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" final season outline/script 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