Iruma and the gang have joined the magical apparatus battler and are planning to start the battler party off with a big bang, in theory. Unfortunately, the leader of their battler, Amy, seems to have plans for an even bigger bang than that…
This is the volume where I really felt I “got” this series. It hits on everything that initially impressed me with the first volume and just runs with its stronger parts and reveals those strengths nicely.
It also introduces an actual good villain in the form of Amy, who’s all set up to be the misunderstood sad sack being led astray who Iruma comes in and saves at the end. Yeah, not so much in a demon realm. He’s something else and the way his backstory is subverted was greatly appreciated.
And, to its credit, the story does not use this change in Amy to change Iruma from his fundamentally good nature. No, it leans into his cheerful nature and awful upbringing to make a really good go of a full story arc and it definitely works. Sure, it may be a little ‘younger reader’ in places, but this is overall great and there are worse messages.
It’s incredibly clever how they position Amy as better than he initially seems and then has him turn out to be way worse than anybody could have imagined. Sympathetic villains are fine, but the flashback just reveals how twisted Amy truly is and that keeps things fresher than usual.
So you have a race against the clock, a pretty solid trap, and the usual antics in the background. Let me reiterate YET AGAIN that Clara should not work anywhere near as well as she does, but she’s great. She and Az are a perfect double act in this one.
Minimal Sully doesn’t hurt, but he’s necessarily sidelined for the arc anyway. Maximum clever here and there. Sure, some of these character’s talents are combined in ways that have yet to be demonstrated, but this is hardly the first nor last story to do such things either, but it works.
It’s a really nice change of pace, honestly, and it made me want to go back to the anime and check it out a bit more, so good job on that front. There’s nothing necessarily new about cheerful goodness overcoming the odds, but it’s presented with a little extra panache.
4 stars - I mean, it’s not the best thing ever, don’t get me wrong, and the art is still not doing it for me, but the first major arc in the series is handled well and I won’t be upset when we get to the next one either. Good stuff.