The Fall 2026 Anime Preview Guide

I'm Dating a Dark Summoner

Amona is a demi-human dark summoner who uses the power of demons and joins the party of the righteous cleric Roni. Everyone thought that they would be at each other's throats within a minute, but by the end of Amona's first day in the party, they share a passionate night together.

I'm Dating a Dark Summoner is based on the manga series by Shaoh. The anime series is streaming on HIDIVE on Sundays.

What if a goth girl and a religious guy started hate fucking and then immediately caught feelings for each other?

Throw in a fantasy JRPG backdrop and some pretty solid LitRPG humor and that's basically I'm Dating a Dark Summoner! As you would imagine, this premise works SHOCKING well both in terms of eroticism and humor, and I'm tempted to say that this smutty, short-form romp might be the best anime airing so far this season! Dark Summoner is a shockingly efficient work that packs a lot of character driven humor and eroticism into its limited runtime, and I'm really excited to see more next week!

Opening with an adventuring party of the priest Roni, the swordswoman Haru, the elven archer Eury, and the ritual dark summoner Amona; tensions arise quickly between the visibly straight laced Roni and the demonic Amona. The character designs in this episode, while not necessarily inventive, do the heavy lifting in establishing each character's personality and help streamline this storytelling. Their bickering quickly turns to physical intimacy when the group hunkers down at an inn for the night—and the rest of the episode hilariously jumps between the two being horny or furious at each other in different familiar LitRPG locales. Also doing a lot of the show's heavy lifting humor wise is Amona's summoned Imp, who speaks in a hilariously blunt baritone and acts as a perverse devil on her shoulder.

A big part of why Dark Summoner succeeds where other RomComs (fantasy or otherwise) fail, is that these characters are actually consenting adults and follow through on their sexual impulses. Sexuality is both an inherent part of the human condition and deeply funny when examined with any kind of logical scrutiny, making it the perfect driving force of this kind of parody media. Honestly, Dark Summoner is such an effortlessly good sex comedy that I'm going to start being more critical of anime that flounder in this genre.

Unless you are a person who is entirely sex averse or a minor, you should watch this anime! Also, on the off chance that someone in a leadership position at either AtoriE or Nyan Pollution-ω-, the animation studios behind this anime, is reading this:

WHOEVER ANIMATED THAT SCENE OF RONI GRABBING AMONA DESERVES A RAISE!!!

The nice thing about a comedy being half-length is that its 12-minute episodes really have to get to the point as quickly as possible. For as much as I hate that every season now means that I have to put up with several dozen shows running through the same tutorial-grade explanations of every generic RPG mechanic and trope that we all already know, at least I'm Dating a Dark Summoner only needs about 90-seconds of preamble before we finally get to its punchline. Our titular dark summoner, Amona, is very scary and intimidating, you see, but the little guy she summons to cast her witchy spells is a cute little bastard. I chuckled, the anime patted itself on the back, and we were all able to move on together.

Here's another great thing about I'm Dating a Dark Summoner: It's actually about a relationship. Again, this is a short-form comedy with uncensored nudity to deliver to its audience, so we don't have time to waste on pining and silly childish mishaps. Amona and Roni end up doing the deed before we're halfway through the episode, and friends, it was like the clouds parted and the heavens themselves were blessing us with their light. No, I'm not talking about all of the boobies; I'm talking about the unparalleled joy that an adult critic such as myself experiences when he watches a show about adults who actually act and talk like adults.

These are deeply stupid and weird adults who are positively obsessed with sex, to be sure, but adults all the same. Not only do Amona and Roni simply have sex with each other when they feel horny, like many adults do, they also must endure the embarrassing and awkward interpersonal conflicts that are destined to challenge the maybe-more-than-friends with benefits who find themselves trapped as the leads in a sex-comedy. They don't want to make things at work super weird, they get offended by each other's idiosyncratic bedroom behaviors, they get distracted by their attraction to each other when they ought to be concentrating on clearing the dungeon.

For those of you that want to make sure that the sex comedy is actually as sexy as it is well-written and funny, rest assured, I'm Dating a Dark Summoner has got you covered. Even without the benefit of the uncensored nudity, Amona is a very likeable and attractive female lead with the kind of sassy personality that will generate thousands of pieces of devotional fan art. For his part, I think Roni has something for the more masculine-inclined in the audience, even if the show is definitely assuming a straight, male gaze most of the time. He's a clean-cut priest who is good enough in bed to break the brain of a gal like Amona, for one—and he's got that cute fluffy-hair-with-glasses combo going for him. All told, I think I'm Dating a Dark Summoner has finally provided a saucy soft-core comedy that makes good on its promises.

Welcome, adventurers, to Palustia, and yes, you should pronounce that italicized portion of the word as you would in English. In this LitRPG world, people join classes and form adventuring parties to explore dungeons and the like, staying at inns in between jobs. Most of the women are busty and have the incredible power to have their boobs bounce even when wearing plate armor, and poor priest Roni is trying very hard to maintain his purity for God.

He was doing a good job, too, until Amona joined the party. Amona is a dark summoner, someone who calls up devils and the like to help fight battles, and she's so good at it that perky pink-haired Haru invites her to join the party over Roni's objections. He says it's because she's a Shin, a race rumored to be descended from demons, but, uh, that's probably not the actual reason, since her welcome party ends with the two of them in bed together. And now that Roni's lost his virginity, he's much less averse to repeating the experience…

This is an utterly silly show, and it does it well. It's also a completely uncensored show, so if you don't want to shell out for OceanVeil, you've still got an option – about the only thing you don't see is genitals; everything else is here in full, uncensored glory…and that includes Roni's deep confusion over why he gave in to his lust in the first place, the fact that he wants to do so again, and his abiding love of bunny girl costumes. If dungeon treasure chests contain gifts from God that you need in the moment, though, I think his deity is fine with Roni's current actions vis-à-vis Amona.

As for me, my favorite part of this episode is the currently unnamed elf party member. She's mildly disgusted with Roni and Amona's new relationship, mostly because they can't seem to keep it to themselves (note to both of them: do not argue about sex bites and scratches in the town square), but also because they're just really obvious about everything. She doesn't care that they're sleeping together; she just doesn't want to know about it. She's basically the token sane person in the party, and I love her.

Long story short, this is a twelve-minute anime about two people having sex despite all their other feelings and annoying the crap out of one of their teammates. There's also a squat, fluffy little demon who always says the wrong thing to Amona. It's a lot of fun, and I won't even mind watching more even though it's not my usual thing.