I Picked Up the Demon Lord (episode)

is episode 1 of the Beelzebub anime.

Summary
"Long, long ago, in a certain place, or rather, in a place called Ishiyama High School, there was a barbaric, ruthless, and defiant bastard who thought nothing of his fellow man."

In a foggy, hellish environment, the series begins with two demonic figures approaching each other at the entrance to Ishiyama High School. One of the demonic figures is carrying another figure on his back. The other figure identifies him as Oga, a first-year student, and introduces himself as Abe, a second-year student. He demands a fight with Oga. The figure on Oga’s back disappears and the entire scene dissipates to reveal Oga’s true appearance behind a bright, sunny sky. Students surround the two to spectate their fight. Oga tells Abe to be quiet, as he may wake up his baby, and calls him bald. The students are afraid of what Oga had just said to Abe, nicknaming the two as “Killer Machine” Abe and Kata Junior High “Raging” Oga. A trickle of water pours down Oga’s head, making the students believe Oga is sweating and getting afraid of Abe. Suddenly, the trickle turns into a waterfall with a rainbow cast over Oga’s head. It is revealed that the water came from a green-haired baby relieving himself. Ignoring the baby, Abe demands to fight Oga and starts to lunge at him. At the same time, Oga punches Abe in the face while carrying the baby with his other hand, scolding him for treating his head like a urinal. Held up to the sun and shaking, the baby then gives Oga a frown and the two place their heads against each other. Abe snatches the baby, wondering who he is. The baby becomes frightened, and so does Oga. The baby jumps onto Oga’s head and starts crying. Suddenly, a strong electrical charge shocks Abe.

"Long, long ago, in a certain place, there was a very, very handsome, cool, popular, well-respected by everyone, kind-hearted young man."

As Oga narrates this story to a white-haired teenager on the rooftop of Ishiyama High, a flashback is seen of Oga standing among a group of teenagers in a field next to an airport, all of whom had been beaten and are now lying on the ground. One of them told Oga to die. Calling himself a kind-hearted young man, he narrates that he commanded that everyone bow to him (dogeza). The white-haired teenager interrupts Oga. Oga gives a “Huh?”. The white-haired teenager tells him not to “Huh?” at him and argues that Oga isn’t really kind-hearted and popular. Seeing the baby on Oga’s shoulder growling, the teenager asks Oga what he’s doing with him. Oga, revealing the teenager’s name as Furuichi, calls him stupid and claims he was just about to explain where he got the baby from. He lunges at Furuichi and prepares to break his back for forcing him to lose his train of thought. As Furuichi gives in to him, Oga continues his narration. Back to the narration, the teenagers tried to apologize to Oga for trying to murder him once while he was sleeping. In a friendly tone, the “kind-hearted young man” commented on how he would have died if he were someone else, to which one of the teenagers claimed he would’ve liked to see that. Claiming to do laundry in his narration, Oga grabbed one of the teenagers by his legs and “washes” him at a nearby river, really drowning him. The rest of the teenagers claimed of him being a demon. Suddenly, Oga spotted a large, old man floating downstream, shot with an arrow, to which Furuichi tells him to stop narrating. Furuichi questions Oga on where he plans on taking the story with this large, old man floating downstream. Oga claims he really did see him, but Furuichi denies this. Oga admits feeling shocked at the time, and recalls the other teenagers having run off upon his appearance. Back to the narration, Oga tells of the “kind-hearted young man” having lifted the large, old man out of the river and splitting him in half with a karate chop, revealing a naked baby boy inside. Furuichi angrily interrupts him, denying the splitting in a loud voice and pushing his head in front of Oga’s. Oga, trying to push his head back, claims the man remarked that the baby is cute. In Oga’s narration, as he tried to figure out what to do with the baby, the large, old man calls the baby “precious” and runs off, bidding Oga farewell and dives back into the river. The baby crawled up to Oga and stared at him in amazement. Claiming the “kind-hearted young man” remained calm and acted like an adult, he made a crude face and asked the baby if he is lost. Trying to be more light-hearted, he then made an even cruder face and tried to calm him. Eventually, he made an ugly, evil face and threatened to steal his soul. The baby, delighted, jumped onto Oga’s head, knocked him over and began pulling his face. Alarmed at Oga, Furuichi claims no one would believe his story and pulls the baby away from his chest. As the baby starts to cry, Oga tries to calm him down with a camel cricket, but the baby is bored and cries anyways. A strong electrical charge rocks the rooftop.

Walking through the hallways of Ishiyama High, Oga explains to Furuichi that he can’t just pull the baby away from him or else he’ll cry and electrocute everyone around him. Furuichi angrily asks if there should be something wrong with that, to which Oga quiets him, afraid of waking up the baby. In front of them, two students are about to fight each other. Oga tries to push them away again to prevent the baby from waking up. Unfortunately, the baby starts crying again, causing an explosion in one part of the school.

Oga and Furuichi rest inside a classroom by the windows to a group of stunned students. Oga asks Furuichi to try to distract Beelzebub, but Furuichi refuses to help him, claiming they’re already in the worst high school in Japan, Ishiyama High, with a 120% rate of delinquents. A large group of students sitting in front of the school can be seen proudly repeating the facts about Ishiyama High. Back to the classroom, one of the students becomes shocked over Oga having brought a baby to school. The baby starts to cry and charge up, to which Furuichi quickly sketches a cartoon character known as Count Poo from an anime Gohan-kun and shows his sketch to the baby. The baby is disgusted and continues to charge himself up. Furuichi resorts to giving him a cute rabbit doll he was going to give to a girl who works at the convenience store as a present. Oga is disgusted at Furuichi, while the baby slaps the doll outside the window. The baby eventually electrocutes everyone in the classroom and causes an explosion to occur.

Limping through the hallways of Ishiyama High, Oga plans to make the baby go to sleep and give him back to the large, old man he found by the river. Furuichi suggests that they not abandon the baby, to which Oga spontaneously punches Furuichi to flying back and claims he’s not cruel.

Now lunchtime, students are surrounding the school store eating. Late students ask the cashier for any food left in the store, to which the cashier evilly places one yakisoba bread on the counter. The students fight each other for the bread until two are left standing. Oga pushes his way through the students and explains to Furuichi that he plans on making the baby full to make him fall asleep. The baby disappears as Oga explains this. Furuichi finds him among the remaining two students arguing for the bread. The baby snatches the bread and tosses it across the room. The students run after the bread and fight each other yet again, to which the baby feels delighted again. Oga and Furuichi stare at the baby in confusion. Over the skies of the city, a portal appears, sending in a gothic-dressed woman on a large, bird-like creature. The woman is searching for someone.

Furuichi has invited Oga into his home. Eating a cake, Oga tells a story of a fine, young lumberjack in the same format of the story he told of his first encounter with the baby. Furuichi tries to stop him, but Oga continues to tell the story of the lumberjack throwing his ax into a lake and causing the spirit of the lake to ask him if he threw it in. Having told this story, Oga tries to force the baby onto Furuichi. Furuichi constantly tries to avoid him, claiming he has a date to catch. Finally grabbing Furuichi, Oga explains that he can keep the baby so that he can live happily ever after with his girl. He tries to pull the baby away from his chest and evilly claims to show him the pits of hell if he makes him mad. Instead of scaring the baby away, however, the baby becomes excited and attaches himself onto Oga even more, much to his chagrin. Suddenly, the gothic-dressed woman from earlier flies into the room through the window. Pitying Oga for thinking the baby will be attached to him, she tells him to die. Furuichi is scared, but Oga is crossed, claiming the woman seems to be acting so high and mighty in another person’s house. Furuichi feels strange hearing him say this, as they’re in his own house and not Oga’s. Ignoring Oga, the woman, revealing herself as Hilda, steps down the window and tries to woo the baby back, but the baby embraces Oga in fear. Oga makes an evil smirk, claiming the baby hates her. Hilda tries to pull the baby away from him, but the baby holds tight to Oga while he starts laughing at her. Furuichi tries to convince Oga to let go, as this is what Oga wanted anyways. Realizing this, he tries to pull the baby away from him. Furuichi tries to help by pulling the baby by his genitals, but the baby starts to cry and causes an explosion in the room.

To Oga and Furuichi, who are now burnt, Hilda apologizes for what had happened and introduces herself as Demon maid Hildegard and the baby as the Demon King Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV. Oga and Furuichi become terrified of their perceptions of a Demon King, a powerful being that wants to destroy humanity. Furuichi tries to convince Hilda to take Beelzebub back, but Hilda refuses, claiming Oga is now his parent.

Hilda tells the two of what her master, the Great Demon King, said. In a flashback set to Hell, the Great Demon King, playing a P2P, declares to his minions that he will begin to destroy the Humans tomorrow and calls them annoying. One of his minions points out that he has to attend the Dragon King’s wedding. The Great Demon King declares the day after tomorrow to be his day of destruction, but his minion points out a Chupacabra hunting bus tour on his schedule that day, and a 10000-day Mahjong marathon on Demon Isle afterwards. Troubled by his crammed schedule, the Great Demon King decides to send Beelzebub to do the destruction. He calls for Hilda to look after him and destroy the world. After Hilda concludes her story, Oga and Furuichi try to take in what she just told them. Eventually, Furuichi places his hand on Oga’s shoulder and wishes him good luck. Oga becomes angry, yelling at Furuichi for abandoning responsibility of taking care of Beelzebub and refusing to take responsibility for Beelzebub himself. Furuichi tells him to go home, to which Oga refuses. Suddenly, the large, old man from the river appears behind a door, confirming his sights earlier with Oga. Hilda introduces him as the dimensional transference Demon Arandron. Arandron explains that he dived into a river in Hell to transfer Beelzebub to the Human World. He claims spotting Oga standing among a group of teenagers laughing, being half-conscious on the river. Finding out that Beelzebub was specifically forced into him, Oga refuses to take care of him. Hilda, confirming his lack of will to raise him, expresses her happiness and demands he die. She pulls a sword out of her umbrella and causes a large explosion in Furuichi’s room, blowing the wall off his house.

Oga and Furuichi run away. Furuichi demands Oga pay him back for the damage in the house and seems to be laughing controllably. Oga is carrying Beelzebub, claiming to a shocked Furuichi that Beelzebub won’t let go of him. Hilda jumps on top of a utility pole and demands they give up. Oga tells her to just stay there, to which Hilda sends her large, bird-like creature, Ak-Baba, after the two. Oga kicks Ak-Baba in the head and runs off with Furuichi.

Eventually, the two end up near an overhead power line, in the sight of a group of teenagers able to identify Oga. The nearby teenagers are excited to find someone about to murder Oga and rush over to back Hilda up to become legends around town. Hilda points her sword next to Oga’s head and makes a small cut on his cheek. Blood drips from his cut onto Beelzebub’s face, causing him to cry deeply, sending a massive electric shock on everyone around him, including the teenagers, whom are sent flying back. Hilda tries to stop Beelzebub, but Beelzebub keeps crying. Oga is lying on the ground next to Beelzebub, presumed dead by Furuichi. Furuichi asks Hilda what they can do. Hilda hits him and claims they can do nothing. Hopeless, she claims only the Great Demon King can stop his crying. Suddenly, Oga calmly sits next to him and puts a hand on Beelzebub’s head, telling him to stop crying and that he’ll be made fun of if he continues. He stops instantly to everyone’s amazement. Oga walks away, thinking he is cool. Beelzebub tries to follow him, but Oga tells him to stop. A steel tower collapses and begins to fall on Beelzebub. Oga rushes back to him in time to shield him, not knowing what he’s doing. Seeing the tower fall on him, he manages to summon enough power to create a crater in the ground and cause the steel tower to disappear. Everyone is shocked at what had just happened. Beelzebub is safe, but Oga passes out. Furuichi runs towards him screaming.

Oga wakes up in bed at home, thinking everything that had just happened was a dream. Hilda greets him, kneeling next to him with Beelzebub on her lap and revealing the fact that everything he experienced was not a dream and that he had slept for two days straight since it all happened. Oga is shocked at Hilda’s presence in his home, to which Hilda calmly declares Beelzebub to be raised by Oga and whom will grow up to be a great, human-destroying Demon King.

Next episode preview
Oga concludes the episode stating that the “handsome, cool, popular and kind-hearted young man” defeated the Demon King and that they all lived happily ever after. Furuichi angrily interrupts him, claiming that he didn’t defeat him, no one ended up happy, and claiming that this is only the first episode. Oga tells Furuichi to be quiet and reiterates his refusal to take care of Beelzebub. Furuichi introduces the next episode, to which Oga angrily tells him not to make the preview on his own.

Characters in order of appearance

 * 1) Tatsumi Oga
 * 2) Beelzebub IV
 * 3) Abe
 * 4) Takayuki Furuichi
 * 5) Arandron (flashback)
 * 6) Ak-Baba
 * 7) Hilda
 * 8) Great Demon King (flashback)