Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984)

Introduction:

In the middle of the five year run of Urusei Yatsura (UY from now on), theatrical films were released to thrill Lum’s fans with some big screen adventures. Director Mamoru Oshii had worked on the series for quite a while, crafting some of the most popular episodes. He worked on the first film Only You in 1983, but felt a bit stifled creatively by the experience. When he was asked to work on the second feature Oshii insisted on more creative control. The result was a UY film no one saw coming.

Summary:

It is the night before for the school festival at Tomobiki High. Everyone is busy creating their club presentations, working hard and having fun. Ataru (Toshio Furukawa) is doing his best to avoid Lum (Fumi Hirano) and hit on as many girls as possible. Mendou (Akira Kamiya) has managed to provide a full-fledged tank for Megane’s (Chiba Shigeru) bar.  Shinobu (Saeko Shimazu) is helping with the preparations, but only so she can be around Mendo. Onsen-Mark is running around attempting to maintain discipline. Before long Lum ends up electrocuting everyone and it’s time to head off to bed.

The next morning, it is the day before the school festival again. In fact for the last couple days, it has been the day before the school festival. No one seems to have a problem with this, except for Onsen-Mark (Michhiro Ikemizu). He goes to Sakura (Machiko Washio) to determine if he is losing his mind. She starts to investigate, and it becomes apparent that some supernatural force is playing with the students of Tomobiki High. Soon each one of them starts to notice some very strange things happening. Why is there a little girl in a white hat wandering around? Why does the town seem to be more and more empty each day? And where did that little piglet come from? Will this infinite day ever end? And if so, will any of our friends be willing to end it?

Good Points:

• Some wonderful dreamlike visuals and editing
• Manages to stay true to the characters while going in an unexpected direction
• Nice balance of humor and surreal moments

Bad Points:

• You need to know UY pretty well to enjoy this film
• The English dub is really rough
• Oshii’s slower pacing takes over during the surreal moments

Overall:

On paper this movie shouldn’t work. Oshii’s surreal visions and measured pacing make an appearance here, but he also keeps the madcap antics of the characters. Surprisingly both parts mesh well and create a movie that is more than just a sequel to a sit-com. It is also a meditation on how we deal with our desires and how much we can delude ourselves if given the chance. Of course you can just ignore all that heady stuff and enjoy Lum floating around and zapping Ataru, because that happens too.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 4

Sound: 4

Acting: 3

Script: 4

Music: 3

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 4

Total:  4

In Depth Review

Another day ends with everyone electrocuted
by Lum. But didn't this just happen yesterday?

When it comes to fans of Urusei Yatsura, Beautiful Dreamer seems to be a polarizing film. Some find all the surreal images, and slower pacing to be too much of a change from the frantic insanity of the series. Others liked that the movie tried to do something a little different, while still keeping true to the characters (although you could argue that Onsen-Mark never got that philosophical about life).

What is agreed is that this is one of the more adventurous outings for UY, and stylistically, it may have some of the most vivid and beautiful imagery of the franchise. The animation itself seems a bit rough for a feature film, but at the same time the series always looked a bit rough. Sometimes the character animation isn’t consistent, and there is some use of still frames and panning over the frames.

Mendou was just climbing the stairs, but Lum is
flying up them... causing Mendou to fall up!

Other times the film goes out of its way to show off some great visuals. The scene where the characters race around the dream-warped high school is filled to bursting with camera motion, bizarre angles and tracking shots. There are some great moments where the camera follows the characters as they crisscross in front of and behind each other. Then gravity switches and characters go from running up stairs to falling down them. It’s a wonderful use of animation to allow literally anything to happen.

Oshii uses this to his full advantage, and it is something that he would indulge in with Ghost in the Shell and Innocence. But I love his dream imagery in Beautiful Dreamer. Some of it is subtle, like the night drive with Ataru and Mendou in the beginning of the film. Something feels off, as the town is unusually quiet and the buildings seem to be extra dark. It creates unease around the characters. And once they run into the strange little girl, it really seems like a dream.

Water spreads across Tomobiki High School.

You also get a lot of water imagery, as well as shots of faceless mannequins, something that would pop up in both Ghost in the Shell films. Oshii does some great things with water in this film, having it spread slowly throughout the film sinking the school at one point. It seems like a mirror, and is often used in that fashion with the characters looking into it, or through it. But not really seeing the reality they expect.

As you expect the scope of the film goes beyond the television series. While the series was content with blowing up Ataru’s home or maybe having a giant penquin trample the town, it never ended up completely removed from reality before. Beautiful Dreamer is much like Paprika in the way it takes the concept of dreams and really uses them to the full advantage. Mendou flies the group up into the sky in his Harrier jet (because of course Mendou would have one hidden away). As he pulls up higher and higher, we see the world below shrinking into an unexpected image of the town on the back of a space traveling turtle! No, not Gamera, but a figure from Japanese mythology.

Ataru has a nightmare about failing at the most
important game of tag in his life.

Later on the dreamworlds start to collapse and fold on one another, and this allows Oshii and his animators to kick the fun visual stunts into overdrive. It’s a whirlwind of comic moments and bizarre scenes that even includes Ataru revisiting his first encounter with Lum during their cosmic game of tag.

However Oshii does indulge a some of his unique directorial flourishes here. There are several scenes of characters sitting and talking about the philosophical meanings of dreams and how living in a dream could be better or worse than real life. Oshii slows the action down to long pans, or close ups on motionless figures. He has moments of stillness that allow the unease to build, but also seem at odds with the frantic humor that appears in the film (and can’t be avoided with these characters). While it is neat to see Oshii letting his directorial voice come through, the contrast in tone is a bit jarring at times. It keeps Beautiful Dreamer from really firing on all cylinders. Oshii was able to correct this issue when he adapted Ghost in the Shell and toned down the humor of the manga and made the film much more serious.

Sakura listens to Onsen-Mark's tale of repeating
the same day. Reflections are a major visual theme
in this film.

The sound work goes right back to the television show for the most part. Lum’s flying and electrocution sound effects are carried over. While the film takes place in a dream world for the bulk of it’s running time, most of the sound work is based on real world elements. But there are some clever uses of isolated sounds dominating certain scenes, such as when Shinobu becomes separated from the group and the sound of wind chimes overwhelms her. The music was performed by Katsu Hoshi, which does a fine job carrying over his work from the UY television series.

When it comes to the acting, I have to say that Beautiful Dreamer should be watched in the original Japanese dub. There is an English dub available, but it is very rough, and just plain bad in places. I’m not sure if the cast didn’t know much about the characters, or had trouble making heads or tails of the story, but as a whole it doesn’t do the film justice. At the same time, the Japanese dub can be a problem. In some scenes the jokes and dialogue can be flying by. This causes the subtitles to move very quickly and you may end up missing some of the thematic lines that were worked into the script. But the Japanese actors obviously had a great handle on the roles by this point. Tough call, but in the end, I recommend the Japanese dub if your subtitle reading skills are honed. Otherwise give the English dub a try for the first viewing and if it gets to be too much, switch to Japanese.

Ataru is replicated in a non-existant mirror. Infinite
Ataru's... now that is a nightmare!

As I hinted at Oshii really wanted and obtained creative control of the film. It is very evident in the visual style, but it is also in the script which Oshii penned himself. Now some UY fans really feel that Oshii went too far from the original concept of the series which focused on silly jokes and jabs at Japanese culture. But I think Oshii actually found a solid balance of his interests with Rumiko Takahashi’s world. Essentially, he stays true to the characters for the entire running time. A few moments of long talky scenes seem a bit out of charcter for someone like Onsen-Mark. But it works for scenes with Sakura (who acts as the Sherlock of the film with Mendou as her Watson).

Oshii also managed to use Rumiko Takahashi’s love of Japanese folklore to help his story. This includes the moment with the giant flying turtle. It also ties to the concept of the “dreamer” itself, something that comes from an old folkstory that is similar to “Rip Van Winkle”.

See the turtle of enormous girth? It's not Gamera.

For me the big surprise of Beautiful Dreamer is how Oshii actually used Ataru, the teenage horndog and turned him into the lynchpin of the film. Yes, there is plenty of Lum action for all her fans. But in the final third of the film, it is actually Ataru who has to rise up and do something about the whole situation, and break the dream world cycle. But this doesn’t mean that Ataru has to do something completely out of character. In fact the whole thing is funny because Ataru is just being Ataru. In doing so, he realizes he has to break the cycle. It’s a clever twist that really works, and has you cheering on the stupid jerk as he does battle with the dream world.

As with all things Oshii invests himself in, there are themes at work in Beautiful Dreamer. Some of these are very similar to what we end up seeing in Ghost in the Shell, especially the question of “Why am I here? What is my purpose?” In this case, it has more to do with dreams and desires. “What do I want?” “What do I do when I get it?” “Can I live in a world where all my desires are provided all the time?” “How does this mesh with other peoples desires?” As the characters continue their journey in the dream world, it becomes apparent that only person is having the dream and the rest are all trapped inside it. Anyone who doesn’t fall in line with enjoying the dream is removed. So some of the characters are in danger of vanishing from this dream completely – and what would that mean for them? Is it death? Sakura begins to fear that since she is trying to determine what is happening that she may be the next to vanish. It is an interesting concept and one that Oshii delivers in both visuals and script.

Who is that strange little girl? And why is it summer time?

I first saw this movie before I'd seen any of the UY television series. The internet was still in its youth. So searching for UY didn’t give me much information other than Lum is a babe! and Lum is the hottest anime girl ever! type of websites on Geocities. I was able to follow the movie, but most of the humor went over my head, because so much of it was based on character interaction and knowing who all these people were. But I really appreciated the wonderful imagery and some of the set pieces. The chase through the darkened dream school is still an amazing visual tour-de-force.

Once the television series of UY was finally released in North America, I revisted this film and found it very entertaining. Beautiful Dreamer has a lot going for it, and while UY fans might not enjoy it too much (rumor is that even Rumiko Takahashi doesn’t care for it), I think fans of Oshii and anyone who enjoys seeing some classic animation in action will find something enjoy in the film. It is neat to see Oshii’s voice starting to emerge, and he would continue to explore his style and themes that he first introduced in this unique film.

Lum and her pals get a shocking view from the
Space Harrier!

Anime Archive - Urusei Yatsura

So as I was plugging away at my review for Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer I discovered I was spending half the review describing the television series that was the source for the film. I’m reviewing the film because I’m examining the works of director Mamoru Oshii. And while I enjoy Urusei Yatsura, I don’t think I’ll be giving it a full review for this blog.

That said, I didn’t want to bog down my Beautiful Dreamer review with a bunch of explanation of the series. So I figured I’d write up this primer to give those unfamiliar with the series a bit of a background. This should allow me to cover what I need to for the Beautiful Dreamer review. So here we go…

Introduction

Little do they know how obnoxious the ETs are
going to get!

The title Urusei Yatsura is translated as “Those Obnoxious Aliens”. It started as a comic (manga) series created in 1978 by Rumiko Takahashi. Takahashi is one of the most popular manga creators in Japan, with many of her creations making the transitions to anime and film. In addition to Urusei Yatsura (which I’ll call UY from now on) she created Maison Ikkoku, Inu Yasha and one of my personal favorites Ranma ½. The manga series for UY ran until 1987 and proved incredibly popular.

This popularity brought about the creation of a television series in 1981. This lead to four theatrical films, original animated videos (OAVs), CDs and all kinds of merchandizing. Of course it was only a matter of time before the series came over to North America, and was one of the earliest official subtitled releases by Animeigo back in 1992. The character Lum, became a fan favorite, and even appeared in a Matthew Sweet music video in the early 1990s.

If you see UY mentioned, then it's only a matter of
time before someone mentions Lum (with her dad
in this picture).

These days, I don’t see too many folks talking about UY, but I still see Lum pop up when favorite anime gals are discussed. She’s considered one of the classics. But just who the heck is Lum?

The Plot

Shinobu and Ataru try to have a normal life
after their close encounter of a Lum kind.

UY essentially falls into the magical girlfriend genre. It focuses on comedy with a splash of romance. The television series can feel a lot like a sitcom but with outlandish characters, off the wall situations and a lot of humor based off of Japanese culture.

The first episode sets the stage. Ataru Moroboshi (Toshio Furukawa) is heading home from school one day. Ataru is an extremely unlucky lad who usually has one thing on his mind: girls. So while he is ogling some babes jogging he is abducted by government agents and spirited away to his home. He finds an enormous alien sitting in his living room. The aliens are called the Oni (based off the Japanese concept of demons). The reason their lord is sitting in Ataru’s living room is because the Oni will allow a duel dictate the fate of earth. If the Oni champion wins, Earth becomes a colony for the Oni. But if earth’s champion wins, then they will be spared. Ataru was chosen randomly by computer to be Earth’s champion.

Gloat now my smarmy little friend, it's all going to
go downhill in a moment. Notice he is wearing number
four. That is the equivalent of number 13 in asian
cultures.

At first, Ataru scoffs at the whole thing. He’s no champion and the Oni are scary looking. But when it is revealed that the Oni are represented by the princess Lum (Fumi Hirano), that changes things. Lum may have tiny horns, but she’s cute as a button and wanders around in a tiger stripe bikini and go-go boots all day. Ataru can’t resist her, especially when it is declared that all he has to do is touch her horns. Horny Ataru is ready for the challenge. He’s got a whole week to do it after all.

Well, there is one little catch. Lum can fly. Now Ataru is hopelessly running around trying to touch Lum and failing spectacularly. Each passing day makes the people of earth more nervous (and hating Ataru more and more). On the final day, Ataru is despairing, but his childhood friend (and girl next door) Shinobu Miyake (Saeko Shimazu) declares that she will marry Ataru if his wins. Ataru is inspired by potential honeymoon rewards (and he has a thing for Shinobu). He comes up with a cunning plan, and manages to steal Lum’s bikini top. While she is busy trying to cover up, Ataru touches her horns and saves the earth.

The first of many electrocutions for Ataru. 

As he stands there gloating, he mentions that now he can get married. Lum thinks that means he wants to marry her, and she accepts. Now Ataru has a lovely alien girl hanging around him all the time. Shinobu is ticked off and thinks that Ataru did it all on purpose. And Ataru is just annoyed that every time he looks at another woman, Lum electrocutes him with her alien powers.

So the stage is set for wacky shinnaigans and silly adventures.

Characters

Since UY is framed like a sitcom much of the humor is mined from putting the trio of “lovers” into a variety of situations and see how they react. Much of the time additional characters are introduced to spice up the show. By the time the series, movies, and OAVs all ended the cast to UY was HUGE. But I’ll just cover the key characters that also appear in the Beautiful Dreamer film.

Ataru Moroboshi

Our protagonist is not the brightest bulb in the box. He loves looking, touching and talking about women – but has no tact at all when dealing with them. He eats like a typical teenage boy (which means he eats a lot all the time). He has the amazing ability to end up electrocuted at least once an episode. But he comes back virtually unscathed in the next one. Ataru is a coward, a sneak and lies if he is in trouble. He can be mean spirited and vengeful. The only thing keeping him from being a villain is that he’s a bit of an idiot. He’s more like the bumbling side kick.

Lum Invader

Bright, bubbly and not the least bit body conscious, Lum is a fun loving alien girl. She is also madly in love with Ataru. Why is anyone’s guess. When she isn’t flying around the town, she is usually found clinging to Ataru, or yelling at him, or electrocuting him. She is very jealous, and has a real problem with Shinobu and her childhood relationship with Ataru. Lum tends to be friendly and kind to everyone else. She doesn’t seem to mind all the attention she gets from boys, but girls had better avoid looking at Ataru when Lum is around.

Shinobu Miyake

Literally the girl next door, she’s been a friend of Ataru’s since they were young. She’s always liked him, even when he was acting like a horny teenager (which is pretty much all the time). Once Lum shows up, Shinobu feels out of her league. But this doesn’t stop her from feeling like Lum and Ataru are making fun of her devotion. When she is enraged Shinobu obtains superhuman strength as well as a large wooden mallet. Ataru usually ends up the focus of her wrath.

Shutaro Mendou

With a family that is of samurai decent and enormous wealth to match, Mendou has a lot going for him. Add the fact that he is devastatingly handsome, confident, classy and refined, well he’s pretty much the polar opposite of Ataru. But Mendou is still a teenage boy, and like all men in this series, he falls for Lum. But that doesn’t stop him from hitting on any other woman who shows interest. Mendou does have a secret – he is terrified of the dark, and will often fly into a panic in a dark enclosed space.

Lum’s Stormtroopers

Four teenage boys who worship the ground Lum floats over. They are friends with Ataru, but only so they can be close to Lum. Given the chance they will all turn on each other just to talk with her. The “leader” of the stormtroopers is Megane, with his glasses and serious attitude. He is usually the one making speeches or telling Ataru he’s a moron. Perm is the one with the poofy hair. He usually acts as Megane’s sidekick. Chibi is the short one that gets picked on by the other three. Kukugari is the large one who picks on Chibi the most. These four usually end up getting fried by Lum too, usually as a case of friendly fire.

Ten

He is Lum’s little cousin. Ten is small, floats around like a balloon, and breaths fire. You know, just like all little cousins do. He shows up early on to find out what kind of man Lum has devoted herself too. It doesn't take long for him to develop a strong hate for Ataru. Ten spends most of his time trying to convince Lum that Ataru is a loser. But Ten is a kid at heart and loves being pampered, will accept bribes of candy and has been known to act dumber than he is to get his way.

Sakura

This tall, stunning woman is the school nurse. She is so alluring that the boys in the school hurt themselves on purpose just so they can be treated by her. Sakura is also a fully trained Shinto priestess. She has the power to exorcise demons and provide blessings. Her occult experience comes in very handy during the course of the series, as some kind of creature from Japanese folklore shows up in every other episode. She also has the ability to eat about 100 times her own weight. You’d be surprised how often that comes up.

Onsen-Mark

He is a dedicated teacher at Tomobiki high school. He wants the kids to learn and he wants discipline in the class room. It should be a simple thing, right? Unfortunately, Onsen-Mark is no match for obnoxious aliens and massive destruction. No matter how hard he works, the kids in his class are too distracted by Lum and her antics to really pay attention. So he usually feels like a failure. He’s fallen for Sakura, but spends most of his time moping around and not feeling worthy of her strength and beauty.

Ataru’s Parents

Ever suffering because of their son, they do their best to put up with it. Many times Ataru and Lum's antics end up shaming the whole family. Worse the widespread destruction caused by all the aliens and bizarre vistors ends up destroying thier home and/or neighborhood. Dad hides behind his newspaper. Mother usually mentions how she never should have given birth to Ataru. When the whole neighborhood (or whole world) starts chanting for Ataru's demise, you start to wonder when these two will just bump their kid off.

Conclusion

I could describe why this is happening, but... I'll just
let your imagination go.

You can probably see from the various characters how this whole thing ends up going. UY is very silly and quite a bit of fun to watch. One of the things that really caught up fans in North America when it first was released, was how much you could pick up about Japanese culture and traditions from the show. So much of the humor is based off of breaking the traditions, and showing everyday life in Japan suddenly thrown for a loop by Lum and her zany adventures.

As is typical of sitcoms, the characters don’t really ever change. In that way it starts to feel old after a while. I mean how many times can Lum catch Ataru drooling on a woman (literally and/or figuratively) and electrocute him. Many, many times. Sometimes a new character adds a twist. Mendou is a great foil for Ataru, and they get into some funny situations, but eventually it loses its freshness.

Lum and Ten celebrate the end of this primer!

My biggest issue with UY, is the fact that I don’t like Ataru. He’s pretty much a stupid jerk. I want to see him get electrocuted. Since the whole series revolves around his lecherous ways, it ends up losing me after a while. I much prefer Ranma and his stubborn but loyal demeanor. Still, I can’t deny that Lum is very cute and looks great in a bikini. She is the main reason the series was so popular for so long. And whenever you see anyone mention Urusei Yatsura it is followed quickly by mentioning Lum.