English Dub Review: Demon Lord, Retry! “Madam Roars”

Overview:

The madam tries out the hot springs.

Our take:

There is so much wasted potential in this episode that it’s hard for me to start. Most off is probably Luna, so let’s start with that.

It’s a little late in the season to be giving the backstory to one of the major characters, but I suppose they didn’t have the place to put it in beforehand? I doubt this is getting a second season with its clear lack of budget, so this seems like a strange place to insert this crucial information. Regardless, what we find out is that Luna is not nearly as unperceptive as she initially acts– she’s experienced a fair amount of cruelty herself. She grew up as a relatively poor child (which makes me think the Holy Maidens are titles and not actually blood relatives), and was determined to make it into the church to improve her lifestyle.

The church has its fair share of problems, one of them being racial discrimination. They view demi-humans like the rabbits as inferior beings, and have barred them from the capital. If one of them is living in there, they are deemed fit to be executed, which is exactly what happens to Luna’s friend. Her status as a Holy Maiden means nothing to the church’s iron-clad discrimination. She’s been given a village that’s useless, and the church clearly doesn’t think highly of her. At the core, she wants to revolutionize the church, change it from the inside out. That’s really interesting, because it seemed like she was fine with the structure in place when she actually criticizes it heavily.

Instead, we get her focus on how much she has a crush on Kunai. Yes, we really needed this apparently.

The issue is a two-fold problem: the first is that Luna’s crush on Kunai is just so vastly uninteresting compared to her simmering feelings of wanting to change the church. Just based off those feelings alone, she should want to ally with Kunai, because he is trying to change the general social structure too. But instead they make it that she actually likes him, after he condescends her all the time and doesn’t trust her? The second is that the romance feels so forced. There hasn’t been any real reason given for Luna to start liking Kunai, at all. She may be a tsundere, but there has to be something about Kunai that would appeal to her, and we don’t know what it is.

Same problem with Kirino. Women in this show deserve better.