***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu Mama. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Within the depths of Hell, there is Pandemonium – the home of the demons. Now, don’t go jumping the gun quite yet. Pandemonium is not a realm of tortured souls and satanic evil. Instead, it is a pleasant little town with a handful of quaint shops, cafés, and other creature comforts. In the purest sense of the word, this place is downright lovely.
And ruling it all is the demon of legend, Beelzebub (voiced by Saori Onishi).
To the public, Beelzebub is their stoic, intelligent leader who governs with the fairest logic and reason. While that may actually be the case, it's not the full story. When out of the spotlight, Beelzebub is a bit of a ditz who loves everything cute.
Although she is excellent at her job, to Beelzebub, it’s just that, a job. She will do what she must to fulfill her responsibilities, but if she can weasel her way into five more minutes of sleep, why not? In fact, Beelzebub’s almost childlike personality is a constant headache for her loyal personal assistant Mullin (voiced by Rikuya Yasuda).
Leading people is a full-time position. However, taking care of the leader who leads the people is an even fuller-time role. Nevertheless, Beelzebub and Mullin’s close relationship makes them the most efficient duo around.
Series Positives
I don’t see why this needs to be a long review. Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu Mama (Beelzebub) was thoroughly enjoyable. It did what it had to do, and it stuck to its guns the whole way. At its core, this series was a feel-good comedy that knew how to be cute.
Actually, that word “cute” cannot drive my point home any deeper
For its part, Beelzebub was never sickeningly adorable; and I feel that is a critical distinction.
Have you ever needed to attend an event to watch over a younger (like really younger) sibling or cousin? Then once you got there, you realized you were easily fifteen years too old for whatever was going? Or worse, you somehow ended up being the oldest person by like ten-years, and your closest competitor was, at best, thirteen. Around you were super bright colors, and everything had smiles, and all the kids clearly had no idea what outfit their parents had stuffed them in, but you were convinced that at least one of them had their pants filled with something awful?
… … …
I swear I’m not projecting anything.
There is cute for toddlers, and then there is cute. I don’t care what age I am at, I will never deny things like kittens, fluffy stuff, and the hard-to-take-seriously-bashful-face-the-person-you-love-makes-when-they-are-annoyed look are anything other than darling. That was where Beelzebub operated.With that said, I adored this series’ art style. The show’s color pallet was low-key and calming. Everything was expressive and pleasant on the eyes. It all worked incredibly well. To put it as simply (and perhaps as blasphemously) as I can, Hell has never looked like a more inviting place to take a nice Sunday stroll.
However, since visuals only make shows pretty and not fantastic, at its disposal, Beelzebub also had a strong cast of characters. They felt like a dynamic group of individuals. No one was pointless, unwanted, or underutilized. In fact, this series even took things one step further.
A few decent love-plots were going on throughout the show, and each of them had their fair share of screen time. Granted, when I say “love-plots” I’m not necessarily referring to blooming romances. Instead, there was a lot of hard-crushing-on-someone happening, and you know what? I was all for it. This was perhaps my favorite element of the series.
If I had to guess, Beelzebub pulled that aspect of its story off so well because it took the time to use its characters in ways that built their personalities. There might have been a bit of trope-reliance going on, but regardless, everyone brought something to the table and made this series a ton of fun.
To quickly list them off, here they are – in no particular order – my three favorite characters:
1. Saragatanas (voiced by Ai Kakuma)
2. Azazel (voiced by Satoshi Hino)
3. And Beelzebub herself
It was usually those three which got me laughing the longest, loudest, and most often. Incidentally, this series had a delightful sense of humor which managed to throw out the occasional one-liner that had me dying.
In the end, Beelzebub’s most prominent feature was its relaxed atmosphere. There wasn’t anything that would bring you to the edge of your seat. This was a pleasant little anime I would highly suggest watching at your leisure should you find yourself with some downtime.
Series Negatives
I'm not saying I disliked this character, but Mullin was definitely my least favorite aspect about Beelzebub. In the grand scheme of everything else, he was kind of boring.
To give him some credit, I never thought Mullin was undeserving of Beelzebub’s affection. I could actually see how those two got along so well and how mutual feelings towards each other would start to form. Thus, Mullin wasn’t a waste of energy. 
However – and this is me totally forcing in logic which doesn’t belong – I am baffled by how Mullin got the job of personal assistant to the ruler of Hell. So, you’re telling me there was no one else more qualified for the position? Have it your way show; I won’t argue with you on this.
That aside, there was something to Beelzebub that didn’t sit right with me. This show wasn’t an ecchi series, but it sure as hell tried to dip its toes into those waters. Some of the fanservice was weirdly out of place.
An example of this was in the titular Beelzebub’s own character design. Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t her outfit make her breast look detachable? They were so oddly prominent.
Is this a silly thing I’m harping on? It most likely would have been if it weren’t for the fact this was merely one part of a much more persistent problem. I’m about to take a strange stance, but Beelzebub needed to have committed itself to a specific direction. Either be an ecchi series or don’t. Stop it with this awkward, half-hearted BS.
Lastly – and on a completely separate subject – I want to emphasize something I mentioned earlier. I said Beelzebub was a laid-back type of anime. I am maintaining that was a positive of this series, except, I am also acknowledging how much it slowed everything down. This show was never in a rush to get anywhere.
Now, if you want to use Beelzebub as a way to whined down at the end of a day and maybe fall asleep, then all is well. Still, if you’re expecting this series to give you a big burst of energy, you might have gravely miscalculated. If you know what you’re getting into, then I suspect you’ll do just fine with this one.
Final Thoughts
Like I said at the beginning: There was no reason to drag this review out. Here we have a show that succeeded; plain and simple.
Speaking for myself, I had a great time with this series. It was sweet, funny, and enjoyable. The characters were plenty fun, and they worked well together. And amongst it all, this show was delightfully animated.
While there may have been moments when this story tried to delve into areas it had no business going, it never lost what made it great. From beginning to end, this series was just cute.
I will gladly give Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu Mama my recommendation.
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu Mama? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.
And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.
I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.
 |
| Google+ Facebook Twitter |
No comments:
Post a Comment