English Dub Season Review: How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord

How to not NOT write a good Isekai!

Ecchi Anime serves as a necessary evil in the industry. They flash some tiddie, make dat Yen, and consumers hope that the money it makes will go into something good once every decade…while they also watch and enjoy the Ecchi show depending on its own quality. Obviously, there’s plenty of fun to be had watching these sorts of shows besides…well, the obvious. I probably wouldn’t have watched a ton of them in my adolescence if there wasn’t. But once my hormones were able to look past the fanservice, these shows needed to be more than just eye-candy and be genuinely good times. Luckily, How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord manages just that.

This show is very much of its time, being also a story of a regular schlub who finds himself stuck in a fantasy world similar to one he was a player of and manages to score several hot love interests with his immense knowledge of the game. It’s not going to be anything revolutionary among its peers, nor even remotely exceptional, even with the notable subversions it takes. It is, however, good at what it knows, and what it knows is being a serviceable and sufficiently fan-servicey few hours with likable hours and well-implemented action, though with a few of the usual pitfalls that makes one want to quickly switch out the window whenever a parent enters the room.

PLOT:

The first arc of the story is efficient at introducing us to the world, the situation the main protagonist, Diablo, finds himself in, the main cast of hot girls he’ll be dealing with, and the foe they must face, while also laying the groundwork for the major character arcs of the season. It’s pretty run of the mill in its delivery of all of these things, so it’s no surprise that I was less than impressed with how things were turning out at that time. I had seen dozens of light-hearted harem shows like this before, and this was just falling in line with every expectation I already had. Still, the animation looked good enough that I could at least have fun watching things play out, despite how tepid they seemed to be going.

The second arc, mostly focusing on bouncy elf “nice one” Shera, also started out pretty standard, and even a little boring. The introduction of her rapey brother made for a yawn-inducing antagonist, and his kidnapping of Shera through mind control had me checking the runtime. Yet the climax of the arc led to a double combo of exciting fight scenes, along with tapping into Diablo’s more relatable and human qualities, which finally gave me a feeling that these characters weren’t just ink on paper. It may be damning with faint praise, but keeping my expectations low made this more likely to surprise me and looking forward to the final arc that much easier.

The last third of the season was good at keeping up the momentum and investment I had gained from the previous one. It showed us a bit more about the darker areas of this world (even if they were about as dark as halfway down dimmer switch). As the major goal of the series was accomplished, characters thought to be foes turned out to be friends and visa versa. All out war was on the horizon, characters who had reached the end of their established paths found themselves at turning points. Sadly, things began to sputter around the last two episodes as motivations for certain actions became rather rushed and vague, while some punishments seemed too harsh and redemptions a bit too easy. Luckily this wasn’t enough to ruin my enjoyment, but it did make the ending feel rather flat.

DUBBING:

I don’t usually talk about the dubbing in these reviews since they usually are sufficiently translated and about as good as the Japanese track. The translations just fine here too, but I did find the more meta jokes and overly casual dialogue at odds with the scenes I would hear them with, along with at least a couple lines that seemed to have just gone untranslated in a rush. It would also make the shifts in tone feel more than a little off at times, so that would make my viewings a little bit more cringy than they should’ve been. I understand this is a light-hearted show about fun sexy times, and it’s good that the cast seems to be having fun with their parts, but it can be a little much. I know it’s not supposed to be Shakespeare, but still.

CHARACTERS:

Diablo:
As the male audience stand-in for this kind of show, Diablo stands tall in the ranks of “not terrible” harem protagonists. His journey begins as many “trapped in another world” journeys do, and it doesn’t take much for him to gain some admirers when he’s got the highest power levels in the game. But his main character flaw comes from the fact that, before his being cursed with awesome, he used to be a shut-in who only played one MMO, and so has little to no experience interacting with people like himself.

This forces him to fall back on the “Demon Lord” persona of his game character in order to get through a conversation without being completely swallowed by his anxiety. This is usually used for comedy but surfaces most effectively when Shera is kidnapped by her brother. Even though it’s blatantly clear that she’s being taken by mind control, Diablo is so used to being rejected and supposed friends lying to him in his normal life that it’s difficult for him to not believe her sudden willingness to leave him at face value. Luckily, reminders by his other friends get him back into action and confirm that Shera’s being manipulated and save her, but it’s a nice human moment that isn’t really matched for the rest of the season.

Aside from that, he’s still a red-blooded human who can’t help but react to the hot girls around him but is also polite enough not to take advantage of his obvious power superiority and ostensible “master role” after the Shera and other tritagonist Rem end up accidentally becoming his slaves. He’s a good ol guy who knows how to fight with personality and flaws, and that’s less common than you think in this genre.

Shera:

Shera’s got a lot of good qualities, most noticeable being her huge, bulging…heart. She’s a very nice and welcoming girl who makes friends fast and holds onto them for dear life. Though what she wants most is to be free to travel and make her own way in the world by being herself. She befriends Rem and Diablo quickly despite some initial squabbling and even shares with Rem her dreams of opening a cat café. Simply put, she’s not the most complex character in the show, but she’s still pleasant.

Her character arc is mainly defined by her being pursued by her creepy incestuous brother Keera, and so is the one most easily wrapped up. When Keera comes to see her acting nice, she’s the first to pick up that he’s just acting. Even though she’s basically a damsel in distress for the remainder of her arc, her being true to herself is crucial to winning the conflict, so it’s at least a nice lesson. And even when Keera is killed to avoid international war, she still cries for his loss, showing that she did care for him despite how he treated her. After that, she’s back to just being there for jokes and bouncing, but at least she got her moment in the spotlight.

Rem:

Rem’s goal is a bit more complicated, having a legendary and powerful demon residing in her stomach that’s burdened her family for generations. She doesn’t know if her next day will be her last, and so friends are not something she makes as easily. Still, after finding someone to confide in with Diablo’s arrival (even though it required a little molesting to get there), she soon opens up and warms to him, Shera, and the rest of the allies they meet along the way.

She even befriends the Demon Lord in her stomach, though it isn’t easy. When they finally get the dang thing out of her and find that the lord, who they end up calling Klem, is actually just a relatively innocent child, Rem seems at a loss for how to act towards her. But learning what she has about letting people in, she manages to make a bond with the one person who had literally been the closest to her for the longest time. Unfortunately, that closeness only managed to help plans to make Klem a giant monster, but you can’t win them all.

Alicia:

Despite being shown to be important before she even showed up, Alicia caught me by surprise in terms of what she was after. She began as an almost unnervingly nice knight who was simply supportive and helpful for her first few appearances, but it eventually became clear that she had less than good intentions, which was a really interesting twist when I first saw it. Probably the worst intentions possible, considering they were hoping for multiple genocides.

Yet I was bummed to learn that her actual motivations for turning to this path were rather foggy since it was just being exposed to awful behavior in general that she somehow always knew was wrong. I’m not sure how her morality came to a conclusion that EVERY mortal needed to die when the kind of corruption around her was supposed to be commonplace, nor how that would make her determine that punishment just from seeing a handful of bad people. Even her redemption was hard to believe, seeing as she had just attempted what would be the worst of crimes imaginable and made deals with several literal devils. But it’s one of the annoying conventions of these sorts of stories where someone hot is usually given a pass in these situations.

Other characters:

The show also boasts some other memorable character designs, as well as the characters that inhabit them. The guild master Sylvie and white knight in gold armor Emile provide some interesting commentary, despite Sylvie’s outfit make me want to put viewings of this show in incognito mode. Galford acts as a competent and intimidating anti-villain whose actions show the rules in this world are anything but pristine. Edelgard is a serviceable opponent who surprised me by not being immediately thrown into Diablo’s harem/slave group, but it’s sad that that’s the best I can say about her. And Klem (despite her having similar outfit issues to Sylvie) is a good indicator that power does not corrupt people if they have the right friends to steer them the right way.

Conclusion:

Despite it being pretty much the same sort of processed sugar that this genre has come to know, I found enough surprises to keep my journey through this a fun ride. All I can ask of a show like this is a fun time, and a fun time I did have. There’s an art to this kind of show and that means there are ways to do it right, and this one mostly does it right. There’s still plenty of source material left to adapt and more of these characters to delve into, so I’d gladly watch the second season if they get around to it. In the meantime, I’m going to maybe get into leveling up in World of Warcraft. Juuuuuust in case.