What’s it about ?
The Demon Lord is too busy playing videogames and attending random parties to eradicate mankind, so he sends his infant son to do it in his place. The baby attaches himself to a brash high school delinquent. Hijinks ensue.
Characters
Oga, our protagonist. A top dog in his high school filled with delinquents, despite being only a freshman. The classic Jerk With A Heart Of Gold (c). Prone to semi-delusional epic narration. Having the same voice actor as TTGL‘s Kamina does wonders for his personality.
Beelzebub, the baby demon. You don’t want to make him cry, considering he zaps whoever’s around when that happens.
Furuichi, Oga’s sidekick. The poor dude’s chief role is to complain about the ludicrousness of the plot and get screwed over repeatedly by Oga.
Hildegarde, Beelzebub’s demon caretaker. After some over-the-top fighting to try and take Beelzebub back, she acknowledges that he’s attached himself to Oga and sticks around to supervise his upbringing as the scourge of mankind. Will not take “no” for an answer. Wonderfully deadpan. (… most of the time…)
Production Values
This looks perfectly alright for a gag series. Oga’s constant stream of scary faces has great comedic timing, and I like the occasional thicker lines around the characters. On the other hand, the soundtrack is terrible canned cheese.
The OP’s a joke that could get on my nerves after a while, and the ED’s just forgettable.
Overall Impression
This… is actually pretty funny. I was worried a bit at the beginning, as Beelzebub zapping punks was getting old after ten minutes, but it starts clicking after Hildegarde shows up. The banter between the three leads is delightful.
Now, with that said, do I see myself following this for 50+ episodes ? I fear the joke might stale after a while, and there’s a risk it’d devolve into generic fighting shonen crap. I’ll give it some more episodes, though.
via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 11.
