How Not to Summon a Demon Lord

When this anime was first aired, it actually recieved pretty good ratings; if you were to check it’s MyAnimeList listing, you can see the “pretty good rating” drop to “average” (yes, 7 stars is average).

I gave it a score even less than average. If you remember from my previous post about The Rising of the Shield Hero, you’ll realize that a huge factor in me rating an anime highly is how well I can relate to it. And I’ll tell you this much: I cannot relate to anything in the anime. Sure, being good at video games and such, transported to an Isekai similar to that video game, et. cetera, is pretty great and all, but the level of power that is given to the main character is just absurd.

The thing is, unlike That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, where the main character is also quite overpowered, the goal of the main character of “How Not to Summon a Demon Lord” is just, weak. Sometimes, it makes me think: does this character really deserve all this power? What is he even doing with the massive amount of power he has?

The anime is also paired with ecchi elements, which honestly blows my mind, because the “ecchi” happens in manners that I can neither understand, nor relate to. Maybe all of this is just me, because I’m a useless human being with no methods of obtaining a girlfriend for the next five years, but I really don’t get how this anime can appeal to its audience.

The story is also bland and absolutely hideous - it’s not everyday you can find a storyline so insanely predictable. Every episode seems to follow Murphy’s law: “WiTh Me WaTcHiNg YoU wIlL nOt GeT kIdNaPpEd”, and the next thing you know, the kidnapping actually happens, and ensue the drama, ensue the “oh I’m so useless”, ensue the “Stop being depressed, let’s go save her”, etc. Although, as an effort to not completely bash the story, at least the main character is given some nemeses that are able to match his overpoweredness; otherwise, there would be absolutely no point in watching this anime.

It’s a shame really, because I think the visuals are pretty good, although paired with mediocre OST - which I find to be surprising, because the Sound Director also made the soundtrack for Shinsekai Yori.

Don’t let me stop you from watching it if you already have it on your watchlist though; it’ll probably kill some time if you’re bored. A small disclaimer: don’t watch this in public.

On to the next review.

Happy Coding,

CodingIndex