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Event-Only Urusei Yatsura Anime to Debut This Month (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
2009's combined issue #2/3 of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine has confirmed on Wednesday that the long-delayed new Urusei Yatsura anime special will premiere at the "It's a Rumic World" exhibition on December 23 in Sendai, Japan. This will be the first anime spinoff from Rumiko Takahashi's 1978-1987 slapstick comedy manga in 17 years, and it will be exclusively shown at this traveling display of Takahashi's artwork. The exhibition began this past summer in Tokyo with brand-new Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2 anime specials, but the Urusei Yatsura special was not finished in time.
Voice actress Fumi Hirano reprises her role as Lum, an alien princess who came to invade Earth, but ends up "marrying" a lecherous Japanese boy in a comedy of errors. Hirano played the same role in 195 television episodes, one television special, six theatrical films, and 11 animated videos from 1981 to 1991. Hirano and Toshio Furukawa (Lum's accidental mate Ataru) also voiced their roles in a separate opening animation clip for the ongoing exhibition; that crossover clip included the main characters from Urusei Yatsura, Ranma ½, and Inuyasha.
Source: Muhyojo
Update: Viz Media published the original manga in North America, while AnimEigo released the television series and videos. AnimEigo also released all the films except for Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, which Central Park Media licensed and AnimEigo co-produced.
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