The Devil is one of the most widely portrayed characters in pop culture, and nearly every time he appears it’s as the embodiment of pure evil. There have been times when Satan is portrayed as sympathetic, but Satan has almostnever been portrayed as a good guy.
The Devil Is A Part-Timer!focuses on the rise, fall, and rise again of the infamous Demon Lord Satan. Satan begins his journey as a warmonger attempting to take over the world. His plan fails when the hero Emilia defeats him in battle. He narrowly escapes death by fleeing to the world of modern-day Tokyo through a gate, where he continues enacting his plan to take over the world in a much more innocent and mundane way.
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What Makes A Good Guy?
To know whether Satan is a good guy good has to be defined first. A large part of what defines good and evil is dictated is culturally determined. There aremajor cultural differencesbetween his native land; Enta Isla, and Tokyo, Japan. Enta Isla is a feudal economy that seems mostly like a throwback to medieval times. Tokyo is obviously a modern capitalist city. Satan’s strategy for gaining power changes the same way that methods for gaining power change over time.
Military force and divine right were the most effective way of ensuring a king’s absolute power in medieval times. Satan used military force to take over Enta Isla mainly because there were no other ways to gain power, especially since Satan has no way of getting divine support. In modern-day Tokyo the only thing a person needs to gain power is capital, and there are both good and bad ways of doing that. Satan’s plan inThe Devil Is A Part-Timer!!is to climbthe corporate ladderat MgRonald’s.
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If seeking power makes someone evil, then Satan is clearly evil. However, even if seeking power does not make Satan evil, there are other factors that might. For example, what Satan wants power for, or what he plans to do with power once he obtains it. Satan the part-timer seems to want power, respect, and to elevate the status of those around him.
His motivations are noble, but it is also necessary to look at what the effects of Satan’s actions in thepursuit of powerare. MgRonald’s (a parody of McDonald’s) is a corporation that many would consider evil for a variety of legitimate reasons. If Satan’s actions contribute to MgRonald’s rise, then maybe Satan is evil. Alternatively, it could be argued that if Satan somehow managed to become CEO of MgRonald’s, then he couldreshape the companyinto having better morals.
At the present moment inThe Devil Is A Part-Timer!!, the Devil is still a part-timer. The largest jump in power for him lie in the possibility of being promoted to a full-time employee. It is unreasonable to say that every part-time and full-time employee at MgRonald’s is evil just because they work for MgRonald’s. The only evidence the show has given that Satan is evil is from what the hero Emilia and her compatriots have said about what he did in Enta Isla. They said that Satan haskilled innocent peoplewithout remorse. Satan must be a bad guy then, right? Does Satan have the capacity for change? He is downright chivalrous in his actions on screen in modern day Tokyo, and his worst enemies have started to see Satan in a more charitable light, even considering forgiveness.
There are people who will never forgive Satan, and justly believe in the adage “once a murderer, always a murderer.” Satan’s reputation as a charmer, and a silver-tongued demagogue who lures the naive into following him. The last season of Satan’s good deeds inThe Devil Is A Part-Timer!!could all be a trick used to further his plot to take over the world. It seems then that the only way to believe that Satan is a good guy is to believe in Satan.
