The Last Summoner is anime also called a donghua that is adapted from a Chinese manhua of the same name. The story is about a young boy who is a really good cook, so good that his cooking attracted a goddess, and got pulled into the world of summoners in order to uncover the secret behind the mysterious disappearance of his parents while meeting different summoners along the while also making both allies and enemies.
The Last Summoner came and made its debut in April 2022, but it managed to fly under the radar of almost every anime fan, which is pretty understandable since Chinese animes aren’t really popular among anime fans other than a few exceptions like Link Click, which made waves throughout the anime community.
The anime currently sits at 12 episodes and only one season with a total runtime of almost 4 hours. Four hours is a big investment of time it’s an even bigger investment due to this being a chinese anime which aren’t even much popular in the anime community, to begin with. So people will have qualms and reservations against watching this anime which might or might not be a waste of time. To help those people, we decided to watch and write this “The Last Summoner Review”, this review goes over a small portion of the plot and will contain minor spoilers, but we do hope that this review helps you decide whether you should watch this anime or not.
The Last Summoner Review: Plot Summary
The last summoner starts off with an explanation of what a summoner is, in their universe summoners are beings that could summon souls as their familiars. Soon we are introduced to our main character Ah Jie who just woke up from a nap in a grass field while talking with a cat named Miaowu.
Ah Jie soon leaves to buy some groceries while having a monologue about how he’s 16 and single, without any dreams, and how he would just open some CD shop later in his life. But Ah Jie saves a boy from getting under a truck while having his monologue.
Ah Jie then reaches his home and starts cooking, according to him he’s only good at one thing, that being good at taking care of himself, of course, that included cooking as well. Ah Jie then goes on about how every single ingredient and every single step calls for absolute perfection in order to prepare good food. While preparing the food Ah Jie reminisces about how his father would tell him that he’d become the king of ramen and how his mother would say that even gods can’t resist the temptation of good food.
Ah Jie then completes his ramen but somehow a small portal opens up right next to him. Surprised, Ah Jie tries to touch the portal only for a really beautiful pink-haired tall girl to come out of it. The pink-haired girl then transforms into a small chibi version of herself and leaps towards the ramen that Ah Jie had just prepared and starts munching on it.
Ah Jie inquires about the girl’s name and she responds by introducing herself as Dora. Dora proceeds to disclose her actual name, which is quite lengthy, but Ah Jie immediately throws her out of his house.
Ah Jie retreats back into his house and tries to make sense of the situation claiming that all this must be a hallucination because of him waking up too early in the morning, while thinking about the whole situation Ah Jie comes across Dora drinking all his soup stock and throws her out the window again.
Dora then continues to pester Ah Jie who asks whether she is a ghost, Dora then replies that she’s a summoned spirit and then goes on to eat all of the food in Ah Jie’s house. Ah Jie then immediately responds by flushing Dora down the toilet.
Dora then goes on to explain how she’s a summoned spirit from an ancient era and is supposedly she’s three million years old, her original tall form was her complete form but she prefers using her chibi form since her original form uses too much energy. Dora then goes even beyond to explain how people have been using food as offerings to the spirits since ancient times and how she didn’t come to Ah Jie herself but Ah Jie summoned her with his food and woke her up from her sleep. Dora then tells Ah Jie to take responsibility of her since he woke her up. Ah Jie leaves for school after hearing everything from Dora.
Dora continues to pester Ah Jie throughout his day even following him to his school where he even ends up leaving the class because of her. Ah Jie is then approached by a girl with a love letter intended for him but Dora interrupts him, the girl ends up running away after being scared of Ah Jie who was really angry at Dora. Later, Ah Jie approaches Dora who was napping at Ah Jie’s regular napping spot in a grass field. Ah Jie then showers Dora with a huge amount of food and snack much to her delight, he then kneels down to her while holding incense sticks.
Ah Jie then says that if he summoned her with food then he’ll send her back with even more food and requests her to leave him alone. Dora then starts crying much to Ah Jie’s surprise. Dora then reveals the fact that summoned spirits that don’t make a contract with summoners are essentially abandoned by their masters and are fated to wander the earth all alone like ghosts. Dora then goes on to state that if it’s Ah Jie’s decision then she’s okay with it. But Dora requests one last thing from him.
Dora asks Ah Jie to go on a walk with her before she leaves. She asks Ah Jie to take her to the streets that he walks every day, the shops he likes, and the people he meets. Dora goes on to claim that she’ll cherish those memories deep in her heart during the time she has left. Dora then reveals that almost everyone in the world has the potential to summon spirits but almost none of them understand their world and thus can’t summon them. She even demonstrates her powers by uprooting an entire tree.
Dora then asks Ah Jie whether he wants to be a summoner and explore the new world of summoners along with her. Ah Jie agrees and then enters a contract with Dora that binds them together for their entire lives. After finalizing the contract, Dora goes back into her chibi form and reveals that she tricked Ah Jie with all the emotional talk to trick him into entering a contract with her and now he can’t get rid of her ever again. But Ah Jie just accepts it without much of a reaction.
Later on in the series, it is revealed that Ah Jie is actually an orphan whose parents had disappeared mysteriously one after another, and that is the reason behind his being so good at cooking and taking care of himself. Many interesting characters are also revealed later in the series like the primary love interest Hana a prodigy summoner who uses a plant summon, and Maiowu an animal summoner who can command the spirits of different animals along with many different animals themselves. Hana’s grandfather is revealed to be a really strong summoner who commands a lot of spirits and is part of a faction called the Watchers.
The world of summoners is split into two factions called the Watchers and the Destroyers, the watchers protect the natural order of the world and let nature run its course while the destroyers kill and pillage with the objective of taking the world for themselves. The watcher and destroyers had been at war for centuries over a crystal that is said to be the source of all spirits.
Ah Jie and his party come face to face with the destroyers and somehow escape. Later in the series, Ah Jie is even contacted by his father who tells him to find him in a place called the Demon Furnace that acts as training grounds and a neutral safe zone for watchers and destroyers alike.
Ah Jie and his party enter the Demon Furnace in order to find the answers they are searching for. Ah Jie and his party meet various kinds of summoners in the demon furnace, even people like Steve Jobs and Stephen Hawkins are summoners in their world who faked their deaths to focus on their powers as summoners. The first season of the anime ends rather abruptly after a reveal of the destroyers sending some of their members to deal with Ah Jie and his group in the demon furnace.
The Last Summoner Review:
The Last Summoner is, entertaining. It uses all the aspects needed to make a great anime but it simply fails to excel at them. The characters are interesting, the world is almost identical to our own world and has characters like Steve Jobs and Stephen Hawkins as actual characters. The power system is a bit unique, especially after experiencing the overabundance of mass-produced fantasy anime with rpg-like power systems. The plot is somewhat loose and lacks an actual main objective until the last few episodes.
An orphan boy who learned to take care of himself and became so good at it that he attracts an ancient spirit who then tricks him into entering a contract with her, but then later it is revealed that his actual father is also a summoner while his connection with the gods of the summoner world is also hinted, the premise is interesting and would’ve been a hit in the anime community.
Almost no one talks about this anime, however, that is pretty understandable due to this anime being a Chinese anime. Chinese animes have risen in popularity pretty recently with one of the biggest hits being Link Click.
Link Click was truly a phenomenal anime, it had an engaging plot, interesting characters with strong personalities, and a motive that was pretty admirable from a viewer’s point of view. The story was solid and the animation was solid through and through. It was so good that anime fans, anitubers, and pretty much everyone in the anime community were talking about it. The Last Summoner had the potential to do that but it failed.
The anime is filled with references and appearances of actual real-world people like Steve Jobs, and Stephen Hawkins and there is even a character names Hiro who is world renowned manga author with his main series being “Killer X Killer” this is most probably a reference to Yoshihiro Togashi the author of the world-famous manga “Hunter X Hunter”
The plot of the anime is really shallow and almost stays still with little to no plot progression till episode 5, the halfway point of the entire 12-episode series. The characters are shallow and undergo not even the slightest degree of character progression. Ah Jie, the main character had qualms about killing another summoner as he didn’t want to become a murderer, but he shows almost no regret in fatally wounding someone in the latter episodes, this can be attributed as character development of some form. But the show has to actually show the character undergoing development throughout the show for the result to actually mean something.
Ah Jie’s and his party’s entire behavior is some sort of a mystery. Ah Jie’s party consists of himself, Dora, Miaowu and Stan, almost all of them have little to no experience regarding actual life-or-death battles but they still decide to pursue and fight the main antagonizing force which is the destroyers head-on, this action makes almost no sense especially when the anime takes time in displaying the logical and somewhat calculating nature of the main protagonist Ah Jie. The decision to fight the destroyers head-on essentially contradicts his own character.
The animation is good, really good, but at the wrong places on the wrong time. Chinese anime have always been pretty good when talking about animation alone, that stays the same for The Last Summoner as well. The backgrounds and the art are absolutely spectacular but that’s all.
The backgrounds are really well drawn while the characters are poorly drawn, this happens to a degree that watching this anime sometimes feels like watching two different videos with different art styles merged together with some editing software. The still frames are spectacular while the fights are just slideshows of different frames joined together. But overall, the anime isn’t good, deep, or even decent but it is entertaining.
The Last Summoner Review: Where to Watch?
The Last Summoner is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
The Last Summoner Review: Final Verdict
Overall, The Last Summoner is a pretty good watch. The Last Summoner lacks any sort of character development, fan-service or well-structured fights, or even an arc conclusion, but it does manage to deliver a good comedy due to the occasional self-awareness and 4th wall breaks of the characters as well as the meta jokes about their own plot along with the shenanigans of Dora whose just a pleasure to watch.
This anime isn’t for everyone but it won’t be a waste of time for anyone who just wants to watch some entertaining anime and not focus on the plot or fights.
Our Rating: ⭐ (3/5).
Also read: Best Chinese Anime To Watch – Good Recommendation
