So I had a rubbish run of watching anime over the summer, having not got through very many of them at all. Trying a bit harder this season, having discovered there are about 30 that I'm at least vaguely interested in. So they're all going to have to get a few episodes, and then be culled heavily. This is going to get culled.
Miss Beelzebub is a fallen angel, who found herself in hell after siding with Lucifer and losing the war against god. So far, all well and good. Surprisingly, hell is actually really nice, since it's run by former angels who have stayed mostly true and good, and have taken their position as the testers of humanity. They put obstacles in people's way, and if those people fail the tests, they get sent to hell. Now, you never actually see the victims, only the angels/demons running the place, so it's entirely possible they're trapped in a whole second anime that is properly gruesome. This is not that anime.
Instead, this anime is "Cute: The Cuteness (2) - The Cutening".
Beelzebub is obsessed with fluffy things: filling her office with Tribbles; chasing down balls of dust to pat, and building pillow forts. She is technically also an efficient and powerful ruler of hell, but you never see any of that. What you see instead is her getting excited about desserts and trying to understand all of the feelings she has when her assistant, Mullin, does nice things for her.
Mullin obviously fancies the pants off her, but doesn't know quite how to say it. That's fine though, because apparently everyone else in hell is also rubbish at romance, each of them having their own couples who don't know how to express emotions. Remember Tsuredure Children? This is that, but with supposed demons instead of schoolkids. The "supposed" is important, in that thus far, the setting, backstory and everything else is utterly irrelevant. They could be working anywhere.
"They" includes Astaroth who also wants to love Beelzebub, but has the backup option of Sargatanas, his assistant, who is an FMA Hawkeye rip-off. She's also another character who is superficially mean and cold, but immediately looks all bashful the minute Astaroth compliments her. And finally there's Azazel, a large imposing guy who only talks via flashcards, and who Mullin wishes to emulate. He is again secretly a softy.
It's sweet, in a cloying sort of manner. I imagine it can it used as a palate-cleanser between the more thinky/dramatic series, but it doesn't have enough interest in it to keep me watching. It's worryingly well-performed and has surprisingly decent visuals for something so shallow, and the Girl appears to now be desperate to watch it purely for the fluffy things, but I am dropping it heavily.
(Let me know if it goes full Madoka at any point and suddenly we're plunged back into a war for souls, but I bet it doesn't.)
Tagged: Anime Comedy Workplace/Employment Supernatural Romance Crunchyroll Subbed