How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord

Episodes 1-3

It's a new anime season, so that means yet more entries into the genre that puts the ‘fantasy’ in ‘power fantasy’. There are several new isekai shows out this season, and How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord would seem to have the most eyebrow-raising premise, the sort of synopsis that leaves me asking “Why didn't you just make porn?” So perhaps the most surprising thing about How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord (or HNTSADL for the economical) is how it subverts the less savory elements of its premise, ultimately making it a very average isekai show.

The key to rendering the show more watchable than its premise would suggest turns out to be the titular Demon Lord himself. Rather than being a self-absorbed weirdo or a blandly generic nice guy, Takuma, henceforth referred to as Diablo, is rather unique as isekai protagonists go, with his central gimmick of hiding his crippling social anxiety behind role-playing his villainous persona. Especially in the first episode, the constant swing between his panicked internal monologues and subsequent supervillain improv provides some genuine entertainment that elevates the otherwise stock proceedings. Unlike so many others in similar situations, Diablo does come off closer to a normal guy who got sucked into this game world with no clue what he's doing. Furthermore, unlike several others in the troubling trend of slavery-themed isekai shows, Diablo isn't portrayed as a caring slave owner who is thus justified in his position as a master. Instead, it's clear that he's just as eager to find a way to end the binding contract as his charges.

This does round back to a question of who the audience is for Demon Lord. The slavery gimmick is mostly a device to get the plot going, barely touched on except as a way to keep the main characters together and motivate some misunderstandings with incidental foes. By the third episode, the big joke is that one character was expecting more slave-gimmick sexiness than we actually get, and the girls are comfortable enough in their position that they don't feel the need for a rescue. So if you're here for that particular fetish, you're probably going to be disappointed. But even minimizing that element and playing Diablo's personality for comedy doesn't make the show seem smart so much as snarky, and it's still firmly in ecchi territory.

As far as fanservice goes, Demon Lord seems functional, and I've got to at least give it credit for being up-front about its ecchi nature. The girls in Diablo's orbit span a wide variety of particular fetishes, from the ridiculous-racked triplets working the counter at the adventure guild to their lolita bunny-boss who lounges around half-naked. (No worries, I'm sure she's actually like 800 in rabbit years.) Even the ominous final-boss demon possessing Rem has huge boobs! The first couple episodes do have some obligatory scenes of heavy petting at their tail-ends, but even those downplay the raunchier nature of the story's premise. The first one progresses from Diablo merely misunderstanding the situation to being ‘unable to control himself’, while the second episode's ending is more consensual in its fooling-around. It all comes off more vanilla than you might expect given the show's salacious setup. But you can't just costume Diablo with a skintight ab window and give it no actual focus. You're missing opportunities to branch out, Demon Lord!

One thing I'll give Demon Lord is that, unlike the meandering mediocrity that other fantasy life shows embrace too fervently, the plot actually seems to have some forward momentum. Diablo and pals do have some long-term goals in mind beyond the cursory “be strong and collect cool stuff”, and a smattering of recurring enemies have already been established. There's also some mildly interesting worldbuilding going on; not so much the “demihumans are discriminated against” thing, every series does that, but the idea that Diablo is super-strong in this world not simply because he's leveled up a bunch, but because ‘real’ people in a fantasy world wouldn't be able to freely level-grind in the same way. It's a clever wrinkle to throw in amongst all the boobs and dragons. The plot does seem to slow down by the third episode, spending more time than necessary on distractions, leading to pacing issues and a cliffhanger that wasn't needed either. There's hardly even time for fanservice in episode 3! If the show spends too much time dragging things out like this, it could fall into the protracted traps of other more infamous isekai shows. The third episode also doesn't look terribly great from an animation standpoint, so that's not a good sign either.

But strangely, the biggest criticism I can throw at the show about a gamer guy enslaving a couple of girls is that it seems to be playing things too safe. Fans who want to leer at Diablo spending a full two minutes groping his sleeping subordinates will get just as much out of that as viewers who want to hate-watch those scenes and dunk on the show's dumber indulgences. But there isn't yet enough going on here to call Demon Lord too good or too bad for any particular audience beyond those here for its sleaze factor. Sure it's stupid, but not yet memorably so.

Rating: C+

How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.