English Dub Review: How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω “Demon Lord Army”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Diablo and his party escape the dungeon to protect Fanis and her forces from Varakness’ army.

OUR TAKE

And so concludes this arc of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. It won’t be the last we cover, since there’s still four more episodes to go over another arc, but while we wait for that, let’s discuss how this arc ended and how it ended up as a whole. I’m pretty sure I’ve made it clear in covering similar Isekai or fantasy wish fulfillment anime that I’m really not fond of the overpowered self-insert power fantasy main character archetype, since it completely removes the stakes and means that the character involved doesn’t need to grow or change or learn anything to get their way in the story. While Diablo in this series is plenty overpowered, he at least had personal qualities about him that kept him on his toes, made his interactions with others feel more relatable, and offset his powers by giving him more chances to be vulnerable. I’m not gonna say that those are necessarily missing here, but it does feel like they’ve been significantly dampened to make way for more moments where his l33t gamer skills are on display while cultivating even more girlfriends.

This arc was six episodes long and introduced three new members to Diablo’s harem, one who sees him as a god and is instantly loyal, one who is a bland thief with daddy issues, and one who he apparently made in the game and has been loyal to him for years. Of the three, this arc really only gave much focus to Lumachina, but she ends up sidelined by the end. Horn’s main development was her having the worst disguise as a boy ever and apparently needed friends, while Rose’s ENTIRE CHARACTER is that she loves and worships Diablo from the word go like crazy. The first season was no great bastion of exceptional storytelling, but it did know how to make Rem and Shera’s respective character arcs significantly connected to the plot as it progressed, and in turn how Diablo was developing alongside them. I sure cannot say the same here, where the arc is closed out by handily beating a generic Fallen enemy whose main characteristic is having a harem of also generic demon ladies. Seems like it would have been a good opportunity to make use of one harem going up against another, but…I guess that was just wishful thinking. Ah well, maybe the latter arc will be an improvement so we can end this season on a good note.