The Devil Is a Part-Timer!
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!
TV-14 | 04 April 2013 (USA)

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    TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
    Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
    Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
    Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
    tarletons15 The Devil is a Part-Timer review.Good fun comedy show with a little bit of story, pretty good show that you can just chill and watch.Worth a watch, and hoping for an eventual second season 7.5/10
    ThatMOVIENut From White Fox comes a 13 episode anime based on the popular light novels about when the Devil comes to our world... and works at a fast food joint. Sadao/Satan has been vanquished in a great war in his mystical homeworld of Ente Isla, and with his top general Ashiya by his side, flees to modern Tokyo, where he works part time at MgRonald's (geddit) while trying to recover his magic.Undeniable fluff, 'Part-Timer' still offers a few fun spins on fantasy anime and slice of life stories to make for pleasant viewing. The animation is often lively and colourful, as well as dynamic for the odd action scene, the voice cast are lively, and the characters themselves do share a strong camaraderie which helps carry the show over its weaker elements. They are by and large really likable youths and a lot of fun to be around, especially the dynamic between the dethroned Sadao and his arch enemy, the 'Hero' Emilia, who tries to keep up their archetypical battle and ends up coming off as more petty and savvy than her supposed 'enemy' as they slowly grow closer, whether they want to or not.From a writing standpoint, 'Part-Timer' is very much your prototypical slapstick wacky anime comedy (complete with the token fanservice friendly cutie of the group, and boy are the creators not shy of milking that...), but they are some neat little twists. Not only are the 'villain' and 'hero' in the same boat and have to adapt to their new, more mundane environment, but the way they apply their fantasy background allows for some fun gags, such as Sadao's leadership and tactics when trying to compete with a rival restaurant, or treating a mere barbecue like some grand village burning. The subversion of the usual good vs. evil is the heart of much of the comedy, as well as the drama as these characters function in society and take onboard new world views and it's handled fairly well. However, depth doesn't extend much beyond that, and there are some other issues: at just 13 episodes, it's a little short for this kind of story, leaving the world of Ente Isla and bigger questions about good and evil largely unexplored in favour of domestic hijinks and pop culture nods. Plus, the show doesn't have much in the way of a grand villain or arc, and when it does come up, it's usually resolved within two episodes and the villains are more comic than threatening, so stakes nearly feel that high. Drama is not the focus, but it does leave the show with less 'meat' than I would like.Despite those complaints, it still kept me engaged. Its comical and trope-aware mindset helped overcome its lack of innovation or daring, and it has an energy that's tough to resist. Plus, its lack of finality does leave this world open to more exploration compared to most anime, and I certainly won't be against rejoining this lot for a second round!
    bmoore07 Ente Isla, the medieval land of major- league magic and corrupt churches, is being destroyed, one village at a time, by the depraved Demon King Jacob and his almost-as-evil underlings. One fateful night, the heroine Emilia Justina and co. invades the Demon Kings' castle, annihilating the many evildoers in the way. When the good guys finally come face-to-face with the all-mighty villain himself, the Demon King retreats to modern-day Earth with his most loyal henchman, where they adopt different names (the Demon King is now Sadou Maou while the henchman becomes Shiro Ashiya and our notoriously vicious villain morphs into… a mere McDonalds (I mean, "McRonalds") employee. Welcome to The Devil is a Part-Timer, where the unexpected is expected and where expectations too high will be crushed.We find our protagonists in the city of Sasazuka, Japan, a business- oriented megalopolitan with beautiful scenery straight from a painting and a spectacularly subpar soundtrack inserted in the atmosphere. At first glance, Sadou Maou is the typical non-chalant slacker but he is also a loyal, hard-working employee at McRonalds and is generally a kind, good-natured person (Yep, Sadou's personality took a complete 180 after his Demon King days but the series feels no need to explain that. It's not like character development matters, right?). Shiro Ashiya is an even greater victim of the Sadou Effect than Sadou himself, a genuinely caring and loyal person (especially to Sadou) who serves as this series' comic relief and is pretty much useless in a fight (When does this guy ever throw a punch?). Now, you're probably thinking "Wow, The Devil is a Part- Timer doesn't sound all that great." Well, your opinion of this comedy/slice-of-life series is about to plummet even further.As our protagonists (very, very quickly) adjust to life on Earth, other characters are thrown into the already-shaky plot. First and foremost is customer support worker Emi Yusa who is also Emilia Justina (shocker, right?), a red-headed tsundere with a supremely short temper, an obsession with routinely stalking Sadou, an annoyingly self-righteous attitude ("I'm the Hero!" screams Emi in more episodes than one, and my all-time least favorite character (Eren Yeager (Attack on Titan) and Kagome (Inuyasha) are now 2nd and 3rd respectively). Then, there's Chiho, an average girl working at McRonalds who's really in love with Sadou, a rather one-dimensional character that garnered attention from other characters due in part to her massive jugs. "A female supporting character needs to be an object of fan-service (as well as a boob job) in order to be noticed", the series seems to say. Later in the series, other characters just appear out-of-the-blue, like slacker computer whiz Hanzo (a former General under the Demon King who everyone in Sadou's group treats like dirt), stereotypical quiet girl Suzuno (her dubbed voice is painful to hear), and Emi's friend Emeralda Etuva (her purpose in the series is…I don't know). With the cast of The Devil is a Part-Timer (who embody one anime cliché after another), the show tries way too hard to be funny. Sometimes it works (like in episode 9, where Ashiya explains the series' synopsis with a metaphor to one of Emi's very few friends) and sometimes it doesn't.When The Devil is a Part-Timer is tired of being a comedy (Comedies are supposed to be CONSISTENTLY funny) and is plain bored of calling itself a rom-com (I'll get to that later), it nosedives into probably the most over-used genre in all of anime: action. The fight scenes are easily the most beautifully animated sequences in the series but that's the only compliment I can give to it. The action in this series doesn't occur often and, when it does, it's mostly balls of energy from hands, Superman-esque eye beams, and aerial attacks that take place. Needless to say, action isn't really this anime's forte but the third-to-last episode and second-to-last episode were all about action. At this point, The Devil is a Part- Timer, which was once a light-hearted comedy with few serious moments, transformed into a dark drama with tragic pasts and screaming matches. During this massive mood shift, Chiho exclaims "Where is all this coming from?!", a question for which I have no answer. In the last of the two aforementioned episodes, a villain who was inserted into the series in episode 9 declares, "Satan's current power level makes you able to defeat him. If you didn't know this anime is trying to be a generic Dragon Ball Z replica, now you do. At one point in this stretch, Emi absorbs a severe blow from the aforementioned villain and crashes into a pile of boxes. This is one of those scenes where it's implied that you're supposed to sympathize with the character's pain but I felt nothing while watching this moment, mostly because there was nothing to Emi, to any of the show's characters, which told me I should care.The last episode was a stand-alone story about dreams, scams, and a villain in love. It didn't meet the overarching goals of the series (for Sadou to choose Chiho, Suzuno, or Emi as his lover and, more importantly, for Sadou to return to Ente Isla and reign once more as Demon King), and was ultimately a half-baked conclusion to a mediocre series. No review of The Devil is a Part-Timer would be complete, however, without mentioning the opening, a forgettable theme song worthy of the skip button with head-scratching sequences. One sequence, for example, has Chiho appear with a traditional miko dress and a bow (When does this happen in the series?) before she softly lands an arrow in the middle of the target as hearts, stars, and sparkles surround the arrow. Even the theme song sucks. If I could summarize my opinion of The Devil is a Part-Timer in one sentence, it would be this: Thank God it's only 13 episodes.
    EndlessBob I absolutely loved this show. From the start it seemed to be an interesting twist on a common theme: a slice-of-life show, but not about high school-age kids, and with the twist that all the characters are supernatural beings from another reality. The only exception to this was Chiho, a 16-year-old high school girl and fellow part timer of Maou-sama's (whose Japanese name is Sadao) at "MgRonalds." Blessedly the anime only visited there once, and at night, in search of a place where Maou might gain some magic.For once, the protagonist is not a hapless, nervous, inexperienced adolescent, but a 300-year-old being that had been on the verge of conquering an entire world. What a pleasure to have a lead that isn't constantly blushing, falling down, and apologizing, but instead is confident but not arrogant, and quickly grasps the situation whatever it might be.His antagonist is The Hero, Emilia Justina, whose village and quiet family life were wiped out by Sadao's demon armies, and who is sworn to destroy him. However, in Japan, she is puzzled as to why a being intent on conquering his world by iron and fire would suddenly become considerate and helpful in our world, and rapidly advance in the ranks of fast-food employees.I don't know why either, but it's a wonderful thematic ju-jitsu, leaving everyone from the "good" side of Ente Isla (their homeland) striving to defeat Sadao, while on his part he seems to be far more interested in being a success in his job at MgRonald's. It's never explained, and it never may be explained, but it's a great source of humor.I haven't yet listened to the Japanese dub yet, but the English dub is great. Nice to see such voice talent without any of the usual suspects in sight, and the "topical" humor is still old enough that everyone has heard it. In one episode a character remarks that the Internet was like "a series of magical tubes,", and in another one of Sadao's generals overhears The Hero and another character badmouthing Sadao in the "Sentucky Fried Chicken" restaurant, and interrupts them with "I WOULD NOT SAY SUCH THINGS IF I WERE YOU!!!" -- straight from "The Princess Bride." I almost fell off the couch.I just bought my copy in HD video from Amazon. Perhaps a second season will be made. I haven't read the manga yet, so I don't know where the anime ended up, but I'll follow up with that ASAP. This show is a truly original modification of a classic type of anime.
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