Hataraku Maou-sama is one of my favourite comedies. You wanna know why?

Everything about Hataraku Maou-sama is the definition of “minimalist storytelling”. By that, I mean it uses only a few characters and an extremely simple premise to make maximum laughs and doesn’t suffer for it. Much of its humour transcends language, since it is contingent upon understanding the tropes of isekai and fantasy – genres which are particularly prolific in this day and age of anime.

Unlike other series, it doesn’t overcompensate for deficiencies in its plot by spreading its characterisation over too large a cast (*looks at Bleach and Hypnosis Mic*). This keeps the audience invested in the plot while maintaining high standards of characterisation for everyone involved. Even in subsequent seasons, when the action moves to Ente Isla, the focus is squarely on the cast we’ve met before and then the rest are side characters…bar maybe Camio. This does have the drawback of when they need humans, they’ll probably keep going towards the same people – Chiho, Chiho’s family etc. – though that’s a small price to pay for an otherwise tight storyline.

That said, it manages to somehow skilfully weave in existing mythos about angels and demons without plagiarising. For example, take Sariel. Sariel’s fall from grace in the angel mythos is that he started lusting after human women. Who does Mitsuki Sarue fall in love with? Manager Kisaki, a human woman! Genius, right?

Between season 1 and the other 2 seasons, it had been a long time (9 years, I think it was…?), so at first, it was hard to remember why I loved this series (especially given when you get to season 2, you get Alas Ramus – someone who I’d met through spoilers back when that stuff was fresh in the light novels and now I consider myself ace, it’s harder to tolerate romantic shenanigans). Then the storylines of different genres – the romantic tension, slice of life/work and high fantasy – started to fuse together coherently and it started to make sense all over again.