Hataraku Maou-sama!

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After being soundly thrashed by the hero Emilia, the Devil King and his general beat a hasty retreat to a parallel universe…only to land plop in the middle of bustling, modern-day Tokyo! Lacking the magic necessary to return home, the two are forced to assume human identities and live average human lives until they can find a better solution. And to make ends meet, Satan finds gainful employment at a nearby fast food joint! With his devilish mind set on working his way up the management food chain, what will become of his thirst for conquest?!

Associated Names
One entry per line
Demon Lord at Work!
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!
Working Demon King!
はたらく魔王さま!
打工吧!魔王大人
Related Series
Hataraku Maou-sama! High School N (Spin-Off)
Recommendations
I, the Demon Lord, Took a Slave Elf as my Wife, but how do I Love Her? (2)
The Elf Is a Freeloader (2)
Yuusha-sama no Oshishou-sama (1)
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (1)
Yuusha no Segare (1)
Garudeina Oukoku Koukoku Ki (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. ALLJP+
  2. Isekai Fantasy | #1
  3. Sugar + Little Salt
  4. Jnovels
  5. Ayiah, seems interesting

Latest Release

v.3 c.1-4 + Prologue by Psylocke Scans (09-24-2014)
v.3 c.1 by Baka-Tsuki (09-29-2013)
v.1 c.2 by Baka-Tsuki (07-11-2013)
Write a Review
18 Reviews sorted by


BeamFain
BeamFain rated it
August 8, 2020
Status: Completed
Hataraku Maou-sama is a story with great characters, interesting plot and endless possibilities.
I enjoyed reading even the side stories about mostly unimportant characters.

Then why did I gave it just one stars ?
Simple. Ending.
The ending of this story is so poorly written, I think even a ten year old would have done better.
Author accomplished great things with an interesting idea, then he took up a gun and shoot it.
It is just terrible.

There were even some extreme readers who threatened the author or just send a message... more>> like "Die". <<less
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quartedz
quartedz rated it
September 6, 2020
Status: Completed
came here after volume 21. After almost somewhat 7 years of following this novel after watching the anime I want to just give a short comment on this series (or really just the ending).

... more>>
Spoiler

it was one hell of a ride. A reverse isekai about a demon lord who works part time at a fast food restaurant because of reasons lol. I won't go in too deep with the story but it was great (although at later volumes there is some sort of politics and well) , the characters and relationships develop overtime and the comedy is still there. Alhough I got bored midway, the reason I kept going was just to see through what will happen to emi and maou by the end. And oh boy was I satisfied until I read volume 21. Again, I won't go into the details but just know if you are reading for the same reason as I was then you better be prepared for the ending cause chiho wins. Not only that but she also solves all the problems in ente isla. Wow what a great girl right? No wonder maou became a human just for this lovely person and left emi as a single mother. But jokes aside, I am really dissapointed with the ending of the series, thinking that it really could have ended better (probably it was rushed). It's like going on a trip only to end up finding that your destination was not as good as your journey getting there. There is still a lot I want to say but you could really find other people's thoughts that explained things better than mine.

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this sounded more like a rant than a comment or even a review but oh well. Thank you author-san for creating this novel, I sincerely appreciate it. On a side note, if you get death threats, then you should probably consider not pulling an uno reverse card on the final volume of your series that has been running for almost 10 years cause some people are really just that crazy in the internet. To those who read this please don't flame him too, seeing the threats on twitter is already too much. If you are pissed at him, then just don't buy anything else from him and don't harass him. <<less
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ryuuseigami
ryuuseigami rated it
August 2, 2016
Status: v11
It's Good! I like the light entertainment content (?)

The demon king and hero of Another World, living in modern-day Tokyo. In order to bring three meals a day, they working like normal human. Lol~

Nice Drama-comedy - Slice of Life with Slow Romance and a magic-Fantasy at the end of each volume.

It's so good that with the secret revealed little by little gradually I think it's alright even if it's turn into more serious Fantasy. And the author didn't disappoint me, later on it will become more serious, while still... more>> maintaining Drama-comedy - Slice of Life.

For the romance part, (even though I could count as anti main heroine type), but gradually the main heroine in this novel become my favorite. I like the slow romance, little by little the heroine open up, and eventually growing fondness for MC.

All in all, it's a good light reading material ^^ <<less
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mengheavenlymonster
mengheavenlymonster rated it
March 22, 2017
Status: v12
Calling this light novel as underated would be sinfully understated. That, of course, stems from this being licensed.

The amount of quality content is so ludicrously enormous, that it took 2 Volumes out of the 12 Volumes present, to deliver a full-blown 12 episode anime. Which was, btw by no means slowly paced.

A near perfect blend between comedy, suspense and Romance in a well-written plot. Slice of life or action, both of them done right.

Frankly, this has the best love triangle I've seen. so far, in this genre.... more>> The fact that 'Fictional characters' could be as reasonable as this, came as a pleasant surprise to me. Epic.

The likes of other light novels like Tate no yuush or Zero no tsukaima, simply are appear inferior to me, after having my venture into this one.

But what makes this novel special, is it's absolutely lively and well-fleshed out Plethora of Characters. None of them are bland.

Whether it's primary main characters of Maou, Emi and Chi or just minutely secondary characters like Ashia, Rika or Lucifer etc... each and everyone of them, is a harmonious resonance between modern day reality and there fantasical alter-egos.

Finally, I would like to express my thanks to mittens220 for their awesome decision to translate this.

5/5 <<less
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ArguingApples
ArguingApples rated it
March 16, 2021
Status: --
I mis-cl**ked and rated 2. This was supposed to be 1. If there was a 0 I would have cl**ked that.

why? The ending.

I know we shouldn't talk sh*t about the author because this is his/her work. HOWEVER, the fact that he/she built up an entire series on the relationship between Maou and Emi and had the audacity to veer away from that obvious ending?! Author literally wasted our time.

This is just like BLEACH...l..
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iloveLNanimemanga
iloveLNanimemanga rated it
January 20, 2022
Status: Completed
It was a good novel at first. When it first appeared on anime, I spend days and days to watch it and watch it again. And then, because I was too curious, I even spent my money to buy the light novels so that the author can get more effort to continue writting it. I remember the days when I and the friends online talked about Hataraku Maou sama. We was so excited about it that we even learnt Japanese to read it as soon as we could. Then, you... more>> KILL the novel yourself, Author-san. You just ruin everything when you wrote the ending. I am very disappointed about you, Wagahara-san

Spoiler
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Mr. Maou just leave Emilia alone, and chose the rich cow instead. F**k you author-san, wtf have you done with your own novel? If you think the ending will make the more memorial for the readers, then, f**k off to the Chinese novel to write. Then, that not the worst thing. That f**king cow also said sth like: "You can married more than one wife." Oh yeah? What the f**k is this? Sympathy for emilia? Do you think we need that, need the feeling that this is not the end for emilia, or you just want to make an open ending? You could, you could even make a way better ending. But you ruin all your novel yourself, Mr. Author. I would love to rate this 1 star and never read any of your novel again, Wagahara-san. <<less
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WeepingBirds
WeepingBirds rated it
June 8, 2021
Status: Completed
This novel... the beginning was pretty interseting, middle it started to plateau and I only stuck through it just for a good resolution/ending. Ending was tr*sh.

It just doesn't sense as to why it had such an ending... I was baffled by the author's decision.

... more>>
Spoiler

We were introduced to the cast at the start of the story, the demon king ML and supposedly what we all thought was the FL, the hero. Throughout the novel it also seemed like the hero was gonna end up with the ML such as the baby treating them both as foster parents etc. We expected the ending to either be that of a harem, sole wife (Hero), or end up with no one at all. The author defied all logic that he has written and pulled out some weird ending instead. We were blindsided by this revelation... This pairing had actually left a lot of plot unresolved because it was just so unconventional and wrong.

You might be thinking I'm giving poor reviews just cause my "best girl" didn't win but no, the plot itself calls for the best and only girl to win...

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Eti2d
Eti2d rated it
October 4, 2022
Status: Completed
I can still vividly remember the pure joy I felt while following the anime week after week almost 10 years ago, when I was just a young adolescent. And I still enjoy it a lot after having rewatched it numerous times. It was also the anime that made me a huge shipper. Of course, it's Sadao x Emi. Wanting to see their relationship blossom was the reason I started reading this novel. But oh boy do I wish I hadn't done it...

... more>>
Spoiler

Everything pointed to Sadao and Emi getting together. It was obvious that the whole story was going in that direction. But the author just had to take a U-turn right before the finish line and fall off the road into the deep abyss. Why the hell did Sadao end up with Chiho?!

The author carefully built the whole story around deepening the relationship btw. Sadao and Emi, a truly unique couple in the whole industry with a great dynamic. For the major part of the story, you could even consider them as pretty much an established couple. Their relationship had been just so close and it was quite precious to see their initially hostile relationship change for the better, especially with Emi slowly falling in love with him. There were so many clues that showed (not only indicated) that even the author should've shipped them a lot.

So I fail to understand why he suddenly had to throw their relationship (and with it the whole story) into the tr*sh bin and have Sadao end up with Chiho, a bland heroine with little development who stayed in the background for pretty much the whole story (there wasn't even a moment that showed Sadao seeing her as a potential love interest) only to have her play a key role in the last volume (which also seemed incredibly forced). While you could see the relationship with Emi gradually changing throughout the story, there wasn't any change worth mentioning in Chiho's relationship with Sadao for just about the whole story. Honestly, I would've even preferred Suzuno over Chiho as they have better chemistry.

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I've heard that the author has received death threats from fans. While I wouldn't go so far as to justify them, I also don't have much sympathy for him after this absurd stunt. You just can't create a story that's been going on for a whole decade, nourishing a huge and dedicated fanbase, and then right before the end decapitate it!

So far, this work has become the biggest disappointment I've had to witness and I can only hope that the anime or manga will take a different route, because the whole novel has become tr*sh with its abysmal ending. This explains my very first rating of 1 star. I wish I could have given it even less. <<less
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mUrky88Q1
mUrky88Q1 rated it
August 23, 2021
Status: Completed
One of the Best anime and LN that I have come across with, but as the first part of the volumes are very catchy and makes the readers of LN and viewers of anime wanting for more then its suddenly goes downhill at the later part of the volumes. I have read the very first volume on its release and wantonly crave for the volumes that came out, I love the LN as a reader and always read the volumes repeatedly, then when the last volume came out and read... more>> it, it was a very huge disappointment as it ended with an unexpected twist.

Spoiler

Mao chose Chiho

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Spoiler

So all the character development of Emilia became nothing, as all the reflection she had gone through with and as if the author tease us that she will be the who our MC will end up with just thrown away like nothing happened. A very S*ity ending.

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But kudos to the translator for translating the novel, a very high quality translation. <<less
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Nred47
Nred47 rated it
August 13, 2021
Status: v11
The last couple volumes of this series were definitely a disappointment everything else that Wagahara Satoshi wrote was wicked. Ultimately I would not recommend this series due to the ending leaving the reader unsatisfied /disappointed.
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Pixeldrum
Pixeldrum rated it
June 14, 2021
Status: v2
Typical turn your brain off "romantic comedy" novel. Just watch the anime. It's so much better.

There's just a huge lacking foundation for the entire plot. The demon king kills half the continent, portals to Japan, and gets chased by the hero. So far so good. Then, he basically turns into a good guy and does not even want to return to Enta Isle, for no real good reason other than "muh part time job." There's no rhyme or reason or real underlying motivations that drive this story forward. It's just... more>> that these characters just so HAPPEN to have random changes of heart without any character development to make the story come together.

Emi, the hero that's supposed to be hell bent on revenge killing the demon king? Has the patience and heart to "forgive him." She somehow fosters a friendly relationship with the demon king really early on for absolutely no reason. Both Emi and Chiho are foils that's only purpose is to be madly in love with the demon king while the demon king is oblivious of it all, and that's the entire premise of the story. A romantic comedy. I cringe at the typical "evil guy/potential evil guy turned good but is now being chased by other people due to past actions." Even the MC of jujutsu Kaisen falls under this trope, where he's being targeted for being a threat. It's so boring. The comedy sucks too. It feels very artificial with most of being "demon king oblivious/lacking common sense." Oh, don't forget "female lead" being mad at MC, or "subordinate being too overzealous, " etc etc.

Overall, a lot of this cringe and bad dialogue actually get abstracted in the anime, so good job on the anime for doing that. Same thing can be said for NGNL. The original LN is filled with garbage and is not actually good material, so the fact that the anime takes liberties in abstracting and changing things around actually is a benefit to the show. <<less
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stanljpierre
stanljpierre rated it
August 19, 2022
Status: --
Really enjoyed the anime, but as other reviews have said, the whole love triangle and the eventual ending just left a bad taste in my mouth. Everyone is led to assume one thing to the point where it doesn’t make sense for things to go any other way, but what do you know... Completely ruined any positive feelings I had for either the anime and novel. Really regret picking this up and feel it was better off sticking to the anime and staying ignorant of this ending because there may... more>> have been an original anime ending where things actually make sense. <<less
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Dreamingflower
Dreamingflower rated it
March 7, 2021
Status: c13
The story and premise started interesting. Way before all the isekai manga got popular we got this story about a demon king and his subjects who ended up in earth where he works as a part-timer in a fast food restaurant. The story has humour, interesting characters and a good plot... ... more>>
Spoiler

that is until the ending where the author decided to throw away the plot and the MC’s personality and goals in favour of a Mary Sue.

I didn’t even hate the Mary Sue in the beginning. She had her own role to play, but then Wagahara had to make her the most OP character and had her stick her nose in situations she had nothing to do with...

I feel like Wagahara gave up on the novel halfway and made everything that happened in the first half of the series pointless. He could have better rewritten the story to make that horrible ending more reasonable sounding. The ending is an insult to every writer who put their soul in their work.

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If people are still interested, the first half of the volume is worth a read, but they should prepare themselves for disappointment. I’m glad I stopped buying the novel and manga years ago. It saved me a lot of wasted money. <<less
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pinkyfleury
pinkyfleury rated it
July 31, 2023
Status: --
i loveeee this novel but only until vol 20

vol 21 was the reason I despised this novel, I was soooo invested with this. I spent my teenager and my 20s waiting for this book to be updated and translated. But what did I got? Dissapointment.

I'm feeling betrayed, I'm so upset, utterly disgusted.

my reason was the same as above reviewers that give it 1 stars
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Senpai07
Senpai07 rated it
March 16, 2019
Status: v15
The Light Novel is good... action comedy drama and romance...

Spoiler

But in my opinion I hate when the topic is about Chiho and Maou's vague relationship... When Chiho is so depress because of her love situation... Also at volume 15 I hate how the author wrote his style on going back and forth on the timeline every chapter....

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Well this is my personal opinion but overall the LN is a good read...

BTW this is my rank on the heroines

1. Suzuno-chan - Best gurl in the light novel

2. Emilia

3. Chiho
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josh1002
josh1002 rated it
August 20, 2017
Status: v6
EDIT:

As of now, I'm at Chapter 6.

Translator/tion Critique/Complaints
... more>>
Spoiler

It is very, very apparent that the translation team needs a beta/editor. A lot of times I keep reading paragraphs with incorrect grammar, spelling, or down-right confusing the characters with another (I.E. Sentences like: "Suzuno said this to Suzuno.")

It sometimes gets difficult to read, and I honestly could bring the score down because of this, however this would not reflect on the LN's over all story/writing style so I can't really bring it down.

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Heroine Critiques/reviews
Spoiler

Emilia:
Emilia-a-shit!
She's a basic Tsun-tsun who, only at Volume 6, hasn't shown anything you could consider even remotely cute. You could defend her for being "broken" because she doesn't know what to do with Maou (since he's originally her enemy and target of vengeance), but this does not excuse her for being shown as a sh*t character with an emotional range of her flat chest. Basically, she's been shown as nothing but a complete bit*h and is only mentioned off-screen to be "kind".
This is a terrible way to show off a main heroine, as we never see the "off screen her" where she interacts cutely like a normal girl and isn't always the pissed-off bit*h that we always see.

Chiho:

Best girl by far. Has shown character growth from the very moment we see her and has gone out of shy shell, even as far as confessing her love to Maou. She's even willing to learn magic, not as a way to get stronger, but because she wants to lessen the burden she is as a "normal girl" to Maou and the others.
10/10.
Deserves to be the Demon Queen.

Would point my feet away from her direction from sleeping

Suzuno:

Actual girl I'm rooting for. Chiho is just best girl by what she's shown but, I'm hoping Suzuno somehow worms her way into being his mistress or something.

Why?

She's has gap-moe! That's why!
By default, she has a serious character, but when she gets flustered, she acts in a cute, girly way and doesn't react so violently as Emi. Sadly, she hasn't gotten much of a spotlight just yet. She'll get more probably around v9 so I'm making my way there.

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Old:

Spoiler

Currently at Volume 2 chapter 3. It might seem a little early for a review, but I think my current critique would follow out throughout the story.

The author's writing style is bad when it comes to new characters. In the beginning, it isn't that noticable, but it becomes apparent as more and more characters are introduced. This is VERY apparent at the end of Volume 1 where the other members of the Hero's party arrive after the battle.

They were just suddenly there! I mean, there was like 2 or 3 paragraphs where these two guys are mentioned to be traveling to Earth, but on this particular scene, they didn't get an entrance. They were just suddenly there! There was no opening of an otherwordly gate or of them walking up to a battle-scarred street. They were just suddenly there and I'm like "who the f*ck are you?! No wait, Mao. Don't just go with the flow! AGH You guys know each other but we're on different side of a war! Why are you acting so casual!"

This also happens on conversation topics and event scenes. They suddenly seem to change without any warning to the reader.

Granted, it's not unreadable, but it is this story's flaw! The story itself is interesting where you'll have to read in-between the lines to understand the characters completely. Definitely recommend it, but it's not a very light read. Prepare for some introspection.

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AoiRipper
AoiRipper rated it
November 29, 2018
Status: v16
This is one of the best light novel I ever read. The comedy is really good to make the reader hooked on it. The romance is slow but sure that make the heroine in this novel become lovable. The side character did not bland so we can tell all their characteristic include the enemy. The drama about how the hero and demon king interact to each other in social world really interesting and how they face enemy together really good too.

Overall, this is one of the best light novel drama-romance-comedy... more>> to read.

5/5 <<less
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DassaultRafalle
DassaultRafalle rated it
December 31, 2019
Status: c17
Can't never have enough of this, sure it have some flaws but the best part of the series is all of the cast are very interesting and have excellent dynamics with one another. Plotwise the story is rather wild to be honest but who cares? The interaction between the characters whether main or supporting are very intriguing especially with how much mess they're put into
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