うる星やつら episode 122 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura ep. 122 review
Urusei Yatsura – 122

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A small kitsune sees a film at a summer festival and remembers Shinobu and so sends her a post card. It is raining when Shinobu receives the post card and she remembers a prior summer rain when she rescued a small kitsune from a pack of large dogs. The kitsune wants to repay Shinobu for her kindness, so when Shinobu is at a beauty parlor, the kitsune attempts to get her the makeup Shinobu wants but can’t afford. Unfortunately, this backfires and the products are destroyed when they fall to the ground, causing a fight between the shop lady and Shinobu.

The kitsune retrieves Shinobu’s forgotten umbrella and leaves it at her door so that the next day as it rains, Shinobu has it. When the big-lipped gang leader of Butsumetsu High School races up to declare his love for Shinobu as she walks to school, Shinobu knocks him out but ends up leaving behind some flowers. So, the kitsune grabs them and transforms his appearance to look like Ataru, only retaining the kitsune’s small stature, fox ears, and fox tail. The kitsune tries to be helpful at school as “Ataru,” so much so that despite his weird appearance, Onsen-sensei, the principle, and the class accept this new Ataru.

The real Ataru arrives with Lum and is not happy to see an impostor posing as himself. Ataru suspects a youkai to be behind this and gets the kitsune to show its true form. The class goes to attack the frightened fox when Shinobu saves it. She realizes that the kitsune was trying to thank her for saving it from the dogs. Thus, she tells the kitsune that it can now go home. Reluctantly, the kitsune leaves but shortly returns in the guise of Onsen-sensei. The kitsune “teaches” class while the real Onsen-sensei is labeled as a youkai, bound, and dangled from the ceiling.

Thoughts/Review:

This episode started rather slow. While I like Shinobu and the kitsune story is sweet, it is still not anything really gripping in terms of anime watching. That said, once we reached the half-way mark and the “boss” with the big lips that loves Shinobu so much arrived, things became humorous and fun. His arrival was so unexpected that it couldn’t help but amuse me. However, he wasn’t around long but served his purpose so that when Ataru and Lum arrived, things were fun still and ended on a fun note with Ataru wanting to take out the “youkai,” also known as Onsen-sensei. ^_^

I don’t know if this story was in the manga or not. If it was, then I would guess this kitsune is the forerunner of the kitsune Shippou from Inuyasha.

Regardless, while the episode did end on a higher note, it still wasn’t that great. The slow start of the anime didn’t help and the humor of the end, while nice, only made me smile. Well, they can’t all be gut busters, eh? ^_~