Fourteen Year Old For Sale –
Sold!
I’m not hugely into comedy anime but every now and then something catches my attention. It seldom becomes one of my favourites but sometimes it is fine just to make me smile in the moment. I went into this anime not expecting much given it was firmly tagged as a comedy but the supernatural side of it kind of got my attention. After watching the episode I’m kind of getting budget Hayate Combat Butler vibes and given that is one of the few other comedy anime I watched a significant portion of (way too many episodes actually) I don’t actually see that as a bad thing.
Mairimashita! Iruma-kun centres around fourteen year old Iruma who has useless parents that don’t work forcing him to take on dangerous jobs and their most recent stunt has included selling him to a demon. Fortunately for Iruma, said demon has decided he wants a grandchild and is now playing the doting, and completely over the top, grandfather.
We then get a basic fish out of water experience with plenty of loud exclamations and internal freaking out as Iruma is enrolled in a demon school, warned that if anyone finds out he’s human he’ll get eaten, and is then attacked by another student after his grandfather, who also seems to run the school, decides Iruma should do the opening address. It all works well enough and the going to the demon school kind of reminded me of Rosario + Vampire.
This one has no subtlety whatsoever, relies on character over-reactions to keep up the energy, and feels like it is borrowing heavily from several other anime (no problem there as long as it does it well). Despite that, I enjoyed this first episode well enough. Unless it steps up a lot it won’t become one of my favourite anime any time soon, but sometimes this kind of silliness is what the doctor ordered and so far they haven’t gone so far with a joke as to set my teeth on edge, which is usually what puts me off comedy in the first place. That isn’t to say the next couple of episodes won’t make me walk away but at the moment I found this pleasant enough.
If nothing else, this first episode is worth watching so that you can see the opening ceremony for the school and listen to the school song. As I said, no subtlety whatsoever but as far as school songs go for demons, this one was definitely on point.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
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Karandi James
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Images from: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun. Dir. M Moriwaki. Bandai Namco Pictures. 2019.
You didn’t mention how good the OP is, though!!!
The OP didn’t do much for me though it might grow on me once I settle into this a bit more.
Really? Interesting. I thought it was really good, but maybe that’s just due to a difference in musical tastes
I had fun. The green-haired girl with the ram-horns and pointy teeth is already my favourite, even though she’s done nothing but greet her clan. Also, we get Daisuke Ono as Severus Snape (i.e. the grim looking teacher who’s very likely not going to like Iruma-kun and is likely going to harass him).
I like the visual style, but the animation itself can sometimes get repetitive to the point that I notice (and I don’t notice much). Also, Iruma’s voice actor can get annoying. I hope they tone him down as he settles in. He’s fine as long as he’s not scared.
I also want to meet the guy who invented the spell that Iruma was made to chant. A strange sense of humour? Or just no common sense?
The show was one of my picks, and I’m not disappointed.
It was definitely fun though I”m also hoping Iruma settles a bit because the constant exclamations, while warranted in this episode, will become a little too much if they keep going.