Thirty years ago… Hold on… Wave of nostalgia… Thirty years ago, I would have been just starting those awkward teenage years, and I would wager most of you… probably weren’t even born yet (git off my lawn!). I was another decade away from learning that a series named Urusei Yatsura existed, had released 190 TV episodes, and three movies, prior to the film released in February 1986. I followed AnimEigo’s journey to release the entirety of the series across VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD watching every single minute the series produced. Now, thirty years after its initial release I sat down to write about the fourth movie Lum the Forever and realized… I could not remember a single thing about it.
Well, what better way to find out how well it has held up over time then to re-watch it. About half way in, it was apparent why this film refuses to stick with me the way other entries in the series do. On the surface, it is a disjointed jumble of concepts, none particularly connected to each other or particularly entertaining. There is an interesting concept about the gestalt of a town and the introduction of foreign elements into what we find familiar. Yet, it seems to arrive in the story far too late rather than woven through the entirety of the work.
We open with a film within the film, as Mendou finances a production based on the legend of the Oni Princess. During the filming, an ancient cherry tree on his property is chopped down, and things go particularly weird, even by Tomobiki standards. Lum begins to lose her powers and starts to fade from the thoughts and memories of the town. Mendou believes this has something to do with the legend of the Oni Princess, going to great depths to find the answers. That is, he does so until the third act, when any mention or imagery around the legend is inexplicably dropped.
Why? Who knows?! No time! The dreams of the citizens are becoming reality; we must move along! Mendou sees only one way out of this situation—all out war with the Mendou clan’s greatest rival. How or why he comes to this conclusion has no explanation on screen, and piecing one together from the previous portions of the film seems nigh impossible. While Tomobiki is being destroyed, Lum is capering about with the memories of the town. As the final curtain falls, explanations of what just happened and why are sorely lacking. Cue the obligatory “Kill Ataru!” comedy routine to fade us to black.
Most people would dismiss this film as a boring mess of a plot. It tries too hard to recapture the mood and atmosphere of Beautiful Dreamer by exploring the concept of the town’s shared consciousness birthing a new living entity. However, there are those with the opinion that the film must be viewed from a different angle, a different take on the narrative structure. Rather than a philosophical discussion gone off the storytelling rails, it is more of a commentary on the conclusion of the series and the relationship between the audience and the work. There is some merit to this critique, and I am not opposed to works where one has to really think about what they are seeing. With this cast of characters though, I came for the comedy not ninety plus minutes of someone’s scholastic media thesis splashed about the screen.
It is difficult to recommend this title to anyone but the most die-hard fans of the series, and they likely have watched it once and forgotten it on the shelf, watching Beautiful Dreamer for the umpteenth time instead. Given that the AnimEigo DVDs are long out of print and would require you to track down someone who owns it (No, won’t lend you mine… Git off my lawn!), I have to pose this question. Would I pull this film off the shelf ten, twenty, or even thirty more years later? Doubtful unless I forget once again what it is about. Hopefully, I will remember to re-read this article first and spare myself another lecture.
