Urusei Yatsura and That Time The BBC Made An Anime Dub

The classic harem comedy anime Urusei Yatsura has returned with a 46-episode reboot and while the original series is highly influential, the most interesting part about it, for me at least, was that it received an English dub by the BBC of all people.

In the year 2000, BBC 3 decided to air a British English dub of the first and third episodes of the original Urusei Yatsura anime as part of a special television block called “Japan Time” under the title of “Lum The Invader Girl” (why they skipped the second episode remains a mystery). Was the dub any good? Let’s just say it gives the infamous Ghost Stories dub a run for its money.

What Is Urusei Yatsura?

To start with, Urusei Yatsura was a manga by Rumiko Takahashi, who would go on to create Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha. The story revolves around a lecherous high scholar named Ataru, “the oversexed son of the local chiropadist (chiropractic)” as the BBC puts it. He’s been chosen to compete in a contest with an alien princess named Lum. If he can’t grab the horns on Lum’s head, her people invade the Earth. Thankfully he wins (via pulling her bra off), but through a misunderstanding, Lum now thinks he’s proposed to her, and instantly falls in love with her “Darling” much to the chagrin of his actual girlfriend Shinobu. Shenanigans issue.

This may sound cliche but remember, this story was released in 1978 and is often credited for popularizing the harem comedy genre in anime and manga. A show with such cultural impact sounds like the perfect program to air in a block about Japanese culture, so how did The BBC do?

BBC’s Lum The Invader Girl

The BBC Lum follows the basic plot of the original but adds a little humor of its own. Upon watching the first few minutes, it becomes pretty clear that the British actors, consisting of well-known local talents like Matt Lucas (Little Britain, Doctor Who) as Ataru and Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) as Lum, were not going for an entirely faithful recreation. The script is sprinkled with pop culture references, dry humor, and fourth-wall breaks. Honestly, it’s a riot.

“If it’s Pikachu, I’ll have the full set”

The dub is dripping with the kind of sarcasm and slapstick jokes British humor is known for, with a number of well-placed fourth-wall breaks and liberal use of ad-libbing. You have 10-foot tall oni aliens being introduced as “the voice of Bert Fry on The Archers”  and more than a few snide remarks about many of the animation oddities of the show.

You can tell that the localization team and actors were having a blast riffing through the episodes, and pointing out all the strange things they saw with some of the most British observations out there.

“Come in Red leader. What’s happening up there? Over.”

“Hard to tell base, there’s an enormous jellybean over my eyes”.

I do think part of what makes the dub so interesting is really just how British the entire thing actually sounds in terms of the voiceovers. Despite being from the UK, I’m so used to hearing American voice actors in anime dubs. Hitting play on the first episode of Lum, and hearing northern accents and cockney slang still feels almost as alien as the main heroine is. It’s certainly the first time I’ve heard the word “sod” used in an anime dub.

“You’ve had a bottle of meth more like, now piss off back to the day center”

“Arrogant little sod! I’ll pray for you anyway.”

That being said, it never feels like BBC’s Lum was trying to be disrespectful to the original work. The dub still primarily follows the plot of the episodes and in a strange turn, episode 3 (the second episode dubbed) actually plays the script fairly straight for the most part. It is unknown as to why, perhaps the Japanese studio requested a more faithful localization or maybe they just didn’t feel like putting as many jokes of their own in this one.

Lost Media

“We can catch Lum! Just look at the size of our ‘ands!”

Unfortunately, the dub would remain lost for a good few years as it was never released on home media or streaming, leaving only low-quality recordings of the original broadcast. The anime was later uploaded to Youtube with higher-quality visuals and sound quality, only to be taken down later on. Thankfully you can still find the BBC version of Lum The Invader Girl in other corners of the internet.

When it was first released, not everyone was a fan. In an overview of the entire block, The Guardian’s Mark Morris said “it isn’t even clear whether this is some inept attempt to reheat the What’s Up Tiger Lily? [Romantic Comedy Film] formula or whether the weak, mildly dirty humor is translated directly from the Japanese. Either way, it’s still not very funny.”

With that being said, in recent years and with the rise of anime-abridged series and gag dubs, many fans have become far more appreciative of the BBC Lum dub and the strange little oddity that it was.

The New Yurusei Yatsura 

A new 46-episode Urusei Yatsura anime has started airing with the first episode already out as of writing this, allowing a whole new generation of anime fans to fall in with Lum all over again.

While it’s highly unlikely that the BBC will ever take another shot at dubbing an anime, if they ever did come around to it, I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested.

The new Urusei Yatsura anime is now available for streaming.

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