Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun Season 2

Episode 6

It has finally happened – Evil Iruma's here. Thanks to a spell cast on him by Alicred, Iruma is currently going through a simulated Evil Cycle, the span of time when demons basically go rogue due to stress and other factors. Since Iruma's human, this technically shouldn't be happening to him, so there's some question as to how brilliant this move was on Ali-san's part. Yes, it would have struck people as odd if he never went through one (I assume; we don't know a whole lot about evil cycles at this point), but putting him through one has its risks as well – what if the very human Iruma can't keep up with his simulated evil impulses? Will there be fallout for his human body? And will Sullivan and Opera ever recover?

Those are largely questions for a later time, because right now Iruma has bigger fish to fry and most of the kids at school are enthralled by his new, evil self. They all liked sweet and earnest Iruma, yes, but this new version of him is somehow even more fascinating, in part because sweet Iruma is clearly still in there somewhere. That's actually what I find most impressive about this episode: we see Iruma make a transformation into someone much harsher and outwardly callous, but he's still best friends with Asmodeus and Clara and still looking out for others. He doesn't just randomly take out anger or frustrations on people or even try to take advantage of them. Yes, he accepts Azz-Azz carrying his bag as his due, along with the carriage transportation to school, but he doesn't rub it in anyone's face or act like he alone is entitled to better treatment. That means that somewhere in there he's still thinking about other people and what they might want. He's just more willing to do whatever it takes to get it for them.

The main thing he wants now is a better classroom. It's kind of hard to argue with that, since the Misfit Class' room is basically garbage, and that's not even taking into account how other people leave garbage outside of it because they're too lazy to walk the extra few corridor twists to the dump. Plus Evil Iruma sees the inherent contradiction in punishing his classmates for being bad when they're all demons: by most measures, wouldn't that mean that they're actually being better demons than all of the rule-followers? We know why things are the way they are, but Evil Iruma doesn't give a crap, and he's ready to do something about it. So he does what all enraged students have since long before I marched into the principal's office at age five to tell her that the school's “holiday” auction was a sham: he takes it to the teachers.

Unfortunately for Iruma, Kalego isn't quite as shocked as my elementary school principal was, although Sullivan may be in for a phone call similar to the one my mother got. He's also in no way cowed by this new, more sinister Iruma, which might explain why he's the one in charge of the Misfit Class. While he does seem to understand where Iruma is coming from, he's also not willing to entertain any ridiculous notions of moving them – especially when Iruma suggests that they be transferred to the locked classroom known as The Royal One, where His Majesty the Demon King once studied. He's not quite quick enough on the uptake to realize that this Iruma isn't going to take no for an answer, though, and that sets us up for what's to come: the Misfits gathering signatures from all of the teachers to permit the room change.

Of course, “gather” as a verb can have some interesting variations in meaning, and the fact that Jazz is in the Misfit Class for basically pick-pocketing means that teachers may not be aware that they're consenting to Iruma's plan, especially since Iruma's smart enough to put Jazz in charge. When you think about it, all of the Misfits have skills that could be…persuasive, even against the purportedly stronger teachers. Whether Kalego's ego has allowed him to think about this or not isn't clear yet, but the real danger of Evil Iruma isn't the myriad hearts he's clearly breaking every day (he's even got Dosa-chan pining for him!) but the fact that he's not reluctant to use that very sharp mind of his. Basically his limiters have been taken off, and his evil self is willing to do what it takes to get what he wants.

Could this be part of Alicred's plan to see if Iruma is fit to be the next king? I can't write that possibility off, and certainly Asmodeus and Clara are willing to follow him no matter what. The rest of their class takes a little convincing, but he wins them over in the end, too, so if that's what's going on, it's got very real potential to work. The only person who I could see stepping in to stop this is Ameri, because the one she loves is Nice Iruma. We'll have to see if (and how) she factors into this, and theorizing about that is better than lamenting the missed opportunity this episode had for making Opera's tail puff up with his distress.

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Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.