Hataraku Maou-sama! - 6

"The Demon Lord Climbs the Stairs to School"

What would you do for a Pasta console?

After last week’s epic showdown, we get ourselves a breather episode in the world of Hataraku. Things seem to have settled down after Lucifer and Orba’s defeat, and everyone’s gone back to their normal daily lives, with a few exceptions. For one thing, Chiho has comfortably accepted the fact that she’s surrounded by demons and angelic stalker-heroes, and for another, Lucifer has made himself at home at Maou’s stronghold under the name Urushihara as something of a cross between bratty teenage son and NEET younger brother. There’s definitely some plot underfoot in the menacing form of the Church back on Ente Isla, which is horrified to think Emilia and Maou are loose and know more than they should, but for the most part this is a laid back retreat into the humor that characterized the first couple of episodes (albeit somewhat diluted).

Under the excuse of using the power of the internet to better research magic in the human world, Maou and Ashiya spoil their son freeloader by getting him an admittedly low-spec laptop, which leads to Lucifer suggesting his master check out a school and its “seven mysteries” in the search for demonic power. Of course, this turns out to be Chi-chan’s school, and she’s only too eager to help Maou and his wife roommate find a particular cursed classroom. Of course the party doesn’t get started until Emi’s in the picture, and she’s not the type to let someone else take the spotlight. She stalks them to the school (and isn’t even ashamed to admit it; how often do you have to stalk someone to make this a matter of fact statement?), which leads to some great comedy on the part of Maou (a demon lord afraid of ghost stories), Chiho (whose banter and frustration at being unnoticed by Maou are pretty amusing), Emi (“who whips their sacred sword out to deal with an anatomical model?!”), Ashiya (“this anatomical model only has one heart!”), and Miki-T (dat photograph). The cincher though is Urushihara’s audacity to get his parents master and fellow general to take that trip and get his Pasta console (where he forgot it while staying at the school with Orba). Minion he may be, but NEET he does better (how did he get so good at technology so quickly, I wonder?).

That’s not to say that comedy is all on the agenda this week. It seems that the Church has sent a representative to Earth in Kamazuki Suzuno (Itou Kanae), and it looks like she’s moved into the Stronghold’s complex. After falling down the stairs (somewhat horrifically) for her introduction, we don’t really know how she plans to address her mission. Clearly she’ll be a source of conflict for the remainder of the series, but the real question is, will she bring plot to the table, comedy, or a healthy mixture of both?