Urusei Yatsura: Always My Darling (1991) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Luka ★★

  The first three Urusei Yatsura films set me up with such high expectations for the rest of the series that the following films rarely met, but judging on their own terms they're still quite good films. Always My Darling is the sixth and final film of the series, but it feels like an extended OVA even more than the previous five films and it is clear that the Ten Year Anniversary of the show is the only justification for its existence as a film.

  Urusei Yatsura films are at their best when they revolve around the meta-existence of Lum's character, but Always My Darling insists on centering the entire movie around nothing else but Ataru and his lecherousness. There's nothing…

• Review by Jack ★★★

  I don't know if I consider it the "worst" of the Urusei Yatsura movies, but it certainly has the least ambition. The cinematic scope and heightened emotional beats that the previous movies had were some of their best attributes, so its a little sad that this lacks the drama. It does have it's own unique charm in the more angular and differently styled character designs at least. I'll give it a higher score than Lum the Forever because I found myself enjoying it more, but I think on a technical level this is the weaker one.

  Final Urusei Yatsura Movie Ranking:
  4<6<1<5<2<3

• Review by Will-ver Bells 🎅 (SpaceTree Studios) ★★★

  this is supposed to be the worst one? How? At least it wasn't boring like 3 or......whatever 4 was supposed to be.
  Only real issue is that Lupica had no reason to antagonize Lum since they both had the same goal in the end. But otherwise I wouldn't call it bad, just derivative.

• Review by Jared Foust ★★★½

  Man, I nearly let the Letterboxd reviews stop me from checking this one out but spending some time in the Urusei Yatsura universe is never a bad time, especially when it's such gorgeous analog animation still. The more Ranma-esque art style is a little uncanny in this context at first but really very pleasant once I got accustomed to it. The only weird bit is that it seemed oddly framed, as though information was frequently getting cropped off the top and the bottom of the image. Had a lot of fun with it otherwise.

• Review by nosebleedhaver

  i had a splitting migraine so my focus waxed and wained a bit but this one is soooooo cute. the one-off romance between the main gal and the tofu guy is, super simple and far from ground breaking sure, but still sweet. the whole thing is fuckin immaculate looking. the style unique to this one rly makes it stand apart from the rest, and contributes a lot to the playful sentimental tone. beautiful dreamer and lum the forever i think set a particular expectation for these movies, especially from folks who haven't seen much of the series, but i really feel like this is proof that its ok to feel like an OVA. also ill be real: sakura and mendou are drawn so fuckin stupidly hot in this it's insane. sakura. hit my landline.

• Review by Oscar ★★

  A Ten year anniversary special. I've read this is the worst movie in the series I can see why it's really repetitive for a hour and seventeen minute movie. I wouldn't call this a movie just a very long episode.
  I didn't care for this It lacks emotion of the previous films and is Lazy. But these characters never fail to make me laugh a couple of times in the movie. I didn't like the animation it doesn't fit those characters compared to the 80s animation of the previous studio.

• Review by lilac ★★★

  cute dual love story. frustrating & absurd. but fun! still abt a real mf who is willing to do anything 4 the pussy & the most beautiful girlfriend in the universe that he doesn't deserve,,, lum cut it out & marry me already.

• Review by Crystal DeForest ★★★

  Mrs. Electric, kill him!!!

• Review by Chad Smith ★★★

  The most "just an extended episode" of all of the Lum movies. It's a very straight-forward "new character is introduced and chaos ensues" sort of story, but that isn't even the most non-movie like thing about it.

  Almost all of the movies don't just revolve around Lum herself, but also the sort of meta-existence of her character. She's titular "Obnoxious Alien," and none of this is possible without her, and most of the movies are ABOUT that. Always My Darling is more about Ataru and how his lecherousness is SUPER IMPORTANT. It leads to a funny bit where his horniness is the key to a Last Crusade-styled series of traps in a temple devoted to the Ultimate Love Potion, but…

• Review by nolie_0lie ★★★★★

  had a feeling i could go into this without seeing anything else and i was definitely right lol
  i really love the character redesigns for this its seems like the 90s had a real transition to using alot more subtle straight lines for designs but still keeping a really nice soft quality to them the 80s seemed to be more rounded in terms of the face and limbs
  i figured the plot would be pretty stupid but it was funny
  tbh i found the main dude annoying asf but all the other characters were really compelling so idk i will probably give the show a chance at some point and will obviously watch the mamoru oshii movies thats a no brainer although i think ranma 1/2 is more up my alley especially in terms of design

• Review by pikajewxr ★★★½

  No where near the worst of the 6 films. Just the worst man in existence ignoring his beautiful girlfriend for 80 minutes what's not to love

• Review by Dabid ★★½

  For a 10th Anniversary celebration of a franchise, this just feels kind of uninspired.

  Sure, there were 200 TV episodes and 5 other films prior to this, what more could you possibly do with a series like this? It felt like it took a lot of beats from the first film, in which Ataru is also smitten by another alien princess and Lum has to go save him, but it is a lot weaker in its execution and focuses more on slapstick comedy than the drama of the first film (which was Mamoru Oshii trying so hard to stick to the show's roots and not go off the deep end like he did in the sequel, so I guess that's…