How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord Volume 12: Diablo meets a nudist and starts killing girls in Mechs.

Our look at the light novel version of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord continues! We are now at the final light novel that has been translated to English. It’s been a ride of ups and downs, with a pretty even spread throughout. Lots of boobs, lots of fighting, and also some nice butts. How will the story continue as we enter the point were many light novels start to end? Well after the cut let’s take a dive into volume 12 and find out!

Demon Lord has always been a story that moves forward. It never stays in one place too long, and the rotating cast of secondary girls keeps things fresh. One great is that these secondary girls aren’t forgotten after a certain arc ends, they jump back in for guest spots and keep that plot moving. That is where we find the story now, with Diablo having made peace with Rem, and help prevent a war with the fox-people, now sees his old stomping grounds invaded by a new kingdom, all of whom have girls who drive battle mechs. Even worse is that they seem to be from a game Diablo once dabbled in!

The big thing in Volume 12, aside from Rem getting kidnapped again (yes, again), is that Diablo takes a big step in character development. With war breaking out, and the enemy in no mood to negotiate, our resident ‘not actually a demon lord’ has to come to grips that he if he wants to protect what he has, he has to start fighting for it. That means using his power not to just defend or chase people away, but to kill. The fighting in the latter half of the volumes is a step up in terms of it’s brutality. Diablo isn’t playing around anymore, his wives and friends are in trouble, and if that means busting up some mecha-girl pilots? Then let the bodies fall where they may. I overall think this is a great thing, because Diablo has been relatively static in terms of development, with only little snippets here and there. While everything on paper isn’t mind blowing, I did enjoy seeing him taking on more of what a Demon Lord should be, and for good reason.

When Diablo decides to take shit REALLY seriously, the bodies start dropping.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Demon Lord if it wasn’t chalk full of ecchi, and this volume has it. While there is nothing on the shame level as the previous, there are more than a few scenes. Most notably is Diablo and crew meeting up with Lumachina’s former master, a dwarf priest who turns out to be nudist. That leads to an interesting scene where Shera (of course) decides to join in the fun, and strip down Rem. Then there is the mecha-girls whose suits are part tentacle monsters, and to pilot them well, you get the idea.

Tentacles in an ecchi isekai? That checks out.

How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord’s twelfth volume is another solid entry in what has been a solid, but overall average series. I’ve been honest that there are volumes were not a lot happens, and that this isn’t a series with much depth. That’s totally fine however, not everything is suppose to be, and content like this helps keep things fresh. As it is the last volume that has an English translation, and volume 13 having been just released in Japan in July, it is a good chance we won’t get be getting our next chapter for a while. I’m okay with that, as I got plenty of other series to dig into. That said, I’ve always enjoyed my time with Demon Lord, with its brisk pace, good ecchi, and enjoyable, but not difficult story. Light Novels have always been a sort of disposable medium, (despite some greats), and for a pick-up, put down series, you can’t go wrong with How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord. I look forward to coming back to this series, both for the upcoming second anime season, and for future light novels. I hope you will stop by and give my thoughts a looksie too!