There is this old video of some 16 year old MTV host showing off his collection of Urusei Yatsura laserdiscs to an increasingly contemptuous Janeane Garofalo
There's also the time they aired Beautiful Dreamer on the Sci-Fi Channel, hosted by Apollo Smile ("The live-action anime girl!"), whose script was loaded with inaccuracies about the series and movie.
Being more of a Ranma (Akane > Lum, fight me, tourists) and Maison Ikkoku man I almost never think about UY and watch maybe 2 or 4 episodes per year. It has been going like that for decades (literally). Rumiko's "Everyone's an asshole, laugh at them with me" formula works for me better with Ranma's cast. I'm telling you this because I watched both movies on an account of reading this article.
I knew about "Beautiful Dreamer", so I was expected great things, and I wasn't disappointed. Lots of fun and sappy moments (I even got caught up in the last scene despite knowing better how it will play out), some good character moments, everything just works. Easily the best time I had with UY. And I didn't hate "Only You", it was, as you say, an episode of the show, so I watched it, chuckled sometimes and that's it. The only thing that stays in my mind is the opening, the harsh, vivid, oversaturated summer sun, long shadows. It's almost nothing but it's something.
(sorry for not commenting recently, I have a backlog of your writing so long I actually made a "bdm" tag in my special reading thing where I put things.)
My impression with Ranma (which I have never actually watched… for various reasons) is that the main couple just kind of makes more sense than Lum and Ataru. I have read a few times that Lum was always intended to be a one off character, with Shinobu as Ataru's true love, but was too popular to cut. So the way in which Lum seems to make them a couple through the sheer force of her will is I guess… kind of real lol.
Yeah, Lum won against the author (you designed a cute oni in a bikini, a self-inflected wound in my book), Rumiko got Sherlock'ed. Ranma has your standard (well, it's one of the progenitor of the genre) harem setup but it does not annoy me, to my surprise. You always get the feeling the main pair likes each other but they can't get past their teenager brains and hung-ups, so rare tender moments lands better. Plus the background of "Anything Goes Martial Art" provides a fertile ground for hijinks.
I wonder if Ranma (not talking about the new one, I don't care about that) is still watchable to a new person. Pretty uneven affair, the story is unfinished, there's filler and anime-only stories. If you ever decide to watch it, a few episodes (probably up to discovering Ryoga's secret) is enough to grok the entire series.
Ranma never really felt like a harem anime to me, even though he does have multiple girls fighting over him. Takahashi's comedies seem more interested in criss-crossing romantic entanglements. Ranma and Akane maybe like each other, but Kuno loves Akane, but then he loves Girl-Ranma, and his sister loves Guy-Ranma, and so does Shampoo, but Mousse wants her, and so on.
I daresay it's Shakespearean. Seriously, when I was a teenager and went to see my school's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," my immediate response was "Hey wait a minute, this is a Rumiko Takahashi anime!"
The way I remember it, harem anime doesn't really become a full-fledged genre until Tenchi Muyo.
That's why it does not bother me. It's tried and tested thing to entangle people and watch them squirm. You say Midsummer, hell, I recently was watching Molière's Miser (terrible production, hate when they modernize bits of the play for no reason) and it matches your observation, too.
Tenchi Muyo is probably first-of-the-kind (meek dude with girls throwing themselves at him) but I never ventured past few episodes. At heart I'm romantic so that setup did nothing for me even when I was a teen. Plus, I hated the character design. :P
There is this old video of some 16 year old MTV host showing off his collection of Urusei Yatsura laserdiscs to an increasingly contemptuous Janeane Garofalo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmhzAAX2Wxw
oh wow that's painful
There's also the time they aired Beautiful Dreamer on the Sci-Fi Channel, hosted by Apollo Smile ("The live-action anime girl!"), whose script was loaded with inaccuracies about the series and movie.
Being more of a Ranma (Akane > Lum, fight me, tourists) and Maison Ikkoku man I almost never think about UY and watch maybe 2 or 4 episodes per year. It has been going like that for decades (literally). Rumiko's "Everyone's an asshole, laugh at them with me" formula works for me better with Ranma's cast. I'm telling you this because I watched both movies on an account of reading this article.
I knew about "Beautiful Dreamer", so I was expected great things, and I wasn't disappointed. Lots of fun and sappy moments (I even got caught up in the last scene despite knowing better how it will play out), some good character moments, everything just works. Easily the best time I had with UY. And I didn't hate "Only You", it was, as you say, an episode of the show, so I watched it, chuckled sometimes and that's it. The only thing that stays in my mind is the opening, the harsh, vivid, oversaturated summer sun, long shadows. It's almost nothing but it's something.
(sorry for not commenting recently, I have a backlog of your writing so long I actually made a "bdm" tag in my special reading thing where I put things.)
oh man don't worry about the backlog!
My impression with Ranma (which I have never actually watched… for various reasons) is that the main couple just kind of makes more sense than Lum and Ataru. I have read a few times that Lum was always intended to be a one off character, with Shinobu as Ataru's true love, but was too popular to cut. So the way in which Lum seems to make them a couple through the sheer force of her will is I guess… kind of real lol.
Yeah, Lum won against the author (you designed a cute oni in a bikini, a self-inflected wound in my book), Rumiko got Sherlock'ed. Ranma has your standard (well, it's one of the progenitor of the genre) harem setup but it does not annoy me, to my surprise. You always get the feeling the main pair likes each other but they can't get past their teenager brains and hung-ups, so rare tender moments lands better. Plus the background of "Anything Goes Martial Art" provides a fertile ground for hijinks.
I wonder if Ranma (not talking about the new one, I don't care about that) is still watchable to a new person. Pretty uneven affair, the story is unfinished, there's filler and anime-only stories. If you ever decide to watch it, a few episodes (probably up to discovering Ryoga's secret) is enough to grok the entire series.
Ranma never really felt like a harem anime to me, even though he does have multiple girls fighting over him. Takahashi's comedies seem more interested in criss-crossing romantic entanglements. Ranma and Akane maybe like each other, but Kuno loves Akane, but then he loves Girl-Ranma, and his sister loves Guy-Ranma, and so does Shampoo, but Mousse wants her, and so on.
I daresay it's Shakespearean. Seriously, when I was a teenager and went to see my school's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," my immediate response was "Hey wait a minute, this is a Rumiko Takahashi anime!"
The way I remember it, harem anime doesn't really become a full-fledged genre until Tenchi Muyo.
That's why it does not bother me. It's tried and tested thing to entangle people and watch them squirm. You say Midsummer, hell, I recently was watching Molière's Miser (terrible production, hate when they modernize bits of the play for no reason) and it matches your observation, too.
Tenchi Muyo is probably first-of-the-kind (meek dude with girls throwing themselves at him) but I never ventured past few episodes. At heart I'm romantic so that setup did nothing for me even when I was a teen. Plus, I hated the character design. :P