New Anime Rom-Com Shakes Up the Genre With Demon Summoning, But it Doesn't Go Like Fans Would Expect

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included episode #12!!

The season finale of Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included almost randomly threw in a demon summoning without warning, and although no one was expecting anything dark to happen in a romantic comedy anime like this one, the outcome was still unexpected. Some might even consider that some aspects of the summoning went almost too much as anticipated. More importantly, the demon summoning gives a fun spin to how Angel Included has been building its harem-like group, which provides viewers with more to look forward to should the series get a new season.

After the innocent tone of the first 11 episodes, there was no chance that even an inherently dark ritual like a demon summoning would go the same way as most would in Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included. The anime did provide some clues that something like this could happen, since the human protagonist Shintaro and his group of mostly inhuman girls recently became associated with their school’s occult club.

However, even the most seasoned viewers wouldn’t have foreseen the actual outcome of this demon summoning. Basically, nothing happens. An angel friend of the series’ eponymous winged Towa only appears for a brief moment before returning to heaven, and then the anime continues with no other reference to what transpired.

This Uneventful Demon Summoning Actually Promises Quite A Bit

Despite there being no season 2 confirmation, this event teases the anime still has a future

Of course, the group gave their demon summoning its own cute spin to an almost ridiculous degree, even by the anime’s own standards, to the point where summoning an angel was almost expected. However, viewers undoubtedly thought that whatever they summoned would become the next inhuman girl in Shintaro’s group. In fact, it would have been a naturally fun development if a cute devil joined them just because they already had an angel. This not only doesn’t happen, but it’s unlikely that Towa’s friend will become the “next girl”.

What this unexpected turn of events provides viewers, however, is the prospect of another summoning. Almost everyone in Shintaro’s group voices a desire to try the ritual again. The fact that a new inhuman girl could join their group through a summoning makes the possibility even more exciting than it normally would have been. Except for Towa’s grand entrance, most of the ways in which each girl has entered Shintaro’s orbit have lacked any flair. So, while a new addition to the party would have already been a welcome development, no one really expected that the actual event would have been that remarkable. A demon summoning does, however, promise this, making the prospect even more exciting.

Amusingly, while the result of the ritual was unexpected for inconspicuous reasons, how the rest of the episode moved on from the event was almost too spot on. The summoning was quite short, and since it took place at the beginning of the episode, it was almost compartmentalized to a shocking degree, since the remaining nearly 20 minutes were devoted to a date with no mention of what occurred earlier. Of course, a romantic comedy is expected to put less focus on something inherently unromantic like a demon summoning, but how much it ends up being minimized almost serves as a parody of what was expected.

This particular reading might seem too nuanced for a series about an angel who lives with a human, but those who have been paying attention know that Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included was always more than what people thought it would be on the surface.