The Devil is a Part-Timer!! episode 2

Rating: B

The first episode ended with the bombshell revelation that Alas Ramus, the toddler who appeared from a golden apple and was capable of stopping Better Half with her bare hands, regards Satan and Emilia as her parents. This episode starts by showing that she’s absolutely adamant about that belief, no matter how little sense it actually makes, so now the whole gang must deal with the consequences.

The most immediate – though hardly most problematic – of those consequences is who’s going to look after the tyke. That Maou would eventually decide to take responsibility is not surprising, though Suzuno admitting that she has experience with kids is a bit of a surprise given her demeanor. Explaining Alas Ramus’s presence, and who she claims her parents are, to anyone outside of the Enta Islans (and their immediate confidante Chiho) proves at least as harrowing as having to deal with a toddler unhappy that one of her parents isn’t present, though. The episode offers two different types of problem cases on that: one is Emi’s meddlesome, drama-loving friend Rika, while the other is Maou’s manager, Ms. Kisaki. The former is just having fun with the situation, while the latter has some valuable advice about appearances that neither Chiho nor Maou is fully considering even once Maou does come up with some kind of cover story. She’s right, too, even though the situation is a lot more complicated than she realizes.

Essentially, most of the episode involves the cast adjusting to the presence of Alas Ramus and setting up for her “Mama and Papa” to take her to the amusement park together, despite the misgivings that both (especially Emi) have about the endeavor; Kisaki’s words about appearances also echo here, and I have to wonder if Emi’s decision to visit a salon in preparation for the outing isn’t going to backfire because of that. Going that far to prepare for a “family outing” certainly suggests something more than just a display of pride, but the way intent and appearances conflict has been a running theme of the franchise so far. Meanwhile, the mysterious woman from the first episode’s prologue is not only in Japan but also keeping an eye on Alas Ramus, while another angel looks to be Gating to Japan. Urushihara also has his own problems, as the comment about how even a seeming 2-year-old is more responsible about cleaning up after herself than him apparently got to him.

The big picture here still has only been vaguely hinted at by the end of the episode, but there are clues present if one knows what to look for. The mysterious woman has hair color of a similar hue to both the angelic-looking figure at the end of the episode and to Emilia’s Hero form (and, for that matter, Alas Ramus, too). Since that form represents Emilia manifesting her half-angel side, it’s safe to say that the woman is either an angel or closely linked to them. The meaning of Alas Ramus’s name is also significant here, as the “wing” part could be an angelic reference and the “branch” part seems more suspicious after seeing the tree prominently-featured at the end of the episode. Not enough information has yet been provided to piece together where this is headed, but the bread crumbs are starting to accumulate.

In an adaptation sense, the anime version is definitely condensing some things as it takes the first novel past the halfway point (i.e., to page 139 of 251), but it is not leaving out anything important. Even so, the pacing here – which is much faster than for the first season – strongly suggests an intent to spend only four episodes adapting novel 3. Also, the scene shown at the end involving the tree and the presumed angel isn’t just anime-original; it’s providing visual details that don’t come up until vastly later in the novels. That makes its inclusion an interesting one, to the point that I have to wonder what the production team’s intent is here. Clearly, the people producing the series had read the source material through to the final novel.

Overall, this is another solid episode which manages the established cast well while both using its trademark style of humor and setting up for what seems like a potential conflict next episode.