Audio - Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.1)/English (Dolby Digital 2.1) Subtitles - English Running Time - 345 Aspect Ratio - 1.78:1 Region Coding - B (Blu-Ray) TV Standard - PAL Rating - M
Author: John Mathews Movie: 5/5 The devil is a Part-Timer is probably the most refreshing and enjoyable anime I have seen in years, from start to finish it manages to master the art of storytelling with underlying humour. It is a concept so original it is hard to explain, essentially there is an alternate universe called Ente Isla. A universe filled with monsters and demons, and humans. King satan is run out of his kingdom by 'the Hero', he and his sidekick Shirō Ashiya leave through a portal. Upon arriving on the other side they realise that they are on earth and have to adapt to the environment, they speak their language from the old world and eventually learn English. Their first night on earth is hilarious, trying to understand how things work. Obviously living on earth (in this case modern day Japan); you are going to need a job. King satan who now goes by the alias Mao, he and his side kick decide to rent a dingy apartment. Luckily satan has scored a job at the local Mgronalds fast good restaurant, where he takes his job very seriously. The pacing of this series is extremely well timed, moving at a speed that viewers can comprehend what is going on, but not too slow, making the series boring. Satan has a small bit of magic left from the old world which he has to be careful in using, for example he carelessly uses it to get a deep fryer working at work. The series stays true to rules of it's own universe. All of a sudden king Satan keeps getting attacked by a mysterious figure, who is eventually revealed to be the hero, Emilia Justina. She wants to take down Satan, but eventually realised that he has settled for a normal life and is slowly giving up hope for world domination. Emilia eventually finds herself also in a dead end job at a call centre, she then decides whether she prefers earth and if she really wants to go back to her past. She is an Angle after all and one of the chosen one that were picked to lead and defeat evil back in her homeland. In between this at Mgronalds we have young 16 year old Chiho Sasaki, who has a crush on Satan; but Satan can't seen to take the hint. She keeps refering to him as Mr. Mao. Now make note this is a series that is insanely well written, the humour comes across in the dialogue. There is a scene when Mgronalds is losing customers to a competitor across the road so Satan screams "then we will advertise that our burgers don't have bones and are easy to eat!", promotes the quote outside to a crowd where she is mocked. It are moments like this of surrealist humour that had myself on the floor in laughter, just little things; even Shirōs old fashion dialogue and inability to adapt to modern day. It is also a series that is completely self aware of what it is, it doesn't mock shift working; but there are underlying themes of corporate control over shift workers. When Satan looks at his roster and it is all over the place, it will make anyone who previously worked in retail or fast food chuckle. Also references to Japanese gaming culture and parody of brandings throughout. Character development expands as the series develops. We eventually get introduced to two more characters that become vital to the series, Satans neighbour and also Lucifer. We become very attached to these characters as it progresses to the point when the series reaches an end and we wish that it was more than a limited series, but it's good to see that the creators decided to make one perfect season than five mediocre seasons. There is a villain, but it makes us question who is truley evil, but no spoilers here. I have to give it to funmation for creating a very effective and well done English dub, brining these characters even further to life. But I have have just scraped the surface, the episodes vary greatly in events and there is so much more to this series. This is without a doubt 'Anime of the Year', sure shows like Attack on Titan are great, but what this show does is draw us in with wit, masterful storytelling, deep characters and humour. Video: 5/5 Obviously being an anime, the series is presented in it's original television aspect ratio of 1.78:1 It is obviously very crisp with no visual grain. There are no signs of video glitches and this transfer holds off extremely well. Colours are extremely rich and vibrant and detail can be seen in every frame, this is a stunning show and an even better transfer. The animation is truly stunning, between both worlds that it is set. Audio: 5/5 Presented in a Dolby 5.1 the sound is rich and balanced. Most of the English dialogue has been well recorded and perfectly timed, the dialogue comes off very clear. The soundtrack is also fantastic, when blasted there does not appear to be any signs of peaking of distortion. Extras: A good selection of extras can be found, most focusing on the adaptation to the western world. Audio Commentary, one two episodes an audio commentary by the western cast and crew. They are very informative in giving us a backstory to this series. The Ente Isla Language with Jamie Marchi: An interesting look behind the fictional language of the characters from enta Isla. Clean OP/ED As always we have the opening and closing titles with no credits, the closing titles are a by of a mystery; giving a deeper underlying theme. Trailers Overall 4.5 M:5 V: 5 A: 5 E: 3.5 P.S: As one of the lead editor here at DSC, I'm going to say this is blu ray of the month. I rarely give out 5's, the only 5 I have given this year was to 'The Raid 2'. I haven't seen such an enjoyable and clever anime in a very, very long time.
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