The History of Urusei Yatsura

Urusei Yatsura began in Weekly Shonen Sunday on August 30, 1978, written by a 20-year-old university student. It was planned for five chapters, with a different strange visitor in each; Lum was meant to appear only in the first. She was absent from chapter two, back in chapter three, and the series quietly reorganized itself around her. Serialization was sporadic until mid-1979 while Takahashi finished university; it ran regularly thereafter and ended on January 21, 1987, at 366 chapters and nearly 6,000 pages, collected in 34 tankobon.

The title is a pun that resists translation: urusai, “noisy, obnoxious,” written with the kanji for “planet”, roughly, Those Obnoxious Aliens. The names keep joking: Lum was named for 1970s bikini model Agnes Lum, her “Darling” is a wink at Darrin from Bewitched, Ataru Moroboshi’s name suggests a man hit by a star, and Tomobiki town is named for the calendar day that “takes friends,” a day of no winners and no losers.

The totals: over 35 million copies; the 26th Shogakukan Manga Award in 1980; the Seiun Award for Best Comic in 1987; and, in 1985 alone, some ¥10 billion (about $91 million) in franchise merchandise. Takahashi has said she ended the series when she saw that Shinobu had become happy, after the character Inaba was introduced, and that she will not produce more of it.