In "", Jason Thompson referred to "Urusei Yatsura" as "A slapstick combination of sci-fi, fairy-tale and ghost-story elements with plenty of cute girls." He also noted that Lum is "the original otaku dream girl." He awarded the series four stars out of four. In an interview with Ex.org, Fred Schodt expressed surprise at the popularity of the original English release of the manga as he believed the cultural differences would be a problem. Reviewing the 2019 English release of the manga, Arpad Lep of Comics Beat called "Urusei Yatsura" an impressive, essential debut by a living legend of comics, where "many themes and archetypes integral to her whole body of writing emerge already very well-developed." He compared its story to those by Shigeru Mizuki and its art, which he had strong praise for and noted gets better in just the first two volumes alone, to that of Go Nagai. Lep said Takahashi nails the many gags and physical comedy, with the series' stability from the never-changing sitcom elements of "Disappointed parents. Put-upon girlfriend. Insatiable yokai. Weird uncle. And our hero, a total loser" being fun and always staying fresh.