The Devil is a Part-Timer! is a hard show to classify. It is not an “action” show, since there aren’t enough action sequences to make it qualify as such. It is not a drama, since there are too many comedic sequences, but it’s not a pure comedy either, as the dark backstory of the main characters and the ramifications of their actions weigh down too much.
So what is The Devil is a Part-Timer!, exactly?
Somehow, despite the mish-mash of genres, moods, and characters, The Devil is a Part-Timer! succeeds in its primary goal: to entertain. Every aspect of the show is blended perfectly together like a top-grade smoothie, allowing us to experience the show without the stunning mood whiplash of a show like Bleach where a dead-serious battle is unnaturally interrupted by comedic sequence that kills the mood. However, The Devil is a Part-Timer! doesn’t go into an outright farce either, which would dull the serious moments of the show when they do happen.
You would not be blamed if the first several minutes of this show fool you into thinking it’s something else. In a high-budget, rip-roaring action sequence, the titular character, called the Devil or Demon Lord (whose real name is literally “Satan”) is cornered by the heroic Emelia (who is incessantly referred to, intentionally, as “The Hero” or “The Heroine” depending if you watch dub or sub) in his castle. In desperation and on the verge of defeat, and the Devil and his last known surviving adviser, Alciel, open up a portal to another world to escape Emelia’s justice. There, Satan and Alciel discover that not only have they been reduced to looking like young men in their late-teens/early-twenties, but their magic is almost completely gone, and with it is any sense of this being a dead-serious fantasy. It turns out this is a fish-out-of-water tale, but the traditional “ordinary person warped to fantasy world” story has been completely inverted, leaving our pair stuck in the middle of Tokyo, Japan, in the midst of an epic culture shock.
Hilariously, the Demon Lord Satan and Alciel are forced to learn the local human language, take on human names (“Sadou Maou” and “Shiro Ashiya,” respectively), and in Satan/Maou’s case become a part-time worker at the local MgRonald’s (the allegory should be obvious). This is never done in a cruel or mean-spirited manner. There is a simple, gentle humor in finding a man calling his bike “my trusty steed Dullahan,” or that Emelia (“Emi Yusa”) becomes a call-service representative once she arrives in our world. There is something deeper and more subtle about a former emperor gloriously celebrating a pay raise or a promotion in his quest to conquer the world, or a knowledgeable adviser struggling to decipher the Internet. Perhaps one of the best jokes is an offhand remark about being sent to Greenland, only for it to pay off in glorious fashion several episodes later. Little moments like scheming to use coupons to get better savings or figuring out how to wash underwear in a washing machine all prove to be surprisingly relatable, but are also played for original and surprisingly funny comedy as Satan/Maou actually kind of means his boasts.
The character dynamics only help to keep the show and its premise fresh. The way Emelia/Emi is definitely more antagonistic while Satan/Maou proves to be more benevolent is a bit of a joke on its own. Enough background is given to show why Emelia wouldn’t exactly want to help Satan/Maou out in his current predicament, but it is also established why Emelia/Emi doesn’t just end the show (and our amusement) by simply taking out Satan/Maou and Alciel/Shiro once and for all. In fact, it’s done in a surprisingly believable way, and (as the show even lampshades) the relationship between Emelia/Emi and Satan/Maou plays out like jilted ex-lovers, with each conspiring to make the other’s life miserable, but occasionally teaming up to deal with someone worse than either of them. This happens more than once over the course of the series. Despite the potential for either outright odiousness or dreary emotion, the show manages to keep its entertaining, balanced tone, never going too far in one direction as to make the sudden emergence of a powerful action scene or a random bit of silliness seem out of place. The tone can go upbeat or down-tempo but it never loses its sense of a consistent, tongue-in-cheek approach. When Emelia/Emi dodges an attack only for it to hit Satan/Maou in the face, or when a character dramatically crushes “trusty steed Dullahan” and Satan/Maou’s only response is to whine about it, it’s funny enough to laugh but not so out of place to take you out of the mood. The way the anime pulls this off is quite ingenious, and much of the credit has to be given to director Naoto Hosoda (who actually provided most of the key art for the ending sequence personally), and writers Masahiro Yokotani, Kento Shimoyama, and Touko Machida. They have managed to provide a perfect balance of everything necessary to make a great dramedy.
Rounding out the supporting cast are the cute Chiho Sasaki who serves to be the audience surrogate in the center of it all, and two other citizens of Enta Isla who manage to make the trip into our realm for vastly different reasons. They help to add different contrasting personalities and conflicts into the ensemble, and also help to keep Alciel/Shiro firmly planted in the role of the hapless henchman to Satan/Maou. This is honestly for the best, considering that the act hasn’t gotten old by series’ close.
The Devil is a Part-Timer! is neatly divided into two story arcs. Episodes 1-5 form the first one, with episode 6 dealing with cleaning up after the arc. Episodes 7-12 constitute the second one, with episode 13 cleaning up all of the loose ends. Both arcs are quite well done, providing a solid mix of comedy, drama, and action while managing to preserve the strong production values. The show’s budget is utilized incredibly well, as there’s never a moment where things look truly off-model and the usual tricks to disguise a lack of animation are far more subtle than one would expect from a show like this. When things kick into high gear and we have fighting, production studio White Fox’s animation proves to be on a A-grade level, with fluid, fast-paced fighting that never ceases to provide exciting, memorable visuals. The characters are memorably drawn whether they are male or female, with great variety in the designs. You can believe Emelia/Emi is strong enough to back the Devil into a corner, and when Satan/Maou gets enough magic to transform into his true state you can also believe this man nearly conquered a world. Surprisingly Chiho, the fanservice central character due to her ample chest, is not exploited for fanservice outside of a (not entirely unexpected) swimsuit episode in an aquatic park. In general, this is not a fanservice-laden production; nearly all of it is reserved for the ending sequence. All of the characters get an opportunity to show a wide variety of facial expressions, but Emelia/Emi probably has the widest and most entertaining mood swings across the series.
The background music is by Ryosuke Nakanishi. It seems to lean heavily on orchestral samples and rock numbers, and they support the music quite well in either comedic or serious sequences. In fact, some of the darkest-sounding soundtracks are used to great effect in some of the most hilarious sequences in the show. It is hard to find an anime, or any show in general, that consistently uses musical dissonance so well. I think the last production on either side of the Pacific to pull this off so naturally was Tropic Thunder.
Both soundtracks had an unusual challenge. The made-up language on Enta Isla is used extensively in the first episode and pops up intermittently throughout the remainder. Both dubs had their own way of creating the language by reversing and altering consonant sounds, but while the Japanese use English as the base, the English dub is more influenced by Slavic languages. In fact, one of the dub commentaries has director Christopher Bevins mentioning how he instructed the actors to perform the language in a vaguely Russian accent. The end result is that the English dub manages to make the alternate language sound quite natural while the Japanese dub generally sounds pretty stiff.
Both dubs prove to be massively fun in their native languages. Some roles prove getting used to in the English dub (particularly Alex Moore’s dry, formal take on Suzuno, but it winds up fitting quite well), but the English dub captures the mood of the show beautifully, especially Anthony Bowling’s pitch-perfect rendition of Alciel/Shiroa as a put-upon adviser relentlessly dragged down to Earth. Script writer Jamie Marchi has the Enta Isla characters pick up Earth slang too quickly and perfectly in my opinion, but it never becomes too distracting and the intent of the scenes is never lost. Credit must be given to her for making the Enta Isla language so convincing. In the end, the preference between dub and sub is entirely your preference, as both are really good, but the dub has a more consistent feel in my opinion.
The most interesting extra is devoted to Jamie Marchi and her manufacture of the Ente Isla language used in the English dub. In addition we get clean opening and closing sequences, as well as dub commentary for episodes 1 and 12. The Blu-ray/DVD set comes in a rather nice-looking artbox.
Overall, The Devil is a Part-Timer! is thirteen episodes of great entertainment, and anyone who is looking for something offbeat, quirky, and just plain fun will find this show having everything they could be looking for.
