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I feel like I’ve been waiting weeks for an episode like this to happen. While the exposition was pretty bland and there were a moment or two where I needed to suspend my disbelief for a dramatic reveal, this episode had a narrative progression that I think the series has suffered from. serious shortcomings. Now that we’re back on Ente Isla, we’re finally starting to see the build-up and fall-out of all the plots that took place while we were in Japan. The angels are manipulating many parties to promote this war, and the church is taking advantage of their exorcism of demons to maintain political power. Plus, now that Emi is here, they can use her as a puppet to make their control look more legitimate while blackmailing her into doing nothing. It’s funny how in many ways she’s in the same position she was at the start of the show but now she has a better understanding of what her opponent looks like and how this fight could play out in the Beginning First, these actions are recontextualized in a way that makes her feel nauseous. She learned to appreciate life and realized that maybe this war didn’t need to happen in the first place.
I love how all these plot reveals contrast with what’s going on with Maou. I like the scene where he and Suzuno sit far apart by the campfire. The whole situation is framed like a confession, meaning we finally understand the context of why Maou feels so guilty. He fights this war for the good of his people because he thinks it is the only way to keep demons alive because demons get their energy from magical power which for them is fueled by things like anguished. He thinks the best scenario for his people is to conquer others so they have a steady supply of fear and suffering. It wasn’t a perfect solution and Maou realized that, especially after coming to Japan and becoming human, where he could survive on food like other humans. In many ways, it may have rendered his once noble cause meaningless as his people were forced to suffer. Now he has to live with the fact that shedding the blood of others is nothing, ironically what is happening now.
I like how the show doesn’t gloss over the fact that no matter what his intentions are, Maou still causes a lot of suffering to people. The whole thing is framed as a confession and there is no way “God” can forgive these types of sins. But I like how Suzuno acknowledges it while also saying that while God may not forgive his sins, she does. It makes sense for her to have that perspective since she spent most of her life killing people in the name of God only to realize that she was being taken advantage of. Everyone on this show has some kind of guilt or responsibility that they may have to shoulder, and I love how this is what binds them together. Ultimately, this is what I want 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 now streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu
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