"A definitive UY site which would encompass everything I love about the series. A one stop shop for all your UY needs."

- Mason Proulx

Urusei Yatsura

Urusei Yatsura is a popular comedy manga from the late 70s and 80s. It is Rumiko Takahashi's first big hit, and is known for its ridiculous situations, adorable characters and cheezy puns.

The story centers around the relationship between Ataru Moroboshi, an normal guy with extremely bad luck, and Lum, a bikini-clad alien princess who has fallen in love with Ataru, as they interact with a colorful supporting cast in a town called Tomobiki.

Introduction

Tomobiki-cho, the Urusei Yatsura part of Rumic World, is the oldest (March 1996) of all the subsites.

Created by Mason Proulx, Tomobiki-cho was originally launched at ottawa.net. After several redesigned, Tomobiki-cho relocates to tomobiki.com in 1997. Mason was a big part of early anime fandom on the internet, and his website can be seen as one of the "pillars" of the online anime community.

In early 2002, Harley and Dylan invited Mason to join a collective which would become Rumic World. Months later, Mason reads the email and agreed. After another redesign, Tomobiki-cho is finally re-launched with the other fansites under the collective umbrella of Rumic World.

Timeline



1989 Viz begins publishing Urusei Yatsura, one of their first series. After seven monthly issues Viz cancels Urusei Yatsura.
1991/1992 Animeigo begins subtitling Urusei Yatsura.
November 1993 Viz resumes publishing the Urusei Yatsura manga, re-titling it "The Return of Lum: Urusei Yatsura." The Ranma ½ anime begins in America.
March 1996 Mason Proulx's Urusei Yatsura site debuts on ottawa.net. At the time it is known as "Mason Ikkoku's Urusei Yatsura Web Page."
June 1996 After several redesigns over the course of the spring, version 5 of "Mason Ikkoku's Urusei Yatsura Web Page" launches. From this point on, the web site is officially known as "Tomobiki-cho: The Urusei Yatsura Web Site." This also marks the moment when it became the largest UY site on the Web.
Fall/Winter 1996 Viz cancels the Urusei Yatsura manga for the second time.
November 1997 Over the course of several months Tomobiki-cho site is revamped from top to bottom and becomes version 6. Launch is delayed slightly when Ottawa.net crashes and Mason relocates the site to its own domain: tomobiki.com.
Fall 1997 Viz begins publishing Urusei Yatsura for a third time keeping the name "The Return of Lum: Urusei Yatsura."
December 1997 Tomobiki-cho debuts its message board.
1997 At the urging from a supporter of the site, Tomobiki-cho starts a campaign to get Urusei Yatsura shown on a Bay Area cable channel. It was a small victory, but back then seeing any old-school anime on TV was miraculous.
Spring/Summer 1998 Viz cancels the Urusei Yatsura manga a third and final time.
August 1998 Tomobiki-cho's message board crashes and does not return.
January 1, 1999 Animeigo resumes the Urusei Yatsura anime after a two year hiatus with volume 20.
1999-2001 Mason stops working on Tomobiki-cho entirely. During this period, most of his attention remains focused on his Japanese rock & pop music site.
Summer 2000 Mason spends the summer in Japan.
April 2001 Anipike: Jei's Web Picks - Tomobiki-cho.
Spring 2002 Tomobiki.com goes offline for months. Harley and Dylan write to Mason, inviting Tomobiki-cho to join a collective which would later become Rumic World. Months later, Mason reads the email and agrees, marking their first introduction to one another.
May 2002 Mason begins redesigning Tomobiki-cho to its seventh and current version.
May 28, 2002 Rumic World debuts.
October 12, 2002 Rumic World begins to work with Project ILM to finish the Urusei Yatsura manga from the point Viz canceled it four years prior.
Late 2002 Tomobiki-cho faces another crises as Mason had lost all his files on the computer due to a flood in his apartment, the CD backups were lost in the confusion, and the files online were deleted due to server errors. Just when all seems lost, Mason, with the help of his father, sent the broken hard drive to professionals to extract the last copy of Tomobiki-cho in existence.
June 8, 2006 Tomobiki-cho gets mentioned in Protoculture Addicts issue 88 and Mason contributes to an Urusei Yatsura article that appears in that issue.