English Dub Review: If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord “The Little Girl is Fascinated by the Snow”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

At school, Latina’s chums are discussing gift giving. Marcel, the boy with glasses, wants to buy his dad something nice, but Sylvia reminds him that he’s super poor and should really check his budget before springing for a Rolex. This is when Latina first learns about money as she comes to the harsh realization that she’s flat broke.

While she has already missed Dale’s birthday, Latina vows to get him a gift for his birth month. To obtain money, she asks Kenneth to give her more responsibility—and a thicker paycheck—at the inn. To create the gift itself, she spends night after night over at Chloe’s house learning the fine art of wallet-making from Chloe’s mom.

Dale doesn’t know any of this is going on, and since he’s a full-grown baby, Latina’s absence makes him weep and curse the gods for allowing his little girl to grow up. A few weeks later, when she gives him the attache case she worked so hard on, Dale feels like a fool. He spent so much time moping around the bar and behaving like a ripe wanker while Latina was working overtime to do something nice for him.

Nobody expects self-flagellation, Dale, but you really need to pull yourself together. Latina is a living, breathing person, not your property.

So this was a nice little story, right? Wrong. Because while all this birth month present nonsense was going on, an underground organization formed on the seedy side of Kreuz. Their goal is to abduct mythical beasts and sell them to the highest bidder. Two of its members become aware of Latina’s existence and start frequenting the inn. Good thing Latina has a lot of adventurers looking out for her.

After falling in love with the snow, and having a chance to play in it, Latina takes advantage of any excuse to go outside. One day, she notices that Jilvester left his coin purse. Instead of waiting for him to return as soon as he notices it missing, the young devil rushes out into the street. The two creature-hunters take advantage of this moment and corner the poor girl.

Fortunately, Jilvester hadn’t traveled too far and returns in time to rescue Latina from those horrible men. A noble police captain arrests the criminals after coercing a mini-confession out of them. She’s surprised to learn that this officer is also her friend Sylvia’s father. Small towns, am I right?

As Jilvester escorts Latina the rest of the way home, they agree not to tell Dale about what went. Because, in case you haven’t noticed, Dale has a tendency to overreact.

 

Our Take

I applaud the pacing on this show. For many, it’s probably too slow since there have only been a handful of battles, none of which lasted very long. However, aside from Latina learning the common tongue in a matter of weeks, the events are unfolding at a most realistic rate. While the conflict is taking shape, it’s not immediate or jarring in any way. A disciplined viewer will understand that the relationships need to be built first before something comes along to wreck everything.

I like how Sylvia is now fully-immersed in the group. At first, she seemed a little suspect, but that only lasted for a scene or two. It became clear she was on the right side of history when she stood up to that racist teacher. Today, we learned her father is a police captain, and not the super-rich, posh jag-off we initially imagined. He too appears to be an ally. And even though somebody in that inn should’ve warned Latina to never trust the police, I sincerely hope this man has her best interests in mind. As a parent himself, he likely understands Latina’s plight. Let’s just hope he’s not putting on a show.

It’s funny how Latina has advanced so much over a handful of episodes while Dale remains in his infancy character-wise. His frantic behavior is a little one-note and is starting to flirt with becoming an irritating trope. It’s even worse when we have no idea what he’s doing. Sure, we get flashes of him slicing a dire wolf into eight even pieces, but does he do this every day? Or is it strange adventurer meetings that keep him occupied until after sunset?

Anyway, because this show is a slow build to a much larger conflict, there’s not much else to say. If you’re a discerning watcher, keep an eye on each of the characters and try to guess who is going to betray Latina down the line. It’s likely going to be somebody we don’t readily expect. Right now, I’m looking at Rudy and Chloe’s mom. They might not be bad people, but when under physical, legal, or political pressure, anybody can crack around the seams. The only character that is sure to be pure-hearted through and through is Jilvester. The man’s a saint.