Beelzebub

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Beelzebub Bangai-hen

Japanese: べるぜバブ

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 28

Chapters: 250

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 23, 2009 to Mar 13, 2015

Genres: Action, Comedy, Supernatural

Themes: Childcare, Delinquents, Mythology, School

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Tamura, Ryuuhei (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.12¹ (scored by 63,723 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #551²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #119

Members: 117,910

Favorites: 4,973

Resources

Wikipedia

8.12

Ranked #551Popularity #119Members 117,910

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Tamura, Ryuuhei (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /28

Chapters: /250

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Synopsis

Ishiyama High—land of the delinquents. No matter how tough you think you are, you don't mess with an Ishi-high student. One of the most infamous students is first year Tatsumi Oga, called "Demon King" by those he's defeated.

One day, while Oga is finishing off a gang that attacked him, he stumbles upon an infant. In a rare moment of kindness, Oga tries to care for the baby. As a result, the child becomes overly attached to him. In a panic, he brings the baby to his best friend Takayuki Furuichi's house. While there, they are attacked by Hildegard, a demon maid who says the baby is actually Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV. She also reveals that he was sent here to destroy humanity, on a whim of his father Beelzebub III, Great Demon Lord of the Demon World. After failing to remove Baby Beel from Oga, she declares that he must raise him, as moving more than 15 meters away will result in instant death for Oga.

With his delinquent past and unfriendly nature, Oga must deal with the burden of raising a demon baby. Beezelbub follows his story through encounters with demons and dangerous classmates, all while being an unorthodox role model and carer for the young Baby Beel.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Beelzebub was published in Italian by Star Comics from June 4, 2011 to October 3, 2015 and has been published in Brazilian Portuguese by Panini Comics/Planet Manga since September 2012.

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Characters

Oga, Tatsumi

Main

Beelzebub IV, Kaiser de Emperana

Main

Hildegard

Main

Furuichi, Takayuki

Main

Kunieda, Aoi

Supporting

Toujou, Hidetora

Supporting

Hanazawa, Yuka

Supporting

Kanzaki, Hajime

Supporting

Himekawa, Tatsuya

Supporting

Bathin de Emuna, Alaindelon

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 16, 2025

bboy_OatsnRice

Recommended

Ahh Beelzebub, where to even begin with this masterpiece? Can you name a series that perfectly combines delinquents, gag comedy, demons, and battle shounen? Maybe you can, but I sure can't, and especially not the way Beelzebub executes it. It's a series that manages to always keep you on your toes with its unpredictability, keep you laughing with its unique brand of humor, keep you in awe of the godtier battle art, and keep you engaged with its intriguing story! But if it's truly as great as I'm making it sound, why don't more people know about it and yet how does it manage to ... be one of my all time favorite manga?

Why yes, it's true that many are aware of its existence, it's not typically known as well as its contemporaries at the time aside from the obvious big titles. Series such as Reborn, D.Grayman, and Sket Dance will be remembered more fondly by most familiar with that era of Shounen Jump than poor Beelzebub. But with such a wacky premise, I find this hard to believe. Since there's already a synopsis you can read, I'll keep this part brief. We follow a delinquent named Oga, who is the most feared yankee at his school, and one day stumbles upon a baby. Little did Oga know that the baby in question is the son of the king of the underworld, who is sent to Earth to destroy it. But baby Beel quickly gets attached to Oga. From here Oga is on a journey to raise Beel while running into tons of mischief along the way.

Although I kept the synopsis brief, I bring it up not only for the sake of a thorough review but also to shed light on a less brought up accolade that's unique to Beelzebub. And that's to have a baby character, who's integral to the story and shows up in just about every chapter, to be both NOT annoying in the slightest and actually hilarious and a character I loved from start to end! It's not just in animanga where I'm not typically a fan of baby/adolescent characters, it's in most media (hell maybe even irl too). Typically this archetype does nothing but cry, whine, bring in some forced "cute" factor, and 9 times out of 10 will be involved in a scenario where they either cry or shit themselves and thus give away the characters sneaking around in some scenario where they're trying to hide from someone. Strangely specific example aside, this is NOT the case with Beelzebub at all!

In fact, the baby in question is perhaps the most charismatic character in the story, next to Furichi, where his love for Oga is naturally conveyed through their teamwork improving in each passing scenario, the lengths they both go through to protect one another, the multitude of expressions, sounds, and spells Beel utilizes throughout the story, makes him so likable! He's one of the rare instances of a pure baby character through and through that you root for, feel pity for, and tear up for as you witness him truly become the king of the Underworld. Perhaps quite literally in a couple scenarios where he has to kick some ass as a giant! And that in my opinion is Beelzebub's biggest strength, and biggest weakness, its characters.

No no no, don't think that I'm saying its characters are bad or anything! In fact it's the complete opposite! Every SINGLE character introduced in this story is incredibly compelling to follow and learn about. From best girl Aoi going from her 'nice girl' alter-ego to her yankee mode, Beel's narcissistic brother En, rich boy Himekawa, demon doctor Lamia, the list goes on and on with its incredible diverse cast where they all somehow manage to gel so well together that I actively looked forward to the more characters were crammed into a chapter or arc. Not only is this not usually the case with even my all-time favorite piece of media ever Gintama, but this manages to achieve this accolade while still balancing all sides of what makes Beelzebub, well Beelzebub! The yankee, demon, sol, battle shounen, and gag comedy elements are present throughout the story from start to end, while managing to never let its large cast get out of character! But like I mentioned, this is also its one and only blunder.

It has a large cast, and for every new character that gets introduced (especially towards the end of the series) you'll just be DYING to see more of them to get their character expanded on. But nope, at least for those outside the main cast we follow from early on in the story. And their unique character designs only exacerbate this problem because of just how awesome they look, and how they usually fight! Oh my god, how could I forget, THE FIGHTS!!!!

Now we're onto another huge strength of this manga, er more like a two for one deal. And that's the fight, action, and ART of this manga as a whole. Incredibly stylized art style by Tamura Ryyuhei. Not only is the art itself insanely crisp, smooth, and gorgeous to look at, but the paneling is bare bones and cut and dry which adds more emphasis to the amazing art within the panels. I'd compare to One Piece's paneling, but with slightly more diverse panel geometry. But back to the art at hand, the characters all have mostly proportional facial features, with more of the buff dudes getting increasingly wider, and the demons getting even more hell-ish and wicked the further along this manga you get, and the girls (especially En's Maids) are all a CUTE!!!!

Each archetype is drawn with a rare type of finesse that doesn't poke fun or parody the origins of the character, (well save maybe for Himekawa, but even then he's so stylish! And as a child he still had drip, he was what I like to call, a drip dragon) but respects it and uses its exaggerated, cartoonish design to enhance a character trait about them. Let's take the main character Oga for example, attire is that of a casual delinquent, but with teeth like that of a shark, and a grimace that scares just about everyone in his path save for Beel. However, as a reader, and perhaps I can only speak for myself, but I found his design to be overall endearing! Which I think characterizes his personality to a tee! Oga is a guy, whom most shit their pants when being confronted by, however even when he's out for blood, his demeanor is usually that for the greater good even if he doesn't want to admit it. Grinning in the face of opposition, a desire to beat his opponent even if he doesn't get much out of it, other than to get stronger, and if that's not badass and inspiring to always max out your own potential (albeit in a somewhat twisted way), then I don't know what is.

And the last part I'd like to touch up on in the visual department are the spreads usually showcasing the battles, or some crazy shit going on because god dammit you will get some damn fine art that will have you left aghast! Whether that's some obscene, weird scene going on with other worldly entities, people fighting demons with everything from their swords, to magic, bare fists, summons, and energy blasts that will leave you baffled how chaotically well these different types of violence mesh so well in this story! But that's when you remember, "oh yeah, this is Beelzebub.".

And that's why it's one of the few series to blend so many different subgenres, yet still manage to maintain a sense of cohesion throughout its entire run. This is where I feel many may disagree with me on, as a lot of people seem to like one or two aspects of Beelzebub, and dislike the other. Whether that's them preferring the SOL moments, over the violence, or maybe preferring the gag arcs over the delinquent heavy ones. But for me, I found it transitioning from arc to arc very smooth throughout. The only bit I found somewhat jarring, was towards the end when Oga, Beel, Toujou and Co. are one shotting baddies we barely get to learn about before moving to the next one at a machine gun's pace. But even here, I found the fast paced momentum to be exhilarating! It's like, "Who the fuck are you?" "DEMON BISHOP THE 4TH" "BAM BLAST, EPIC FIGHT ENSUES, WITH A TSUKKOMI FROM FURICHI" "OKAY WHO'S NEXT?!". It has that type of energy which I'm all for in final acts of animanga personally.

Welp that's Beelzebub, where to even begin with this masterpiece? Can you name a series that perfectly combines delinquents, gag comedy, demons, and battle shounen? Maybe you can, but I sure can't, and especially not the way Beelzebub executes it. It's a series that manages to always keep you on your toes with its unpredictability, keep you laughing with its unique brand of humor, keep you in awe of the godtier battle art, and keep you engaged with its intriguing story! The characters are lovable, it never completely disregards any of its components that make it unique at any point (eg; it will still have comedy in the battle bits, or drama in the SOL arcs), the art is just beautiful and exciting to admire, and its vast plot will leave you in anticipation dying to know what's going to transpire next! As for why more people don't know about it, well like I always say when it comes to comedy, it's perhaps the most subjective form of entertainment out there, combine that with the amalgamation of various genres that makes Beelzebub, Beelzebub makes it a varied experience that's right up my alley personally, even though many others may find all the variety tiring or confusing. But personally, it just makes the journey that is this manga incredible, unpredictable, and fun! So hopefully, if you're someone who hasn't read this series yet, I cannot implore you to do so sooner!

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Nov 3, 2024

Saternates

Recommended

HAHA you won't believe that i LITERALLY FINISHED HALF OF THE VOLUME in ONE STAND. Imagine that what compels me is not the battle manga, but the ridiculously in-depth world building and how the gag was still in there. I was totally laughing my ass off then the next panel i was reading it with full concern. Especially the last volume of the manga, the gag was out of there, and the battle was ooh, interesting. Sadly, the volume 25-27 was a little bit of letdown for me and they left us with spooky schieße of cliffhanger, followed with rushed character development.

Then what happened ...

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Mar 6, 2020

snappytomdory

Mixed Feelings

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 ...

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where does beelzebub leave off in the manga ? imsomeone - Apr 10, 2013	8 replies	by Amatsukaze24 »» Dec 2, 2024 2:07 PM
Poll: Beelzebub Chapter 240 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) SilentTruth - Feb 19, 2014	128 replies	by Volt10 »» Jun 28, 2024 4:44 AM
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Poll: Beelzebub Bangai-hen Chapter 6 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 21, 2015	33 replies	by Randomega »» Dec 29, 2023 10:43 PM
Poll: Beelzebub Chapter 238 Discussion SilentTruth - Feb 5, 2014	49 replies	by Randomega »» Dec 29, 2023 10:20 AM

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