The Devil is a Part-Timer! volume 13 continues with the gang visiting Chiho’s family’s farm, a story not featured in the original light novels. But this volume also, as Hiiragi’s notes explain, contains adaptations of the cat chapter in the seventh light novel as well as a story from a drama CD, “making for a pretty diverse line of content”.
…That’s a funny way of saying “filler volume”…
I greatly enjoyed the farm adventure in the last volume since it was something brand new to me. On that level, I was still entertained by their days in Nagano. Even though nothing rose to the level of hilarity of “Bear Killer” Emi, seeing everyone (including Lucifer the Lazy) work together to scare thieves so bad that they literally wet themselves was a blast. It’s also a good reminder that even though Maou and the rest are just trying to live normal lives in Japan, they’re still absurdly strong even without going full power. Plus the manga shows that perhaps Chiho’s easygoing attitude is something she inherited.
The problem is that the hunt for the thieves and the work at the farm is only half the volume. One side story is good, two is okay, but three is tiresome. I see the argument against starting a whole new story arc in the middle of this volume. I wonder though if this section could have been arranged so that it either took one or two full volumes.
So after the group’s working vacation is a couple of chapters about Devil’s Castle housing a cat. Like most filler chapters, it has several cute and funny moments, but it’s nothing amazing.
Then the book finishes with a short chapter about Maou, Chiho, and Emi encountering each other before the events of the first manga and light novel. I’ve never been a fan of these type of “meetings before we met”. In this case, I think I have to go back and reread the first volume. I remember Maou giving Emi the umbrella, and then shortly thereafter, she realizes who he is and starts quietly observing him before confronting Maou. Here, if she, Maou, and Ashiya chatted with each other over a cake purchase, why did she not recognize them just after that? What clicked after the umbrella but not after the cake?
…Or it could be that I just really dislike forced, almost retconned coincidences.
Either way, while there’s only one of the three arcs that light novel readers will be familiar with, this is all filler. Neither fruits, cats, nor cakes will have any effect on the Sephirah or Heaven’s plans, but seeing Alas Ramus with a cat or Suzuno powerlift a van kept it from being a bore. Still, whether it’s six months or six years, I doubt I’ll have a burning desire to read it again.