Yuki’s entire class is transported to a fantasy world where they are celebrated as heroes and requested to fight demons who, after five years, have reappeared and appear intent on conquering humanity. It seems an overwhelming task to this group of normal high schoolers—to all but Yuki, that is. After all, this is his second time being summoned to this world (ahem, the title of the series, ahem). The first time around, he achieved victory for the humans, battling beside his comrades Eruka, Glein, and Thea, but the final battle against his foe sent him back to earth. Now, with cursed demons appearing as aggressors, it appears that Yuki—known here as Setsu—is back for a reason. And he will go make peace once again—though this time, he’ll set out on his journey alone.
Episode one of Summoned to Another World for a Second Time has made quite a fuss for a scene involving Eruka lovingly acting as a human chair for Setsu—I’ll return to that scene in a moment. But first, I want to note all that’s good about the episode. It moves briskly through the introductory material, sending Setsu on his journey by the end of the episode but not before establishing a strong sense of camaraderie among him and his guard, as well as a “best girl” status for Yuhi, his childhood friend from earth. There’s also intrigue here—the human king is a war hawk and his queen conniving. The former places the blame for the broken peace at the foot of the hero (Setsu). Speaking of Setsu, his explanation of what’s occurred is a little confusing—he returned to earth with his memories of this place and his magic intact, it seems, but his explanation suggests that he was originally from this alternate world? I’m supposing that we’ll get more detail in future episodes.
Meanwhile, the supporting characters built up in this episode are left behind as Setsu goes on a solo journey, for now at least. The ED and promotional materials for the series indicate that he’ll start building allies along the way—and maybe a harem, too. Which brings me back to that “human chair” scene (not this one, thank goodness). While there’s practically no ecchiness to this episode, that scene, which takes a character who up until then was presented as a pretty awesome female knight and turns her into a Konosuba character, also supports the idea that this series will soon veer toward ecchi and harem content. That’s unfortunate, because I think Summoned to Another World could do better than that. I recall, for example, the solo journey for Rio and the rich world-building that happens in Seirei Gensouki. The start here is better than in that series. And who knows? A good story could still continue alongside ecchi content—but I find it unlikely that this series will be able to handle both. The first episode wasn’t that well-written. Still, there was enough good in episode one for me to stick with the series for now with hopes that the upcoming journey will continue to impress me rather than devolve into “powerful girls swooning over the more powerful hero.”
Summoned to Another World for a Second Time is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
I’m familiar with the source material and this sounds like a pretty tame and fast-paced adaptation. I did end up dropping the source material so going to give this a pass for now.