English Dub Review: An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride “Heartbreak Can Be Literally, Physically Painful”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Nephy reels from being abandoned by Zagan and is consoled by Chastile and Manuela, but then she and Chastile are kidnapped by Barbatos, who is revealed to be the former student of the first sorcerer Zagan killed. Meanwhile, Zagan’s reasons for abandoning Nephy are revealed to be so that she doesn’t become a target now that he’s an Archdemon, but when he’s informed by Manuela of the kidnapping, he quickly lets go of this reasoning and goes to rescue her.

OUR TAKE

Wow, what a shock, the main couple didn’t break up after only four episodes? Color me amazed! Surprised! Confounded! Other synonyms for having one’s mind blown! But to be serious for a second, I get this, but I also kind of don’t. Like I do understand Zagan’s reasoning for wanting to make sure Nephy is not made someone who is targeted because of his sudden gain in power and influence by becoming an Archdemon and doing it quickly so she’s never known to be associated with him. Him not knowing that Barbatos would end up targeting her anyway for reasons he didn’t expect doesn’t necessarily make those reasons less sound. I guess my problems would be in that this feels way too soon for this to happen for multiple reasons. For one, having them “break up” this early when they’ve barely had more than a few episodes together kinda undercuts that development and whatever conflicts they may run into later. But for another, this feels like a season finale sort of story or at least a little past the halfway point of the season, so again it feels way too soon. Or maybe this means that there’s bigger things to come, what the hell do I know.

Anyway, I think it’s also worth mentioning that Zagan refers to Nephy as his apprentice at the end here, hopefully indicating that their relationship moving forward will be less as a maid or servant serving a rando in a big castle and more like someone teaching another in the ways of controlling magic, on top of the already growing romance between the two. Although speaking of, the holy knight Chastille seems to have also taken somewhat of a liking to Zagan because he saved her life in the first episode, even though she denies it. So, I guess we’ve already got a bit of a harem going even only five episodes in. Not really sure how I feel about this, since harems have a chance to derail the story from time to time, but I guess it all comes down to the dynamics of the characters involved, so we’ll see how it all shakes out after Zagan frees the two of them. Maybe she’ll quit the holy knights and stay with them so that there’s not just two people living in that big ol castle, but then having it just be the three of them there just opens things up for harem shenanigans. Guess we’ll find out next time!