Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun Season 3

Episode 18

Can we all agree that one of the best things about this episode was Iruma clutching Asmodeus and Clara like a kid who'd been away from his parents for too long? As wrap-up plotlines go, this was generally pretty middle-of-the-road, but seeing how much Iruma missed his besties is the perfect combination of adorable and heartwarming. We knew how much Azz-Azz and Clara missed him, but he was so focused on powering through that we didn't see as much of how much he missed them. But it's also important because it reminds us of how much Orobas' hallucination shook Iruma. The poor boy has been through more than his fair share of trauma, and so reassuring himself that it was just a nightmare is a natural extension of his relief at the Harvest Festival being over. He's got his friends back, he's got his grandpa back, and he's got his parent back. Everything's going to be fine now. (Yes, I'm counting Opera as Iruma's parent, although I'd accept “older brother” as well.)

And we finally get to see the back of this storyline! It feels like the Harvest Festival, taken as a whole, was four days in real time, because it really did drag. It seems to have been worth it for the Misfit Class, though, with at least half of them (Purson notwithstanding) reaching a new rank. Kalego's assessment that Asmodeus is perfectly happy not moving up from dalet because he and Iruma are now rank twinsies is spot-on, but also not a problem because, as Asmodeus himself pointed out, he was already at the required rank to keep Royal One. I'm torn about Clara not leveling up, because she really does seem to have worked hard, but perhaps the fact that she was just doing her usual thing while Elizabetta was branching out and trying something new made her meet the criteria. I do, however, definitely think that Allocer was robbed – he and Jazz concocted a complex plan and executed it under everyone's noses, and while Jazz couldn't rank up because he disqualified himself, Allocer more than deserved recognition.

In terms of the overarching plot, it appears that we were right to be suspicious of Ocho. Orobas' confusion last week really was because he doesn't remember Ocho, who may have the ability to tinker with people's memories. Given how he behaves in this episode, it's also clear that Orobas was not himself during the Harvest Festival. He's ambitious and has a problem with the Misfit Class, but he's not cruel. It seems unlikely that he would have deliberately targeted the Misfits with such a clear intention to do them harm on his own, especially since as Keroli's triumph shows, the magical beasts are intelligent enough that his powers would very likely have worked on them. Kalego just as clearly suspected that something was wrong, possibly because, prickly as he is, he does care about students, and he may have realized that Orobas was acting out of character. He may not have spotted Ocho, but he strongly suspects he was there, and “illegal participation in a school event” isn't something he'll let slide, although from the preview it looks like he's going to sic Robin on him.

As far as bringing the interminable arc to a close goes, this is a decent way to do it. It isn't a stand-out episode, but it is one that has enough good moments to help us overlook the fact that not much happens and that a lot of pieces of it feel thrown in just because the fans will like them, from Ameri to fluffy Kalego. Now we can look forward to seeing Robin's hidden badass side next week when we figure out what Ocho was really up to.

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Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.