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It’s nice to know we won’t have to wait nearly as long for more Devil is a Part-Timer compared to when season one initially came out. What was originally set up to be a parody of isekai shows is now starting to play a lot of its tropes rather straight, focusing more on lore and character motivations instead of comedy. I don’t hate this direction, and actually, it was when the show tried to focus on comedy that started to take me a little bit out of it. I think the problem is that back in season one when your archetypical threats were defeated, they were sort of humiliated and made nonthreatening. Now that we’re trying to include everybody in a more serious story, they just don’t come off as interesting or comedic anymore. I’m not saying we should drop the comedy altogether, but it would be nice if we focused a bit more on the stuff that makes the story interesting like the inner turmoil between Emi and Maou.
Based on the opening and based on what we’re setting up in episode two, it’s clear that the season is probably going to be more about Emi. This is where the subversion of the isekai genre naturally transitions from a more comedic story to a more serious one. Emi was raised and indoctrinated to be the archetypal hero. She had her parents cut out of her life and was raised to be a warrior like a typical chosen one. Her main goal was to take down the big evil force that she had personal motivation to hate. Part of the comedy early on was the fact that she kept colliding with Maou who ended up going from this big evil force to just a regular, semi-reasonable guy. Reframing all of that made her look like the crazy and antagonistic one even though she was completely justified in her actions. But now, what happens when you take all that motivation away?
Not only are both of Emi’s parents revealed to be alive, thus removing any personal reason for Emi to want to kill Maou, but now his reason for starting the war in the first place might not have been completely malicious. We don’t know the full reason for why Maou led the battle as I assume that reason will be tied into whatever Emi’s mom’s involvement in all of this is. But Emi might have hit a nerve when she said that the only reason why he started the war was because Maou wanted to be a part of something bigger. That would be consistent with the fact that he was just this weakling that didn’t know anything at a time when the demon race was tearing itself apart. He was able to simultaneously unite everybody on a common goal while getting to live out his own ironic fantasy of being a hero.
I don’t think this excuses the other deaths that were probably caused in the wake of that battle and there’s a chance that Maou still feels guilty about that. I like the fact that he still tries to play the villain to give Emi a reason to hate him even though all he did was make her more confused because she can see right through him. I hope the show continues to play with that moral gray area because I don’t think Maou should be completely forgiven for everything that he did even if the show ends up making his actions more justified. I want to see more of that from the show because that’s where things get legitimately interesting.
Rating:
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!! Season 3 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll and Hulu
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