How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω (Episode 22) – Pretend God
Vishos has merged with Europa and has decided to eradicate Lumachina and Diablo. Will Diablo be able to protect everyone or will sacrifices need to be made? Who knows, but I bet someone will have a bath at some point!
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω (Episode 22) – Pretend God
What happened?
Diablo quickly recognises the monster as Europa, a raid boss from Cross Reverie. It’s not that strong but has powerful shields that make it almost impossible to hurt. Luckily, Diablo has Lumachina who can cast dispel. The only problem is that miracles take a long time to prepare. He’s going to have to keep Vishos and Europa away to give Lumachina a chance.
However, Diablo has always been a solo player and as such his skills are focused on attack and not protecting others. Just when things are looking dire, Rose steps between Diablo and Europa and attempts to hold him back. She’s not nearly powerful enough and is severely injured, but she did buy them enough time.
Lumachina activates her miracle, but Europa isn’t going to bend over and take it. It attacks back and appears to be winning. It would have if not for the extra energy Lumachina received from the prayers of the faithful watching below. Once Europa’s shields had been destroyed it was a simple task to destroy it. Diablo told the people to stay true to their faith or he would be back to judge them.
What did you think?
The fight was over before the halfway point of the episode and it was kind of boring. I don’t think it was helped by Europa just floating around. What was the point of the tentacles? It would have been far more interesting had it moved like an octopus, clinging to the side of the cathedral. Alas, I think the animation budget for this season wasn’t enough to do it justice.
Also, I can’t stand the cliches in this season. Evil church, a sole hero who is close to god, empowered by the prayers of the average person. It takes away from anything the actual heroes do because they basically couldn’t have won without this random event happening. Then, once the fight was over we got a bunch of small segments showing us how things will move forward. Is there going to be a season three? If so, I hope it’s better than this one…
What have you learnt?
I think one of my biggest issues with this season (and I have many) was that it didn’t raise the stakes, it didn’t do anything new in either the adventure or the fan service. When I think of amazing sequels, my mind automatically goes to Aliens. The first movie was great, but the second movie took everything that worked in the first one and made it bigger. More aliens, marines with lots of fire-power, a queen. Basically, more made it work. Now, look at Predator 2. It swapped Arnold Schwarzenegger for Danny Glover… that’s not more. We still had one Predator… also not more.
It’s not a tried and true formula, but going with less is not going to be better. Unfortunately, that’s what How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω did. The animation quality was lower, the story wasn’t as engaging as it didn’t focus on the main characters. Lumachina was barely in it and could have been left out entirely. The fights weren’t as good, the enemies were weaker, and the fan service wasn’t as interesting. We needed more, not less!
Other reviews in the series
Series Information
| English Title | How Not to Summon a Demon Lord |
| Japanese Title | Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu |
| Genres | Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Isekai, Romance |
Anime
Season One
Season Two
Manga
| Series | How Not to Summon a Demon Lord | |
| Author | Yukiya Murasaki | |
| Artist | Naoto Fukuda | |
| Volumes | Ongoing | Chapters |
| 1 | I’m Dangerous, I Swear! | 1-4 |
| 2 | Overpowered Overlord! | 5-9 |
| 3 | Keyboard Warrior! | 10-14 |
| 4 | The Devil You Know… | 15-19 |
| 5 | Boss-level Badass! | 20-24 |
| 6 | Demon Lord vs Demon Lord! | 25-29 |
| 7 | The Demon Within! | 30-34 |
| 8 | Don’t Wake the Demon! | 35-39 |
| 9 | Into the Woods! | 40-44 |
