Upa (ウパ, Upa?) is a elderly member of an unknown alien race who inhabits the World of Darkness. The great-grandfather of Rupa, he is arguably the primary antagonist of the manga's final volume, and its subsequent animated movie adaptation.
Biography[]
Over 120 years before the events of the series, Upa was a wandering mushroom salesman who stumbled across a starving male oni traveler who had no money. He offered the starving oni a cruel game, presenting him with two mushrooms and the option to take one for free - the catch being that whilst one was delicious, the other was deadly poisonous. When the oni picked the poison mushroom, he demanded the oni's daughter for a bride in exchange for the antidote. However, after curing the oni, he discovered that the oni had no daughters. Enraged, he vowed he would not be cheated, and instead would claim the first girl-child born to that oni's family for his own.
Upa's life after that event is unknown, though evidently he married and had children, considering he is a great-grandfather. Approximately 10 years or so before the events of the series, he heard that the grandson of the oni whom he had poisoned had fathered a daughter; Lum. He went to Oniboshi to confirm her existence, and upon discovering she was real, told her that he would come for her when she came of age. Being too old for a bride himself, he instead decided that his great-grandson Rupa would marry her in his stead, and told the naive young Darkworlder that he and Lum were engaged to be wed.
During the events of the series, Upa returns at last to claim Lum's hand for Rupa. He confronts the young oni in her family home on Oniboshi, but she and her parents both reject his claims to her hand, literally throwing him out of their ship-home like a bundle of rubbish. Refusing to admit defeat, he would return to Earth, where he aided Rupa in kidnapping Lum by supplying him with a ring containing a mushroom that would accelerate Lum's aging, causing her horns to fall out and temporarily depowering her, making her vulnerable to being kidnapped. On the World of Darkness, he would continue to support Rupa's attempts to wed Lum, largely by creating an obedient duplicate of her using a special mushroom that could be used to take the wedding vow's in Lum's place, and by disabling Oniboshi with a "dowry" comprising of giant mushrooms that quickly overran the planet.
Ironically, Upa's long-held plans came to ruin when Rupa had an attack of conscience and decided he would not wed Lum by force, especially as he had instead always loved Carla, despite the latter's decade of crazy behavior. Uba conceded to Rupa's wishes, and was sent to Oniboshi to tell Lum's parents that the engagement was off, to lead the removal of the mushrooms from the planet, and to provide them with Lum's wishes as to how to proceede with the game of tag she was conducting against Ataru Moroboshi.
Appearance[]
Upa, like all Darkworlders, appears as a dark-skinned humanoid with a small, anglerfish-like bioluminescent bead-tipped tendril growing from his forehead. Upa is quite old and ugly, and sports a small, neatly trimmed mustache in two downwards-drooping halves to either side of his nose. He is also very short, being about waist-high compared to Lum.
Personality[]
Upa is selfish, ruthless, spiteful, and grudge-bearing. He thought it was hilarious to force a poor, starving traveler to gamble their life on getting either free food or a deadly poison, and then demanded the man's daughter for his bride in exchange for the antidote. He was enraged to learn the man didn't have a daughter, and vowed to claim his first female descendant instead. Despite going on to marry and have children, he never forgot this vow, and instead kept his promise for 120 years, "engaging" Lum to his great-grandson Rupa when both were born. When he deemed Lum old enough to be married, he came to her and demanded she honor her great-grandfather's promise; when she protested she was already happily engaged, he literally laughed it off as not being his problem, and later assisted in kidnapping her and arranging for her to be wed to Rupa against her will.
Despite his flaws, Upa does genuinely love his great-grandson and wants him to be happy. When Rupa chose to annul his "engagement" to Lum and marry Carla, Upa didn't protest, and formally declared Lum to be free.
Abilities[]
Upa is an expert on the manifold strange and almost mystical mushrooms that are endemic to the World of Darkness. He is aware of poisonous varieties, antidote varieties, and those with unusual properties, such as explosive growth in exposure to heat and light, age-acceleration, soporific spores, and turning into obedient clones of people.
It is implied he is also skilled in handling the flying pigs native to the World of Darkness, similarly to Rupa, given that he was sent with a massive herd of them to clear away the giant mushrooms overgrowing Oniboshi.
Trivia[]
- His name "Uba" is only spoken in a single panel in Chapter 360 when he arrives to use the Copy Mushroom to create a docile clone of Lum.
- He is one of the only parental characters in the series to have a distinct name, as opposed to simply being referred to as "(Character's) Father/Mother", or "Mr/Mrs (Family Name)".
- He has both a very distinctive laugh, rendered as "Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk" (a Three Stooges reference) in the Viz Media translation of the manga, and a verbal tic, always ending his statements with an exclamation of "Poh!"
- It is unclear what precise role Uba plays in the World of Darkness, but he seems to act as an advisor to his great-grandson.
- His first seiyū provide the voices of Kumajiro Kaminarimon, Antique shop owner from Ranma ½ and Natsume's Father from Rumiko Takahashi Theater: Mermaid's Forest.
- Kōichi Kitamura also voices Mendō's Grandfather, Saizō and Lum's Great-Grandfather.
- His second seiyū provide the voice of Jaken from InuYasha.
Gallery[]
Movies and OVAs[]
2022 Anime[]
