I honestly love this series for what it is and how it does it. While it might not feel all that much to many readers beyond a cheap action comedy, for me it has almost everything I look for in a manga all combined without any of the hated tropes.
Beelzebub at core is a comedy series with utilising action to enhance the former by having plethora of comedic fights, but that doesn’t mean the series lacks depth or serious fights, when the situation calls for it – it delivers, but it never lets you forget its core aspect – to have fun.

Lets start with the World. While it seems to have a linear expansion of the world, the focus always has been Ishiyama High at the core. We start from Ishiyama High – the home to biggest delinquents in Japan who do nothing but fight and destroy all day long, staying true to their very reputation. As story goes ahead and the school is turned to cinders, we move to Saint Ishiyama High, the complete opposite of Ishiyama – a school for elite athletes and students, farthest from delinquents like our cast, along with a short trip to demon world. Saint Ishiyama is succeeded by all out war against Behemoth Division from Hell, who now Occupy Ishiyama Academy as rebranded Akumano academy, which again is turned into cinders by the end of arc, forcing the cast to again move back to Saint Ishiyama where we are expanded by a school trip and furthermore to Saint Marx Academy, the school for the Richie Rich and top brass of Japan. All said and done, the story comes back to Ishiyama High yet again for its final stop (but not without a short trip to America in midst of it!). Thus unlike majority of shonen which either stay at same place or move ahead constantly in linear expansion, Beelzebub expands its verse but always comes back to its root at Ishiyama High for its biggest arcs and impact.

Beyond that, the world is done in greatly, every academy and locations in various Trips had their distinct features to set them apart from each other and letting one see the difference in atmosphere and the aim. Such as Ishiyama being filled with broken windows, graffiti and marks of Violence, whereas Saint Ishiyama looked like a proper elite school with clean and disciplined students/buildings and club systems and furthermore in contrast the Saint Marx Academy – the school of top was furnished with exorbitant items such as gold pillars, diamond knobs, private chefs and military police – showcasing a stark difference in class/students attending from a mere sight.

Art – Art is clean and crisp. The fights are drawn in detailed with clear showcasing of impact of various hits on person body. A big part of fights is depiction of various speed battles, which imo were done pretty well in the limitations of manga format. I talked about how the world had very clear depictions of the status of the place by various different conditions, which is all thanks to the stellar art. But as a long running shonen and comedy series, the most important part of art is – Character Design and it would be understatement to say it that Beelzebub does it in a stellar way. The entire main cast is drawn so diversly that you would be hard pressed to find similar looking characters in them and even for majority of recurring side cast (unlike a certain other popular shonen, cough cough), Demons add an extra dimension and breath to these designs as author went all out on them making them varied and wacky wherever possible. Last but not the least, comedy art is on point and makes the stuff much more enjoyable.

Characters – The core of story, no matter how good are the other stuff, the power to ruin or make a series lies in hands of its characters and thankfully Beelzebub knows this and did it well. Our MC is Tatsumi Oga, a first year at Ishiyama High and a certified psycho who beats the ever-living shit out of anyone and everyone who picks up a demon baby from hell – Baby Beel in the first chap and starts living with his “demon wife” Hilda. Together these 3 form the main core of series along with Furuichi, Oga’s best friend and the butt of jokes throughout the series. In Ishiyama arc we are introduced with four kings of Ishiyama – Kanzaki, Himekawa, Kunieda Aoi and Toujo as Oga conquers the school, but unlike many series where the initial antagonists are just fodder to showcase MC strength and forgotten about as story goes, Beelzebub takes a different approach and ensures that these 4 stay relevant not only in next arcs but till the very end of story, elevating them to a status only below the main 4 characters (while Kunieda arguably on same as Oga/Furuichi/Hilda). Kanzaki is stereotype delinquent coming from a family of Yakuza, body piercing and an army of followers. Himekawa on the other hand is the rich guy with way too much time and money on his hands running a syndicate of his own. Kunieda leads an all-girl troupe - Red Tails, while Tojo is just like Oga, fighting for sake of enjoying it and beating the shit out of those who challenge him. This leads to a great dynamic in series when they work together as financial field stuff is dealt by Himekawa naturally, Manpower by Kanzaki, Specialized fighting by Kunieda and boss fighting by Toujo and Oga often together.

As series goes we are introduced with more characters from Saint Ishiyama – Miki, Oga and Furuichi childhood friend, Shizuka, Toujo’s childhood friend (and in love with the dense baboon), Izumo, Mikis teacher and having one sided crush on Shizuka, and Saotome Sensei, Toujo/Shizukas childhood treacher and a demon contractor who teaches Oga and Kunieda a lot throughout the series, these 4 tend to play recurring roles in fights and plethora of comedic situations throughout the series. Red Tails is expanded by mainly Nene, Pakko and Chiaki – Nene being the Red Tails leader succeeding Aoi after her resignation to chase Oga. Chiaki as a capable fighter and pro-gamer and Pakko as the clutz with impeccable writing for being a comedic nutcase who pairs extremely well with Kanzaki giving lots of memorable one-liners. Beyond those, there is Oga’s family – a comedic Mother-Father and satanic sister – Misaki, who was the founder of Red Tails and large part of how Oga is today with her penchant to violence and our friendly demons – Alaindon (Furuichis eternal nightmare) and Lamia, a loli doctor in training who adores Hilda.

On the enemy side we are introduced with Behemoth’s 34 Pillar Division leading demons from hell in a fight against Oga to destroy humanity. They had lot of memorable characters including the absolute dumbass Lord En (brother of Baby Beel), his goofy maid trio and their tanter tantrums. On more fighter side we had, Behemoth himself – the typical overpowered old man everyone fears, Jabberwock – his grandson and main enemy of arc, agiel – a play on lewd onee-san characters, Laymia- Lamias mother, Dr. Forcas and my personal comedic relief favorite – 5th pillar Elim xD. Beyond this arc, we get many more deliquents, some demons till the final arc where the series introduces its main antagonists – Taka, Fuji – both spell masters and contractors of demon lords such as Lucifer, Satan leading to some high stakes and epic fights throughout the final arc and a rare display of serious consquences.
Bar that lot of characters that make short but impactful comedic appearances such as Kanzaki’s baby niece – Futaba, Aoi’s baby brother – Koutaro , Aiba and his baby sister Chi (which form the baby trio of Beel friends), Beels erratic father – Demon Lord, mother Iris. Kugayama from Saint Marx, the alter Hilda, Ikaruga etc.
Extremely Diverse and Memorable cast!

Conclusion – Honestly, I just love the series. MC has happy family with no sob story or lost loved ones to fuel his motivations unlike most of Shonen Series, he is just a happy psycho committing beatdowns out of free will, the side characters are developed greatly and never bore you. The comedy is on point, action is plenty and it even handles romance pretty decently – a very rare instance in action series. I couldn’t nitpick even if I tried here, Hence a rare 100/100 for me.