Iruma-Kun: Welcome to Demon School #3-4

After reading this couple of chapters, I had to go look up author Osamu Nishi's age at the time of writing. The reason being that almost every other panel of these chapters remind me of either a) comics that weeaboos I knew in high school would draw, or b) comics that Tatsuki Fujimoto had his 13 year old self-inserts draw in "Look Back." In both the sort of charming ways, and in the clumsy, tiresome, "come back when you're a few years older and know how to tell a story in this medium" ways.

And, apparently Nishi was 25 years old when this comic started coming out. So, unless she had it sitting around in a drawer somewhere for quite a few years before she could get it serialized, there isn't much of an excuse.

Let's get into it I guess.


Issues three and four, "Iruma and Clara" and "Demon Friends," are largely propelled by the introduction of a new character. It's a pretty creative character, I'll give the comic credit for that much. She's a hyperactive girl with wide eyes and cute little pointy teeth who looks and acts a decade younger than her peers and hides her anxiety over whether or not anyone actually likes playing with her under a facade of scenery-destroying childish mania.

I'll be interested to see her effect on the story going forward. I can't think of another character even remotely like this in any manga I've seen before, so this might go in novel directions.

Chapter three starts with Iruma and Azz entering the school bookstore to get their textbooks for the term. I thought today was supposed to be their first full day of classes already, with the orientation stuff already done with? Eh, whatever. Clara Valac, as she quickly introduces herself, is another freshman student at Babyls. Somehow. Despite having the mental and emotional maturity of a kindergartener at best and a maladjusted puppy at worst. Almost as perplexing as this is the fact that the rest of the incoming class seems to already know her and have preestablished relationships with her. I guess it's possible that all these demon kids are coming from a relatively small set of aristocratic families and thus know each other by name and reputation if not by face prior to enrolment, but...from the way it's written, that's really not the vibe I get. Like, look at this loredump that comes courtesy of Azz:

Maybe he and her specifically went to the same prep school or something. Maybe. But like...it isn't just me, right? The way it's written really makes it seem like Clara and Azz were already going to school at Babyls, and have a social status quo that they fit into, before Iruma was dropped into their midst. They ARE all supposed to be freshmen though. No other way would they be assigned to the same classes (as we soon learn that they are about to be), approaching their ranking and placement ceremonies with the same uncertainty, competing over who gives the introductory speeches, etc.

...

The weird thing about this is that it feels like it's leaning on isekai character introduction conventions in a place where they don't belong, but...they should belong here, because this IS essentially an isekai. Basically, the story seems to be acting like it's already the middle of the schoolyear, or like Azz and Clara are already sophomore students, despite that not being the case, but I'm not sure why the author didn't just *make* that the case if she wanted to write things like this.

I gueeeess she thought it would be hard to justify Sullivan acquiring a grandchild without taking the academic year into account, given how important it is to him that his adoptee be a student at Babyls. But still, there are ways to work around that.

...

Despite Azz's warning him to stay away from her, Iruma's inability to say no forces him to indulge her in her games as she promptly forgets all about needing to buy books and just cheerfully destroys the store. Getting the lot of them kicked out. Azz is surprisingly only a little bit indignant about this, and makes every excuse for his master Iruma that he needs to.

Honestly, Azz is my biggest disappointment in this couple of chapters.

Alice Asmodeus was introduced as a proud, domineering heir with big ambitions and a talent for social engineering (he was able to arrange for a large audience for his duel with Iruma on extremely short notice, after all. That turned out to be a mistake, but still, the fact that he was able to do it says something). Since then though, his entire personality has consisted of "Iruma's manservant." He doesn't act like a warlord who's bent the knee after being bested in combat (or like a child from a culture in which such dynamics are normalized who is sort of play-acting what the grown-ups do). He acts like he's from one of those fucked up cadet-lineages who raise their children from birth to be attendants to the high nobility. He never leaves Iruma's side. Never shows interest in things that Iruma hasn't also shown interest in.

He still makes grandiose threats or promises of violence, but only toward percieved enemies of Iruma's, and Iruma never permits him to make good on them. And...that's pretty much the only thing he ever does that *isn't* just textwall infodumping or bland "yes master, allow me to hang your coat for you master" butlerisms.

And, uh. He's really emotionally invested in his service to Iruma. Like, here's his reaction when Clara convinces Iruma to play house with her and then relegates Azz to the role of jilted ex-wife:

I guess it could be a matter of Azz thinking he needs to prove himself as a minion in order to recover the reputational hit he took from losing the duel in the first place. But that's not how it's written. He doesn't seem like he's throwing himself at the bit with the power of desperation. He seems like he genuinely has an obsessive domestic d/s boycrush on Iruma.

Which, I mean...that's a thing that a person could potentially have. A supporting character having a domestic d/s boycrush on the main character isn't neccessarily a problem. But looking at how Azz and Iruma started out, and how RECENTLY they started out, and the nonexistence of any onscreen character development between Azz as he was then and Azz as he is now, I'm having trouble buying that it's authentic either.

Anyway, after they all get kicked out of the bookstore (including Azz, because he's no longer his own person and can only go where Iruma can go), the rest of this issue is spent failing to make me care about Clara's social predicament. She - and other demons of her lineage, the comic implies - has the ability to conjure replicas of any object she's recently interacted with. This type of creation power is apparently rare and sought-after among demonkind, and there's never any shortage of other demon children (and the occasional adult) trying to get snacks, valuables, test papers, etc out of her. It's not hard for them to manage, because her lolrandom rawr holds up spork XD personality makes her very unpopular, and so she'll eagerly use her powers to assist anyone willing to spend even a little bit of time with her or act superficially friendly for a while. She seems to be aware of this, knowing that none of the friendly gestures she gets paid for her item-creation powers with are genuine, but she still goes through with it because she thinks it's the closest thing to real friendship she'll ever manage to get.

Or, um. That's what chapter 3 says, at least. Chapter 4 immediately calls all of this into question with this baffling little assertion about demonkind:

Apparently, none of the other kids at Babyls know what "friendship" is. The concept doesn't exist within the culture they were raised in. Iruma has to explain it to them, and they clearly find it a novel concept.

So, um. In light of that.

What did Clara think she was missing out on all this time? What is it that demons who aren't annoying are able to get from their peers, while she can only earn a hollow facsimile of it in return for favors?

Also, that in turn comes alongside this scene in the very same chapter, when Iruma tells Sullivan about his new school buddies:

Maybe Sullivan is supposed to be the only demon who knows what friends are, idk.

I'm pretty sure that the "what means friendship?" thing is just meant to be a one-off gag playing on the fact that the story is set in hell and the characters are demons. Just a "haha, we're in hell so everything is evil themed, get it?" sort of joke. But when it comes immediately on the heels of a chapter all about demons having or not having friendship and the way it effects them emotionally, it not only fails to land but also kind of takes the teeth out of the entire setting. Everything is aesthetically evil themed, and the characters talk as if they don't know what friendship is and think cruelty and greed are inherent virtues, but they don't *act* as if these are the case when it counts. And if that's how the comic is going to play things, then each of these jokes is going to be less funny than the one before it.

Chapter 3 ends with Iruma realizing he actually, genuinely enjoys Clara's company, on account of him never having been able to have a normal childhood with friends who he can play house or break things with. So, Clara's arrested development gives him something like the friends he should have played with when he was 4, and Iruma's eagerness to experience the childhood he missed means that he's the genuine friend she's always been looking for. So, she declares him her besty and dumps the kids who have been stringing her along for duplicate soft drinks. And also dumps a vending machine on them.

I guess the vending machine slapstick is a little funny, ish. If only because of the way the one demonkid getting his face flattened by it is drawn in the above panel. Other than that though, any of the poignancy this little arc could have had is undermined by how rushed it is and how little we actually got to know either of the characters before the alleged development happened.

Chapter four, "Demon Friends," starts with Iruma and his NPC guide Azz checking out the school cafeteria. Apparently, the menu available to you depends on your rank (the same rank that is determined by familiar summoning as well as grades and other factors). Given what demon cuisine looks like though, it's not clear if having the higher end options available would make things any better for Iruma or not, heh.

I assume the "I know it'll taste good" bit is just more of his pathological politeness talking.​

A group of demon kids try playing a prank on Iruma by ordering a huge volume of (non-free? I think? They earlier mentioned that meal options with quality contingent on your ranking are available for free, while other food items can be purchased from the school store for currency. They're not at the store right now though, and I'm not sure how ordering someone more *free* food than they wanted in any way constitutes a prank) food and having it sent in his direction. Previous chapters established that Iruma has been unintentionally building a fearsome reputation with virtually every new thing he does, and that even seemingly unintimidating things like him paling with Clara have been interpreted as him outcompeting everyone else at minionizing her and monopolizing her valuable power for himself. This prank attempt by archetypically grinning, chuckling school bullies feels more than a little out of place in light of this, I have to say. Anyway, Azz is eager to beat them all up on Iruma's behalf (after the way the last fight Azz picked ended up going for him you'd think he'd have learned a bit of caution, but nope), but then Iruma eats all the food and seems happy about it.

Subsequent panels make it seem like the joke is supposed to be that he's used to his parents starving him, so he's adapted to deal with just about any size of food windfall when he finds one? I think?

Once again, the comedic timing is basically non-existent, and I was already distracted by my confusion about his place in the school pecking order that the bullying just caused. So, um. I guess this might have been funny, for another reader, maybe? Hopefully?

Anyway, they then get yelled at by the little imp-demon who runs the school bookstore who drags Clara back to them on a dogcatcher poll. Apparently she's like, officially their responsibility now. By virtue of having been hanging around with her a little bit earlier today. And, the reason she's in trouble *this* time is because she was using her object-creation ability to replicate items from the store, threatening its profits in a way the shopkeeper considers identical to theft.

And uh. I guess she was doing that IN the store. And the punishment for it was to be captured and dragged out to her friends. Where she can continue to replicate his merchandise at will.

I don't...how is this supposed to...

Anyway, then Naberius shows up out of nowhere and starts being a jerk to everyone. And then Clara demands to see Iruma use his power over Naberius to make him do funny things, and she conjures a little summoning glyph identical to the ones sold in the school bookstore to stick onto Naberius to expedite that. And the imp-dude from the store who has literally just lambasted them about her being guilty of a shoplifting-equivalent crime whenever she does that decides that Naberius is now guilty of shoplifting due to her sticking such an item onto him. And instead of grabbing Naberius with a dog-catching pole and dragging him over to the last person he had a friendly interaction with, the shopkeeper-imp tries to murder him. Because that makes sense on absolutely any level whatsoever.

And um...things just sort of continue like that for a while until Iruma, Azz, and Clara extricate themselves from the mess and go have ice cream. And apparently they've like. Bonded. Now. Or something.

The final panels of the chapter, incidentally, are the ones where we learn that Azz and Clara have apparently never heard of friendship before and need to have the concept explained to them by Iruma. Really the cherry on top of this perfectly baked and frosted cake of a chapter.


I said before that this comic might eventually figure its shit out and get decent. I'm still open to that possibility. But if that does happen, I don't think it's going to happen anytime in the next few chapters at this rate.

You know, I think that bad comedy might be my absolute least favorite thing to review. Normally when something sucks I can at least crack some jokes at its expense, but it's really hard to wring successful humor out of failed humor. I've consumed the work of enough other culture critic types to know that it ain't just me, either.

Well. Three chapters left for this comic to start showing improvement. I'm very much not optimistic at this point, but you never know.