Plot Summary
When Beel finally wakes up from the coma he and Oga were in, Hilda, Furuichi, Alaindellon, and Lamia are horrified to discover that Oga and Beel have switched bodies. Oga now finds himself trapped in Beel's body, while Beel is stuck in Oga's. This leads to Beel, who isn't used to wearing clothes, trying to remove the most offensive of clothing items, pants. Hilda and Oga try to stop him, but are walked in on my Oga's family, in what is one of the funniest jokes in the episode.
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| And yet they don't ask what the kid is doing there. |
They go to school to ask Saotome how they can switch Oga and Beel back, but run into several distractions along the way. They can't avoid attracting attention as Beel, in Oga's body, acts the way he always does. And Oga is forced to carry him, in a way that makes him look like a horrible person.
After Beel pisses Kanzaki off, he runs out of the classroom after smelling something. He runs right towards Aoi, and tackle hugs her. At first she freaks out over the unexpected show of affection from Oga, but as all good love interests she immediately catches on that something isn't quite right.
After Oga and the rest explain what is going on, Aoi and Hilda get into a passive agressive argument about who Beel prefers. They both try to get Beel to come to them, in equally hilarious ways.
The competition turns into an actual fight, with Aoi matching Hilda's sword skills. Aoi reveals that she has demon power now, and Hilda realizes this is what Beel smelled earlier, and why he ran off. Beel hugs Aoi, and despite knowing it isn't Oga inside, his body hugging her is more than she can take. She pushes him away, as Oga runs to stop him, while Hilda attacks Aoi. Oga switches back into his body, just before the three attacks hit him.
Afterwards Oga finally finds Saotome, who tells him that the effects would wear off after a short while.
My Opinion
The scene before the opening was dragged out far too long, but it did help to introduce the pudding pudding dance, so when Aoi starts dancing it doesn't come out of nowhere. And the animators adding in Hilda trying to learn the dance at the end was a nice touch.
In a series that is meant to be wonderfully ridiculous, episodes like this are a god-send. There was a little something for everyone, random goofy antics for fans of the stupid, Aoi-being-embarrassed for fans of romance, and Hilda vs Aoi for fans of both fights and the stupid. There's a little something for everyone, and because Oga is in Beel's body, he remains clothed for most of the episode, so fans that don't like that can rejoice.
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| Huzzah! |
Though it does bring up the main point why I think this series will never be dubbed. Even as innocent as it may be, a naked baby in a cartoon will cause controversy, and that is something I think any anime studio wants to avoid. Especially in a time when the economy is being especially tough on the anime and manga industry. It also brings up why censoring the series, which many would disagree with on pure principle, wouldn't work. Beel not liking clothes has become a plot point in recent episodes. And personally I think it is a very accurate character quirk. I once knew a family who had a toddler, and the kid never kept his clothes on. He just loved to run around, even into the street, without a single thing on. So while it makes localization difficult, it is a clever, accurate character trait for a toddler.
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| What relevance does this screencap have? Blushing Aoi is cute, that's what. |
The part that surprised me the most this episode was how they handled the voice acting. Instead of having Oga's voice coming out of Beel, they actually have (I assume) Beel's VA reading his lines. And Oga's VA does Beel's squeals. I've often seen examples of body switching where the voice stays the same, but this never makes sense. If the body has been switched, or a person has changed shape to another person, their vocal cords would change, and hence the voice would change. They would not keep the same voice (I'm looking at you,
Harry Potter). This added detail really made the episode stand out, and makes the viewer appreciate the anime team going the extra step in making
Beelzebub an enjoyable series. Though it is strange to see a show like
Beelzebub pay attention to that kind of detail.
If you liked my review,
Watch the Episode Here!
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