It’s funny – I never didn’t like Mairimiashita! Iruma-kun.  I never said anything negative about it.  It eventually forced my hand when it came to picking it back up for coverage, and I think I’ve been pretty effusive in praising its work this season.  But somehow I still feel as if I’ve never done it justice – that I’ve been selling it short for two seasons.  It’s so innocuous and approachable that’s easy to do.  But there’s a lot of substance here – very few series can do so much so well.  This is a stealth shounen powerhouse, and I think it deserves to be in the conversation when the best of the demographic are being discussed.

I continue to marvel at the diversity of appeal this series has.  So many clubs in the bag that it’s ready for any lie, any distance – a stable of great characters, and the ability to swing for any tone it likes and make perfect contact.  No Clara at all this week, no Ali-san (who wasn’t in the first season at all) for several, but even great characters being absent doesn’t seem to matter.  It’s sweet and intimate and funny, but when Iruma-kun wants to go for flat-out epic it can deliver a WMD like this episode.  GAR was seeping out of every pore, and most of it was from characters who aren’t normally the main focus.

Balam is always pretty GAR of course, and he has many big moments this week from the beginning of the ep onwards.  But it’s Sabnock who has the first headliner, and it’s not his attacks against the Carmine Dragon.  He and Azz are supposed to acting as decoys but there’s too much testosterone in the air for that to take.  There are some very tense moments here, as it looks as if Azz has gotten careless and his life could genuinely be in danger.  Not only does Sabnock save Azz’ bacon from being burnt to a crisp, but he gives him a stern lecture about his responsibility to others – in the process showing that indeed, Sabnock has grown substantially over the course of the series (and the Iruma-obsessed Azz perhaps has not).

This is about as emotional as we’ve ever seen Iruma – it’s very clear just how much Azz means to him.  All his friends do of course and I think he’d cry for any of them in this situation, but there’s no denying it – Azz is special.  Sabnock’s decision to retreat was evidence of his growth, but it still falls on Balam to step up and save the pair of them (as he’d saved Iruma and the others earlier).  Balam with his mask off is indeed pretty scary, and his “Nigipnir” familiar (I think) is even scarier.  It’s over in one blow, pretty much, but the danger is far from passed.

Six Fingers has one (well, for now) more big trick up their sleeve, as the three fallen magical beasts combine into one composite form.  This unexpected turn takes even Balam-sensei by surprise, and it’s only the timely arrival of Opera (is this the human-masking cologne from way back in S1?) and Ameri that saves the day.  The monster gattai prompts the big dogs on the other side to team up too, but that necessitates using a familiar-summoning card on Kallego-sensei.  This looks to be a battle of the titans, but the “long fight” that Sabnock predicts turns out to be over in one punch.  Don’t mess with OP teachers and cat butlers.

But over it’s not, because the beasts – composed of all the negative mana from the prisoners below – are apparently programmed to go out in a blaze of devastation.  The gestalt creature summons all of its mana for one final blast to turn Walter Park – including the evacuation center – to ashes.  There seems no way to save the others – indeed, Balam-sensei appears to give up on them, and it’s only Kallego ordering Agares to create an emergency bunker that gets the heroes out of harm’s way.  But there’s one last GAR trump card to play, from an unexpected source – Ronove uses his glamour to turn the creatures’ (and everyone else’s) attention away from the center of the park.  Heroic indeed – but this is indeed one of those “I didn’t think this through” moments.

We know this about Iruma, he never gives up on anyone – even if that person is a sometimes-nemesis like Ronove.  He’ll need saving now too of course, and I think it’s finally Ali-san’s time to shine – which could be awkward for obvious reasons, but there’s no time to think about that now.  Honestly, this is just flat-out stupendous battle shounen.  And while this isn’t Iruma-kun’s default mode the show just does it so well when it does it – and not only that, because all the action is driven by the character dynamics, the selective excursions into epic territory are always that much more impactful.  Does shounen get much better than this is 2021?  Not as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t.

Su…ki…ma