I don’t know that I really had any expectations left going into this final episode. Do I suppose this season was called omega because they weren’t planning another? Though the end of this episode seemed to indicate the adventures continue. Anyway, I’m a little stuck with how to talk about this given the fight seemed to descend into lots of coloured lights and shouting with a miracle light thrown in. Anyway, how are you doing Irina?
I’m doing good. I hate to say but I am a little happy I get to spend my Thursday evenings doing something other than watching How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Ω. I don’t want to get too down on the show, it was by no means the worst thing I have ever seen but I wanted it to be better. I’m having a Tyra Banks moment.
I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!
I’m not going to say this episode was actually bad, because realistically it is on par with everything that came before it this season. It also more or less rounded out the adventure of Diablo helping Lumachima and restoring the church so even though the villain never got any kind of presence or a sense that he even mattered as anything more than an excuse for a fight sequence and Lumachima’s growth, while specifically mentioned by the characters, seems pretty minimal (though at least she’s acknowledging not everyone is sweet and honest now) the story did get resolved.
We got closure. That’s something. There’s tons of blatantly abandoned plot threads just lying around and it seems as they started the main plot in episode 7 of a 10 episode season so structurally it’s not the best, but at the same time lost of shows just don’t get any proper conclusion so I’ll give it that.
It’s too bad that it wasn’t all that interesting.
And honestly, I’m not sure what could have made it better when I wasn’t invested in the fight with Vishos and Lumachima hasn’t exactly won me over either. Horn all but disappeared from the story until the end where she suddenly decides to leave the party (probably because whoever wrote her character realised she was just clutter) and Rem and Shera both get very tokenistic one off moments just to pretend like those characters still matter.
It feels like Diablo has outgrown his support cast from season one and could have gone on this journey with Lumachima and that could have been an interesting story, but the writer was unwilling to cast off the other characters and instead they get dragged along through a plot they serve no purpose in.
Then again, it isn’t as though newly introduced characters fare any better. Rose and Horn are both very much introduced, left kind of floating around outside of some poor fan-service and humour and ultimately got pushed out of the way of the finale. Rose gets even less spotlight than Horn did last week. At least Horn got half-an-episode before they were unceremoniously cut down in order for Diablo to feel the need to avenge them. Rose got about two lines of dialogue and then was broken to pieces in a single hit.
And that red head pseudo antagonist that has a fairly good presence in the OP didn’t even have a part. She ended up a non character even though the early season was building her up as if she was one of the main supporting cast. It’s odd how much time How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Ω wasted on setting up events that either never happened or ended trivial and introducing characters that had no real bearing.
When you consider this was a 10 episode season, if you take out all the meandering elements they ended up not really using, you sort of end up with a 3 to 5 episode season. And maybe that’s what they should have gone for. I understand that these are based on light novels and that most of the season did take place in the source material. But this is where it becomes clear that you have the make sure stories like this still work in adaptation. And to be blunt, I’m not so sure it worked in the light novel either. Although I suspect the ecchi scenes were more exciting and engaging when you get to use your imagination a bit more.
Affiliate Link
About the only other thing I really noticed was how long the ‘epilogue’ seemed to go. The fight is over, they part ways with Lumachima and then we just keep going. It was like the anime had to remind us of every person Diablo had crossed paths with while trying to set up some new adventure the core group would go on even while I was mostly just happy the season was done. Anyway, by the time we finally got through the end credits it felt like this episode was much longer than twenty minutes.
Am I the only one that completely loses interest in harems the minute marriage (or some fantasy marriage analogy) comes into the picture. This probably says something about me. Something not terribly great. But I can’t help it. I feel like so much of the harem appeal is in the balancing act of multiple partners and in the chase. Once everyone has settled down those elements aren’t really all that relevant.
You know I say that but I bet a show that was honestly exploring the intricacies of multiple marriages would actually be rather interesting. And unusual.
I guess all I’m really saying was that the ring bit didn’t appeal to me.
Anyway, Irina I’m glad I reviewed this show this you week to week. I possibly would have given up at the mid-way point on my own or mostly just thrown rocks at it. Still, I kind of feel this season has been a let down for a lot of viewers who were pretty keen to see the demon lord back in action. Maybe another season could turn things around but honestly I’m kind of feeling like this is the end of How Not To Summon a Demon Lord in anime form. But, it seems other people feel differently with plenty of speculation already about a third season. How about you?
Oh yea, the reviewing part became my favourite thing about the show at some point. But no offence, I’m sort of glad we can stop it. This said, it’s good to have this sort of show once in a while. A show I just don’t like but that doesn’t make me suffer either. It made the other anime I was watching so much more enjoyable by comparison without draining me. So all in all, good job Demon Lord?
Images from: How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Season 2. Dir. S. Kuwahara. Tezuka Productions and Okuruto Noboru. 2021.
Thanks for Reading From
Irina and Karandi
Subscribe to the blog:
The show didn’t let me down. I watched it mostly because it was easy watching, and occasionally entertaining. It’s near the bottom of all the shows I’m watching this season, but that’s where season 1 was, too.
Did season 1 have a plot? I don’t remember much of it; I’d completely forgotten that one red-head knight, and I only ever managed to remember that she existed, but I remembered none of her story line from season 1. I don’t expect to remember much of this season either.
This isn’t to say that season 1 wasn’t better than season 2; I’d say they removed charactermoments in favour of a little more fanservice, but I sort of expected that from a fanservice show.
For what it’s worth I felt a bit like you feel about this show about Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?. I like the first season, but KZDk of the Dead was mostly a bore (and also only got 10 episodes). So I think I get it. I just never really liked season 1 of this show enough to be disappointed in the second one, I suppose.
Also, I hate Rem’s new outifit. Whenever she was in a scene I wanted her to go back to her old outfit.
Rem’s new outfit was awful. I’m glad she’s wearing her old outfit in the OP. Irina did a good job pointing out that it seemed like they just felt more skin would be better, but that outfit just doesn’t work.
I actually had forgotten Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? had a second season until you mentioned it just then. I really enjoyed season one but I’m not entirely sure I even finished watching season two.
I kind of enjoyed it intermittently. Enough to keep watching but not enough to stop noticing all the missed opportunities. One of my regrets is that Diablo never seemed to have a character arc until the very end when he suddenly decided it would be OK to marry his teenage slave girls.
Yeah, this one never got terrible but it also didn’t do a great deal and honestly by the end I could have watched it or not and not minded either way.
I really would have liked Diablo to have actually had a bit more personality this season. He was a large part of the appeal in season one.