Urusei Yatsura: Only You

Production

Only You borrows heavily from the Japanese fairy tale of Urashima Tarō. The fairy tale would later inspire the film's sequel, Beautiful Dreamer. In an interview featured in Art Handbook in 2000, Oshii expressed disappointment with the film, claiming "It's no film. It failed to be a film."

Release

Only You was released theatrically in Japan on 11 February 1983 where it was distributed by Toho. The film was never released theatrically in the United States, and was initially released to home video as Uruseu Yatsura Movie 1–Only You with English subtitles on June 29, 1995.

Reception

On Anime News Network, Allen Divers gave the subtitled version an overall grade of A and the dubbed version a B, saying that "while the animation and artwork is a slight notch above the TV standard, the plot for Only You is nothing new to fans of the show." On Midnight Eye, Jasper Sharp says the film "throws the viewer completely in at the deep-end, assuming at least some knowledge of the characters and their relationships is in place, though it shouldn't take too long for newcomers to find their feet." On The Anime Review, Jason Huff writes that the film is "on the ragged edge of enjoyable, but it's not even close to the best this series has to offer." On Rumic World, Mason Proulx gave the film 4 1/2 stars out of 5 and called it "the definitive Urusei Yatsura movie." On mania.com, Dani Moure called the film "a lot of fun, and for the most part [...] very enjoyable." and Chris Beveridge said that "the budget is bigger, the designs are more detailed, but the idea is the same [as the TV series]."