Hataraku Maou-sama!

Striking fear into the hearts of mortals, the Demon Lord Satan begins to conquer the land of Ente Isla with his vast demon armies. However, while embarking on this brutal quest to take over the continent, his efforts are foiled by the hero Emilia, forcing Satan to make his swift retreat through a dimensional portal only to land in the human world. Along with his loyal general Alsiel, the demon finds himself stranded in modern-day Tokyo and vows to return and complete his subjugation of Ente Isla—that is, if they can find a way back!

Powerless in a world without magic, Satan assumes the guise of a human named Sadao Maou and begins working at MgRonald's—a local fast-food restaurant—to make ends meet. He soon realizes that his goal of conquering Ente Isla is just not enough as he grows determined to climb the corporate ladder and become the ruler of Earth, one satisfied customer at a time!

Whether it's part-time work, household chores, or simply trying to pay the rent on time, Hataraku Maou-sama! presents a hilarious view of the most mundane aspects of everyday life, all through the eyes of a hapless demon lord.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Maou, Sadao Main

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Yusa, Emi Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Ashiya, Shirou Main

Ono, Yuuki Japanese

Urushihara, Hanzou Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Sasaki, Chiho Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Kamazuki, Suzuno Supporting

Itou, Kanae Japanese

Etuva, Emeralda Supporting

Asakura, Azumi Japanese

Suzuki, Rika Supporting

Nishi, Asuka Japanese

Nakayama Supporting

Murata, Taishi Japanese

Kisaki, Mayumi Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Iwasa, Gaku Producer

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Nagatani, Takayuki Producer

Reviews

Dec 11, 2024

Joe_Devaney

Recommended

Note: This will be a review of the series in its entirety.

Overview:
"The Devil is a Part-Timer" is an anime that's pretty much exactly as ridiculous as it sounds, but in a good way. It plays with the isekai genre by having a bunch of demons and legendary heroes end up getting trapped in our world, after which they are forced to adjust to the mundane everyday lives of Earth, a premise that's both original and absolutely hilarious. While it's far from being the most complex or thought-provoking anime you'll ever watch, what it does succeed in being is the one thing that any anime ... should strive to be first and foremost- entertaining.

Story (7/10):
"The Devil is a Part-Timer" opens with two demons- the Devil King himself, Satan and his second-in-command Alciel- being driven to Earth after a failed attempt to conquer the fantasy world Ente Isla and being thoroughly defeated by the Hero Emilia Justina and her allies. Once there, they quickly learn that they have been reduced to the level of ordinary humans, with them being unable to use any kind of magic or demonic power, due to the lack of magic on Earth compared to Ente Isla or the Demon realm. As such, the two demons are forced to pose as humans in order to survive until they can find a way to return to their own world. Assuming the identities Sadao Maou and Shiro Ashiya respectively, Satan takes up a job at the fast food joint MgRonald's (I'll give you one guess where they got that name from) where he befriends his teenage co-worker Chiho Sasaki, and Alciel stays at home to manage the apartment they rent out. All well and good so far, until the hero Emilia arrives on Earth attempting to finish what she started, only to learn she doesn't have any power on Earth either. Realizing she's in the same boat as the demons, Emilia takes on the identity of Emi Yusa, and starts keeping watch over Maou and Ashiya to ensure they don't do anything bad. Hilarity ensues, but it isn't long before new threats begin to arrive on Earth, which may force these former enemies to set aside their differences.

As I previously mentioned, the series is basically a reverse isekai- instead of someone from our world getting trapped in a fantasy world, various figures from a fantasy world get trapped in our world, and are forced to adjust to our way of living, making the series partially slice-of-life. There's still plenty of action, but the series puts just as focus on the characters' day-to-day lives, with Maou and Emi working at their part-time jobs and them and their friends getting into all kinds of crazy antics. In total, there are two seasons (three if you count the two parts of season 2 as separate seasons) consisting of a total of 37 episodes, with the first season having 13 episodes and the second having 24. The first few episodes focus mainly on the conflict between Maou and Emi, but it doesn't take long for it to be made clear that this is far from the typical hero-slays-the-demon story that Emi seems to think it is, with things proving to be far more gray and complicated. The result is a series that's almost consistently funny while also managing to tell a decent story.

Unfortunately, there's a definite emphasis on "decent" in this case, as despite the unique premise, there are nevertheless occasions when the series just can't help but fall back on clichés. This is especially evident in the second half of the second season, which has so many familiar story beats that you could find in countless other fantasy stories, to the point that I almost ended up losing interest. That's not to say the final third of the series is bad, but it did feel like a step down in comparison to what came before it, with the first season being the best for gags and the first half of the second season being the best for general storytelling and character development. There's also the fact that, even towards the end of the series, there's still a few plot points left hanging and numerous questions left unanswered, which makes sense considering it doesn't adapt the entire light novel series, but still doesn't stop the conclusion from being alright at best.

Art & Animation (8/10):
The first season of "The Devil is a Part-Timer" is very good-looking, animated as it is by White Fox of "Steins;Gate" fame. The characters and environments are very well-drawn and detailed and the general animations and special effect are great as well. On the other hand, the second season, animated by Studio 3Hz, looks notably worse by comparison (which is especially bad given that it aired almost a decade after the first) with less detailed character models, somewhat stiffer animations and a notably duller colour palette. The second season doesn't look bad per se, but depending on how much you think visuals matter in the series or anime in general, this is something that you could very well find off-putting.

Sound & Dialogue (8.5/10):
If there's one thing the second season has over the first, it's the music. The opening and ending themes of the first season are both very forgettable and I skipped them both every time, while the two opening and ending themes of the second season, while not spectacular, are a big improvement, with the second opening "With" being my personal favourite. Other than that, the soundtrack is decent but nothing to write home about. What's good all the way through, however, is the voice acting. Jessie James Grelle and Felicia Angelle do great jobs as Maou and Emi, respectively, as do Anthony Bowling as Ashiya, Tia Ballard as Chiho, Alex Moore as Suzuno and Aaron Dismuke as Urushihara. The series has a strong supporting cast as well, including Christopher Sabat, Monica Rial, Alexis Tipton and, in the second season, Sarah Wiedenheft. All in all, I would consider the sound design to be the series' high point.

Characters (7.5/10):
For the characters, we'll start with Satan, or Maou as he comes to be called by nearly everyone. When we're first introduced to him, Maou's main goal is for him and Ashiya to gain enough magic power to return to Ente Isla. However, it's not long before Maou's comedic traits begin to show, as about halfway through the first episode, he has clearly taken a liking to Earth and becomes determined to be the best employer MgRonalds has to offer, something he takes very seriously. In fact, despite being the Devil himself, Maou does far more to help Earth over the series than to harm it and is rarely anything short of kind and courteous to everyone he meets, with even how he treats Emi being based largely on how she treats him, which tends to be not very well at all. Granted, he does sometimes inconvenience Emi for the lolz, but that’s all he ever really is- an inconvenience. Furthermore, we eventually learn that he wasn't a particularly evil person even back in Ente Isla; when Emi calls him out for his past actions, Maou says that back then, he didn't really understand humans, and while this seems to be just an excuse at first, we later see just how much he really meant that, and that he genuinely didn't know just how much harm he was causing. Admittedly, there are some parts of his backstory that either don't add up or aren't elaborated on all that much, but as far as characters in the series go, Maou definitely stood out as my favourite.

The second most important character, and my second favourite, is Emilia, or Emi as she's known when living in Japan. Despite being the Hero who defeated the Devil himself, Emi is, by all accounts, a teenager and so has a rather simplistic worldview. This is shown in her interactions with Maou, with her early on outright yelling at him for not acting like how she believes a demon should, and wondering why he didn't show the kindness he has back in Ente Isla, with the idea that people can change apparently never entering her head. Even so, Emi is also very honourable, as shown by the fact that she refuses to kill Maou on the grounds that he hasn't done anything on Earth to warrant it. What’s more is that she is soon forced to accept that the world is far more complicated than she thought, with even her own allies proving to be far from spotless. While she's rude, abrasive and sometimes annoying, she does have a soft side too, which she especially shows towards Chiho and her co-worker Rika. And really, when around the very creatures you grew up thinking were just bloodthirsty monsters and that killed your father and destroyed your home, why WOULDN'T you be rude and abrasive? In other words, Emi is a rare case of a tsundere whose attitude is completely justified, and her relationship with Maou proves to be consistently dynamic and entertaining.

Next down on the character list is Maou's loyal second-in-command Alciel alias Shiro Ashiya, who is also his closest friend and housekeeper. While Maou works at MgRonalds in order to make the money they need to get by, Ashiya stays at home to manage their apartment and finances, as well as researching possible ways for them to get their magic back, essentially serving as the brains not only between the two of them, but of the group as a whole, though he's more than capable in a fight as well (well, most of the time, since he tends to end up out of commission a lot in later episodes). Loyal as he is, however, he and Maou do disagree from time to time (as best friends often do), with Maou often telling Ashiya to chill on the demon theatrics and Ashiya snarking at Maou's tendency to take his job too seriously, which gives Ashiya more depth beyond being a blindly loyal subordinate. There's also Chiho Sasaki, Maou's teenage co-worker who has a crush on him, and who learns of his and Emi's true nature early in the series. Chiho serves as the audience surrogate, being the only one of the main characters who is neither a demon nor a human who came from Ente Isla. While this does admittedly make her less interesting than the aforementioned Maou, Emi and Ashiya, and she can't contribute all that much to fights, she's still a very loveable character who serves to humanize the rest of the cast, providing plenty of hilarious and heartwarming moments alike.

Then there's Suzuno Kamazuki, who is initially introduced as Maou and Ashiya's old-fashioned neighbour, but soon turns out to be a resident from Ente Isla, Crestia Bell, an assassin from the church that Emi was allied with before the series began. Initially coming to Earth to finish what Emi started (with her hatred of demons being bad enough to make Emi's look downright tame in comparison, as well as lacking her more honourable traits), she ends up becoming an uneasy ally of the other characters, though like Emi, she still has her guard up around Maou and the other demons. While I did like her character overall, she's ultimately my least favourite of the three main heroines, being neither as developed as Emi or as loveable as Chiho. The sixth and final member of the main cast, and also my least favourite, is Lucifer, who is a separate being from Satan in this series, being a former general of his who went rogue. Like Suzuno, Lucifer starts off antagonistic to Maou, but soon ends up taking residence in his and Ashiya's apartment, under the human name Hanzo Urushihara. However, even after changing sides, his personality is hardly any more pleasant, being a lazy, childish jerk who spends all of his time cooped up in a closest and generally does nothing to help his former boss and fellow general, who essentially take up the role of his exasperated parents. Even so, while he doesn't do an awful lot to help, he doesn't really make things worse for anyone either, and he can be counted on to be a good ally when the situation calls for it. There's a host of other characters, humans, demons and angels alike, but I think I've talked enough about the cast as it is.

Enjoyment (8/10):
The series starts with the Devil himself taking up a part-time job in a fast food restaurant and only gets more insane and hilarious from there. The first season has at least a couple of laugh-out-loud moments per episode, and while there's notably less emphasis on comedy in the second season, it nevertheless remains fun and entertaining throughout. As a whole, the series maintains a very lighthearted tone, with plenty of funny, heartwarming and awesome moments to go around, and while there are some dark and sad moments too, they are few and far between.

Overall:
"The Devil is a Part-Timer" is not exactly the most serious thing ever, but that's something that ends up working to its benefit rather than its detriment. Sure, it falls a little short in the storytelling department, particularly towards the end, and the quality of the visuals and sound design is pretty inconsistent, but this is still a series that's well worth checking out if you're a fantasy or comedy fan, as it's very fun to watch and has very likeable characters.

Score:
7+8+8.5+7.5+8=39/50=7.8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 10, 2024

st_0_rm3

Mixed Feelings

This anime is fine - it's lukewarm.

This anime is warming to watch with plenty of heart felt moments. The unbreakable love triangle is constant throughout which adds to the jolly and sensual mood without end. I like love but I like heartbreak just as much. This anime needs some real strife – it needs more tension. I’ve watched both seasons over 2 days and maybe it’s my fault but there is only so much happiness, joy and warmth one person can take. This anime is perfectly warm, it never puts a foot wrong. I dropped this anime four points because it’s simply not the ... best. Every moment flows naturally/unforced to the next moment. Nothing “bad” ever really happens. I enjoy nothing much ever happening but then throwing in battles and fake strife is vapid - just let it be about everyday life and relationships then and even then only one person really risked anything in the show with a love confession and that love confession goes unanswered.

This anime tries to take the themes of: adult relationships/marriage/love, multiple dimensional travel, as of yet – limitless magic and the bible to create something new and interesting - it doesn't fail but it's no masterpiece. Mix beef and ice-cream to create a dish – it’s difficult nigh impossible. This anime is like an palatable beef ice-cream.

This anime is fine. It's not the best but it's watchable and enjoyable most of the time. The enjoyment teeters out bit by bit though because of pure monotony.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 1, 2024

CaptainSalty

Not Recommended

One of my first ever anime, and I have to say it hasn't aged well for me. I've seen much better comedies by now and the premise is essentially a reverse Isekai. While it may sound quite basic, it does try its best to utilize its premise for the fun bits between "hero" and "villain," this humor really only lasts for the first half of the series. By the end of the fifth episode, you've seen everything this show has to offer. The characters have a way back home, and the bits of comedy between the characters have been mostly used up. As afterwards, we ... cut back to a "we choose to stay here" type approach and nothing really interesting happens afterwards. There is technically still a conflict in its last few episodes but it feels more stupid than anything. What I mean by this is the fact that they try to employ a character moral issue on an empty character we don't care for. To begin with, they try to give the moral dilemma of the devil being a good guy now suddenly after coming to this new world. There is no reason for this change outside of "he's just a misunderstood guy" but not really as they tell us time and time again, "you killed so many people, you're responsible for their suffering, you can't just turn over a new leaf and be forgiven" but then is forgiven anyways. It does not utilize its main character being the devil whatsoever, and because of that its a series that has a lot of wasted potential. While the comedy has its moments, the series suffers from every other factor of a good tv show with dull and wasted potential characters, a plot that feels dry and convenient for giving the heroes their powers always when they need them, and a nonsensical good guy bad guy moral dilemma.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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