Anime Review: Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! Season Two
Quick recap: Iruma’s abusive parents sold him to a demon for great wealth. This turned out to be a pretty good deal for the boy, as Sullivan is a jolly old fellow who wanted a grandchild to spoil and love. As part of his new life, Iruma must attend demon school. Problem: if his fellow students knew Iruma was a human, they’d try to eat him! In the first season, despite his misgivings, Iruma made friends and somewhat adapted to his new life.
In this season, more of the supporting cast gets fleshed out. The bit characters in the “abnormal” class of misfits get a chance to show off some of their backstory and personalities beyond their running gags, new teachers are introduced, and we learn some of the lore of the setting and how the older demons relate to it.
This necessarily means there’s not quite as much emphasis on Iruma’s relationship with his best friends Asmodeus and Clara, but they’re still very much present, as is the student council president and tsundere Ameri.
The first two plotlines this season involve major characters undergoing personality changes, though Iruma going “evil” doesn’t quite have the effects you might think. This leads into the misfit class getting a nicer study space, which is a good thing as it’s time to cram for finals! This exposes one of Iruma’s weaknesses, as he a) has never attended school regularly enough to develop good study habits, and b) is seriously deficient in demon-world basic knowledge.
That hurdle over, it’s time for the demon equivalent of summer vacation, and a visit to an amusement park! This storyline abruptly turns into a battle manga when baddies unleash monsters on the park visitors and the misfit class plus chaperones are the only moderately combat capable people available to stop them.
A couple of after-stories later, it’s time to pause for Season Three and the return to school.
There’s a bit more romance this time as Iruma has protagonist girl-attracting properties, but remains hilariously clueless to this. A date goes well though not as expected.
Despite very much remaining a gag series, there are scatterings of serious moments, as when we’re reminded that Iruma’s people-pleasing personality comes from his abusive upbringing. It’s a breakthrough when he recognizes that he is genuinely angry about something, and that this is a valid reaction to the situation. And there’s a bit of social commentary when we learn just how the amusement park is powered.
This season felt too short, and I am looking forward to the next one!
