Summer 2022 First Impressions – Black Summoner

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Summoner Kelvin doesn’t remember anything about his former life. In exchange for better starting stats, he offered up his memories to Melfina, the goddess of reincarnation. Now he’s one of very few summoners in his new world, although his former self seems to have been a bit of a romantic – having fallen in love with Melfina, he somehow convinced her to tag along with him in his new life in the form of a talking stat menu. At least that’s helped him get up to speed with the customs and peculiarities of his new world.

When he registers at the local adventurers’ guild, he disguises his true skills to avoid attracting too much attention. However, he chooses his first task – defeating three blue slimes – with the extra goal of forming a summoning contract with one of the monsters. After some initial issues with underestimating the strength of blue slimes, Kelvin manages to contract with one and then complete his task. It seems that his new adventure is now underway, although the city seems to have a bit of a dark underbelly that Kelvin has only just started to uncover.

Impressions: The literal first words of dialog in the opening seconds of this episode are “isekai tensei,” (other-world reincarnation) and I think that really serves to set the tone of what we get throughout this episode. There are absolutely no surprises at any point in this episode. The world into which Kelvin is reborn is heavily informed by fantasy RPG video games. Numerical stats (which can be viewed at any point via a very video-game-like menu) define characters’ skills and strengths. HP and MP are actual numbers that one needs to be concerned about. The early encounters are ripped straight out of Dragon Quest. It’s a language that most of us are intimately familiar with, though the fact that it keeps being used as shorthand in a completely different medium is definitely an annoyance.

So what makes this series differ from others of its ilk? Honestly, not a whole lot. I initially thought that Kelvin wasn’t overpowered in the ways that many similar protagonists tend to be. His rare class may have its advantages, but he’s forced to start at level 1 and clearly isn’t a competent hand-to-hand fighter at the outset. However, that’s a misunderstanding which the narrative is quick to dispel. Kelvin’s S-class summoner skills mean that the summons with whom he contracts instantly gain an extreme amount of power. He’s also the only known S-class summoner – even though he might be a level 1 novice now, his eventual potential is well above-and-beyond anyone else in this world. Oh, and he also has a literal goddess helping him out.

I personally think RPGs are fun because I enjoy the level-grinding of classic games. Having said that, the appeal to me in those cases is that I get to choose how long I play and how to pace the story to my liking. Narrative media like TV anime differs in that it is by its nature supposedly story-focused, so watching it unfold similarly to an RPG is like watching someone else play a video game and not being able to convince them that they’re a high enough level to tackle the next boss character and move the story along if and when it’s warranted. It’s just a total slog and I really can’t conceive of why so many fantasy series are choosing to go this route. This series is just one of many and is really just a symptom of this larger issue.

Simply put, if I want the experience of playing a game, I’ll play a game. I don’t need an anime to poorly simulate that experience in a passive form on my behalf.

Pros: I like the relationship that forms between Kelvin and Clotho, his slime companion. It’s a fun little partnership that serves as a high note to the episode. Clotho also gains a cute little face after he joins Kelvin’s party, which was a nice touch.

Cons: Surprise! This world has slavery. Near the end of the episode Kelvin encounters a slave trader in a dark alley. Of course all the slaves are young, attractive, sad-looking female demi-humans, and of course Kelvin comments that obtaining one of them would be a great way to build up his party once he’s able to afford it. Good grief.

Content Warnings: Violence (mild). Slavery.

Would I Watch More? – This episode reminded me actually that I bought Yakuza: Like a Dragon recently (an entry in the Yakuza series that plays like a turn-based RPG) so I think I’ll go play that instead.