English Dub Review: If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord “The Young Man Attends His Brother’s Wedding with the Young Girl”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Now that she’s spent some time in Dale’s hometown of Teathrow, Latina really starts to bond with her adopted father’s kin. It turns out they’re not the jerks she initially thought they were. In fact, they’re really pleasant, salt-of-the-earth people. She likes to learn new recipes from Dale’s mom and listen to stories told by Dale’s father. However, she shares the strongest bond with old Grandma.

One day, Grandma brings her to see the hunting dogs who are trained by the village’s special breeders. Normally those dogs don’t get along with anybody besides their trainers, but they take to Latina right away. Even the alpha dog loves the young girl, although it takes a little extra time for him to fall under her trance. But once he does, he’s all in, and even lets her brush his belly!

Meanwhile, Dale and his father discuss some family politics. As the eldest, Dale was supposed to run the family someday. However, somewhere along the line, he was stepped over for his brother, Yorck. That’s why the brother gets to marry the neighboring chief’s cute daughter while Dale lives like a nomad in an endless battle against the world’s most dangerous demons.

But it was all for a reason. To keep their village safe, the Teathrows needed to make a deal with the Duke for protection. The Duke agreed with the condition that one member of the village had to become his personal monster slayer. Since Yorck wasn’t good at fighting or speaking the devil’s tongue, Dale became the Duke’s indentured servant in his place.

For many years, Dale was resentful of his family and wore an enormous chip on his shoulder. All that changed when he met Latina. Becoming her father made it all worthwhile.

Dale’s mom also wants to speak to him. She’s worried over how Latina keeps leaving the house with dried meat. If she’s feeding those dogs, they won’t hunt properly. So Dale follows her into the woods. To his surprise, she’s not meeting with a regular dog but rather a talking, winged wolf puppy. Dale learns that, for years, the elders of his village have been secretly co-existing with a pack of phantasmic beasts known as Soaring Wolves. Despite being more powerful and majestic than monsters, the wolves are docile, and the alpha even lets Latina brush his belly.

The wedding goes off without a hitch, besides a brief moment where Dale freaks out after imagining Latina marrying a man he doesn’t approve of. In classic Teathrow fashion, Dale’s family teases him mercilessly and even Latina is comfortable enough to share in the fun.

 

Our Take

There’s a concept in storytelling known as “Chekhov’s Gun.” Anton Chekhov, a nineteenth century playwright, stated that if a gun is introduced in the first act of a play, it must be fired before the show is over. This concept now refers to any object—event or person—introduced into a story that doesn’t have an immediate payoff.

Demon Daughter hasn’t really introduced any Chekhovian Guns up until this episode. Instances, for example, when Latina uses her gravity magic an episode after learning it isn’t profound or meaningful enough to be categorized as a Chekhov’s gun. Latina learning using spells speaks more to her character development than anything else.

However, these Soaring Wolves are definitely going to play a heavy role in future episodes. We don’t know what they’re going to amount to, but we know they’re loaded and ready to be fired when necessary. Excellent work, Anton; you were ahead of your time. If you ever get the chance, check out The Cherry Orchard, it is one hell of a play/movie.

Believe it or not, Dale has been quite the mysterious character up until this moment. We’ve gotten a fair share of demon lore, and even have a basic understanding of where Latina came from and how and why she was shunned by her own kind. But all we’ve gotten out of Dale’s story is that he’s a bad-ass adventurer who was trained by a mountain of a man who now makes his living peeling potatoes and slinging drinks.

Part of the problem lies in how the story started with him meeting Latina. We didn’t get much of his anger or resentment in the first episode, and ever since he decided to raise the young girl as his own, he’s been nothing but smiles and overprotective wackiness. I really wish they would’ve devoted a little time to Dale’s anger and sadness back in the days when he was contemplating sticking Latina in a lonely orphanage. Audiences generally like stories where the hero changes for the better. However, because the show slipped effortlessly into “Dale the nurturer,” we were deprived of any redemption and growth until Episode 9!

Now that Yorck is up and married, I foresee our heroes returning home real soon. (Can you believe Latina is already ten years old? Time moves fast in this world seeing as she started the series as a seven-year-old.) Moving into the back quarter of the season, we’ll probably get some headway into Dale truly leaning into his life’s work, and addressing everything he was too meek or proud to address before he became comfortable in his own skin.

And while all of that happens, Latina will remain cute and bubbly forever more.