English Dub Review: Demon Lord Retry “Yukikaze Attacks”

Overview:

Kunai goes back to the city to find more about the guilds.

Our Take:

This episode feels like a filler episode, almost.

The focus is on Yukikaze and Mikan, as Kunai wants to find out about the adventurers guild for… something. It’s not exactly clear why he would want to know more information beyond grasping the general basics of the world. This is important, but it’s so close to the season finale, so why is this being brought up now? Well, because we need to have a focus on the harem members that are outside of Kunai’s immediate circle (Yukikaze), and we need an excuse to do that. I really wish they’d cut out the harem aspects in what could have been some potentially interesting worldbuilding, but alas…

Instead of diverting attention to another component that doesn’t really have an explanation, I’d rather see more of Rabby Village and how it’s being transformed. We see a little of that, but I’d like the focus to stay there. That way there’s a narrower focus instead of trying to juggle things all over the place… or have a second season. It’s juggling too much, when instead I’d rather see a payoff to what we have setup.

I want to say that we could possibly have an episode where Yukikaze crossdressing isn’t the butt of the joke, but that would be too much to ask for this show, apparently. On that note, on Yukikaze, there are some concerning aspects of him. In this, I am assuming that Yukikaze is a crossdressing man, as he hasn’t seemed to have corrected Mikan in her constantly reminding him that he’s a man. This could change later, but based off that information, I’m going forward with this assumption.

Yukikaze is the only character that talks in innuendo constantly, whose actions are far more overtly sexual than the others. Even someone like Luna, who is often fetishy, Yukikaze is infinitely more straightforward. The trope of gay men being predatory (especially since Kunai is pretty not interested) is an unfortunately common one. It’s probably only going to get worse when Yukikaze is revealed to be a man, because then we might get to see Kunai be disgusted. Fun.

Contrast to the second henchman that Kunai summoned, who is far more traditionally masculine and doesn’t seem to have fallen for Kunai at all despite joining the core cast(a shame). It’s not other men, just gay men that become predatory. Not surprising, but disappointing.