The manga adaptation of The Devil is a Part-Timer! covers volume 6 of the light novel. Yes, covers. Volume 6 of the light novel is on the slower side as far as the series goes, focusing on changing circumstances between the Hero and the Devil King and future plans for them and others, especially Chiho. So it’s nice that Hiiragi doesn’t spend too much time here and prepares to enter one of the biggest and most significant arcs in The Devil is a Part-Timer!
On the downside, turning a 230-ish page light novel into a 190-ish page manga means some significant sacrifices.
Chiho asks Suzuno and Emi to help her learn how to do an Idea Link, but it’s Emi and Maou who need to work on their communication skills. Emi doesn’t know what to think now that she’s heard her father is alive. Maou, meanwhile, now has to deal with a Malebranche who wants to know what specifically the Devil King is doing to achieve his goal. Farfarello also arrives with a boy who Alas Ramus reveals is another incarnation of a Yesod fragment.
Technically, those are some important developments. Chiho is stepping further into her friends’ world, learning a skill she should never have even heard of, let alone perform. Emi is getting to know Maou so well that she can tell when he’s lying. Another Sephirah spirit, Erone, is hanging around a demon. Unfortunately, the manga doesn’t play up any of these things. Most of the manga takes place over a couple of days, and it flows well overall without being obvious that things were cut. It’s just none of these events have time to sink in and be appreciated by the characters and readers. Almost everything ends in a “let’s explain what happened” conversation, and I wish either there was more internal monologues or just let the art do the talking.
While I am trying to avoid turning this review into a comparison with the light novel, I will say that Sariel is pretty bizarre in Hiiragi’s adaptation. Sariel is not the laziest of the angels, but he comes across as surprisingly proactive when Farfarello arrives on Earth. His appearance was probably the weakest part of the manga since most readers will wonder why he’s suddenly helping.
Still, The Devil is a Part-Timer! volume 14 isn’t bad. The adaptation covers one of my favorite scenes, the confrontation with Farfarello, well thanks to the girls’ reactions. (Speaking of the girls, I love the color insert — all three main girls plus Alas Ramus in a cute, non-fanservice-y image.) Chiho fans will also love how much she’s truly the glue that holds everything together. Yet while she’s almost motherly in her wish for everyone to get along, she still very much a girl who wants the guy she likes to return her feelings. For Maou, having Chiho drag him by the collar is scary in a different way from Emi.
Still, in the end, this volume is a Reader’s Digest version of its source material. Hiiragi does well to prevent the manga from being jarring and to get to the really good stuff, but charging ahead means a lot of exposition at the expense of characterization.