Beelzebub

Beelzebub climbed its way to second place in my favourite shounens list.
I do not want to write anything too explicit because reading the manga felt more like an experience than anything else.
Characters: very entertaining. There was no one you could hate, even the villains were interesting and lovable.
Writing: the author never fails to return to his main characters. By keeping the settings and arcs brief, and the characters being introduced short, it does not distract the reader from the main plot of the manga. It helps keep things nicely paced and connections between characters almost seamless. As with many shounens the action and goals are repetitive but the manga never takes itself too seriously yet is still able to touch upon the important themes of its genre. This results in naturally developing characters that stay true to their personalities and still allow the audience a few laughs every chapter.

Bravo.

Beelzebub was abruptly ended due to its declining popularity in Japan. Since this isn't the fault of the mangaka, I won't be mentioning pacing and undeveloped plotlines and characters.

Story: 7
Great premise. It was your typical shonen, except this one was actually funny. The biggest issue was that it wasn't really something that would make a reader addicted or feel a sense of urgency while reading- it was very laid-back with no sense of danger. In any manga, usually those over 100 chapters, there are several arcs in which a different or connected plotline is pursued. For Beelzebub, this wasn't the case; it was more like the characters kept getting more and more overpowered. "Willpower" seemed to triumph over any actual training.

Art: 9
Though it didn't seem particularly remarkable at a first glance, the art made up at least half of the comedy. Great facial expressions and really unique character designs. For the plethora of delinquents and villains, the mangaka did a fantastic job in giving each one their own recognizable design. In the action scenes, it was easy to tell what was going on (even though the fighting sometimes consisted of "Oh no! You won't beat me! Look, I'll punch even harder because I BELIEVE and HAVE A GOAL- this will overpower you lifetime of training").

Character: 7
Not much to say here. The characters were no worse than I expected.

Enjoyment: 9
Despite any misgivings or reluctance you may have, you really should read this. It's entertaining and definitely worth it.

Name: Beelzebub – SPOILER FREE REVIEW
Type: Manga
Volumes: 28
Chapters: 250
Status: Finished
Published: Feb 23, 2009 to Mar 13, 2015
Genres: Action, Comedy, Demons, School, Shounen, Supernatural
Authors: Tamura, Ryuuhei (Story & Art)
Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

“Hey Punk you wanna die?” basically your comedic High School story with a delinquent twist except it’s a High School for delinquents and they’re all delinquents and there are demons as well – stay with me now.

The story starts up with our main protagonist Oga Tatsumi who is a delinquent among delinquents with an IQ of a potato (might be lower) with his solution to every problem being punching it in the face, kicking it and if that fails punching it even harder and a junior attending Ishiyama High School for delinquents and called a demon for his brutal personality, I found him to be a refreshing lead in this scenario, a change from some same-old types of characters. The scene starts with him finishing off a gang foolish enough to attack him and then coming across a baby boy who popped out of some old dude – because who needs biology, BTW the baby’s naked even through the entire course of reading it. Ok… where was I? Yeah, Oga having no clue on how to deal with the situation takes the baby to his best friend’s house; enter Creepichi- I mean Furuichi the only sane and non-delinquent character and highly relatable in the entire read IMO with some of the best comedic moments as he’s teased all through the story, sad actually and a favourite of mine. He stood out like a sore thumb because he was the only one out of the bunch to react accordingly to the outrageous situations and had expressions one would expect if it were a normal story but this story is anything but normal, far from it actually. Well turns out that the baby is the son of “THE” Demon King, named Beelzebub IV, Kaiser de Emperana, surprising cute with him only ever uttering “Dabuu” well he is a baby after all. And has chosen Oga to be his parent, to raise him into a demon lord fit to destroy all of humanity. This might sound all serious but trust me it isn’t in the slightest.

Now comedy is one of my very very preferred genres and it’s liked in general because it’s just there for the sake of entertainment no extra added stuff like deep plot or thought provoking dialogues… just fun. And Beelzebub’s take on this genre impressed me a lot. Beelzebub takes full advantage of that “comedy” tag by taking each and every situation and adding as much exaggeration as possible but not in a bad way. I would like to call this genius actually. Much like how “Konosuba” plays around with the isekai genre or how “Daily Lives of High School Boys” plays with the comedy genre Beelzebub plays around with it as well, you’ll understand this once you read it or have watched/read the series I mentioned. That being said, this has got to be among the best comedy manga I have read in a while, it just doesn’t disappoint or tries too hard to be funny. I guess I could say the story’s flow is naturally comedic, props to the mangaka on that. Though at times the story revolving around demons DOES get very serious (major plot unfolds or boss fights) and emotional (character pasts/interactions) but it always adds a touch of humor afterwards to lighten up the mood. Though one thing I was very disappointed in was that the story feels rushed in the later part of the manga, short fights, shorter character introductions which is generally the only complain I have about this. Though if this had taken its sweet time to explain and plot out everything near the end like from the start this would’ve been a 9 or possibly even a 10.

Onto the characters, this is where Beelzebub was great and somewhat bad at the same time. Great that it had some unique, interesting characters which had good character development, back stories and remained relevant to the plot till the end. I like it when a story keeps along all the characters it has managed to introduce in new ways but on the other hand, bad that it left some of the characters totally unexplained they just felt relevant for a relatively short time and introduced some characters out of the blue. And I guess I kinda explained the lead characters in the start, other characters you’ll have to see for yourselves such as the demon… wait for it MAID, yup demon maid Hildegard. Sounds cute doesn’t it? She’s more brutal than Oga and that’s saiyan something. Has sworn undying loyalty to Beelzebub and loves him like a mother, she’s here to act as a helper and to see whether all his needs are being fulfilled by the human host parent for little demon lord Beelzebub and for than often ends up beating the snot out of Oga for when he steps out of line, that’s comical in its own way.

Now the art style, nothing I’d look at and say “Whoa, that’s detailed”. Just fine but not something that would get in the way of your reading. Character designs were OK but being an action comedy the things that were handled really well IMO were the expressions like Oga’s demon expressions stating I’m going to beat you into submission or Lolichi- I mean Furuichi’s expressions for when he sees women or gets into some weird escalated situations.

Enjoyment factor was a max 10/10 for me in this read.
I’ll grant it a RATING of 8.5/10

Could’ve done better if it wasn’t rushed like I mentioned but hey all in all this was a good and very enjoyable read nonetheless. So if you’re looking for your next read with action or comedy this is a pretty good choice especially for comedy.

Watch Beelzebub- action and hilarity ensues!
(Point Review)
-This show is unique and funny, you'll love it no matter what type of anime fan you are.

-The characters are all entertaining to watch and listen to.

-The story is entertaining; a crazy strong delinquent (Oga Tatsumi) enters High School(Ishiyama High) and takes out some of the stronger delinquents there without even trying. Instantly, he is feared by the higehr-ups.

-While trying to live a normal life (or the life as a delinquent) he ends up having to take care of a demon baby (Beelzebub) who will one day grow up to destroy the human race. He really has no drive or purpose for taking care of Beelzebub, he just does it. (Well of course he's trying to dump the baby on somebody else.)

-He has a perverted, useless, but funny best friend named Furuichi.

-A beautiful demon maid named Hilda lives with Oga who is perceived as Oga's wife although she is really just looking after Baby Beelzebub. (How shocking it must have been when his parents discovered this!)

-While Oga is fighting groups of thugs and delinquents such as the TKKH, the MK5, and the Six Holy Knights, a larger storm is brewing in the background (more demons arriving in the human world, etc) leading to a sudden explosion in plot development and more.

-You'll like the show from Episode 1!

-A member of the TKKH (TKKH: Strongest in Ishiyama High) named Aoi Kunieda develops a crush on Oga and she becomes envious when she sees Hilda living with Oga; very funny misunderstandings.

-A bulky man named Alaindelon moves into Furuichi's home and develops a bro-crush on Furuichi. Furuichi see's himself as a lady's man, so he's very sad that a beautiful demon maid doesn't live with him, unlike Oga. Very funny!

-A delinquent named Kanzaki (same voice actor as Gintoki) will eventually just naturally become a favorite character for you.

-Himekawa is always made fun of for his dumb hairstyle, when he thinks its stylish!

-Overall, you'll enjoy this show. Trust me, you'll love it!

Oh man, I love Beelzebub! Admittedly, the story is not really deep, so don't expect too much from the plot (especially considering that it had a rushed ending). However, I didn't read this for weeks to see any uber-deep plot developments; NAH, I read it to laugh my ass off every week. THIS MANGA IS REALLY FUNNY!!

The art was kind of rough in the beginning, but it gets really clean and nice before you know it. Every chapter is pure silliness, and I loved every single panel of it. C'mon, who wouldn't love a green-haired baby Demon prince?(!) The action is pretty cool, too.

Oga, the main character, is Boss as hell! His best friend Furuichi is my favorite character, he's a big reason why I found it so funny. The whole cast is hilarious! I wish it had been more popular, but it had a good run. HOWEVER, there is a spin-off series in the bi-monthly Jump NEXT!!, so don't cry yet. Even if it's only every other month, It's still the same Beelzebub, focusing MUCH more on the humor. Now, let's hope VizMedia will get the license!

This is a very silly manga. Which actually makes it a great break from all the balls to the walls action shonen manga that is out there. But don't get me wrong, Beelzebub has it's share of power ups and punches, only usually it ends in a comical way. I recommend it not for its amazing story line but for it's light hearted humor.

I. LOVE. BEELZEBUB. the manga version anyway, I despise the anime from the deepest parts of my heart and soul but thats another review. Beelzebub is my favorite ongoing manga right now, and why? because I'm a comedy person if anything and Beelzebub always cracks me up while also displaying some awesome action. as much as I wanna be a fanboy and say its perfect, I can't I'm being a reviewer and I have to treat it as any other work.

Story: Its pretty odd but simple: a delinquent kid gets stcuk with the prince of hell and in his attempts to try and latch the child off to someone more vile and evil, they cause ALOT of stuff to go down. Ok so maybe there isn't any deep subliminal messeges nor does it stray that far from shounen tropes, but what keeps beelzebub intresting is its bizzare nature and humor, its so random that you really can't tell what will happen next. there might be a fight, but maybe some dude's gonna fall through the roof. there might be romance, but maybe baby beel will turn the room into a shock chamber. There might be a joke, but maybe someone's gonna get slammed into the wall before the punchline is reached. did any of that make sense? exactly. and thats what makes it so enjoyable. as far as structre goes its pretty well put together. It keeps a straight forward plot without too many subplots and if there are any they end soon. If beelzebub were to end at anytime there would be almost no plot holes left... well excpet for two, but I hope for it to go on and cover those. As the plot gains a tad more substance and more is divulged into the demon world and its fractions, the action gets toned up, however unlike reborn, it dosn't didtch what got it this far and remains funny even throughout the asskicking.

Art: This is Ryuhei Tamura's Very first manga, so in the begining it dosn't really look as good. However he makes great designs for the delinqents and early environment. There aren't any messy pannels were you can't tell whats going on and he has a goot dynamic for when the action kicks in.There are a few goofs with the psysics of someone when they are sent flying however, wether its intentional to show a characters strengh or not isn't sure though. The art gets better by the chapter as most mangas do, never really noticing once your up to chapter 136 but when you go back you can see the diffrence once you go back to chapter 15 or so. Another merit is that Ryuhei makes HILARIOUS faces for his characters when a WTF momment comes and it adds to the humor.

Character: Oga tatsumi is set off to be "a evil bastard" even without beel at the start of the story, and that hardly changes, though he isn't dislikable. Your able to laugh at his sheer stupidity, of which is only topped by Tojo, and are able to admire the badass that he is. He may follow some shounen tropes but its in such a twisted way it seperates him from the crowd. Baby beel is the prince of hell, a infant baby who may or may not even be a year old. Unlike other anime babies like Koenma or Reborn, He acts like an acctual baby and its hilarous. shifting from power to gag pack the only thing you can dislike is that he's constantly naked, but you kind of get used to it* no not in that way you sick bastards* Amongst the cast are a variety of characters that are either badass or hilarious in their own right, and your bound to get a few favorites.

Enjoyment: LONG LIVE THIS MANGA!! I always look forward to this eveyweek and everyweek I love the chapter and crave more. Its humor is so WTF bats**t insane that there will probably be at least ONE time where you tear up laughing, and when a character is out to kick ass, they kick it and send it flying into a wall *heck its Oga's signiture disaster mark!" I never have a dull momment with this manga.

Overall: It may not be perfect, but its pretty damn good and worth the read. I firstly reccomend this to anyone who likes a good comedy and reccomend action fans second. It started out as insane comedy action manga, and it still is an insane comedy manga. Even if you watch the anime I urge you to read the manga, you'll find some good enjoyment.

The story starts off in a pretty stupid way and things remain pretty stupid throughout. The demon lord is a really whimsy guy that wants to destroy the human world, but he's too lazy to do it himself. It'd probably take him all of 5 seconds to do it. Stupid... A good kind of stupid that makes you laugh at just how absurd it is. A naked baby that just clings onto Oga's back? A person being driven into a wall with just their ass out and legs hanging down? This manga's full of weird stuff like that, and that gives it a certain charm of its own.

The art is pretty average; not bad, but not amazing. It has its own unique quirks, though, like the blank stare characters get when they find something unbelievable. I'm not a fan of fan service, so I don't really like the way Hilda dresses or her large breasts, and she happens to be in almost every chapter. Kunieda, the other main female character, has a far more modest appearance, though. Hilda also seems a little more modest in later chapters, I suppose.

I feared the story would take a "demon world" turn and become less interesting like YuYu Hakusho and Bleach did. I think a human world and casual setting is more interesting. Thankfully, Beelzebub does the "demon world" thing in moderation.
As the story progresses, lots of needless characters are added and we even delve into their personal lives at times. The story kinda loses its focus as Oga and Beel adapt to each other. Sometimes it feels like a really typical manga series that some anime fanatic would think up. I thought 7/10 would be fitting enough, but there's one thing in this story that gives it that extra point - Furuichi.
Furuichi is a pretty cool and attractive character, as well as a voice of reason. For a long time, he was the only character in the story that didn't fight. Not because of his coolness, but because he's just plain weak. He's gradually walked on to the point that he's the butt end of all jokes, no longer a respectable character in any form. Everything about Furuichi is hilarious.

Overall, this manga is pretty enjoyable and unique in its own ways. It generally avoids being too serious, so it's often fun and funny. It's a little typical at times, but not disappointing. I can't recall ever finding it to be too dull or anything.

Note:This is not going to be a super in depth review

Beelzebub is a manga that I think deserves more recognition since it's basically forgotten in jumps history but was very entertaining and funny with some good fights

Story: 9 I thought the story was fun and all the major arcs were done pretty well (except for the last arc that felt pretty rushed)

Art: 8 Art was good and you can see it get better as the series goes on.

Character: 8 For character development it was good in that regard. There were some characters that felt important in the first arcs (natsume) but did not get fleshed out very much at all

Enjoyment: 10 I enjoyed reading the manga very much. Comedy was great and action scenes were very fun to read.

Overall I give Beelzebub a 9. I enjoyed this series very much and I Recommend it to anyone who wants a good comedy series with some action scenes. But it is brought down by a very rushed and underwhelming ending. I hope one day that this series will be recognized as a great gem in jumps library of manga.

Overall I give it a nine

My issue with this series is that it could never truly decide if it wanted to be a comedy or a battle manga. Multiple times it felt like the author was about to ditch the main focus on comedy and settle for a battle manga as the world building for that kind of set up was quite good. However, the author always ended up taking it back to ridiculous comedy outcomes, which is fine when done properly. I feel as if this series could never really create a good balance between these two ideas and instead just awkwardly went left and right on the spectrum as opposed to creating a good balance between the two.

An example of a series that does this well would be Mob Psycho 100, and if you haven't read that then I highly recommend you check it out before bothering with this awkward/mediocre time sink.