- 7mononoke
The Devil is a Part-timer! Season 2 Review
After nine years, there is finally a continuation of The Devil Is A Part-timer! 2022 had a lot of sequel seasons and continuing anime, like Made in Abyss season 2 and Classroom of The Elite season 2. However, most of those are not of interest to me. The Devil Is A Part-timer is one of the few highly popular / mainstream series that I chose to watch this year. My brief review is below. Enjoy.
Visuals: 9
The art looks so good you could eat it. It's basically 2D eye candy. The animation is fluid and the face expressions are entertaining and often comical. I love all the bright colors too. Even the scenery and set-pieces look really good most of the time. For example, there was a lot of pretty farmland and garden scenes during episodes 8 and 9. Before that, there were a few beautiful beach scenes in episodes 6 and 7. Emi and the other female characters also had some cute and creative outfits at various points.
The character designs for the returning characters haven't changed and they still look amazing. There were a few new characters too, including Gabriel and Alus Ramus. Gabriel's design was pretty cool, and Alus Ramus is adorable. You can take almost any screenshot from this anime, and it will be worth saving. That's how good this anime looks.
Note: Apparently, the reception for this season has been predominantly negative on sites like MAL. One of the biggest complaints of other reviewers is that the art and animation became worse. I ardently disagree. It would be impossible for me to disagree more. This season was a visual feast for me. It looked better than most of the other shows I watched in 2022. I have heard art is subjective, but this is rather extreme of an example. Just keep in mind that not everyone agrees with each other on the visuals for this anime.
Story: 7
The plot follows the daily lives and adventures of Mao and his companions, who were demons and heroes in another world before getting stuck in the modern realm of humans. The story meandered a bit as it does for a show that's partly slice-of-life. Sometimes the pacing bothered me because it was slow. However, the plot concepts were good and there was some excellent action at some points. The beach episodes and farm episodes were all a lot of fun. One of my favorite things about this anime is that it's like a reverse isekai. Fantasy characters get transported into the mundane human world. It also makes for a lot of funny moments and potentially significant character development as everyone tries to learn.
There were some other interesting elements in this season related to the fantasy lore and the more long-term side of the plot. For example, we learned about Mao's story as a young demon and how he was saved by an Angel. We learned about the magical shards of Yesod, of which Alus Ramus is one. It was also interesting that Chiho took a more active role in this season, and was eager to help fight. There were no profound philosophical or psychological themes in this anime, but not every series needs that. Overall, the story category was good.
Audio: 6
The music and songs in this anime were not very enjoyable for me. The opening song is "With" by Minami Kuribayashi and the ending song is "Suikyou no Sekai" by Marina Horiuchi. Of the two, I like the ED better, but neither of them suit my taste. As for the instrumental OST, it was so forgettable that I can't recall a single note. Despite the music not being good, however, the Japanese voice-acting was excellent. The cast includes singer/voice-actress Yoko Hikasa as Emi, Ryouta Oosaka as Sadao, Yuuki Ono as Ashiya, and many others.
Characters: 7
The characters are memorable, funny, and likeable. They are a little too one-dimensional for me to call them especially well-written. But they are so much fun and have great character concepts. Emi is probably my favorite, but Lucifer and Suzuno are equally wonderful too.
In this season, several new characters were introduced, such as Amane Ohguro, Raguel, and Gabriel. All of them were entertaining and caught my interest. There was some decent character development for Mao as he continued adjusting to the human world and reflecting on what he had done to the people of Ente Island in the name of conquest. Most of the characters stayed the same, without any big changes or development. However, I still enjoyed them and their interactions quite a bit.
Enjoyment: 7
My enjoyment level was alright. I think 7 is a fair score since at times, it was on the low end of 6/10, and at best, it was at the low end of 8/10. I have trouble focusing on this show when there's no action for long periods of time. I also think some of the humor fails and gets annoying. However, I always enjoy the characters, especially Emi. As I mentioned, this anime was a visual treat for me. I loved the colorful art and animation. Many of the characters are named after figures in mythology, which prompts me to want to learn about their myths. That's another aspect of this anime that I enjoyed.
Overall Score: 7.2/10.0
The overall score is the average of the five scores explored in the categories above. A score in the 7s is pretty solid. That's where a lot of enjoyable anime falls. If you compare my score to a site like MAL, you'll see there is a big difference. The reception of this anime was no too good. So currently, the score of this anime is 6.68 on MAL. I am shocked at how low the number fell. Personally, I think this anime deserves better. Anyway, that's all for this review!
Thanks for reading~