Lamú (Urusei Yatsura): The Most Mysterious Anime Theme - Tales From the Internet

This month I received...

Urusei Yatsura is considered to be one of the most influential anime and manga series in history. It is also wildly popular in Italy. It also has a completely different theme song from the original, sung in Italian. However, for nearly 40 years, nobody could figure out who actually made it or where the rest of the song is.

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[Tsume_-]

Italian here, they found the singer and the composer of the Italian version it was a duet by Ciro Dammico and Noam Kaniel, it was confirmed by both of them
They sang this song at Los Angeles under contract by Saban records.
It has been a 40y/old mistery that afflicted many generation, unfortunately we do not know what ataru knows(quoting " Ed io tremo perche so...." eng:"and I shiver because I then the music fades away)

[reycampa]

Fun fact: in Italy we have the record for biggest number of anime broadcasted on national tv in Europe with over 200 different titles

[doctorfrosty]

“It seems like the tv industry is better at preserving its stuff than the video game industry”

The BBC disagrees

[TurtleMarcus]

The reason why Italian "sigla" both translates to "acronym" and "theme song" is pretty clever: etymologically, the word is related to seal, sigil, signature, that is, a simple mark or symbol identifying a person or thing. A theme song, after all, is the "signature" or identifying mark of a TV show.

[StefanoBersolaOfficial]

Dear Whang! I just want to clarify that I've not done my cover of the mysterious theme but I am the author and the interpreter of the official second italian TV theme of Lum produced by Yamato Video which has held the rights in Italy since 1998. Hence the request of the fans to perform the first theme song. My song is "Mi hai rapito il cuore Lamù". Not a cover! The collaborations with the artists of the animation themes are usual. This does not mean that I have ever credited rights to someone who does not own them. Best Regards. Stefano Bersola

[bezdomnyjv]

wow - this hit really near home for me - It always funny to ear Americans attempting to pronounce "Lamù la ragazza dello spazio"

[Sblezo]

Man, being an Italian who grew up watching Lamù this video feels so weird.
Never would I have predicted that this topic (which is widely known among anime fans in Italy) would have been covered by a youtuber I follow today.

Imagine my shock seeing this in my feed lol

[catoblepag]

It's hard to overstate the popularity of Uruseiyatsura in Italy. For people born in the seventies/eighties it's up there with Hokuto No Ken, Captain Tsubasa, Versailles No Bara and a few others. Those series were to italians what GI-Joe, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were to americans. In fact, italians might be the biggest anime fans (and connaisseurs) in the western world: back in the late seventies and eighties we imported and dubbed almost everything that was produced in Japan, and I mean everything, from the heavy hitters to the smallest obscure series. Many wonderful 100% original theme songs were created during this golden age, even the LP businness was quite profitable!

[TheHypercarnivoreChef]

Ciao, I'm a 40 years old Italian, confirm we grow up in the 80's with Lamù.... Anyway there is no Lamù reference in the song, it might be a generic love song, as you said, used for this cartone animato opening anyway have I ever checked the "cavalieri del re" musical group? They did many 80s cartoon opening and closing themes

[Kenshiroit]

Fun fact or at least perhaps another mystery. The Italian version is the japanese in reverse. The original japanese theme, is from Lum or Lamu perspective, how much she loves and cares of Atharu and she is sadden that he pretend he doesent care and try to get away all the time. The italian version is from his perspective. He doesent want to stay, he wants to leave but he cant.

Funny huh its like the japanese song its lamu singing in the Italian instead is Atharu.

[ianmacfarlane]

So it was an Israeli, living in the USA, who sang the Italian theme song for a Japanese anime, which may or may not have aired in Poland...

I'm watching in Scotland and I've no idea about anime, cheesy Italian music

[Lonkeee]

As an italian I have to admit we have some absolute bops

[AscendedBeyond]

Code lyoko's big foreheads haunt me till this day but the theme bops.

[ripleyandweeds]

Nobody:
Italy making anime OPs: Make it a banger

[captainweekend]

"I feel like TV are better at preserving their media than video games" *cuts to the BBC throwing 30 years of Classic Doctor Who on a big fire*

[realkekz]

Most important takeaway?
Italians are really good at making music.

[Feljx.]

This reminds me, that we still serch for the german radio song...

[thediamondcutter]

It’s funny because I’m italian and never realised about this mystery.
The more you know.. I guess.

Anyway it’s SP-AH-ZEE-OH

[PressALTplusF_real]

Whang: “Nobody knows who performed the OP.”


Me: “Ah shit, here we go again...”

[latt.qcd]

Whang: "Urusei Yatsura is really only known among hardcore anime fans."
*Stop attacking me.*