「勇者、修羅場を経験する」 (Yūsha, Shuraba o Keiken Suru)
“The Hero Learns The True Meaning of “Lover’s Quarrel””

Oh no, Maou! You’ve got competition; save your wonderful waifu while you can!

It seems our demonic plot (and mysterious assassin) have been pushed back yet another week, but Hataraku is so consistently great that it’s never boring to watch episodes that aren’t rolling in Ente Isla magic. In fact, I’d argue that there’s plenty of action to be had in this Sentucky-MgRonald’s feud; at least, Maou and Ashiya certainly seem to think so, and they’re treating their opponent every bit as seriously as if they were really at war. In fact, it’s the first time in ages that I’ve seen Sadao this riled up, and it seems he’s bothered enough that his usual patience with Emi and her antics is only fleeting this time around. But really, who can blame him when all his ideas fall on empty customer booths and sad burger patties uncooked and without buns?

Hoping to be helpful, Ashiya takes to staking out Sentucky (a bit reluctantly; after all, who wants to pay the very enemy one is trying to defeat?) and delivers some great character interactions while talking with Emi, Suzuno, and Rika about his Lord. This whole scene is rich in dramatic and verbal irony; Rika is under the false impression that Emi and Suzuno are competing over Maou, which in turn highlights the irony of Emi’s burgeoning feelings for her mortal enemy (suuuuure, you can kill him anytime, huh). Ashiya then spins quite the tale of Emi being a temp and Maou and himself being heads of a self-made construction company, but if you pay close attention, this is pretty much a romanticized allusion to the whole Ente Isla affair. You have the small company that has to do all the physical work themselves (Maou and his generals), the opposing company with a much larger force backing Emi up (the Hero and her supports in the Church and other human strongholds) and the eventual defeat of the construction company, where the workers find themselves wandering around lost and without much sustenance (ring a bell?). It’s a pretty witty little insert (one I really enjoyed, considering how easily Ashiya lies his arse off and how easily Rika drinks it all in), and it certainly fools Rika enough that she even looks like she may have fallen for this worn-out warrior/housewife (we’re missing fisherman though).

Regardless, it doesn’t really seem like Sentucky is doing anything out of the ordinary to steal all of MgRonald’s customers, but after seeing the effect of Maou’s thoughtful bamboo idea, Suzuno and I have other ideas. Though she clearly notices that something is wrong and probably suspects Maou of using magic to bring customers over, I have to wonder if our playboy James-lookalike isn’t up to something similar across the way. Though we haven’t seen much of Miki-T lately, I haven’t forgotten that she’s more than meets the eye, so who knows if the Sentucky manager isn’t cut from the same block?

 

Preview

73 Comments

    1. Personally, I think she is just like Emi – she finds it hard to accept the man that Maou is now vs the man that he once was and let’s be honest, it is a bit jarring!

      TQ

      KF
      1. My impression was that she was noticing that his drive and strategic skill were as strong as ever, and thinking “for all he and Emi says he’s reformed, this guy is indeed dangerous, with a will to power. If he ever decided to go back to trying to be a dark lord…”

        Dp
      1. What’s Maou wants you to think.When the ship is full enough and sails for a while the skies shall be covered with dark clouds and a great storm will take place.No1 steal’s Maou’s waifu!

        However,the ship might be allowed to sail freely depending on the circumstances.

        MgMaster
    1. That was probally because Ashiya made up a story that further cooked up Emi’s age.

      I am rather humored about Emi and Maou’s fake story, construction workers ha ha ha now that is rich.

      L002
    2. From the Ashiya’s story, it seem that Emi took a whole year(the time skip at the ep1) to find maou in this world.
      Apparently Emi can’t open the ‘gate’ at all, the only character who can open the ‘gate’ causally without huge preparation so far is Maou.

      dithar
  1. Wonder why the Sentucky manager always hides his eyes. A few episodes back when Emi was attacked at the store, the most noticeable part was the attacker’s eyes. Maybe he also setup the bamboo spell as well.

    TSouL
    1. Remember the orange paintball the attacker was hit with? It is extremely difficult to remove (hence the shades), and it stinks like hell (hence the strong cologne) 😉

      Mentar
  2. Love your reviews(?)!
    Looking through the screenshots alone can make me laugh/fangirl =D
    And yes Miki-T is surely something more than just a fat woman in a bikini!(how did she find one that fit her anyway?)

    ZJ
  3. Though she clearly notices that something is wrong and probably suspects Maou of using magic to bring customers over.
    About that theory, I found a different one that seems kind of plausible.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Not sure whether its still early to say this, but having seen up to the 9th episode,
    I do hope that instead of being adapted only until 13 episodes for this season,
    the Hataraku anime would get greenlit to adapt all the Light Novels,
    just like the Oreimo anime – light novel relationship.

    Techim
    1. The anime will cover only 2 LNs of 8 total. So, there’s actually a lot of available material for a second season. The series is probably good for at least 7k Week 1 sales, so there’s a good chance for more, though I hear that the next major LN arc can probably be condensed some.

      On the Magic:
      Show Spoiler ▼

      SQA
  4. I have to wonder if Suzuno looks angry because

    1) her plan failed. (Figured she had something to do with MgRonalds losing all their customers)

    or

    2)Maou succeeded in bringing in all those customers.

    Ashiya is quite the storyteller, isn’t he? Maou Inc….. 🙂

    Interestingly, Ashiya and Urushihara shivered everytime Maou talks about them.

    And Maou-sama did COMMUNITY SERVICE????!!!

    Chiho is cute as always. Gosh, why isn’t she a real person??

    Burgers are boneless 🙂 Haha!!

    By the way,

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Please don’t click if you don’t want to know.

    mianghuei
  5. emi, suzuno, & emi’s call worker go take a eat & check sfc give blue shades being sleeze to emi’s call worker give then the 3 talking about maou give til his loyal sidekick appear give mention story of “maou inc” company til emi got them jobless.

    then finally arrive at mcronald give being under quiet go trying from flyers, tuna burgers chiho (give crowd want chiho), etc til maou got a gift of bamboo tree from old guy he helped from doing cleaning the neighborhood.

    so combine bamboo tree, flyers, chiho, etc everyone now coming to mcronald with got emi & co-worker bit huh/wow while suzuno bit “HMM”.

    b.i.t.w.
  6. I wonder how they are going to round up this series.
    They have 3 episodes left and they gotta solve these problems.

    1. The mysterious assassin
    2. Miki-T
    3. Maou X Emi (this anime is classified romance)
    4. Oba
    5. Suzuno (the lady in traditional Japanese clothing)

    Fumbal
    1. 4 actually, not 3.
      Seeing how they could fit an adapt an entire epic battle from the Light Novel Vol. 1 into one episode(ep 5), its possible we could have a great end.
      Haven’t read Volumes 2 or 3, so not sure how the story will go.

      Techim
  7. Finally found the time to marathon the first eight episodes of what has got to be the surprise comedy hit of Spring 2013. Let’s just say this is one of the series that I’m willing to rewatch for the BD version just for all the lulz. So good that not even the fact Studio White Fox couldn’t finish the OP and ED animation in time mattered (it wasn’t till episode 5 that the full OP came out and episode 6 for the ED), for the quality of the laughs more than compensated for it.

    Ashiya inadvertedly scores a few flags with Rika, much to the chagrin of yaoi fangirls everywhere. Though they may still argue that Ashiya, being a 1500-year-old demon, is simply too old for Rika.

    Those of us fluent enough in Japanese probably couldn’t help ourselves giggling everytime Sentucky Fried Chicken gets mentioned. Instead of ficker-linkn’ good chicken, I ended up thinking of detergent and dirty laundry.

    https://randomc.net/image/Hataraku%20Maou-sama/Hataraku%20Maou-sama%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
    Angry Emi face of the week. Notice how her ahoge changes shape as she twitches her face. XD

    Anonymous
    1. I won’t go into spoilers with this bu Maou’s magic is not purple, It’s green, red, or black. We’ve only seen purple magic out of 2 sources so far: the mysterious guy & Lucifer – & I don’t think Lucifer has anything left in the tank. Of course he might have some purple magic but the source of it would still be the fear of people. There was no fear going on in that situation.

      Megas
  8. Despite Emi’s moderate size, I’m totally looking forward to the next episode just to see her in a swimsuit :D. And hopefully, her reactions when she starts comparing herself to others (Chiho-chan namely) XD.

    Euzio
  9. Man, I was laughing throughout the time that Ashiya was spinning that tale. And him scoring Rika was a squee worthy bonus! Sorry, yaoi people, but I ship these two now! (Nevermind that it’s a Mayfly-December romance thing )

    Now THAT is what I want to see from ya, Maou!! The GUREETO leader that you once have been! I’m a sucker for guys who are authoritative but have a cute and adorable side.

    lalunafelis
  10. Seafae
  11. Somehow I feel like the OST in this episode really fits each scene. We have the dramatic bgm when Ashiya was narrating Maou and Emi’s “past”, and the piano bgm when Rika praises Ashiya. Its painful waiting for the OST to be released!

    Fafnir
    1. Eh? I think some of the tracks are a bit too repetitive to my tastes, but they can’t really do much about it since this show HAS a budget to maintain. But I kinda like Maou’s theme, the one that played when he pwned Lucifer in episode 5 and in this ep, when Ashiya was doing a thoughtful exposition on his lord.

      lalunafelis
  12. Observe how the Sentucky manager never actually flirted with Emilia at the counter, unlike with Rika and Chiho.
    The whole conversation was almost like he was advising…or even warning her.

    zztop
  13. I read the excerpt, and thought “Is she talking about Chiho? Emi!? …Oh, wait, no. She’s talking about Alsiel.”

    DAMN RIGHT!! Take back yo waifu, Maou! >:D

    Stilts
  14. Ugh I really need the next episode as soon as possible. This show continues to amaze me with its dialogue, characters, animation, plot… It’s just an amazing show that’s doing it all right with relative ease. I was surprised the way Ashiya came up with this elaborate story of rival construction companies in order to explain to Rika the situation with Maou-sama and Emi. Hilarious! Golden! It was the best thing next to when Maou’s idea was explained with the trees. He does community service, wutttt? Hahaha, I just love this show and I hate how quickly the episodes end and having to wait 7 days for the next one. I could watch this for ages and never get bored, even if it dwindled down to just a randon slice-of-life with not overarching plot. Just watching their interactions with each other and the humans of the modern world is entertaining enough by itself.

    Axel
  15. Dang, James has such great char music; it really fits his personality =03.

    Another thing I noticed; in a previous ep when Emi came to order something, he served her with a smile(although reluctantly X03), then in this ep, as shift manager, he comes off like a jerk in front of Suzuno and Rika. Could his newfound power as shift manager gone to his head and made him evil!?

    frubam
    1. It might simply be pressure(what with the threat of being sent to Greenland and all) or, based on speculations in various fora I’ve been to, he may have been influenced/affected by whatever’s been causing that purple aura.

      lalunafelis
    2. Or because Emi always treats him coldly even after saving her from various things like stairs. You’d get tired of a person too if you tried to be nice but got nothing back but insults.

      EliteF22
  16. Going by Ashiya’s romanticized version of the human-demon war. It would seem it was not as one-sided as Emi’s flashback and the first episode prologue let on.

    EliteF22
  17. “I will thoroughly investigate Sentucky’s at the lowest possible cost!”

    lol

    And man, what is it with every (younger) girl in this anime being so cute?!?! Chiho, Emi, Suzuno, and now Rika. There’s just like…nothing unlikeable about any of the characters so far! So far, at least this season (that I’ve seen anyway), only Samurai Girls/Bride matches it, lol.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
  18. Emi: Prepare For trouble!
    James: Make It Double!
    Emi: To Protect The World From Devastation!
    James: To Put Out Of Business The MgRonalds Corporation!
    Emi: To Denounce The Evils Of Truth And Love!
    James: To Extend Our Franchise To The Stars Above!

    EMI!~
    JAMES!~

    Emi: Team Rocket, Blast Off At The Speed Of Light!
    James: Surrender Now Or Prepare To Fight!
    Rika: Meow~, That’s Right!

    ROFL

    foureyeszerosoul
  19. I think there’s a curse being placed on the MgRonald’s Hatagaya store, which could only be lifted if they do something charitable, something the person making the curse probably never expected Maou of all people to be capable of.

    Anonymous
  20. I’m guessing the real reason why the demons followed him was because of his personality. He may be a bit spoiled, but he actually seems to be a good peoples’ person, if you try working under him.

    ion52
  21. Ashiya is really loyal to Maou! It seems like he’s still recovering from his sickness (judging by his face in this episode) and yet he’s still willing to do whatever his lord wishes.

    Fafnir

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