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Ran-chan is sooo happy!

Ran

Ran (蘭 or ラン, Orchid?), or Lan, is an alien girl of an unspecified race, and is a major character in Urusei Yatsura. She is one of Lum's closests childhood friends however a rift between them grew when they both fell in love with the same guy, a shape changer named Rei and Lum ended up winning his affection. Years later, Ran moves to Earth to exact revenge on Lum in spite of the latter having broken up with Rei years ago. More often than not her efforts for vengeance result in both failure and humiliation.

Biography[]

She is Lum's best childhood friend from elementary school, but when they got older they both fell in love with the handsome shape-changer Rei. Rei chose Lum, but she eventually realized he was a shallow glutton and dumped him and soon after got engaged to Ataru Moroboshi. Because of all of this, Ran has come to Earth in order to exact revenge on Lum.

She follows Lum to Earth and enrolls in Tomobiki High School, but has a different class than Ataru and the main cast. She plans to exact on Lum by kissing Ataru and stealing his youth. As the series progresses, she begins to date her beloved Rei. Although Rei seems to be mainly interested in the food she cooks for him, Ran is happy with whatever she can get.

Personality[]

Ran tends to act very cutely in public. She shows a sweet, child-like and rather elegant side when she is happy but when she becomes suspicious or even angry her personality turns into complete opposite being grateful, rowdy and tomboyish. When she was a child she was usually violently punished by her mother which could have traumatized Ran to develop her split personalities. She shows her anger and suspiciousness towards Lum, who she believes wants Rei back. Ran is desperately in love with Rei and is jealous of Lum, as Rei is in love with her. She apparently did not develop her sweet persona until sometime after she fell out with Lum, as Lum is shocked to encounter it when Ran first arrives on Earth. (It seems likely that she took it up in the hopes of wooing Rei back.) When Lum asks her why she does not simply act naturally, she replies that if she were to break character even once it would destroy the credibility of her newly adopted personality. Hilariously, Ran is wrong—boys are so captivated by it that they never seem fazed at all no matter how many times they witness her harsher side resurfacing.

Appearance[]

Ran is considered to be a rather beautiful young woman with curly magenta hair and magenta colored eyes. When she becomes angry her appearance oodly changes to somewhat resemble a oni alien gaining sharp teeth and pointy ears. For her attire she wears a pink maid dress with a white apron, white leggins and red shoes.


Outfit[]

She is usually seen wearing a skimpy pink bikini (said bikini is seen in the manga and in Urusei Yatsura 3: Remember My Love) or a light-colored dress and chiffon (the latter more than the former). While attending Tomobiki High School, she wears the standard girl's uniform.

Powers and Abilities[]

  • Age Manipulation - She possesses the alien ability to suck people's youth through her lips, though she can also restore their youth the same way.
  • Mastery of Science & Magic - She excels at technology and black magic, which she usually uses for her revenge on Lum.
  • Excellent chef - She is also a superb cook and is often cooking special dishes for Rei, whom she frequently dates.

Portable things[]

Weapons[]

  • Shooter -
  • Hammer bomb - Used to attack enemies from short distance. Although it looks like an ordinary hammer, the explosive power is extremely powerful until the tree trunk able to break into two[1].
  • Light Saber - Used only once, it is a red light saber that she uses to fend off against the snakes in the pool. It made its only debut in The Obstacle Course Swim Meet.

Others[]

  • Messenger doll - Appears to be tiny Ran which used by Ran for passing message for the one that she needs to imply. It acts as a talking little doll that can move itself from place to place. Once the messenger doll accomplishes its job, self-destruction occurs.

Relationships[]

Lum

Ran spent most of her childhood as Lum's friend which led her to numerous problems which her mother would punish her later. Lum and Ran even shared the same love interest, Rei, but Lum left him. When meeting again, Ran and Lum were first happy to see each other but then Ran remembered that she wanted to exact vengeance for her traumatic childhood and broken heart on Lum. They still do act like friends, though Lum becomes more and more careful with her and Ran is suspicious on Lum because of believing that she is still in love with Rei.

Ataru Moroboshi

Ran usually takes advantages over Ataru's flirtatious personality. In couple of her first appearance Ataru was her weapon for revenge towards Lum as she tried to suck his youth, eventually not failing each time (Though she unofficially succeed one time but Ataru had drank Youth Restoration Potion made by Cherry, making it look that she failed). Apart from Lum, Ran is only one to call Ataru "Darling".

Rei

Ran is desperately in love for Rei, who chooses Lum over her. Ran and Rei start dating at one point and Ran prepares a lot of food for him each time, though food is probably the reason why Rei dates her since Rei still tries to find possible ways to get Lum back. Ran does anything to keep love between Rei and Lum from triggering again.

Oyuki

To be added

Benten

To be added

Ryūnosuke Fujinami

To be added

Speech[]

She also begins to refer to herself in the first person as washi (ワシ, washi?), whereas she usually uses the more common atashi (, atashi?).

Appellations[]

Name What They Call Ran What Ran Calls Them
Ataru Moroboshi Ran-chan Darling
Lum Ran-chan Lum-chan
Shinobu Miyake Ran Unknown
Shūtarō Mendō Ran-san Unknown
Ryūnosuke Fujinami Ran Ryūnosuke-kun
Kōsuke Shirai Ran Unknown
Ten Ran-chan Ten-chan
Cherry Unknown Cherry
Sakura Ran Sakura-sensei
Rei Ran Rei-san
Benten Ran Benten
Oyuki Ran Oyuki

Quotes[]

  • "Lil' Ran's so happy!/Ran-chan is sooo happy!"

Trivia[]

  • Lum and Ran are the only known aliens to have a permanent residence on Earth with their own UFOs. They both are also the only ones to refer Ataru as "Darling".
  • While her race is never named, Ten does mention at one point that it is related to the Oni alien race, with even Ran and her family also hailing from Oniboshi. This is backed up by the fact that whenever she becomes angry she gains features similar to the Oni such as her pointy ears and sharp teeth.
    • Her unnamed offshoot race could be based on a succubus-like yokai called the Kawa-Onago, a malicious female entity that exists to seduce men and drain them of their life force.
    • Considering Ran's frequent use of witchcraft and trickery, she may also be based on western witches, or even the Oni-baba, yokai which were female mountain Oni that dedicated their lives to witchcraft and eating humans.
    • A third alternative is that Ran may be based on a female yokai called a Kijo, or a specific Kijo offshoot called the Hannya; Kijo are traditionally viewed as an all-female strain of demons (much like how Oni are traditionally viewed as an all-male strain of demons) created from human women who succumb to intense feelings of vindictiveness, wrath or jealousy, and who are characterized as malicious schemers who make heavy use of witchcraft to enact their plots. The Hannya in particular is associated with transformation by jealousy, and also divided into three grades, representing how far she has come in her transition away from humanity, with the different grades - namanari, chūnari, and honnari - being progressively more physically monstrous.
  • It is unknown how Lum knew of her twisted split personality upon their reunion, as flashbacks going from their childhood and Lum dating Rei during their teens indicate she did not surface her second personality.
  • Ran appears in every Urusei Yatsura movie, including Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer as small cameo in Ataru's dream harem.
  • Her first seiyū Yō Inoue would then voice Carla of Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter.
  • Her second seiyū Komiya Kazue would then voice Kasumi of Maison Ikkoku.
  • Her third seiyū Kana Hanazawa previously voiced Chibi from Kyōkai no Rinne.
  • Ran's outfit in the Opening Rock the Planet is based on Maris from Maris the Chojo, another work by Rumiko Takahashi.
  • Although her name is usually spelled in katakana ("ラン"), it is frequently seen in the manga written with the kanji "蘭", which means "orchid", including in a letter signed by herself in Chapter 56. In the 2022 anime adaptation, she also writes her own name as "蘭" in a letter she sends to Lum in Episode 8.

Media Appearances[]

Manga[]

  • Chapter 55
  • Chapter 56
  • Chapter 57
  • Chapter 58
  • Chapter 59
  • Chapter 60
  • Chapter 62
  • Chapter 63
  • Chapter 71
  • Chapter 86
  • Chapter 107
  • Chapter 108
  • Chapter 109
  • Chapter 110
  • Chapter 119
  • Chapter 124 (129 in Wideban)
  • Chapters 150-151
  • Chapter 162
  • Chapter 163
  • Chapter 171
  • Chapter 180
  • Chapters 186-190
  • Chapters 207-208
  • Chapter 214
  • Chapters 217-219
  • Chapter 231
  • Chapter 233
  • Chapter 246
  • Chapter 260
  • Chapter 261
  • Chapter 263
  • Chapters 266-267
  • Chapter 273
  • Chapter 287
  • Chapter 289
  • Chapter 308
  • Chapter 312
  • Chapter 320
  • Chapter 325
  • Chapters 329-333 (331-335 in wideban)
    • Chapter 330 (332 in wideban)
    • Chapter 331 (333 in wideban)
    • Chapter 332 (334 in wideban)
  • Chapter 335 (328 in wideban)
  • Chapter 343
  • Chapter 344
  • Chapter 354
  • Chapters 356-366
    • Chapter 359
    • Chapter 360
    • Chapter 361
    • Chapter 362
    • Chapter 363
    • Chapter 364
    • Chapter 365
    • Chapter 366

Anime[]

1981
2022

Gallery[]

1981 Anime[]

Movies and OVAs[]

2022 Anime[]

References[]

  1. Urusei Yatsura manga - The Wraith of the Ice Queen - Part 2.
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