Why is Iruma still waiting for Kirio to come back?
Just some of my thoughts in regards to this question, what I think the future holds for them as well as what their story means to me personally.
This question has been plaguing the fandom ever since 304 came out. To many people the answer is clear: because Iruma is too kind for his own good and hopes to fix Kirio. This is also often followed by frustration: why can't he just give up on him? Clearly this guy is irredeemable, heck, that's kind of his whole point. He is a twist on the tired trope of a villain who has a sad backstory to justify his actions and then gets redeemed through the power of friendship. Why ruin this perfectly good thing?
Thing is, I really get it. I kind of hate this trope too, and I love Kirio as its subversion. I think the nastiest part about this trope is that it reflects a specific kind of mindset that a lot of people fall prey to in their personal lives. Some people who end up in toxic relationships may keep themselves in there for longer than necessary in hopes that they can "fix" the other person, that if they just stay kind and patient it will all be alright. But, of course, such self-sacrifice only leads to more suffering. It's important to be selfish, to set your boundaries and, if needs be, cut the other person out for good. Perhaps because mairu is a manga so focused on positive selfishness that this feels extra frustrating to some readers - not only does it reflect this harmful mindset but they also perceive it as going against its own messaging.
So, I truly get it. In fact, I would also probably share that frustration if I thought of Kirio as one toxic guy in Iruma's life and of Iruma's response as expression of that harmful self-sacrifice. However I personally don't believe that that's what their story is about and look at it from a slightly different angle.
Stories and storytelling generally follow certain rules and patterns. There is usually a protagonist with some kind of goal they want or need to achieve, there is some kind of conflict holding them back, 3-to-5 act structure with set up-development-climax-resolution, yada-yada all that jazz. These rules are not set in stone and you can and should break them, but it's also good to be aware of them and understand how they work so you can break them smart.
To me, mairu is roughly divided into two parts: pre-battler arc and post-battler arc. The reason why I split it like this is because initially the battler arc was kind of the deciding point for whether mairu gets axed or keeps running. (I am a little too lazy to add the source for this, but Nishi has mentioned this quite a few times over the years, so it's possible to dig something up with a bit of search. Or you can just check out my previous irukiri essay. In general, i believe it's a relatively common practice for manga that gets published in magazines). So initially the battler arc was written in such a way as to be a good ending arc and nicely wrap everything up, including thematically. Basically - go out with a bang. Hence the fireworks and school bombing. Because there is a clear ending point, I believe that the first part of mairu follows this logical structure of storytelling really well. The second part starts to go more wide than deep as Nishi is incentivized to keep the manga running for as long as needed, and that overarching structure gets somewhat lost. But the themes and narrative set up in the first part still come back and are deeply embedded in the story. That's why I want to focus on the first part.
To me, the story of Iruma isn't just about him getting adopted by a kind grandpa and proceeding to have a happy and healthy childhood and fun adventures with his friends, but rather about his relationship with the new world and culture he got transported into. The way the Netherworld changes him and the way he changes the Netherworld. I would also claim that the core conflict of the story is between Iruma and the Netherworld. Perhaps the reason why this point is so relevant to me is because 10 years ago I moved to a different country in my teens, then went through a long process of becoming its citizen on documents and am still not quite done in my journey of fully integrating. So getting used to the new place and new culture, trying to grow roots in there while growing up yourself and figuring out what your ambition is are all things that resonate with me deeply.
Our set up is Iruma with no parents to support him, with no friends to be by his side, no normal childhood, no dreams and ambitions, no idea of where he is going, forced to survive and only think about survival. When he gets transported to the Netherworld, he immediately defaults to his flight-fight-freeze response. This new place scares him, the demons scare him. God forbid he lets them know about his true identity, or this place will hurt him and eat him and chew him up. So Iruma tries to run away from his fears, attempts to lay low and avoid attracting attention at all costs possible.
But of course slice of life comedy shenanigans happen that make this mindset backfire on him. And in the process Iruma starts to get more comfortable in this new world. The demonic mentality teaches him to think more about himself, to want things, even if these desires seem greedy to him; to work for those desires, to face the challenges head-on and to enjoy them to the fullest. He manages to connect with the demons he was so afraid of before. Slowly, Iruma begins to accept this world and realizes that perhaps he doesn't want to run away from it anymore. Perhaps he wants to stay here.
This is the perfect moment to test his new resolve. Cue Kirio.
Kirio has these two visually distinct "modes": his normal cute glasses I'm-just-a-little-baby harmless mode and his slicked back half bangs gloves on glasses off muhaha-im-such-a-freak evil mode. Funnily enough I think these two modes represent the duality of his role in the story. On the one hand, he is that final thing that nails down Iruma's desire to stay in the Netherworld. Before meeting Kirio, even though Iruma starts to like this new place, there is one last thing that holds him back from deciding that he wants to stay here and its the fact that he is a human. Yes, if he keeps that a secret he won't get in trouble, and hey, not all demons are bad, and at least some of them will accept him if they found out. But as a human he also lacks a lot of things that demons have. Horns, tail, wings, and most notably, magic. And even though he has his gluttony ring and grandpa's mana, it's, well, not his own. In the end, he is still an outsider. So can someone like him really belong here?
In Kirio Iruma sees himself, but also the ideal version of himself, that could live in this world. Because, even though Kirio is technically a demon, he is also an outsider for his lack of mana. But he has things he is passionate about, he has his own ambition, and that ambition involves creating ways to help people like himself level the playing field and be able to walk along everyone else. Kirio is a kind and supportive senpai that instantly makes Iruma feel accepted and understood. In that, Iruma sees an ideal to strive for, and not the Ameri kind of a perfect role model, but rather a more down-to-earth, relatable "this could be me" kind of role model.
It's kind of why I think he looks so Kirio-like in this chapter (214). He is getting closer to embodying his ideal of a kind and gentle senpai figure who can guide others and make them feel like they belong and are accepted.
Because of this, Iruma realizes that maybe he can be one of the demons. He can belong to this world and he can even work to make this world more welcoming to others like him. It's okay for him to want to stay here. It's also perhaps why, after conversation with Kirio, for the first time in his life, he thinks about the future.
Perhaps it's not the most ambitious vision of a far future, but it's a big step for a guy who until recently could only think about day-to-day survival.
But there is the other side to Kirio, perhaps his most important role for the story. It's to test Iruma's resolve to stay in the Netherworld.
To me Kirio is not just one toxic guy that betrays Iruma because he is intrinsically evil. Rather, he is the representation of the worst and darkest parts of the Netherworld. He serves as a vehicle to make Iruma face his biggest fears and to make him see not just the good but also the bad about his new home. It's no coincidence that he is not just simply evil, but specifically a demon returning to his origins, to the state all demons used to be in and have capacity to revert to. What's wrong with Kirio is also what's wrong with the Netherworld as a whole.
Please note Iruma's thought process here:
It's not "oh no I can't believe this guy turned out to be evil and betrayed me". It's "oh. I realize now. This is the DEMON world. These are DEMONS." Paradoxically, Kirio is both a character that makes Iruma feel the most familiar with the Netherworld, but also the character that represents the unfamiliar, the most foreign kind of mentality to Iruma.
The resolution to Iruma and Kirio's conflict in this arc reflects the resolution to the overarching conflict of the story so far.
"Even though there is danger in this world, I have grown to deeply care for it and still love my time here. So I won't give it up - not even its scariest parts."
(sowwy I don't have a scanner)
So here we have a very beautiful and elegant structural storytelling. We start with Iruma who is afraid and who only thinks about avoiding danger and running away and through a series of meaningful developments and final confrontation we end with Iruma who now has things and people he cares for, who has found his home and family and because of that can face his fears and dangers head on.
This brings us to 303 and 304.
As I mentioned earlier, in the center of this story stands the relationship between Iruma and the Netherworld. The first part of the manga mostly deals with Iruma accepting the Netherworld, and the second part of the manga is sort of both about that but also very much about the Netherworld accepting Iruma.
Over the years I've seen a few folks express the theory that Iruma won't actually become the Demon King in the end. This manga loves to go against the reader's expectations, and also, as evident from the Many Ears arc, he seems to be more interested in becoming a Babyls teacher than a King, is the claim. I have even seen people claim that there is 0 foreshadowing for Iruma becoming the Demon King. Due to my thoughts expressed in the paragraph above, I have a hard time agreeing with this view. There is a back-and-forth between Iruma and demons that is evident from the very beginning of the manga. Iruma is becoming a better person by embracing demonic qualities, but demons around him are also becoming better by embracing human qualities and concepts. Time and time again we are shown that even though Delkira improved the Netherworld a lot, there were some things he failed at, and Iruma is doing these things better. So, Iruma becoming a Demon King is simply a natural conclusion of this running narrative to me. Or, to put it better, I think that in the end Iruma will change the Netherworld in a major way that will resolve many of its current problems. I can see the story pulling the plottwist of Iruma not becoming the Demon King, but instead creating a whole new political system; I can't see Iruma saying something like "You know, I don't really care about all this politics stuff, I just wanna take it easy, become a teacher and chill in Babyls forever :)" In the Many Ears arc, Iruma refuses to become a King specifically because he very correctly identifies the root of the problem and understands that to resolve it he shouldn't become another person to rule them, but rather teach them to rule themselves.
So, I think Iruma's and Kirio's conversation has a lot to do with their respective visions of the future of the Netherworld.
In 303 Kirio expresses his vision: a Netherworld fully plunged into chaos and despair, with every demon reverting to their original animalistic state, every improvement and system made by Delkira undone and broken. It's a world that will reject Iruma, the human, completely. A world so hostile to him, that Iruma will literally come crawling to Kirio, who is the only one who will offer Iruma anything close to acceptance - by hurting him, by eating him, by chewing him up. Kirio, once again, fulfills his role of making Iruma face his worst fears by literally reciting them from the recording of his trauma during the Harvest Festival.
And in contrary to the popular perception of Iruma being too soft towards Kirio, Iruma is actually ready to just straight-up murder him. He almost does it. Not out of self-preservation - Iruma knows that Azz will accept his identity should he find out. He does it because he wants to defend his own boundaries, his right to tell when he wants to.
And in 304 Iruma shares his own vision. Opposite of Kirio's world of ultimate rejection, Iruma wants to create a world of ultimate acceptance. Where he, as a human, can co-exist with everyone, where everyone will accept him - even someone like Kirio, even someone who represents everything most unfamiliar and demonic and evil about this place, even someone who literally wants to eat him up. And not only he will be accepted, but everyone can feel welcome and like they belong. So to Iruma it's certain that Kirio will return to his rightful place - it's only a matter of time.
Iruma is not saying that "he can fix this guy". Iruma is saying that "he can fix this world."
This is literally so peak, people need to stop believing iruma is just a stupid weakling that can only achieve anything with Sullivan's magic and it's nice seeing it being acknowledged.
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