Urusei Yatsura: Tsuki ni Hoeru (1989) (V)

User Rating:

8.9/10   

Director:

Setsuko Shibuichi

Writers:

Machiko Kondoo (writer)
Rumiko Takahashi (comic)

Release Date:

1 September 1989 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Sequel | Hanami | Cherry Blossom | Recipe | Howl

Cast

Fumi Hirano	...	Lum (voice)
Toshio Furukawa	...	Ataru (voice)
Akira Kamiya	...	Mendou (voice)
Kazuko Sugiyama	...	Ten (voice)
Saeko Shimazu	...	Shinobu (voice)
Michihiro Ikemizu	...	Onsen-Mark Sensei (voice)
Kazue Komiya	...	Ran (voice)
Tesshô Genda	...	Rei (voice)
Kenichi Ogata	...	Ataru's Father (voice)
Natsumi Sakuma	...	Ataru's Mother (voice)
Machiko Washio	...	Sakura (voice)
Ichirô Nagai	...	Cherry (voice) (as Ichirô Washio)
Toshihiko Nakajima	...	Student B (voice)
Yoshiko Kamei	...	Girl University Student A (voice)
Kikuko Inoue	...	Girl University Student B (voice)

Also Known As:

Urusei Yatsura: I Howl at the Moon

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Trivia:

The food that Lum prepares for Ataru is a confection called "sakuramochi". It is sweet bean paste wrapped inside a cherry blossom leaf preserved with salt. This snack is typically eaten during "hanami", an event during which people gather around cherry trees and watch the cherry blossoms fall.

Quotes:

Ataru's Mother: [Sobbing] Oh why did this happen?
Ataru's Father: Don't cry dear.
Ataru's Mother: But our only son, on whose behalf we have endured so much hardship, has gone and become a raccoon-man! I can't show my face to the neighbors!
[Wails loudly]
Ataru: I'm not a raccoon! I'm a wolf-man!
Ataru's Father: Really? You look more like a dog-man to me.
Ataru: I'm telling you, I'm a wolf-man!
Ataru's Mother: A raccoon-man. No matter how you look at it, you're a raccoon-man.
Ataru's Father: He's a dog.
Ataru's Mother: He's a raccoon!

Movie Connections:

Follows "Urusei yatsura" (1981)

Soundtrack:

Stars on

I HOWL AT THE MOON - animated adventure from "Urusei Yatsura" series

"I Howl at the Moon" (1989) is the fourth OAV (Original Animated Video) spin-off of "Urusei Yatsura," the popular Japanese animated series based on Rumiko Takahashi's comic book about horny high-school boy Ataru and his gorgeous, horned live-in alien "wife," Lum, of tiger-skin bikini fame. This particular 26-minute episode follows Lum's efforts to please the hard-to-satisfy palate of Ataru by making him "sakura-mochi" cakes by computer from a recipe on a disk from her home planet. When Ataru turns into a werewolf as a result of eating the cakes, Lum realizes she'd made a catastrophic mistake when she'd punched in the computer code. She soon learns that she has only a few hours to create an antidote and get Ataru to take it or he'll remain a wolf forever. Ataru proves elusive, however, as he comes to enjoy being a werewolf, particularly after a stimulating encounter with a group of excited college girls.

It's a funny and cleverly written episode and should prove enjoyable to most fans of the long-running "Urusei Yatsura" series. This episode was released in the U.S. on a VHS edition paired with "Raging Sherbet," also reviewed on this site.