I kind of mentioned this in my post about anime angels and demons, but there are a lot of demon characters out there in anime that are portrayed as the lesser of two poor choices (if not actually the good guy). How Not To Summon a Demon Lord does one better with the paladins seeming like psychos, the actual demon lord an unknown boogeyman type character, and Diablo, the self-proclaimed demon lord, the character we’re supposed to rally behind.
How Not To Summon a Demon Lord continues to introduce new characters even at episode 9 and I’m not entirely sure we needed that. There’s already a fairly rich cast and a clear set up for a final so Saddler coming in at this stage as the overly righteous Paladin didn’t really seem necessary.
Whatever role he might be intended to play as an antagonist could easily have been fulfilled by Galford, but given how Saddler ends up this episode I’m not even sure if we’re supposed to count him as a reoccurring character or whether he was a villain of the week.
There’s another sequence early in this episode where Diablo reaffirms that not everything is just like the game when Rem is teaching Shera how to summon. They are using a stone Diablo has never seen before and he certainly seems to be wondering just how the game and this world are related given the number of similarities but these ongoing discrepancies keep stacking up.
Outside of that though, the whole summoning sequence just felt like down time and I’m not sure we gained all that much from the sequence.
Of course this show needed its dose of fan-service and this week we get that in the form of Shera and Rem taking a bath in a stream. There’s a particularly uncomfortable moment where Rem is doing something to Shera’s boobs that defies physics and common sense, however the sequence is fortunately brief before what’s-her-name the fallen shows up.
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Here Diablo is presented with a choice. He can trust the fallen and learn the spell to unseal the demon lord inside of Rem or he can decline her offer. Admittedly, he wants the demon lord out of Rem, but his confidence that he can definitely beat the demon lord seems a little mis-placed after he has realised not everything is just like the game.
Still, for what this show is, it remains remarkably fun to watch. I’m looking forward to what will happen next week with Rem and the spell and I have so far pretty much enjoyed most of what this show has on offer. The bits that miss their mark for me aren’t enough to detract from some of the strengths this anime has on display with its characters and ongoing plot.
Images from: How Not To Summon a Demon Lord. Dir. Y Murano. Ajia-Do. 2018
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Karandi James
Diablo didn’t seem all that confident he could defeat the Demon Lord, to me. He actually noted that he wasn’t sure he could. Probably specifically because of the Galford thing. Edelgard’s showing up seemed a bit… random. But appreciated, considering how big a deal she is in the OP. If she was just gonna be a one-off villain, that’d be rather odd. The thing with the summoning is definitely gonna be a Chekov’s Gun scenario. They’re basically just using that bit as set up to show us it’s something Shera’s gonna end up doing in some useful capacity later. Since she’s apparently some god tier sniper with a bow already, the added benefit of the summon may allow her to make some clutch shot in a future episode. Basically just setup in general. As the entire episode was. I’m not *overly* bothered by them using a new villain, given that Galford’s motivation and goals seem entirely unrelated to the Demon Lord thing, and I think I’d prefer the remain consistent. I was more concerned with whatever role Alicia’s playing in all of this because they’re definitely hinting at her shaking things up in the last three episodes.
Telling her that Rem is housing a demon lord is all kinds of dumb. She may not be the fanatic that the other guy is, but she is still not exactly going to be all cool with you releasing a demon lord.
Yeeeah. But Diablo did seem to share that sentiment, so I have every expectation that move is going to have serious consequences. Though if the preview is anything to go by, this Demon Lord business may actually be resolved more easily than anyone is expecting. And then the paladins may wind up being the actual “final boss” as it were.
Either way, the show has been fun so far so I’m happy enough to see where it goes.
Oh definitely. Even for a setup episode, this didn’t really feel overly weighed down by that job like setup episodes in a lot of other shows might. That whole feeling of “Okay, this is a necessary evil so we can get to the stuff you REALLY wanna see in a bit and it still make sense.” It’s still having fun with it and that’s appreciated.
I thought synchro sight was a nice touch, not something I’ve seen in anime before.
It was a cool power and I wish it had come into play or at least seemed more significant. It might in a later episode, because they did bring the local lord back after kind of introducing him to no consequence and then that turned out to be fairly important. I guess we’ll see what they with it.
You got this review up quick! As to comment on that bit of boob related fan service it wasn’t meant to be realistic just Rem’s exaggerated frustration with the size of her breasts. It’s the fan service equivalent of a character suddenly becoming chibi it’s meant to come off as comical, not representative of anything that’s actually happening. At least that’s how I saw it anyway.
Fair call but I just find scenes like that a little disturbing (personal opinion). Yeah, no Steins;Gate plus I’m still not really up from that flu so I’ve got a bit of time just kind of sitting at the moment.
Hope you feel better soon!
Thanks. Having a restful day and going to keep resting Saturday. I will have to catch up with work on Sunday, but at least I’ll feel better by then, I hope.