English Dub Review: How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord “Imperial Knights”

War! What is it good for? Probably something.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The group continues listening to Sylvie explain the situation, namely about the Elves threatening all-out war if Shera isn’t returned to them. Even worse, her brother’s placed a huge bounty on her, meaning she, Rem, and Diablo will be big targets by anyone who’s a little behind on rent. Still, Diablo stands firm in his pledge to protect her, so they head to the lord that rules over their city in order to seek better intel and security. Said Lord, Chester Ray Galford, is a veteran warrior with a rock solid composure that even throws Diablo off his “demon lord” game. Somehow, he manages to keep the action going and learn that the Elf army is sparse in numbers, but has the advantage in forest terrain, and thus are a huge risk to fight head on. Still, Shera and Diablo do not budge.

So, to help them avoid both a war and giving up Shera, Lord Galford informs them of an Imperial Knight dispatched from the capital: Alicia Crystella (Sara Ragsdale). After gawking at how rare female knights are, Diablo quickly becomes unnerved at how genuinely nice and encouraging she is. They go into town to restock on potions and get Diablo a weapon to handily incapacitate smaller enemies without the Imperial feds getting on his case for wholesale slaughter. No sooner does he get one that Shera gets nabbed by some unnamed and lazily designed mooks, but they do get some surprise help from Emile. Everyone’s happy, Alicia learns to not dwell on mistakes, they all go out for dinner, roll credits.

OUR TAKE

I guess the stuff with the elves is going to be at the forefront for at least the next few episodes, but oddly very scarce in this one. Aside from some building up of the threat and meeting some seemingly important new additions to the cast, this episode seemed pretty low in tension. Maybe it’s because I just saw a much more serious kidnapping attempt in Attack on Titan last Saturday, but this was pretty tedious all around. I guess the purpose of bringing up the bounty and having the kidnapping happen was to establish Alicia’s comedic earnestness, but there had to be a better way of handling that. Not to mention that isn’t really much of a character trait to base an entire character around. The OP did put notable emphasis on her backstory, so it’s good to know this isn’t ALL we’ll be getting out of her.

Having slightly more thought put in (but being no less underwhelming) would be what Lord Galford and Alicia both bring out of Diablo this episode, that being a clear inflammation of his lack of social skills. It doesn’t lead to much more than him being panicky for a second before continuing to nail it as a suave demon hunk, but some acknowledgment of this anxiety does go a long way. It’s easy to forget that this is just some scared gamer in a place he shouldn’t be, and even if he’s managing to hold up a tough front right now, he didn’t come from his original world with a ton of healthy relationships to build on. He may have a ton of hotties around him now, but he still has his vulnerabilities…superficial and token ones, but it’s something.

That all said, constantly offing Elf soldiers would probably get old and they need a big final battle for the last few episodes, so preventing this war through negotiation and subterfuge might just end up being the way to go. I’m hoping Shera will take a more active role in this arc, considering it focuses on her people and her family. She keeps talking about how she wants to be independent to be herself. While that doesn’t necessarily include knowing how to fight, it will probably come in hand if a war actually kicks off. Or maybe I’m completely overestimating this show. Either way, I’ve recently become very appreciative I was assigned this Isekai harem show instead of the other one. I’ll take vanilla over sewage waste any day!