How Not to Summon a Demon Lord

Director-  Various

Cast- Various

Country of Origin-  Japan

Distributor - Funimation

Number of Discs - 4

Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald

Date- 11/11/2019

    How to Summon a Demon Lord has the distinction of being the second anime in a row I've watched with a protagonist who ends up in an alternative fantasy reality to his own, and ends up as an overpowered creature in that reality. The first one being That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime. This one seems to take its queues from series like Overlord, which depicts a character entering his favorite MMORPG world.

    In How to Summon a Demon Lord Takuma Sakamoto, an obsessed gamer is drawn into the world of Cross Reveries, by two characters in the game Rem and Shera desired to make him their servant, but his power of reflection made them his. He is a Demon King named Diablo, and ends up acting as his character, but at the time helping the pair work their way through their issues, and tries to find a way to free them from their magically imposed captivity.

    How to Summon a Demon Lord is not exactly original, but that doesn't mean it cannot be fun. Yeah, it had elements of harem anime in the depiction of the girls enslaved to Diablo, which sets them up as primarily fan service.  The series has an interesting fantasy environment , some nice action scenes, and an interesting emotional core among the main trio that gets developed over the series. This means some side characters appear as mostly background fodder, but it works. Also, the scene does have moments of sexual activity that come across as awkward and cliché.

    Funimation present the series in a solid 1:78:1 1080p transfer that looks great. Colors are well reproduced, and there is solid detail here. Audio is handled with a 5.1 English mix and a 2.0 stereo Japanese mix, both sound solid and without  issues. Extras include art cards, commentaries, and a clean opening and closing. RECOMMENDED.