I recently watched a new anime on Hulu, entitled “The Devil is a Part Timer”. The show begins in a parallel world, in the days of knights and magic. The “Devil” is the king of the underworld and dark magic. He has 3 evil generals who do his biding, and assist him in taking over the world. The Church is destined to rid their world of this evil, by sending force their Knight of truth and justice to vanquish the Devil.
The hero almost succeeds, when just before the “Devil” can be killed one of his generals, Alciel, comes to his aid. Using what little power they have left, they open a portal to a new world to escape.
This new world is our world. In this world magic isn’t as prevalent and both Alciel and the Devil are very week. They use what little mind control power they have left to get new identities and a one room apartment. And so begins the plot of the story.
Think about it, if the devil had next to no powers and was stuck living on Earth, what would he do? Get a part time job.
That’s right, the Devil, who has taken the name Sadao, takes a part time job at a McRonalds (McDonlands, like fast food place) to earn money and slowly take over the world by way of someday becoming manager. Alciel, takes on the role house wife, doing the cooking, cleaning, and budgeting.
The situation is pretty funny if you think about it, but it gets better. Because by the end of the first episode we find that Sadao, lends his umbrella to a girl he meets out in the rain. Later the girl returns only to say she is there to slay the Devil. Yes this clumsy girl he meet earlier is the hero, Emilia Justina (Emi), sent by the Church, who followed the Devil through the portal. Like Sadao, her powers are limited and she two had to take a part time job, at a call center.
Thus unfolds the rest of the story, which is full of fun and mayhem. Both our Devil and Hero discover that they aren’t the same people they used to be when they had all that magical powers. The Hero is a lot less confident and the Devil is a lot less motivated to rule.
As the series progress other characters are introduced including Chiho Sasaki, a teenage girl working along side Sadao, at the McRonlads and who develops a crush on him. There are even a few more characters from the other world that make their way through the portal to try to help either Sado or Emi on their mission, unfortunately the two are too busy with just getting by in this world, they have little time to care about their mission.
The series is a really good mix, of humor and action. The characters are likable and there’s a sense of mystery about them, leaving you wanting to learn more. I also really like the series plays on the old adage of “Power Corrupts” because in this scenario we find that without all the power that these characters used to have, they are very different people.