Hogan Reviews

The second, anime-exclusive arc (though again this is my first time experiencing the series anyway…) sees an expansion from Sand Land to Forest Land and introduces an “evil angel” to go along with series lead Beelzebub’s “nice demon” schtick and it works well. They also go from evil ruler of Sand Land to nice ruler of Forest Land, though he has been overthrown by the military, leading to a good old fashioned underground resistance story. Overall it was a fun watch, though I’m happy to see there won’t be any more after this, the setting and the characters already feel pretty thinly stretched… Let’s take a look!

With peace and water restored to Sand Land everything is looking good, and Rao recollects Beelzebub and Thief from the fiend village to help take supplies to the hidden Picchi people, and in exchange get some new weapons (that just stun or make people float, so still very pacifist-y) On the way there though Beelz met an angel with no wings called Muniel who attacked him, and on the way back the trio see a girl called Ann get attacked by some robots and have a clearly important item stolen from her. She explains that she’s part of the Forest Land resistance and that the object that was stolen was Aquanium, the same element that caused the massive explosion in Rao’s past, and that the current leader of Forest Land, General Bred, with the “hero” Muniel by his side, has plans for the element. Assuming nothing good can come from this Rao, Beelzebub and Thief accompany Ann back to her homeland.

Back on the road again… Not that are actually any roads in the vast desert, but you know what I mean…

As they arrive in Forest Land they find out that King Jam is to be executed the next day, and that Ann is actually his daughter. They go to stop the execution but it’s a set up, Beelz is laid out by Muniel (whose lightning-based powers are more potent in the humid atmosphere of Forrest Land) while Ann takes to the stage after an ungodly scream to save her father only to find out it’s a robot, allowing Muniel to reveal she is a demon and working with Beelzebub is further proof. Rao and Thief manage to steal the Aquanium and escape from the cyborg Bred (“cyborg bred”, there’s two words you don’t get to put together often…) but it turns out to be false. All four of our “heroes” are chased and eventually fall into a river but are rescued by the Swimmers, who are delighted with being able to swim again and are good guys now (not that they were ever really bad, I guess…) It’s here an older Resistance member reveals that Ann actually is half demon as her mother Lilith was a demon who marred King Jam and settled in the mortal realm. This takes Beelz by surprise as Lilith is his sister! It’s also revealed that Muniel used a magic jar to trap her in before the coo. Lots of quick exposition to raise the stakes in a row.

Look at that smug grin, don’t you just want to punch him?

While digesting all the news they find out that Bred and Muniel have taken a large flying ship armada to Sand Land and there they attack the fiend village, calling out Lucifer himself and managing to trap the lord of demons in another jar and stealing his Aquanium. With five vials of Aquanium collected Bred and Muniel launch a massive ship called the Garam and blow up a mountain as proof of its power, before heading towards Sand Land and threatening to destroy their capital if they don’t comply and surrender…

It’s a fun little seven-episode story, even if Bred is just a slightly less insane Zeu and it ends with a large flying fortress again. Still, I’ll say this: Muniel makes a good baddie as you really, REALLY want to see him get his comeuppance!

Overall Thoughts:

Uh-oh, it’s another massive floating fortress, time to send our tiny tank into it again!

I once again enjoyed dipping into the world of Sand Land for a further seven episodes, but I’ll admit a lot of it did feel very samey so I think its status as a “one shot” series should probably be kept now, even though it’s a “two arc anime series” now I guess. Still good fun, but that’ll do now, basically.

With the help of returning Sand Land General Are our lead characters (and their tank!) are launched onto Garam and from there split off to face their respective enemies. Rao and Thief in their Tank manage to defeat General Bred as Ann tries to disable Garam’s guns by disconnecting the Aquanium power, and Beelzebub confronts and fights Muniel. Thanks to having absorbed a bunch of “darkness” from the moon Beelz comes out on top but Muniel goes insane and ingests a bunch of Aquanium to gain even greater power.

Beelzebub on the verge of losing…. before inevitably making the big comeback, otherwise this would be a pretty dark and depressing ending!

Meanwhile Bred helps Ann with taking down the ship, admitting he didn’t want to actually fire the Garam cannon and that Muniel was the real driving force behind everything. Beelz is defeated but thanks to Rao bursting in and firing a shell at the ceiling to let moonlight in he gets revitalised and defeats the angel and sends him flying off into the distance. Our heroes manage to crash Garam harmlessly into the “Doomlands” and the blast is even controlled by Lucifer, who along with Lilith were freed by Muniel dropping their flasks as he flew off. This leads to a happy ending where King Jam, Lilith and Ann happily rule of Forest Land and our main characters return to Sand Land, complete with a “lets go on more adventures, hooray!” ending.