Hataraku Maou-sama! Review

Welcome back to Day 5 of Anniversary Review Week!! We are now over halfway through this week and today also happens to be the Ka-chan Anime Reviews’ 2nd Anniversary!! Yay!! That talk is for a different post so I do not want to go into that now. Let us get on to the real reason we are here today, the Review of course. I am super excited about today’s review because it is for a comedy anime that I just absolutely loved.

Here is my 33rd Anime Review as well as Day 5 of Anniversary Review Week, one of my all time favorite comedy anime: Hataraku Maou-sama!

Hataraku Maou-sama!, or The Devil is a Part-Timer!, is a 13 episode anime that aired from April 2013 to June 2013 as a part of the Spring 2013 Anime Season. It is based off of a light novel by the same name written by Satoshi Wagahara which was first released in February 2011 and has so far released 16 volumes. A manga version written by Akio Hiragi and began serialization in February 2012 and has released a total of 9 volumes so far.

Hataraku Maou-sama tells the story of the Demon Lord Satan who was working to conquer the land of Ente Isla with his demon army. His quest is interrupted when the Hero Emilia appears and forces him to retreat through a dimensional portal to the human world. His trusted general Alsiel goes with him and the two end up in modern Tokyo. Satan vows to return his quest as soon as he is able to find a way to return to Ente Isla. Problems start to arise when Satan and Alsiel realize that they are powerless in this new world and are forced to find work. Satan takes on the name Sadao Maou and gets hired at a local fast food chain, MgRonalds. It is then that he discovers that conquering his old world is no longer enough, and he vows to climb up the corporate ladder to eventually take over earth. Just as he begins to settle in, the Hero Emilia returns but not in the way that Maou has expected.

The premise may sound kind of dumb, Satan working at an off-brand McDonald’s sounds pretty ridiculous, but it is exactly that fact which makes the show even funnier than it was. You take a main character who may have played villain if it were a different show, and make him this helpless human person just trying to survive. It is a comedy anime after all so I think giving us a really wacky premise like this is a good choice.

The characters of this show is really what carries it for me. Even though Maou was kind of the bad guy at first, as you watch him struggle with being the best employee and just trying to make money really humanizes him. He is struggling through life a little bit and I found that to be pretty relatable actually. It also helps that he really bounces off the other characters nicely and their interactions are hilarious while also developing who they are. Alsiel is more like housewife than a general now, and the Hero Emilia is not much of a threat because she too no longer has any powers. The dynamic of Emilia and Maou being at war with one another really goes away as the show progresses and focuses more on the comedy aspect. All of the characters bring their own personalities to the show and all of them mesh together really well. It is not a huge cast of characters, and each of them gets time to develop not only who they are as well as how they fit into the story.

Hataraku Maou-sama was done by the studio White Fox. A studio that I at first did not realize until I found out that it has done some pretty well known shows like Steins;Gate and Akame ga Kill. The animation was very well done, and I thought that everything in the show flowed very well together. The regular aspects of the show were well done as well as the few action scenes that the show did have. You could also tell the difference between when the scene was taking place in either modern Tokyo or back in Ente Isla. In modern Tokyo it was brighter and more colorful and when it was in Ente Isla it took on a much darker tone. I thought that it was a very nice touch and it brought the overall feel of the show up even more. I loved it.

The soundtrack for the show is pretty good. The insert songs fit really well into the show and the endings are a nice calm song that plays over usually still images of the character Chi doing something. The song that stands out the most is the openings “ZERO!!” by Minami Kurabayashi. It is a really catchy and pretty song that sets the feel for the show over imagery of the characters. The opening also shows a little bit about our characters over the short minute and a half it plays, which I think is really nice. The song itself earned a place on my iPod pretty quickly just because of how upbeat it is and how fun it is to listen to. I really enjoyed it.

Overall I really enjoy Hataraku Maou-sama! and award it with an A! It is such a funny show with adorkable characters that have me laughing almost every single minute. The story is great, the characters are lovable, and the animation is beautiful. It a goofy show that is great if you are looking for something to laugh at and enjoy without overthinking it. It does not have an major plot that draws you in, but it does have a story with characters that will keep you coming back. I absolutely love this show and go back to it whenever I need a good laugh. I recommend giving it a try if you are looking for a good comedy to watch. I have also seen the english dub of this show and it overall is not too bad. I enjoyed the dub as well and thought that it was pretty well done.

And that is all I have for my 33rd Anime Review and Day 5 of Anniversary Review Week. So what do you guys think? Have you seen Hataraku Maou-sama? What did you think of it? What comedy anime is your favorite? Let me know down in the comments below!!

See you tomorrow!!

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If you have an anime that you think I should try go ahead and leave that in the comments down below as well.