# Urusei Yatsura: Only You (うる星やつら オンリー・ユー)
**Urusei Yatsura: Only You** (うる星やつら オンリー・ユー) is a 1983 Japanese animated science-fiction romantic comedy film, the first theatrical adaptation of [Rumiko Takahashi](https://www.edgepedia.org/rumiko-takahashi)'s manga *Urusei Yatsura* and the feature-film directorial debut of [Mamoru Oshii](https://www.edgepedia.org/mamoru-oshii), who had been chief director of the television series.[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) • [2](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89%E3%81%8A%E3%82%93%E3%82%8A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%86%E3%83%BC-1826676) It was released in Japanese theaters by Toho on February 11, 1983, produced by Kitty Films with production cooperation from Studio Pierrot.[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) • [3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Japanese release | February 11, 1983, distributed by Toho[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) |
| Position in series | First theatrical *Urusei Yatsura* film, made after the TV series' success[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) • [4](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/148417) |
| Director | Mamoru Oshii, his theatrical feature debut; screenplay by Tomoko Konparu[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) • [3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) |
| Original character | Elle, a new character for the film, designed by Rumiko Takahashi herself[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) |
| Main cast | Fumi Hirano (Lum), Toshio Furukawa (Ataru), Yoshiko Sakakibara (Elle), Saeko Shimazu (Shinobu), Akira Kamiya (Mendo)[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) |
| Runtime | Reported as 80 minutes by Filmarks and allcinema, 89 minutes by Studio Pierrot, and 91 minutes by the Oshii works database; an uncut 104-minute version was later released[5](https://filmarks.com/movies/26651) • [1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) • [6](https://www.oshii-lab.com/home/works/%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A6%E3%83%BC) • [3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) |
| Sequel | *Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer* (1984), also directed by Oshii[3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Wedding invitations arrive by space mail for Ataru Moroboshi and the people around him at Tomobiki High School, including Lum, Shinobu, Cherry, and Ran: Ataru is to marry a mysterious woman named Elle.[3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) Lum, who regards herself as Ataru's girlfriend, is furious. Eleven years earlier, Elle had come to Earth and played shadow tag with the six-year-old Ataru; on her planet, this counts as a betrothal.[3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) Ataru, hearing that Elle is a great beauty, runs off to her, and Lum, urged on by her friend Benten not to give up, begins a contest with Elle over Ataru that carries the cast into space.[3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) • [1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html)
On Elle's homeworld, Ataru is delighted to learn that marrying the most beautiful woman in space would also make him king of her planet. His classmate Mendou then sneaks into Elle's sanctuary at night and finds 100,000 young men sealed in hibernation capsules as frozen humans: Elle is a queen who collects men from across the universe.[3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) As the wedding preparations proceed, Lum arrives in pursuit of Ataru and rescues him at the critical moment.[3](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/) Studio Pierrot's synopsis adds that the struggle over Ataru spreads across space and escalates into a space war.[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html)
## Production
The film was made on the strength of the television series' popularity, as the first of the *Urusei Yatsura* theatrical features.[4](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/148417) Oshii did not begin the project as its director. In a later interview he explained that someone else was originally directing and quit, making him a "pinch hitter," and that he rushed the job, completing it in about four or five months.[7](https://www.furinkan.com/features/interviews/oshii3.html) A 2025 talk-event account reported by Eiga.com puts the handover at five months before release: Oshii said he was persuaded to take over "to protect the series" with only Elle's character illustrations, a finished script, and a few storyboards in hand, and finished on schedule while also working on the TV series in parallel.[8](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/)
The staff list includes character designers Akemi Takada and Magoichi Takazawa, art director Torao Arai, animation director Yuji Nunokawa, and music by Izumi Kobayashi, Yasunori Anzai, and Masamichi Amano.[1](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html) • [6](https://www.oshii-lab.com/home/works/%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A6%E3%83%BC) The theme song "I, I, You & 愛" was written, composed, arranged, and sung by Kobayashi, and the insert songs included "Lum's Ballad" sung by Fumi Hirano.[6](https://www.oshii-lab.com/home/works/%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A6%E3%83%BC) A fan account of the film's music describes the synthesizer-based background score as fresh for its time and praises the songs.[8](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/)
## Reception and Oshii's assessment
The film was double-billed with *Shonben Rider*, the debut feature of live-action director Shinji Sōmai; the pairing of the two films was mocked as "a saccharine factory explosion."[8](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/) After release, [Hayao Miyazaki](https://www.edgepedia.org/hayao-miyazaki) criticized the film's settings as too sweet in a published dialogue with Oshii.[8](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/) The filmmaker Juzo Itami, then still known as an actor, dismissed it as "a film like a sweet cake."[7](https://www.furinkan.com/features/interviews/oshii3.html)
**Oshii's own verdict** was harsher than any critic's. He later called the film "a complete failure, a big TV,"[8](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/) and in the Central Park Media interview said, "you could hardly call it a movie. It didn't feel like one... The characters were the same, and so were their personalities... it was a fan movie, an event movie, I suppose."[7](https://www.furinkan.com/features/interviews/oshii3.html) By contrast, the original author received the finished film favorably, and fans and staff accepted it.[9](https://uruseiyatsura.fandom.com/ja/wiki/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89_%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A6%E3%83%BC)
The experience shaped what followed. Oshii said he treated the 1984 sequel *Beautiful Dreamer* as a real movie independent of the first, changing how he filmed everything.[7](https://www.furinkan.com/features/interviews/oshii3.html) At a 2025 screening event he reportedly softened his stance, saying that if *Beautiful Dreamer* had been his debut and *Only You* the follow-up, his career would have been entirely different, and that the two films form "one set as two works."[8](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/) Later assessments place the two films in a similar relation: retrospective commentary notes that *Beautiful Dreamer* is now rated higher, while *Only You* is seen as an all-star festival film for fans that already shows themes and visual ideas pointing toward Oshii's later filmmaking.[8](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/) • [10](https://cultureinjection.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/brian-ruh-stray-dog-of-anime-the-films-of-mamoru-oshii.pdf)
## Ratings and home video
On the Japanese review site Filmarks the film holds a 3.5 average from 2,676 user reviews, with 64 percent of ratings in the 3.1 to 4.0 band.[5](https://filmarks.com/movies/26651) Allcinema lists a 5.7 average from 18 votes.[4](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/148417) The National Diet Library catalog records a new-telecine HD master edition on Blu-ray Disc released by Warner Bros. Home [Entertainment](https://www.edgepedia.org/entertainment) in June 2015, running 90 minutes on one disc, as part of the theatrical *Urusei Yatsura* Blu-ray box.[11](https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I025957288)
## References
1. [うる星やつら オンリー・ユー, Studio Pierrot official site](https://pierrot.jp/archive/movie_b2000/mov_01.html)
2. [うる星やつらオンリー・ユー, デジタル大辞泉プラス via Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89%E3%81%8A%E3%82%93%E3%82%8A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%86%E3%83%BC-1826676)
3. [うる星やつら オンリー・ユー : 作品情報・キャスト・あらすじ, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/)
4. [映画アニメ うる星やつら オンリー・ユー (1983), allcinema](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/148417)
5. [うる星やつら オンリー・ユー, Filmarks映画](https://filmarks.com/movies/26651)
6. [うる星やつら オンリー・ユー, Mamoru Oshii Laboratory](https://www.oshii-lab.com/home/works/%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A6%E3%83%BC)
7. [Central Park Media Interview with Mamoru Oshii, Rumic World](https://www.furinkan.com/features/interviews/oshii3.html)
8. [うる星やつら オンリー・ユーのレビュー・感想・評価, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/34967/review/)
9. [うる星やつら オンリー・ユー, Urusei Yatsura Wiki (Fandom)](https://uruseiyatsura.fandom.com/ja/wiki/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E6%98%9F%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4%E3%82%89_%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A6%E3%83%BC)
10. [Brian Ruh, Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii](https://cultureinjection.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/brian-ruh-stray-dog-of-anime-the-films-of-mamoru-oshii.pdf)
11. [うる星やつらオンリー・ユー : ニューテレシネHDマスター版, NDLサーチ](https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I025957288)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 1932 to 1998*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license