English Dub Review: How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord “Holy Knight Tale”

I have the power of God AND Anime on my side!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Alicia returns to the Imperial Capital to give her report about the last few episodes worth of events but runs into Saddler, a Paladin with rather extreme views about those who affiliate themselves with the Demon Lord. He’s just finished “finding salvation” for a village in the south he visited…which I’m guessing came from the pointy end of his swords. He, like Alicia, is now headed to Faltra to investigate suspicions that the Demon Lord will be reviving there sometime soon.

Back in Faltra, Rem teaches Shera how to summon something that won’t turn her into its slave, and her first result is a low-level beast called a Turkey Shot. It has a neat ability to help its master see long distances, so I imagine that’s going to come in handy sometime soon. But it seems someone hasn’t been bathing in awhile since Shera smells some stink on Rem. Thus, it’s time for some well-timed fanservice as the three go bathe by the river. Or rather, the two girls do and Diablo averts his gaze. That is until Edelgard returns and realizes that Rem is the vessel for Krebskulm.

Rem has no choice but to finally admit the situation to Shera, who takes this all pretty well. As does Edelgard, who is more concerned with Krebskulm’s revival and assures that Rem won’t be harmed. In fact, she’ll be idolized. Seeing they have common interests, the three adventurers agree to help revive the Demon Lord in three days so Rem can be freed from it.

These days fly by, and Alicia arrives soon after to inform them about Saddler’s crusade against demons. But the warning comes too late as they encounter him on the way back to the inn. A fight inevitably breaks out, with Saddler claiming to have the power of a god, though Diablo soon realizes he’s just using plain ol’ magic, then turns a petrification spell back on him and gets him stoned. As in he turns to stone…though I imagine a little puff would probably loosen him up a bit.

Rem decides to tell Alicia about the Krebskulm problem and, despite being a knight herself, she is generally accepting of it. Diablo is suspicious about how easy this was but shrugs it off as him just not having good social skills. Meanwhile, Edelgard waits for the promised day.

OUR TAKE

Well, seems this series was starting to pick up the slack! We have another pretty decent episode on our hands that expands the world for us and tees us up for bigger events to come. Specifically, a resolution to one of the bigger plots from the first episode: the revival of Krebskulm. With that comes the return of Edelgard (who despite being in the ED almost every episode has only appeared in two episodes before this), and the nice surprise that she actually isn’t going to be an obligatory addition to Diablo’s harem.

Not that I’m necessarily AGAINST that on principle, it’s just a nice change of pace from most of these kinds of shows to see a female character stay committed to their established motives instead of having them replaced by wanting to jump the protagonist’s bones. And even though she’s now technically on the same side as him for a common goal, there’s a clear understanding that they’re just using each other to get a different thing that this goal accomplishes. Basically, I’m very interested to see how this plays out, which is good.

Though not as interested as I am with the slow peeling away of Alicia’s nice mask. They might have tipped their hand a bit by making her eyes glow red in the OP, but I don’t want to make any assumptions just yet. What’s certain for now is that something is up with her that only Diablo is really getting a sense of. It could be simple enough to play this all off as her uneasiness with Saddler, who would make ANYONE uneasy, though I imagine that he’s a red herring to keep us off the scent. We likely haven’t seen the last of him anyway, since his obsession with purging demons and those who worship them is not something you throw away after one scuffle.

And after seeing how the magic tracing/sensing ability was rather crammed into the midpoint of the last arc, I’m catching on that the summoning ritual and stones used to summon the turkey are gonna be coming into play before this season’s done. Maybe one more slave to join the party? At the very least, that turkey is going to get some use.

Overall, I have to say that I have been liking a lot of what this show has been going for with this and last episode. We’ve got a good pacing and narrative flow, multiple subplots colliding soon, character nuance and consistency, and just a general momentum going. Keep it up!