For me, Mairimashita! Iruma-kun is caught between a rock and a hard place a bit this season.  There’s an awful lot going on anime-wise, and as usual these days it’s largely stacked up on the weekends.  If this show was airing next year, which looks like it will be overwhelming dominated by isekai LN adaptations (or even in one of 2019’s first three mediocre seasons), I might make the time to cover it.  As is, it probably doesn’t demand discussion enough to grab a blogging slot, and the fact that there’s no natural series to pair it with for a digest post doesn’t help either.

The thing is, I really do like this series.  Every time (well, almost – there’s always poor Kalego-sensei) it has a chance to go mean it goes nice.  I was pretty worried at the prospect of what Clara might bring to the mix, based on history and the snippet we saw of her last week.  But while Clara is a bit (who am I kidding, a lot) annoying, she too brings a sort of positive message with her.  She’s an utter goofball, but she’s basically a lonely girl with an ability that makes her useful to the sort of people who would take advantage of her loneliness.  And the fact that she’s fully aware of this is proof she’s a lot smarter than she acts most of the time.

In the end, what we see is Iruma gathering a sort of “friendship harem” – which again means Iruma-kun skews a little differently then most series in this genre.  He always means well, and he’s actually rewarded for it by having things always work out well for him despite his fish-out-of-water cluelessness.  And he too isn’t stupid – just out of his depth.  But he tends to make rather smart decisions based on being in incredibly weird situations, and always defaults to tying to be nice whenever he’s unsure of what’s going on.  It’s easy to root for someone like that.

That sums up Mairimashita! Iruma-kun pretty well for me – easy to root for.  It’s going to be around for two cours and I suspect I’ll be watching, though it’s not the sort of show that’s likely to gather much of a following with the English-speaking audience.  I always leave the door open for surprises, and who knows – if Winter 2020 is as weak as it looks from 10 weeks out, maybe I’ll even pick it back up then.