay turned Muhammad Ali as my inspiration, and I cried like a baby when he passed away.

- Takahashi just never seemed to have any desire to make Kurama (and other recurring characters) be more than one-dimensional. There is a distinct lack of males around Ataru's age in the series that are actually major characters.

- Fortunately for Ataru (and Lum too lol) Ataru's character and personality benefit greatly from Lum's presence, even though he'd likely never credit her publicly for a good portion of his change.

- Nozawa is a legend for sure.

- The best cameo from Ranma I can think of was the one where Ataru and Lum appeared on the cover title of a chapter to celebrate Fumi Hirano getting married.