The Devil Is a Part-Timer! (light novel)
| After all of the vitriol about this series, I'm surprised I'm the first one to make a discussion poll about the final volume. Massive spoilers ahead, so read at your own discretion I've been following this series for about three years and I've only found some time now to read the series in its entirety. I started reading this series after finding a few clips of the first season of the anime and thought to myself, "Wow, what a really interesting premise". I read the first few novels but then stopped after realizing it would take a while for the series to be fully translated, so I waited until it could be completed to finish reading it in one go. Having done so, I'm left feeling... underwhelmed. Not just by the ending but by the series as a whole. Reading the "happy" ending the series got, I'm left wondering, what was the point of this series ? I'm serious. I am not a very critical analyzer of the media I consume, so I rarely ever think about what kind of message the authors wanted to convey or what the implications of the media I consume indicate. But going through this series and its ending is one of the few times I've read a series and wondered what was the point of the whole thing. This novel is basically a mish-mash of a flash-forward to events after the "Invasion of Heaven" and the actual events of the Invasion itself. The novel begins with the flash-forward, so we already know that everyone is already alright. The actual events of the Invasion is also pretty underwhelming, where Maou and Emi just roll upto Heaven and... win. That's it really. Camio and the newly revealed Sephirot Eleos (Malchut) put up a bit of a fight but that's it. Ignora, whose was built up as a big bad was just there and doesn't even do much, other than rough up Laila a little. I know that this series has never been about the battles or fighting but honestly, it's not really much of anything. Its disappointing as a slice-of-life because the characters that actually made it funny and interesting (Rika, Ashiya, Suzuno and Urushihara) are all phased out towards the end, with the last 6 or 7 volumes focusing on Chiho, Emi and Maou, with a heavy focus on Chiho. Now, I personally don't like Chiho because really she's just not an interesting character. Her character is literally just "I love Maou and everyone and I want everyone to be happy" and the author bends over backwards to ensure that she gets whatever she wants. Personally, I've always hated how forced her inclusion is in the general scheme of things. The author indirectly addressed this by saying that she was the first person Maou ever really cared about or whatever but logically, Emi should've never cared about her and erased her memories regardless but they don't because... well they don't want to. And she's super amazing at everything and achieves world peace and honestly, towards the end, the titular Devil King and Hero don't do anything of any importance. Everything gets taken care of in the background and we just watch it happen. Its disappointing as a rom-com because there's no meaningful romantic development until the very end between any of the characters (Yes, even Emi, although she's better than the rest). Chiho and Maou have about as much chemistry as a wet tissue paper and its honestly baffling that this is the relationship that's treated as the endgame. She likes Maou because "reasons" and he likes her because.... well he does. Apparently. Honestly, it's just a very boring relationship between two shit characters and its definitely one of the main drags on this series. As for the whole Maou-Emi thing, which, from reading the forums, everyone is a huge fan of, I was never really sold on. For one, Maou as a character is just worthless towards the end. He's indecisive 95% of the time and exists just to get pushed around by everybody. I literally can't think of anything meaningful Maou contributes as the series ends. Emi on the other hand never fully resolves all of the (rightfully) complicated emotions she has for Maou. I felt like there wasn't any meaningful interaction between the two of them for most of the series, which is why her slowly warming up to him just feels... off to me. So the ending with respect to the both of them is actually fine in my opinion. The only relationship that would've made sense to me would've been Suzuno and Maou because (indulge this Suzuno-stan for a moment) it's isn't surprising to see why Suzuno might fall in love with Maou or vice-versa. They actually spend a lot of meaningful time together( Okay just the one but the campside interaction is awesome and probably the only time there's a serious interaction between Maou and a possible romantic interest), unlike Chiho and Maou, whose only meaningful interactions are..... working at McDonalds and eating at the Rosa Park Villa. She doesn't have all of the complicated emotional baggage that Emi does towards Maou either and out of all three Suzuno definitely has the funniest interactions with Maou. But of course, she's the one that gets a definitive rejection. (Or at least, that's what I inferred). Putting aside this rant, there's not much to be said for this series. Honestly, the series never really reached the heights it after they returned from Ente Isla after rescuing Emilia and putting down Olba definitively. Everything after Volume 10 just feels dragged out and inconsequential. It's a shame because this is probably one of the few fantasy LN's with a premise different from other isekai. But in the end, it is nothing more than a mediocre harem LN with an underwhelming story to boot. |
TitanInsaneMay 30, 2023 10:42 PM
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