Book Review: “The Devil is A Part-Timer! Volumes 7 and 8” by Satoshi Wagahara

Warning: If you have not read The Devil is a Part-Timer! Volumes 7 and 8, do not read this review if you do not want spoilers! (To be entirely honest, this review doesn’t contain a huge amount of major spoilers so it’s probably fine to read it.)

I’m back with another book review, and this time it’s a double-book review of Volumes 7 and 8 of “The Devil is a Part-Timer!” It’s been a while since I wrote up a review of the series so far, and I figured I might as well compile what I thought of both volumes in one review. I usually wait to write the overall rating of the series until after I’m done reading all of the books in it, so…

Here’s the summary for Volume 7!

“Urushihara’s been scammed by a corrupt door to door salesman! Maou goes to their office to get back his money but what will fortune have in store…?! On his way back, Maou ends up bringing home an abandoned silver cat. As they search for its owner, this silver feline beings to get them into all sorts of trouble… The Maou crew heads out to buy Alas Ramus proper bedding to sleep in as they are joined by Emi in an apparently feel-good family outing that has her holding her head in disbelief… Then high school girl Chiho reminisces about the time she started first working her part time job at MgRonald and first met Maou, the time when she was still just a normal school girl like any other…”

Despite all of this sounding like it is one coherent story, do not be fooled. Volume 7 is, in fact, a collection of short stories that is not part of the main plot of the overall series, but are more like side stories that help to supplement the character development. There are notes at the back of the book for as of what time in the main plotline these short stories took place, which is nice, and though it does not necessarily contribute to the main plot, all of them were still fun to read.

The most amusing and interesting short story out of all of them was the last one, because that one takes place prior to the events of Volume One, and shows how Chiho met Maou and got so into him to begin with. It shows more than just the origins of her love interest, though—it also reveals more of Chiho’s personality that was lacking in Volume One to begin with and then was later revealed in subsequent volumes. I kind of wish this short story had been placed in the back of the first volume, at least, rather than put alongside the other stories, so we would have known more of Chiho’s actual personality and motivations from the start.

Overall, 4 out of 5 stars!

And now, the summary for Volume 8:

“Emi’s going to Ente Isla with Alas Ramus! Still in Japan, Maou decides to get his driver’s license for his work at MgRonald, but he can’t help worrying when the Emi’s return date passes without her arrival. After his apprehension causes him to bomb his exam, the Devil King meets a strange pair strangely unsuited to Japan… Could they know something about Emi?!”

Overall, I admit I had mixed feelings about this book. There are definitely some significant plot points that happen for the main plot, but I also feel like the chain of events got a bit too random, especially in the latter half of the book. The first half was interesting, however, especially once the Devil King meets the “strange pair” mentioned in the book, and those two characters are both fun to read and also contribute to the plot in a way. I can’t really talk about how they do, however, due to the large amount of spoilers that would bring.

As I mentioned just earlier, I definitely do feel like the second half of the book’s events were a bit too random for me at times. It’s hard to tell you again why, because that gives away some major plot points, but as much as I understand that there will be randomness at times in the series, given its humour, I do feel like it was a bit much, or sometimes made the plotline feel lacking coherency.

The cliffhanger ending definitely threw me off, especially since none of the other books had a cliffhanger ending as prominent as this one. It makes me wonder, however, if Maou and the others will be rushing back to Ente Isla to save Emi and Alas Ramus from Olba. I feel like this will be the case, and if that is so, will they brng Chiho? I just think it would be funny for her to experience some culture shock, being someone that comes from Japan and now entering the fantasy world of Ente Isla that Maou and the others come from.

Overall, I’m rating this book 3.5 out of 5 stars! Though this wasn’t as strong as Volumes 6 and 7, I’m hoping that Volume 9 can redeem this a little bit and make sense of everything that happened.