LUM INVADER

is the second main character from Rumiko Takahashi's manga and anime series ''Urusei Yatsura''. She is named 'Lamu' in Animax's English-language dub of the series. Her name comes from popular swimsuit model Agnes Lum.^[1]

Contents

History

Personality

Relationship with Ataru

Speech

Other Voice Actors

Trivia

References

History

Lum is the daughter of the Oni alien Invader and is capable of flying and generating massive electrical discharges. The owner of a very sexy body, she has long green hair and slightly pointy ears. She wears a tiger-striped bikini (based on the tiger-striped loinclothes of mythical oni) and has two tiny horns near her temples that can be shaped to resemble barrettes. When these horns are removed, her electric and flying abilities disappear and she becomes a regular girl.
She grew up on the Oni homeworld as a precocious girl and went to 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, leading Ran to seek revenge. In junior high, Lum, Benten, and Oyuki's reputation grew into them becoming a vicious gang. Lum later got engaged to a handsome Oni named Rei, but dumped him because of his shallowness. 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 mistook this for 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.

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 shocks to the person who enraged her, usually Ataru or a person who attacked her Darling. Once the threat passes, Lum reverts to her usual vibrant attitude.
She does not understand why the other guys at school feel that 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, though. For the most part, however, people who look at her for the first time view her as a highly attractive schoolgirl.
Lum is well-versed in the use of technology, and carries a variety of advanced gadgets from her society with her. 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 interpretation 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. Eating umeboshi causes her to get drunk and she dislikes garlic. Despite efforts from everybody she knows to show her the contrary, 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 isolated 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 . Since she considers him to be her husband, she violently shocks him whenever he looks at or flirts with another girl (or if he insults her or does something to make her happy), but almost always forgives him in the end. This act accurs about every five minutes in the show. 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 story, she constantly hugs and kisses Ataru whether he wants it or not, often infuriating the still-caring Shinobu 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.

Speech

Lum refers to herself in the first person as and is famous for usually ending her sentences with . When used by itself, "datcha" 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.

Other Voice Actors

'English'

★ Martha Ellen Senseney (dub produced for public TV)

★ Larissa Murray (dub for BBC Three)

★ Shannon Settlemyre (movies 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 dubs)

★ Ann Ulrey (movie 2 dub)
'Latin American'

★ Aracelli de Leon
'Castilian Spanish'

★ Marta Sáinz
'Italian'

★ Rosalinda Galli (first and third Italian)

★ Paola Quattrini (second Italian)

Trivia

★ There were originally two character designs for Lum: one with short hair and a bikini, and one with long hair and a mini one-piece. Takahashi eventually decided to fuse them together (long hair and a bikini). It is said she came to this decision on New Years Day 1978.

★ From August 12 to September 15, 2003, pictures of Lum supporting the Hanshin Tigers drawn by Takahashi herself appeared in the magazine 'Daily Sports'.

★ Lum and Ataru share more kisses than any other couple in any of Rumiko Takahashi's other manga.

★ According to Lum, her "body belongs to Darling," much to the consternation of Mendou and the Stormtroopers.

★ She is often believed to be the protagonist of the series due to her iconic status. However, Takahashi has stated on many occasions that she had always meant for Ataru Moroboshi to be the lead. Lum was originally intended to be a one-time character, but Takahashi's editors insisted she become Ataru's fiancée in response to her immense popularity.

References

1. http://www.furinkan.com/uy/characters/lum.htm