Manga Review: Beelzebub (Completed)

Infant demons and delinquents make for lots of fun.

Just a heads up, my reviews are generally spoiler free, for the most part. If they do contain spoilers, I'll be sure to note that in the title of the post. Anyways, I'll be starting off with one of the first works that got me into manga, Beelzebub, a manga written and illustrated by Ryuhei Tamura. The premise of this series is that it depicts the escapades of Oga Tatsumi, a high school delinquent who suddenly becomes the father of the demon lord Beelzebub. What follows is a story packed with action, manliness, and hilarity. While it definitely has some shortcomings, it's a great manga for someone looking to read more, and enjoyable despite its various flaws.

Cast

One of high points of Beelzebub is the cast. All of the characters, whether side or main, antagonist or protagonist, are well written and unique. The majority of the cast is serious when it's called for, and lovable and goofy when they need to be. From the perverted yet lovable Furuichi to the blockheaded Toujou, the cast is, simply put, a lot of fun. And at the same time, a lot of these characters have issues and/or convictions right beneath the amusing antics they constantly get into. Furuichi is generally known as the creeper and the comic relief, but right below it is an inferiority complex that Tamura touches on during his arc. It makes reading Beelzebub a pleasure throughout and is a well crafted medium through which Tamura conveys the both the humor of the series and the conviction of the characters. 

Beelzebub gets a 8/10 for a well written and enjoyable cast of characters.

She's demon, so technically this is legal, right?

Plot

Ah, the plot. Now, for the most part. it's your typical shounen manga. MC fights characters, makes friends and converts some enemies, trains to defeat problematic enemies and gets into various shenanigans, occasionally of the ecchi kind. It does its job in providing a story and setting for the characters. However, the main issue is that Beelzebub was suddenly cancelled . Not early enough that there's no conclusion, so at least you'll get some closure, but the ending was definitely noticeably rushed. It makes me a bit sad, because you could tell the author wanted to do more and unfortunately ran out of time. However, the main highlight would be the well written humor. The plot isn't really meant to be taken seriously, and Tamura knows this. The battles are ridiculous and silly, but that's what makes it enjoyable.

Beelzebub gets a 6/10 for the story, but don't let discourage you from reading it. Even without a strong plot, Beelzebub is an incredibly amusing read.

Not pictured: 10 straight chapters of powering up.

Art

While the general art style itself is nothing too special, Tamura really shines at conveying the mood of a scene, especially the more humorous ones. It's especially great since baby Beel will often mimic Oga's expressions while riding on his back.

Oga's reaction to Mahouka.

The mockingly gar scenes are also pretty hilarious.

He's been training to defeat Aizen at 100x gravity.

For the rest of the time, the art is decently good. The fight scenes are decent enough when not being humorous. However, the humorous scenes definitely give a massive boost to the likability.

Beelzebub gets a 8/10 in art. Despite the fact that most of the art is nothing extraordinary, the comedic scenes really stand out and make this series really amusing.

Accessibility

Now, this is a bit of a unique category. I'll be rating works on a scale of 1 to 5 based on how accessible they are to new readers, 5 being great for newer readers, and 1 being a very niche type of work. I ignore this category for the overall rating, because it's a bit more of a guide for what type of works to start with first.

Beelzebub gets a 5 for accessibility. It's a very fun and casual read throughout, and does a good job of introducing the tropes of anime and manga to new readers. Also, plenty of great fanservice.

Following his defeat at the hands of an infant demon lord,
the monster fell into a downward spiral of depression, drugs, and alcohol.

Overall Rating

For the overall rating, I'll usually average the other categories(ignoring accessibility, of course). However, if I feel a manga goes beyond the sum of its parts, I'll bump up its score. In this case, I've chosen to round out Beelzebub to an 8/10. It's definitely enjoyable enough for me to recommend. The hilarious art and lovable cast definitely make up for the stereotypical shounen plot and sadly abrupt ending. Plus, it wasn't exactly by choice, so don't let that discourage you from reading any other of Tamura's works. If I had to choose a word to describe this manga, it would have to be fun. It's one of those works you savor to enjoy the atmosphere and the dynamics of the characters.  Beelzebub is an incredibly enjoyable read throughout, and it remains one of my favorite works to this day.

Additional Works

I haven't explored any of Tamura's other works yet, but I definitely plan to. As for more Beelzebub stuff, there's a couple of one-shots in translation. As of the date this article was written, Red Hawk Scans has released one chapter of the one-shots. That, and any future releases can be found here. Also, there's an anime adaptation, but the general consensus is that it isn't worth watching. I haven't given it a shot yet, and I don't really plan to, but feel free to watch it and give me your opinions on it in the comments.

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