Hey Irina, how has your week been? Again, I’ve been busy and had some travel (and been reminded why I don’t fly very often after getting quite travel-sick on the short flight). That said I am glad it is now the weekend and I can catch up on the latest episode of How Not To Summon a Demon Lord.
The renovations at my place are almost complete. I finished up some of the lectrics yesterday and I’m just getting a new door today and we are done! My living room looks enormous without a bathtub in the middle of it. It takes some getting used to. And not a moment too early. Next two weeks are going to be intense at work. I’m probably going to pull a couple of 70h weeks but I hope to take a few days off once they’re done! Those are going to be awesome days off!
I think episode 4 was a better episode than the previous one in that we focused more on the core group and they were back to adventuring. Also I loved Rem and Shera’s comment that the designer of the dungeon may have had god-like power but was a bit childish. That comment was a nice summation of Diablo’s character in general though they didn’t know they were describing Diablo, and it definitely cut him deeply (which he kind of deserved after making both of them cry earlier in the episode).
It really reminded me how much fun this core group could be in season one and that’s something we haven’t really seen in the previous three episodes as Diablo has either been with someone new or Rem and Shera have just kind of been standing around doing very little.
I have to admit that I didn’t really see much difference with the previous episodes of the season. Well except at the end there. I guess we’ll get to that eventually. But I still thought that Rem and Shera felt like hollow versions of themselves. The indirect kiss scene was just weird. It wasn’t ridiculous enough to be funny and it made little sense for Diablo to be freaking out considering everything that’s happened in the past 2 seasons. I guess that was the joke but it didn’t land for me.
I have nothing against the two new characters but I just don’t know them well enough to have form any connection yet. To be honest I saw the episode a few days ago and I only remembered the bunny boy because I looked at the screencaps.
It also seemed kind of interesting that the magi-gun lady didn’t take a shot at them while they ran away. It seems they do intend to actually give her some kind of character and motivation outside of being a hindrance and I’m looking forward to learning her story. Less wonderful was the return of the crazy church guy from episode one and his silly worm summons.
I just kind of wish that the villains in this story would end up being more than ridiculous caricatures.
“For the sake of my expensive cosmetics, please die!”
I’m kind of feeling that line is going to stick with me well after I’ve forgotten the rest of this season of How Not To Summon a DemonLord.
It’s a good line. Red head girl is going to be part of the harem, right? I guess they don’t want her to be too antagonistic. The queer coded villain was a bit plain. Not exactly plain but just such a standard character archetype. We’ve seen this exact type of villain so much. They could still do something really interesting with him. However, so far I think that demon guy has been my favourite bad guy of the season.
I also just realized that season 2 of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord is really turning into a Monster of the Week sort of show. We’ve had four episodes and 4 completely different villains for each. There’s something very nostalgic and almost comforting in that. I mean I grew up on Sailor Moon and this brings me back to those carefree days! I don’t hate it at all but I do wish a few of those villains were a bit more memorable or just more fun.
The idol concert kind of caught me off guard. As much as I know this is a comedy and they done a few odd things before this one felt really left-field. It worked and seeing Rem and Shera get to be in the spot-light for a bit was awesome, but it did feel a little out of place. Maybe commentary on forced cross-overs or maybe the writers really just wanted to see Rem and Shera do an idol dance.
Then of course, the episode ended with a cliff-hanger, which this story hasn’t really done all that much previously. It actually worked better because I wasn’t expecting it to remain unresolved before the end so the end credits caught me off guard.
For those of you out there not too familiar with our collabs, you should know that Karandi and I tend to have very different tastes. And nowhere is that more true than with the extremes of comedy and tragedy. In short, I’m very picky with drama and it gets on my nerves easily. On the other hand I love comedy and give it a lot of credit. I do believe Karandi is the other way around.
I adored the idol show. When it started I thought it was just a closing credits montage but when I realized it was an active part of the episode I was thrilled. I actually said to myself, now this is the nonsense I’m here for! I was all in and excited to watch How Not to Summon a Demon Lord once more. I even thought the cheap cliffhanger was hilarious. The entire sequence made up for the rest of the episode as far as I’m concerned.
Yes, it was out of place in the season, but that’s because the season has felt like a different show! I’m gonna argue that this was the most How Not to Summon a Demon Lord moment omega has had so far!
In my experience, general opinion is usually way closer to K’s but I’m standing by it. Hourry for idol show for yetis!
Before we wrap up though, I just want to ask if at any point it has been made clear how many magic spells Diablo can use. The earth shaking spell this week was very cool but seemed to come out of nowhere given if he could do that there were a number of places in season one where he should have. While it is very cool to see Diablo pull out super powerful spells that leave his companions and enemies speechless it is starting to feel like Diablo can just do whatever the plot needs him to.
Oh, looking for a consistent internal magic system seems way too ambitious for How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. A lot of very respected classical fantasy fiction struggles with that. I’m sort of happy to just go with wizard did it explanations as long as the plot doesn’t require me to be worried about the outcome of fights or get emotionally invested in the action. If all I need to do is laugh at the goofy moments and go aww at the sweet ones, I can easily accept unknowable magic I think.
And to be clear, there are some fantastic shows that just require impressions. The internal logic of Pretty Boy Detective Club is completely bonkers and tough to follow at best. But it’s a great show.
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
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Good to see the two of you doing stuff together!
Am I nuts or is this season a little bit less loli-ecchi than the beginning?
I actually have found this season far more aggressive in its fan service. It may not be as frequent but it has been more overt.