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Sorry to keep you waiting! I'm Lum.

Lum[src]

Lum (ラム, Ramu?), sometimes called Lum Invader, is the female protagonist of Urusei Yatsura. She is a Oni alien hailing from the planet Oniboshi. She was chosen to represent her kind in a game of tag against a human named Ataru Moroboshi to determine the fate of planet Earth. After Ataru defeats her, she misunderstands his victory chants as a proposal to marry her, thus she forces herself into his life and becomes Ataru's loving "wife' much to the latter's chagrin.

Biography[]

Lum meets Ataru Moroboshi when he was randomly selected by a computer to face her in a game of tag with the fate of the earth on the line. Ataru had been promised marriage by Shinobu Miyake if he could win, and upon catching Lum, he declared "Now I can get married!" and Lum mistook this as a proposal to herself and accepted it. As engagements are sacred on her planet, she's become completely determined to be married to Ataru for the rest of her life, falls completely in love with him, and refers to him as "Darling (ダーリン, Darling?)". Thus she's forced her way into his life as his "loving wife", and violently shocks him whenever he looks at or flirts with another girl (or if he does something to make her mad), but she always forgives him in the end.

Personality[]

Lum's a sweet, innocent, faithful, and good-natured girl, but she can also get jealous and get hot-tempered, usually due to Ataru and his incessant addiction of flirting. However, in early chapters of the manga and at least till the start of season 2 of the anime, Lum had a nasty streak, almost antagonistic towards many of the characters. She even hatched schemes to be with Ataru when Shinobu was involved.

Appearance[]

Lum is shown to be a very beautiful and voluptuous young woman with golden-brown eyes (blue in the original anime) and cyan shoulder length hair. Like all of her kind she has sharp teeth, pointy ears and small yellow horns. For her everyday attire she wears a yellow tiger striped bikini with matching boots. When she is attending Tomobiki High School she wears the basic navy blue sailor suit for female students.

Abilities[]

  • Flight - Lum can fly up to various heights into the sky, according to her own free will.
  • Electricity Manipulation - Lum can generate massive electrical discharges, usually from her hands. Her electric shocks are so powerful they are considered to have the raw energy of lightning.
  • Genius-Level Intelligence - Lum is extremely smart being able to make various inventions even being show to have a mastery over chemistry having made a special lipstick that when worn by two people it would force them to lock lips with each other.
  • Energy Storage - Lum can store big amounts of electricity in her body to supercharge her Electric shock, sometimes turning her body blue or gold in the process.

Weaknesses[]

  • Horns - Lum's abilities are tied to her horns. Tying a special ribbon around them will severely weaken her powers.
  • Jealousy - Lum's jealous attitude toward any woman Ataru meets can be catastrophic, such as causing a massive blackout just to prevent him and Shinobu from talking on the phone.

Relationships[]

Ataru Moroboshi

In the beginning of the story, Lum's constantly hugging and kissing Ataru (whether he wants to or not), but by the end she calmed down considerably and simply holds onto his arm whenever they're walking somewhere. She's usually together with Ataru and does almost everything with him, like eating lunch with him, going to school and back, or going to a festival. Because of this, she's come to consider and treat his room as her home, though Ataru insists she sleeps in the closet. Takahashi's reason for this is that 2 high school students shouldn't be sleeping together. They also share a kiss in the last episode of the series "All-Star Banquet! We Are Immortal!"(although it should be noted Ataru kisses her unprovoked in the Open Invitation ending.)

Shinobu Miyake

She initially saw Shinobu as a rival that challenged her love for Ataru. However, as the story dragged on, they eventually become close friends and allies, using Shinobu's strength and Lum's electrical powers to accomplish things together. Shinobu gradually concedes and moves onto trying to build a relationship with Mendō, and later Inaba in the series.

Shūtarō Mendō

Lum has always viewed Mendō as a reliable and close friend. Although Mendō strictly loves just Lum, to where she is all that his eyes can perceive, Lum is only interested in Ataru. Mendō's very defensive and protective of Lum and he's always looking out to assist her whenever she's needed, whether with his troops or with his own life. He treats Lum in a formal fashion, and he usually treats her to invitations and events but Lum wont attend his events if Ataru won't come with her.

Lum's Stormtroopers

To be added

Rei

Since she was a child, Lum was in love Rei for his handsome look. However due to his personality, shapeshifting abilities, and huge appetite for food, Lum started to detest Rei, and eventually dumped him when she misunderstood Ataru's marriage proposal. Even so, much to her annoyance, Rei wouldn't give up on her and she expects him to move on to Ran. Lum always tells Rei to get lost.

Benten

Lum and Benten are childhood friends that have always caused trouble and havoc. They help each other whenever it's needed.

Oyuki

Lum and Oyuki are also childhood friends, but Oyuki in contrast to Lum has always held back and usually exhibited good behavior, although she has participated in the troublesome activities that Lum has participated in. Oyuki comes to Lum's assistance whenever she needs it, usually through the classroom's closet, freezing everything in her path.

Ran

Lum and Ran are childhood friends, but they share a great rivalry that's largely based in vengeance. Lum respects Ran and she's fearful of her tantrums, often "forgetting" events in the past where she got Ran in trouble. As a kid, Ran looked up to Lum as a protector, but she felt victimized by all the numerous times that Lum's gotten her in trouble, such as blaming bed wetting on her, or almost allowing her to get eaten by a dinosaur. She also despises Lum for having stolen Rei's love in the past, and she feels threatened that Lum maybe trying to steal Rei again. Then Ran followed Lum to Earth to plot her revenge. Initially, her plan was to take Ataru away from Lum, and potentially poison him with her lips. At other times, she plots to poison her herself. Despite all the hostile ambitions, Ran views Lum as a friend that she's always there for her, like one time when she was sick and Lum stayed by her bedside all night long.

Cherry

Cherry and Lum have conspired and worked together multiple times (mainly in the first season.) Later one, Lum, like everyone around her, grew to dislike, or even hostility towards Cherry, though he didn't return the feelings, and often respected Lum.

Speech[]

Lum refers to herself in the first person as "uchi (うち, uchi?)" and she's famous for usually ending her sentences with "~datcha (~だっちゃ, ~datcha?)". When used by itself, "datcha" means "Yes". A similar speech pattern appears in Takahashi's debut work Katte na Yatsura, where the dappyamen add "dappya (だっぴゃ, dappya?)" at the end of all their sentences.

Appellations[]

Name What They Call Lum What Lum Calls Them
Ataru Moroboshi Lum Darling
Shinobu Miyake Lum Shinobu
Shūtarō Mendō Lum-san Shūtarō
Ryūnosuke Fujinami Lum Ryūnosuke
Kōsuke Shirai / Lum's Stormtroopers Lum-chan Unknown
Megane Lum-san Megane
Ten Lum-chan Ten-chan
Cherry Unknown Cherry
Sakura Lum Sakura
Ataru's Mother Lum(-chan) Mother-in-law
Ataru's Father Lum Father-in-law
Onsen-Mark Lum Sensei
Hanawa Lum-kun Sensei
Tomobiki High School Principal Lum-kun Kōchō (Principal)
Ryūnosuke's Father Unknown Oji-san
Ran Lum-chan Ran-chan
Rei Lum Rei
Benten Lum Benten
Oyuki Lum-san Oyuki-chan
Lum's Father Lum(-chan) Tou-chan
Lum's Mother Lum Kaa-chan
Kurama Oni Woman Kurama
Ryōko Mendō Oni Woman Ryōko

Quotes[]

  • "Darling!"
  • "Darling, you idiot!"
  • "One, two, three! DIVINE RETRIBUTION!!!"
  • "We're going to make a baby on Saturday night!"
  • "Darling! Shinobu can go to hell!"
  • "Darling, you IDIOT! Do ya wanna really forget about me!?"
  • "Oooh! I will never marry such a tacky man! Tacky tacky tacky!!"
  • "Umeboshi? GIVE ME UMEBOSHI!"
  • "Teacher, husbands and wives should always be together, whether it's raining or windy, in the house, or even at school!"
  • "Thank you, Ran. I will think hard about this..."
  • "Even if it takes a "lifetime", I'll make ya say it!"
  • "Will this be okay? I mean, she doesn't seem to know what darling can be like sometimes..."

Trivia[]

  • Lum's name comes from a bikini model called Agnes Lum.
  • Lum is often believed to be the protagonist of the series due to her popularity. However, Rumiko Takahashi has stated on many occasions that she had always meant for Ataru to be the protagonist.
    • Originally, Lum was not supposed to be a main character. She was meant to be a one time character and Shinobu was to take her place as the main love interest. However, fans loved Lum so much, that Lum became a main character; which is why Lum was absent for some of the first chapters of Urusei Yatsura.
  • When Lum's horns are removed, her electric and flying abilities disappear and she becomes a regular girl.
  • Lum's Zodiac Sign is the Tiger Striped Unicorn.
  • Lum drinks Tabasco as if it were juice and the food she cooks is violently spicy. Eating umeboshi causes her to get drunk and she dislikes garlic.
  • Lum is immune to any form of electricity, as a result she can store any extra electricity in her body to power up her attack. However, if she has too much electricity stored in her body, her body and clothes grow blue and anything she touches, she electrifies it.
  • Lum likes the taste of electricity, she claims it taste like candy.
  • Whenever she delivers divine retribution to Ataru, she sometimes adopts the pose of Ultraman preforming his Specium Beam attack.
  • One of Lum's more infamous gags is her tendency to electrocute Ataru Moroboshi whilst happily embracing him. In the 1981 anime, this is even given the name "expression of love", and in Episode 5, one of the complaints that prompts Ataru to run away from home is a local electrician complaining about how much overtime he has had to work due to Lum's "expressions of love" shorting out the local transformers, implying she does this quite frequently. However, the gag is short-lived; in the manga, she only consciously does it 5 times - three times when she returns in Chapter 3, and once each in Chapter 4 and Chapter 27. She then does it whilst drunk on umeboshi in Chapter 112 and whilst under the effects of the Soul-Snatch Sugar/Heartstealers candy in Chapter 354, which also marks the only time where it is called "expression of love" in the manga. It only appears marginally more frequently in the first 42 episodes of the 1981 anime; after episode 42, its last appearances are in one of Ataru's imagine spots in Episode 60 and in the Catch the Heart (OVA).
  • Ataru and Lum kiss a grand total of three times in the 1981 anime, not counting Ataru kissing Lum in the final moments of the ending theme Open Invitation and do not kiss at all in the manga.
    • In Episode 5, Lum kisses Ataru against his will.
    • In Episode 59, Lum catches an explosion-thrust Ataru and pulls him into a kiss he is implied to return.
    • In Episode 194, Ataru deliberately kisses Lum whilst they are trapped together, the only time he initiates a kiss.

  • She proved so popular that various Cameos and References of her were made.
  • Lum's spiritual successor seems to be Ryoko Hakubi from the Tenchi Muyo series and the two share many similar traits and quirks:
    • Ryoko, like Lum, is an alien woman who can fly, fire some sort of energy from their body/hands, and at times, Ryoko is even portrayed as an Oni. To complete this loop, Ryoko's first canonical appearance was actually a split second cameo in Ranma 1/2. Some art of Ryoko even in Lum's signature bikini has been made by several manga artist.
  • Lum was drawn by Kiyohiko Azuma, the maker of Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba, in his signature art style, next to his character, Yotsuba.
  • In the manga Ghost Sweeper Mikami, a cameo approved by Rumiko Takahashi, has Rumiko witness the titular Mikami chasing a spirit, covered in electricity and mistaking it as some sort of game. She then draws Lum.
  • Lum became the spokes person for SUNTORY's Regain drink, portrayed by Sumire Matsubara, a Hawaiian singer, actress and model.

  • Her voice actress would voice two characters from two other works of Rumiko Takahashi:
    • Kanna from the short-story The Executive's Dog as part of the Rumiko Takahashi Anthology series Rumic Theater.
    • The mother of Kyoukai no Rinne's protagonist Sakura Mamiya (in fact, her color scheme may be a strong reference to Lum, and she is physically similar to Fumi Hirano).
  • Another character from Kyoukai no Rinne, Renge Shima has two oni horns just like Lum.

  • Gallery[]

    1981 Anime[]

    Manga[]

    Movies and OVAs[]

    2022 Anime[]

    Artwork[]

    Other[]

    References[]

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