English Dub Review: How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω “Black Dragon Clash”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Diablo saves Horn, but somehow didn’t know she was a girl until he has to remove her wet clothes. Rem, Shera, and Lumachina are able to fight their way through the dungeon without them, but then run into Gewalt on the twelfth floor. Before they can fight too long, a giant black dragon shows up and mortally wounds Gewalt, though Lumachina heals him, much to his surprise. Once Diablo and Horn make it there, they’re able to help hurt and defeat the dragon, though it’s killed by a maid golem named Rose, who Diablo actually created himself. She recognizes him and lets the rest into the treasure room, giving Lumachina access to a statue that helps her heal from the Death Knell Curse. Rose joins the team, everyone except her and Shera get new outfits, and they all leave the dungeon to go face oncoming Fallen forces.

OUR TAKE
Despite being the halfway point of this season, the climax of this particular arc isn’t until next time, leaving the four remaining episodes for an arc of their own. And yeah, I have to say this was not a great outing, mainly due to it probably being this series as its most indulgent in the harem tropes that it was way better at avoiding or subverting. First off, I have a VERY difficult time believing that no one picked up on the fact that Horn is a girl until the cliché of needing to remove her clothes so she doesn’t get a cold. Like…just look at her, it’s been obvious from the moment she showed up that she was a girl. And I know that it is a fairly common cliché in and of itself for a very feminine looking character in anime to reveal themselves to be a boy, but it doesn’t seem like this was using that kind of self awareness. But don’t worry, now that we KNOW she’s a girl, Diablo made sure to give her an outfit change with a super short skirt even though she looks like a ten year old. Oh, and Rem gets even less clothing to her upgrade while Diablo gets a full suit of armor to replace his cloak.

Not to mention we finally get to meet the mysterious silhouetted twin tail girl from the OP, who turns out to be the golem at the end of this dungeon. And not only that, she’s technically Diablo’s first girlfriend in this world, meaning she already is totally devoted to Diablo and her character consists mainly of being obsessed with him and jealous of everyone else, including Horn who is now officially part of the harem. So the main cast, at least for this arc, has doubled in size with Lumachina, Horn, and Rose, none of which are really as interesting as Rem and Shera were in their introductory season. Lumachina does at least have the most development and is merciful enough to spare Gewalt, keeping in line with her religious nature, but Horn’s main addition so far seems to just have the gender reveal and Rose is just another jealous harem girl. I mean it makes at least some sense for her to already know Diablo since he made her for the dungeon, but there are plenty of more interesting ways of going about this than they have. Maybe we’ll see some of those in the second half?