How Not to Summon a Demon Lord (Volume 1) – I’m Dangerous, I Swear!
Takuma was another NEET gamer who dreamed of visiting the world of his favourite MMORPG, Cross Reverie. So, imagine his surprise when he was summoned to another world as his demon lord avatar, Diablo!
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord (Volume 1) – I’m Dangerous, I Swear!
What happened?
Takuma woke up with the sky above his head, which was odd since he fell asleep in his bed. As he tried to work out what was going on, he was kissed on the cheek by two girls simultaneously. Once the shock had surpassed, he noticed that one was an elf and the other a pantherian… two of the races in Cross Reverie! They were busy arguing about who summoned him and began to give him orders in the hopes of proving that he was theirs. However, he didn’t feel compelled to do what they asked of him and when he told them to stop arguing, smile at one another, and shake hands, they did. His demon lord ring had reflected the enslavement pact they attempted to place on him, putting it back on them.
If he had the ring, did that mean he had more of his equipment? Takuma checked himself over and soon realised that his body was that of his avatar, Diablo. He had all of his equipment, but did he have his power and even so, would it be strong enough to survive in this world? They headed to the nearby town of Faltra to get a room and work out what to do next. Since neither could sufficiently claim that Diablo had been their summons, he asked them both why they wanted to summon him so that he could work out how best to proceed. Of course, Takuma had decided that it was best to continue to keep up his demon lord character since that was the only way he could talk to girls or handle the social anxiety of being around so many people. It’s not easy being a demon lord!
What did you think?
The first season of the anime is one of my all-time favourites. I loved everything about it. Then, the second season came along and I was quite underwhelmed for a number of reasons. Regardless, I love the story and the characters and wanted to see if the manga handled things better than the second season of the anime. So, here we are. The first volume was fairly slow, considering that the first episode of the anime covered everything here and a little more. Now, that might initially sound like a bad thing, but it’s the opposite. The manga was able to spend a little more time in Diablo/Takuma’s head as we get used to him taking on the demon lord persona and trying to hide his true emotions.
That was always one of my favourite things in the anime so it’s nice to see more of it in the manga. I also noticed that the design of Rem is slightly different with her appearing more rounded in the face in the anime. I think Shera’s face might also be a bit slimmer too. Anyhow, it’s great being back with this bunch and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes and how it’s different from the anime. This was a fun book to read.
What was your highlight?
Diablo, Rem, and Shera were just treated to a meal by Celestine, the head of the Mages’ Association and that raised some flags for Diablo. He knew that Rem was hiding something and while he wanted to respect her privacy, he knew that this was a serious thing that they needed to understand better. He’s played too many games where things would have been a lot simpler had one of the characters just spilt the beans. So, since Rem wasn’t going to talk willingly and Diablo appeared to have forgotten about the enslavement pact or chose not to utilise it, which is a nice move from him if that is the case, he picked her up and carried her to the room to torture her…
I laughed at Shera’s reaction to this as she remained seated and carried on eating leaving Rem to face the music alone. Of course, Diablo’s idea of torture was to tease Rem’s cat ears until she was willing to tell him everything. He did have to promise that he would help her no matter what in his best and most confident demon lord voice, even though he was worried just how bad it was given some of the hints from Celestine. I think they managed to get a remarkable amount of character development into the first volume and set up a nice group dynamic. I’m excited to get into the next one!
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 |
