How Not to Summon a Demon Lord (Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu) is a 2018 television anime series based on the light novel series written by Yukiya Murasaki and illustrated by Takahiro Tsurusaki. The anime was adapted by studio Ajia-Do and published by Kadokawa Pictures. The series aired during the Summer 2018 anime season.
Once again another Isekai series (basically a person or group gets summoned or reincarnated into another world) and in this case our MC gets summoned and pretends to be the Demon Lord of the new world. Honestly, this show turned out to be a lot more entertaining than I had expected and there is, of course, fanservice throughout. I would say this is one of the more ‘ecchi’ isekais out there that have been animated so far. UPDATE! A second season has been green-lit, but will be with a different studio and team this time around.
So Crunchyroll acquired the rights to the series while Funimation distributed it for home video as part of their now-defunct partnership. The English dub was done by Funimation who simulcasted the dub during its Japanese broadcast. The UK & Ireland will eventually get the series in February 2020 by Manga Entertainment but as I love the Isekai genre I went for the limited edition release that Funimation had put out for the series.
Note: Due to the artwork presented this unboxing is declared ‘Not Safe For Work‘ so readers advised.
The limited edition release offers content similar to other Funimation sets like High School DxD Hero and OVERLORD III. The fabric poster is located in a cardboard box separate from the rigid box set, while the rigid box set includes an amaray Blu-ray case, booklet, art cards, and magnet set. The size of the rigid box is roughly the same as the Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody release.
Released in October 2019, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord from Funimation contains the entire first season (12 episodes total) across two Blu-ray and two DVD discs. The weird part about the US release is that the DVDs are exclusive to the limited edition. The audio options available include the main Japanese language with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback on Blu-ray, and the regions are compatible with A & B Blu-ray players and 1, 2 & 4 DVD players. The DVD discs are in NTSC format.
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord is available to own as a limited edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack and standard edition Blu-ray on Amazon US. A standard Blu-ray and DVD release is available to order by Manga Entertainment on Amazon UK.
Blu-ray Specs:
Languages: English, Japanese
Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Video: 1080p High Definition Native format with 16:9 ratio
Region: A B
Subtitles: English
Locked Subtitles: No
Discs: 2
DVD Specs:
Languages: English, Japanese
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0
Video: Standard Definition in NTSC format with 16:9 ratio
Region: 1 2 4
Subtitles: English
Locked Subtitles: No
Discs: 2
Plot Synopsis (via Funimation):
“Takuma Sakamoto is famously known as Diablo throughout the MMORPG Cross Reverie. And although he’s a magical prodigy in-game, in reality, he’s a total social outcast. One day, in his video game body, Takuma is summoned to another world by two girls seeking to control him. But when he accidentally reflects their enslavement ritual back at them, the only way to save face is to act how he looks.”
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
Episode 1 English Dub Video Commentary
Episode 11 English Dub Commentary
Promotional Video
Textless Opening Song “DeCIDE”
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Limited Edition Extras:
Rigid Box with Clean Artwork & Title on Spine
20-page Booklet
4 Lenticular Art Cards
Fabric Poster
Magnet Sheet
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord is available to own on Blu-ray from Funimation.
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment