Summer’s over, but where can these guys go to school after Oga destroyed it?
What They Say:
Oga and Furuichi head off to school to start the new term… except Ishiyama High is still completely destroyed thanks to a certain someone. So instead, all the students from Ishiyama are split up and sent off to different high schools temporarily. Furuichi is all excited since they’re heading to St. Ishiyama Academy, the most prestigious school in the area, but when they get there the reality of exactly how they are treated becomes apparent…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The summer vacation has ended, which is good considering where Oga and the rest ended up, but things aren’t exactly going to go swimmingly for the group. Considering the state Oga left the school in, he figured that they’d just take the time off until things got sorted out. But as Furuichi points out, they do have school as everyone has been assigned to different schools in the area to continue their education. With the school they were in considered the worst of the worst, anything is a step up. Having Furuichi and Oga going to St. Ishiyama is like being elevated to heaven as it’s a huge school, a fantastic reputation with a high college acceptance and a severe abundance of girls since it’s almost evenly split. There’s a whole lot to like there with the whole upper class but not snooty scale of the place.
Not surprisingly, though Furuichi didn’t think of it, the Ishiyama kids aren’t being integrated into the St. Ishiyama main student body but are instead getting their own room with multiple years together instead of spread out. And, of course, they get to go with several very familiar thugs and punks that Oga’s dealt with previously. The teacher they get is pretty amusing as well as the man named Sadohara thinks he can push his way through them and make them respect him by being a bit of a bully himself. With a past in school himself where he was Golden Arm Sadohara in the arm wrestling club, he thinks highly of himself, but that was years ago and these kids from Ishiyama are a far different breed. The fact he looks at Oga and thinks “pushover” certainly says that in spades.
Naturally, there are those at St. Ishiyama that are curious about Oga since his reputation certainly precedes him. There’s a pair of kids that end up following them after school to see if he’s the real thing, since he certainly hasn’t acted like the baddest of the bad, but their reason for it doesn’t surface until the end. With Oga and Beel both suffering a touch from the summer cold and the slow return of their bond, the fight they end up in takes a bit longer than it should, but it’s worth it since it brings him back to form and lets little Beel have a good bit of fun himself. After the last lengthy arc that had the two separated and then the time spent in the demon world, getting back to simple school based adventures feels like a good return to form.
In Summary:
While Beelzebub had me kind of wondering if it was going to stray too far from what made it work in the first dozen plus episodes, the series definitely still knows what it is that makes it fun and this episode shows it. I’ve warmed up to Furuichi a lot in the last few episodes as well and I like the whole shift in location with this episode while bringing over some of those that are familiar from the other school. At its core, it’s a good time with rough and tumble characters that have heart and avoid looking completely like amoral thugs. It’s amusing to see them in this new, pretty and upscale location and still nobody bats an eye really at a naked green haired baby on Oga’s back. That kind of acceptance just makes me laugh all the more.
Grade: B+
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
