Hataraku Maou-sama!
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!

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The story is pretty gripping for this anime. It is a reverse isekai about fantasy characters with powers living life in a real world society. The story occassionally has some ecchi moments, and very funny villains that are usually played for laughs. The series eventually develops into a wholesome slice of life which was also great.

The art is pretty stellar. I enjoyed the character designs and battles a lot. Even backgrounds often have decent detail put into them.

The characters are my favorite part of the manga. It is what puts it as my favorite isekai story. ... All the mcs have their own goals in life, and their interactions with others are all very entertaining to watch. Rather than being only basic tropes they all have character flaws which makes them believable.

I enjoyed this series a ton! It is one of my favorites due to the great cast. If you are looking for the best isekai series I would recommend this to you. If you are looking for a fun slice of life or comedy this is a classic.

Obligatory "It's my first review, reader-kun, please b-be gentle!"

That aside, I'll put aside the seller-style description of this story to get to the juicy parts. Just know that there will be very slight spoilers about the start of the story, but honestly, you can probably tell who's who and what'll happen at the start just by looking at the cover image.

This story is mainly about the Demon lord, Maou, and the Hero, Yuusha (In this case, Yusa). Forced to set aside their differences for the time being, they work in Tokyo to try and make a living, while they make a few friends, ... most who end up being from their own world anyways.

But it's not just about two strongly opposing forces becoming "friends" and making friends. Behind the thin veil that is a friendship is lots and lots of (mostly) internal conflict, which comes from both of the pasts of these two special individuals.

You'll have to read the story yourself because if I were to say any more I'd be spoiling a whole bunch, and I don't want to do that.

The story (Which, apologies, but I refuse to explain further due to big spoilers) aside, let's talk about the other aspects.

Fan service is low. Now, personally, I'm no fan. I love fan service. However, I don't love pointless fan service, and Hataraku Maou-Sama! is perfect in this aspect. The only unnecessary fan service in this story is Chiho's massive jugs, and even then, the writer (Satoshi Wagahara) manages to actually add plot advancements with those very jugs.

Yes, there is romance in this story. However, the romance isn't the primary focus of the story, and I can respect that greatly. Maou-Sama offers a good story that uses every single aspect of it to advance its plot, and it does it very effectively. It answers all your questions, only leaving behind ones that are meant to be left behind. The plot of the story isn't too elaborate, and it doesn't involve any logic that's out of this world, save for their own language. Even their belief system is loosely translated from ones that are of this world, simply taking metaphor and turning it into a reality inside the story. (Of course, by "belief system", I mean "the people believe in it as myth, but it's actually real")

The art is extraordinary. Seriously. Fine detailed fights and fine detailed tiddies, I have not a single nanogram of complaint. It's got a simple yet complicated feeling to it which in the end makes it feel glossy, refined, yet still innocent.

Character development is very good. Even our comedy relief characters (Chiho, Ashiya, etc.) have backstory and have serious personalities when they need to. The characters don't take shit pointlessly and don't feign ignorance when something seems off. Nobody is an absolute airhead, basically, and I absolutely love it.

And last but not least, the enjoyment. It's great. I had a fun time watching the anime and had an even better time reading the manga. The fluidity of the plot, the interactions between the characters, the pleasant art, and the comedy is great. What I love the most, though, is that the story manages to have romance and comedy in it, but not convert into a typical romcom, even though the story could totally allow that to happen. While the comedy is playful and highly sarcastic, the romance is deep, rough, and not at all a thing that could be joked about to any of the characters, lest they felt the need to be cynical and suicidally sarcastic about it.

Overall, Hataraku Maou-Sama!, or The Devil is a Part Timer! is a hands-down must-read if you enjoy a good story with a steady plot, as well as a good bit of comedy to go along with it all.

Spoiler-free but some can vaguely figure out by reading between the lines.

I binge-read the manga after seeing one of my absolute favorite animes getting a season2 after 10years and the complaints around the ending in LN. This is obviously not the review for the anime or the LN. I wanted to give a chance to the manga as I do not regard an ending around otps can warrant such reaction to the story and the comedy quality itself.

Story- 3/10
Art-8/10
Character-10/10
Enjoyment- 8/10
Overall -5/10

Now, the manga is still ongoing compared to the LN, so my bad rating on the story has n o t h i n ... g to do with the ending. Even though I got spoiled of the ending it is not the reason the story is bad for me.

Personally, it is two certain chapters serving as the backstory which decimates the entire story, premise, and background and I regret reading it. When you read a fantasy story, you kind of take the magic as the fundamental law and explain things from there. Hataraku Maou-sama destroys the magic component and then proceeds to not explain all the magical things that got used.

The art still holds, the characters are still extremely funny and emotional at the correct situations. I would have rated enjoyment as 10 if not for the two chapters ruining the fun I was having.

Overall I still believe the manga has legit quality compared to many others but it loses out couple of points due to the negative impact of two chapters on the overall experience. You can read it but you have been warned. Sometimes its just better to stick to the impression the season 1 anime gave.