Lum Invader
Encyclopedia
is a fictional character
and the female protagonist
from Rumiko Takahashi
's manga
and anime
series Urusei Yatsura
. She is often believed to be the main protagonist
of the series due to her iconic status. However, Takahashi has stated that Ataru Moroboshi
is the main character. She is named Lamu in Animax
's English-language dub of the series, and in the Italian anime dub as well. Her name comes from popular 1980s swimsuit model Agnes Lum
, as well as Rumiko Takahashi
's nickname of "Rum" or "Lum" (from the interchangeable sound of the R's and L's in Japanese).
Lum is considered a magical girlfriend
, though significantly different from others such as Belldandy
of Oh! My Goddess and Ai of Video Girl Ai
. While the latter two are openly considered "ideal" women by the protagonists of their respective series, Ataru often indicates publicly that Lum is the opposite of ideal.
Invader and is capable of flying and generating massive electrical discharges. She generally wears a tiger-striped bikini
and Go-Go Boots
which highlight her shapely figure, and has two tiny horns on her head that, when sprayed with a special solution, can be shaped to resemble barrettes. When these horns are removed (or when specially blessed yellow ribbons are tied around them), her electric and flying abilities disappear and she becomes a regular girl. Lum's appearance and clothing (and that of her family) draw heavily on the Japanese god of thunder, Raijin
.
She grew up on her homeworld Oniboshi a precocious girl and attended primary school with Benten of the Oni's rivals, the Lucky Gods, Oyuki, the ice princess, and Ran. There the four of them developed a reputation for causing massive amounts of trouble. Ran often got roped into their mischief and then took all the blame, while Lum got off unharmed, which later lead Ran to seek revenge. In junior high school, Lum, Benten, and Oyuki's reputation grew into them becoming a school gang. Lum later got engaged to a handsome Oni named Rei, but rejected him because of his dullness. When she was seventeen, the Oni attempted to invade the planet Earth, an event that would change her life forever.
That day, Lum met Ataru Moroboshi
for the first time. He had been randomly selected by computer to face her in a game of tag
with the fate of the earth on the line. Ataru had been promised marriage by his then-girlfriend Shinobu if he could win, which spurred him to success, but upon catching Lum he declared "Now I can get married!" Lum misinterpreted this as a proposal to herself and accepted it. Because engagements are sacred on her planet, she is determined to be married to Ataru for the rest of her life. Since then, she has forced her way into his life as his "loving wife," much to his chagrin because it compromised his ability to flirt. The relationship between Lum and Ataru has been called "a humorously exaggerated parody of a common Japanese husband and wife dynamic."
Lum is very intelligent, but very naive about life on earth, with a worldview comparable to that of a kindergarten
er. She does not understand why the other boys at school feel that the philandering Ataru is not good enough for her, but she cares about their well-being. She has successfully adapted herself to life on Earth thanks to her technology. She still struggles to keep her younger cousin Ten from wreaking havoc thanks to his own naiveté about human behavior. For the most part, however, people who look at her for the first time view her as a highly attractive schoolgirl, despite her obviously different appearance. She has the qualities of the ideal wife and daughter-in-law in Japanese society as she takes good care of her darling and she helps her "mother-in-law" with the housework whenever she is free.
Lum is well-versed in the use of technology, and carries a variety of advanced gadgets from her society with her, with the stranger gadgets hidden in her bikini top. But while her intentions in operating them are often noble, such as copying a notebook to help Ataru study for an exam, the results are rarely what Lum intends. This may be in part because she is naive regarding the customs of Earth, so she often misunderstands what people say. The best example of this is her innocent misinterpretation of Ataru's victory yell after he defeated her in tag. She believed it to be an instant marriage, rather than a proposal, or even just the celebratory shout it really was.
She drinks Tabasco sauce
as if it were juice and the food she cooks is violently spicy. It does not stop her from trying to prepare edible victuals, and she enjoys preparing food for Ataru, who angers her by refusing to consume it for fear of burning his tongue. Eating umeboshi
causes her to get drunk and she dislikes garlic
. Despite efforts from everybody she knows to convince her otherwise, her love for Ataru remains unchanged because he has consistently proven that he genuinely cares for her well-being in spite of his idiotic facade. These events have convinced Lum that Ataru is indeed the right man for her.
In the beginning of the series, she constantly hugs and kisses Ataru whether he wants it or not, often infuriating Shinobu (who still has feelings for Ataru) and the rest of the class. But by the end, Lum has calmed down considerably and simply holds onto his arm whenever they are walking somewhere. She is usually together with Ataru and does almost everything with him, be it eating lunch, going to and from school, or going to a festival. She even enrolled herself in Tomobiki High to spend more time with him, which initially caused her Darling to faint from the shock. Because of this, Lum has come to consider and treat his room as her home, though Ataru insists she sleep in the closet. Takahashi's reason for this is that she believes two high school students shouldn't be sleeping together. Lum did try to get Ataru to sleep with her in early manga chapters and anime episodes (and also spread a rumor that she and Ataru were sleeping together and that she was pregnant with his child, which was designed to make Shinobu angry at Ataru), but Ataru flatly refused. In one episode, she does share Ataru's bed, but only after fitting him in a bulky insulated suit to protect him from accidental electric shocks in her sleep.
Lum is considered the embodiment of the struggle facing modern Japanese women: how to be independent and still fulfill the traditional role of loving wife and mother. While she is very independent minded, she continues to be supportive and loving of Ataru no matter what happens throughout the entire series.
as , which is a trait of the western Japanese dialects including the Kansai dialect, and is famous for usually ending her sentences with or simply , which is a trait of the Sendai dialect. When used by itself, "daccha" means "Yes". This speech type is a rather saccharine, "cute" type of speech. A similar speech pattern appears in Takahashi's debut work Katte na Yatsura, where the dappyamen add at the end of all of their sentences.
AnimEigo's English dub of the first two episodes of the TV series, Those Obnoxious Aliens, attempted to approximate Lum's "daccha" speech pattern with "icha," which in English means nothing. None of the other American- or British-made dubs of Urusei Yatsura TV episodes or movies have tried a similar English approximation of "daccha."
Lum is a well known and popular character in Japan, and has been described as "the original Otaku dream girl". On 4 April 1982, Lum and other characters from Urusei Yatsura appeared in two public service announcements for Kansai Electric Power Company
regarding being careful with kites and koinobori
around electrical lines. Hirano Fumi
, the voice of Lum, did the main voice overs for the commercials.
Merchandise featuring Lum continues to be popular, and her image appears on a wide variety of printed, commercial, and electronic media.
Thirty years after she was introduced (in 1978), pachinko
machines featuring Lum are still being made. Lum also appeared wearing a Hanshin Tigers
uniform in a series of numbered collector covers of the Daily Sports (a daily sport
s newspaper published in Japan) from 2003-08-12 to 2003-09-15. Comiket
organiser Ichikawa Koichi has described Lum Invader as being both the source of moe and the first tsundere
, a character type
which alternates between being harsh and being loving. Bome
, a sculptor of anime-style figurines, felt that Lum was the first female lead character in a shōnen manga work, and was inspired by Lum to create a line of "oni-musume" (she-devil) figurines.
Matthew Sweet
introduced many people in the United States
to Lum through clips in his music video "I've Been Waiting". Sweet also has a tattoo
of Lum.
A parody of Lum and Ten can be seen in the street in an issue of the Futurama
comic. Lum has green hair and the tiger stripes on her clothes are brown.
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and the female protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
from Rumiko Takahashi
Rumiko Takahashi
is a Japanese manga artist.Takahashi is one of the wealthiest individuals, and the most affluent manga artists in Japan. The manga she creates are popular worldwide, where they have been translated into a variety of languages...
's manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Urusei Yatsura
Urusei Yatsura
is a comedic manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi that premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 1978 and ran until its conclusion in 1987. Its 374 individual chapters were collected and published in 34 tankōbon volumes. The series tells the story of Ataru Moroboshi, and the alien...
. She is often believed to be the main protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
of the series due to her iconic status. However, Takahashi has stated that Ataru Moroboshi
Ataru Moroboshi
is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Rumiko Takahashi's manga and anime series Urusei Yatsura. He is sometimes considered a teenage version of the character Nobita Nobi from Fujiko Fujio's popular manga Doraemon by many anime fans.-History:...
is the main character. She is named Lamu in Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
's English-language dub of the series, and in the Italian anime dub as well. Her name comes from popular 1980s swimsuit model Agnes Lum
Agnes Lum
Agnes Nalani Lum, born on May 21, 1956 to a Chinese father and a mother of Hawaiian ancestry, in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a gravure idol star, singer, actress, and bikini supermodel popular in Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
, as well as Rumiko Takahashi
Rumiko Takahashi
is a Japanese manga artist.Takahashi is one of the wealthiest individuals, and the most affluent manga artists in Japan. The manga she creates are popular worldwide, where they have been translated into a variety of languages...
's nickname of "Rum" or "Lum" (from the interchangeable sound of the R's and L's in Japanese).
Lum is considered a magical girlfriend
Magical girlfriend
A magical girlfriend is a female character often associated with romantic comedy anime series, and is sometimes considered a genre of its own, or as the leading lady of the "fantastic romance" genre, which combines the fantasy and romance genres.As Thomas LaMarre states, "Anime fans become...
, though significantly different from others such as Belldandy
Belldandy
is a character in the popular anime and manga series Oh My Goddess!. She was created by Kōsuke Fujishima as one of three Goddesses who come to Earth to reside with Keiichi Morisato, and she serves as his love interest. She is depicted as a beautiful and powerful young woman, with strong nurturing...
of Oh! My Goddess and Ai of Video Girl Ai
Video Girl Ai
is a manga series created by Masakazu Katsura and published by Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump. It also has an anime adaptation. The manga is published in English by Viz Communications...
. While the latter two are openly considered "ideal" women by the protagonists of their respective series, Ataru often indicates publicly that Lum is the opposite of ideal.
History
Lum is royalty and the daughter of the Oni alienExtraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
Invader and is capable of flying and generating massive electrical discharges. She generally wears a tiger-striped bikini
Bikini
The bikini is typically a women's two-piece swimsuit. One part of the attire covers the breasts and the other part covers the crotch and part of or the entire buttocks, leaving an uncovered area between the two. Merriam–Webster describes the bikini as "a woman's scanty two-piece bathing suit" or "a...
and Go-Go Boots
Go-go boots
Go-go boots are a low-heeled style of women's fashion boot worn since the mid-sixties when fashion silhouettes focused on accentuating the leg...
which highlight her shapely figure, and has two tiny horns on her head that, when sprayed with a special solution, can be shaped to resemble barrettes. When these horns are removed (or when specially blessed yellow ribbons are tied around them), her electric and flying abilities disappear and she becomes a regular girl. Lum's appearance and clothing (and that of her family) draw heavily on the Japanese god of thunder, Raijin
Raijin
is a god of lightning, thunder and storms in the Shinto religion and in Japanese mythology.His name is derived from the Japanese words rai and shin . He is typically depicted as a demon beating drums to create thunder, usually with the symbol tomoe drawn on the drums...
.
She grew up on her homeworld Oniboshi a precocious girl and attended primary school with Benten of the Oni's rivals, the Lucky Gods, Oyuki, the ice princess, and Ran. There the four of them developed a reputation for causing massive amounts of trouble. Ran often got roped into their mischief and then took all the blame, while Lum got off unharmed, which later lead Ran to seek revenge. In junior high school, Lum, Benten, and Oyuki's reputation grew into them becoming a school gang. Lum later got engaged to a handsome Oni named Rei, but rejected him because of his dullness. When she was seventeen, the Oni attempted to invade the planet Earth, an event that would change her life forever.
That day, Lum met Ataru Moroboshi
Ataru Moroboshi
is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Rumiko Takahashi's manga and anime series Urusei Yatsura. He is sometimes considered a teenage version of the character Nobita Nobi from Fujiko Fujio's popular manga Doraemon by many anime fans.-History:...
for the first time. He had been randomly selected by computer to face her in a game of tag
Tag (game)
Tag is a playground game played worldwide that involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to tag or touch them, usually with their fingers. There are many variations...
with the fate of the earth on the line. Ataru had been promised marriage by his then-girlfriend Shinobu if he could win, which spurred him to success, but upon catching Lum he declared "Now I can get married!" Lum misinterpreted this as a proposal to herself and accepted it. Because engagements are sacred on her planet, she is determined to be married to Ataru for the rest of her life. Since then, she has forced her way into his life as his "loving wife," much to his chagrin because it compromised his ability to flirt. The relationship between Lum and Ataru has been called "a humorously exaggerated parody of a common Japanese husband and wife dynamic."
Personality
Because of her gorgeous appearance, Lum has become extremely popular with the boys at Tomobiki High School. Despite this, she refutes all of their advances since she is devoted to Ataru. Most of the time, she is very laid back, enjoying the quirks and perks of life on Earth. But she is quick to anger and responds with powerful electric discharges to anyone who enrages her, usually Ataru or any person who attacks or insults her "Darling". Once the threat passes, Lum reverts to her usual cheery attitude.Lum is very intelligent, but very naive about life on earth, with a worldview comparable to that of a kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
er. She does not understand why the other boys at school feel that the philandering Ataru is not good enough for her, but she cares about their well-being. She has successfully adapted herself to life on Earth thanks to her technology. She still struggles to keep her younger cousin Ten from wreaking havoc thanks to his own naiveté about human behavior. For the most part, however, people who look at her for the first time view her as a highly attractive schoolgirl, despite her obviously different appearance. She has the qualities of the ideal wife and daughter-in-law in Japanese society as she takes good care of her darling and she helps her "mother-in-law" with the housework whenever she is free.
Lum is well-versed in the use of technology, and carries a variety of advanced gadgets from her society with her, with the stranger gadgets hidden in her bikini top. But while her intentions in operating them are often noble, such as copying a notebook to help Ataru study for an exam, the results are rarely what Lum intends. This may be in part because she is naive regarding the customs of Earth, so she often misunderstands what people say. The best example of this is her innocent misinterpretation of Ataru's victory yell after he defeated her in tag. She believed it to be an instant marriage, rather than a proposal, or even just the celebratory shout it really was.
She drinks Tabasco sauce
Tabasco sauce
Tabasco sauce is the brand name for a hot sauce produced by US-based McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana. Tabasco sauce is made from tabasco peppers , vinegar, and salt, and aged in white oak barrels for three years. It has a hot, spicy flavor...
as if it were juice and the food she cooks is violently spicy. It does not stop her from trying to prepare edible victuals, and she enjoys preparing food for Ataru, who angers her by refusing to consume it for fear of burning his tongue. Eating umeboshi
Umeboshi
Umeboshi are pickled ume fruits common in Japan. Ume is a species of fruit-bearing tree in the genus Prunus, which is often called a plum but is actually more closely related to the apricot. Umeboshi are a popular kind of tsukemono and are extremely sour and salty...
causes her to get drunk and she dislikes garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
. Despite efforts from everybody she knows to convince her otherwise, her love for Ataru remains unchanged because he has consistently proven that he genuinely cares for her well-being in spite of his idiotic facade. These events have convinced Lum that Ataru is indeed the right man for her.
Relationship with Ataru
Lum has fallen completely in love with Ataru, and refers to him only as . (In the Spanish anime, her name for Ataru is "Tesoro" (literally "Treasure"), and in the Spanish manga, she calls him "Querido" ("Beloved").) Since she considers him to be her husband, she violently electrocutes him whenever he looks at or flirts with another girl (or if he insults her or does something to make her unhappy), but always forgives him in the end (she electrocutes him less frequently as the series progresses). Though Lum knows that Ataru cares deeply for her on the inside, she wishes that he would show it more often than he does. Many of the gadgets she keeps in her UFO and her bikini top are designed to meet this end by making him more faithful to her.In the beginning of the series, she constantly hugs and kisses Ataru whether he wants it or not, often infuriating Shinobu (who still has feelings for Ataru) and the rest of the class. But by the end, Lum has calmed down considerably and simply holds onto his arm whenever they are walking somewhere. She is usually together with Ataru and does almost everything with him, be it eating lunch, going to and from school, or going to a festival. She even enrolled herself in Tomobiki High to spend more time with him, which initially caused her Darling to faint from the shock. Because of this, Lum has come to consider and treat his room as her home, though Ataru insists she sleep in the closet. Takahashi's reason for this is that she believes two high school students shouldn't be sleeping together. Lum did try to get Ataru to sleep with her in early manga chapters and anime episodes (and also spread a rumor that she and Ataru were sleeping together and that she was pregnant with his child, which was designed to make Shinobu angry at Ataru), but Ataru flatly refused. In one episode, she does share Ataru's bed, but only after fitting him in a bulky insulated suit to protect him from accidental electric shocks in her sleep.
Lum is considered the embodiment of the struggle facing modern Japanese women: how to be independent and still fulfill the traditional role of loving wife and mother. While she is very independent minded, she continues to be supportive and loving of Ataru no matter what happens throughout the entire series.
Speech
Lum refers to herself in the first personGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
as , which is a trait of the western Japanese dialects including the Kansai dialect, and is famous for usually ending her sentences with or simply , which is a trait of the Sendai dialect. When used by itself, "daccha" means "Yes". This speech type is a rather saccharine, "cute" type of speech. A similar speech pattern appears in Takahashi's debut work Katte na Yatsura, where the dappyamen add at the end of all of their sentences.
AnimEigo's English dub of the first two episodes of the TV series, Those Obnoxious Aliens, attempted to approximate Lum's "daccha" speech pattern with "icha," which in English means nothing. None of the other American- or British-made dubs of Urusei Yatsura TV episodes or movies have tried a similar English approximation of "daccha."
Reception
Kansai Electric Power Company
, also known as , is an electric utility with its operational area of Kansai region, Japan . The company is regarded as one of the leading companies in Kansai, as well as a leader of the Japanese electric power industry....
regarding being careful with kites and koinobori
Koinobori
, meaning "carp streamer" in Japanese, are carp-shaped wind socks traditionally flown in Japan to celebrate , a traditional calendrical event which is now designated a national holiday; Children's Day. These wind socks are made by drawing carp patterns on paper, cloth or other nonwoven fabric. They...
around electrical lines. Hirano Fumi
Fumi Hirano
is a Japanese voice actress and essayist who is best known for voicing Lum Invader in the anime series Urusei Yatsura. Fumi attended Tamagawa University in Machida, Tokyo where she graduated with a degree in Theatre from the Department of Fine Arts in the College of Humanities...
, the voice of Lum, did the main voice overs for the commercials.
Merchandise featuring Lum continues to be popular, and her image appears on a wide variety of printed, commercial, and electronic media.
Thirty years after she was introduced (in 1978), pachinko
Pachinko
is a type of game originating in Japan, and used as both a form of recreational arcade game and much more frequently as a gambling device, filling a niche in gambling in Japan comparable to that of the slot machine in Western gambling. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but...
machines featuring Lum are still being made. Lum also appeared wearing a Hanshin Tigers
Hanshin Tigers
The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Koshien, Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and are in the Central League. Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., the subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., owns the Hanshin Tigers directly...
uniform in a series of numbered collector covers of the Daily Sports (a daily sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
s newspaper published in Japan) from 2003-08-12 to 2003-09-15. Comiket
Comiket
, otherwise known as the , is the world's largest self-published comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first Comiket was held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people....
organiser Ichikawa Koichi has described Lum Invader as being both the source of moe and the first tsundere
Tsundere
is a Japanese character development process that describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time. The word is derived from the terms , meaning to turn away in disgust, and meaning to become 'lovey dovey'...
, a character type
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
which alternates between being harsh and being loving. Bome
Bome (sculptor)
is the pseudonym of a Japanese sculptor, primarily sculpting anime-styled women for mass commercial release. The name is a contraction of and , both of which he wears regularly. He started making garage kits and now works for Kaiyodo, a Japanese company that specialises in anime-related figurines...
, a sculptor of anime-style figurines, felt that Lum was the first female lead character in a shōnen manga work, and was inspired by Lum to create a line of "oni-musume" (she-devil) figurines.
Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...
introduced many people in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to Lum through clips in his music video "I've Been Waiting". Sweet also has a tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
of Lum.
A parody of Lum and Ten can be seen in the street in an issue of the Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
comic. Lum has green hair and the tiger stripes on her clothes are brown.