Clash of the shows with Alien Humanoid Girlfriends-Is Star vs. The Forces of Evil a Copy of Urusei Yatsura?

This is not a comparison and certainly not me bashing the show for copying a manga series.

Although I will admit when I first signed up for Disney+ back in November 2019, I did grab the opportunity to watch Star. vs. The Forces of Evil but I could barely get into the show due to the puppet rigged animation. However, I did enjoy the Fan Art better. Most of the Fan Art did often change the art style to anime style but there are a few fanart of the series that did retain the art style of the show but still keep everything hand drawn.

But back to topic, the reason for this post is because I was browsing through my iPhone's Photos and I happened across this meme I saw about a back in 2022 on Pinterest comparing the show to Urusei Yatsura.

Keep in mind, this meme was referencing the original 1978 version of Urusei Yatsura since 2022 saw the release of the remake but the screenshots are from the early version of Rumiko Takahashi's own series. But yeah, the similarities to both Star and Urusei Yatsura is rather uncanny. It's almost like Daron Nefcy was actually inspired by Takahashi-Sama's own work.

As a matter of fact, while I was making this blogpost, I went and read through Star's Wikipedia page but there was no information on Urusei Yatsura on the BACKGROUND AND PRODUCTION tab. 

It did list Daron Nefcy saying she was inspired by Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z during the making of the show.

What's interesting is that Star vs. The Forces of Evil was originally supposed to be on Cartoon Network but The Rabbit Hole rejected the series. Instead, Star became Disney's Magical Girl.

Hmmm.... I wonder why?

But it isn't strange for Disney to buy a series that was rejected from it’s rivals. Pepper Ann was originally supposed to be a Nicktoon but The Slime Factory rejected the series so the Mouse House bought the series and the rest is history.

But while the comparisons of Star Butterly to Lum Invader and Tom to Rei is accurate, the person who made this meme sort of didn't do his homework when he was comparing Marco Diaz to Ataru Moroboshi.

Marco Diaz is a teenage heart-throb who at least wants to have a normal life while Ataru Moroboshi is a GRADE-A pervert who's ridiculously average at best and the only girl who genuinely loves him romantically speaking is Lum herself. 

Lum Invader is a humanoid Oni who can control electricity while Star Butterfly is just a magical human being with somewhat inexperience wielding her wand at first but later becomes proficient.

Rei rarely has brains while Tom pretty much as some form of intelligence. Both are massively jealous of the protagonists stealing away their girls.

The other difference is Marco has a girl for a Stalker while Ataru has a rich bastard for a rival/friend. And of course, another girl who masquerades as a boy.

So with the info I've got, Star Vs. The Forces of Evil is thankfully not a carbon copy of Rumiko Takahashi's Urusei Yatsura so this meme's a little overblown but that's why I like to make these comparisons because with later shows like THE OWL HOUSE, many shows regardless of network are starting to see a major increase in influence from ANIME.

Next thing I know, the next Disney show, Nicktoon, or Cartoon Network show could be heavily influenced by RANMA 1/2 or Inuyasha.

For me, My show pitch probably is more or less influenced by Ranma with several sprinkles of Haruhi Suzumiya on the side.

Speaking of anime, NETFLIX's anime adaptation of Scott Pilgrim is out. I might as well go and watch it when I get the chance. 

Well, I've watched the first episode. If you want to know more about it, I have another Maverick Quickie about this anime:

https://maverickmartinezarchive.blogspot.com/2023/11/maverick-quickie-my-two-cents-on-scott.html

Writing from Reality 01-The craziest places to get story ideas and character designs at the most random places imaginable?

Wanna hear something Crazy? 

You can actually find things in your area like your home town or maybe references from cartoons just to help your creative side.

Yeah, Life is weird but so is finding random amenities that lead to great story ideas or even character creation.

Here are a few to list:

George Liquor-American!!(A.K.A The man with the liquor store name from Van Nuys)

Everybody has a family member who has a no nonsense attitude or they like nonsense but at the same time, has a strong belief in hyper masculinity.

John K's George Liquor actually borrows heavily from his late father Michael Kricfalusi who was a hyper masculine Canadian male who believed that the breadwinner should be manly. The man tried to get John to stop drawing cartoons and even force him to stop watching them but alas, he failed but what he did get was someone who moved to California, USA and whined about 80's Saturday Morning Cartoons and his lack of pure masculinity.

I wish I had a father like that but my father never acted like that. Instead, my parents separated and and my mother smothered me. She tried to censor my viewing habits and other things I'm not going to get into....

Anyway, back to George Liquor, the guy's name is taken from a random sighting of a broken signage for a Liquor Store in Van Nuys, California in 1979.

"AHHHHHHH!!!! GEORGE LIQUOR!!!!"

How's that for a character who's goddamn personality comes from a creator's father's demeanor. However, John K made this character ultra-conservative but I don't know what political affiliation his father was. 

And he's not going to like this: His favorite hero KIRK DOUGLAS actually was a DEMOCRAT.

So much for trying to emulate your favorite actor, only to realize he's a democrat but not a republican.

The Cosmic Owl from Adventure Time, where did he come from?

Well, I read an article on a July 2012 issue of Nintendo Power that Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward actually was inspired by a certain reflection from a Bathroom Urinal and it emitted an interesting reflection that looked like a face or a mask. That's how it gave birth to the Cosmic Owl.

But wait, there's more:

What about Ren and Stimpy?

Well, they actually come from two sources.

Stimpy's design was based on the two cats from the 1945 Looney Tunes cartoon A GRUESOME TWOSOME.

The red cat in particular inspired the design of Stimpy due to the hands and the bulbous nose which John K stated was sort of a throwback to 1930s animation where due to the cartoons being produced in Black & White or Two-Strip Technicolor, characters like Mickey Mouse or Sylvester needed gloves so it's easy for audiences to see their hands. 

The bulbous noses are sort of something that some characters had but no longer do unless you're drawing cat characters.

Ren Hoek however was not based on anything cartoon related but instead, his design was based off an old photograph by Elliot Erwitt.

You can imagine how pissed off that Chihuahua looked having been forced to wear such an embarrassing sweater.

Ren's voice, if you can hear it in your head, will always have that Peter Lorre impression regardless if there's an accent or not.

Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin have two things in common with each other, Their voices are actually based on real-life people.... well sort of.

Homer's voice(He's always been voiced by Dan Castellaneta) was based on Walter Matthau so if you watch the Tracey Ullman Shorts and Season 1 of THE SIMPSONS, that's Castellaneta's impersonation of Matthau. However, the Matthau voice proved to be problematic for Castellaneta's vocal chords to the point he eventually dropped the voice in Season 2 and went for something more boisterous.

Peter Griffin's voice on the other hand was based on a security guard that Seth Macfarlane heard when he was studying animation at RISD. He originally used that voice for an earlier character named Larry Cummings in his thesis film THE LIFE OF LARRY and later LARRY & STEVE.

And here's another crazy inspiration fact:

Boomhauer's voice was based on an old voicemail that Mike Judge got back in the mid-1990s.

The voice was allegedly from what he described as a deranged hillbilly but from what the message sounded like, the deranged hillbilly was one who preferred high culture and didn't appreciate the low-brow nature of Beavis and Butthead and left a diatribe on Judge's answering machine. On top of that, he thought the name of the show was PORKY'S BUTTHOLE!!!

"I'VE BEEN CALLING YA'LL FOR ABOUT A MONTH NOW GRIPING ABOUT YA'LL THEM TIME THAT DANG OLE LOONEY TUNES COME ON YA'LL PUT ON THEM 

PORKY'S FREAKING OLE BUTTHOLE!!!"

"I GUESS IMMA HAVE TO CALL FCC ABOUT SHUTTING YA'LLS BUTT DOWN!!!"

The absurdity of that phone call is enough to split your stomach from laughter.

What about my experiences when I created my characters?

This character who I've named Butch Sutherland is based on two things.

His personality and voice is based on Roger Klotz from Doug. The part where this guy bullies the protagonist but proves to be a walking irony and later befriends the protagonist.

Butch also is based on this guy I knew from childhood who at first hated my guts but soon warmed up to me and we became to be good friends. I won't mention his name though.

The shirt design is soft of based upon that vintage 1970s Zenith Advertising design because why not.

This Japanese Girl I drew is actually based on this Asian Girl I knew from high school who I've always had a crush on. We actually were very good friends but I haven't been speaking to her for the last 7 years since my high school graduation.

This character was originally named Tippi but her name is now Megumi. The hair is sort of a mix of 1960's front hair design that I really appreciate but I will admit it did bring challenges to create side profiles of this character.

I have other character design amenities but I didn't copy everything I had on my custom built PC to my USB stick just to create this blogpost. Hopefully, I'll get everything I have and continue this in a part two to this blogpost.

Update as of May 12 2024:

9 Days after I posted this blogpost, Elliot Erwitt passed away at the age of 95. I was shocked but I guess it was his time.

R.I.P Elliot Erwitt.