The Devil is a Part-Timer! / YMMV

Adorkable: Suzuno's clumsy grasp on modern Japanese culture is quite endearing. She's also surprisingly gullible.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Is Emi a fanatic who takes her frustrations out on Maou because her violent Knight Templar tendencies don't fly in our world, or is her expectations of Maou perfectly justified after everything he did to her people, putting her in an impossible situation now that he's become harmless and sympathetic and her sense of justice won't allow her to just end the threat anymore?
- Was Olba always evil, or did he find out the Church was planning to peg him as The Scapegoat no matter what, reasoned Then Let Me Be Evil, teamed up with Lucifer, and took it out on another world to express his frustration over being betrayed?
  - Way later in the Light Novels (#11 to be exact) we learn that Olba's journey to The Dark Side began early. He lost his faith seeing various contradictions in what the Church was doing. He came to the conclusion that the Angels of his bible were real Ancient Astronauts. He figured that the Holy Silver was some sort of technology or artifact but it wasn't until he met Lucifer that his ideas were proven true. His corruption was that he wanted to become a god, or, failing that, become one of the angels.
Audience-Alienating Ending: Volume 21 quickly became despised by a good chunk of the fandom for splitting up Maou/Emi, the fan-favorite couple that had been built up throughout the series, in favor of Maou abandoning Emi and their adopted daughter in favor of Chiho instead and reducing Emi to a single mother, a development that displeased fans of Emilia's character and even some fans of the winning pairing Maou/Chiho because the way it happened was cruel and/or out of character. And while the end pairing was the most criticized part, complaints were also directed at Maou becoming a human instead of a demon lord, the Final Battle being anticlimactic, and a general feeling that the novel was rushed. So infamous was the ending that a good chunk of fans on fan sites and forums, upon hearing of what the ending contained, made posts declaring they would either stop reading the light novels only, or even abandon the unfinished anime and manga adaptations of the series for fear that they would end the same way, and even fans still following the adaptations admit to only doing so hoping that they will have an Adaptational Alternate Ending. Said ending has also received unfavorable comparisons to Domestic Girlfriend's equally infamous ending. Notably, this ending even scared off fans from the author's next series, as the announcement received angry comments from fans who refuse to follow any of his subsequent works.
Awesome Music: "The Devil Regains His Strength".
Base-Breaking Character:
- Emi's Jerkass attitude towards Maou irks many viewers. Others find it hilarious and justified, given that he was pretty much fantasy Hitler in their world and is threatening to return and try to subjugate them all over again.
  - Episode 7 worsens her status. Is Emi punching and kneeing Maou hilarious or did it show how much of a bitch she is to Maou? Take note that Maou saved her from falling to the ground. ^note
- Is Chiho hilarious and heartwarming? Or is she annoying, controlling, and given far more importance and praise in the narrative than she deserves? Some fans think it's the first, while others think it's the latter. Further complicating this matter is the sheer amount of Character Shilling she gets from the narrative, especially in the light novel. Even fans of the character concede that the narrative often bends itself backwards to tell the audience how amazing Chiho is, with characters frequently in otherwise unrelated conversations, noting how amazing she is, how strong her strength of character is, how kind she is, etc. And it especially doesn't help that she gets Maou in the end, when Emi was widely considered the better choice, yet gets shafted to divorced mom (or, at best, side girl/mistress) status- this ended up making her downright hated by a good chunk of the fandom.
- Is Suzuno adorable, sympathetic, and charming, or is she an unfunny, one woman Spotlight-Stealing Squad?
- Is Alas Ramus an adorable character who adds new dimension to the story, or a rather oblique attempt to force Maou and Emi together? The addition of Acieth Alla, who is functionally the same character except aged up; further muddles this issue.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the anime's final episode, the villainous Sariel winds up in the MgRonalds supply closet after Maou tossed him into a portal to Ente Isla in the previous episode. He hits on Kisaki like a pervert, gets crushed under her heel, and then disappears from the story. The scene has nothing to do with the rest of the episode and pointlessly brings back a character whose role in the plot was resolved for two minutes of goofy sex farce. While the character in question does have a larger role in the books, their sole scene in this episode is an utterly superfluous narrative wrinkle with no payoff.
Broken Base:
- While even fans of this series agree the second half wasn't as good as the first half, some feel it improved on character interactions, development, and world building, and liked the change in direction the series took in introducing an overarching, epic fantasy plot and like the unique manner in which it interacted with the mundane world, all while staying true to itself. Others, however, were bothered by the joke quality decreasing, increased emphasis on the story, and how it began to let light novel cliches sneak in, feeling that the series worked best as a primarily Slice of Life reverse-isekai comedy where archetypal fantasy characters take mundane jobs in modern Japan, while the increased focus on action, adventure, and an overarching plot was an abandonment of the series' identity and what made it so appealing.
- Fans generally agree that season 2 doesn't live up to the standards of season 1. The real debate lies on whether season 2 was genuine disappointment or just not as good as season 1.
Captain Obvious Reveal: The revelation that Miki Shiba's niece Amane is involved with Ente Isla would've been more surprising if her aunt hadn't already cryptically revealed she knows about it.
Creator's Pet: Chiho Sasaki is widely considered to have become this when she started getting more importance in the series than her original comedic side-character role. She gets a lot of Character Shilling that ignores or contradicts her less pleasant aspects, becomes The Heart who meditates conflicts between Maou and Emi, and most infamously gets together with Maou in the end, instead of Emi (who Maou is widely considered to have more development and better chemistry with). As a result, much of the fanbase despises her for being an annoying Satellite Love Interest who breaks up the better couple, and her increased character focus is considered by fans who dislike the second half of the series to be a major cause of the general dip in quality.
Die for Our Ship: While Chiho Sasaki was already becoming increasingly disliked in the fandom for her increased importance and Character Shilling despite being a fairly Flat Character, it was the ending that caused it to explode into outright hatred when she winds up becoming an Offical Couple with Maou instead of Emi, who Maou had far more development with and who is vastly more developed as a character.
Draco in Leather Pants: Maou is this among both the fandom and in-universe. He's a nice guy who enjoys his job and just wants to make a living for himself and alongside of that fans seem to forget the most important detail about his character... he is actually the devil king responsible for the deaths of many people in Ente Isla. Mitigated in the light novels, which paint a much more complex picture of the war as they go on.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Some of the side characters like Emi's co-worker Rika, Maou's boss Kisaki, and Emi's servants Emeralda and Albert, are all reasonably popular for contributing entertaining bits whenever they show up.
Fandom Rivalry: With YuuShibu which was another light novel comedy that aired the same year involving demons and heroes in modern day Japan working part-time jobs. Fans of The Devil is a Part-Timer often decry YuuShibu as a generic harem with a boring main character and having nothing to offer other than fanservice in spite of the clever jokes in this show. Not all fans of YuuShibu are critical of The Devil is a Part-Timer however a lot of them admit that most people are unfair on YuuShibu just because its a harem/ecchi show. Fans of YuuShibu will also point out how even though it is a by the books fanservice show it is at least honest with itself unlike The Devil is a Part-Timer which tries to work in romance elements and a more serious subplot.
Fan-Preferred Couple: By the end of the light novel continuity, the titular demon lord ends up with Chiho Sasaki. However, at least a good chunk of fans prefer Maou to end up with Emi Yusa, the Hero, due to their enemies-to-lovers dynamic, said dynamic fitting in with their respective character arcs of Maou becoming a better person and Emi learning to see the good in him, the massive amounts of Ship Tease, a perception that they have better chemistry, and basically adopting and raising a child together. Chiho, meanwhile, is widely considered an annoying Creator's Pet who gets undue amount of Character Shilling, a mere naive schoolgirl who does not share that same connection with Maou, and a static Satellite Love Interest who's character begins and ends with "crushing on Maou", result in her "love" coming off as shallow infatuation and the pairing being considered forced and boring (and creepy considering she's a teen and he's an adult). Needless to say, the light novel ending drew a lot of backlash from said fans.
Fan Nickname: Mitsuke Sarue tends to get called James because of his heavy resemblance to him.
Franchise Original Sin: The second half of the light novel series is a Broken Base among the fandom, with some disliking the increased emphasis on the Myth Arc, action and adventure, and more traditional isekai light novel plots because the slice-of-life elements and comedy suffered in the process, and Chiho became a Creator's Pet in the process when she got the spotlight more and more. To a certain extent, the series always had a myth arc involving the titular Maou and the Hero Emi being hunted down by a conspiracy within the Corrupt Church, and there was a fair amount of genuine drama and action as well, but there was a better balance with plenty of comedy and silliness showing the various fantasy characters getting used to the modern world; it’s only when that part of the premise became more and more downplayed that fans felt the series was losing its identity. Chiho was also a recurring character from the start, and a fairly Satellite Love Interest at that, but was primarily a side character and somewhat of a Hopeless Suitor, making her easier to tolerate; when she started getting more narrative importance and Character Shilling to the point of being the one to win Maou in the end, then she turned into an object of fan hatred.
Genius Bonus: In Judaic traditions, Sariel was a fallen Watcher angel who taught mortal men to use the lunar calendar. How did he fall from grace? Lusting after mortal women.
Harsher in Hindsight: In light of Scott Freeman's conviction as a sex criminal (as in: caught with Child Porn), scenes of Sarue creeping on various women is not as funny as originally intended and especially when he's creeping on Chiho who is a minor.
Ho Yay:
- The Demon Lord and his most loyal general live together in a cramped, run-down apartment in which the former does the working and the latter does the housework. Oh my. Alciel actually calls himself a "house husband" in his bio, although he acts more like an overprotective parent to Maou at times. Lampshaded by Chiho's classmate who goes wild with yaoi fantasies upon learning Alciel and Maou are roomies.
- When you throw Lucifer into the mix, who is a free loader who looks and acts like a teenager and combine that with the fact that Maou is the apartment's breadwinner and Alciel does all the housework, the household actually does look like a couple with their child.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: People have shipped Maou with Emi, Chiho, Suzuno, Ashiya, and even his own bicycle!
Memetic Mutation:
- Any Chiho vs. Emi shipping war will invariably prompt numerous posters to point out that Maou already has the best girl — Alciel.
- Emi's boob envy^Explanation
Nightmare Fuel: The Haunted House in episode 10 is genuinely terrifying, even if we don't see very much of it. The "mama" section is particularly chilling.
Padding: Even people who otherwise like season 2 admit that it makes no sense for the season to have 12 episodes, especially when those episodes move the story at a snail's pace and indulge in character moments that don't say anything new about the characters.
Periphery Demographic: A look at Pixiv's tags for Maou and Alciel quickly shows that the series' Ho Yay between the two has not gone unnoticed by the Yaoi Fangirl crowd.
Rooting for the Empire: It's easy to sympathize with the Angels in season 2 for having goals and motivations beyond doing part-time jobs and maintaining the show's status quo. It doesn't help that the Angels don't really threaten innocent people and the heroes are responsible for instigating the conflicts with them.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: If you ship Maou with either Emi or Chiho expect fans of the other ship to disagree with you. And of course there are those who believe Maou X Alciel is the best pairing in the series and that both Emi and Chiho aren't suitable love interests.
Superlative Dubbing: In an age where many dubs of anime comedies are criticized for poor translation quality, this show did the opposite. As stated below the dub featured many re-translated jokes that still worked in the context of the show and made it just as funny to watch and even gave the show high rewatch value. It also helped that the cast (with the exception of Josh Grelle and Tia Ballard) mostly used newer voice actors to Funimation or voice actors with not a lot of experience in lead roles to give it a fresh feel. Though the veterans gave strong performances as well.
Tearjerker: Emilia's enraged rant at Maou in episode 4, bringing up everything she's lost because of him.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The announcement the series would be animated by a different studio than the original anime, White Fox, earned a lot of push-back from viewers. While the animation quality is good, the overall designs and art style is so radically different that it made some characters look almost completely different (Maou for example). Though the animation style is actually closer to the original art to a degree, the drastic change in the animation was enough for some viewers to not want to watch the second season.
Woolseyism: The dub is full of local jokes not in the original, including many Shout Outs, natural language, and solid dubbing.

YMMV / The Devil is a Part-Timer!

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