It has been a while since I reviewed an anime, and “The Devil is a Part-Timer!” was one I had already gotten halfway through so I decided it was time to finish it, to see how it held up against the other animes I enjoy. This was a solid anime but has some of the common tropes I found annoying in that the Devil has a harem making it a harem anime (though thankfully he doesn’t hook up with anyone) and there is a contrast between the drama and the comedy that is jarring at times. To the shows credit on both counts it manages to offset some of it, which I’ll get into deeper into the review.
The anime was based off a light novel of the same name written by Satoshi Wagahara with the anime being produced by White Fox and directed by Naoto Hosoda.
The story involves the Demon Lord Satan and his general Alciel escaping their world of Enta Isla is the war they are losing against the Church, into Tokyo. Here they find themselves powered down leading Satan to take up a job at the local MacRonalds so they can afford to live in this realm. The hero Emilia who is hunting them crosses over too and takes up a job at an office as others from their realm pull them into what they behind as they find themselves changed by our world.
The Pros: The Premise – The premise is really cool! A powerful being from a fantasy realm forced to live as human and take a mundane job…there is room for so much drama there that sometimes the show does a good job exploring.
The Action – The fight scenes are a lot of fun and pretty epic in their own way as we see powerful angelic and demonic being tear apart the town in their standoffs.
The Characters – The characters are the main reason to watch this show, besides the the premise itself being draw enough. They are fascinating and most of them have arcs.
Chiho – Chiho is a high school student who has a crush on Satan, even after learning who she is. She is the heart of the anime as it is her appeals to goodness that change some characters back as she sees the most how Satan was not who he was before.
Lucifer – Lucifer is the villain in the first part of the anime but ends up being part of the good guys after he is depowered. Though he still manages to cause a lot of trouble when he does a ton of online shopping. His moment of great is when he punches the corrupt Church leader Olba during the final fight and shows that he isn’t about power and likes being human.
Suzuno – Suzuno is an inquisitor sent to kill Satan who changes over the course of the anime as she learns how to feel and sees that Satan is good and that she hates the fact that the Church and Archangel are using her and doing the evil they claimed Satan was. She helps Satan in the final fight after trying to kill him and is one of the core group.
Ashiya – Ashiya is the comedic relief as he is the domestic at the apartment. He is a good character as we see his devotion is what defines him, though he does long for more just not from Enta Isla.
Emilia – Emi is the hero sent back to defeat Satan as Satan’s forced killed her family in Enta Isla. She is obsessed with stopping him until she sees the Church is the one hurting people and forms an alliance with him the process. Their friendship is very combative and reminded me a lot of Ron and Hermione. Sadly she doesn’t get to take part in the final fight though she saves the Demons in the last episode from a scam. I wish they’d done more with her character as she is really cool.
Satan – Satan is the King of Demons and is very human after passing over as he is happy with his job at the MacRonalds and just wants to help people and have a life. In this way he doesn’t change at all and we never get how he changed from the Demon Lord of before. He is a great character though who could do with more exploration as his personalities between the two different worlds are very different.
Okay: The Comedy – The comedy is all over the place, the MacRondalds stuff tends to be funny since Satan is serious about his job but a lot of the humor tied to the girls who like Satan is really hit and miss.
The Ending – Satan stays to be a MacRonalds manager and is friends with the hero and the other friends he made as they stop a con man in town. It feels like a day in the life episode and was a waste as it did nothing to tie to Enta Isla or how they’d all changed. They still felt like the same characters from past changes.
The Cons: Tonal Shifts – The show wants to be a comedy and a drama but doesn’t pull it off nearly as well as “Voltron.” This largely due to having comedy in scenes that should be dramatic and vise versa. It is hard to know when to take anything seriously and that took me out of it. It is somewhat consistent in this in that the shift is happening all the time but I hate that in any kind of show.
The Villains – The villains are a corrupt Church official, Lucifer at one point who becomes a lazy computer guy and a pervy archangel who is just turned into a pervy human. I was really disappointed in the villains in this show.
The Enta Isla Plot – We get really cool glimpses of Enta Isla…from the Inquisition, to Emi’s backstory, etc. But it doesn’t amount to anything. In the end every character who crosses over just becomes part of our world and none of them go back. This was missed opportunity given Enta Isla sounded like a place that needed a lot of help.
The premise is really cool but the show really feels unfinished at the end, and some of it’s worst tendencies were on display, such as fanservicing the female characters and having everything be about Satan in regards to saving the day, when Emilia was as much a part of the story on fighting corrupt folks tied to the Church as he was. This isn’t a great anime but if you are looking for a quick escape, the season is only 13 episodes long and the characters are great even if the tone can sometimes be all over the place.
Final Score: 7 / 10
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