"Devil is a Part-Timer!" Review

It's just as weird as it sounds, folks. 

Feels kinda weird doing a comedy-anime review. I think the funniest show I've reviewed is Fairy Tail, and that's a little light on the humor. Wait, no, I've reviewed Black Lagoon, we're all good. Still, this is labelled a comedy. 

Everything about this show is set up to be a comedy, too. I'll get into it more as we proceed, but, I think the show even mocks the fact that some characters want to take the situation seriously, and by the end our characters do indeed realize what is going on. 

Devil is a Part-Timer! is a 2013 anime series based off of a light novel of the same name, licensed by Funimation for the English Dub (yay, Funimation!). It's a short 13-episode series that is also on Netflix, imagine that. 

Our story focuses around Satan and his primary general Alciel as they are forced to flee the magical world of Ente Isla by the great hero Amelia, and when they find themselves on Earth without their magic...and without their money. Thus, Satan dons the name Sadao Mao and Alciel becomes Ashiya and our story begins! It focuses around Sadao's working at MgRonalds (not even kidding) as well as Emilia's working at a phone company. As he works, Sadao befriends a young high school girl named Chiho as well as the landlady. 

Some other characters come into play, such as Lucifer aka Urushihara, and Crestia Bell aka Suzuno, both of which are socially awkward former beings of Ente Isla and find themselves acquaintances with Sadao. 

And...that's really about it. There are a few things in terms of story that creep up, such as the arrival of Lucifer as well as the rising competition against Sentucky Fried Chicken (again...seriously) that pays off on a strange way, but, there isn't anything in terms of story. 

Normally, that raises a ton of red flags. But, luckily, the characters on the show are so great that I was perfectly fine just watching them do their thing at a MgRonalds. Sure, there are some serial elements to it all, such as Sadao rising up the ranks and Chiho's pretty rapid--and charmingly hopeless--romance with Sadao, but that's about it. 

It's hard for me to pick a favorite character from the show. I really did like Lucifer, who was pretty entertaining in how chill he is and how he just goes online shopping all the time. Literally all he does is sit around in their tiny apartment (which is kindly referred to by everyone as "the Devil's new castle" and play on the computer, but the way he interacts with everyone and how down to Earth he is makes for great comedic bits. Similarly, Suzuno was socially awkward in how she studied up on Japanese culture from many centuries ago, thus her mannerisms and dressings in the current world are very outlandish but still pretty funny. 

It's a rather small cast of main characters, which the show uses it to its advantage, allowing us to get to know all of these characters very quickly. We see instantly that Sadao has little intention of returning to Ente Isla and is going to passionately pursue his job at MgRonalds, as well as how innocent and fun Chiho is. Emilia is the one who truly develops as a character, since she has to go from desperately desiring to kill Sadao to simply dealing with his presence. I'm also glad that they didn't force a romance between them. It would have been cliche and very forced. Chiho pursuing Sadao was funny already, throwing Emilia in would have messed it up. But mistaking her for falling for Sadao does make for both growth and great comedy. 

The lack of a plot allows for the episodes to really hone in on every character and I'm sort of glad that there wasn't much in terms of a story. When there were story elements, I was kind of bored. Both the villains that appear just felt so dry. One wanted to replace Satan while the other...um, well, I'm not really sure. But it wasn't as fun as watching Sadao try to get customers into the MgRonalds or seeing Emilia seeking what next evil scheme Sadao could possibly be trying when really he's just trying to pay the rent. Or how their landlord's picture of her in a bikini threw the three boys into near death, that was pretty great and was practically the backbone of a whole episode seemingly unintentionally. 

I hope you've caught on that this show is super, super funny. You'll be laughing every episode. A few jokes fall flat, sure, but that happens. Like I mentioned earlier, it can often feel like a parody of the big, "epic" battles that are meant to take place when demons arrive on Earth. In fact, in the final battle, the great big speech was impossible to take serious, but in that, the series stuck to its guns. How in the world would anyone believe that the nicest worker at a local MgRonalds was once the ruler of all darkness? He doesn't even act like it! 

I think that's the point of the show and it really works here. Having Sadao morph into the best employee ever and follow all the rules works very well and doesn't at all break his character. He's a soldier, and he will follow orders to the death. He rallies his troops constantly and is always able to keep morale up, somehow. It's often very over-the-top, but in a series titled "Devil is a Part-Timer!" what are you really expecting? 

The few serious moments that do exist I found myself slightly rolling my eyes at, as if the show were really trying this out. They did make for a few good battles, sure, but nothing that we really needed. The first big battle was the better of the two in who was involved and what the scale of it was in terms of the battlefield, but the second one was just kinda boring and I was hoping it would wrap up quick. I wanted more interaction with the characters. 

It speaks volumes about these characters, thus, that I would be only a little entertained during the fights and want to see more of Chiho, Emilia, and Sadao talking and just riffing off of each other. They all flowed so well together and it was very enjoyable to watch. It made for a relaxing experience. So many anime require such commitment that it makes it difficult to just stay calm. Series such as this and Assassination Classroom (a hilarious new show that I highly recommend) make it simple for me to just sit back and enjoy a bit of comedy in the afternoon/ evening/ whenever I feel like watching it. 

As far as the animation goes, I mean, it was pretty good. Nothing over the top really, like nothing I'm going to remember forever. It was the norm for 2013, which was a pretty stunning year for anime. The music was okay, too. I liked the opening theme (it reminded me of the opening for Kaze No Stigma) and the closing was okay, adding (again) to the relaxed feel I had with the show. 

Overall, I had a surprisingly great time with Devil is a Part-Timer! It wasn't a show I expected to enjoy, just by the title, and thought it would be extremely weird and I've been just skipping it over it constantly for a while now. Suffice to say I've learned my lesson, and have lived to regret not watching it sooner. There isn't a Season 2, which saddens me, but I'm still very pleased with what I got. It's also a show for anyone, so if you're looking for a simple time to just kick back and enjoy a series, this is definitely one I'd say you should check out! 

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