English Dub Review: If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord “The Little Girl and the ‘Incident’”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Before Latina has her first day of school, Dale teaches her some magic after learning she already knows a healing spell. She picks up the new tricks quickly because she’s a damn genius who learned the entire human language in a fortnight.

At school, Latina is reunited with her friends Chloe, Rudy, and the other two, less important, boys. She also meets a girl named Sylvia who’s from the posh west side. At first, the friends are wary of her. This girl seems a little too excited to have a devil in her class. But Latina likes her, so the friends try to make it work.

Then the teacher shows up—you know she’s a teacher because she wears a graduation mortarboard at all times. Wait. That’s not normal. Even though we eventually find out that all the teachers wear mortarboards, this particular teacher is still odd—and surprisingly racist. The second she sees Latina’s horn, she goes apeshit and launches into a tirade about how humans are the superior race and devils are abominations.

It’s looking bad for the poor girl until her friends stick up for her. The teacher is undeterred at first, but as soon as Sylvia—who likely has very influential parents—gives Latina her support, the entire class joins in. After the batty prof. is dragged from the room kicking and hollering, Latina is left with many questions.

Trying to comfort her, one of the teachers mistakenly tells Latina that devils live twice as long as humans. This massively upsets the girl who pictures all her friends dying, particularly her beloved Dale.

Despite her learned ways, she can still be a dumb, vain kid. And so, the second she gets back to the inn, she runs upstairs and forcefully rips off her prominent horn. Luckily, Latina’s brute strength could be heard all the way down at the bar, allowing Kenneth to save the bloodied, unconscious girl in the nick of time.

Dale’s a damn wreck on a normal day, so when he hears Latina almost died, he freaks out. It’s a good thing Kenneth got to her in time. This allows Dale to simmer down as soon as he realizes his little girl is going to be okay.

Despite being calm on the outside, Dale remains angry, so he puts on his special influencer clothes to have a chat with the school’s headmistress. At first she tries to defend the teacher’s actions, revealing her family was murdered by demons. But Dale doesn’t buy that hogwash and demands she be fired and defrocked. Armed with information from Rita, he knows the school has been covering for the bad teacher. And so, he threatens them with the extent of his power until they bend to his demands.

Don’t mess with Dale, folks.

 

Our Take

For three weeks we’ve been waiting for some heavy-duty conflict. And when it came, it came heavy. Top-notch work, Demon Daughter!

It was clear from the beginning that Latina’s transition to the human world wouldn’t go as smoothly as Dale hoped. So far she’s gotten along famously with Chloe and the gang, Rita and Kenneth, and the Pub Irregulars who simply adore everything she does. The one thing all these people have in common, though, is they live in the lower-class east side. We know from Sylvia, that all Westies aren’t terrible people like that teacher. Plus, the teacher was bouncing around from scandal to scandal and church to church, so it’s hard to say where she actually hailed from. What we know is the west-enders are higher-class and won’t necessarily fancy the cute little devil girl as much as their eastern counterparts.

It’s up to you now, Sylvia. Go ahead and broker some peace, if you have it in your power to do so.

They really played down Latina’s self-mutilation, didn’t they? What did the hospital staff have to say about it? And wouldn’t they be surprised to see her other horn already broken? That’s the one thing Kenneth warned Dale about. Don’t let people see her broken horn because that only tends to happen when a devil breaks a serious demon law—or something like that.

This was certainly a Latina episode, focusing almost entirely on the adorable devil-girl. Yes, Dale came around at the end to wrap up the unpleasant series of events with a father-daughter lesson, but the rest of the half hour was devoted to Latina’s journey. And what a character to follow! Even though she’s very young, she’s surprisingly deep and thoughtful. Her passion, it seems, can sometimes cross into dangerous territory, but she’s a far more compelling character because of it.

Before we end, let’s give one final round of applause for the patrons at the inn. If not for their good nature and tolerance, Latina’s transition into society would be about ten thousand times tougher regardless of how much Dale loves her. These hardcore men—and maybe women—don’t fall victim to the old trope of toxic masculinity and that’s what makes these unsung heroes shine.