Top 5 Anime Demonic Found Families

Technically Rui did create his own demonic found family but I’m going to concentrate on happier examples!

Oh boy, we are going into some niche content here, aren’t we!

Lately, through no fault of my own, I have found myself reading a series of manga and watching a bunch of anime, and thinking, huh, that reminds me of Iruma -kun. So I thought about it some more and all of these are found family stories which happen to involve demons. What an extremely specific genre that is. And of course, anime was going to come up with something like that.

I am a huge fan of the found family trope and I don’t mind me a demon or two either, so I was delighted to see I could actually come up with an entire list of these. I’m sure there are more out there so feel free to share. I have a feeling that it’s a very common setup in otome for some reason…

5. Beelzebub

This is a slightly older series so I’m not sure how many of you have seen it. The premise fits this list perfectly. Oga Tatsumi is the toughest guy in a school for tough guys and he’s just living it up. Until he saves a guy from drowning, or at least he thinks he does. Turns out it was actually a baby demon – Baby Beel to be exact. Now Oga spends his days taking care of his new demonic baby brother/son. Raising a kid is a lot tougher than people think!

The interesting part about Beelzebub is the reversal. In this show, it’s a weak and solitary demon that has to be taken care of by humans instead of the other way around. That’s sort of sweet.

4. Sorry for my Familiar

I only read the first volume of this manga. Basically, Patty is a young demon girl that is looking for her father. A task that might prove tricky since he seems to be some chronic womanizing, gambler and small-time crook on the run. However, he’s all the family she’s got and she’s running out of allowance. To help with this task she decided to get herself a familiar which ends up being a large no nonsense human called Norman Volcanello (great name). The catch? Norman is a complete demon otaku. He is obsessed with the demon realm and its denizens and would much rather run off and do research on the locals than anything else really.

However, for now, their interests align so Patty and Norman find themselves travelling together which in practice means that Norman gets into all sorts of trouble and Patty has to apologize for him. Good thing her father got her used to that sort of thing. And for all his eccentricity, at least Norman is a reliable character that wouldn’t let any harm come to her. That’s a nice change! The found family aspect is still pretty light but there’s already a sweet father-daughter dynamic going on.

3. Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

I just finished this series. It’s cute enough. The family dynamic is only set up towards the end of the series but it’s clear that the princess has found a new home in the demon castle. I mean show should have, she renovated the whole place!

As a goofy comedy, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle doesn’t have as many feels like some of the other titles on this list. They very much are a found family but the type of family that teases each other and doesn’t get all mushy and stuff.

2. Mama Akuma

I was really surprised by this one. Basically, Sakura is a little girl that lost her mother when she was just a baby and summons a demon to be her new mama. She doesn’t want the demon to replace her mother she just wants to have that mother-daughter relationship right now.

I was expecting a heart-warming tale of mother-daughter exploration across dimensions. But I was wrong. First demon Seere is a guy which doesn’t seem to bother anyone at all (it was kind of cool that only one character thought it was odd to have a man mama, everyone else is just taking it in stride) but does change the dynamic a little bit. Second Sakura has an older brother who Seere would also have to be a mama to, in order to satisfy Sakura’s wish. And this brother is not at all interested in the deal. Also their father who takes the situation way too well is very involved. So it really is mostly a family dynamic and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. I bought the second volume right away.

1. Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun

I said it myself, all these shows and mangas made me think of Iruma-kun and there’s a good reason for that. Sure, one of the reasons is that I saw it before most of these but it’s more than just that. Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun is the embodiment of the demonic found family.

There’s something inexplicable about the show. I just call it charming because I can’t come up with a better explanation. The fact is, every time I sit down to watch an episode of Iruma-kun, I know I’m going to end up just happy. And most people I have talked to seem to have had similar experiences. It’s a widely loved show that bucks expectations and I’m happy if we get more of these types of anime.

There you have it, my very niche list of demonic found family animes. That’s a mouthful. I considered throwing Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid in there as there is something definitely demonic about the dragons but turns out, I didn’t even have to stretch the arbitrary rules I had made up for myself. YAY!