How Not to Summon a Demon Lord – First Impressions

With this season, we laughed about the Nick Show that is How Not To Summon A Daemon Lord. At first we identified it as “Not Another Isekai” but it had a comical touch to it and something I can’t quite describe right now. More than that it, also had a very ecchi touch to it, but was not necessarily exceptional in either regard. That changed in the last two episodes where it left on a cliffhanger that I was actually stoked for and then ended in a glorious and rather impressive fashion.

So the scenario starts up with our protagonist, the Daemon Lord Diablo as he fought off a couple in his MMO, Cross Reverie, where he exists as a powerful sorcerer of great renown in game. Out of game he’s a standard shut in by the name of Sakamoto Takuma. One Zero no Tsukaima moment later, he is summoned to another world in the form of his in game avatar, Diablo along with all his power and items. His summoners and would be masters are the blonde and busty elf Shera L Greenwood, and Pantherian summoner Rem. Heresy of having an isekai character named Rem aside, the show brings us a feel very much so like Overlord, but with more ecchi and less monster girls, with considerably more jiggle. We then have some moments where we see cat “torture” of which I approve and we find out that Rem is the physical host containing the soul of Daemon Lord Krebskrem. After being approached by the Mage Association’s dickbag racist member Galluk. One brief and underwhelming fight scene later, we have a number quantifier of Diablo’s level, which seemed to break the immersion in my mind because unlike Overlord which keeps his power ceiling vague and unknown, it sets a point of reference upon which we can compare.

After Diablo demonstrates that a level 30 summon has no chance against a level 150 Daemon Lord, he wakes up to a bit of only moderately fucking unnecessary boobage and groping as he awakens. Diablo, Shera, and Rem then set off to obtain their adventurer ranking of their “level” at the guild. Shera is disappointed as she is only a mere level 30 to Rem’s 40. Diablo is unable to be ranked as his power submerges the guild in some sort of horrid darkness. They are then introduced to the guild master, who admits Diablo is more powerful than herself then sets them off on their group’s first mission. They go towards the Man Eating Forest where they are “ambushed” by elves. I say “ambushed” because of the fact a massed AOE later and we find the elves demanding rather impotently that they return their princess, Shera. Galluk is revealed as the mastermind behind this betrayal and flees like the coward he is.

While the show so far has been a mediocre showing as of yet, we start off episode three with a new girl appearing and an awkward white golden knight and champion of all women rushes at Diablo to rescue his “slaves.” Emile Bichel Berger rushes at Diablo, leaving him remembering PvP in Cross Reverie, and proceeds to curb stomp Emile. After an explanation from Rem and Shera, he relents and becomes rather friendly. To make up for Galluk’s dickery, Diablo and crew are allotted and easy delivery quest to a bridge, which Rem finds condescending and declines. Turns out, an army of over a hundred Fallen, or boss tier creatures, are on the march towards the city of Faltra. Another deviation from Overlord occurs as we find Diablo has morals and humanity when he volunteers to combat the Fallen all on his own. Facing off against the big boss, Edelgard I’m left genuinely realizing tanned girls with long blonde hair really, really do it for me. As he fights we jump back to Galluk in the midst of a mental break down over his recent firing from the mage’s association. After stabbing himself with a strange dagger, he transforms/explodes like a meat filled water balloon and is replaced with the warrior sorcerer Fallen, Gregore. At this point, we hit a DBZ duel between Diablo and Edelgard where she lets slip he is being distracted. Deciding “Fuck that shit” Diablo decides to take the nuclear option.

Emile manages to hold off Gregore alongside dozens of adventurers, albeit at the cost of all of their lives, with Emile barely alive when Diablo and Shera teleport behind Rem and Mage Association leader, Celes. Diablo then decides to rock a great combination in handling Gregore first by declaring he shall show no mercy, then bulling the Alucard “HIT ME” technique of badassery. Goading on Gregore, he begins to have him use all his top magic, which Diablo reflects with zero issue. Finally crushing him with a gravity spell, he throws a touch of Dr. Who into the mix and sucks Gregore into a dimension of darkness for all eternity. At this point the show surprised me and had Diablo collapse, having him exhausted. This surprised me because I realized that while powerful, Diablo is not some Mary Sue character of OP-PleaseNerf-THISISBS power. The episode shifts to a more meaningful and serious tone as they attend the funerals of those who died at Gregore’s hands and we are informed that this world has no resurrection mechanic. Afterwards we have Diablo playing tsundere and a large bout of fan service, when the guild master appears and gives us the group’s next task, which is to stop war with the Elves over Shera.

So I have to admit, this show has surprised the hell out of me. Somewhere between episodes 2 and 4, the show had me hooked. When 3 left off on a cliffhanger, I was angry and anticipating the crap out of it. Luckily I was two weeks behind and able to gun through and was rather impressed the entire time. The show quality as a whole has me stoked as the animation, artwork, music, and voice acting are all great. The sudden shifts between cute chibi moments to rather serious ones is done surprisingly well and doesn’t feel as disjointed as other series. I admit, this is not as funny as Konosuba, nor as dramatic as Re:Zero, but still stands out to me as having the potential to being a good isekai and not just some generic ecchi show set in a fantasy world. What are your thoughts on the show? Let me know in the comments below and feel free to check out our other articles here on BAYOG!