Original Run: October 5, 2019 - March 7, 2020 Number of Episodes: 23 Genre: Comedy, Supernatural Based on the Series Created By: Osamu Nishi
***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Iruma Suzuki (voiced by Ayumu Murase) has had a difficult life, thanks in no large part to his inability to say no to people. However, he never expected to one day be sold to a great demon lord.
Although that doesn’t sound ideal, Iruma is going to find out that living in the demon world and attending demon school might not be all that bad. Provided no one finds out he is human, Iruma could enjoy a far more comfortable life than what he has grown accustomed. The only thing he needs to do is keep a low profile, and that doesn’t bother him a bit. Too bad that is much easier said than done.
Almost immediately, Iruma becomes the center of attention. So, naturally, the situation is not ideal, but things could be a lot worse. With his new friends Alice Asmodeus and Clara Valac (voiced respectively by Ryouhei Kimura and Ayaka Asai) by his side, Iruma’s once hardship-filled days might just be behind him.
Series Positives
To me, it was surprising that Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun (Iruma-kun) was twenty-three episodes. I don’t know, now having seen it, this didn’t come off as a show that should have garnered a longer runtime. Do not misunderstand; I’m glad it did because it was a lot of fun. Unoriginal and a bit par for the course, sure, but fun, nonetheless.
Iruma-kun’s saving grace was its focus on character introductions Or more to the point: core-character introductions. Early on, this series established its three leads, Clara Valac, Alice Asmodeus, and, of course, the titular Iruma Suzuki. This show turned this trio into its main personality. No doubt, this was a gamble. Given the number of episodes, this could have been a horrid slog to sit through.
But you can’t win any bet you don’t take, and Iruma-kun won.
First, Clara was, hands down, my favorite character of the series. She was nothing except a lovably destructive ball of happy-go-lucky energy who knew how to fill both the foreground and the background, often at the same time. Clara was all over the place, and whenever she was in the area, her presence was felt. Plus, she wasn’t a romantic interest for Iruma. Granted, she did take a class on seduction. But, to be fair, she thought she was losing Iruma as a playmate rather than as a potential boyfriend.
More than anything, though, Clara was just funny.
Second, Alice did a lot of things right. He was the most powerful of the central trio, and yet, he was a loyal friend to Iruma, who he also mistakenly thought was more capable than him. However, Alice’s misunderstandings toward Iruma’s abilities weren’t unjustified. Before they were friends, when the two faced-off, although it involved a lot of dumb luck, Iruma defeated Alice fair and square. Throughout the series, Alice might have been a little overexcited when proclaiming Iruma’s accomplishments, but he was praising accomplishments that happened.
Thirdly, Iruma himself. I’m going to be honest, when I first saw him and heard what he was about, I thought he was going to annoy the ever-living hell out of me. A character who was an utter pushover, yeah, that’s not going to get on my nerves. However, that little tick of Iruma’s never came up frustratingly; it was always comedic. Iruma came out of this show as a strong protagonist. He was someone you wanted to cheer for and support.
Plus, Iruma was responsible for some great examples of reactionary comedy, and I need to give extra special credit to his voice actor Ayumu Murase for making that happen.
With these three as the focus, Iruma-kun was allowed to spend the majority of its time developing a world. For most of this series, very little in the way of plot occurred. To tell you the truth, it was during the segment when Iruma and company had to do something that the show was at its slowest. That isn’t to say things were bad; it’s just that I found it difficult to care.
For most of Iruma-kun, it was a fun slice-of-life comedy. It didn’t need to have big adventures or dastardly villains. Season two can worry about that sort of stuff. And with the ending we got, there better be a season two.
Series Negatives
Iruma-kun was one of those shows that petered out in the end.
Although it was a lot of fun for the majority of its run, this series lost steam the closer it got to its conclusion. And like I said above, Iruma-kun was at its lowest when it actually did something. It was weird since, you know, its usually the point of a show to do things. I don’t think season two will run into this problem because it won’t need to worry about introducing its primary collection of characters. However, season one was so enjoyable because it was lighthearted and never took itself too seriously.
Well, it was that plus the fact that things became extremely predictable. It wasn’t hard to see the twists and turns coming, so there was no real sense of tension.
Additionally, it didn’t help that the climax of Iruma-kun occurred about four episodes before the finale. Everything that happened following the resolution of this series’s main threat had no power. That was extremely disappointing because this was when the show finally acknowledged a build-up that had been taking place since around episode two.
It was hard to care about any new developments since, you know, the series was technically over. Any way you look at it, Iruma-kun didn’t have the strongest of endings.
Lastly, I keep mentioning a season two. From what I can tell, a continuation does appear to be in the works, and it better be. Iruma-kun was not a self-contained story. There were plenty of hints that loudly suggested there was something bigger going on in this world. So, one can only hope that a second chapter is on its way.
Final Thoughts
It was terrific that this show was so fun. I won’t lie, I’ve seen this sort of set up many times before. However, it was done well here, so its unoriginality was easy to overlook.
Now, one hundred percent of this series’s success comes down to its main group of characters. Assuming there is more story in the future, its comforting to know that there are people to rally behind.
Plus, and we should not downplay its importance, this series was really funny.
Without question, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun has earned a recommendation.
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this series? How would you advise Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.
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