Lum the Invader Girl (), known in Japan simply as , and sometimes known as Lum Invader, is a fictional character and the female protagonist of Rumiko Takahashi's manga series Urusei Yatsura. She is often believed to be the main protagonist of the series due to her iconic status. However, Takahashi has stated that Ataru Moroboshi is the main character.
Lum is considered a magical girlfriend, though significantly different from others such as Belldandy of Oh! My Goddess and Ai of Video Girl Ai. While the latter two are openly considered "ideal" women by the protagonists of their respective series, Ataru often indicates publicly that Lum is the opposite of ideal.
Appearances
In Urusei Yatsura
Lum is royalty and the daughter of the alien Invader called oni and can fly and generate massive electrical discharges. She generally wears a tiger-striped bikini and go-go boots that highlight her shapely, voluptuous figure, Ataru had been promised marriage by his then-girlfriend Shinobu Miyake if he could win, which spurred him to success, but upon catching Lum, he declared, "Now I can get married!" Lum misinterpreted this as a proposal to herself and accepted it. Likewise, Kanenori Wakita's codename as a member of the Black Organization, "Rum", is used as an injoke by Gosho Aoyama in relation to Lum. Also, the character Rumi Wakasa, who is a "Rum" suspect, shares the same voice actress as Lum in the Detective Conan anime adaptation.
Characterization
Personality
Because of her exotic beauty, Lum has become extremely popular with the boys at Tomobiki High School. Despite this, she refutes all of their advances since she is devoted to Ataru.
Lum is very intelligent, but very naive about life on earth, with a worldview comparable to that of a kindergartener. On April 4, 1982, Lum and other characters from Urusei Yatsura appeared in two public service announcements for the Kansai Electric Power Company regarding being careful with kites and koinobori around electrical lines. Fumi Hirano, the voice actress of Lum, did the main voiceovers for the commercials.
Merchandise featuring Lum continues to be popular, and her image appears on a wide variety of printed, commercial, and electronic media. Over four decades after the character's introduction in 1978, pachinko machines featuring Lum are still being made. Lum also appeared wearing a Hanshin Tigers uniform in a series of numbered collector covers of the Daily Sports (a daily sports newspaper published in Japan) from 2003 to 2009. Comiket organizer Koichi Ichikawa has described Lum as being both the source of moe and the first tsundere, a character which alternates between being harsh and being loving. Bome, a sculptor of anime-style figurines, felt that Lum was the first female lead character in a work published on a shōnen magazine, and was inspired by Lum to create a line of "oni-musume" (she-devil) figurines.
In the 6th edition in 1983 of the Anime Grand Prix, Lum was ranked second place behind Misa Hayase from Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Matthew Sweet introduced many people in the United States to Lum through clips in his music video "I've Been Waiting". Sweet also has a tattoo of Lum.
See also
- List of Urusei Yatsura characters