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Black Summoner (TV).




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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2022 8:10 am Reply with quote


Black Summoner (TV)

Genres: action, fantasy
Themes: isekai, reincarnation

Plot Summary: Waking up in a strange new place with no memory of his past life, Kelvin learns that he's bartered away those very memories in exchange for powerful new abilities during his recent transmigration. Heading out into a whole new world as a Summoner — with his first Follower being the very goddess who brought him over— Kelvin begins his new life as an adventurer, and it isn't long before he discovers his hidden disposition as a battle junkie.

July 9, 2022 (Saturdays; Crunchyroll)
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2524
PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2022 11:25 pm Reply with quote
Well, here I am to say at least that this show is so much better than some others getting weekly reviews, like My Isekai Life, Vermeil in Gold and Harem in the Labyrinth that I feel a little bad for not voting for it. It has a lot of heart and if you read this, I hope you give it a chance.

Vermeil isn't bad, has some heart as well and is more than "H-cup succubus with a virgin-killer blouse that gets "mana" from extracting guy's bodily fluids" but is a little flat and trope-y. My Isekai Life is practically insufferable with the slime cutie squad, I'll take Clotho any day! And Harem, etc. is such a disappointment.

Black Summoner has a much more varied and interesting cast than those and each with individual motivations that make sense for them joining our hero and play off each other well. Not sure if it's for critics, but is a good enjoyable time and doesn't feel like an insult.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23812
PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:07 am Reply with quote
Episode 8

I've been following this one as well. It's not one for the ages or anything but it gets the job done. And Kelvin is finally able to summon a version of Melfina - woo-hoo!
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4613
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:04 pm Reply with quote
Episode 12

a question comes up I can't quite wrap my head around. This, My Isekai Life, and Vermeil in Gold al featured final showdowns with horribly cliche comically twisted bad guys. None were "good" shows, but why was I just thoroughly unimpressed with the baddies in MIL, overpowered with visceral disgust of the crappiness of the one in ViG, but had no great problem with the one in this episode?

MIL, I guess it has to do with the total lack of tension and stakes. I knew the hero would pull a win out his butt against any logic. The baddies had no good build-up either.
ViG, it showed the sadism of the bad guy and it was just for sadism's sake. He very much wanted to hurt and the show tried to make him look "cool" for it. I hate that type of glorified psycho.

Like MIL, there is no real tension in the battle against Clive. Our BS hero will win, duh... but at least he shows effort, he has to sheild people an looses his weapon, at least the villain shows mild appreciation of the skills of the other.... even if it is in the cliche "oh! he scarred my pretty face!" variety. I guess it fakes the idea that there are some stakes to the fight.
Like ViG, the bad guy was a stupid sadist, but nothing seemed "personal" to it, it wasn't "Sadism because he enjoyed inflicted pain" it was "sadism because he considered it a game and couldn't understand pain." Not to mislead you into thinking this is some great trick, it's just another cliche. I guess I can just tolerate this one.

And unlike the others, this fight just had a little fun to it. Kelvin acted his usual dork self, the waifus all really waifued it up. This show knew it was fun.

Of the three, its the only I'm willing to come back to if more are made.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15485
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:52 am Reply with quote
I will say that this show was marginally better than My Isekai Life. In comparison the characters were probably more interesting, and it did feel like it was having more fun. For the record, these were both shows a dude reincarnates in a fantasy world as a summoner/tamer, picking up a slime as their first up a slime as first creature, and really as isekai staple become similarly overpowered. Granted, I dislike the harem parts of this show more, especially with one of the girls being a slave that he bought, removing her curse so that she would be forever indebted to him, which just doesn't hit me the right way.

The action could be okay, and I guess even the edginess of the main character was not too awful. I am trying to think of more positives to say, but thinking of the other characters (girls) that join him, I can only say I didn't like it. Another was a demon lord princess will be devoted for him breaking her from eternal slumber, and the other is a kid that he reincarnated from a life of hospital bound, which generally doesn't sound like a character that should be in a harem. Oh, and also the simping goddess, who just is automatically devoted to him for some reason that doesn't make sense. There have been far more interesting goddess characters (that even isekai the hero). But kind of despite those complaints, it is maybe impressive that it didn't bug me that much.

My rating is going to be Decent (6/10), I guess overall saying decent fits my opinions.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2524
PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 11:32 am Reply with quote
See? Didn't I tell y'all this was an OK show? Huh? Praise me... Wink

To amplify on Spastic Minnow's analysis, MIL followed a formula so often, the protag was so OP and the characters surrounding it were such non-entities that nothing really mattered in the end. With the way ViG ended, the stupidly constituted villain's existence was made superfluous except to cement Vermeil and Alto's relationship and status as the most capable and introduce the cliche' Evil Shadow Organization. It's almost insufferable that so many authors use a good and simple narrative as a springboard to introduce another narrative of huge proportions as if that makes the whole more meaningful. KISS

Black Summoner (true fans won't shorten), on the other hand, has constructed actual characters and have presented enough background and motivation-revealing interaction that viewers can relate and so someone getting hurt in some way would matter. Clive being a complete unknown elicits some curiosity and that draws the viewer's interest relative to his potential impact on the other characters.That he gets dispatched so easily was a big letdown and the last minute reveal of another bigger bad behind him was a little Rolling Eyes They should have introduced that sooner or saved some of that for S2...

Also as mentioned, Black Summoner had a good grasp on what makes for an entertaining show, the "fun factor". A shallow show like MiL that is relentlessly moody and has to rely on a "cute" character (amplification without enough variety doesn't count) to keep from being equally dull isn't entertaining. ViG had a good variety in mood with some playful sexuality thrown in so was entertaining even with it's flaws. Black Summoner had a lot of variety and never took itself too seriously so it could supply light drama between taking breaks for slice-of-life antics and goofy settups wihtout seeming too out-of-place.

Among the four shows, adding Isekai Labyrinth Harem, Black Summoner is the only one I liked enough to hope for an S2 and look forward to seeing. It'll be OK if we get ViG S2 and will vote either for weekly reviews...
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InfiniteJest



Joined: 22 Apr 2023
Posts: 136
PostPosted: Thu May 11, 2023 8:12 am Reply with quote
Just started this series so only 5 ep in. Seems like a pretty bland backstory even for Isekai. The MC is OP etc. but what has grabbed my attention is the interesting mix of CGI in some of the fight scenes. I hadn’t noticed anything that looked overtly computer generated until the fight with the Dark Knight but then there it was and again with the Demon fight. Usually it doesn’t work for me but I thought it actually meshed well for a change.

I have no technical understanding of how anime is produced and only knew about the mixed media approach when I tried RWBY where I felt like it was distracting. But so far it looks like Black Summoner does this well. May have to go find some discussions about this somewhere and learn more.
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