English Dub Review: An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride “If You’re An Archdemon, You’re Almost Obligated To Act Outrageously”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Zagan arrives and manages to defeat Barbatos, revealing to him that Zagan actually defeated his master years ago when he was kidnapped. Zagan is able to escape with Nephy and Chastille, the latter resigning as a holy knight, while Zagan and Nephy recommit their bond and reattach Nephy’s collar.

OUR TAKE

Huh, and just like that, we’ve reached the halfway point, with our main couple having fully established their…friendship? They’re certainly not master and slave anymore, nor master and apprentice, or just friends, but it doesn’t seem like they’re…together. Kinda weird that they brought the slave collar back into things all things considered, since it was actually pretty refreshing to get rid of the thing so early on, but I guess people like the aesthetic of having their love interest in literal chains and act like that’s romantic. That’s the development on the romance front at least, but for the stuff between Zagan and Barbatos’ friendship, there’s also an interesting wrinkle. We learn quite a bit about how Zagan gained his title and reputation from killing Barbatos’ master, apparently having been kidnapped by him and only escaping by hastily learning how to control magic, when before it had been assumed that Zagan had sought him out and assassinated him. But yeah, that guy was clearly a scumbag, which Barbatos definitely took after from him, though now it seems that Zagan is giving him chance to reform and turn over a new leaf, so we’ll see if he takes that to heart by the end of this season and becomes a more decent guy.

The other notable thing is us seeing that Chastille is willingly resigning from her position as a knight, whether because she can no longer find reason to associate with them because of their policies…or she’s just in love with Zagan for saving her twice now. That basically means those knights now have zero characters that we’re supposed to like or root for, so they’re probably about to escalate things and/or get very templar very soon. As for what Chastille will do, my first guess is she’ll go and live with Zagan and Nephy, effectively making this the beginnings of a harem, which I’m not too thrilled about. The Opening and Ending note three seemingly significant female characters aside from Nephy, one being Chastille, another being the winged lady whose name I am blanking on, and the other being a green haired little girl who it looks like we’ll be meeting properly next episode. Regardless, this definitely feels like the first big turning point for the story, adapting most of the first three volumes of the manga and possibly the first light novel, so the second half will seemingly adapt another significant portion. Guess we’ll see.