【Beelzebub】A comedy/supernatural manga about the “strongest delinquent” and a “demon baby”!!

Beelzebub is a manga series written and illustrated by Ryuhei Tamura. The manga was first published in 2008 as a one-shot pilot chapter in the combined 37th – 38th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump by Shueisha and subsequently winning the fourth Gold Future Cup. Thanks to that, Beelzebub was then serialized from February 2009 to February 2014 in the same magazine. Following the original manga, a spin-off series named Beelzebub Another later ran in Shonen Jump Next!! from May 2014 to March 2015. As of May 2015, a total of 28 volumes of the manga series have been released by Shueisha.

The Pierrot+ studio produced an OVA adaptation and premiered at the Jump Super Anime Tour between October and November 2010. The OVA was followed by a 60-episode anime TV series, which aired on Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV from January 2011 to March 2012. Beelzebub anime adaptation was officially licensed and simulcasted online by Crunchyroll in North America, Europe, Australia, Brazil and distributed on DVD in North America by Discotek Media in 2015.

The story of Beelzebub started with the main protagonist self-narrating the scenes of his latest fight. His name was Tatsumi Oga and he was the “strongest delinquent”. On the field next to his feet was a group of teenager boys, all beaten and lying helpless. Oga had a confident smirk on his face and commanded that everyone bow to him.

However, the narration that he told his friend Takayuki Furuichi was entirely different. He told the story as if he was a popular, handsome and kind-hearted young man that was well-respected. Furuichi interrupted him as he couldn’t believe it. Oga continued with the story anyway.

The gang of teenagers apparently spotted Oga sleeping on the field and thought they had a chance to finish him. It turned out that Oga was indeed as strong as the rumor about a legendary Ishiyama High delinquent who had never lost a fight. Oga defeated all of them with ease and grabbed one of the guys by his legs and dunked him in the nearby river, while claiming that he was doing “laundry”. Then, Oga saw a large man floating down the river.

Furuichi had to interrupt his friend’s bizarre story again but Oga insisted that he was telling the truth. Back to the story, Oga said that he pulled the man onshore and he suddenly split into two, revealing a naked baby boy inside. Furuichi couldn’t take it anymore and demanded Oga to stop telling the story. He even broke the fourth wall, claiming that the reader wouldn’t care about it.

Furuichi then said he had a date and asked Oga to leave his house. In order to convince his friend, Oga brought the baby inside, which he was leaving out on standby the whole time.

While Furuichi and Oga was trying to make sense of the story, a beautiful woman suddenly appeared on the sky atop a giant demon bird. She wore a black gothic dress and held an umbrella. It appeared that she was looking for something.

Back at Furuichi’s house, Oga recalled the moment he came across the baby boy. At first, he tried to confront the baby by showing him a tough face and asked if he was lost. Then, he tried to show a gentler face but ended up making an even scarier expression. Lastly, he made an evil face and even threaten to turn the baby into wax doll. Responding to that, the baby busted out laughing and stayed attach to Oga since then.

That was when the strange woman flew into the room through the window. Furuichi was scared but Oga was just angry, claiming that the woman seemed to be acting so high and mighty in another person’s house.

The woman stepped down the window. She tried to woo the baby back, but the baby embraced Oga in fear. She then tried to pull the baby away from Oga but the baby wouldn’t let go. Suddenly, the baby sent off an electric shock, terrifying Oga and Furuichi.

Later, the woman apologized for what had happened and finally introduced herself as the demon maid Hildegarde, or Hilda for short. Hilda told Oga and Furuichi that the baby boy was named Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV – the Demon Lord. He was the son of Beelzebub III – the Great Demon Lord, and was sent to the human world by his father so that he would destroy humanity. Hilda was assigned as a wet nurse to look after Beelzebub IV and helped him fulfill his mission. Following by their chance encounter, Oga has been chosen as the Demon Lord’s parent.

After hearing Hilda’s story, Oga and Furuichi denied their responsibility with Beelzebub IV and caused her to become angry. She demanded that they die and pulled a sword out of her umbrella, blowing the wall of Furuichi’s room by a big explosion. Oga and Furuichi instantly ran away, with Beelzebub IV on Oga’s back. It turned out that the baby was strangely strong and Oga couldn’t get him off.

Hilda was hot on their heel and sent her demon bird, Ak-Baba, after them. However, Oga showed no sign of fear in front of Ak-Baba and kicked the bird on its head before running off with Furuichi.

They ended up near an overhead power line and Hilda finally caught up with them. She pointed her sword at Oga’s face and made a small cut on his cheek. As blood dripped down from this cut and fell onto Beelzebub IV’s face, he started to cry out. His loud cry caused a massive electric shock on everyone around him. Hilda tried to calm him down but the electric current was too powerful and she was sent flying back. Looking at the scene, Furuichi thought that his friend has met an instant death.

Hilda told Furuichi that it was hopeless because only the Great Demon Lord could stop his son’s massive fit of anger. Suddenly, Oga was revealed to be alive and sitting next to Beelzebub IV. He stroked the baby’s head and told him to stop crying. “Men don’t freak out crying”, Oga said, “You will be made fun of”.

Beelzebub IV stopped crying and everyone watched in awe. Oga then turned to walk away but Beelzebub IV followed him. That was when Oga saw a steel tower about to fall onto Beelzebub IV. He rushed towards the baby in the nick of time and shielded him, unknowing of his own power. Oga managed to summon enough power to create a crater in the ground and caused the steel tower to disappear. Beelzebub was safe but Oga passed out.

Oga woke up two days later at home, thinking that everything was just a dream. However, Hilda and Beelzebub IV greeted him by his bedside, ensuring that everything was indeed reality. Oga was shocked at Hilda’s presence, to which she calmly declared that Oga shall helped her raise Beelzebub IV to be a great, human-destroying Demon Lord.