OP Sequence

OP: 「だだだ」 (Da Da Da) by グループ魂 (Group Tamashii)
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「魔王拾いました」 (Maou Hiroimashita)
“Picked Up a Demon Lord”

There are really only two things that set Beelzebub apart from the waves of shounen series out there. One is the off beat humor, and two is that it doesn’t exactly take itself very seriously. It’s like Three Men and a Baby, except with only one man, and the baby will one day destroy humanity. It’s also kind of like Gintama. Yeah. It’s that kind of show.

Juvenile delinquents always amuse me in anime; being the rebels of society, they find it hard to make sense of the world around them, and possess a compassionate heart when you see them with what they care for. Beelzebub has none of this. If you didn’t find what I just said funny, Beelzebub’s humor might just not be for you, and trust me, humor is a large factor to enjoying the show. To me, Beelzebub isn’t an adventure, it’s a comedy. The adventure is just a sweet bonus. I’ve read the manga, and I still found this episode funny, but a lot of the jokes did seem to fall on their face. Much of the humor is derived from comedic timing and preposterous remarks, perhaps a little harder to translate into anime form, but Mitsudomoe proves otherwise. So where does the problem lie? More on this later.

The whole time I’m watching this show, I’m thinking, “Why the hell does Oga sound so familiar? What is this deep voice that brings trembles to my soul, almost inspiring me to go do better things?” That voice is Kamina my friends, and he lives! Well, in Oga at least, but a fitting choice nonetheless, even though I had a higher pitched voice in mind. You know, Oga Tatsumi (Konishi Katsuyuki) is a hard character to describe. Well, at least the Oga I know, but the Oga you know for only 24 minutes, he’s a little easier. A delinquent in a school of them, and yet seemingly the most powerful. But what makes him the main character? Nothing really, but the fact that he has no concept of how to be nice while also possessing a contortionist’s skill of making the face of a demon just tickles Beelzebub’s fancy. Beelzebub is the death grip naked baby you’ve been seeing, the one the show is named after, and the one that says no words except “da.” Sawashiro Miyuki makes the cutest sounds ever as Baby Beel, and it should also be interesting to hear Toyosaki Aki as Kunieda Aoi, although that might take a while. The guy hanging around Oga is Takayuki Furuichi (Mizushima Takahiro), the realistic character to the ridiculous one, the tsukkomi to the boke, and the two provide the majority of the laughs throughout the episode. Last but not least, you’ve got Hildegarde, a tough maid that only shows emotions towards Beel, and a loyal demon to the Demon Lord. Quite the crazy cast of characters, some you could even call unique, and probably the only things that will be pushing the story for a while, so you better get to liking them. You may not be familiar with them now, but they become extremely hilarious to watch as the cast grows bigger and bigger with more people to bounce jokes off of.

So regarding story, what is it exactly? It sounds like complete nonsense written on paper, but it’s so oddball that it became popular enough to get an anime. It’s creative, it’s intriguing, but there’s two things wrong with it. Studio, and Pierrot. When I think of the current Studio Pierrot, I think of bland Bleach and Naruto fillers, terrible decisions, and a complete disregard for the source material, as if their motto is, “We must change everything on every adaptation we do, even if it’s minimal and doesn’t make a lick of sense. We also don’t care about continuity.” The first episode of Beelzebub manages to be quite good, and I’m pretty impressed with the animation they’ve put out for it. They kept the storyline pretty close with the first chapter, except with a complete change in the first 10 minutes, with the two walking around school getting electrocuted. I figure they needed to buy some time to fill in the 20 minutes or so, but the fanboy in me screams, “why you do this?” The other problem that I mentioned earlier is the humor. In the manga, the jokes pretty much drive the scenes, with witty remark after another, and although Pierrot kept the major ones, most of the others were tossed out for electrocution humor and some just weren’t executed quite right.

Beelzebub has a charm that wasn’t quite so captured in the anime, and in that manner, hindered it a bit in my eyes. It was still a solid AND fun episode that did what any first episode should, but they literally have a blueprint written out for them. Knowing Pierrot, Beelzebub is probably going to run for a long time, and given the loose story the original material follows, I wouldn’t be surprised if fillers start popping up, as the manga is only just nearing a hundred chapters. That said, ignore the manga, watch the show, and it’ll be hard not to enjoy Beelzebub’s extremely likable nature. The loose story should make for great fillers, and with their years of filler writing experience (half sarcastic here), it’ll be a lot easier to enjoy them. If they nail the humor down after a couple more episodes, that would be great too. Personally, after trudging through years of disappointments with Naruto and Bleach, shows that I’ve both long stopped watching, it’s hard not to feel like it’s only a matter of time before Beelzebub heads the same way. Don’t let my irreversible jaded cynicism stop you though, Pierrot just might have learned their lesson this time.

Note: If you notice, there’s no category for this series listed in “filed under.” This means I am not blogging it, and it goes for other series without a category as well.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「Answer」 by ノースリーブス (no3b)
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Preview

78 Comments

    1. just finish watching…. its worth it… its has some lol moments… but more important Itou Shizuka and Toyosaiki Aki are both voicing for this anime niceeee….. Kiiragi please keep blogging this I like hearing your opinion on this one…

      Totoro!!
    1. No it is not at all a baby – gag show, although there are some parts of that here and there. Its about intense action, comedy and a hell of a lot of epicness, just keep watching for a while, and u’ll know why. Hell, the manga’s even better and gets u gripped right from the get go. But then again, that’s the case with all mangas(source material) 😛

      Trust me, the series is Seriously amazing and epic, not just good or great XD

      Kewldude
  1. Kinda was hoping this get covered to balance the new shows that are being covered (moe, loli, ecchi). Alas, it seems long series don’t get covered, like they use to here, anymore unless fitting into those categories.

    Mania Lyssa
    1. Are you really writing off other series with a single word like that?
      Also, you have to understand that taking on a series longer than 2-cour (24-26 episodes) means less time to take on other shows in later seasons, the ones you might want covered then.

      1. actually this is silveraura on pureauraa’s nametag…

        however my point i wanted to say is that you just lost a member of the team, you need to look for someone willing to take on role for you guys again who can fill the slot. im sure many on here would be willing. then you could afford to take on the longer series. personally i have a blog of my own to cover and this doesnt interest me, the style just isnt what i would watch. however as i said many would be. why not get Divine to put up a ‘position’ post and see who reply’s?..

        Pureauraa
  2. I laughed so hard. I laughed almost, like, 15 minutes or so. I read the manga, but with the animated faces from Furuichi the jokes seem a load better, so much better, that I couldn’t stop laughing. ;D
    I’ll definitely be following this one.

    s4phira
  3. i really do hope that this isnt another naruto or bleach.
    in my opinion i think bleach could of ended on episode 50 or so when
    they saved rukia from the soul society. cause after that it went downhill

    Guy
  4. you know, when i saw the fighting scene i thought it look familiar, it the one piece. the same type of format used for those extremely long anime with ton of useless filler. can’t say i love the art. kiiragi is right about not getting the right vibe from manga that make it popular. well i guess this is one series i won’t be chasing to watch this season although i hope 2nd episode will be better to change my mind.

    lkaze
  5. The animation and fun were good in this first episode. Emphasis on FIRST here since anything could happen afterward. The manga itself is a sweet riot and I’ll follow this until Pierrot screws it up. I do hope they learned their lessons but then again, they could have change their ballgames with Naruto and Bleach.
    Having my beloved Aki in the cast does help. A LOT.

    Shinjiro
  6. there are only 12 epsiodes on wikipedia and judging by the speed at which they’re going through this, they may actually make it through the whole story so far in 12 episodes o.O also where’s the bit whwere oga throws Beel? I loved that in the manga (Park Debut XD)

    Blackbird
  7. So glad I catched this one. So far its been my favourite pilot. The episode was really funny, but yeah I kind of get you on the overdone electrocution joke in this single episode.

    Fell in love with beelzebub,he’s just so bloody adorable. What I also found really amusing was the non censored baby wang. First time seeing that. Why does no one cover the kid up? Well the character looks funnier without clothes so I don’t care anyway.

    …Is now judging ‘self for thinking that the character design is better when the kid’s naked…

    Saya
  8. “When I think of the current Studio Pierrot, I think of bland Bleach and Naruto fillers, terrible decisions, and a complete disregard for the source material”

    I think of Twelve Kingdoms, HnG, and freakin Urusei Yatsura.

    Also, did everyone just forgot about Gash Bell, which was 150% of the same premise, except it also had a boobies song ?

    karry
    1. Hey, I think of Yu Yu Hakusho, a favorite, but the two shows you described are older, and if HnG stands for Hayate no Gotoku, Pierrot had nothing to do with it. Old Pierrot was great, new Pierrot, not so much.

  9. You might think it’s different from generic shounen, but if it follows the manga, it’ll quickly degenerate to generic fight arcs. I got bored with it after the highschool arc (first one … can’t explain further without spoiling)

    I never could figure whether the baby was on a pacifier or had it’s mouth constantly open in the manga … now I know.

    Litho
  10. I personally am a fan of Beelzebub. The manga that is. But have only read the first 4 books. Regardless it has the feel from anime comedies that I like. I really hope you could continue to blog this show. It’s different from the other animes that are out at the moment and gives me a nostalgic feel of when I was into Konjiki no Gasshu Bell (Zach Bell).

    I would blog it if I could. Though with looking for a 2nd job and whatnot I may not have the time for it :/

    ROFLWAFFLELAWL
  11. Not to be a dick or anything, but any shortcomings of Naruto and Bleach come from poor writing from the source material. I honestly can’t think of ANY other studio that could adapt Naruto and Bleach any better, allocating budget most of the time better then any other studio could. At the time when the adaptions started both shows were regarded highly so Pierrot took them on and even if the story has gotten extremely poor for both shows; there would be a lot more people sad then happy if Pierrot decided to drop either of the shows. Tegami Bachi I’m really enjoying right now and I’m sure Pierrot will treat Beelzebub in the best way possible. We all know what kind of animation treatment any other long running show gets if not taken in by Pierrot or Toei, *cough* Fariy Tail(A-1 Pictures, Satelite) and *cough* KHR(Artland). Normally A-1 Pictures has an amazingly solid track record but it just goes to show what a stretched out budget does. Also, I’ll take bland fillers over snail like pacing any day as everyone has seen in One Piece and KHR.

    lHyDrAl
    1. Naruto fillers are inexcusable… February!? are you serious!?

      One Piece fillers are actually good. Watched most of them (the only ones I disliked were the 100% recap episodes and the New Year Specials) and liked it. Right now the pacing is slow due to the slow pace of the manga at that time (14 pages each chapter and most of them were double spreads of an action scene). I think they keep good tabs between anime/manga.

      Lectro Volpi
      1. Yeah.. I’d rather have the fillers go until June but not everyone can have what they want. Also, I don’t need the One Piece situation explained, everyone knows about it :P. One Piece is sticking with one chapter per episode pacing, which personally bothers me, and I never said I disliked plain filler episodes themselves, but Toei has failed to translate the war in a way that has satisfied me as a viewer with pointless filler material that adds nothing whatsoever to the experience. Naruto Shippuden in its first two arcs was almost unwatchable due to the pacing and even though it works better with One Piece, it doesn’t change the fact that the pacing is SLOW and would be improved upon if a long filler arc was in place to make room for 2-3 chapter pacing instead. Also, Toei is putting Yokoyama on 485, Toei must be kidding. Overall I just feel like Pierrot does the best job at adapting long running series especially with how the budget is used.

        lHyDrAl
      2. “Fillers now so they can later make it up with good pace” that would be the normal trade but they gave you fillers, normal pace and then more fillers. Toei gave us the Ice Hunters arc and then Thriller Bark which was OK, but with Pierrot you can’t really expect a fair trade. They just don’t have sense of guilt.

        The “War” theme does not allow much to add really. I dislike the buggy fillers as most people but I prefer those 5 minutes fillers than what Bleach did “Fight Aizen -Intermission! for some… random arc and then more random episodes!-”

        I’ve dropped Bleach and I’ve dropped Naruto till February, yet I still watch One Piece. I think I’m being reasonable.

        Lectro Volpi
  12. Animes like these are so unoriginal that it’s not even funny.I know how shounen anime is(big avid fan of them)but then there are those that don’t have anything special to them in terms of story,character design,etc.It’s just like those harem animes that have the same ‘blah’ formula. This is just like a Gintama x Yu Yu Hakusho wannabe. …which makes me really want to watch Yu Yu Hakusho instead.

    Lulu
  13. The OP is plain awesome! I can’t stop watching it! I think I like the first episode much better than I though I would simply because I adore the OP so much.

    Might watch it for a while, but I guess I will eventually give up if this show is kept running forever instead of wrapping up in XX episodes or so.

  14. I have to disagree(sort of) on the Studio Pierrot outlook. The almost blunt honesty is kind of refreshing to me. They’ve basically admitted, via Naruto and Bleach, “Yeah, we aren’t going to tell this story as well as the source material. This is a giant commercial.” If this thing does end up having a ton of a filler, you can at least expect it to be skippable episodes and not interspersed into manga scenes. Cough cough, One Piece, cough cough.

    Comet
  15. The comedy was so-so. Mainly because of the numerous baby gags. Do they stop as we progress further ? Because besides that, there were some very funny moments here and there. Oga was sort of refreshing. At least he is a straightforward delinquent and bad-ass. Hilda was awesome, obviously (=

    zarquon
  16. Guys, it gets better further along the storyline. And for those who are passing on it because it’s another “long series” are really missing out. It’s a comedy, so in that sense it doesn’t matter if it’s long or not. in my opinion, it really is a show one could watch when they’re free, and need a break from all the other more serious shows out there. It’s a balance thing. As a Gintama fan, i’m not against long running comedy series at all in general.

    Zetton Seijin
  17. i’ve been hearing alot of good stuff about the manga
    but long running series seem to be getting worst these days with all the fillers
    and what bleach is doing now with aizen imo is getting ridiculous i cant even watch it anymore
    the only long running anime i completely enjoyed was D-Grayman and the way it ended was at the worst possible time while it was getting to the most interesting part and kinda left the viewers hanging they should really bring it back one day

    Klown

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