I have to say that I'm not the biggest fan of surprises, at least surprises of the bad variety. However, every once in awhile something comes along that surprises you in the best of ways. The Devil Is A Part-Timer is one of those pleasant surprise, a dark horse if you will that came out of the Fall 2013 anime season. Of course, despite the rave reviews it received I kept myself from watching it due to my rule that I never watch an anime until it has finished its run. Overall, I found myself pleasantly surprised by The Devil Is A Part-Timer during it's fun-filled 13 episode run.
The plot of The Devil Is A Part-Timer! is essentially right there on the packaging. In the world of Ente Isla, The Devil (or Satan if you will) and his horde of demons are constantly at war with the humans. He's a pretty mean and terrible guy who has killed a lot of people. Of course, humanity fights back against his terrible ways and in fact pins him back in his own castle. Sensing defeat, The Devil flees to to our world alongside his general Alciel. However, upon escaping into our world, Satan and Alciel find themselves without magic and in human forms. Realizing that reacquiring their powers is the only way to return to Ente Isla they decide that until they can do so, they will have to abide by the rules of the human world. This forces Satan into the most hilarious of roles, a part-time worker at "MgRonalds" an obvious rip off of the real world McDonalds franchise. The opening episodes deal mostly with Satan, now known as Sadao Maou and Alciel, now known as Shirou Ashiya, adjusting to the human world in hilarious fashion. However, their somewhat peaceful living situation is complicated by the revelation that Satan's archenemy from Ente Isla, Hero Emilia has followed him into the human world and is working in customer service, a similarly hilarious occupation. While originally this appears to be a source of drama and tension for the show, it ends up being played for laughs. Despite Emelia's hostile words the two enter a rather hilarious situation where neither has their powers and both find themselves in the boat of adjusting to the scary reality of our world. Circumstances force them into a rather uneasy ceasefire that leads to a lot of hilarity.
The hilarity of The Devil Is A Part-Timer! comes from its simple and yet hilarious premise. Placing characters from a mythical world of magic and monsters into our modern world is absolutely hysterical. The show is littered with hardly subtle callouts to modern restaurant chains like MgRonalds and Sentucky Fried Chicken. Even a pop culture reference like Holy Potter appears at one point. Hearing Satan plot out his plan to become employee of month with the same glee that one would apply to discussing a plan for world domination. In addition to these depowered character having to take part-time jobs and live paycheck to paycheck we see them placed into real world situations and watch them fail miserably in them. Similar to Ouran High School Host Club even the most mundane of situations can be turned into real drama. For example, an entire episode is dedicated to Satan's attempts to attract customers and compete with the Sentucky Fried Chicken that opened across the street. Seeing the once all-powerful demon king become terrified of his shift manager is definitely entertaining. The Devil Is A Part-Timer! draws it's strength from lampshade hanging mostly of the world in which these characters come from and mocking the bravado they apply to the most everyday of situations. Of course, this lampshading is lampshaded by another cast of characters, like Emilia who deliver snark wherever necessary. All of this collides into one incredibly entertaining show. It does have its share of serious moments and the animation style always switches to let you know when the mood changes. This is most evident in the action scenes where the characters use what little powers they still have left. The show handles this just as well as any other shounen would. However, as entertaining as it is The Devil Is A Part-Timer! is not without its share of flaws.
While it starts especially strong, The Devil Is A Part-Timer! doesn't exactly sustain it's momentum throughout its 13 episode run. The first five episodes or so are wildly entertaining, lots of comedy and playing with the ridiculousness of the show's premise. However, afterwards the show's quality begins to decrease. It's still entertaining but I didn't find myself laughing out loud as much as I did in the show's beginning. For a show that only runs for 13 episodes there is little excuse for it to run out of steam midway through its run. The finale also struck me as a little disappointing as it lacked the feeling of finality and closure that a final episode should have. However, the open ended way that it does end indicates that there may be a second season on the horizon. Despite my gripes with the plot, The Devil Is A Part-Timer! still manages to be entertaining the entire way, even if the later episodes can't match the initial quality.
For a premise like this to work, the characters need to be strong. While The Devil Is A Part-Timer's characters don't really do much other than reinforce a lot of anime stereotypes they actually fit the show's premise very well. However, despite being a main character is amazing at how little of the focus is actually on Satan himself. The character who receives the most growth over the course of the show is Emilia who begins as a tsundere who is much more tsun than dere at the beginning. She's skeptical of Satan at the beginning since she only knows him as the demon king from Ente Isla, however like the viewing audience she starts to see that he's really not so bad. Satan himself goes from being a ruthless killer to a compassionate and hard working human. The character who experiences the most hilarious change is Ashiya who goes from being a fearsome general in Satan's army to one who plays the role of the housewife and gives Satan a hard slap on the wrist whenever he mismanages the household funds. The problem here is that the characters seem to make their biggest changes following the early episodes and then never really growing. Emilia of course is the one example as she slowly begins to warm up to Satan and Ashiya. I found that she was the best character of the bunch as her mistrust of the demons results in some of the show's best moments. The show also seems to play off how titles and appearances can be deceiving. Emilia constantly views herself as the prototypical hero though most of the cast remarks at how many of her actions don't seem to fit the profile. At the same time, the rest of the cast sees that Satan isn't necessarily a bad guy just because he's Satan. People can change if they will it to be so would seem to be the theme here.
There is also the girl that Satan works with at MgRonald's named Chi who is quite obviously there mostly for fanservice reasons. Her character really only exists to be a love interest for Satan and most of the time she just ends up being downright annoying. Same goes for Suzuno who is another character who joins the main cast about midway through and doesn't exactly add much the the plot in any way. It seems that beyond Satan, Ashiya, and Emilia that the show lacks any original or interesting characters. Hopefully if there is a second season this will be addressed.
AV-wise, it's hard to say that The Devil Is A Part-Timer! does anything extraordinary here. The character designs are well-made and the animation is fun to watch. Here it's more about the writing than anything else. It looks about as good as you'd expect, the highlights being whenever the characters use their powers. The soundtrack is inoffensive as well, its good enough to succeed, even if the opening and ending themes are rather subpar. This catagory is probably the most average thing about the show and by no means does it mean bad. However, after going through three animes with fantastic soundtracks (Psycho-Pass, Kill la Kill, and Attack On Titan) this feels a little disappointing.
The Devil Is A Part-Timer is a great watch, there's little risk or time commitment involved as it is only 13 episodes. What you'll find here is a highly entertaining show and what it may lack in substance or intellectual depth it makes up for with great writing and burst at the seams laughter. Is it perfect, of course not, but it's exactly what it is. This never claimed to be a show about anything else other than a collection of beings from a mythical realm trying to hack it as part-timers in Modern Japan. It definitely deserves the praise that it is getting and without a doubt is a show that any anime fan should check out.
My Score: 4/5
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