The Devil is a Part-Timer Season 3

Episode 21

I feel like I've been waiting weeks for an episode like this to happen. While the presentation was pretty bland and there were one or two moments where I needed to suspend my disbelief for the sake of a dramatic reveal, this episode had the narrative progression that I think the series has been sorely missing. Now that we're back in Ente Isla, we're finally starting to see the build-up and fall-out to all of the conspiring that has been going on while we've been in Japan. The angels are manipulating multiple parties for the sake of progressing this war and the church is taking advantage of the fact that they get to drive out demons for the sake of maintaining political power. Plus, now that Emi is here, they can use her as a figurehead to make their control look more justified while also blackmailing her into doing nothing. It's funny how in a lot of ways she's in a similar position to where she was at the beginning of the show but now that she has a better understanding of what the other side looks like and how this war might've come to be in the first place, these actions are recontextualized in a way that makes her feel sick. She's learned to appreciate life and realize that maybe this war didn't need to be fought in the first place.

I love how all these plot revelations are sort of contrasted with what has been going on with Maou. I love the scene between him and Suzuno where they're just sitting by the campfire facing away from each other. The whole situation is framed like a confession which means we finally get some context as to why Maou feels so guilty. He fought this war for the sake of his people because he thought it was the only way to keep demons alive since demons get their energy from magical power which to them is fueled by things like misery. He thought the best-case scenario for his people was to conquer other humans so that they would have a steady supply of fear and misery. It's not a perfect solution and Maou recognizes that, especially after going to Japan and being human where he was able to survive off of food like other humans. In a lot of ways, it probably made his once noble cause seem pointless with how his people were forced to suffer. Now he has to live with the fact that inflicting bloodshed on others was for nothing which is ironically what's happening right now.

I like how the show doesn't gloss over the fact that regardless of what his intentions were, Maou still caused a lot of pain to people. The whole thing is framed as a confession and there's no way that “God” would ever forgive these types of sins. But I like how Suzuno acknowledges that while also saying that while God may not forgive his sins, she does. It makes sense for her to have that opinion because she spent most of her life killing in the name of God only to realize that she was being used. Everybody in this show has some kind of sin or responsibility that they may need to shoulder and I like how this is sort of the thing that brings them together. Finally, this is what I wanted to see from the show and I hope this isn't just a one-off!

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The Devil Is a Part-Timer!! Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu