Urusei Yatsura Movie 4: Lum The Forever

It's always interested me that Urusei Yatsura, a wonderfully hilarious comedy manga and anime series, inspired two of the strangest and most compelling anime films ever made. The basic material of the series is hardly deep: Ataru acts like a lecherous fool, Lum electrocutes him, and then we move on to the next gag. So why, then, did anyone come up with Beautiful Dreamer, an extraordinarily moving and very funny examination of human desires, the nature of consciousness, and the basics of perceived reality? That's a question for another review, of course, but it leads directly into the total mystery that is Lum the Forever. ... Since the film was released, Lum the Forever has sparked endless debates over what it's really about. Is it as deep as Beautiful Dreamer or just a crazy mess of false leads and mind games for gullible anime fans to ponder when they aren't off polishing their collections of precious waifu figurines?

I don't claim to have an answer to that question. A peremptory look at the amount of material about Lum the Forever online can provide anyone who's interested with a cornucopia of theories, analyses, and perspectives that I couldn't possibly summarize. If you're intrigued by this film, and you want to explore Lum the Forever's meaning in greater depth, then I hope you will. I only want to argue that it's a truly great film that deserves much higher status and visibility than it receives these days (2017).

One thing that I think makes a lot of the Urusei Yatsura anime world seem so unapproachable is that newcomers may feel intimidated by the sheer amount of stuff out there. One might assume that since Lum the Forever is the fourth movie, you ought to have a deep understanding of the many characters that were introduced over the years. Don't worry. Much like Beautiful Dreamer, the cast is limited to the core members of the story. Even if you've just watched a handful of the anime episodes, you'll be fine. Urusei Yatsura is a pretty basic comedy. It's not like you need full backstories or any huge history lessons. This ain't Mobilesuit Gundam. Jump in and take a chance.

What Lum the Forever provides is a beautiful and strange story that takes Lum, Ataru, and the rest of the Tomobiki kids on an emotional journey through a captivating landscape. It pushes the Urusei Yatsura universe in ways that Beautiful Dreamer also does, but while that film was ultimately an intellectual journey, Lum the Forever works in a much more literal dream state -- our emotions and subconscious processes are tapped much more directly here. The logic is that of dreams, and defining an exact linear plot or overarching structure is less important than the experience itself.

Sure, you have a plot about making a fairly ridiculous amateur movie, the death of a cherry tree, and some very unexpected things happening to Lum and her place in well...actual existence.... I thought the movie was immensely entertaining even without getting too deep into what it all meant. The animation is really beautiful, especially in its use of color, and if you see this film as a dreamlike experience with deeply emotional overtones then that's the best way to approach it from the start.

There's not as much comedy here; it's a story about growth, change, and the acceptance that life, and one's experience of lived time, simply alters despite one's hopes that a certain "perfect time" will forever remain constant. And in this sense, Lum the Forever complements and completes the lessons of Beautiful Dreamer. In the latter film, the ultimate message was that it's futile and meaningless to attach one's self-definition to the false security of one treasured moment in time. Lum the Forever illustrates the need to move on from such moments, even when that process is painful and feels like a disaster. At the end, the film offers hope that even such difficult changes ultimately resolve themselves, and though we have to relinquish certain attachments, it doesn't mean that the next stages in life are worse or less important. Love goes on, and memories are to be cherished.

This is an abstract review, but I suppose the film demands that in a way. You can take this movie apart in detail but from my perspective it's best to enjoy it most of all for what it is: a full experience, one that contains a great deal of emotional depth and hard questions for those who love Urusei Yatsura. Nobody may ever really be able to explain the plot, but for me, I'll always remember this film for how it made me feel. It's a movie that fans of more recent and more experimental, more popularly acknowledged anime should see. It's a film that often gets forgotten because it's just one more installment in a giant, rather old franchise that doesn't get much attention these days. Those who don't watch this movie are missing out. It's daring, beautiful. and haunting. I hope you'll give it a chance.

Let me get this out immediately: This movie is the worst movie of this series. Let me elaborate on this point. In my honest opinion, this movie would be bottom ranked out of the six Urusei Yatsura movies.This may be the worst movie out of this franchise but on its own its a somewhat decent movie.

The movie had some high levels of nonsense similiar to the tv show and it had also some very humorous scenes.
Those things seem like a good thing but in case of the nonsense stuff it is actually for the worse as there is almost no explaination behind all the ... weird stuff going on.

Lets start with the premise of the story, problems arise in the town while Ataru and the crew are filming some movie. The start of this movie seemed good, everything you would expect from the series. But then the story takes a drastic turn which in my opinion is for the worse.

This movie is clearly trying to be thought provoking and is not becoming a comedy movie but rather a philosophical movie in which the director tries to pass on a message to the viewers.
While you may think the second movie, Beautiful Dreamer, was also more of a philosophical movie rather than a comedy, then I would agree and disagree with you. The difference between those are clear from the way the movie tries to portray its message. Beautiful Dreamer actually provided enough information to the viewer to actually understand what was going on while Lum Forever keeps the viewer in the dark for the whole duration of this movie.

At the end of the movie I was confused as what the plot actually was. Why they didn't come up with some background story, no matter how ridiculous it could have been, which would act as the reason for all the weird stuff happening. From a certain scene in the movie you may come up with the reason for the left out plot, it is all McGuffins. In other words the plot is pointless, everyone who knows this franchise would already understand the movie that seeing the somewhat the same pointless storylines over and over again has no meaning. That was probably what the director was thinking, which is supported by the idea of the director to convey the message to the viewer.
This message being "Life's too precious to be wasted" meaning that the fans should not be fixated on this franchise and that they should move out, get some exposure to real life and simply get a life as the director stated in a interview. However this failed misserably as not everyone got the message. Which kind of makes sense considering the time this movie was aired and the kind of genre this franchise was known for. This movie simply didn't fit this franchise.

The animation was pretty good, as expected from a movie of this franchise. Some nice imagery was portrayed such as the moment they were filming to some of the dream scenes. The sound was also good, with the typical "Space is super weird" song playing at the end. Each one of the main cast had their nice moments to shine. I enjoyed this movie in a decent way but I expected something with a much better plot considering this movie was aired around the end of the series. Even though this movie suffered majorly from the way it tried to portray its message, it still has its own charm if you know the context this movie was made with its good intention behind the message to not be obsessed by something fictinional.

What the hell is happening in this film!? I'm starting to find an overall theme with these last couple of films where "Reality is being altered and Lum may or may not have anything to do with it." These storylines are starting to become more mundane. However, this is one of the better Urusei Yatsura movies I've seen so far. It's so close to being on the same level as Beautiful Dreamer, I just wish the story was a little more coherent and less esoteric in it's direction. Things just happen and aren't explained very well. Spoilers incoming.

Megane and the rest of the gang are ... filming a movie called, "Legend of the Oni Princess." A pretty simple start, so far. Ataru, as usual, is causing issues with the recording of the film and Lum plays the Oni Princess. There's a specific scene where Ataru is meant to cut off this massive sakura tree called, Tarouzakura, a three hundred year old tree. This is the point of no return, because after Ataru cuts down the tree, it melts into this green, disgusting looking goo, and that's what causes the events of the film to play out. Slowly, but surely, Lum's powers begin to weaken. The first instance of this was the classroom scene where Ataru was being the typical pervert he is, and Lum shocks him. However, her electricity has no effect on him and he throws her electricity right back at her. It's almost like he's rubber and she's glue, everything she does bounces back and sticks onto you, I mean her. Even her flying ability is lacking, not being able to go as fast as she once did. Ataru takes advantage of this, of course.

And it's not just her powers, her presence is dwindling, as well. It's almost like a metaphor for how Lum's presence in the anime community as the ultimate waifu is rapidly deteriorating with time. People are forgetting about Lum OH NOOOOO! She's starting to leave people's minds and fade out of photographs. Mendo is the first to realize this, but Ataru doesn't care all that much. Now, this is the point in the film where it completely lost me. Well, kinda. Two-thirds of the way in, the narrative takes a jarring shift and becomes something entirely different. Mendo is this ultimate badass character who is beating the shit out of people and having mass weddings. So I hate him even more now. Remember that episode of Gurren Lagann where the characters were thrown into alternate universes by the anti-spiral? Yeah, the exact same thing happens here. Time and space being manipulated once again isn't anything new for this movie series, but I think it's pulled off well here. I just wish the movie did a better job at explaining what was going on instead of changing the story out of nowhere.

It soon becomes an all out battle between reality vs. the alternative realities, I think. It's then revealed that the town of Tomobiki is on the verge of collapse, all because of the film Megane and the gang filmed earlier in the movie. The Oni Princess was real the whole time, I think. It was the tree that Ataru cut down that was bleeding the green juice, I think. That's why reality was falling apart and combining with other universes, I think. After the big battle, which was very well animated, Lum awakens from her....trance and everything is resolved. The ending was very wholesome and sweet. This was an odd one. I definitely like it more than movies 1 & 3. Once again, the visual presentation in this film was stunning to look at. The soundtrack was fine, I guess. None of the songs sound all that distinctive in this film, which is sad. It was a good experience; not quite on the same level as movie 2, but that's okay. This movie gets a 7 out of 10.

Movies: 3 < 1 < 4 < 2

Story: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 7/10