November 25th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy うる星やつら episode 125 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura ep. 125 review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis
Shuutaro has invited Lum and Shinobu to his large Mendou Marine Park and is not happy that somehow Ataru and Ten-chan got to come as well. Ten-chan is hiding from Lum since Lum is keen to teach him how to swim and her methods include the use of weights and piranha. When Lum shows up, Ataru happily gives up Ten-chan but as Lum attempts to attach a swimming fish device to Ten-chan, it gets stuck to Ataru instead. To his dismay, he finds he can’t leave the pool until he’s completed 200-meters, at which point the device will come off. To make it more interesting, Ataru attempts to use girls as his goal but it still takes a long time before he completes the 200-meters since the device works against him.
This is observed by Pool Youkai, who’s taken up residence in the aquarium that looks out at the large pool. When Shuutaro gives Lum, Shinobu, and Ataru a private tour, they discover Pool Youkai, who is glad to see them but he has a problem. When Lum enters the water to sit at Pool Youkai’s table, Shuutaro, Ataru, and Shinobu follow. Somehow, Lum is having no problems being underwater but Ataru and Shuutaro do because Pool Youkai holds them down to listen to his story.
Lum reveals she has a special oxygen candy and after everyone takes one, Pool Youkai reveals he’s in love with Mimiko-san, the aquarium’s resident blow fish. However, a large shark (Jaws the 3rd) has taken Mimiko-san for himself and bullies Pool Youkai. Lum decides to help and with Shinobu’s help, they dress as mermaids. Ataru grabs Mimiko-san and brings the fish to Pool Youkai, who somehow confirms the feeling between them is mutual. Jaws the 3rd battles Shuutaro and Ataru as the kid that Pool Youkai had been staying with returns to take him and Mimiko-san home. Ataru is ticked, but as Lum and Shinobu cheer on, he and Shuutaro continue to battle Jaws the 3rd.
Thoughts/Review:
*lol* I’m not sure why the series has suddenly taken a strong interest in youkai, but I laughed as soon as I heard Lum say the first part of the episode title, “Pool Youkai!”
I don’t remember the Pool Youkai but considering the others seemed to know him, I’m guessing I just forgot. That’s not surprising considering the fact that I’ve been watching Urusei Yatsura off and on for a few years now. I’m bound to forget quite a bit.
As to the story itself, the first part with Lum wanting to teach Ten-chan to swim was only mildly amusing. It was pretty predictable that Lum would attach her swimming training device to Ataru and that it wouldn’t come off. However, I was ready to just move on with things because I was pretty bored.
When the story hits Pool Youkai, there were a bit more amusing moments, but the story stayed just as boring. I did laugh at Ataru’s and Shuutaro’s attempts to get to the 
surface for air (which Shinobu had been allowed to do). However, that was about the only laugh for me. One would think that a great white shark battling a couple of high school kids might be funny, but it wasn’t. Nor did I find the “I love a blow fish” aspect funny either.
Oh well. One never knows what quite to expect when it comes to Urusei Yatsura. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of the good episodes as far as I’m concerned.
Posted in 
Tags: 
I suspect the interest in yokai is due to an increasing influence of Takahashi herself on the material. During the Oshii era, he clearly had a strong idea about what he wanted the show to be – and it wasn’t necessarily a straight adaptation of the manga.
Once he’s gone, while the show has more expensive animation, we start to get more and more straight adaptations of the manga chapters, a lot of them based on either Takahashi’s supernatural gags or around Lum’s alien friends. There’s a lot that feel one-note or don’t have such a good idea of how to use the tools that a cartoon has to improve the story for the medium (though there’s enough that do to make it still worth watching).
My main problem is the rash of Ran episodes you have to endure during the Studio Deen era. I guess Oshii really didn’t like her and so there were a backlog of her stories left to adapt.
Ugh. Ran is not a favorite character of mine so if there are a rash of those episodes to plow through, that won’t be pleasant.
I think that pool youkai was first introduced in episode 34.
That far back, eh? That would certainly explain why I don’t remember.
I too, could’ve done without all the Ran, heck, any of the Ran episodes. I find it funny how Mendou owns so much stuff!
Yeah, Ran was pretty much no good, but she wasn’t down there with Cherry, Ten-chan, or Ryuunosuke’s father.