Black Summoner

Episodes: 12

Summary: 

Kelvin finds himself reincarnated into another world—with a goddess, Melfina, as his servant and guide. He no longer has memories from his previous life—because he’s traded them for the advanced magic skills of a Summoner. But not so fast—first he must start his exciting new life as a common adventurer to avoid drawing too much attention to himself…for the time being!

Review: 

Black Summoner is yet another isekai series, though this time our main character, Kelvin, has no memory of his past life. He traded them so that he could get a special skill, Summoner. As it sounds, it allows Kelvin to make pacts with monsters and to summon them at will. He wakes up with his first summon, the goddess Melfina. He isn’t strong enough to summon her right away, but her voice is in his head guiding him through this new world. The series follows him as he learns about this world and gains new friends through his summons. I don’t want to say much more than that to avoid spoilers.

There’s a few characters I can’t talk about without spoilers so I’ll just go over the ones we meet in the first episode. Kelvin is our main character, who follows into the typical overpowered protagonist who is protective of his loved ones. The one thing he does have that’s different from other main characters is that Kelvin is a complete battle nut. He gets a huge grin and a crazy look in his eyes whenever he is against a strong opponent. Then there’s Melfina, who is just a voice during the first episode. She tells Kelvin that he fell in love with her at first sight, which he can’t remember, so she decided to come along on his journey as a kind of vacation from her godly duties. The last character we meet in the first episode is Kelvin’s first actual summons, a slime he names Clotho. He is an adorable little slime that grows pretty strong under Kelvin’s care.

The art from this anime is where the weakness shows up. The regular art is fine, the characters are designed well, Clotho is adorable and the background pulls you into the beautiful fantasy world. The problem stems from the fight scenes. If you’re someone who’s read some of my other reviews, I’ve made it pretty known how much I despise using 3D models in anime. I understand if it’s a quick moment during the fight or even on otherworldly creatures, but to use it constantly really takes me out of the show. Black Summoner has this problem. The 3D models are mostly during fight scenes, but these are not quick moments. They’re most of the fight scene and it’s very obvious they are being used. I really wish either this trend would stop or we’d create better 3D models that actually look like the 2D animation so it’s not jarring. 

Overall Thoughts:

Black Summoner is a fun enough isekai anime. The characters are all likable and while the plot is pretty much what you would expect, it’s still a fun watch and it does dive into a few darker themes later which is a nice change of pace from the usual lightheartedness that isekais fall into. It does lose points for the 3D models ruining some scenes for me. 

I would recommend this anime for isekai fans and fans of cute magical beasts. There’s also some elements of a harem and romance of course. It’s more of a subplot though and nothing really happens yet romantically. It has demons and elves as well so fans of those will also have fun with this one. Black Summoner isn’t the best isekai out there, but it is a fun anime to watch. So if you’re a fan of this genre then check out this series. 

Story: 7/10

Art: 6/10

Characters: 9/10

Ending: 9/10

Overall: 8/10