Hataraku Maou-Sama! is also known as The Devil is a Part-Timer! which is a 13 episode anime released in 2013 based upon a light novel series. These episodes cover the events of the first three light novels. Hataraku Maou-Sama! begins in the world of Ente Isla, during a final battle between the Demon Lord against the Hero. Surprisingly, the Demon Lord nearly loses and creates a portal to escape, along with his general, Alciel. The hero follows. They arrive in Japan on Earth and as the title suggests, the Demon Lord ends up working at a fast food restaurant.
Before all that happens though, we learn that the Demon Lord, now known as Maou, along with Ashiya (formerly Alciel), take on the form of a human due to running out of magic. Therefore, they cannot return to Ente Isla and must somehow survive in this new and weird world. The first episode is funny in how Maou and Ashiya is at a lost at where they are and what to do, especially when the police finds them. It doesn't help that they do not speak the same language. As a matter of fact, a surprisingly significant amount of the anime has characters speaking in a foreign language. It's a made up language that's not Japanese but it sounds interesting.
Time asses and Maou finds work at the fast food restaurant MgRonald, while Ashiya becomes a house wife. They settle down easily into the human life and actually does quite well considering that they started off with nothing. Of course, that doesn't last for very long when Maou gets attacked by a stranger one day. The assailant turns out to be the Hero who followed them through the portal, known as Emilia in Ente Isla but took on the name of Emi in Japan.
Emi seemed to be doing even better than the demons, having a better job at a call center and earning more money. The difference between Emi and Maou is the fact that she managed to retain her magic and can summon her sacred sword. Maou manages to hold his own and we eventually learn how he can regain magic: by absorbing the fear, pain and all other negative emotions that humans emit. For some reason, he doesn't use this knowledge to take over the world just yet, isntead going for the honorable way of working his way up.
The rest of the episodes alternate between the everyday mundane life of Maou at his fast food restaurant, where he works towards being promoted and other beings from Ente Isla arriving to kill him. The everyday life is where most of the humor comes from, although to be fair, it can be a bit boring too. Chiho is a coworker of Maou's who falls in love with him. Despite her best intentions, we see Emi start to slowly side with Maou even though they are natural enemies.
More and more characters are introduced, including another of Maou's generals, Lucifer, an archangel Sariel and a mysterious girl called Suzuno who becomes Maou's neighbor. All of them have personalities that are stereotypical and fall into cliched area, and the chemistry between all these characters seem... lacking. You don't really develop any attachment towards these characters, mainly because they don't do much that is meaningful. Sure, Emi is there to save the world and Maou is there to protect all these other characters that he ended up honor-bound to protect, but they don't face many challenges and overcome any obstacles very easily.
Hataraku Maou-Sama! is primarily a comedy series and while it holds huge potential, it isn't consistently funny. Most of the gags are predictable and most of the episodes aren't too funny. However, the interaction between Maou and his aspirations regarding MgRonald never ceases to cause a laugh, as does the interactions between Ashiya and Lucifer. What little action scenes the series has were pretty cool, elevate by the fact of a great soundtrack, particularly "The Devil Regains His Strength". The series needed a quicker pacing to elevate some of the more mundane bits. The animation is top-notch and the aesthetics is pleasing.
The second to last episode was great and one of the best in the series; it gave us a glimpse at the potential of how great the series could have been overall. The final episode wasn't much of an ending though since it wasn't closing anything and felt tacked on. More than that, it didn't give us a sense of achievement; it just sort of... ended. The series will tease you with some light fan service, it's nothing major but worth noting. Overall, Hataraku Maou-Sama! isn't nearly as funny as what some reviewers and sites would have led you to believe, but it is an entertaining anime all the same, if a bit stale at times.
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