If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord – Ep. 1 (First Impressions)

I’m going to sound pretty heartless here, aren’t I?

I mean, I did enjoy the premiere of If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord for what it is. It’s about an adventurer adopting a girl despite her demonic origins. I’m not going to not find that pleasant. Maybe framing the relationship between Dale (Nobuhiko Okamoto) and Latina (Kanon Takao) as father and daughter is a bit of a stretch. At 18 years old, it’d make more sense to position Dale more as a surrogate brother than an adoptive father. No matter, anime has done weirder things with the concept of family and I was still able to buy the paternal instincts kicking in for Dale. It also helps the show that Latina is simply adorable. Someone please stop her from doing those sparkly eyes. It’s too much.

To be frank, UchiMusume (I’m not typing the whole title again) is maybe too wholesome for its own good. Considering that Latina is a demon girl, you’d think the show might comment on how normal humans would treat her. If there is any prejudice towards Latina’s kind though, it’s yet to be shown. There’s one scene where a guard acknowledges the devilish horns on Latina’s head but after that, he lets her in with little to no concern. After that, Dale’s friends ponder if Latina should be sent to an orphanage and while they bring up how the other kids would treat her, the bigger concern seems to be simply be the orphanage lacking in funds. That’s really it. No one else in town seems to bat an eye either. And you do have a scene where Latina adorns ribbons on her heads to cover her horns but that seems more for moe points than to actually pass of as a normal person. It all feels weird, sugarcoated even. 

If UchiMusume really is just a wholesome story about a guy and his adopted daughter, then fine. As I’ve said before, what the show does, it’s not bad so I really don’t feel inclined to drop the show just yet. But call me a heartless human being but it doesn’t seem cruel enough nor does it seem willing to go in that direction. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it evolves.

OP: “I’m With You” by Latina (CV: Kanon Takao)

ED: “This is Yuusha, but Zannen?!” by Dale (CV: Nobuhiko Okamoto)

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Watch If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord on Crunchyroll and VRV (via Crunchyroll)