Some Quick First Impressions: Mitsudomoe 2, Beelzebub and Freezing

Mitsudomoe 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character saves the world from evil.
The big question for Mitsudomoe was: would it have enough inspiration in order to fill all of its eight episodes. The answer, based on this episode: yes. This episode was completely different from the first season, but actually in a good way that still remained funny. Unlike the first season, it wasn’t divided in smaller sub-arcs, but instead it was entirely devoted to a parody of Super Sentai Shows. Unlike Beelzebub, I really laughed quite a bit at it, especially at how it was completely silly, yet the characters took themselves 100% seriously. The amount of toilet jokes was also surprisingly reduced here, and it actually worked well. This is actually very surprising, because often comedy sequels just try too hard or just can’t seem to work as well with with the new style they’ve chosen. This is a great exception, though. I really hope that the rest of the season will have more of these gimmicky episodes that work surprisingly well, and the fact that this show is only listed for eight episodes seems a great hint to that.
OP: Quite lame, but that was probably the entire point of it. ^^;
ED: Nice little gimmicky ED putting the regular characters in the role of the Gachi Rangers.
Potential: 80%

Beelzebub

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a juvenile delinquent with superpowers.
I wasn’t looking forward to Beelzebub, because it was being adapted by a bunch of people who are notorious for their bad adaptations. And indeed, about 70 to 80 percent of the jokes of this episode fell flat. They were either badly timed, badly acted, or just consisted of random yelling or unfunny toilet jokes. This episode was in many ways obnoxious, it already repeated some of its jokes ad nauseum (most notably that electric shock attack). now, the music was quite good, and there were a few jokes here and there that were quite funny. It feels like there are some interesting ideas in this one, but most of the time it doesn’t really know how to use them. It’s not the worst opening of a Shounen Jump show I’ve seen in recent years, that probably goes to Fairy Tail, but at the same time I have no idea why Beelzebub is so highly regarded by so many people, just based on this episode. And please don’t tell me that it’s the type of story that only gets good after fifty episodes or so.
OP: Decent rock song that at least fits the maturity level of the series.
ED: Surprisingly decent.
Potential: 40%

Freezing

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a dead sister complex. A very severe one.
This episode was actually very good for the largest part. There sure was a truckload of fanservice, but at the same time it really treated itself seriously. The action scenes were intense and well directed, with a surprisingly large amount of gore that worked quite well. The build-up is great, the soundtrack was excellent as well (this really is the season of awesome soundtracks here), and overall as an action series, I really could see myself enjoying it. But yeah… then the final two minutes came. What the heck was that? I don’t even want to explain what just happened. Just… watch it if you really want to know…
OP: Decent rock song with nice animation.
ED: Fanservice slide show, but the song could be worse.
Potential: 50%

35 thoughts on “Some Quick First Impressions: Mitsudomoe 2, Beelzebub and Freezing

  1. I remember one guy on here thought i was crazy to expect something decent out of this, but who’s the one looking silly now? j/k. Anyway, i’m really looking forward to checking this out.

  2. Last thing I’ve seen with a large amount of fanservice that took itself seriously was Ichiban, and that’s one of the worst series I’ve ever seen.

  3. Freezing is hardcore… Im loving the gore, and for once, NUDITY instead of just pointless boob shots

    I just dont like how every girl in this show apparently has G cups, it must be a Pandora trait lol

    Either way, as far as 1st episodes go, this season rocks… And we still didnt get Fractale and Level E (Im expecting great things from the producers of Armed Librarians)

  4. Freezing: Looks like Claymores fighting Dolems with great potential for wangst and boob physics. The ending has me wanting to watch the next episode just to learn which way the show decays into something else.

  5. As far as the source material goes, Freezing is a story that starts out mildly interesting but quickly deteriorates into substandard battle manga where substance is substituted with lots of angry shouting. I wouldn’t expect anything out of it.

  6. This show should be called boobing instead of freezing (@_@’)

    It was hilarious to see the moments of tension being wrecked by the incessant panty/crotch/boob shots
    (o Y o)

    Another bizarre item to file into my mental cabinet of Japanese curiosa, but no chance that I ever see another episode of it.

  7. You weren’t kidding about the ending. 20 minutes in, it was a cool Claymore-ish series, despite the cliches and excessive fanservice… and then THAT happened.

  8. I’m so psyched that they made a freezing anime :). I’ve been following the work of Im Dall Young for quite a while. Up until now it has been following the manhwa quite well (Hope it does for the rest of the season) Not a big fan of the excessive fan-service, but it’s like that in the MANGA version too. For now it looks promising.
    If you can’t wait to know what happens next, I’ll recommend the manga (Manhwa if you want it censored) Oh yeah, BTW. Love the ending song, filled with energy and a great singer 🙂

  9. Really wtf was that?! At first I thought that it will be some mature dark series until the huge boobs appeared and the stupid costume…okay there are good shows with a pair of balloons. Then the action got intense and the music was awesome then panty/crotch/boobs combo shots…Highschool of the Dead was conservative in comparison.

    Lastly, what was that at the end! What was breached?

  10. I agree, the ending was totally like WTF!! The story plot could develop into a good one but if they keep up with the hardcore fanservice all the way, I don’t know if the storyline can make up for it. But anywho, I feel like if they develop the characters more, and maybe lessen the fanservice as it gets to climax then it will be an OK series. That is if they have a solid and creative storyline!

  11. Gee .. with boobs that big when you’re swing a sword round you’re likely to lop one off! If there wasn’t soo much huge boobs and crotch shots then this would have been really good. Like it is it gets annoying really fast.

  12. This really feel like you’re watching an episode of Elfen Lied then suddenly you get a shot from Queen’s Blade and a voice telling you “hey, I really hope you didnt think it was going to be that good, did you?”. Want to see next episode but I’m worried…

  13. I’d like to point out for everyone, while this is anime adaption, its not Japanese series =P Blame koreans. Its written by some guy called Dalyoung Im who apparently can’t draw since manhwa aren’t drawn by him xD This was drawn by some guy called Kwang Hyun Kim who also drew Dalyoung Im’s series called Aflame Inferno, which is also fanservicy gory action manhwa.

    Some other series by the author(note: His series have different drawers, I have only seen one other thats not written by the guy who drew Freezing and Aflame Inferno, and it had less fan service(as in, less panty shots) while still having some VERY ‘squeeky’ story stuff)) are Zero The Beginning Of The Coffin(, Kurokami, The Legend Of Maian, Onihime VS, Rebirth The Lunatic Taker, Unbalance X Unbalance and I think he has few other ones too.(note: Out of those I have only checked Zero and The Legend of Maian. They are pretty different from Aflame Inferno, though latter has pretty similar art style, but story wise it seems less dark, but I only checked first few chapters before getting bored…)

    …What? I just dislike misblaming xD I mean, Japanese do lots of creepy fan service at times, but they aren’t only ones xD(and sorry for crappy grammar)

  14. Beelzebub original manga was never really all that good(well at least up to the point that I dropped it) so I really don’t think you should keep following it..

  15. I was really looking forward to Beelzebub coz I love Shonen Jump, but the electric shock thing was kinda overplayed, and I managed to predict a whole lot of stuff before it happened. But I expect it to get better! And yeah, it will probably be 50+ episodes =)

    And just fyi, Fairy Tail isn’t Shonen Jump ^_^

  16. Hmmmmm… perhaps Beelzebub humor/gags just isn’t your type ^^; I find it very hilarious though, despite the repeated jokes (they were so funny though that it still makes me laugh no matter how overused they are xD ). The stupid stuff here made it so amusing for me xD

  17. The problem for Beelzebub really is mostly the timing of the jokes, but on another note they seemed to have removed a bunch of jokes that were in then manga for the electric shocks, which annoyed me.

  18. mangas and light novels are usually the originals of every anime, you will never know how good it is unless you read it. The 1st chapter of Beelzebub is completely different fromt the 1st episode. This is what happends when you have someone who makes lame romance comedies do a action comedy, Hopefully they change the director to someone who actually knows what there doing

  19. Some of better jokes from Beelzebub have been removed and they added few (which is too many) electric shocks

    The only thing intact is the story bu… Beelzebub isn’t really about the story but gags and parodies so this isn’t exactly such an awesome thing.

  20. I never really got into the first season of Mitsudomoe so just watched this just because I could .. but it was suprisinbgly funny. There’s some really good hidden details taking the micky out of bad special effects in this .. like for instance you can see that the bus driver is actually a stunt double (becomes a guy) and the car dissapears before it blows up. I think i’m just going to rewatch to see if i can spot some more 🙂

  21. Beelzebub isn’t exactly THAT awesome as some people would put it – though its only with the latest chapters that it is improving in both humor and action (funniest training arc I’ve seen) – its just generally good fun nothing more. So I’m not sure where you got the idea that it is a highly regarded shounen.

  22. The manga is LOT better. Most of the first half was anime original. I reread the first chapter I watched this episode and I still find it hilarious, whilst this adaptation is simply horrible. The electrocution joke was the least funny in the manga, why did they choose keep bludgeoning our heads with it? Thus, when they did start with the original material, they didn’t have enough time to properly set up the gags, most of them fell flat. The little things that makes the manga so good are missing too. :/

    I’m not giving up the anime yet, I’ll watch the second episode to see if studio Pierrot will stop inserting their fillers into Beelzebub. There are still a lot of chapters to go through before they ran out of materials for a first season. They don’t have to drag it out.

    End rant.

    As for the manga, I actually found that the best part of the series is in the earlier chapters. The gags are a lot funnier. But lately it’s descending to shounen mediocrity, more fighting, less comedy.

  23. You find the humor of the training arc and the courtroom scene to be mediocre? Different taste then 😛

  24. Heh yeah, Beelzebub had its funny moments, but the electrocute joke was never funny to begin with, I have no idea why they kept repeating it

    I have the impression that this is another “The world god only knows”, where people had high expectations for some reason, but it becomes nothing but mediocrity

  25. Instantly dropped Freezing after watching the last two minutes – and the irony that the rest of the episode was quite decent actually.

  26. *Sigh* I had a feeling this was going to happen to Beelzebub but it still makes me sad that they didn’t adapt the jokes correctly. I felt the same way about the electrocution joke…I mean come on it’s not in the manga that many times!

    I give it two more episodes before I drop it and just read the manga.(Though, it is awesome to see the characters animated.)

  27. Beelzebub was just butchered, badly.

    I really really hate that director now. All he managed to put out were just really bad adaptations…Ookami Kakushi and 07-Ghost…both of which started out all right, but failed because of poor pacing and execution.

    I mean, seriously. What is wrong with him? Unlike what some others say, Beelzebub the anime will not get better in 50+ episodes. I’m sure of that. The manga’s already only 91 chapters long…and the first episode already smooshed 20+ chapters into 30 minutes! This series just promises for fillers.

    Urgh…I was so excited for Beelzebub because the manga was the best thing since sliced bread for me…but goddamnit, what a waste of an adaption of a great manga. Dropped on the spot.

  28. I wouldn’t say it took 50 episodes to get good for Beezelbub. I would never have sat down and read through it all. But I did find it funny and it picked up pretty quickly. I’m a bit squeamish to see how the animation has ruined it.

  29. Which Beelzebub 1 episode you watched

    1 Where Oga and Furuichi meet Hilda on school rooftop or

    2 Where Oga and Furuichi meet Hilda in Furuichi’s house

    And yes there is 2 first episode second one follows manga more closely with overused lightning shocks and they should pass over as series progresses.

  30. 1.

    I want to watch where Oga, the demon, calmly drinking tea at Furuichi’s house explaining how he met the large LARGE man floating down the river.

  31. I am honestly shocked people enjoyed either of these series. I dropped Beelzebub 2 minutes after watching it (random peeing, electric shock, and stupid one liners was enough for me).

    Freezing, however, I watched all the way through. That was an immoral destructive piece of trash. And no, I’m not talking about the violence or the nudity. I could care less about either. How about the fact that the main character was pointlessly killing allies in “training” exercises. Literally, the entire plot and setting makes no sense. Either this military organization is the most incompetent ever created (guess what killing or mortally wounding 20 people in “training” exercises is not the best way to fight an alien invasion) or it is a despicable dystopia that deserves to be overthrown.

    The anime essentially is trying to get you to root for pure unadulterated evil (the main character is full of blood-lust and the organization is evil). It’s pretty bad when a series encourages you to root for the “evil” aliens over humanity…..

  32. Have to admit, I’m intrigued by what provoked a reaction of shocked disbelief in several people at the end of Freezing, but I’m not about to watch an entire episode of an anime I’m certain I’ll hate to find out.

  33. Freezing only gets even more gorish. It’s part of its trademark, sorta like Claymore. The opening ep was decent. All I know is that I’ll most definitely like it more than Beelzebub. As for the last scene, it’s actually pretty important >_>

  34. Beelzebub may quite honestly be the least funny episode of comedy anime I’ve ever seen. It’s basically just a really terrible knock-off of Cromartie High School (Freddie Mercury included) with an annoying naked baby thrown in as a bonus. Didn’t even crack a smile watching this drivel.

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