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

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Now that Dale and Latina are back from their long road trip, they both have stories to tell. Latina engages her friends at school with tales of bandits, magic, and Dale kicking asses in all shapes and sizes. The adventurer himself tells Kenneth and Rita about the time spent with his family and how well Latina fit in. Kenneth, having trained the boy in adventuring, is somewhat familiar with the Teathrow people. The big man is surprised to see he and Latina made Rita a fertility charm and is even more shocked to hear Dale admit that he’s “kind of a priest.”

Back at school, we find out Chloe wears a necklace with a piece of the horn Latina ripped off her head. She had Rudy’s father make it for her to always feel close to her friend even when she’s far away. This leads Latina to wonder why Rudy is also wearing a piece of her discarded horn around his neck. Rudy—who’s hopelessly in love with Latina—lies by saying the charm was his father’s first attempt and isn’t nearly as good as Chloe’s. Furthermore, he’s only wearing it because it’s such a rare item. Is this boy a smooth operator, or what?

Anyway, this is when Chloe tells everyone that a bunch of cats gather in the marketplace at night. This makes Latina go “cat crazy,” a childhood ailment so severe, she’s unable to concentrate at work or school. And so, she asks Dale to take her to the gathering. But when he takes too long to answer, Jilvester informs the young girl that his neighbor has a ton of cats. Dale’s pissed Jilvester stole his thunder but agrees to meet the mysterious neighbor nevertheless.

This cat man is named Gojo Shihesu, and while Latina plays with the cats, he and Dale have a conversation. It turns out, that this man knew Dale’s grandfather. Also, he’s from a foreign country that has a special ceremony where kids dress in kimonos and go to the temple to preserve their youth. The old man asks Dale to rally the church into adopting this custom. While our adventurer isn’t powerful enough to enact legislation now, Gojo predicts he’ll have enough pull in about ten years. Dale is a priest after all. Remember when he conveniently mentioned that two scenes earlier? Because Gojo seems sincere, and since he was a friend to the Teathrow people, Dale agrees. The cat man also swindles him into buying Latina a super expensive kimono. Yep, there’s a Dale born every minute.

Meanwhile, back in the outskirts of Teathrow, that soaring wolf puppy really misses Latina. He pesters his dad and threatens to fly away to Kreuz to visit her. The lazy, near-domesticated father doesn’t believe the kid and laughs right in his face. So obviously the pup is about to fly to Kreuz, right?

Our Take

So far, this has been an extremely well-rounded season. The first three episodes introduced us to the story and the major character relationships. The second three gave us the status quo and fleshed out the important side characters. Then, we spent a trio of episodes on the road. And now, we’re going to end the series with a return to normalcy and hopefully a look to the future.

Even though this was one of the most passive stories, it set up a few things for the finale and potential future seasons. Just like Kenneth said, we haven’t heard much about Dale’s priesthood. It was briefly touched upon when he fought to expel that racist teacher—apparently he’s connected to the temple of war—but the extent of his religious station remains a mystery. In other words, while he helped Latina learn to read, he didn’t have her studying the bible like some crazy zealot or home-school parent.

Gojo Shihesu is an interesting addition to the cast and even if we don’t see him again for quite some time, the dye he cast is bound to direct the journeys of our heroes in a big way. Throughout the first ten episodes, Dale hasn’t explored his role in the community. In fact, he’s given it little to no thought, instead opting to focus on Latina. But now that this classy old man has put the idea in his head, Dale will likely follow up on this ten-year plan because it has the potential to improve Latina’s life.

Even though he doesn’t mention it, the day with the racist teacher—which led to poor Latina mutilating herself—affected Dale in a substantial way. Never before had he been faced with the ugliness of the world, nor had he explored the potentially vast powers awarded to him by the church and the all-powerful Duke. Even though he began this journey as part of the Teathrow compromise, he’s now all in, and everything he does is for his daughter.

This man has fought demons on a daily basis for years. But, as he now realizes, the true evil in the world lies in other people.