This might be the archetypal weirdo of the week style episode for UY.
A goblin living at the bottom of a swimming pool at one of Mendou’s hotels causes all sorts of trouble for the gang. The good-natured if clingy, short sighted chap resembles a blobfish somewhat, and the first half of the episode deals with the gang trying to get him out of Mendou’s pool, while not drowning in the process. They finally manage to evict him, only for him to move into the Moroboshi’s house.
The second half opens with Ataru’s mother telling him to throw the goblin out, a fate the goblin seems to accept with upbeat melancholy. Ataru plans to throw him in the ocean, but the goblin gets all emotional, and makes a self sacrificing speech to pluck the heartstrings. “I will be most happy to be thrown away by you” he tells Ataru.
Left alone on an outcrop with a bag of crisps he spies Sakura and Tsubame. It turns out he’s not the only one – Ataru is spying on them too. As are Mendou, Shinobu and Lum. They all seem to be treating this as some kind of sex education. The mood is finally broken when Ten and the Goblin just walk straight up to them and stare at them.
Soon the goblin has ingratiated himself with the gang again, however they begin to suspect the goblin has been deliberately trying to make them guilty. Particularly when he tells them to put him in a cardboard box and take him to a deserted area.
This leads to confusion when a young boy abandons a dog nearby in another box, then has second thoughts and grabs the goblin instead. When the gang open the box with the dog in, they discover the dog is Cherry, who has been pretending to be a dog in order to scrounge food.
The goblin makes this episode. He is wonderfully realised, both in his movements, and his voice. Jouji Yanami provides the voice for him, more famous for the voice of Boyakkii in Yatterman and the narrator in the Dragonball franchise. He also appeared in a lot of Go Nagai shows in the 70s.
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This is the first of two Tadashi Fukui scripts for UY. Not much credited to him on Anime News Network, but Columbia’s official Casshern DVD site indicates he was a writer on that show. So I’d guess he’s got other 70’s credits to his name.
Screenplay: Tadashi Fukui
Storyboard: Kozima Tamiko
Director: Kozima Tamiko
Animation Director: Asami Endo