New Anime Review - Hataraku Maou-sama!

Anime Name - Hataraku Maou-sama!
Aired - Apr 4, 2013 to June 27, 2013
Episodes - 13
Produced By - White Fox
Staff - Naoto Hosoda (Director), Satoshi Wagahara (Original Creator),
Atsushi Ikariya (Original Character Design, Chief Animation Director)

What if the devil lost almost all of his power and was forced to live in modern world? What if the hero came to defeat him and was actually a really bad tempered yelling girl? What if the devil didn't really have any skills and was forced to work as a part-timer at MgRonalds to earn his living? Yeah, it really sounds like a hilarious situation and that's how this anime is. The writer does try to throw in some random romance or emotional stuff but this show really shines through it's comedy mainly and on that regard it really is one of the best comedies of 2013.


Story
The story is like almost as I described in the intro para but with 3-4 episodes small arcs which introduces new characters. There is the turmoil of the devil between whether to try to climb the social structure by climbing the work ladder on MgRonalds through working hard and finally take over our world (I don't know how that is even possible) or to get sufficient power to go back to his world. There is a romance sub-plot involving devil's co-worker who is deeply in love with him and people confusing devil & hero as couples. But the main shining point of the story is the comedy which is quite flawless in execution by the writer, sub-plots really gets annoying at times and also I find the fact that the story never really move towards a resolution quite frustrating but the comedy really kept me entertained. So the story gets 8 out of 10 from me.

Characters

The main character devil lord Maou is actually quite different from typical shounen heroes in a few aspects as he does not really wanna save anyone but himself but gets forced to do good work and tries to be responsible for his underlings; hero Yusa has this somewhat tragic back-story yet is confused by the change in the devil lord, so just follows him around being suspicious of him; devil lord's cute and energetic co-worker who falls madly in love with him despite knowing his true nature; Ashiya, devil lord's loyal general who takes the role of doing the household chores in this new world for them; all these characters while not terribly original serves their function quite well. The new characters which are introduced later on through the small story arcs are a bit lacking in comparison in my view as they somewhat does a failed attempt at giving the show a bit of serious nature. Overall this aspect gets 8.5 out of 10 from me.

Art/Animation
While it is really not top-notch it does serve its purpose quite alright. The character designs are quite interesting in their own regards. Although in my opinion there is a few unnecessary use of ecchi in some episodes the overall art & animation style was quite appropriate for the show. It gets 8 out of 10.

Sound
The opening theme is "ZERO!!" by Minami Kuribayashi and the ending themes are "Tsuki Hana", "Star Chart" & "Tsumabiku Hitori" by nano.RIPE. Although I found the opening and the first ending quite catchy after a few listens, to be honest none of them really does highlight the comedy nature of the show which I found a bit disappointing. The in-show music never really catches any attention and are not noteworthy in my opinion either. I found the sound quite lacking and certainly the poorest side of the show. It gets 6 out of 10.

Although I found the lack of any resolution of the storyline quite disappointing and also was a bit bored at some unnecessary sub-plots overall I really enjoyed the show for its comedy. It really was quite unique in a fun way in that approach.

While not perfect by any means this is a must watch show 2013 for any fans of comedy.

Overall score -
                                 8 out of 10.
If you want more info or any other reviews of the show please check out its MAL page -
http://myanimelist.net/anime/15809/Hataraku_Maou-sama!