Patty might not be the strongest devil, but at least she does have a familiar!
Well, sort of anyway.
In a society where a devil’s familiar is a status symbol, nobody is quite sure what to make of Patty’s human familiar Norman except to snark that a living human familiar seems pretty useless. But, when Patty receives word on her missing father, she’s glad for any allies she can get!
When I started reading this volume I actually expected it to be a rather episodic, silly tale of a devil girl and her human familiar so I was surprised when the story presented itself as having a larger plot, or at least goal, for Patty to work towards. However, as I was reading I found myself wishing that the story had actually been more episodic instead. A rare complaint from me, but the story commits so half-halfheartedly towards pursuing Patty’s missing father that I would have much rather the story be more episodic than this distracted, half and half approach to the story. Or, maybe if the distractions that kept getting in Patty and Norman’s way were more interesting, a no-purpose “best familiar contest” is pretty dull diversion it turns out, then maybe I wouldn’t mind so much, but as the story currently exists, this first volume was a bit dull.
Regarding Patty’s human familiar Norman, I’m not sure that there would be a “good” way to have a devil-human familiar set-up, but making the master be a young girl and the familiar be an older man, who apparently doesn’t listen to her, just doesn’t work well for me. I’m actually not worried about their relationship turning romantic. Norman seems to be more of a gag character than one to be taken seriously, but it’s a relationship built on multiple levels of inequality and that inequality is part of the joke! It’s just hard for me to find jokes based on an unequal power struggle frankly, especially when it mirrors real-world power struggles that I’m obviously aware of! This is another area of Sorry For My Familiar which seems not very well planned and something that seriously damages a premise that has real comedic potential.
Alas, comedy is not one of this story’s strong points in any area. Frankly Sorry For My Familiar was so lackluster in all areas that I wonder if the story will even have the steam to carry the series all the way to a satisfactory ending. Unless I hear absolutely stunning things about future volumes, this is one series that I will not be continuing to follow.