Project #506: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun! S2 Part 1

(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Hey, remember that time we reviewed Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun?

(Yin-Yang): Yes.

(Shizuku): Yeah. It was a lot of fun.

(Nitsuj): Wanna do it again?

(Yin-Yang and Shizuku): Yeah!

(Nitsuj): While Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun wasn’t a grand slam homerun and looked like it came from the early 2000s, this was still a very enjoyable anime.

(Yin-Yang): The anime featured colorful characters, good comedy, and was just all-around fun to watch. It was like watching a Saturday morning cartoon.

(Shizuku): So fun in fact that they made a second season to continue the story. The success of the first season brought new readers to the manga and that in turn gave the greenlight for the anime to continue. Done once again by Bandai Namco Pictures in 2021, Iruma and his friends made a return in the spring of that year at the right time. As lockdowns were finally being lifted, this anime began airing to make us laugh again. But was this a good follow up to the first season, let’s find out. This is Welcome to Demon! Iruma-kun S2.

Opening and Ending Theme

(Yin-Yang):  The opening for the second season is “No! No! Satisfaction!” by Da Pump. The opening is once again energetic, funny, exciting, and crazy all rolled into one. It makes you want to get up and dance along with the characters. While I like the first opening more, this opening is still enjoyable and does encapsulate the series.

(Nitsuj): For the ending we have “Kokoro Show Time” by Amatsuki. Right off the bat you can feel the Halloween vibes from this song (which is ironic seeing how this anime aired during the spring and summer time). I personally didn’t really care for this ending and usually skipped over it. While I did enjoy Halloween vibe it was giving off the song itself just didn’t stick with me.

Episodes 1-4

(Shizuku): So the anime starts off in a surprising twist where instead of starting where they left off last season we seem to go to a time earlier in the anime. We get a quick reintroduction to Iruma, his situation, and his personality. We see the students prepare for the end of the term exams (Nitsuj: Shame they’re not seniors. They would have had the option to skip them) as well as get introduced to some new elements such as the spirit of Iruma’s ring gaining the ability to talk. Not even it knows why it’s talking, but it does tell Iruma that he’s not using magic properly and wasting a lot of it whenever he uses it. The spirit explains that magic is based on desire and imagination. The spirit who calls himself Ali has Iruma practice magic by changing the color of his clothes and transforming Ali as well. Too bad Ameri walks in while Iruma is wearing a dress and misunderstands the whole situation (scene here: https://youtu.be/Dj7z4wL5J88). They come to the conclusion that the reason Ali came into existence is thanks to Iruma going up in the rankings which means he’ll only continue to grow as Iruma climbs to higher rankings. Also nobody believes Iruma when he tells them about Ali and thinks he’s crazy.

Episode 2 focuses on Ameri who still can’t get over the fact that Iruma is into crossdressing (Nitsuj: You’re still on this, woman? That’s like a rule in anime. If your character is a cute boy or trap, then he is required to crossdress at least once for comedic reasons). This whole situation has been on her mind for days that she can’t concentrate on student council work and is starting to come across as crazy. . .er than usual and starts to wonder what exactly is her relationship with him (Yin-Yang: Remember, demons don’t know what the concept of friends are. To them it’s always been an eat or be eaten kind of mindset). Ameri decides to go and talk with Iruma only to catch him at a bad time crossdressing (this time by force. (Yin-Yang): Does that make it any better? Scene here: https://youtu.be/wqahxhLPka0). Ameri drags him away to her office where surprisingly she doesn’t talk about the crossdressing (I assume that’ll be a discussion for later), but instead wants to know the status of his club. School rule dictates that each club must have one third-year student or at least three dalet-ranked (ranked 4) members. Iruma’s club has neither of them and so, the club is put on hiatus for the time being (Nitsuj: Noooo~! (Shizuku): They barely did anything in the club. (Nitsuj): Oh yeah, that’s true). The good news is the club can be reinstated by the student council, but Iruma and the others will have to undergo some training. Iruma and the others must now participate in other clubs and get a letter of recommendation from their presidents. Ameri puts them all in different clubs with Iruma being brought into the student council (Yin-Yang: Wow, that student council uniform does not match him at all. (Nitsuj): Like you’re one to be giving fashion tips). The first day is a little rough for Iruma (as it should be), but he slowly starts to adapt to this lifestyle, earns the respect of his senpais (he’s just a likable character) and sees just how cool and respected Ameri is (scene here: https://youtu.be/f7QtNR3_JWs). As the episode reaches the end, we see Ameri get called away to a room where someone sprays her with something that changes up her personality and makes her even cuter than normal (Nitsuj: As if that wasn’t even possible. Scene here: https://youtu.be/n8VBdu4KSrk).    

In episode 3 the school is all abuzz with the new Ameri. She still has her memories intact and continues to perform her duties as student council president, but she works at a slow pace that it’s making the work 5 times harder for everyone else. Sadly, everyone is too afraid to say anything because they don’t want to make her sad (Nitsuj: That and she’s cute. Scene here: https://youtu.be/L7acBkCUiIc). They manage to find the culprit behind Ameri’s change (or rather he reveals himself), a demon named Ronove (scene here: https://youtu.be/i99nvL2AoVg). He’s the president of the disciplinary battler (Yin-Yang: This man does not strike me as someone who would enforce school rules. (Nitsuj): He looks like a Latin lover) and has been gunning for the student council president position for months. While the battler does activities similar to the student council, they’re a bunch of showoffs who keep starting trouble with the student council. Ronove challenges the student council to a dissolution election, an election held amongst the students in case they’re dissatisfied with the current student council by choosing a battler to represent them. All students will get a chance to vote and whichever club loses gets dissolved. After securing the signatures from battlers the student council cracked down on in the past, Ronove has the backing he needs to fight the student council and he quickly starts to pull other students to his side while Ameri seems to be losing support (Nitsuj: But. . .she’s cute). Iruma gets a chance to speak to Ali who tells him that the spell cast on her is almost undone however there seems to be something within her that’s stopping the spell from being fully undone. Ameri calls Iruma to her private room where it seems like she’s back to normal.    

At the start of episode 4 we see that Ameri hasn’t returned to normal. She wore her old clothes in the hopes of returning to her former self, but that didn’t work. She opens up to Iruma about her concerns for the election and how she’s troubling everyone (Nitsuj: Yes, but you are a ray of sunshine because of your cuteness). Just when she thinks it would best to give up, Iruma reminds her who she is, how she inspired him and everyone else in the student council, and how they follow her because they both love and respect her. This gives Ameri the confidence she needs to give it her best and soon the day of the election arrives. Each candidate will get 3 minutes to say their speech uninterrupted (Yin-Yang: Hopefully this debate won’t follow real-life debates). Ronove speaks (or rather sings) first, about his desire to turn the school into a paradise of fun for the students (Nitsuj: Which is normal and something I can get behind, but at the same time there needs to be order. School just can’t be all fun, students need to learn and discover themselves so that when they get to college and finally have to decide on the career they want to go into they won’t be wasting 4 years of their life for nothing). Ameri goes next where at first she starts off timid, but when she sees the faces of everyone the old Ameri returns where she says that she became president to help everyone discover their own desires (they are demons, they’re made of desire) and not be satisfied wallowing in pleasure and fun. This manages to win over everyone and Ameri wins by a landslide and even admits to herself that she’s in love with Iruma (scene here: https://youtu.be/ls5_PeASItc. (Yin-Yang): They do make a cute couple). After the election, Iruma, Asmodeus, and Clara present the culprit behind Ameri’s cute ordeal a second-year student named Eligoth. Borrowing supplies from the magic and game battler, Eligoth created a perfume that turned Ameri dainty. Why did he do it? Because he’s a groupie and wanted to burn Ameri’s cute personality into his mind. He gets punished for his actions and as for Ronove, Ameri allows him to join the student council (Yin-Yang: WHAT! Are you still dainty!?). She enjoyed being pushed to the brink and thinks having him around will only motivate her even more (Nitsuj: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer). Ameri then reinstates the magical apparatus battler as a thank you to Iruma and the others. Things soon return back to normal with Ameri having a new ambition (one that involves a certain blue-haired boy. (Nitsuj): Lucky bastard).     

Episodes 5-8

(Yin-Yang): Not much happens in episode 5. Sullivan and Opera host a welcome home after party for Iruma and tell him to invite his friends over. Iruma is naturally nervous as he’s never invited friends over to his house, but works up the courage to text Asmodeus and Clara over. Both of them come over where they have a feast, play dance dance revolution (Nitsuj: Not sure that’s a good game to play after a feast) and go on a scavenger hunt. Asmodeus and Clara take their leave with Iruma having a great time and realizing he still has a lot to learn about himself and demons. Ali, deciding to help him puts a spell on Iruma which turns him into a bad boy and we end the anime right where the first season ended.

Episode 6 starts with Sullivan scared and sad that his sweet grandson has gone evil on him (even Opera is scared of the new Iruma, that just shows how messed up this situation is). Surprisingly, despite being evil, he’s still treats his friends and everyone around him rather nicely. In fact, we see later how he still can’t resist helping others whenever they ask him to do something (Nitsuj: Wow, even his evil side is nice. That just shows how much of a cinnamon roll Iruma is). At school, guys and girls just can’t handle how cool Iruma is now (Shizuku: Not to mention he’s a total charmer. He’s got the usually eccentric Clara acting docile and sitting in his lap. Literally). His classmates equate his change in personality due to his evil cycle and decide to just leave him alone and just let things play out (Nitsuj: It’ll make good stories later on). After a bunch of other students dump trash near their classroom, Iruma decides that these learning conditions are unacceptable (https://youtu.be/D3SEeJ8nt7I). So in a bold move, he leads his class to the faculty’s office and demands a classroom exchange, but not just any classroom, he wants the Royal One classroom. This was the classroom that was used by the lost demon king, Derkila, when he attended Babyls. After his graduation and disappearance, the classroom was closed off and preserved in honor of him. Kalego gets mad at Iruma’s gall to think he’s worthy of using such a classroom, but this doesn’t faze Iruma in the least and he swears to get permission slips signed by every faculty member within one week approving of him and the Misfit class to use the Royal One classroom. Kalego accepts this condition, but changes it to three days which is what Iruma planned for (scene here: https://youtu.be/SCqFadloQ9c). He easily motivates his other classmates who didn’t care in the first place about the classroom and would much rather have fun (Shizuku: You guys voted for Ronove didn’t you?). Iruma says that this is the ultimate fun, getting to use a classroom that they care so little about while everyone who holds it in such high prestige has to watch from the outside (Nitsuj: Damn, that’s like the equivalent of someone buying the latest home console and just using it as a footstool because they have no interest in the console and just brought it to make everyone else angry).   

In episode 7, Iruma and the rest of the misfits get to work collecting approval stamps from teachers. Some teachers willingly give their approval stamps (Nitsuj: They got mine) just for the fun of it and the opportunity to teach in the Royal One classroom, while others have to be gained through favors or underhanded tactics. One thing I do like about this episode is how they shine the spotlight on the rest of the misfits as we get to learn what their powers can do and see new sides of them we never got to see in the first season (Shizuku: What we once thought were just throw away side characters are really talented individuals who just got screwed over by the school system. (Nitsuj): They’ve been upgraded to secondary characters). We even get a chance to see evil Iruma interact with Ameri getting her stamp of approval as a way to win over other teachers who were on the fence (and while it doesn’t play out like I would have hoped it would, it’s still a cute scene between the two and reinforces their ship. (Nitsuj): He did a kabedon so hard that it made a chair disappear. Scene here: https://youtu.be/HuaCoBXcxLY). On the third day, they manage to get every teacher’s approval except for Kalego and Iruma decides to take him on himself.

Iruma and the others present the permission slips from all the teachers to Kalego knowing that he’ll give his approval stamp in response to their overwhelming support. However, he pulls a fast one on the students saying that the school faculty extends to more than the teachers (i.e cafeteria staff, janitors, librarian, etc. Basically anybody on the payroll is considered part of the staff. (Shizuku): That’s a low move. (Nitsuj): Nothing less from a demon). Just when it seems like Kalego has won, a last-minute miracle occurs as the rest of the school staff appears and gives them their permission slips because of all the times Iruma helped them in the past (Nitsuj: The good deeds of a cinnamon roll shall not go unrewarded). With this overwhelming support and fanfare, Kalego has no choice but to give in and accept defeat. In the second half, we get to go inside the Royal One classroom and it is beautiful (Shizuku: It makes our house look like The Simpsons’ house. (Nitsuj): Hey! (Shizuku): You know I’m right). As the group explores their new classroom they come across a throne where Iruma takes his rightful seat on top of it (scene here: https://youtu.be/jsALoOiuVuY). The next day Iruma returns back to his cinnamon roll self (Nitsuj: Noo~, don’t go~) where he’s embarrassed by what he did these last few days. He apologizes to everyone who aren’t the least bit mad at him and while they liked evil Iruma they all admit the classic is the best (scene here: https://youtu.be/OFTdRMHPYjI).

Episodes 9-11  

(Nitsuj): Not much happens in episode 9. The end of the semester is upon us and you know what that means, exams (or as students like to call it Judgment Day). Iruma is of course in trouble as his grades are bad. Not because he can’t read their language but because he has no idea what they’re talking about. In another part of the anime, Eligoth joins Iruma’s battler. Previously, he was working with the student council (Shizuku: Isn’t that like having an alcoholic spend the night in a liquor store to beat his addiction?) but he kept causing more trouble with his obsession with Ameri (can’t say I blame him, she’s awesome). Since he’s too dangerous to be kept alone, Ameri decided to send him to a place with demons she could trust to watch him. Getting back to the studying, nothing seems to be sticking with Iruma until he comes across a book that asks questions about humans and he answers all of them right. This manages to boost Iruma’s confidence and now that he’s on a high he decides to study some more demon history. Sadly, the regular teacher is out and the class is now being run by Balam an eccentric teacher who made the book Iruma got a perfect score on and the instructor of imaginary beasts (scene here: https://youtu.be/lI2ORu-y7DI).   

In episode 10, Iruma and his friends are forced to attend Balam’s class who has a bad rep amongst the students because of his skinship (something that would get him fired on the spot) and there are rumors that he has kidnapped students to experiment on them. Iruma catches the eyes of Balam who notices he doesn’t have wings. This causes Balam to panic and he rushes off to the faculty’s office with Iruma to alert the other teachers. Luckily, Ali pretends to be Iruma’s wings to keep him safe. While Ali’s trick manages to fool the other teachers, Balam isn’t convinced and believes that Iruma has a rare illness or is a special creature. The two continue to interact with each other where Iruma discovers that despite his behavior and appearance he’s actually a very nice guy (Yin-Yang: Don’t judge a book by its cover). This makes Iruma drop his guard and reveal himself to be a human where Balam is shocked and amazed (scene here: https://youtu.be/n_N92usvEN4). Later on, we find out that Balam is actually good friends with Kalego. In fact, they were classmates (Shizuku: Kalego had friends? Scene here: https://youtu.be/ln0GicJ23Z8). Balam manages to help Iruma with his studies and he gets help from everyone else where he starts to see improvements in his mock scores. At the end of the episode the day of exams finally arrives (and so begins Judgment Day).  

At the start of episode 11 we end Judgment Day quickly with everyone passing their exams. We also find out that Balam has the same ranking as Kalego making him one of the highest-ranking demons in the school (scene here: https://youtu.be/t0fxQR6WSk4. (Yin-Yang): Who knew?). After exams, Ameri waits for Iruma to do their reading (a nice little date) only to find out that Iruma got dragged to do karaoke with the guys (scenes here: https://youtu.be/TsomAojYL_A and https://youtu.be/h3pM64PfFA4. I hope they have Baka Mitai down here. (Shizuku): You would want to sing that. (Nitsuj): It’s a very good song). This leaves Ameri with Clara who drags her off to a girls’ talk where the conversation leads to love and Iruma (scenes here: https://youtu.be/70-d0_S7buM and https://youtu.be/S2QPJ17B47U). Through this heated conversation, they do become closer as friends and even exchange numbers to chat with each other.  

And that ends the first half of the second season. Can you believe this season is actually shorter than the previous season? Tune in next week as we take a look at the second half. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.

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