The Last Summoner S1

Title:The Last Summoner S1
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - ASK Animation Studio
Ah Jie is a 16 year old boy who doesn't care much about grades or romance. He has no particular dreams, every day he just sleeps, eats, and goes to school. He is good at cooking, though, which seems to be what attracts Dora, a strange pink-haired girl who appears in his kitchen one day via some sort of portal. She claims to be a 'summoned spirit', and what's more, says that he summoned her.

12 episodes
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent Stretch [series:4483#628]
(All episodes watched):

I was sure that this Chinese anime would be a sword & sorcery sort of show, but no, it seems to be primarily an action-comedy, set in the real world, which was refreshing. Some of the jokes were good, like the method Ah Jie uses to try to get rid of Dora, while others were predictable ones which we have heard before. Dora initially appears as a pretty hot looking young woman but most of the time is in a sort of SD mode because that saves energy (but is much less attractive). It seems that anybody can be a 'summoner' but the art has largely been forgotten until now. Ah Jie initially wants nothing to do with Dora but with time is persuaded/tricked into making a 'contract' with her. And that's about where things stand after one episode; where the plot would go was anyone's guess. But I was amused and downloaded several additional episodes the next day.

Episode two seemed in some ways novel and in others generic. There's a weird and fanciful chase after Dora is abducted by another Spirit. This creature's Summoner is a mysterious, powerful and beautiful girl--that was both intriguing and sort of generic. Judging from the OP sequence this may all devolve into an isekai sort of series with plentiful magic and fighting, but for now it held my interest to a modest degree.

In episode three we get into a big fight between this girl, Hana, and yet another Summoner. Ever since episode one Ah Jie has occasionally been encountering an injured white cat who he cals 'Meowru' (or something like that) and now we find out why this creature was included in this show. Personally, I would have prefered that the time spent on this elaborate battle had been used to tell us more about the rules of Summoning and explain what the relationship between Ah Jie and the girl from episode two will be (she mentions that she will be watching him and Dora 24/7 somehow) rather than already introduce another major character, but whatever. I think we now know more about the Summoner/Spirit relationship of Meowru than we do about her, and she had seemed sort of mysterious and intriguing, so I was disappointed. But this fortunately did not become a major problem. I hope this show will remain fairly focused on the main plot and not try to sensationalize things with lots of magic fights.

In episode four we get our briefing on the conflicting factions within Summoning. It turns out that there are good Summoners, known as 'Watchers', and bad ones, known as 'Destroyers'. This good vs. evil matchup seemed kind of generic and disappointing to me. There is more fighting, which suggested that this show would have a relatively simple plot and instead rely on raw action, which, again, was disappointing. I noticed several mentions of American superheroes (Captain America, for one), something which seldom happens in Japanese anime. The big battle wraps up in episode five and the Destroyers definitely have the upper hand for now. For some reason they spare Ah Jie, Dora and Meowru when they could have easily finished them off. More fun for me was the geek Summoner that Ah Jie and his faction meets, an amateur mangakka who prefers to use her(actually, his) powers to spy on powerful leaders. This person, 'Stan', briefs Ah Jie and the rest about all that is known about the seven Destroyers that they are up against. Dora plays some as yet unknown part in a building calamity of Spirit energy, if I understood things correctly. The group decides to take on one of the seven Destroyers, and hopefully overwhelm the person, though they seemed far more optimistic to me than their modest powers would justify. They ought to wait until Hana is ready for action again. It turns out that a person who seems completely peaceful and harmless at first glance is in fact nothing of the kind, which was a novel touch. More fighting ensues.

So, a band of not too amazing, one might even say laughable, misfit Summoners are taking on a team of fairly terrifying ones. That is sort of fun (I like Stan), and even the villains seem to have a little personality to them--like when they paid their respects to a fallen comrade. And this fight is because... well, because the Destroyers are bad and the Watchers are good. That could have been better. The result is a modestly entertaining show, one which I keep watching in part because it has touches of originality here and there. A good example would be what happens in episode nine, which is about the last thing one would expect would befall a team of heroes and heroines (they all get killed, but time resets). Afterwards the team decides to enter a competition at the 'Demon Furnace', a secret but highly elaborate facility for Summoners. The characters they meet are very eccentric and far-out, wacky even, like 'Bonnie', the caretaker, and 'Hiro', a manga artist turned Summoner. At the end we get a hint that something funny is going on at the Furnace, a scam to harvest 'spiritual energy' perhaps. But the most obvious thing at the end of episode twelve was that this story is nowhere near complete. Only one major villain has been taken down, the blond guy in the OP sequence has yet to appear (will Ah Jie undergo a change of hair color?), Hana is still out of action, and the problem with spirit energy is unresolved. A second season was announced. Despite all my problems with the show early on, I found the cast to be likable and amusing, and the show as a whole to have some originality and a fairly interesting plot, so I would be glad to watch season two. Sometimes 'disappointments' are a sign that the show as a whole is pretty good and has raised my expectations.

Last updated Thursday, July 28 2022. Created Tuesday, May 10 2022.

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org