Summer 2018 First Impressions – How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord

In the MMORPG Cross Reverie, Takuma Sakamoto is so powerful that he is lauded as the “Demon Lord” by other players. One day, he is summoned to a world outside his own, but with the same appearance he had in the game. There, he meets two girls who both proclaim themselves to be his Summoner. They perform an Enslavement Ritual to turn him into their Summon, but that’s when Takuma’s passive ability Magic Reflection activates. Instead, it is the girls who become enslaved. Though Takuma may be the strongest Sorcerer there is, he has no idea how to talk with other people. It is here he makes his choice: to act based on his persona from the game. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Light Novel

Episode 1 Summary: If the MMORPG “Cross Reverie” has an unofficial boss character, it would have to be Takuma. He plays the game at such a high level that he’s known as the “Demon Lord.” As an antisocial shut-in, Takuma doesn’t have the time or the patience for cute young couples who come to challenge him, and he gleefully blows them up. As he’s relishing his latest win, he suddenly finds himself drawn out of his body and awakens in the presence of an elf, Shera, and a girl with cat ears, Rem, both of whom are arguing over which of them were responsible for summoning him and, thus, who will control him. The joke’s on them, however; Takuma’s special in-game item reflects magic, and the girls have actually enslaved themselves to him. This is inconvenient for all, but they have no idea how to reverse the spell and thus are stuck with the arrangement. The three travel to town and have a sit-down with the head mage; it’s in her best interest to break the enslavement spell to have a better chance at protecting Rem. As it turns out, Rem is hiding a powerful secret which could deal a huge blow to all of humanity. Takuma, as his character “Demon Lord Diablo,” vows not to leave Rem’s side and to help her release herself from her predicament. 

Impressions: Yeesh, where do I even start. In other recent seasons when I wasn’t actively reviewing new episodes I think it must have been easy for me to ignore anime like this – thinly-veiled sexual and power fantasies disguised as sword-swinging game adaptations. Having just reviewed another first episode about a young man stumbling through his real-life emotional issues within the context of a video game he happens to be very good at, I’m beginning to see the pattern in this type of story. The main characters aren’t just your regular sort of average guys, they’re angry young men with a bone to pick over some aspect of their life. The real world is full of “normies” and actively denies them sexual or social satisfaction, but in the game they can be the person they imagine themselves to be. In Seven Senses of the Reunion, the protagonist’s pain and suffering was at least somewhat justified by some past trauma and then being shunned by his friends. Here, Takuma seems to be merely misanthropic for no real reason other than he doesn’t really care to partake in the outside world, and his video game gives him a way to pick on people who would otherwise best him in real-world social clout.

It may not seem like it, but I want to be sympathetic to people who feel like the “real world” has nothing to offer to them. I think that, seen from a different angle, Takuma may be suffering from some severe social anxiety. I know from my experiences with anxiety that it’s exponentially easier to deal with life’s issues through the barrier of a computer screen; sometimes if I can’t bring myself to make a phone call, I might be able to send an email or fill out an online form. Takuma can’t talk to people face-to-face, but wearing the mask of his game persona he has much more confidence. I relate to this aspect of the show in a way and understand why it might be nice to find mirrors of one’s self in a character on-screen. There is something to be said for taking responsibility for one’s existence, though, and that’s where I think shows like this really start to fail their audience (and when I start getting angry emails about how I “take anime too seriously”).

One of the major issues with almost all power fantasies of this quality-level is that they allow their protagonists to skip doing the self-examination required to learn and grow. If someone’s knowledge of obscure video-game lore suddenly provides them with prestige and power over others, what motivation is there to experience empathy or show kindness? Takuma is an outright jerk to people in “Cross Reverie” just because they have something that he doesn’t – human connections and relationships. When he’s summoned by Shera and Rem, he’s immediately rewarded by gaining access to two women who, due to magical circumstances, are literally enslaved to him. He doesn’t have to show deference to anyone because his power level is so far over nine-thousand that he can just blast them rather than listen to what they have to say. And he doesn’t have to deal with the consequences of “accidentally” molesting a catgirl, because he just didn’t know any better and she had an orgasm, so it’s okay.

That last point is what brought the episode down several notches from being just silly and forgettable. I feel like there was a time where fanservice of this kind of non-consensual nature went out of style for a while and it was just bouncy breasts and hot-springs nudity that was en vogue (though maybe my brain just couldn’t handle it anymore and went on the fritz for a few years). I feel like over the last couple of seasons I’ve been seeing the non-consensual groping and other uncomfortable activities ramp up a little more. I’m a little older now and more able to stay coherent when I state that this kind of material undermines the credibility of a series for me, and also personally offends me as a person who’s been at the receiving end of unwanted physical attention. In the context of this power fantasy, though, it takes on a more sinister quality; along with all the other rewards that Takuma has gained as an unwitting isekai hero, he’s also gained unfettered and unquestioned permission to trap a young woman in a hotel room and have access to her body. There is something extra maddening about that.

In the end, I’m left mostly just sad; I think this episode has some great visuals (aside from bouncing breasts) and I do think the character designs are pleasant and cute. I don’t really feel like there’s a whole lot of respect towards the characters, though, even Takuma – I think in the hands of someone with more finesse he might not have had to be a misanthropic trash fire forced into an intimidating package. When the characters aren’t deemed worthy of respect it becomes even more difficult to want to invest any energy in sympathizing with them. I think that the hikkikomori life can be an interesting basis for an anime series, but this episode is not a good example.

Pros: The episode has some very nice animation and character designs.

Cons: Non-con fanservice. The protagonist is rewarded in various problematic ways.

Grade: D