Anime Reviews: Beelzebub Episode 49 - Beelbeel Journey to the West

Watch the Show Here!

Plot Summary
The show opens with a new year's greeting from the cast, and goes into a brand new opening song. After the opening, Oga, Aoi, Beel, and Furuichi are walking through the desert. Furuichi wonders how they got there, after everything that had happened in the last arc. Oga explains to him that you just gotta have a new year's special.

PS: He's talking about Alaindellon, and I fully agree.

After being attacked by several characters from the show, playing characters from the tale Journey to the West, Oga and group find their way to a village of Shiroyamas. They tell them that the Ox King's bandits are stealing their crop of octopi. Oga and the other three take care of the bandits, but the octopi are all fried in Beel's lightning.

They journey, picking up new comrades, to the palace of the Ox king. Where they find the three Demon Wet-nurses. They are forced into playing a game to keep En happy, but it is to no avail as he throws his predictable tantrum and sets the palace on fire. With the Ox King's fan the only thing able to put out the flames, Oga and group search for him, finding him played by Toujo. Once the flames are put out they all have takoyaki, while Oga wonders if there wasn't somewhere they were supposed to go.

Meanwhile, a lonely Hilda waits where they were supposed to be travelling in the first place.

My Opinion
Considering there is a new opening (which is passable I suppose, but forgettable), and one that foreshadows future arcs (quite well I might add, it hints at future developments, but does not give away any concrete information like some anime have the bad habit of doing in their openings), I think that the wikipedia page is wrong about only fifty episodes being announced. So we can rest assured that the anime will keep going. Which is surprising, because while I love the series, I never would have thought it would make it this far. I really thought the early filler episodes, which while not so bad in retrospect, were going to get Beelzebub cancelled before it could get to the good stuff.

But it was not cancelled, clearly, and we are now in the middle of the good stuff. I look forward to future arcs, and feel that even if it were to be cancelled in a few arcs, Beelzebub has had a much better run than I could have hoped for. And that is worth something at least.

There's not much to say about this episode, other than that it takes everything silly from the series, and ramps it up to fifty. Without having to stick to the story canon, this episode was able to pull out as many ludicrous gags as it wanted. And it certainly made it worth the watch.

While I know for a fact that I missed a lot thanks to not being familiar with the details of Journey to the West (I know the basic premise, and that it was the inspiration for Dragonball), I still thought that there were plenty of laugh out loud moments that didn't need in-depth knowledge to understand. Beelzebub is very good at being very, very stupid, and I can't help but love this episode for being everything I love about this series.

A good break from the story heavy past few episodes, and a good return back to the silliness that is Beelzebub.

Why two screenshots of blushing Aoi? Because shut up, blushing Aoi is cute.

The ending theme wasn't as upbeat as the last, which I liked a lot, but I enjoyed the focus on the Red Tails. Especially since it brought back the girl with the facemask, who rarely gets any screen time, and the girl with the short hair, long skirt, and gang jacket. I don't even know what her name is, but I think I'll call her Mahana, or Michiru, or Ryo.

If you liked my review, Watch the Episode Here!