As Miss Beelzebub Likes (ベルゼブブ嬢のお気に召すまま。) is a slice-of-life comedy manga written and illustrated by Matoba. It ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan from 2015 to 2020.
Most people tend to think of Hell as a dark and dreary place, with torture, torment, and danger lurking every corner. Well, this cannot be said towards this universe. Here, Hell is known as the paradise of Pandemonium, where angels who have turned into demons work. The demons of Pandemonium all admire the wise and capable ruler Beelzebub, including Mullin, who becomes her head attendant. However, as it turns out, she's secretly a klutzy airhead with a sweet tooth and a love for anything fluffy and cute. Mullin is shocked by this, but nonetheless, he strives to get closer to her the best he can.
An anime adaptation aired between October and December 2018, produced by Liden Films. It can currently be legally viewed on Crunchyroll. The manga is also licensed in North America by Yen Press.
This series contains examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Mullin is upset at Beel for oversleeping and barges into her room, only to find out she Sleeps in the Nude, with only some strategically placed Gossamers and her hair preserving her modesty. She doesn't mind it that much but he's horrified.
- A-Cup Angst: Astaroth likes to poke fun at Sargatanas by remembering her that she is the least well-endowed member of the female cast.
- Affectionate Nickname: Belphegor is called Gocchin by Beelzebub. Beelzebub is called Beel by a few people close to her including Belphegor.
- Audience Surrogate: Mullin is a guy who had just recently been added to the tier that all other demons already work on and is the only one to not know how things work properly, therefore he works as an excuse for Beelzebub to introduce other characters to him and concepts.
- Beach Episode: Subverted. At one point, Beel and Belphegor try to plan a day at the beach with Azazel and Mullin and they spend the entire episode trying out bikinis in Adramelech's office. When the day for them to go to the beach comes, a storm ends up derailing their plans.
- Beneath the Mask:
- Beelzebub tries to show herself as a competent, but approachable woman to the people who look up to her in the workplace and in Pandemonium, but as Mullin works with her, he learns that she is basically a normal girl who is pretty klutzy and eccentric.
- Sargatanas tries to put on the personality of a cold businesswoman in her job but she loves cute things and is easily over-excited about them.
- Beta Couple: Azazel and Belphegor play a second fiddle couple to Beel and Mullin. Astaroth and Sargatanas make up for a tertiary couple of the series.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Moloch and Dantalion. Dantalion is the size of a middle-school boy and Moloch is only second to Azazel in height. Since Moloch has assistants doing all his job for him, he works in the library helping Dantalion getting books from high shelves.
- Bromantic Foil: Azazel to Mullin. Mullin is a small, slim and cute-looking guy that tries to be manly, while Azazel is a big, burly and manly looking guy that likes cute things such as plush toys and sweets.
- Bust-Contrast Duo: Beelzebub is rather buxom as well as being fluffy, spacey, and a borderline ditz, in sharp contrast with Sargatanas who is cold, sadistic, blunt, and flat as a board.
- Camp Gay: Adramelech, the demon in charge of arts and fashion, is a very flamboyant man who hits on Mullin as soon as he meets him.
- Clark Kent Outfit: Moloch is probably the most muscular male character in the cast, even more than Azazel, but it's hard to notice beneath his outfit. It only shows when he is bathing during the Onsen Episode.
- Cold Opening: Each episode starts with a small, funny segment of Beelzebub eating fluffy food.
- Cover Drop: The first manga volume's cover is re-enacted in the opening theme.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: When introduced, Sargatanas was prone to threatening Astaroth with a gun before tying him up. Later episodes entirely ignore the gun or that she ever dealt with it and only has her restraining him using elegant shibari-type knots and ropes.
- Food Porn: A lot of the good art of the anime goes to showcasing delicious dishes and sweets that Beel likes to eat. This happens always in the cold opening and might happen more during an episode.
- Iyashikei: Has some elements of the genre.
- Master of the Mixed Message: Belphegor is one accidentally. She tries to be nice to Azazel, whom she is in love with, but due to her shyness, she ends up running away whenever they do interact. Azazel being already pretty poor in social skills understands that she is afraid of him, and she can never clarify because she can never talk to him and assumes things herself.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Quite a few characters use personalized versions of the uniforms available, which is a blue, military-like outfit. Beel and Belphegor use dresses instead of these outfits, with Beel's having a Cleavage Window and Belphegor showing her mid section. Sargatanas uses a version similar to the men but with a long coat. Azazel uses a version with a short coat that mostly showcases his plain white shirt. Dantalion wears a version that has short shorts instead of pants and a huge bow on his neck to further his school boy appearance. Considering that it is implied that Adramelech makes the uniforms personalized to each person, this is justified.
- Office Romance: Mullin and Beelzebub are in love with each other, but they're also working together, with him as her secretary. He notices a few time that his feelings for her are unprofessional.
- Older Than They Look: Dantalion is a demon that looks like a middle-school aged boy with bunny ears, but he is an extremely ancient entity.
- Onsen Episode: In an episode, Astaroth creates public baths in the office in an attempt to get a chance to see the girls bathing. The episode ends up focusing entirely on the guys antics while bathing together since the girls were smart enough to wait until Astaroth tried to peek before actually bathing.
- Periphery Demographic: In-Universe. A show for kids about a bunch of cute animals turns out to be a huge hit for attracting people of all kinds that love cuteness.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Gossamers; small, adorable white balls of fluff that float all over the place. Beel keeps a large hoard of them in her bedroom.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Beel for Belphegor and Azazel, since she wants to help her friend get with the guy she likes.
- Adramelech for Beel and Mullin, thinking that they are a cute couple.
- Sleeps in the Nude: Beelzebub likes to sleep in the nude so she can feel all of the fluffiness the native Gossamers have to offer. Mullin gave Beelzebub an alpaca wool sweater to cover up in bed, but the fluffy sweater didn't do its job very well.
- Sleepyhead: Dantalion has a habit of sleeping in his desk during his job due to spending his nights reading.
- Succubi and Incubi: There is a side character named Morrigan that is a Succubus and is a specialist in seduction that helps Beel and Belphegor pick up swimwear to seduce men and plays Ms. Fanservice.
- Sugar Bowl: Pandemonium. Hell has never been this colorful or comfy.
- Toilet Humor: Belphegor had a lot of it, as being in a stressful situation made her want to pee really bad. This however is later downplayed for her other traits, such as being easily flustered, in love with Azazel and a good friend and confidant to Beel.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Unlike other characters, Moloch never gets introduced with an identification of his position in the rankings of Pandemonium, even though he's about as old as Beel there. He does have a job there, according to himself, but e has many assistants that do his job for him, so he's free to do whatever he pleases instead of actually working, so he goes to goof off in the library.
- What Is This Feeling?: Beel had never fallen in love before and after feeling something for Mullin, she wonders what exactly her feelings are.
- World of Technicolor Hair: The only normal hair color characters have is yellow. Outside of that, characters have pink, purple, blue, white and green air all around, and all of them are treated as perfectly normal.
