Everyone’s got a secret…. some bigger than others.
What They Say:
Hecadoth, one of Behemoth’s 34 Pillars, was after Oga all along! Does he stand a chance against a battle-hardened Demon? Meanwhile, Tojo and Izuma’s grudge match is interrupted by another pair of Demons. But coming to the rescue is… Kanzaki?!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The introduction of Hecadoth in the previous episode was a mixed event in the end because with it coming so close to Lord En’s arrival, it just feels like too much. On the plus side, it means we avoid another couple of episodes of Lord En material that could have drained and been less than interesting from the start. Hecadoth brings something serious to the table with both manner and power because he’s not in that whole realm of weird and silly when you get down to it. And that they ended the last episode with a good bit of drama with Hilda being taken down worked well, especially as just before that she reinforced to Oga that it’s all about protecting Beel and nothing more, and that she’d sacrifice him if it meant saving him.
Which, of course, makes the real start of this episode all the more problematic because it does go back to Lord En and his trio of maids that do nothing but garner attention from the many men that think they’re just cosplaying. Thankfully, it’s just a small part of the show but it throws the dynamic off from the start as they really don’t need to be dealt with there since it’s so pointless, even down to the excitement over a videogame. So when it does get back to Oga and Hecadoth, it works very well since Oga’s rather intense now because of what happened to Hilda, but also subconsciously protecting Aoi while adding in the anger and emotions of Beel who wants to get things settled. There’s some very appealing intensity to Oga here, especially as it even raises Hecadoth’s eyebrows a fair bit when they really get started.
But at the same time, you know it’s not going to be that easy for Oga and that he’s going to have a fair challenge ahead of him. When his rough and tumble teacher, Saotome, shows up, that adds just the right element to things to give it a sense of more power that’s about to come into play. There’s also an interesting subplot that plays out where more of those operating under Hecadoth show up in the city and end up in a tussle with Kanzaki and a few others, which has them all riled by these tough guys showing up and causing problems. Not that they’re able to really stand strongly against them at first, but it’s a surprising moment to see this group hold their own overall and give them some pause. Even Hecadoth slows up his own attack when Saotome gets involved and causes the whale song from Star Trek: The Voyage Home to be played over the city which gets all the demons to pay attention.
In Summary:
There’s a lot of things going on here and the introduction of more demons that want to cause some damage, but there also feels like there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that hasn’t quite hit properly yet. There are movements abound here and some really interesting revelations just towards the end that again makes you want to go back and re-examine scenes involving Saotome. But like a lot of the recent episodes, the lack of focus on the title character of Beelzebub and Oga really hurts the show for me since it’s their relationship that I enjoy the most. There’s charm about the rest of this, but it’s not really captivating me all that much. But the end of the episode here does start to ramp things up which could either reignite full interest or just be a short cut event that’s ignored come the next episode.
Grade: C+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed 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.