"This is not the fantasy I dreamed of...!"
Deadline Summoner (Shisen no Shoukanshi) is a one-shot manga by Pixiv artist Takemaru "Okayado" Inui, chronicling the adventures of Mamoru Onodera, an Otaku sucked into a fantasy RPG, and his harem of monster girls. It was first published in Dragon Age in 2012, and is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.
The plot of its one and only chapter follows Mamoru and his current traveling partner, Aero the Harpy, as he tries to find a job that pays well and keeps him WELL out of harm's way. Complicating this is the lack of boring, safe jobs in a fantasy universe, and he's on a Perma-Death, No-Potion run whether he likes it or not. And as if that wasn't bad enough, his summons are EXTREMELY intent on sleeping with him and not too keen on sharing with the others.
For Okayado's other works, see Monster Musume and 12 Beast.
This manga provides examples of:
- Always Save the Girl: While the universe does not exactly make it easy, Mamoru will come to his harem's defense no matter what.
- Arm Cannon: The Golem has one in her hands.
- Bandage Mummy: The usual aftermath of Mamoru using his Desperation Attack.
- Battle Harem: Every single one of Mamoru's summons are highly capable warriors.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Aero specifically states this as the reason for her attraction to Mamoru. It's safe to assume it's the same reason his other summons are so loyal to him.
- Benevolent Boss: Mamoru cares about the well-being of his harem.
- Big Eater: Mamoru explains to Aero that they need to find a well-paying job because she and the rest of his harem eat so much. It doesn't stick.
- Blob Monster: The Slime girl is made out of a gelatinous substance.
- Butt-Monkey: Mamoru wouldn't be interesting or amusing otherwise.
- Clingy Costume: Presumably, the Dullahan cannot remove her armour, given the mythology she is based off of.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Every single member of Onodera's harem, much to his dismay, is quite determined to monopolize his time and attention, damn any prospect of sharing with the others or "fairness" as he cares for all of them.
- Critical Status Buff: See Desperation Attack below for a full explanation, but Mamoru cannot unleash his full potential without benig in serious danger.
- Deconstruction: Of Fantasy RPGs, especially those whose characters have a romantic interest in the player character. It lampoons how worrying dangerous such a world can be with powerful criminals running rampant, highly dangerous monsters and monster girls that could accidentally kill you without even intending to, and how much it would suck if there is no convenience of a save point, magical healing, and developers that intend you to be able to beat everything rather than everything beating you into a pulp, instead.Mamoru Onodera: This is not the fantasy I dreamed of!!!
- Deconstructive Parody: Mamoru's woes are often Played for Laughs and everything turns out well in the end... mostly.
- Desperation Attack: Mamoru has access to one. It allows him to summon all of his girls for a massive, combined attack and puts him back in action long enough to demolish whatever they are fighting and strike a badass pose with his harem. After that: hospital stay in a full-body cast.
- Also Played With: Turns out part of the reason why he is constantly beat-up (from beginning to end of the one-shot) is because he wants to be prepared to use his Desperation Attack at any time, perhaps to compensate for how weak he is normally. So, in a way, he's always desperate!
- The Ditz: Aero. Like Kimihito Kurusu, he laments that she's a birdbrain.
- Ecchi: It wouldn't be an Okayado manga without copious amounts of lewd scenarios, and gratuitous shots of the monster girls' various attractive assets. For example, as Aero is the main focus, there are plenty of shots of her human butt, oftentimes pressed up against Mamoru in compromising situations.
- Expy: Aero is surprisingly similar to Papi, and some of the other girls resemble their modern day, real-life counterparts to a T. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume they have the exact same personalities.
- Event Flag: Mamoru is aware of it and how there's nothing he can do to stop it. Whenever something smells like a game developer or a dungeon master would be using it as a queue for something interesting to happen, Mamoru can only despair that it's probably already coming, whether he's ready or not.
- Fantastic Racism: Summons are not looked highly upon by humans. Mamoru implies that monsters are no more than slaves to summoners.
- Genre Savvy: Having been a video-game obsessed Otaku before the start of his adventure, Mamoru is very, very privy to how the world works. For example, the usual cues for bandits attacking someplace important like a bank and prompting combat.
- Golem: She's more human-like than most examples. She resembles a little girl with giant robotic gloves, headphones, and facial piercings.
- Happiness in Slavery: Mamoru specifically states that summons can't act independently of their summoners (or, in his case, aren't supposed to), implying that summoning magic involves outright slavery. The girls are perfectly happy in his service due to how humanely he treats them and how he's willing to put himself in the line of fire for their sake.
- Harping on About Harpies: Aero, Mamoru's main summon for the duration of the chapter, is a harpy.
- Headless Horseman: A female Dullahan shows up, albeit without her horse.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Aero doesn't really have much upstairs and wears about as much clothing.
- Intimate Healing: A well-meaning if misguided Aero attempts to perform this on Mamoru. His harem tries to get in on it, mostly because they don't want Aero getting ahead of them.
- Interspecies Romance: What all of Mamoru's summons want with their master—without having to share him, of course.
- Made of Iron: While Mamoru has more than his fair share of hospital stays, the majority of his injuries should have outright killed him. He also doubles as an Iron Butt Monkey for the less serious moments.
- Magitek: The Golem seems to be made of this, having distinctly mechanical traits but existing in a fantasy, magical universe.
- Marshmallow Hell: Given to Mamoru during his hospital stay—it's not as enjoyable as it sounds, which is really saying something about his situation.
- Meaningful Name: Aero fights with Wind Arts.
- Mini Dress Of Power: The Golem girl's outfit of choice is a short cut dress and she is just as much a capable fighter as the rest of the harem.
- Mummy: Another member of Mamoru's harem. She's remarkably well-preserved.
- Nice Guy: The majority of Mamoru's pain and suffering is done for the sake of his girls.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: More sympathetic than most examples, given the fact that his admirers are not exactly human and could easily tear him to pieces with their affections.
- Of Corsets Sexy: The Slime girl wears one, to emphasize the curvaceous figure she has when in her humanoid form. Whether or not she needs it to emphasize her curves since she's an amorphous shapseshifter is up for debate.
- Older Than They Look: The Mummy, Scylla, and Golem refer to themselves as the group's "elders." Likewise with Aero and the Slime, the former for the sake of flight and aerodynamics, the latter because she has a different biology from everyone else.
- Permadeath: There are no Continues. If there are, Mamoru is not keen on finding out.
- Plant Person: Mamoru has an Alarune in his harem, a plant-based monster girl.
- Power Fist: The Golem girl has two. It also conceals an Arm Cannon.
- The Power of Friendship: Mamoru's ultimate skill allows him to summon all of his girls for a massive combination attack. Unfortunately, the girls don't really get along very well outside of combat, most especially because Mamoru is only able to keep one "Main" summon for any extended period of time, i.e. traveling.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: As they are not exactly human and do not share the same perceptions, the girls are extremely comfortable going around in barely anything at all. If anything, their clothes are just a fashion statement.
- Signature Style: Sexy half-human hybrids more monstrous than the usual fare? Must be Okayado.
- Snake People: The Lamia are half-snake monstergirls, with humanoid torsos and waists and then large snake-like tails below that.
- Stripperific: Of the protagonists, there are only four characters dressed decently: the Centaur, the Dullahan, the Golem, and Mamoru himself. Justified in that the girls probably don't share the human perception of decency—not being very human, after all.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Despite being an RPG, there are no continues or healing spells, and Mamoru does not magically get better after a fight. There's also the fact that majority of his woes come from the lack of well-paying, safe jobs that will take a wandering summoner with no other saleable skills than combat, and the abundance of wild monsters and violent criminals making sure that dangerous jobs are the only ones he'll get.
- Taking the Bullet: Mamoru does this a lot. That it helps activate his Desperation Attack (if he can calculate the damage and damage adjustment right), and that he doesn't take much permanent damage from it makes it less dramatic than most examples.
- This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: Mamoru has trouble getting over the fact that his VERY affectionate—and somewhat possessive—harem is not exactly human.
- Unscaled Merfolk: Specifically, a Scylla, an octopus-based monster girl who has soft tentacles rather than a scaled-tail.
