English Dub Review: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun “Invite Your Friends!”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Sullivan holds a party for Iruma and has him invite Asmodeus and Clara, though the real purpose is for him to impress Iruma. Unfortunately nothing he planned really accomplishes this, but Iruma is still happy he threw a party for him. That night, Alicred changes Iruma’s personality to seem like he’s going through a demon’s Evil Cycle, something that all demons go through during puberty, which turns Iruma’s nice and unassuming nature into brash, mean, and ungrateful, much to Sullivan’s shock.

OUR TAKE

This episode is mainly about set up for the real start of this arc, which is actually an interesting contrast with the one that just finished. In the last arc, Aremi was forcibly changed from assertive and bold into being submissive and shy, which forced her face the image of herself that she had built and whether or not she still wanted that. And now we have a similar situation with Iruma, who more or less is going in the opposite direction and gaining qualities he never had before. The motive of the transformation by the other party is also different, with the student who cursed Ameri doing it to force her into his own idealized version of her, while I’m fairly certain Alicred has Iruma’s better interests at least somewhat at heart, or whatever he has instead of a heart. This also pays off the teaser at the end of last season which showed a more evil looking Iruma that wasn’t really touched on at first. Interesting that this arc is placed right next to the last one, as will seeing how Iruma handles this change to his personality and comparing it to what happened to Ameri.

But that’s mainly about the episodes to come, so how is this one right here? Well, it’s perfectly adequate and helps to reinforce that Iruma’s normally kind and helpful nature is what has helped him form these meaningful friendships from Asmodeus, Clara, Sullivan, and others. Considering where he was at the start of the series, someone who was so desperate to please people that he was stuck trying to help undo his parents’ debt, he’s been so surprised to meet and live with people who are genuinely happy to see him every day. So the plot of this episode is pretty simply just him reacting to being so loved and everyone basically fighting over being the one to show that love. It’s not incredibly compelling but it’s nice and sweet like a lot of the show. It’s also not great set up what’s to come, but I’ll go into all of that as we cover the rest of the arc. I guess you could say it’s a bit of a breather between arcs as it is just meant to show how Iruma’s support network is so tightly knit due to his genuinely nice nature, which probably works better than what it might have been meant to be. But now things get really shaken up.