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I must admit I was a little disappointed with this episode because I feel like it’s starting to set a pattern of how certain issues are going to be resolved for the show moving forward. Last week there was some legitimate tension when one of Maou’s demon underlings came to the human world in hopes of bringing him back to continue the demon conquest of Ente Isla. I kind of get the impression that Maou was the first and arguably only person that could unite all the demons together under a common goal. When you remove them from the equation, it feels like the other demons are just fiddling their thumbs waiting for him to come back which is kind of funny when you think about it. However, that could also open up some potentially interesting story conflicts because we don’t fully know what’s going on back in Ente Isla, so for all we know, someone just as charismatic could be taking things over.
That’s not the case though and it seems like that’s not going to be the case moving forward which is a bit disappointing. Instead, it was very easy for Maou to just sort of convince his underlings that he was focusing less on taking over the world by force and instead plans on taking over the world through business and commerce. I do find it funny that Maou is contextualizing his training as a McRonald’s employee as studying for world domination which was always sort of a joke in the first season but now it feels like a legitimate plot point. Will there be any payoff to that setup? I’m not sure because it still feels like everyone is just buying time. The question is whether or not we’re buying any time to a specific end.
It was nice of the show remembered the dramatic conflict that it set up in the last episode about Emi’s internal conflict but it feels like it wrapped up way too quickly and way too last minute. I hope this isn’t the last time it’s brought up because it is a legitimately interesting moral conflict about how Emi wants to view Maou moving forward. It’s kind of funny that he ended up strong-arming her into being one of his “generals” so that she can keep an eye on him and form a new opinion of him as a human from ground zero. That’s a nice start but it feels like there needs to be a bit more discussion about things because we can’t just erase the past and continue like nothing happened. So yeah, the episode was OK on its own but it legitimately leaves me a bit concerned for what is going to happen moving forward.
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The Devil Is a Part-Timer! Season 3 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll and Hulu
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