How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord

Episode 12

How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord had already cemented itself as my surprise of the season by virtue of how solid and entertaining it had turned out to be in spite of a setup many would write off. So I went into this finale genuinely excited to see how it would all turn out. Yes, it's pretty much a gimme that Diablo will come out on top in the battle of Demon Lord vs Demon Lord, and even Crunchyroll's preview thumbnail for the episode confirmed that Krebskulm's cute little biscuit-munching form would be restored before all was said and done. But an adventure is about the journey as much as the destination, and Demon Lord has always been better than most at infusing some freshness into its power-fantasy.

The economics of the show's storytelling are at their high-water-mark for this one, as an absolute ton happens in this last episode. Diablo's done with his fight with Klem's giant titty-monster form inside of ten minutes, with the rest dedicated to denouement. The Krebskulm fight is cool enough anyway, since Diablo being strong but not that strong tends to lend this show's battles more tension than your average isekai setup, to say nothing of the more complex win conditions our unconventional hero is operating under in trying to restore Klem to her former tiny glory. It all makes for a more interesting watch, cemented with displays of raw power from Krebskulm like her tanking Diablo's trademark spell-reflection, or showing off her outrageous sense of aesthetic via an attack that consists of ripping coffins out of a church graveyard and throwing them at him. It comes across as solid storytelling with a little thematic material giving it an extra edge.

It was easy to predict that Rem would come out of this alive, but even then her recovery worked as a relief and Shera's reaction was sweet. It also led to an interesting through-line for Diablo's characterization that fed into this episode's resolution, as he remarked on how he hadn't run out of healing items because he used them all to help allies before. It shows how he's grown as a ‘player’ as well as a person, setting the stage for how the bonds between this odd little party repeatedly save the day. As Rem proves in calming Klem, compassion and understanding are how you should summon a Demon Lord.

The subject of Demon Lord summon-binding is the one bad habit this show can't shake by the end, giving me the only major point of criticism for the show's conclusion. While the idea of Diablo binding Klem to him as a way of ensuring the world's ruling parties that she won't fly off the handle again is sound as an in-universe technicality, all the talk explaining how enslavement was totally cool in this case still came off unsavory. Sure, it was kind of funny that Shera and Rem point out that being enslaved amounted to nothing over the course of the show, and absolutely nothing is likely to be made of Klem's collar now that it's on. But there's still just enough skeevy language around the idea of ‘enslavement’ and ‘possessions’ to remind me of what fetish the show basically exists to pander to. Still, if this is the absolute worst thing the show's done, it's not that bad by the standards of its peers.

The last leg of the episode is dedicated to finally letting Alicia explain herself, which works surprisingly well for the show's thematic goals. Just from a storytelling perspective, it's a clever spin to reveal that Alicia and Edelgard have been in cahoots all this time, backed up by moments from previous episodes and how desperately Alicia wants to help her ‘partner’. The real surprising part is that Alicia's mortal-mangling motivation wasn't rooted in any specific event, but rather just her generally being observant of how awful her fellow self-righteous nobility were. Given how Demon Lord has come down hard on zealous authoritarian rule in its latter half, that fits well with the series' point-of-view and leads into its themes of individualism.

There's an argument to be made that Alicia didn't deserve the second chance Diablo gives her, but her pardon ties into the show's message as well as growth for Diablo. Of course the lonely basement-dwelling gamer knows what it's like to wish all humans would die because he thought they looked down on him, and we've seen over the course of this show what making friends and finding a place to belong have done for his disposition. Concept-wise, this whole thing being an extreme lesson in how a maladjusted loner can become better by learning to make friends is as good a thesis as any from this kind of series, and if Alicia's pardon is a demonstration of that, I can accept it. Heck, I can also accept the relatively short final fanservice scene, especially since Diablo suffering a literal heart-attack as a result was a laugh-out-loud gag. In the end, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord was good (not great) most of the way through, but it still worked way better than I gave it credit for at the start. I was gradually endeared to this story and these characters, so if they want to make more later down the line, I'll take it.

Rating: B

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