The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 21 (light novel)

The Devil is a Part-Timer! Light Novel #21

by Satoshi Wagahara, 029 (Oniku) (Artist)

With the Devil King Castle closed and the war between the humans on Ente Isle resolved, all that remains for Maou and his friends is to mount an assault on heaven. But before that, there’s something he needs to do-get dressed up to visit Chiho’s father and do the right thing. As the final battle fast approaches, Emi can’t help but notice that the Devil King seems to be in poor health… What hidden truths await Maou and company in heaven? Can they really take down a god? And if they do, what will become of their lives in Japan?  

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy

312 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2022

Reviews

[Syrech · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ending a series of 21 books is never easy, and I find this one quite hard to evaluate, as some parts of the novel are at least average and others seems to be hastily introduced and dispatched, specially thinking in the relationships between the main characters.

The general plot is more or less solved and explained, without big surprises and dramatic effects, sometimes being a bit predictable. For the characters, except some points, there aren't any surprises either and in some ways it's a bit sad, but in general the ending of the story is not too bad.

Onto the spoilers

The idea of the structure of the novel is quite surprising, the story starts three years from the final event and go back and forth explaining the actual lifes of Maou and company, and the final battle with Ignora and Camael. The concept is interesting but sometimes hard to read, as some chapter seems not well linked between then.

The final encounter with Ignora is good and bad at the same time. The conclusion is rather good but after reading the whole story you would expect a bit more about Ignora, not just being only a crazy scientist obssesed with her goal.

All the romantic plots are awful, the marriage between Kisaki and Sariel quite disturbing (stalk your crush until she notices you, a great anime classic), Ashiya is completely absent in the whole book, Rika just get a lately past development of character and Suzuno is just cast aside in the again too classic harem anime plot.

The worst comes with the trio Maou, Chiho, Emi. Without any surprises Maou and Chiho, the couple with the least romantic interest of the whole story, ends together, with Emi loving Maou from the distance and this one didn't noticing it before Chiho told him, because again, male characters are all blind to love and dynamics of relationships.

And after a hastily introduced (absurd) reason for the demons being unable to feel love without great sickness, of course Emi decided to end her mission of slay the Demon King taking away Maou's powers (with a very convenient last minute magic sword) and transforming him in a regular human who now can love Chiho without problems, justifying it by saying that the suffering that Maou had inflicted to human souls cannot be forbidden so easily. The fact that Emi's father is alive, all her friends are alive, that demons had to invade the continent because they would starve to death in their world, that after defeat a lot of them were massacred by human forces and that in the end all of them are, like the angels, human beings, worth nothing in her judgement. Seriously, after the expected Chiho-Maou couple, worst part of the end of the story without doubt.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This will serve as a review for the whole story, and it might be the longest review I've written. I have thoughts!)
Over the past month I got kind of obsessed with this story (my experience is kinda compressed compared to 10 years it took to write I guess!) I had heard about all the isekai type anime (where people from our normal humdrum reality, typically those who are not happy here, are transported to a magical realm) but I was intrigued by this concept of a "reverse isekai" where the opposite happens, and that's what we have here. The Hero Emilia and the Devil King Satan go to another world (of course it's Japan) and Satan starts to see that it's actually quite nice here and gets a part-time job working fast food. Emi is still trying to kill him, but pretty quickly stuff starts to happen that involves their old world sending assassins over to kill them both, and they have to work together to figure it all out, and keep it up through longer and longer arcs where more stuff happens, continuing to bicker all the way up to the end.

I started with the 2013 anime and then its 2022-3 next season, but as that only ends around halfway (and the manga mixes in some extra stuff from later but also ends at basically the same point) I gave up any self-respect I had and bought the last batch of light novels. I say this because I felt like a drug addict going on a bender while binging this story through its multiple formats. While I've always been a fantasy fan, I don't usually read romances or romantasies or anything like that. But the emotions of all the characters in the story hit me hard enough that I spent quite a lot of time thinking about them, the subtext of their thoughts and dialogue, and also how I felt at that age and my own experiences and friends from that time period. You know it's bad when you can't freaking sleep because of it.

Perhaps my age and experience (I'm 48) has given me a better insight than some of the fans of this series who have had... some crazy reactions to the ending and who wound up with who. Like, people were burning all the copies of their books, sending death threats to the author, completely misinterpreting character motivations and projecting their own onto them. I mean, I try to avoid being snarky on the Internet, but I wonder... have any of these people been in a relationship with anyone, ever? Do they remember what it was like to be late-teens/early-20s and just not know how to communicate your feelings, be embarrassed about them, swallow or run away from them? In Kaguya-sama this is largely played for laughs, but it's pretty serious and heartfelt here. All these fans wanted Emi and the Devil King to wind up together, and it's true they get close and obviously have feelings for each other, but neither have the emotional maturity to understand what they're going through. Yes, it's frustrating to see characters struggle with it, be obtuse in their words, and yes, you want to reach into the page and shake them or slap 'em around and tell them to just be honest with themselves and others already, but their behavior is totally believable because I have literally freaking seen it and talked to friends about and through the same shit when I was that age. You lie to yourself and others all the time until time and experience finally teach you how to understand your feelings.

But I'm not crapping on the younger generation, far from it. There are exceptional young people (yes, even today lol) and one of them is Chiho Sasaki. As a 16-17 year old for most of the story, she experiences the greatest growth in her character arc, starting as a typical high-schooler with a part-time job and ending up as someone who chairs a critical peace conference in the magical realm. And by being upfront with her feelings in the beginning and declaring her love for the Devil King both before and after she finds out who he is, she demonstrates an emotional maturity greater than a bunch of the other characters put together. Yet, the growth happens slowly and naturally enough, with scenes of her working so hard to learn new things while plagued by doubts, that I can believe it. She is an exceptional teenager, but I have known some who work just as hard as she does and are just as fearless and driven. And she is so driven to have every one of these characters she loves so dearly be friends together for as long as possible, without resentment or jealousy, that you can't help but root for her and be happy for her.

And in the end, the characters are happy where they wind up. Your first love is very intense, and it may be between people who probably shouldn't be in a long-term relationship with the other! But being mature and growing means recognizing that and adjusting your feelings for it. And that is why in the end Emi makes sure that Satan and Chiho can be together, because she loves the both of them and wants them to be happy. Maybe she is sacrificing a passionate fling for that, but given their differing personalities, it's not something that they could sustain long-term, and they are getting a lot out of being business partners and co-parenting the "adopted" kid they have (I would have to explain way too much for that). And Chiho, given her emotional maturity, loves watching them work together and doesn't want that to end (their business meetings can get pretty heated but it's definitely funny). I get why people want to create fanfiction to ship them together, and I was also screaming at them to be more honest with themselves and each other and just get it on already, but what happens in the end is totally in-character, and the ending felt very complete. Fight me in the comments if you disagree. :-)

Of course the thing is not perfect, probably could have been a few entries shorter, and the overall plot was probably over-engineered to the point of being completely improbable, but you can't have everything. Still, for a "light" novel series (the first I've read) it touched on a surprising number of topics that were interesting in and of themselves. So I'm happy I went on this little bender, but I'm not going to do anything like this again for a while. It was kinda exhausting and I need a rest. But I will remember them all for quite some time to come.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still enjoyed this series but Emi and Rika were done dirty. The story set up Emi x Maou after the anime and was a major reason why a lot of us kept reading, but then the author builds up Chiho to be super girl and save the world while Emi basically ends up a single mom. Maou and Chiho get together but it doesn’t feel final since the author inserts these hints of lingering feelings and a harem ending while Maou remains dense and oblivious while Chiho’s development is just weak. The last vol does fine with the larger Ente Isla story but jumps back and forth to three years in the future and just drops stuff like Sariel and Mayumi having a baby. We get a backstory for Rika but she and Ashiya never get together. Supposed to be getting a sequel series which hopefully can improve things.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say. While the ending isn't as bombastic and ultimate climax as people expected, I found it quite enjoyable and ultimately true to the story.

The story is about the devil and the hero waging war on the heavens of Ente Isla and freeing alas ramus family. It also jumps to the future three years later at the end of every chapter. I feel it isn't final but left open. As for the choice, it feels right. May will still be there for Alas Ramus and her mom and be able to explore his feelings for chi. It was good. I just wish the story didn't have to end. I will miss it.

[Roxanne Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was certainly a good conclusion to the series, where pretty much everything gets solved. I would have liked more of an epilogue on Ente Isla's side, but the way the epilogue was weaved between the present action was interesting.

[Kayleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely wonderful ending, exactly how you should take down God and win the girl!

[Scott Mattson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally Not only does this volume finish the story, but it's also the first Light Story series I have started to have an ending and I finished it. The story is told in alternating parts. The First part is The devil Mao, and his various allies storm heaven and attempt to save Ente Isla. The second part is set a few years after the first part is settled. The alternating chapters of part a and part b was confusing at first. The Climax to the story was like the rest of the story not a lot of action with most of the action being off screen, while the main character are doing something else. All the storylines are resolved maybe not to the best ending, but an ending.

[KathleenB · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the personal conclusions, but the plot wrap up was pointless and the back and forth between now and three years ago didn’t work well.

[Skylar BB · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author made the second female character into a slut and forced the story to revolve around her. And then he put the first female lead into a pitiful position in the story. Anyway, it sucked.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series has been going down hill but wow this was bad. Not even looking at the romantic plot, it does its leads dirty.

[Luyi · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the final chapter, it even mentioned money to get marry and working hard to make money. Really not something I want to read. LOL.