#but iruma designs are so unique and creative i love it

[kage-my-justu]

I LOVE the character designs of the female students in Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun!

The Range baby 🤩

I am specifically talking about this baddie right here

[animehouse-moe]

Welcome To Demon School, Iruma-Kun! Volume 2: Into The Fire

I can't give Kodansha enough praise for (specifically) how they're handling Iruma-kun. I was worried when they announced it as single volumes, but the breakneck release schedule of every 2 months is great. There's a massive backlog of volumes, which means English readers get Iruma at an incredibly fast pace! Either way, it means the second volume's released and there's plenty to talk about with it!

Right away, NIshi's malleable style pulls me right back into Iruma-Kun. I love how fluid and expressive these designs are, how different a character can look from one page to the next. It feels so right with how all over the place Iruma-Kun is.

Similarly, the approach to "action", if you can really call it action, appears early on and works great with the overall style of the manga. Typically speaking, I'm more a fan of storyboarded action (where you see its progression and movement through paneling), but there's a good few exceptions like Iruma-kun, where I do enjoy the more pose based appeal. For it to work though, you need to be really good at expressing entire scenes with a single panel, and I'd say Nishi pulls it off quite well.

Now, you'd think when you're reading content you've already watched (at least once), and from almost 4 years ago now, that some of the comedy might wear thin. Nope. In fact, it's almost the opposite, as plenty of these moments end up feeling nostalgic, like Iruma's appearance by carriage (graciously announced by Opera). It's a bit challenging to explain, but with the unique life only found in the manga, and the differences due to restrictions and approach, the humor doesn't feel worn or thin in any spots.

Of course, it's not all comedy, this is still an impactful shounen for younger audiences, so they throw in pieces like this here and there. I really enjoy how wildly characters are able to swing between their more demonic side, and the more human one. Also, I'm a sucker for negative space with emotional realizations like this. Iruma's worried about being outed as a human, but his friends are worried about why he's feeling down. It's really endearing, and I like that they're able to so easily alleviate Iruma's worries. Anyways, the purpose of the negative space here is to show what Iruma's focused/centered on in this moment, that being Azz-Kun and Clara. But yeah, Iruma-Kun vol. 2 is still, unsurprisingly, checking every possible box it can.

I know I already said that the humor was well received in this volume, but it just works so well with Nishi's approach to movement. The posing and character design and the perceived delay between the two actions is just perfect. It's such great humor.

It takes quite a while, but there's also things in the manga that are inferior to the anime. Truthfully though, what can you do? The manga does nothing wrong with it's wonderful art, but the absence of color really hinders it in comparison. And that's mostly where the anime succeeds. Where there's set limitations, such as not having access to color or movement and the like, the anime picks up on what the manga wants, and brings out the best in it.

Also, it's in this volume that we get our first look at Ameri! I'm a massive fan of her character in the anime, so I was super excited to get a glance at her in the manga, and I wasn't disappointed. Her character design in the manga is super interesting, and actually leaves me somewhat disappointed with the anime's interpretation. Here, Ameri's design has something more.... well almost sultry to it, and it all comes from the eyes. I was super surprised to see how different it makes Ameri feel, but I'm completely for it.

Of course, our cute and Shoujo-obsessed Ameri still exists and is absolutely adorable, but first, this page. Nishi's posing and sense of movement through single panels is just something else, and I love how creative they get with perspective and field of view to really bring out the most in these panels.

Anyways, cute Ameri! I can never get enough of her like this.

I just love how responsive Nishi's character designs and art style are, I can't get enough. How the shading and line art change based on mood or appeal for example with this panel of Ameri. Her hair is usually shaded much darker, and her eyes much sharper, but here they're both the inverse of that to draw the cuteness out of her design. I just love it, I love how fluid Iruma-Kun is as a manga so, so much. (regular shaded Ameri below to show the difference as well)

And just to end it off, Azz-Kun and Clara sneaking around following Iruma.

I'm not exactly the target demographic for a shounen manga that focuses on friendship, doing well in school, respecting adults, and so on and so forth, but I hold it very dear nonetheless. Maybe because it's something that makes me feel younger than I am while reading it, maybe because it's just simply well done on all fronts, maybe something else entirely. But whatever it is, I'm so incredibly happy to be able to have and own each and every volume of this story now that it's been licensed.