Beelzebub [SUB] (2011-2012) Review

 Beelzebub (2011-2012) [SUB] 6.5/10

Hello everyone. Today, I’ll be reviewing Beelzebub. Beelzebub is a Shonen Jump anime that aired from January 9, 2011 - March 25, 2012 with the series running at a whopping 60 episodes long. The show was produced by Pierrot Plus. Honestly I haven’t really heard much about this anime other than hardcore shonen fans bringing it up from time to time. It kinda flew under the radar.

The reason why I had this on my watchlist in the first place is because of the J-Stars Victory Vs+ game. In this game, the main character Oga is a playable fighter. This combined with everyone that knows of this series saying it's a decent show got me interested. I will say, I was expecting more from the series, but I can see why not a whole lot of people jumped on it when it was initially running. Let’s begin.

Our story follows Oga Tatsumi, a high school delinquent that stumbles upon a guy floating down a river. He pulls the guy out and he splits open, with a baby coming out of him. The baby latches onto Oga, forming a contract with him. This baby is Beelzebub, a Demon Lord from the Demon World. With the help of Demon Maidservant Hildegarde and Transfer Demon Alaindelon, Oga must raise Beelzebub to become a powerful Demon Lord who is tasked with destroying the Human World.

So before I start critiquing this, here’s some background info. The series has 60 episodes so far. The first half of the series is about Oga trying to bum Baby Beel onto someone else. To do this, he needs to find someone that’s stronger and more ruthless than he is. In this first part, we are introduced to the main cast of characters. First is Furuichi, Oga’s best friend and “the strategist”. Furuichi is not a fighter, but he’s thrown in with all of the other delinquents because of his ties with Oga. Next we have the 4 main gang leaders of Ishiyama High: Kanzaki, Himekawa, Kunieda, and Tojo. As the series continues, each of these characters will get character development as well as their subordinates. The second half of the series takes place at St. Ishiyama High. Here, we are introduced to a couple of more characters, but the series seems to take a more direct approach at telling a story with added character development for both old and new characters. In the second half, characters such as Himekawa and Kunieda especially grew on me.

Now onto the actual criticism. The series as a whole is above average at best. Beelzebub seems more akin to the comedy side of Shonen as opposed to what I thought it was going to be: action. There is action here, with a couple of moments being hyped, but the overall tone of the show reminds me of Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Both shows are comedy based, where the cast carries the show more than an actual narrative does. The fights for Beelzebub are a bit of a let down as I was expecting much deeper fights instead of super moves every two seconds. My favorite fights have to be: Oga vs Tojo 2, Oga and Beel vs the first wave of 34th Pillar Division (Super Milk Time’s first appearance), Kunieda vs Hilde (even though it only lasted like a minute) and the final fight with Oga vs Jabberwock and the rest of the 34th Pillar Division.

Onto the characters. This is one of the best cast of characters I’ve seen in a comedy anime. Arguably the best I’ve seen at this time (with this being better than Saiki K and Asobi Asobase and on par with Konosuba). I want to focus on a couple of characters. First is Hilde. Like I said earlier, Hilde is the Maidservant for Baby Beel. She’s basically his mother. Hilde is a very strict person, as this is part of her work as a Maidservant. When it comes to Master Beel, she’s a different person. Acting all lovey dovey for the little shit. She actually surprised me with her character arc that happens in the second to last episode. Second person is Furuichi. I feel bad for this guy. So Alaindelon, the transfer demon who has the power to transfer people and objects between the Human World and the Demon World, kinda forces himself into Furuichi’s life. Constantly kidnapping him and forcing him along Oga’s adventures. This guy just wants a normal high school life, but between delinquent gang leaders and demon antics, that’s never going to happen. He is also a big pervert, constantly trying to romance women. Next is Himekawa. Now I’ve had my eyes on this guy since he first appeared. This guy is easily one of the best characters of the show. He’s rich. He’s got a rockin’ pompadour. And he’s got an ego. Because he’s from one of the richest families in Japan, this guy is loaded, he can spend money on whatever he wants and still make a profit off of it. I think one of the reasons why I like him so much is because of his weird design. If any normal person were to try and wear his outfit, he’ll be beaten daily. But not Himekawa. He’s rich and he’s got charisma and prestige. One of my favorite moments with him is when he was playing an online game with everyone and his opponents were hacking the game. To counter the cheating, he bought the fucking company and then mess with the match’s coding. Another moment was when he stuck his stun baton into his pompadour and did this massive electric bolt like from inFamous. His whole character is a trip. The next character I want to go over is Kunieda. Kunieda is the leader of the all-female gang, The Red Tails. Her first meeting with Oga is one of the best character introductions I’ve seen. She’s this badass sword fighter and then Oga tried to give Baby Beel to her and she got all flustered. She’s a massive tsundere and you get to see this all throughout the series. Near the end of the series, she becomes an even bigger badass through special training. In the second half of the series, a lot of the side characters got more screen time, which I’m perfectly for. The orange haired chick stuck out the most because of Tojo vs Izuma. She and Kanzaki were watching in secret and that’s when she started to get interesting. The last person I want to go over is Beelzebub himself. This little shit is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. At the start of the show, he was super annoying, crying all the time. Thankfully, the show addresses this early. I do wish Beelzebub would wear clothes instead of being nude all the time. His main development is his trust with Oga, in which this is first shown in Oga vs Tojo 2 and then solidified during the final battle.

The art style is not very distinct. You can put these characters in Saiki K and even Gintama and they would look like they belong there. Animation is very cheap too. The only time I see the animation become more fluid is during the OPs, EDs, and, certain fights. You can especially see this in Kunieda vs Hilde and the final attack of the final battle. From a technical standpoint, the show looks cheap and this is one of the show’s downsides.

Music for the show is a bit cheap too. You have all of your typical tunes that fit the mood of the moment, but nothing really noteworthy. I will say, those first guitar chords for when shit is getting serious always got me pumped up a little bit. The show’s OPs are pretty good. My favorite’s are OP 1 “Dadada” and OP 2 “Hajime no wa, Sayonara”. My favorite ED has to be ED 5 “Shoujo Traveler”. All the other OPs/EDs either suck or are not memorable.

The voice acting for the show is really good. I watched this in the Japanese dub and it’s good. All the characters played their parts well, with Tomokazu Sugita (Kanzaki) and Seirou Ogino (Himekawa) being my favorite voices. Also quick shout out to Katsuyuki Konishi (Oga), Shizuka Itou (Hildegard), and Aki Toyosaki (Kunieda).

So onto the main issues with the show. My first main issue are the fights. You have a show about high school delinquents, demons, and supposedly overpowered beings. Show off these fights in a more intricate manner! The only time this was actually done right was Oga and Beel vs the first wave of 34th Pillar Division (Super Milk Time’s first appearance). The final battle kinda did this, but I was expecting so much more for such a climactic battle. Probably my own fault for having my hopes up, but whatever. The second issue is that the show completely dumped Tojo and Izuma. Near the end of the show where everyone is training again, the show straight up forgets about these two. The show says “These two are training to fight demons” but we never get to see the fruits of their labor. Another issue is that we never got to see any grudge matches. I would have loved to see Tojo fight Oga again and see what Izuma was made of. I also would have loved to see a full fight between Kunieda and Hilde. I think the biggest issue is that it needs another season, which the series did leave that open. Speaking of which, the ending was very lackluster. They were trying to make it out to be this grand farewell episode, but then at the last minute that changed. I won’t say too much in case any of you want to watch this.

Overall, I kinda enjoyed my time with Beelzebub, but it does have issues that can mainly be fixed with a second season. I can only recommend this if you have nothing else to watch. I did enjoy Oga and Beel’s dynamic, but the overall show was somewhat disappointing. It’s a great comedy anime, but don’t expect too much from the action.

Anyway, I’ll see y'all next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.