Throughout the first two episodes of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, we haven’t gotten much in terms of plot. While there have been some instances, like Rem talking to Diablo about the Demon Lord Krebskulm being inside her, what we’ve really gotten out of the show has been fan service.
Episode 3 decides to dial the fan service down a bit and actually get into some semblance of plot and narrative cohesion. It also reminds us that this is an isekai story, which I actually enjoyed.
Diablo and company meet a man named Emile, who is a warrior fighting for the purity of women! Great! Seriously, we have a character with a drive right off the bat. Emile is likable, sure, but he’s a bit over the top in terms of actions and mannerisms. I’m curious to know how he’s going to grow as a character.
The MMO aspect of the show finally took a more important role in our story, too, where Diablo realizes that people are calling him a demon, even though he’s really not. His horns are a headgear. And the show goes to show us this. It also gives us a first-person aspect of Diablo standing in front of Emile as the warrior talks, giving us scrolling dialogue.
While I enjoy this, I’m hoping the plot doesn’t rely too heavily on the fact that we’re in a game, but keeps it in our heads enough to make sure we don’t think this is just some fantasy world. There’s a distinct feel to a pure, isekai fantasy story versus and MMO isekai fantasy story, and keeping those apart may be beneficial for this show in my opinion.
We’re also introduced to the Fallen–a group (or race) trying to revive the Demon Lord Krebskulm. This brings us back to Rem’s talk with Diablo and how Krebskulm is residing inside her. So are they targeting Rem? Do they know they need to find her? Or are they simply doing whatever they can to revive the demon lord? I think, honestly, this development in the plot has me the most interested.
What are they going to do if they don’t know they need to target Rem? What happens if they know and they’re successful in capturing her? What happens if they know and are unsuccessful? I think each of these questions can build on the plot in multiple ways, and I’m curious to know where the story is going to go depending on what route it takes.
The last three things I want to bring up are these:
- Why is Celeste suggesting to Rem that Diablo may be a Fallen, considering she wonders if he’s not from the same world/area/whatever? I mean, sure, I can understand why she’d be worried considering she knows Rem’s secret, but is it a ploy by Celeste? Does Celeste has some hidden plan? Or is she genuinely curious about Diablo’s origins?
- Galluk (the pissy little mage) is going crazy and his weird dagger bothers me. He even turned himself into a thing named Gregore? Is Gregore a Fallen? Does that dagger make Fallen? It seems insanely powerful, but there’s got to be more to it than we were shown, obviously.
- Edelgard, strongest lancer of the Fallen. Who is she really? She seems curious about Diablo, and also unsure of her own actions if only for a split second. Is she going to be an addition to Diablo’s harem/followers? Or is she something bigger?
Overall, this episode did more than what I expected to be honest. I figured we were going to get a ton more fan service than we did, but it seems like the narrative is building into something cohesive and readying us for a bigger, more important reveal. My money is on Rem. Also, the progression of the plot was nice considering we hadn’t really gotten anything out of it through the first two episodes.
I’m happy with the way episode 3 went and actually curious about episode 4.
Thanks for reading!
Alex 🙂
Alex's Arena 
This episode was definitely designed to ensure viewers didn’t do a third episode drop. There’s been more than enough fan service to keep those viewers engaged after episode 1 and 2, and episode 3 gave us enough promise of a plot that people thinking about letting it go will probably stick around. Whether or not that turns out to be a mistake is something I guess we’ll all find out in a couple of episodes.
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Another of the shows I’m reviewing did the same thing. Harukana Receive decided to finally take a break (although a minor one) from the fan service, and gave us an idea of where the show is heading. While I’m still not 100% sure if it’s going to play out in the show’s favor, we got more characters, more character development, and some sort of goal or plotline that might keep viewers interested. I’ll be watching regardless, but others? I guess we’ll find out.
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The writers out there are definitely aware of the three episode rule and are catering for it these days. The issue is, I wonder if after two episodes of doing one thing and then the third episode suddenly trying to play out more story, if fans are actually fooled or if they really will just go to episode four and decide or whether we’ll all start calling it at episode 2.
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