Recap: Maou and Emi try confront Lucifer without destroying the city (or themselves) in the process.

Jel’s Thoughts: I’ll admit on the surface level, this episode was kind of cool. There was certainly plenty of action and big speeches, and Lucifer was obnoxious enough that it was satisfying to see him get put in his place. But as far as trying to get me to get into this as some big, gratifying payoff, I’m just not buying it.

My complaining every week about Maou’s underdeveloped character was pretty much validated by the underwhelming montage of memories we see as he tries to explain his change of heart. They try to make it look like there were so many memorable moments in his path to redemption but the impact of those events was never really explored. We already confirmed he was a murderer at some point, I just can’t take their word for it on such a big change. Add in some rather lame attempts at clever humor like Alsiel using his dying breath to talk about bargain shopping and Emi being her annoying self and I was having a hard time maintaining my excitement.

There could have been some potential interesting developments in the future had the city remained damaged or if Maou permanently gained back his power. As expected though, they hit the Reset Button and everything returned to status quo. Even Emi’s friends, after showing up to do absolutely NOTHING, quietly return home without questioning or assisting her with her task. Where do we even go from here? Back to hijinks at MgRonalds? There hasn’t even been much of that if you think about it. Bring in another villain? I suppose, but would that really play out any different? I just don’t see this going anywhere interesting.

I imagine this was probably the end of the first novel and honestly I would have been OK with this as a last or second to last episode. For a show that has literally said we can all choose to “become angels or demons ourselves”, it would have been a fitting conclusion to Maou’s journey, weighing the value of life and deciding his own path. Instead I think this will be the end to my journey with the Devil Is A Part Timer as I feel like I’ve already seen everything it has to offer. Let me know if it gets any better.