Book Review: “The Devil Is A Part-Timer! Volume 17” by Satoshi Wagahara

Warning: This book review contains spoilers for”The Devil Is A Part-Timer! Volume 17″ by Satoshi Wagahara.

I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing the light novel “The Devil Is A Part-Timer! Volume 17” by Satoshi Wagahara! It’s been a while since I reviewed the previous book in the series, and I’m glad to finally continue this series with this review. Here’s the summary so we know what it’s about:

“DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH YOUR HELLFIRE?

Character Development: 4 out of 5 stars

It was really fun to see a lot of plotlines and character development unfold in this one. On one hand, you have Maou’s dreams of being a full-timer at least temporarily quashed, due to the rejection he received. This results in Maou seriously considering what he needs to do next in both his Japan life, and with everything else going on. There is also some good development in Kisaki, Maou’s manager. It’s revealed that eventually wants to go independent and run her own restaurant business. She gets some background about how she got into MgRonalds in the first place. It’s nice to see her given some proper backstory, especially since she plays a supporting role in the MgRonalds-related plotlines.

Urushihara takes on a more responsible change of character in some ways, helping Maou and other characters point out some problems that persisted throughout the past book or two. It’s nice to see him step up and help the team in his own way. Meanwhile, Chiho and Emilia have their own feelings to figure out surrounding not just the whole Ignora issue, but also about Maou in general. It seems inevitable that Maou has a lot of decisions to make that will affect his standing in both worlds he is part of. I’m interested in seeing how all of this works in the next volumes.

Plot Development: 4 out of 5 stars

The main issue I had with the plotlines and characters was that it mainly focused on the MgRonalds’ side of things, and the real-life events going on in Japan. This somewhat-overshadowed the Ignora arc going on. Yes, there are elements of that arc affecting the world of Japan and everyday modern life. A main example of this was a particular character turning into a lizard and consequently wrecking the rooms of many characters). However, I felt that the Ignora arc didn’t really pick up much until the latter half of this volume.

Worldbuilding Development: 3 out of 5 stars

There was less worldbuilding in this book, compared to previous entries in the series.  This is due to plot in the book focusing mainly on the real-life Japan parts of the story. However, it built well on the already-established worldbuilding. The worldbuilding given in this book was well written in general. I just wanted more of it to show up, even if it was limited due to the lack of focus on the Ignora arc.

Overall, I’m rating this book 4 out of 5 stars!