Zuihou de Zhaohuan Shi

The wonderful opening! The ending is also beautiful.

Here we have a courageous, fearless and sympathetic protagonist. And a beautiful, cute, fun and kind of naughty supporting character. A great combination. Great characters in general. All heroes are really cool, fun and interesting.

The plot itself is great, it leaves us very curious about what will happen. And when we think the story is going one way, it ends up going the other way.

The animation it's kind a bad. It is a work that deserved to have been better produced, to have had a greater investment.

Yes, Mandarin is a little uncomfortable at first, ... but you get used to it quickly. Overall, it's the first Chinese work I've watched in full, I loved it. Looking forward to a new season.

NOTE: I have watched the Chinese dub of this release not the Japanese Dub.

Lets just start by saying after hearing/reading the name I thought this to be an Isekai/Reincarnation release but it was not; it somewhat surprised me but the S1 does not do anything else special.

The story is not much interesting; the MC is bored with his every day2day life but is very good at cooking and one day summons a goddess with his food. The history of the MC is also unknown as his parents left him at age 5 and he doesn't remember them much; its the same with the summoned goddess ... Dora/Duola, she has amnesia and does not remember anything about her other than she was caged a few centuries ago. The MC is not OP at starting but as how the story is progressing it is not off the books that he may become one in future.

The animation is decent but with CG scenes here to there that sometimes change the flow while watching. It has a good OP/ED compared to others. It is somewhat entertaining if you don't compare it much.

Story-6
Animation-6
Sound/OP/ED-7
Entertainment-7

--Similarity--
At first I thought it to be similar to "Black Summoner" but the first few eps were similar to "Kinsou no Vermeil" (without ecchi/nudity) and the last couple were similar to "HxH Arena arc"

Okay, so I saw the key visuals and the trailer for Zuihou de Zhaohuan Shi (The Last Summoner) and I was kinda curious. The art in the promo stuff looked decent and I'm always down for a new fantasy action show. I went in with some hope, I really did. But... oof. This was a miss. A big, big miss.

Story: 3/10

Ngl, I'm struggling to even say what the story is. There’s a guy named Ah Jie, he’s a cook, and then suddenly he’s a summoner and he’s like, secretly super OP. That’s it. That’s the whole plot. There’s no real goal, no driving force behind ... anything he does. He just kind of... stumbles into situations, summons a spirit, and wins. The end. It felt like watching someone else play a boring video game with all the cheats turned on.

There are no stakes at all. You never feel like he’s in any real danger. The plot just wanders around from one random event to the next without any real connection. I kept waiting for that "aha!" moment where the main story would finally kick in, but it never came. I was literally scrolling through TikTok during some of the episodes because I was that bored. There's a serious lack of any kind of world-building or interesting lore, which is a death sentence for a fantasy anime. It’s just so, so empty.

Art: 4/10

Okay, this is my biggest issue with the show. The animation is just... lame. It's stiff, the character movements are awkward, and the fight scenes have zero impact. It’s all just bright flashes of light and characters standing still while yelling.

And we have to talk about the elephant in the room: this show tries SO HARD to copy Solo Leveling. Like, it's not even subtle. The glowing purple and black aura, the way the summons look... it’s a total knock-off. But where Solo Leveling has fluid, dynamic, and incredibly hype animation, this just feels like a cheap imitation. They tried to replicate the "cool factor" but completely failed because the underlying animation is just too weak. It’s a classic case of wanting to be the cool kid but not having any of the style. The animation budget must have been non-existent for the actual episodes.

Sound: 7/10

Alright, I have to give credit where it’s due. This is the one and only area where the show is actually good. The opening and ending videos are fantastic. The OP is an absolute banger, I’ve had it on my Spotify playlist since the first episode. The animation in the OP is also amazing, which makes the terrible animation in the actual show even more frustrating! Like, why couldn't the whole series look and feel this cool?! The ED is also a really solid song with nice visuals.

The rest of the sound design is pretty forgettable, though. The background music is generic fantasy noise and the voice acting is... fine? Nothing to complain about, but nothing to praise either. The 7/10 score is literally just for how great the OP and ED are.

Character: 4/10

The characters are as bland as the story. Ah Jie is the definition of a cardboard cutout MC. He's nice, he's OP, and that's about it. He has zero personality development throughout the entire show.

And then there's Dora. Ugh, Dora. Let me be clear: Adult Dora is awesome. She has a cool design, she's powerful, and she’s actually an interesting character for the five minutes she’s on screen. But 99% of the time, she's stuck in this smol chibi form, and she is SO. ANNOYING. The super high-pitched voice and constantly whining for "Master" just grated on my nerves. It felt like they took a potentially great female lead and turned her into an irritating mascot character. Such a waste. The other supporting characters barely even register. I honestly can’t remember any of their names.

Enjoyment: 3/10

I did not enjoy watching this. At all. It felt like a chore. Every week I’d tune in hoping it would finally get better, that the story would start or the fights would be cool, but I was always disappointed. It wasn't "so bad it's funny," it was just boring. The only enjoyment I got was from listening to the opening song. The rest was just a waste of time.

Overall: 5/10

So yeah, a 5 out of 10, and I feel like that’s being generous. That score is pretty much held up entirely by the amazing OP/ED and the potential I saw in Adult Dora. The show itself is a 3/10 at best. It's a boring, poorly animated series with a non-existent plot and bland characters that tries, and fails, to ride the coattails of better shows.

My final advice? Save yourself the time. Go to YouTube, listen to the opening and ending songs, and then go re-watch an anime that's actually worth your time.