It would be hard to imagine an Iruma-kun episode more unlike last week’s. And given what I thought about that ep, that’s mostly a good thing. Actually that sort of whiplash change of tone is something of a specialty of this series. It does have a default mode to be sure, but when it goes to extremes it tends to go hard and without any preamble, and seamlessly. This seems like one of the most important episodes of the season, too, which is another way it stands out from the Dem-Doll Games arc.
Sabnock Sabro is an interesting one. He’s firmly in the second tier of Misfits prominence-wise, but in terms of the premise he occupies a pretty unique spot. He is, after all, the only one who wants to be Demon King – and as such, sees Iruma-kun as a rival. That matters a lot more now, too, since Iruma has decided he has some interest in that himself. That interest leads him to check out the Demon King Battler, but it’s not quite the testosterone factory you might expect. In fact it’s a bunch of otaku who rabidly consume anything D.K. related and drink Hell Grey tea.
That includes, Sabro, which may be a little surprising. He’s quite welcoming to Iruma (they all are), pleased by his interest in the subject. He absolutely does see Iruma as a rival but Sabro doesn’t see him as the enemy. It’s a relationship built on mutual respect (though Iruma-kun respects pretty much everybody whether they deserve it or not). Does that work in the Underworld given the stakes in play? That’s the question the rest of the episode really concerns itself with exploring.
Derkila is obviously the modern ideal of the D.K., though Sabro drops the tantalizing “one of the two most popular demon kings” about him. In a sense Iruma-kun has quite an unfair advantage here, though even he doesn’t understand that yet. Sabro certainly doesn’t. He heads home to fetch a book he thinks Iruma-kun should read, and it’s clear he has a complicated relationship with his father. Not so his sister Sylvia (who briefly appeared in the first season), a genki pixie who brocons hard and has just been accepted into Babyls herself.
This is a complicated family to be sure. Baal is Sabro’s uncle – except he’s apparently not his father’s real brother. He plays the role of cool and genial bro but in fact he’s in league with Six Fingers, which means Kirio gets a brief appearance (Ohsaka Ryouta’s work there makes Kirio one of my favorite characters in this cast). He offers to make his nephew (?) the demon king – in fact, offers to “get rid” of the other candidates, including Iruma. Sabro unsurprisingly rejects this as “not cool” and bad future biography fodder, though one likes to imagine there’s a deeper ethical compass – and affection for his friend – guiding him here.
As for Dad, his name is Sabzan and he’s played by Sakuya Shunsuke, one of those gravitas voices from the glory days of anime. He too briefly appeared in S1 but this is the first real exploration of his character. He seems to spend all of his time at a massive tatara furnace making weapons, one of which he gives to Baal along with an admonition to “never come near my family again”. Sabzan qualifies as a mystery man at this point. His son considers him a loser for some reason, he seems totally anti-social, but he knows the score with Baal and makes him a weapon anyway. A weapon is exactly what Sabro appears set to become, against his will. But I don’t think he’s going to become an enemy where Iruma-kun is concerned.
Su…ki…ma
