English Dub Review: If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord “The Young Man and the Little Girl Meet”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Dale is a pretty established adventurer for a kid who just turned eighteen. And apparently, he’s got some money. None of that matters as our story begins on one lonely night in the forest. Dale is fighting off some first level Slimes which will probably only garner two pieces of gold and one experience point. But nobody else wanted to do it, so he volunteered.

After making quick work of the enemies with some nifty sword work and John Constantine-style magic, he comes across a little girl. This is no ordinary girl. The two horns coming out the sides of her head prove she’s a devil. And her one broken horn implies that she committed a crime and may have a bounty on her head. Since spell-casting language is the same as devil speak, he lightly communicates with her, feeds her a few fish, and learns that her name is Latina.

Once he finds her dead father and the duo bury that rotting demon corpse, Dale decides to take the innocent-looking girl to his town of Kreuz. While he doesn’t sneak her in, he remains low-key before arriving at Kenneth and Rita’s—the inn where he’s temporarily living in the attic. Rita is won over by the child right away, and despises Dale’s plan to leave little Latina in the town’s under-funded orphanage.

After bathing—which she hates—feeding, and dressing Latina in Rita’s old clothes, Dale takes her to the market to get shoes and other essentials. However, since he’s a foolish eighteen-year-old, he has no idea what kids need so he buys everything the shopkeepers recommend. That’s a hell of a lot of groceries.

As Dale and Latina’s bond grows, Rita is pleased to find no bounty on the young devil. However, she covers her horns—particularly the broken one—with cute little bows just to be safe. At this point, Latina has developed serious separation anxiety whenever away from her new hero, while Dale has taken a shine to her as well. But since he’s an adventurer who goes away for days at a time, he knows he can’t keep her. This leads to Rita and Kenneth—who’s become surprising avuncular—agreeing to watch Latina whenever Dale has to go out and make a living.

With that, their relationship is cemented. Dale, unable to hide his delight, agrees to adopt Latina. Despite the language barrier, Latina recognizes everyone’s happiness as something pure.

Our Take

First, a quick bit of housekeeping. If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord is a superfluously long title. So for purposes of these reviews, I will forever refer to this program as Demon Daughter. It tells you what the show is about without getting all pie-in-the-sky fancy. She’s a demon—or devil, or whatever—and after this episode she’ll also be his adopted daughter. Fair enough?

This wasn’t a bad premiere. It gave us all the exposition we needed without many frills. They didn’t bombard us with a ton of characters like some animes are wont to do. We got the characters we need for the time being, and each had enough screen time to be fleshed out into three-dimensional beings. However, some of the exposition was a little technical when I would’ve preferred more personalized, emotional moments. Even though they live at an inn, we certainly didn’t need to see Latina eat multiple times.

I did appreciate some of the small details added to make the world more realistic. The fact that he heated the bathwater with magic was a nice touch since such a luxury would be a rare commodity on the poor side of town. Also, having to pay a toll to get into town is very telling. Since demons, etc. appear to live on the outskirts, it’s as if people are being strong-armed into paying to stay alive. The only other option would be for them to stay in town indefinitely. But that would make them prisoners.

I wanted to see more foreshadowing of the inevitable problems Latina will bring. It seems as if devils are dangerous, regardless of how adorable they are. Sure, this might be a nature vs. nurture story, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Latina has certain demonic powers she won’t be able to control on her own. Just a theory, though.

Are we going to get a romantic subplot between Dale and Rita? Probably. Will Kenneth become a romantic rival for Dale? Probably not. The man seems more interested in running a tight ship and making sweet Latina happy by cooking up some tasty treats. Will Dale and Rita’s relationship make Latina somewhat jealous? You know damn well it will. Do you see how much the tot clings to Dale? She doesn’t strike me as somebody who likes to share the spotlight.

I’m not usually a fan of cutesy for cutesy’s sake anime—I mean, did you see those closing credits where they dressed Latina up like Devil Barbie? But so far this one is holding my attention. Plus, the characters are intriguing enough to have me question what will come next.