Hataraku Maou-sama! Episode 9 - Ashiya and Rika Please! and Purple Mist?!

Sup guys! Tadashi here and today I'll be talking about the 9th episode of Hataraku Maou-sama! Which offers a new love possibility between the lovable Ashiya and Emi's collegue Rika. It also shows us how Maou intends to deal with SFC.

Continuing off from last episode, Rika, Emi and Suzuno end up at Sentucky where Ashiya just happened to be doing some recon for Maou. The way they met each other was hilarious! Emi was being her usual self, and by usual I mean verbally bashing Maou and Ashiya just happened to overhear her speaking. That's when he decided he had had enough and confronted them.

After calming down, Ashiya ended up sitting with the three and it led to an amazing on-the-spot backstory explaining their pasts to Rika and how they all knew each other. It was brilliant, understandable, totally realistic and Rika seemed to have bought it. Emi's and Suzuno's reactions during his story were priceless! Plus the stills they used during the story really brought out the heart of the story.

Rika also seemed to have developed some feelings for Ashiya heheheh. It's about time Ashiya got some love! This guy deserves it for being the best bro anyone could ask for. I really really really really really hope something comes out of this. They seem like a perfect match!

Following this, they went to go see Maou working. Rika became really interested in him because of how everyone made him seem. Once they met, she totally called Maou out for his attitude etc. It actually really motivated and pushed him. His methods were pretty fun and funny to watch even though they failed. The way he ordered the workers as the 'Shift Manager' was fun to watch as well. MgRonalds really brings out the Maou who conquered Ente Isle ;) hahaha.

Just look how cute Chi-chan is<3 Honestly, she just keeps growing on me. Her voice is so kawaiiiiiiii too!

After all those attempts didn't attract more customers, his last plan was put into effect - and it worked wonderfully. Emi found out that Maou volunteers for the neighborhood cleanup (which again totally shatters Emi's view of Maou who is supposed to be the Demon Lord) from Chi-chan. She's slowly starting to accept that Maou really isn't a bad person. Suzuno on the other hand still thinks of him as evil. Sooner or later, she's going to realize the same thing as Emi.

Once the bamboo trees were up, Suzuno noticed a purple mist surrounding the area and then all of a sudden tons of customers were drawn into the MgRonalds. Now she probably believes this is Maou's doing and that he's using magic to attract customers but that's highly unlikely. I believe that the mist was definitely created by the manager of Sentucky who is also super suspicious. Maybe the bamboo trees caused his spell to break? That mist may have been either attracting customers to SFC or it may have been repelling customers at MgRonalds. Either way, it's gone now but Suzuno is really suspecting Maou for it.

Suzuno's angry face is kawaii too!

Overall, we didn't get much progress plot wise especially concerning the Church but we did get another happy-go-lucky episode that introduced a possible new couple (Ashiya and Rika) and is shedding more light on the rivalry between MgRonalds and SFC. It'll be interesting to see who the manager really is and how Maou and co. handle him. Comedy was on-point as usual.

I really am enjoying this series. It never fails to make me laugh and Chiho's cuteness really is just icing on the cake. It's never a dull moment even without the story progressing much. I think it's about time for Emi to go dere mode and totally fall for Maou haha.

Anyways, that's it for me guys! See you next episode!

-Tadashi