The anime finished a week ago, and I only just today got myself to sit down and watch the last few episodes. I think that says a lot about how I
still feel about this anime. With this, though, Spring 2011 is completed (except for the longer series), so there's an accomplishment.
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| OOC much? |
This batch is five episodes long instead of the usual four because 13 is not a multiple of 4 and I didn't want to do a separate post for ep13. This batch finished off the series by introducing two plot lines (one that was super lighthearted and another that was a continuation of the last angel encounter) in its usual ways. These episodes were generally more interesting than the ones prior, since it was nice to see a Sakuma that was turning darker by the day, but I still just didn't like the overall tone of the anime.
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| Women wear shirts, Azazel. |
Ep09 was about how Sakuma was acting weird lately, showing up to work at different times and being generally distracted. (I'm pretty sure that was a mistranslation in the WhyNot version; I think Akutabe said that Sakuma showed up late and left early, not the other way around. I've just given up at pointing out all the errors at this point, though.) With Beelzebub and Azazel tasked to follow her around and see what was going on, it made this episode pretty much just one long event.
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| I can see why he's Prince Beelzebub. |
This episode really wasn't so bad; it was funny to see how Sakuma had been letting out her evil side after spending so much time at the agency. She was roped in to do some cosplay because she wanted notes for a class, and so she was spending a lot of her time with that. With Beelzebub and Azazel liking what they saw, they decided to leave her be...until Akutabe found out and refused to lose his worker.
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| Random violence is always good to lighten the mood. |
Ep10 continued the story, with Beelzebub and Azazel sent to retrieve Sakuma since she was spending more and more time with the cosplay. It was pretty funny how anime lovers were depicted; I'm aware that maid cafes (and whatnot) do have the girls play little games when the food arrives, so that was amusing. Sakuma's descent into madness (or, you know, channelling her inner otaku) was hilarious; I really can't believe that this is what makes so many people happy.
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| Akutabe, always on the ball. |
With Beelzebub and Azazel on board with the strawberry curry (which sounds pretty disgusting, by the way), the event was going pretty well (and Sakuma was losing interest since she was no longer the centre of attention). I hated the climax of the episode; let's just say that some of Beelzebub's food got mixed in with the curry. Moving on. The club was in huge trouble for their "misdeeds" and Sakuma returned to the agency without hassle (and giving Akutabe the ability to tighten the leash with some pictures).
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| Hm. Heaven looks suspiciously shoddy. |
Ep11 managed to take the story of the previous episodes (Sakuma's cosplay, that is) and return to the previous story of dangerous angels. As Beelzebub was in a picture with Sakuma in his demonic (and rather princely) form, the angel Zeruel was able to track down the agency and began making plans to take a grimoire (foiled temporarily by Akutabe's barrier). As an angel, he was very much like Sariel - climbing mountains and ignoring his duty for grimoires (although he
did say that he was looking in the mountains for grimoires), being pretty rude. I was surprised that he didn't use some sort of angelic mind control over the landlady to get her to obey, but oh well.
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| Old Women Skills! |
On the other side, Sakuma and the demons had a terrible encounter with the overbearing landlady (who left with whatever money she could have, leading me to wonder if Akutabe really
was behind on the rent or not). In an attempt to get her to behave, they decided to utilize Salamander. While he didn't initially want to help due to being asked by a woman (who he treats as a lowlier creature), his masochistic nature (apparently happy
especially when abused by a woman) kicked in with Sakuma's punishments and he agreed.
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| Reminds me of Rho's stepmother's insane money-grubbing rules in mahjong... |
Ep12 was a continuation of ep11, with the group meeting the landlady once again. With some fishy tactics (such as Sakuma pretending the landlady reminded her of her own grandmother), they managed to get the woman to say that she was a good landlady, at which point Salamander made her believe her words. I find it funny that she would have had 3mil yen on hand (in the safe); then again, that's really only ~$30k, so maybe it's not that weird. Despite Sakuma's descent as of late, it was amusing to see her reject it and run away, perhaps from her own demons (pun intended).
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| So pro that he can beat up angels. |
With the landlady being cooperative, Zeruel managed to get her to visit the agency in order to find the grimoire (which turned out to be the one belonging to Beelzebub). As the demons played mahjong and then Sakuma headed out (with Beelzebub) to get snacks, the landlady took the grimoire and ran out to find Akutabe beating up the angel. (He's so pro... I really wish we saw more of him. But that isn't what this anime is about, sadly.) It was too late, though; the angel got his hands on the grimoire and the episode ended with him ascending into heaven along with Beelzebub disappearing.
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| Even God wants to be agreed with. |
Ep13 finished off the series by finishing off the mini arc with Zeruel. He headed off to Heaven with the grimoire and made amends with his mother (I've always hated this idea, but I guess some parents really follow the eternal forgiveness shtick). With Sakuma and the demons crying on Earth (and Akutabe pissed off because the grimoire was taken despite his unbreakable barrier), Zeruel headed off to meet with God (or so, I assume it was) and his personal angels. After some penis jokes (given this type of anime, after all), Zeruel
finally opened the bag and found money instead of the grimoire.
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| Pretty Heaven, not for the masses. |
With that little "twist" in Heaven, the landlady headed to the agency to return the grimoire. She spoke about how she had wanted to help the "homeless man", but stealing from her tenants was not a good thing to do, so she decided to give the 3mil yen (that Sakuma wouldn't take) to the angel instead. With the money, she hypothesized that he could just buy the book himself. With that part of the story resolved (and Akutabe annoyed at how his barrier was circumvented), Sakuma and Azazel went on a search for Beelzebub, finding him in the alley...doing his thing. The episode ended with Zeruel becoming a fallen angel (literally, as the cloud under him gave out and he fell).
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| Getting too in-character is addictive. |
With this batch, the series is finally over and I feel very relieved. This batch wasn't so bad, with a slightly interesting story (and I really did like how the arcs segued into each other), but it just wasn't enough to make me forget some bad episodes from earlier. After finishing the entire series, I can say with confidence that this really wasn't for me.
~Aaro
