Winter 2020 Anime: Official Info, Airdates & Trailers
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This is the episode review for the second episode of anime As Miss Beelzebub Likes. After being carefully introduced to Beelzebub and her trustworthy, adorable tsundere-servant Mullin in the first episode, the second one is expanding the world with more characters by presenting us with the characters Azazel and Belphegor, aka Gocchin. If you thought Beelzebub would be the only cute one, then you were wrong. Both new characters also are so cute, I wanted to hug them the whole episode. At this point my cute-o-meter is already ringing so much, I think I have to mute it so that I can hear what the people talk about in this series. Definitely a good 7/10 on that front! Let’s see what this episode was about first!
Japanese Title: 兄貴はメルヘンなお味。/ 登場、バイブレーションガール。 (Aniki wa meruhen nao aji. / Tōjō, baiburēshongāru. )
Mullin is worried again about Beelzebub. She dreams of sweet stuff as usual and of course Mullin is thinking a lot about her. So much, that he ends up crashing down the stairs (very steep stairs!) and the only one who bothered saving him was the former demon cherub Azazel. He caught Mullin with ease and was about to disappear, but he didn’t think that Mullin would start admiring him instantly, deciding that he wanted to become like Azazel. A manly guy, strong and silent. He didn’t mutter a single word. He only held up boards where he had written something on to communicate. However, since Satoshi Hino was cast for him, I am sure he will talk at some point…
No matter how many times Azazel tells him that he is not as cool as Mullin thinks, Mullin follows him around for the rest of the day and tries to copy him. When they go eat, Mullin starts to realize that Azazel might really be a bit different. Instead of steak or some other manly food, he receives a pancake that even has to be decorated to look like a bear! In the end, it turns out that Azazel is like Beelzebub: He simply loves cute, fluffy things and sweets. Still they get along well and get close quickly.
In the next part of the episode we meet Belphegor. Her first action is head-butting Mullin when he talks to her and when Beelzebub comes out to check what happened, she sees Belphegor and literally throws her into the toilet. It turns out that poor Belphegor – lovingly called Gocchin by Beelzebub – is plagued with severe social anxiety and can not talk to other people at all. If she has to, like she did with Mullin, she really feels like peeing and has to run to the toilet. She proves it by going to the toilet repeatedly. When Mullin finally is able to talk a bit to Gocchin, Azazel shows up and what little progress they had made is destroyed as Gocchin can’t do anything anymore and is seemingly scared out of her mind. Only later do we find out that this might not be the case when Mullin gives her some cookies that Azazel made. She seems to really appreciate them and runs off happily.
Never in my life have I ever heard anything that sums up my expectations for this series so well as this sentence. In general, the beginning of the episode pretty much is what I think the rest of this series will be. Beelzebub dreaming of sweet or fluffy things (or both) and Mullin being worried about something. Throw into that the chaos that Azazel and Gocchin brought and that’s what I hope will happen for the rest of eternity this series!
Ah, dear adorable Beelzebub, not knowing how she is jealous that her precious Mullin admires Azazel… And the guys of course are also simply confused because it’s Beelzebub we talk about and how can she like anything that isn’t sweets or pure fluffiness? (Which I would argue, because I am very certain that he is the sweetest. And maybe if we work on his hair with conditioner, it might get fluffy enough for Beelzebub…)
Doing research on Azazel wasn’t easy, as there are so many different ones and it’s a lot to read up on. Still, there are a few things that I thought were interesting. Instead of an angel or demon, Azazel is actually a mis-translated word, it seems. It was supposed to be a very literal scapegoat. It seems like there should have been two goats sacrificed but instead one should be sent into the desert and thus sent to the Lord while the other would be sacrificed to pay for sins. The one that was sent away would be sent ‘to Azazel’. So that’s how Azazel became a person.
In another story Azazel was indeed an angel that aligned with Satan. The reason for becoming a fallen angel were more than one. The first reason was because he married human women and made children with them. And then he proceeded to teach the humans things that only angels should know, like things about weapons and how to put on make-up and dress up with jewelry. So far we didn’t see much of Azazel apart from him being obviously into cute, sweet things, but he doesn’t talk, which would be a funny hint at the not-angel Azazel. Maybe he will never talk? Is it maybe also because of social anxiety? Can he relate really well to Belphegor?
So for the second story, there isn’t much to connect yet. He did not teach anybody how to make weapons. The only small hint could be that he wants to make a dress that looks like the one on the cover of The Secret Garden for Beelzebub, which might or might not be equal to putting on make-up and jewelry. I hope that we will see more of connections in the future, because I am really curious what made the author use this demon for the character! There should be a reason, right?
I do not recommend searching for Belphegor online if you are a scaredy-cat like me. Unlike the cute Gocchin, Belphegor is someone who seems rather scary. It’s a demon that doesn’t have a very nice background story. The demon is closely related to sexual activities, especially incestuous ones. Of course we don’t really see that relation in Gocchin. What we do see however is another part, as they say that this demon is also connected to eating and drinking more than you would need and thus you would go to the toilet more often, which is why this demon needs to be worshipped at the toilet. Now wasn’t this turned into something really cute with Belphegor having to race to the toilet so often because of her anxiety? Now I only hope that Azazel is not somehow her brother or cousin… We really don’t need to put that aspect of the demon in this story, do we?
I wanted to note something for my reviews, but didn’t know where to put it, so here it is: Religion is a sensitive and complex topic and I am in no way a professional. I know nothing at all, if I am honest, aside from what I do believe in myself, so when I do talk about these demons and angels, I will never ever refer to a religion. I don’t want to mention a wrong one or mix them up or say something that is only half true for one of the religions. It makes it easier for everybody and the really interesting thing is after all the story behind the name of the character, not which religion it belongs to. I hope you can understand it and will not forget this in my future reviews of this series. Let’s keep it simple and nice!
NEXT: Former Angel with Wings. / The assistant, a complete sadist.
Keep warm this winter season with the latest anime info at MANGA.TOKYO!