The Devil is a Part-Timer Review: Satanically Delicious!

In a distant land known as Este Isla, the king of demons, Satan, has begun his conquest of humanity with the aid of his four demonic generals. However, humanity eventually pushes back and defeats Satan's demonic armies thanks to the hero Emilia and her allies. Having been defeated and vowing to return one day, Satan and one of his generals open a portal and retreat to another world...

...The world they retreat to, however, happens to be modern day Japan and the transition zaps them of most of their magic and demonic forms. Now appearing as normal humans, Satan and his closest general must conquer this new world they've found themselves in. And the first step to conquering it: working up the ladder until Satan is a full-time employee at the local MgRonalds!

The Devil is a Part-Timer

Studio: White Fox

Director: Naoto Hosoda

Original work by: Satoshi Wagahara

Licensed by: FUNimation

Number of episodes: 13

Genre: Comedy, Action, Romance, Fantasy

Story:

The story mainly follows The Demon King, The Hero and other fantasy character types as they adjust to the new world they've found themselves in. If you haven't guessed by now, The Devil is a Part-Timer is not exactly the most serious story out there. After the initial more serious couple of minutes, the series heavily shifts towards its comedic elements more than its other elements. And, to be quite frank, it's funny as hell.

The plot only ever really adds action and drama scenes in order to introduce new characters and then usually resolves these scenes with humor. One aspect I really like about The Devil is a Part-Timer is how well it mixes in high fantasy themes in with mundane everyday themes of part-time work. One moment it'll go from heavy world building of Este Isla, and then the next we see Mao dealing with customers at MgRonalds. It just charms the hell out of me.

Ultimately, there really isn't much to talk about story-wise for The Devil is a Part-Timer. The plot is simple and really not complex or something that will make you think. It is, however, fun and just plain hilarious.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem is The Devil is a Part-Timer is in desperate need of a second season. It doesn't leave off at a cliffhanger or anything, but the ending just feels abrupt. Sadly, it will undoubtedly go on the list of great series that probably won't get an additional season.  Then again, I'm basically saying I want more, so I'm not sure this is a negative.

Characters:

Much like in Maoyu, none of the characters turn out to be their traditional fantasy archetypes.

Sadao Mao (Satan) is not exactly your typical evil demon overlord that he's been made out to be. He's actually a rather nice guy who's caring for his subordinates (i.e. his fellow MgRonalds employees) and will often go out of his way to use his power to fix the damage done by other characters and to help people. His actions are almost a complete opposite of his old form on Este Isla, which while insinuating a few things about Esta Isla and the church, are never really properly explained.

Emi Yusa (the hero, Emilia) is not quite the tactful hero she appears to be. She'll often be just a bit crude and somewhat of a tsundere at times. What makes her interesting, however, is her interactions with Mao. Even though she feels hatred towards Satan because his armies destroyed her old village and killed her father, she finds herself unable to kill Mao as he acts nothing like what his archetype as a villain should. While she never outright likes him, she does grow slightly friendlier towards him (kind of anyways...)

Chiho is a high school girl who works part-time with Mao at their local MgRonalds. She quickly falls for him and is the main love interest for pretty much all of the series. The most notable feature of hers is, uh...

I suddenly have a craving for hamburgers...

While she isn't exactly the most interesting of characters, I will admit, out of all the character facial expresions in the series, I loved her's the most.

Shiro Ashiya (demon general, Alciel) is Mao's closest general and roommate. He tends to act more like a housewife then a powerful general, however, and is often more frugal than Mao and the other characters.

Hanzō Urushihara (demon general, Lucifer) is the fallen angel Lucifer and at the beginning is more of an antagonist to the other characters. After being defeated he becomes a roommate to Mao and Shiro and more or less becomes the otaku/NEET of the group.

Suzuno Kamazuki (grand inquisitor, Crestia Bell) is the former grand inquisitor of the church of Este Isla. Unfortunately, most of her knowledge of Japan is a bit outdated, so her wardrobe consists mostly of kimonos and her mannerisms tend to be a bit more formal. She operates under the church, but her opinions tend to differ from official dogma even when she obeys their wishes.

Other characters include Emi's nosey work friend, Rika, the rogue archbishop, Olba, and of course, Mitsuki Sarue who is the manager of the local Sentucky Fried Chicken and is more or less a much pervier version of James from Team Rocket.

"Make it double!" just got a little creepier.

While none of the characters are the best written out there, they all bounced of each other really well. Each character had something about them that made them fun and all of them managed to get a laugh out of me.

Animation:

While they don't reach quite Bones or Madhouse levels of animation quality, Studio White Fox tends to deliver some fantastic visuals. The Devil is a Part-Timer is no exception as its animation is vibrant and fluid. Character designs matched each of the character's personalities. The few action scenes in the series were pretty fluid and well done and mix out well with the humor of the series. The visuals of the first episode in particular are extremely well done with wonderfully dark shading and palette and some rather intense action scenes.

The animation also adds to the humor as many of the gags tend to be more visual than dialogue. The comedic timing on many of the jokes is also well done.

What I loved most from the animation, however, is the character facial expressions.

The facial expressions of the characters are often extremely exaggerated and all over the place but always fun. Art-wise, the facial expression feel very similar to Jormungand's, which considering that was the series that White Fox worked on right before The Devil is a Part-Timer, makes sense.

While I did notice a few quality drops here and there, they were infrequent and none of them really took away my enjoyment from watching the series.

Sound:

Much like Spice and Wolf and Maoyu, The Devil is a Part-Timer's soundtrack has a much more 'simple instrument' sound to it. Unlike the other two, however, The Devil is a Part-Timer's soundtrack has a more exotic feel. While I'm not quite as familiar with Ryosuke Nakanishi's other works (as many of the series he's composed for aren't the kinds of shows I like to watch), his score for The Devil is a Part-Timer is fantastic. The soundtrack does a wonderful job of mixing high fantasy-esque tracks with more Middle-Eastern sounding mixes which gives it a wonderfully unique sound. The addition of the few guitar heavy tracks for action scenes and slightly J-Popy sounding tracks for lighter moments don't really take away from the quality of the soundtrack though they do feel somewhat out of place

Visually, the opening and closing are both wonderfully done. Unfortunately, the songs for both are pretty forgettable and don't make either worth not skipping.

Opening

Closing

Language-wise the dub is quite solid though not exceptional. Josh Grelle as Mao, Tia Ballard as Chiho, Anthony Bowling as Alciel and Aaron Dismuke as Lucifer all pulled off their roles extremely well. I felt that Felecia Angelle didn't quite pull off Emi as well as Yōko Hikasa did, but her performance was still quite enjoyable. Out of all of the roles, however, I found Alex Moore's performance as Suzuno especially surprising since it's one of her first anime roles, and she plays the character surprisingly well.

Personal Enjoyment:

While it's my favorite comedy, The Devil is a Part-Timer is high up there among my favorites. The story and characters aren't exceptional but they're fun. Visually, The Devil is a Part-Timer is very pleasant. While the OST isn't exactly in my top five either, it is still enjoyable to listen to. Ultimately, The Devil is a Part-Timer was a fun little series, and I'll be saddened if it never gets a continuation.

Final Verdict:

After assigning scores to:

Story: 3.75

Characters: 4.00

Animation: 4.75

Sound: 4.50

And my own personal enjoyment: 4.25

I have given The Devil is a Part-Timer an assigned score of:

4.25

Recommendation:

The Devil is a Part-Timer gets a full buy recommendation. The Devil is a Part-Timer can be streamed from FUNimation's site and Hulu and can be purchased off of Amazon, FUNimation's Store, Rightstuf and where ever you can purchase anime DVDs and Blu-rays.

Alternative anime to check out:

Wagnaria!! (Working!!)

In the same vein of absurd characters and normal jobs at a restaurant,Wagnaria!! is, well, about absurd characters doing normal jobs at a diner. And I do mean absurd characters ranging from the main character/waiter Sota who likes cute things and children just a little too much, the overly small and adorable waitress, Popura, the overly androphobic waitress, Mahiru who instantly punches dudes on sight, the former juvenile delinquent manager, Kyoko who pretty much does nothing except eat and the slightly airheaded chief of staff, Yachiyo who always carries around a katana for some unexplained reason and who has somewhat of a crush on Kyoko, just to name a few.

The series is fun, humorous and sometimes heartwarming. I'd also recommend checking out its spiritual successor, ServentxService, which is more or less the same concept but with civil servants.

Is This a Zombie?/Is This a Zombie? Of The Dead

The words "ecchi" and "good" are usually used together either ironically or with the word "not" between them. Is This a Zombie?, however, is the exception to this rule. It actually tends to be more of a parody of the genre by either making fun of the usual fanservice troupes from the genre or outright subverting them at times. This series is easily one of my favorite comedies and I don't think there is any other series that can go from mute necromancers to vampire ninjas to a magical girl who's main theme is "drunkenness".

I will say the first season kind of lacked some focus and couldn't really decide between being comedic, fanservice-y or serious, but the second season puts infinitely more focus on the comedic elements and is just perfectly done.

I'd say don't look anything up about it and just go into it knowing as little as possible so you don't spoil the surprise at the end of the first episode. Just know that it is still ecchi, so it does have a lot of fanservice and lewd stuff in it.

Toradora Review: Tigers and Dragons Playing Matchmaker

Have you ever had a moment like this: You just got enough courage to put a love letter in your crush's bag, and then some mongrel picks up said bag and begins telling you that bag belongs to him and the bag beside it belongs to your crush who happens to be his friend's. It would be pretty embarrassing if some random stranger started reading your love letter, so naturally the only course of action you'd have left would be to break into that guy's house, get you letter back and give him a big enough concussion that he'll never be able to tell anyone what was in the letter...

...Of course, then he tells you the envelope that contained the letter was, in fact, empty. Naturally the embarrassment you'd feel would undoubtedly be worse than if he had actually read the letter (At least then you could have bashed the mutt's brains in). Then he comforts you by showing you all the embarrassing stuff about his own crush (who happens to be your friend). Having come to an agreement not to bash the mongrel over the head with a wooden sword, you both decide to help each other out with your respective crushes. Comedy, romance and oddly poorly done drama ensues!

Toradora

Studio: J.C. Staff

Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai

Original work by: Yuyuko Takemiya

Licensed by: NIS America

Number of episodes: 26 (25 + the OVA)

Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama

Story:

Toradora's story is pretty much cut and dry high school romantic comedy. While the main characters are trying to hook each other up with each other's friends, it's clear right from the start that Taiga and Ryuji themselves will end up with each other. Pretty much everything else is the standard stuff you'd normally find in a high school centric series.

While the story itself is not exactly the most mind blowing thing ever written, the comedy elements of the series are extremely enjoyable.

Sometimes the humor can be a bit crude but ultimately it was always the most thoroughly enjoyably aspect of the series. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the other parts of the series.

The series' attempts at drama are rather half-assed. That is to say, whenever the plot tries to introduce some kind of interesting character development moment, the conflict is quickly resolved before any actual development occurs. That's not to say the characters don't get pretty good development in the series as, well, they do. It's just that it feels like they could be so much more interesting than they are. Because of these moments, a lot of the actual development the characters get feels a bit choppy at times.

Another thing about the drama is it makes itself feel hollow. The series quickly makes it clear that every time the story brings drama into the mix, it will wrap it up a little bit later in the episode. This quickly began shading my opinion more negatively towards the series at times which really did not help the story out especially later in the series when the drama and romance elements became heavier.

Speaking of romance...

The romance elements of the series really don't fare much better than the drama elements. While it's clear right from the start that Ryuji and Taiga would eventually end up together, there's really no romantic build up between them. Throughout the series both of them build more of friend relationship rather than a romantic one. They spend so much time helping each other out with their own love interests that they begin to fit more as friends with each other than potential lovers. While the series does occasionally has scenes that move them more towards a romantic relationship, they're so dispersed, infrequent and quickly sidetracked for comedic elements that they end up being rather null for romantic build up.

Ultimately, the series' biggest problem is that even though the series clearly projects that the main two characters would end up together, when it finally got to the point where they'd hook up together, I found myself not wanting them to be in a relationship and just remain friends.

Characters:

As I mentioned above, the characters do get some pretty good development even with all the missed opportunities for more.

Ryuji Takasu is the main character of the series. Much like Kodaka fromHaganai, he is quickly assumed to be a delinquent because of his appearance despite his gentler personality.

This is the face of a murderer... Of germs and uncleanliness!

As far as protagonists go, Ryuji was actually quite enjoyable. Most of the humor around him tends to focuses on the dissonance between his more delinquent appearance with his housewife-ish traits. Personality-wise, he's quite pleasant. He's a nice character but doesn't have the dumb as bricks intelligence that tends to bother me about most harem protagonists. He's a pretty hardcore neat freak to the point where he gets most of his joy from cleaning

Much of the series he's primarily in love with Minori, though unlike Taiga around Yusaku, he can actually act sane around her.

        Taiga Aisaka is... Well, she's a Tsundere. In fact she might be the most Tsun, Tsundere that ever did dere. More or less she follows the same pattern as most tsundere characters. Tending to resort to more violent measures to hide her feelings at the beginning and gradually gravitating more towards her dere side then her tsun one as the series progresses.

Most of the humor around her tends to focus on her smallness, violentness and tendency to demean Ryuji, such as calling him a mutt. Personality-wise she is... Well, she is basically the epitome of tsundere.

Throughout most of the series, she's primarily in love with Yusaku, but, unlike Ryuji with Minori, she tends to act a bit more flushed around him.

Minori Kushieda is kind of the opposite of Taiga. While Taiga is more violent and grumpy, Minori is almost constantly upbeat and cheerful. She's athletic and a workaholic with an eccentric number of part-time jobs. Though she comes off as an airhead, she tends to actually be quite perceptive of things and smart. She's Taiga's best friend and she tends to be just a little too selfless at times.

Yusaku Kitamura is kind of a smart idiot. He's vice-president of the student council, wears glasses and is best friends with Ryuji and childhood friends with Ami.

He also does bachelorette parties.

...And he wears a shirt about as much as Takamatsu from Angel Beats or Aikuro from Kill la Kill.

On the outside, Ami Kawashima seems like a nice, pleasant and mature girl. On the inside, the only way to really describe her is with "Cold, heartless bitch". She tends to hide her true personality from people though the other four all know what she's really like. She works as a model and does not get along with Taiga and Minori for much of the series

Outside of the main characters you also have the various classmates of the main characters.

            

The most depressed teacher I've ever seen in an anime, Yuri Koigakubo

Ryuji's somewhat childish mother, Yasuko Takasu.

And, of course, Ryuji's pet mentally retarded parakeet, Inko

As I've said above, while the characterization isn't bad, it feels like it could have been so much more than it was. All of characters were pretty enjoyable in their own right, but Ami really felt the weakest of them all. She didn't seem to have much purpose throughout the story, and her development felt rather rougher than the others.

Animation:

If there is one thing J.C. Staff is good at, it's making cute yet fun art-styles that are also pretty consistent. Toradora is no exception to this. The animation itself is pretty fluid with very few drops in quality and a relatively vibrant pallet for the series.

The only time I really saw a drop in quality had to do with the one action scene in the series. While the animation in the scene was pretty fluid, the consistency of the visuals took a nosedive compared to the rest of the series. Other than that, the animation was pretty solid.

Sound:

The soundtrack for Toradora is quite interesting. While I probably wouldn't put it up with my favorites, it was still memorable and easily associate-able asToradora's. Just the mixing of more electronic beats and sounds with a dose of more solid instruments like pianos and horns really gives it an interesting vibe.

The first opening does an excellent job of capturing the vibe of the music and visually capturing each of the character's personalities while also being just plain fun. Unfortunately, neither of the closings really came off as memorable to me, and I'd usually only listen to the "my silky love" Engrish lines of the second opening before skipping the rest of it.

Openings

Opening 1:

Opening 2:

Closings

Closing 1:

Closing 2:

Language-wise, both the Japanese and English dubbings are surprisingly equal in quality. Erik Scott Kimerer (Ryuji), Cassandra Lee (Taiga), Christine Marie Cabanos (Minori), Johnny Yong Bosch (Yusaku) and Erika Harlacher (Ami) all pull off their roles perfectly and are very much in sync with the original Japanese voice actors. To be frank, NIS America did an incredible job of the casting of the dub.

Personal Enjoyment:

While I certainly found the comedy elements of the series enjoyable, the poorly done drama and romantic scenes really zapped the enjoyment out of the series. The last couple of episodes especially felt like a slog, though the OVA did lighten my mood significantly. The first opening really was fun to watch and listen to but the second just lacked the fun-ness of the first. The fact that both dubs are equally solid is definitely a plus for it, however.
            Ultimately I did enjoy the series well enough, but I feel it could have been so much better than it was.

Final Verdict:

After assigning scores to:

Story: 2.75

Characters: 3.75

Animation: 4.25

Sound: 4.50

And my own personal enjoyment: 3.75

I have given Toradora an assigned score of:

3.80/5.00

Recommendation:

Erg, this one's going to be a bit hard. I'd say streaming Toradora as my recommendation. I certainly don't regret buying it myself (Which is good considering I payed for the very not cheap Premium Edition with the hardcover artbook...) It's definitely not perfect. Toradora can be streamed fromCrunchyroll and Hulu and can be purchased off of NIS America's site and wherever else you can find it.

Alternative anime to check out:

Okami-san and Her Seven Companions

Another J.C. Staff series that, like Toradora, mixes comedic elements with drama and romance elements (though with significantly more focus on the comedic elements than the other two). Every character is inspired by both western and Japanese fairytales. The main three characters being inspired by Little Red Riding Hood, with the main female lead (Okami-san herself) being the Big Bad Wolf, the main male lead and love interest being The Hunter and Okami-san's friend being Little Red. Other characters range from the Tortoise and the Hare, Urashima Tarō, and even a character that's kind of a mix of Morgan le Fay from King Arthur and the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella.

One of the things I especially liked about this series is that while for the most part it is light-hearted, it also deals with some very dark subject matter and does so exceptionally well.

Haganai (I Don't Have Many Friends)

Haganai is, well, it's a harem about making friends. It's pretty damn crude. Characters tend to be pretty damn dumb, (i.e. they make a club for the purpose of learning to make friends and never realize that by doing so they've made friends with each other.) The main two female leads can be very, very unpleasant to each other. That being said, the series has a lot of wonderful little heartwarming moments here and there and can be pretty funny damn at times.