The comical anime Beelzebub tells the tale of Oga Tatsumi, who is given a demon kid by a guy who lives near a river. The baby's maidservant, Hildegarde, tries to coerce Oga into keeping his word to Beel. Oga fights to keep his family from misjudging his predicament while attempting to pass the infant off to someone more fierce. He is accompanied by Oga's best friend and resident pervert, Furuichi, as well as other Ishiyama High miscreants.
Beelzebub is a lighthearted television program, as you can surely tell, and this style suits the tale quite well. The main characters, especially Furuichi, don't hesitate to point out some of the more absurd aspects that appear since they appear to be aware that they are a part of a show that frequently presents them with absurd settings, as if to gauge their reactions. Additionally, characters speak directly to the audience, which gives the play a good humorous touch and helps the circumstances seem more realistic. This method, in my opinion, is more fulfilling than asking us to take absurd situations at face value.
Though this never lasts for very long, which is unfortunate because I think the show would have benefited from playing up the darker themes for longer periods of time to counter the otherwise jovial tone, which becomes a bit tiresome over a 60 episode arc, the show has a lot of heart and can also be surprisingly creepy at times-after all, we are dealing with demons and the underworld. Nevertheless, the program keeps things fresh enough to keep viewers interested, and the punchlines are generally delivered with impeccable delivery.
The show's character development is one area where it really falls flat. It's amazing how little the primary characters undergo development throughout the narrative. As the episode progresses, this really proves to be a major turnoff for the humor as I frequently found myself hoping for more emotion instead of farces. This problem may have been resolved with some reasonable character development, but sadly, there isn't enough of it to go around. Relationships can be particularly difficult. It's like watching paint dry when you wait for something intriguing to happen between characters other than fights with ridiculously named "special attacks"-not much is happening.
