Beezlebub Eps. 1-3

This anime has made me question the custody laws in Japan, because frankly just giving custody of a baby to a potentially homicidal maniac is just plain wrong. But that's anime for you I suppose.

Beezlebub is the newest anime to be adapted from an ongoing manga in Shōnen Jump and comes to our screens via Crunchyroll first thing on Sunday mornings. It is, also, a complete surprise compared to the kind of Shōnen Jump fare we're used to.

The premise of the series is pretty simple, and is as follows: Demon King has son; Demon King decides not to raise son and passes it onto the “strongest juvenile delinquent” at one of the worst high schools in Japan, a chap named Oga Tatsumi. This son, a baby, likes Oga and bestows upon him many electric shocks because he is a spoilt brat; Oga tries to get rid of the child but can't otherwise the baby’s big-breasted gothic lolita demon maid, Hilda, will kill him; Oga tries to pawn off the child onto another brutally strong person at the school so he doesn’t have to raise the child and more importantly, die. To pass off this demon child, Oga keeps challenging gang leader after gang leader, in an attempt to find a person more brutal than he, who the demon child will prefer and latch onto instead of him. Of course, after three episodes and also because of the super powers the demon baby on his back gives him, Oga is undefeated and unsuccessful in his hunt to find a more ruthless human being than himself. Oh, and did I mention that if Oga strays more than 15 metres away from the baby, he will die? Oh yes, you just have to feel for the poor guy.

The thing is, Oga isn’t ruthless in the least. He is the strongest, but I am of the opinion that he is just a product of what can only be described as a piss poor education system and a lack of discipline. Sure, he can kick the living snot out of anyone who challenges him but seriously, wait till he gets in the workplace - he will be eaten alive! Thankfully for Oga, he is not alone in his new custody of the demon spawn of "he who will not be named". Living with him is Hilda, the aforementioned big-breasted demon maid and the servant of the future lord of the underworld. It is Hilda’s responsibility to actually bathe, feed and look after the demon spawn, all while wearing a delightfully revealing maid outfit, while Oga gets off just having to carry the baby on his back all day, and occasionally undergoing involuntary electro-shock therapy.

So far, other than the gratuitous and almost constant flashing of infant penis, the raising of many a flaming fist against numberous violent teenage foes and the almost titilating comments regarding breastfeeding and Hilda’s voluptuous mammaries, frankly not a lot has happened so far in Beezlebub, and I am not entirely sure if anything will either.

All this aside, the series is actually well produced, it requires little to no actual thought to watch and enjoy and it is honestly funny. There is something beautiful about watching a grown man being punched out of a building by a high schooler with a naked baby on his head. Only in Japan...

Does it remain one to watch? Its on my list as one to keep track of for sure and one I'd recommend as a nice evening brain dump - compared to what else this season has to offer, it seems to be one of the better series to keep an eye on.

You can currently watch Beelzebub in streaming form on Crunchyroll.