An Introduction to the Final Urusei Yatsura Season Scripts

                                 by Joe Rispoli

        [The following text file is an abridged version of my introductory 
letter to the other members of the USA Yatsura APA, explaining the origin and 
motivations behind the creation of the Final Urusei Yatsura Season Scripts 
project, initiated and headed by yours truly...]

        The continuing text contribution I am making to the APA is the result of 
years of character and situation analysis as well as a lot of wishful thinking.  
I have acted as primary idea generator (swiper?) and the overall editor of 
something that started out as a story, mutated into a movie script, and has now 
gorged itself (and my spare time) into what we consider to be a "wishful" set of 
final season outlines / scripts for the Manga/Anime series I love the most.

        It is known around here as the Final Urusei Yatsura Script, or as Benten 
would put it, "the F**king Urusei Yatsura Script."  Most of the ideas and story 
plotting are my responsibility, (It's my fault, stop me before I kill anyone 
else!!!) along with final editing of my own and others' words added to the 
story.

        When we were working in the same office building (May-Dec 90) Mike 
Termena and I spent much of our lunch times speaking sheer gobbledegook (as far 
as the others in my  office were concerned) as we defined characters, 
situations, and reactions to those situations.  He has a knack for taking my 
basic plot outlines and breathing life into the character's motivations and 
actions.

        Nathan Ebersole (another of the Dayton Animation Club members) has come 
up with some plots as well as complete stories that frighten me with his wry 
sense of Takahashian humor.

        Craig Carey, an old gaming/SF buddy from years ago, temporarily moved 
into the area, and it was fun bouncing ideas off of him (something like throwing 
a Super-ball into a closed room at supersonic velocity.)

        Other members of our Post-Meeting Saturday Night Gang have also added 
their two cents worth, as well as the DAC members who have looked at various 
pieces of works in progress.  I thank them all for their insight and input, and 
encourage your constructive criticism on this work.  Don't just tear it down, 
tell me why you're tearing it down, and I'll appreciate it a lot more, Ok?

        A few years ago, I realized that Takahashi-san had not resolved very 
many of the character relationships in the series, especially Lum and Ataru's 
heartbreaking courtship.  She probably has many reasons, both personal and 
financial for not ending the series she obviously lovingly created (and 
hopefully not burned out on).

        I honor her decision as things stand, and support her on this.  But I 
felt such personal frustration at possibly never seeing "The moment Lum was 
meant for..." (to paraphrase the most beautiful moment in the Maison Ikkoku 
Movie), standing proudly at the side of her "Darling", who is just as proud to 
be close to his "Sweetheart", the woman Lum has become... That I just had to 
write it down to get it out of my system...

        My stumbling block to writing this story was caused by the question, 
"But what about the others?"  Then, one day in May 1990, I heard the song "Hold 
On" by the group Wilson Phillips.  This song broke my writer's block as I 
envisioned a scene, just as if I were watching it...

        One of the series protagonists is trapped in Hades' Realm, a prisoner of 
his own fear and frustrations... his only hope, an angel who promises to free 
him, or die trying... for the sake of his love.  Then came the question, "How 
did he end up there?", as well as a multitude of others that enabled me to fill 
(as of this date) innumerable pages of outline and script, that covers not only 
the immediate past and present, but key events of the next few years of these 
character's lives.  As Mike puts it, "Forests have died for our imaginary 
sins..."

        Personally, falling in love and getting married was not the end of my 
life, and I don't believe it would be the end of Ataru and Lum's either. (And 
I've already heard [as well as made] jokes about "Urusei Yatsura: The Next 
Generation.)

        Certainly, some changes will have to be made, but that is the nature of 
life, and these characters have come to life of a sorts for me. Imagine the 
alternative: A lonely,  embittered old Ataru who hates thinking about the one 
light in his life, who never gave up on him, but died of a broken heart, her 
dream unfulfilled, because he never told her how he really felt about her, deep 
down inside...

        Although he is usually portrayed as a heartless, witless girl-
grabbing buffoon, I don't think his conscience would let him survive very long 
after Lum's passing.  I wouldn't wish this kind of life (or death) on my worst 
enemy, much less characters I have come to enjoy the company of nearly as much 
as my real friends.

        Much of the Script is not particularly funny, (although efforts have 
been made to keep it as lighthearted as possible) but some real Takahashi-style 
storylines have crept in despite our normal sense of logic and pessimism.

        Our first chapter, THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT (co-written by Mike Termena 
and myself) is the result of our imagining a collision between the URUSEI 
YATSURA and STAR WARS universes... Hope you enjoyed it half as much as we liked 
putting it together...

	The Old Takaholic,

	Joe Rispoli

        E-mail address: jrispoli@ix.netcom.com or takaholic@hotmail.com



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