English Dub Review: Demon Lord, Retry! R “ReStart”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Akira and Kunai reflect on how far the village of Rabbi has come and the prosperity lying ahead of it.

Our Take:

After watching the first episode of Demon Lord, Retry! R, I decided to watch the entire first season of Demon Lord, Retry! to get further context on what to expect for future episodes.  It’s basically another harem fantasy isekai anime that’s best enjoyed with the right mindset.  The storyline involving Kunai running a hot springs business was unexpected, but it was a suitable change of pace that strays from the usual saving-the-world plot from other isekai anime.  So, I was right on the money when I said the previous episode was a shortened rehash of the first episode from season one.  But, I would also credit it for expanding on Akira’s life before he got transported into “Infinity Game”.

The same goes for “ReStart”, which immediately starts with another flashback involving Akira’s roommate creating a pointless fish simulation game.  Following that, though, the episode continues reflecting what occurred in season one, including the characters’ backgrounds and Kunai’s hot springs business.  This is where the new animation style comes into play, similar to last week’s episode.  Unlike season one, which was produced by Ekachi Epilka, Demon Lord, Retry! R is produced by Gekkō, meaning that some season one sequences are remade to fit the new presentation.  Additionally, the character designs got a minor upgrade, notably Kunai’s summon, Yu Kirino, who looked slightly pudgier than her appearance in season one.  That alone will take a while to get used to, especially with how slim Yu looked in the first season.

The first two episodes are suitable for getting newcomers caught up with the anime’s events, especially the character backgrounds.  However, for those who watched season one recently, including myself, it’s another filler recap episode that didn’t advance its season plot much.  Fortunately, it looks like next week’s episode should be able to fix that issue.  The season one finale ended with Kunai joining Mikan and Yukikaze to Rookie to find a solution to counter magic attacks, so maybe the next episode will pick up where we left off.  I’ll have to wait and see.