Rumic World

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Rumic World Short manga stories created by Rumiko Takahashi, mostly created early in her career before Ranma 1/2. These tend to be comedies. Later stories were published under the series title Rumic Theater.

"Rumik World" is also the series name under which Central Park Media released in North America four anime OVAs in 1992 based on Takahashi's stories: Fire Tripper, Maris the Chojo, Laughing Target, and Mermaid Forest. Some of these stories, along with newer stories, were also animated as part of the Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou (Rumiko Takahashi Anthology) anime series.

[edit] English Edition

Viz Media distributed three volumes of the Rumic World collection in 1996 and two other volumes under the "Rumic Theater" name. Printed "flipped" style (manga artwork reads right-to-left, so many early English releases were printed mirrored to read left to right) and in a larger format Rumic World can be easily identified as an older manga release. They are no longer in print.

[edit] Stories

Volume 1:

Fire Tripper: A gas explosion sends young Suzuko 500 years into the past.
Maris the Chojo: An alien policeman sees a kidnapped quadrillionaire her ticket out of debt.
Those Selfish Aliens: Aliens and the government implant bombs in a poor individual.
Time Warp Trouble: Warriors from feudal Japan inexplicably pop into a high-school classroom.
The Laughing Target: When they were children, Azusa and Yuzuru were engaged, and Azusa will make sure that Yuzuru stays her, no matter what.

Volume 2:

Wasted Minds (Dust Spot) (Actually a five-part miniseries): Follows a pair of two bickering government agents.
The Golden Gods of Poverty: A boy's parents use him to make money.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit: A woman leads seminars for a get-rich quick scheme.

Volume 3:

That Darn Cat
When My Eyes Got Wings
Wedded Bliss: A wedded couple can only let out their tension from working all day by fighting with one another, until their neighbors threaten to have them moved.
Sleep and Forget: A girl relives a past life involving her lover and an evil witch back from the dead.
A Cry for Help
War Council
The Face Pack

Rumic Theater:

The Tragedy of P: A woman is asked to take care of her husband's boss's penguin in her no-pets allowed apartment.
The Merchant of Romance: A woman tries to keep her father's wedding chapel open.
House of Garbage: Someone keeps mistaking a man's front stoop for a garbage drop-off.
Hidden in the Pottery: A woman gradually starts to learn secrets about her mysterious neighbor.
One Hundred Years of Love: An old woman is sure that a teenage boy is her reincarnated lover.
Extra-Large Size Happiness: A young wife is plagued by a gremlin with a giant head who only she can see.

Rumic Theater: One or Double:

Excuse Me for Being a Dog!: A boxer tries to hide the fact that he turns into a dog every time he bleeds.
Winged Victory: A rugby team with 999 losses is cheered on by a ghostly girl.
The Grandfather of All Baseball Games: A man uses the money his grandson makes in baseball to lavish his elderly girlfriend with gifts.
The Diet Goddess: A young girl goes through a rigorous training exercise to fit into a dress and impress her crush.
Happy Talk: A girl thinks her dead mother might be a hostess in Tokyo.
One or Double: An accident places the soul of a fanatic kendo coach into his pupil's crush.
To Grandmother's House We Go: A woman poses as her dead friend to claim a 500 billion yen inheritance with the the help of the girl's dead grandmother.
Reserved Seat: A singer has to deal with stage fright and memory blackouts after his grandmother's death.
Shake Your Buddha: A hilarious debate between a Buddhist god and a yam fanatic during a food shortage over whose methods can lead to Japan's survival.