How Not to Summon a Demon Lord

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How Not to Summon A Demon Lord is a isekai anime series about a top MMORPG player who finds himself summoned to the world of that MMORPG as his character.

Based on a light novel and manga of the same name. The first season aired in the late 2010s and the second in the early 2020s.

Tropes used in How Not to Summon a Demon Lord include:

• Above the Influence: A major plot point. Takuma is initially an Otaku who has fantasized about the scantily clad female characters in his fantasy online game. Thus, when two ditzy (but sexy) would-be sorceresses summon him into said game and accidentally put Slave Collars on themselves, he could likely do anything he wanted to them with no chance of retribution or comeuppance. But he can't make himself. No matter how much he plays the part of a tyrannical demon lord, he's still just playing the part.
  • Possibly the most hilarious example of this comes at the end of season one where Alicia, Rem, Shera, Edelgard and Klem mob him in an attempt to recharge his mana. Objecting to an orgy with five Fanservice-y fantasy girls does take a lot of willpower here...
• Age-Inappropriate Dress: Klem; technically an infant, with the personality of an adult who usually assumes the form of a "tween" girl, her Stripperiffic outfit barely covers her torso, with small pieces barely covering her bossom. May even count as Legal Jailbait given her affection towards Diablo.
• Battle Couple: A couple challenges Diablo in the intro, before he is trapped in the game.
• Beware the Cute Ones: Every member of Diablo's Unwanted Harem is a Ms. Fanservice and each has at least a small kill-count to their credit. Much like a true RPG, they all gradually become stronger as the series progresses, but not their adorable nature.
• Big Eater: Shera consumes a lot of food in the inn.
• Buxom Is Better: Downplayed. The fantasy realm is certainly a World of Buxom where every female inhabitant is a Ms. Fanservice, and Shera (one of the two females of the Power Trio) is indeed the busty type. However, Rem (the other member) is more Petite Pride, and manages to be just as Fanservice-y as Shera.
• Corrupt Church: The Church of Celestials is barely better than the Fallen in terms of morality, being Knight Templar Fundamentalist extremists bent on maintaining power (and gaining wealth) by ensuring they are the only ones capable of curing a plague that they themselves are creating. The Church does, however, redeem itself later in the Light Novel after Weselia.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: The character Diablo was designed with a Demon Lord motif.
  • The leaders of the Fallen are real ones; most important to the plot is Demon Lord of the Soul, Krebskulm (you can call her "Klem"), who is supposed to be their queen but later defects to Diablo's side. Other important members include Edelgard (Krebskulm's servant, who consequently also joins Diablo), Cardia (a phantom who was sealed in the Kingdom of Greenwood), Modinalam (Omnicidal Maniac and failed Starscream to Krebskulm) and the lustful vampire-like Vanakness (who is encountered in Zirconia Town).
• Establishing Character Moment: Diablo's easy victory over the couple and attitude regarding them serves as one.
• Fantastic Racism: A drunk mage makes some comments about demihumans in the first episode.
• Fictional Video Game: Cross Reverie, a fictional MMORPG played by the protagonist, and said to be the most popular MMORPG worldwide in universe.
• Happiness in Slavery: Downplayed with Rem and Shera. They aren't exactly accepting of it, nor does he like it any better, but they have no idea how to remove the collars, so he's stuck with them. And for now, they seem just fine with it. Seeing how he marries them in volume 8 of the Light Novel, one could say it worked out pretty well.
  • Played more straight in episode 17 where Klem willingly submits to a collar, feeling that the only way a Demon Lord like herself can function in society (and gain access to the delicious cookies Rem and Shera have introduced her to) is if she is under the thrall someone with a better reputation like Takuma.
• High-Pressure Blood: Spurts from Diablo's thumb when he tries to draw some at the Adventurers Guild.
• Hikikomori: Takuma Sakamoto is the gamer who plays Diablo, and is a self described shut in.
• Marriage to a God: In the dub version, the Church of Celestials has this policy for priestesses; unfortunately, Lumachina takes it way too literally. When Takuma rescues her from an assassin while she is praying for help, she mistakes him for an avatar of her god, and believes she is obligated to literally be his wife. Again, it is that sort of anime.
• Mugging the Monster: A common occurrence in the series, "monster" in question being Diablo. The first time was when the stuck-up snob of a wizard Gallak tired to sic his giant level 30 fire-breathing salamander on Diablo and his entourage. Diablo himself is level 150, and makes short work of the lamb in lion's clothing. Since then, it seemed every villain with a chip on his shoulder and a rotten attitude would underestimate the 6-foot-5 guy with scary black robes, facial tattoos and demon-horns whose name is literally a name for the Devil for some.... odd reason. Of course, in all fairness, Diablo isn't too confident of his own abilities, as unbeknownst to everyone, is an anxiety-ridden, anti-social nerd who was pulled into this fantasy world and turned into the overpowered character he used in a MMORPG.
  • Batutta pulls double-duty here, getting on the bad side of two "monsters" - Diablo and Lumachina - at the same time.
• Noodle Incident: It is never stated just why Shera and Rem were trying to summon a demon in the first place.
• The Paladin: "Paladin" is the official title for high ranking members of the Church of Celestials, but while some - like Weselia and Tria - play the trope straight, most others defy it. A good example, Saddler, the first such "paladin" encountered. A cruel man who believes himself to be a physical embodiment of the god he worships, he has no divine abilities whatsoever, his "holy" powers derived from alchemy. It was indeed rather satisfying to everyone when his faith in his non-existent divinity cause him to be crushed like a grape, literally.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: This is a major reason (along with being a coward and an idiot) why Shera’s depraved brother Keera is such a monster. First, he brainwashes Shera using magic to “convince” her to come with him, intending rape right from the start and turns the brainwashing off right before attempting the act so she can be as terrified as possible. He then uses some sort of magically controlled slime monster to disrobe her, laughing like the madman he is and describing this as "foreplay" to the hero when he breaks in to save her. All this is portrayed with the appropriate Fan Disservice, in stark contrast to the many scenes of Fanservice elsewhere in this series. Worst of all, the concept of basic decency is foreign to Keera - when he learns that Rem and Shera had accidentally put on Slave Collars and that Diablo could have forced himself upon them at any time, but never acted on it, he genuinely can't understand why. He instead rationalizes that Diablo must have manipulated Shera into giving consent, and that she was too stupid to realize it, when Diablo had not been intimate with her at all.
  • Oddly, what Diablo does to Sylvie in episode 8 (the liquor she gives him makes him blind stinking drunk, causing him to think she's a pillow and rip her clothes off) is regarded as more Black Comedy Rape, and she forgives him for it quickly.
• Robot Maid: Rose is a Magimatic Maids (the term for the Trope in Cross Reverie) inadvertantly created by Diablo (he programmed her into a dungeon he designed, and when the dungeon became a part of this fantasy world, she also became real). A Meido, naturally, she overlaps with Ninja Maid and Ridiculously-Human Robots, and is again, is eager to become part of Diablo's Unwanted Harem.
• RPG Mechanics Verse: The world Takuma is transported to uses quite a few video game terminology, like using levels to measure someone or something's power, with guilds having bulletin boards offering quests like a temp agency would.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Krebskulm was this initially, the "person" being Rem, who "inherited" the role because Klem was previously sealed in Rem's mother. Unsealing her requires Diablo to (reluctantly) deliver her the way he would a newborn child, and Klem is Born as an Adult - more or less.
  • Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: However, Klem is in fact one of many aspects of a God of Evil who was sundered by the Powers That Be and sealed individually. Other known aspects include Cardia, Modinalam (both slain in different arcs) and Enkvaros (only mentioned).
• Slave Collar: Shera and Rem intended to put on on Diablo in the first episode, but they botched the spell and ended up with them instead, binding them to him.
• Third-Person Seductress: In the original opening credits, there is a brief shot where Shera shakes her - admittedly voluptuous - bosom into the "camera".
• Undying Loyalty: Edelgard's entire purpose in life is to be Klem's servant, and no matter what Klem wants, Edelgard supports her. Klem wants to eradicate the mortal races (as most demon lords do) Edelgard acts as The Dragon. Klem decides she doesn't want that and would rather hang out at a bakery and eat cookies, Edelgard makes sure she gets the best ones in the shop. Klem tells Edelgard to take her clothes off and cuddle with Diablo in order to recharge his magic, she does so without hesitation or reluctance. Okay, maybe a little reluctance there, but it might help that Alicia, Rem, Shera, and Klem herself are doing so too, and Diablo is even more reluctant. Edelgard has even gone so far as to say she will only conceive and bear children if Klem tells her to, and only if Klem approves of her mate - of course, Klem implies she would only approve of Diablo for that.
• Trapped in Another World: The basic premise of the show is that the protagonist is trapped as his MMORPG avatar. In this case, however, Takuma sees no reason to want to go back.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: A clock striking 12 is shown just as the show cuts to the the world of Cross Reverie.
• World of Buxom: Every female character has at least some sex appeal and Fetish Fuel potential.