The Devil Is a Part-Timer! Volume Eight, at the time of this writing, contains content that has not been adapted for the anime. There’s supposed to be more coming out for the anime in 2023, there’s the potential that this material could be part of the forthcoming continuation.

If you’re an anime-only fan of The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, I would highly suggest stopping here and not continue to read this review for now in order to avoid getting potential spoilers.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! Volume Eight
Written by: Satoshi Wagahara
Publisher: Kadokawa Corporation
English Publisher: Yen On
Release Date: August 22, 2017

The beginning of Volume Eight sees Emi deciding to return to Ente Isla with Alas Ramus after the events that took place in Volume Six in order to trace her mother’s footsteps and hopefully find some answers as to why her mother spread the pieces of the Yesod fragments. At the same time, the MgRonalds that Maou and Chiho work at has been tasked by corporate to begin doing meal delivery, which requires employees to get their scooter license. Maou is working at studying for the upcoming scooter license test.

When Emi leaves, she says she’s only going to be gone for a short time, but when the day she’s supposed to return comes and goes with no trace of Emi, everyone starts to worry. In the story, we see that two weeks have elapsed since Emi was supposed to return, and that the confusion and worry over Emi not returning affect Maou’s concentration for his scooter license test. Unfortunately, this means that Maou now has to retake the written test, and he encounters two strange people on his way to the retake. These two characters end up being very important, especially for the climax of this volume, and they have connections to other characters already introduced in the series. For one of the characters, they had been referenced in a previous volume, so we know that they had to be out there somewhere. For the other, the readers know that other characters who have a similar trait already exist, so in some respects, it wasn’t surprising that someone like them would be out there. However, their exact relationship to another character in the series was the bigger surprise.

Rika, Emi’s friend and colleague from work, is also an important character in this volume. She’s obviously concerned about Emi after she’s been gone longer than expected, but she reveals that Emi had made contact with her a couple of times about work-related things after the last contact she had made with Suzuno. Unfortunately, an emergency situation arises at Chiho’s school while Maou is taking the written test for his scooter license, and Suzuno and Urushihara end up revealing that they’re not truly human in front of Rika. Poor Rika is traumatized, and Ashiya has to make a decision about revealing the truth about everyone to her. He decides to try to explain to her, but she doesn’t seem to want to believe what she’s hearing. I thought this was the right time to finally let Rika in on what’s happening, even though Emi wasn’t present, but we really don’t know by the end of the volume if she’s come to accept what she heard from Ashiya. Hopefully Volume Nine will expound more on Rika and if she accepts the explanation. If she does, how could this affect her relationship with not only Emi, but with the rest of the cast?

The climax of the story sees a member of the Melabranche attacking and causing chaos at Chiho’s school with a major rainstorm that also affects quite a bit of the city. Chiho, Urushihara, and Suzuno take on this demon, and as they do, it comes out that the Melabranche are working with the angels. It was actually pretty awesome to see Urushihara doing something and being part of the action. This isn’t typical for him, and we likely won’t see him be like this anytime again in the neat future, so I made sure to enjoy this as I read Volume Eight. Later, Maou, one of the new characters, and Gabriel become part of the action here. Yes, Gabriel makes another appearance in the series, after basically being absent back in Volume Six. I should have figured that he would come back at some point.

The character I was more surprised to see return was Amane, the woman who ran the restaurant at the beach that Maou and the others worked at earlier in the series. It was made clear that she had an understanding of who Maou and the others were, and that she also had connections with spirits, so it did make sense for her to appear… especially since her aunt is the landlord of the apartment complex most of the characters live in. Amane plays an important role for the event that takes place at Devil’s Castle, when some of the angels kidnap Ashiya and one of the new characters introduced in this volume. It appears the angels are taking them to Ente Isla, but before Ashiya is whisked away, he gives Amane a message to pass on to Maou. This message becomes important, because what Ashiya shares is laying a foundation for what Maou and the others currently on Earth will have to do next.

There’s a bonus chapter at the end of Volume Eight, which finally shows the reader what happened to Emi and Alas Ramus in Ente Isla. I thought this was a nice bit of payoff for the reader, since, just like the characters on Earth, the reader also had no idea what had happened to Emi in Ente Isla throughout the main story in this volume.

With the extra chapter, as well as what’s established with the new characters and Ashiya’s message to Maou near the end, it becomes clear that The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is going to be moving in a different direction. It appears at the end of the volume that Maou’s goal is to return to Ente Isla to rescue Emi, so my guess is that future volumes of the story will be focusing on Maou trying to find a way to create a Gate to get there, and then on finding and rescuing Emi and Alas Ramus. If I’m right, this means that we’ll likely be seeing less of Maou working as a part-timer at MgRonalds for a while. In some respects, after seeing how important MgRonalds was back in Volume Six, it is a little disappointing that it seems like this angle will be taking a backseat.

Even with the possibility that the part-timer aspect will potentially be diminishing in future volumes of the series, I overall still enjoyed reading The Devil Is a Part-Timer! Volume Eight. I found myself riveted to the story, especially during the climax. In some respects, it’s a little exciting to see the stage being set for the series to move in a different direction, even though it may be at the expense of the angle that made this series stand out to begin with.

If you’ve enjoyed The Devil Is a Part-Timer! light novel series up to this point and aren’t as attached to the devil working part-time at a fast food restaurant angle, then you’ll probably enjoy reading Volume Eight.

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