Reviews

I went into Hataraku Maou-Sama with some pretty low expectations, because in hindsight it’s the basic tried and done fish-out-of-the-water formula filled with clichés and try-hard humor. Instead, when I started, I was pleasantly surprised by colorful characters energetically bouncing off of each other, witty dialogue and fantastic comedic timing. At the same time Hataraku told a strong story that progressed quite well and perfectly kept its balance with the comedic aspects.

So it’s unfortunate for me to say that after episode five, Maou-Sama failed to hold up with its preceding episodes.

Not that it was downright awful, but episodes started ranging from really clever to really not-so clever. It lost its consistent quality and it lost a lot of its charm. Characters, while given strong characterization, were never given any real development and eventually became a mixed bag of like and dislike. Maou, Ashiya and Lucifer remained quite entertaining to watch, but Emi’s animosity and irrational anger grew old, Chiho’s infatuation with Maou grew annoying and Suzuno… well, she was quite generic and stale from the beginning.

The plot progression was thrown under the bus, and while the climax itself was incredibly well executed, the lead up itself was awful. The perfect balance between comedy and serious story telling was immediately tilted over to comedic side and it was almost as if the writers lost interest in trying to tell a genuine story. By the end, it was almost as if the writers forgot that the show needed a conclusion and so they just tossed in a climax.

No build up, no nothing and instead I had to endure some pretty bland filler episodes. Yeah, the McRonald/Sentucky rivalry was actually quite hilarious, but every other filler played out generically and it completely went against what made Maou-Sama a fun show in the first place.

There are two things I admire that Maou-Sama keeps consistent throughout the whole series. The first one is the fact that Maou-Sama actually makes use of its characters and setting its joke. Too many comedies fail simply because they don’t see the creative elements eagerly waving their arms right in front of their eyes. Instead they pull their jokes out of thin air and I appreciate that Maou-Sama avoids this mistake.

The second one is the fact that Maou-Sama always has a great sense of comedic timing, no matter how stupid the jokes, and I also applaud that.

So to summarize, the show starts and ends really, really well, but it’s plagued by a lackluster middle. Overall, I’d still have to say that I did enjoy the show. There were more high highs than low lows and if you can tolerate those low lows, then I would recommend this as a comedy.