Differences And Similarities Between Devil Is A Part

On the surface, it's easy to confuse the new Level 1 Demon Lord anime with The Devil Is A Part-Timer. However, the characters are very different.

Summer 2023 has two fantasy comedy anime airing and they have an absurd amount in common. Both series are about a Demon Lord and the Hero who beat them and their slice-of-life adventures, occasionally interrupted by a more serious overarching plot. One of these series is the returning hit, The Devil Is a Part-Timer (HataMaou)! The other is a newcomer to the anime world, Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero (Lv1 Maou). Calling these anime similar is an understatement. It's nearly impossible to describe one series without making it sound suspiciously like the other. Someone hearing about these two works secondhand could easily assume that Level 1 Demon Lord was copying a successful anime.

However, as similar as HataMaou and Lv1 Maou are they're still easy to tell apart. They may contain similar characters and story elements, but their aesthetics, tones, storytelling, and humor are unique enough to give each show a discernible identity. It's easy to talk generally about these shows and make them sound like copies of each other, but diving further into each series shows off their differences.

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Both Lv1 Maou and HataMaou begin with prologues featuring decisive final battles between each series' hero and Demon Lord. These battles establish the rivalry and the bad blood between the two forces. They're also both well-animated for series that will eventually turn into comedies.

Both battles end with the Demon Lords' defeat at the Heroes' hands. This forces the demons into situations where their powers are severely limited; one is reincarnated as a Level 1 child, and Part-Timer's Satan is stranded on Earth, where he can't replenish his magic. Despite losing nearly everything they're accompanied by attendants — Satan (HataMaou) has Alciel, and the (Lv1 Maou) Demon Lord has Zenia — and they're determined to rebuild their empires and regain their former glory.

Both series are also primarily set in contemporary Japanese cities. Satan is transported to present-day Tokyo and his counterpart lives in a human territory that mashes up modern reality with a fantasy isekai. These settings create fish-out-of-water scenarios for the Demon Lords, though Satan's story skips forward to the point where he's fully integrated into human society.

These Demon Lords eventually run into their Hero arch-nemeses. While their encounters are initially combative, neither side has the same power they did in their previous battles. As a result, both sides acknowledge each other as relatively harmless and agree to a ceasefire until something can be done to restore their strength and, predictably, they get involved in human crises and start moving from enemies to lovers.

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HataMaou and Lv1 Maou are easy to tell apart by their basic premises. Part-Timer is a reverse isekai where the Devil and the Hero steadily acclimate to their new lives on Earth. The latter anime revolves around its Demon Lord trying to help the Hero, Max, get his life back on track so they can have a worthwhile rematch. These premises allow the two stories to branch off in various ways.

Lv1 Demon Lord's premise would never work in HataMaou for several reasons. In HataMao, Satan lives in a one-room apartment with his Demon General Alciel (and, later, Lucifer) and lives off meager wages from his part-time job at MgRonalds; Part-Timer's Hero Emi, however, lives in a better apartment thanks to her job as a call center agent. In Lv1 Maou, the situation is reversed; the Hero Max lives in a one-room apartment and survives off the money he made slaying the Demon Lord; that same Demon Lord reincarnated and moved into the apartment room next door by choice for the sake of his mission.

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Unlike the Level 1 Demon Lord, Emi isn't very interested in helping her loser of a former nemesis. She'll hang around him, but it's more about keeping him out of trouble than helping him. That said, if one of them is attacked by the angels or demons from their world, the other will usually rush to their rescue.

Lv1 Maou and HataMaou's settings also help to distinguish them. HataMaou primarily takes place in the bustling streets of Tokyo and occasionally shifts its focus to the fantastical land of Ente Isla. In Lv1 Mao, the fantasy setting is as technologically advanced as the real world, which makes it surprisingly unique among fantasy and isekai settings; this also means the story's overarching conflict is much closer to the protagonists.

These two anime also have very different art styles. Lv 1 Maou blends chibi elements (puffy faces, simplified features, etc.) with traces of the Dragon Quest games that inspired most modern fantasy anime; it works perfectly for the series' pint-sized Demon Lord protagonist exploring his urban fantasy setting. HataMaou has a more complex character design and maintains its distinctive art style throughout the series.

The two shows also have very distinct senses of humor. HataMaou focuses on the comedy inherent to taking fantasy characters and making them deal with real-world scenarios and problems. Since that's already the norm for Lv1 Maou, that series' humor is spiced up with farce. The Hero gets caught up in scandals, the demon faces a ghost whose only purpose is to stare menacingly, and other low-stakes plots. At the same time, it transitions into more serious, intricate, and even emotional plots that are steadily developed in the background during the comedy-focused segments. The series is more like Gintama in this regard.

Of course, the best way to understand how different Lv1 Maou is from HataMaou is to see it for oneself. Those who do will see how connections can be made, but it will also make sense that they both deserve to exist, on their own terms. Most fans of Part-Timer will probably enjoy them both since, even if they're unique, they still have a lot in common.

Marc York is a writer for CBR. He possesses an understanding of comics, video games, and movies, and his true expertise comes forth when it comes to the topics of anime and manga. His knowledge spreads to the past, present, and future of both the anime and manga industry, especially when it pertains to titles under the Shonen Jump banner. Marc also likes to write about the movies he's watched in theaters; these aren't officially published articles, but they may be seen on his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/marc.york.7