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REVIEW: The Devil is a Part-Timer! Novel 1




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RaylenCypher



Joined: 03 Mar 2015
Posts: 138
PostPosted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 9:41 pm Reply with quote
Great review. I was wondering if any of the artwork is objectionable. Before I finished high school this month, I had my library advisor who I was an assistant for order some light novels for the library. I wanted to introduce some of Japan's literature to my school since I have them and they were really good. But only Sword Art Online and Accel World were ordered and shelved. The others had ratings that were mature or some artwork that was a bit questionable. While my advisor is laid back on what is appropriate, the higher-ups are a lot more conservative. So I was wondering if this series is A-OK for high school readers?
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18202
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:26 pm Reply with quote
As long as no one's getting hung up on one of the main protagonists openly being named Satan (which I could definitely see happening at some schools), I can't think of anything about the content that would be objectionable enough to keep it off of school shelves. It is only rated 13+, after all.
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RaylenCypher



Joined: 03 Mar 2015
Posts: 138
PostPosted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 11:15 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
As long as no one's getting hung up on one of the main protagonists openly being named Satan (which I could definitely see happening at some schools), I can't think of anything about the content that would be objectionable enough to keep it off of school shelves. It is only rated 13+, after all.


Thanks, I don't have to worry about it that much then. My high school doesn't have ties or an overly religious atmosphere about it. Plus one of the book series, The Mortal Instruments (City of Bones, Ashes, Glass etc.) is really popular and has a lot of copies on shelf.

I'm glad YenPress is translating and releasing more light novels besides Spice & Wolf (which sadly, due to mature rating did not get ordered). Great way to get into Japanese literature. I wonder if DanMachi light novels are okay as well. The anime is really good and popular so it would be great to have on shelf as well. Cheers for gateway anime/LN!
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Key
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:55 am Reply with quote
The Spice and Wolf novels earn their Mature rating much more (I think) because the story content would fly over the heads of younger readers. It's really more a title aimed at a college-aged or older crowd.

DanMachi, OTOH, has no such problem, but the color art pages at the beginning of the first book are a little racy.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
Posts: 599
Location: J-Novel Club
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 1:10 am Reply with quote
RE: high school library, other series I would suggest are A Certain Magical Index and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The former gets really into complicated science and religious themes, the latter can be rather philosophical and introspective. I think they're probably appropriate for high school level, as far as complexity goes, but I'm well past college graduation, so I may not be the best judge :X
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RaylenCypher



Joined: 03 Mar 2015
Posts: 138
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:36 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:
The Spice and Wolf novels earn their Mature rating much more (I think) because the story content would fly over the heads of younger readers. It's really more a title aimed at a college-aged or older crowd.

DanMachi, OTOH, has no such problem, but the color art pages at the beginning of the first book are a little racy.


I thought so. I have seen the first season and the show is very talkative about economics and is more dialogue focused. I didn't think the art was bad because they used doll-like censoring for Holo in the beginning so it wasn't a big deal. I'll let my (former) library advisor know about it.

myskaros wrote:
RE: high school library, other series I would suggest are A Certain Magical Index and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The former gets really into complicated science and religious themes, the latter can be rather philosophical and introspective. I think they're probably appropriate for high school level, as far as complexity goes, but I'm well past college graduation, so I may not be the best judge :X


I actually had A certain Magical Index on the list of manga/LN to order. But on one of the ordering sites, amazon or another unknown one, rated the first book as mature just like S&W. So that ended up not getting on shelf. As for Haruhi series, I've never read the books, I only knew there was an anime series. Don't worry, i'm out of high School as well, but I'd still like for the students to be able to get new literature they haven't experienced yet. Manga is known and we have 2 shelves full of it, typical mainstream stuff and other smaller series. I managed to get Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days manga and Noragami on shelf. We don't have any Light novels so hopefully Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online and Accel World books can influence more LN to be shelved.
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Lusbox



Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Posts: 156
Location: UK
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 4:55 pm Reply with quote
I think i enjoyed this first novel more than the anime, which is saying something. But then it has been a while since i watched it.

Looking forward to the next one.
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CrisGer A.A.



Joined: 26 Feb 2011
Posts: 170
Location: 世田谷区 Setagaya Ward
PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:17 am Reply with quote
There is nothing at all remotely "objectionable" in The Devil is a Part Timer and in fact the anime and the manga both are some of the best work to come out in both forms in a long time. top quality and I hope for more of both.

In Japan there is a much more mature and in my humble opinion, realistic approach to content, but that is another topic.

There are many many series that would make fine reading and watching for high school aged students. The overall quality and content of Anime in general is far superior to what is available for western adolescents on western media in just about every way I can imagine.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14767
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 3:29 am Reply with quote
CrisGer A.A. wrote:

There are many many series that would make fine reading and watching for high school aged students. The overall quality and content of Anime in general is far superior to what is available for western adolescents on western media in just about every way I can imagine.


Problem is, that's pretty much all they make.
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