Iruma-Kun: Welcome to Demon School #6-7

I've been putting this off for long enough. Let's hopefully get it over with now.


Everyone takes off. Except for Iruma, who needs to be pushed off the edge of the cliff by Naberius to get him moving since he doesn't have wings and all.

He could proooobably command Naberius to serve as his flying steed, but that's out of character for Iruma and might also betray his true nature (well, maybe. Going by their behavior so far, the other demons would be more likely to just interpret this as another dumb flex). Eh, I'm sure one of those giant bird monsters will grab him out of the air and improbably bear him to safety in a way that lets him escape and make it to the finish line.

As for the others, it turns out that nobody in their homeroom is taking this race even remotely seriously besides Azz and Sabnock. The former is faithfully doing as instructed, flying in the mandated direction at his best speed while looking out for danger and reluctantly being clung onto by Clara, who is too lazy or whatever to fly herself. The latter is doing something really stupid...maybe.

They were told to avoid a region called Metalshears Valley, on account of its resident guardian spirit being unwilling to tolerate intruders at present. Sabnock said that he wasn't scared of the guardian spirit, and Naberius told him that that's irrelevant.

Well, Azz sees him flying off through Metalshears Valley. Seemingly unwilling to consider the possibility that the school might value "follows instructions" or "doesn't antagonize the powerful spirit that allows us to have a school nearby" over "doesn't afraid of anything." On one hand, given what is implied about demon culture half of the time, he might be right about this. On the other hand, it's the rest of the time that makes me unsure.

So, maybe this is stupid of him, maybe it isn't, depends on how the story happens to feel like characterizing demon culture at the time of their performance assessment. Until then, there's literally no way for me to tell.

Watching through magic telemetry, Naberius rolls his eyes at Sabnock's antics and writes him off. And then idly looks for Iruma. And, you guys, you will *never guess* what happened to Iruma after Naberius threw him off that cliff.

I especially appreciate the "detached from reality" notification. Thanks comic, I needed you to explain that. I would have missed it otherwise.​

It's weird. I knew this was going to happen. I knew around when in the issue the reveal would probably come. Nothing changed when I actually got to these panels. I might just as well have skipped this page entirely for all it effected my knowledge of how the chapter would go. And yet, for some reason, upon seeing the text and images, I did feel something change. I became viscerally aware of my humanity slipping away. Of the fact that I'm approaching the midpoint of my life, and the processes of decay are already taking their toll; that I'll never be as strong and healthy as I was a decade ago, and that all along the microorganisms in my body have just been waiting for me to die so they can start eating me. I felt, rather than merely knowing, that the Earth is heating up and the universe is cooling down. I fancied, for a moment, that I actually experienced the pull of Sagittarius A as it drags our galaxy inexorably toward its ravenous event horizon.

In that sense, this page is actually the most successful part of "Iruma-Kun: Welcome to Demon School" thus far. It managed to elicit an emotion from me. So, well done there comic.

After being taken to the bird's nest, Iruma bandages a convenient injury on it (or another bird’s? It looks a little different) foot to win its friendship instead of its digestion. It seemed like I perhaps ought to give the comic a *little* bit of credit here for going one step beyond in its execution of the trite "pulled a thorn from a lion's paw" story, but, well, thinking about it further I don't think it's actually deserved. So, the story has Iruma cut and bandage his own hand to demonstrate to the bird what he intends to do. Sure, this working does presuppose a degree of intelligence on the bird's part in order for it to understand why bandaging a wound is good for it, which is kind of a WTF shot in the dark to have worked out perfectly for Iruma, but still, it at least shows the degree to which he's self-sacrificing and kind. Or at least desperate to endear himself to the thing that will otherwise eat him, sure, got to take that into account.

Onnnnnnn the other hand though, the hand-cutting thing shortly turns out to have been done for extremely cheap exposition work.

A drop of his blood falls on the bird's injury and heals it shut. Apparently we're working on something along the lines of Chainsaw Man rules for how demons interact with human blood.

And...that calls the question of what made Iruma think the bird would even understand what he was trying to communicate by cutting and bandaging his own hand back into mind. The bird definitely didn't show any signs of intelligence before now. The demons talked about these birds as if they're just dangerous animals. You wouldn't expect a bear or a mountain lion to understand the concept of bandaging a wound to facilitate healing; your mind would never even go there. So, maybe this is showcasing Iruma's really phenomenally kind and optimistic nature leading him to do something you'd never expect a person to do, but I think it's more likely that it's just a character doing something no one would ever do as a hamfisted device to demonstrate the blood healing thing. YMMV, but I'm not really inclined to be charitable at this point.

Anyway, the bird becomes Iruma's mount and starts flying him where he needs to go, because of course it does. And Sabnok runs into the angry valley spirit, sure, whatever. Next chapter starts with a flashback to Sabnok's childhood, where we learn a bit about the foretold demon king, Sabnok's obsession with the concept, and just how fucking stupid Sabnok would have to be to think he has any chance of ascending the throne.

Apparently, there are some prophecies about the next person to sit the demonic throne. Still no word on why the throne has sat empty long enough for prophecies to start being made about its next occupant. I suppose it's possible that the prophecy itself is the cause, as that would go along pretty well with the kind of silliness that the opening quote claimed demons are vulnerable to, but that feels a little too clever for this comic. Anyway, this prophecy - wherever it's from, and however self-fulfilling it may or may not be - basically says that the next demon king will be an isekai protagonist.

And yet, despite this, Sabnok has apparently grown up convinced that he can potentially be the next demon king. I um...guess he's from a very distant corner of hell or something, if he thinks he meets the "descend from a foreign land" criterion? Maybe?

I guess it's also possible that the prophecy itself isn't believed or taken seriously by many demons, and Sabnok was just reading it in a flight of fancy. His entire family (or at least, several members of it seen in the flashback) all seem to share this misconception of his.

Also...once again, we get what might have been a good joke ruined by poor comedic timing. After the genuine flashback to him reading about the prophecy, we briefly return to the present with Sabnock fighting that guardian spirit they're not supposed to mess with, only to then have a FAKE flashback to something that DIDN'T actually happen in his childhood. Suggesting a cliched backstory about him having dramatic family history surrounding the throne and sort of vaguely implying that he's a long lost heir or something.

Followed up immediately by present day Sabnok claiming that none of that ever actually happened, and saying this:

This...really...ALMOST works.

Like, I can see the humor. I can almost feel the humor. But it's a phantom sensation. It took me a moment to figure out why it doesn't work, and I think there are two reasons.

1. Who is Sabnok supposed to have been recounting that fake memory for? He knows it isn't true himself, so it's not delusion. I don't *think* he's supposed to be saying that all out loud to the guardian spirit (certainly, it gives no impression of being able to speak or understand him, at least). He's not cheekily addressing the audience.

If this whole sequence happened in a scene where Sabnok had someone to talk to, I think it could have been really funny. As is, the setup for the ironic twist feels like it doesn't exist for any reason other than being ironic setup, making it all seem forced.

2. The fact that we have a real memory followed very shortly by a fake one, both of them featuring Sabnok as a child obsessing over the demon king's legacy, is just too damned confusing. During those critical few seconds after reaching the punchline, my mind was spinning a little too much trying to understand what the comic is actually saying for me to fully appreciate the gag.

It also doesn't help that the reality of the FIRST flashback ends up being relevant a few pages later. Which had me flipping back to this scene and rereading it to make sure I understood what was real and what wasn't. Not in a "haha, okay you got me good, mangaka," way. In a "wait, hold on, I don't think I understand this" way.

...

You know, it occurs to me that I've actually seen a better version of this joke in a work that's likely on a lot of people's minds at the time of writing.

For those of you have played Hollow Knight...remember the "I came to this kingdom to fulfill a promise...I promise I made to myself" line? That was basically the same joke as Sabnok's spiel here. They're even both told in mental monologues. The difference is that Zote's setup for the punchline ("I came to fulfil a promise") doesn't require any confusing fabrication; it's just a melodramatic character making a melodramatic narrative flourish that invites the player/reader to come to their own wrong conclusion until he finishes the sentence.

It also probably helped that we had an entire game's worth of time to get disgusted with Zote, so the tantalizing glimmer of hidden character death was really attention-getting (and also kinda weirdly validating when it turns out that nope, the player was right, he really is just a gloryhound asshole). If that scene was unlockable earlier in the game, it wouldn't have been nearly as funny. Sabnok, on the other hand, only showed up a chapter and a half ago.

Long tangent, I know. But I felt like just saying "here is why I didn't think this joke was funny" wouldn't be very satisfying or informative, and that a positive counter-example would be much more constructive.

...

Anyway, Sabnok is quickly overwhelmed by the giant guardian spirit...only for Iruma's bird friend to suddenly drop him off in between them. And uh. Apparently the reason the guardian has been raging lately is because one of its bird babbies (are they literally its offspring, or just emotionally so? Unclear, but not really important I guess) had an injured claw. And, uh, by healing it Iruma apparently pacified the guardian and now it doesn't want to kill them for being in its territory anymore provided Sabnok stops trying to fight back as well.

But...wait. They said that the guardian spirit has been hostile "lately." But also treated killing the birds as a matter of fact aspect of the challenge, provided that they "don't kill too many." And it was a minor injury to one individual bird that was causing the guardian to be abnormally hostile.

Erm...is anybody else seeing the problem with this?

And, uh...was it even a demon that gave the bird its injury in the first place? It's not clear at all that that's what it's supposed to have been. Do demons even go into this area except for the once-per-schoolyear challenge thingy? Or...since each homeroom apparently does it separately, is this bird supposed to have gotten injured by a different homeroom group that did the challenge a couple hours earlier or something? Wait, no, if that was it then the guardian's anger would have only just started within the last few days and they wouldn't be responding to...

Okay. Maybe there's something else going on here that would make this make sense, that gets revealed later. But I'm currently inclined to believe that the author just didn't think this through.

Anyway, Sabnok and Iruma make it back to Naberius and the others last. However, despite coming in last and also breaking the rules of the challenge, the two of them did manage to get rid of an annoyance for the school by pacifying that guardian spirit, so they're just reprimanded rather than disqualified. I guess that makes as much sense as any other outcome.

This doesn't effect their actual ranking, though, because it isn't Naberius and the other staff who do the scoring for this challenge. Rather, that task is the responsibility of an entity called the Rank Owl. Every student, after completing the relay, must reach into this ancient creature's marsupium and pull out a number that denotes their placing in the race.

Heh, okay, that's whimsical enough to get at least a smile out of me. I'll give the comic credit for that.

As they await their turns to draw their rankings out of the kangarowl's pouch, Sabnok and Iruma have a little time to quietly converse among themselves. Sabnok already showed humility by dropping his axe when Iruma told him to stop fighting, and he's admitted that his own stupidity would have gotten him killed there if someone else hadn't showed up to bail him out.

Let me guess, he now sees him as a worthy foe and is about to promote him to archrival status over Azz...

...My sins have been bound into a yoke; by His hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.

In one final case study in failed setup and payoff, Iruma reaches into kangarowl's pouch and - after the normally silent owl startles everyone by thrashing and squawking - pulls out his hand with a mysterious ring having attached itself to his finger.

Sabnok recognizes this as the legendary Ring of Solomon. And then we get another flashback to him reading the prophecies as a child and learning that the next demon king will wear the Ring of Solomon.

-____-

Why wasn't this included in the first flashback to Sabnok reading the scroll, back near the beginning of this chapter?

It would have just taken one extra line. A few more words. And then, bam, suddenly that earlier bit's existence would be justified. And the reader would feel the impact of the ring as soon as it appears on the page, instead of needing its significance explained after the fact. So much stronger of a reveal with such a small change. And it would be buried next to a bunch of other predictions about the next king that haven't come into play yet, so the significance of it wouldn't be at all obvious until the gun goes off.

It's not just comedy that suffers from bad timing and setup. The same writing skillset applies to drama.

The thing is, I actually *do* think this is an interesting plot development that has the potential to move the story in a heavier, more political direction while still keeping things comedic. Like, as a story beat, I think this enriches the story and suggests better things to come. It's just not being told very well.

Anyway, that's the first volume of "Iruma-Kun: Welcome to Demon School."


Apparently, this comic is something of a fandom darling. Which baffles me. Not because I think it's bad - there are a lot of fandom darlings that I dislike - but because there is *literally nothing* in here that you haven't already seen in other shonen manga written before, concurrently with, and after it. There's nothing that stands out. Nothing that breaks any molds. No particularly polished executions. My assessment that this is just a better-drawn version of that lame high school comic your weeb friend showed you at lunchbreaks is not only unchanged, but reinforced.

I will grant that a lot of my complaints about the comedic timing may be down to translation bugs, and since this is a humor-focused comic that can really make all the difference. Likewise, I can easily imagine a version of this story that gets its shit together and goes to interesting places further down the line, and earned its positive reputation at that point. Speaking about the version I was given of the material I was given, though? I'm sorry, but it just sucks.