An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride (Season One) – Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii?
Zagan, a feared sorcerer and candidate to become an archdemon, spent all of his money on Nephelia, an elf slave… However, it’s not quite as it seems. He fell in love with her at first sight and is determined to free her!
An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride (Season One) – Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii?
What did you watch?
I came into this series expecting a lot of awkward moments and misunderstandings. I also expected it to be the problem child of the season as the story revolves around a sorcerer who buys a slave because he falls in love with her, however, he’s got no experience with women so he is unable to explain his intentions. I was expecting to enjoy it, but I also felt it could go the other way. Well, let’s find out which it is!
What happened?
Zagan is a young sorcerer, however, he’s made quite a reputation for himself. He defeated a powerful sorcerer when he was his captive and took everything from him. Since then, he’s only grown stronger and more reclusive. The only person he interacts with is Barbatos, another sorcerer who just seems to hang around. So, when the eldest of the thirteen archdemons died, it wasn’t a surprise to find that he was a potential candidate to take his place, although he never believed it. His initial goal was to attend the auction of the late Marchosias’ estate in the hopes of finding some rare books or magic items. However, there was only one item that caught his eye – a rare elf slave girl. It was love at first sight. Then, Zagan spent all of his money to buy her.
Once they were home, Zagan learned that her name was Nephelia and that there was no way to remove her slave collar without the key. Since he’d never really done much with his castle since inheriting it from his former captor, there were a lot of interesting items lying around. All of which confirmed to Nephy that he intended to sacrifice her for some nefarious scheme. Of course, that was not Zagan’s plan, but he couldn’t find a way to explain himself that didn’t make him sound like a sinister edge lord. His inexperience with people and women in particular was causing all sorts of problems. Surprisingly, he managed to convince her that he had no intention of killing her. The rest of his feelings would have to wait until he could muster up some courage.
What did you think?
This was a surprisingly fun series. There were some obvious concerns with the whole buying the slave girl that he loved situation, but he made it quite clear to us at least that his intention was to free her regardless of whether she would leave him or not. He failed to tell her that for the longest time, which made for some funny moments, but we knew his heart was in the right place. The idea that he was prepared to lose all his money to save her showed that. I enjoyed their interactions. It was cute how she made him into a better person and how that turned everyone’s perception of him around. That’s what ultimately saved him from being a target of the church and probably had a hand in making him an archdemon. It was cute and entertaining without being too complicated.
What was your favourite moment?
The misunderstandings didn’t stop with Zagan as there was another who failed to explain his intentions. That was sorcerer-hunter Raphael Hyurandell. he was a large imposing man who had an incredible number of sorcerer kills. He came to the city when fellow hunter, Chastille Lillqvist relinquished her duties as she believed Zagan to be a good person and not worthy of the church’s target. Raphael scared the life out of Chastille and then went to meet with Zagan who was drinking with Barbatos. Barbatos almost attacked without thinking, but Zagan managed to calm him. Then, they had a nice chat, all be it slightly unhinged and a little bit terrifying. The best part of this is that Raphael had never intended to kill any sorcerers. Each time, he had simply been defending himself because his casual chat came across as threatening and full of bloodlust! It was funny that Zagan was the first one not to attack, even if he hadn’t been completely aware of the misunderstandings. Basically, everyone but Nephy was terrible at truly explaining themselves.
What was your least favourite moment?
For me, this was probably the big slipup the show made. We knew that Zagan wanted to free Nephy from slavery and was prepared to accept whatever she wanted to do afterwards. In fact, one of the conditions he put into place when he was made an Archdemon was that he would inherit Marchosias’ property which allowed him to find the key to Nephy’s slave collar. He found it and then freed her. Of course, she had developed feelings for him too and wanted to stay with him. That’s fine. He was nothing but nice to her the entire time. Once things had progressed a bit further and they were both aware that they were in love with one another they decided to get married. However, in the absence of a wedding ring, she put the slave collar back on… They were so close to getting it right. So close!!!
Who was your favourite character?
I liked all of the main characters, especially Zagan and Nephy, however, Chastille seemed to be one of the more interesting characters. And for a show like this, it was surprising to see how often she had to stop herself from getting in between Zagan and Nephy. She knew that she wanted to be around them, but didn’t want to impact their relationship. It was nice to see a friendship based on respect that didn’t turn into a harem or girls trying to steal the guy from one another. As much as I do love a harem, this was a nice change and done well. A harem would have been completely out of place in this series.
Who was your least favourite character?
I don’t think there was anyone that I didn’t like who I wasn’t supposed to which is quite surprising, especially as they added a child character to the family halfway through the season. Valefor was a dragon child who tried to kill Zagan but ended up becoming their surrogate child. I’d say she was my least favourite character, but I didn’t dislike her. In fact, her presence brought a lot of funny moments and also a few heartfelt ones. I enjoyed the way she ended up fighting with Raphael after he became Zagan’s butler whenever he tried to stop her from seeing anything that could be considered flirtatious between Zagan and Nephy.
Would you like some more?
I’m not sure this series really needs more. It did a pretty good job of setting everything up and then leaving when things were good. I enjoyed it and if another series was made, I would probably end up watching it, but I’m good with how it ended. Sometimes, it’s best to accept that some shows don’t need a second season. In fact, I’ve seen a good number of shows that did where the second season failed to even come close to the first and changed my overall feeling about the series.
What have you learned?
I love misunderstandings in fiction. They can lead to the most outrageous things happening, especially when we can see how the person being misunderstood had intended to be understood. I liked that this series took that to the next level by having two people with the same goal both misunderstanding one another. Things could get quite messy if you added any more in, but it would be fun to see how ridiculous things could get. As with most things in storytelling, it’s only by experimenting and seeing how far you can push things before you can say whether it works or not. So, get out there and give it a go. What’s the worst that could happen?
Series Information
| English Title | An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride |
| Japanese Title | Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii? |
| Genres | Action, Fantasy, Romance |
Anime
| Season | Season One |
| Released | Spring 2024 |
| Animation Studios | Brain’s Base |
| Episodes | 12 |
Nice post 🌺🌺
Thanks again!
I know it’s a culture difference and a character has their own free will to believe something that’s a precious symbolic, but it does irk me that Nephy went on the same route like Raphtalia. They both believe a slave collar/mark is a precious memory of meeting their master. I can understand the others not liking the romanticisation of such act of good-willed characters who were forced into slavery, but it’s one element I’ve to tolerate and wish future episode will get less reminder of it.
I’m glad that my most fantasy fave, though not a romcom, Campfire Cooking in Another World has the fantasy world saying slavery is a punishment for convicted criminals though it’ll never go into details on what kind of crime that’ll put one into slavery. And since the overall tone there is a bit more family-friendly there.
Agreed. If they want to keep it as a memory of the things they went through, fine. Put it in a cupboard of something. But to voluntarily put it back on/reactivate it is crazy. At least Shield Hero tried to make out that they leveled up together if they were Naofumi property, but even then there was probably a better way to do things.
It was the same in Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World where criminals were sold into slavery, but I feel like that wasn’t the only way although they never told us how Roxanne became a slave. Either way, I certainly won’t be writing anything like that into my stories.
Oh, I forgot to watch this one…
It’s a nice easy watch. I’ll be interested to see what you think if you get the chance to watch it.
Will try.
Yes, this was a surprisingly good series! Judging by the name, I would usually be very cautious of this anime and probably avoid it, but I had already read the manga so I knew it was actually a cute and very sweet story about a clumsy wizard and a kind hearted elf. I loved how awkward Zagan and Neffy were together. All the blushing, all the fumbling, it was so cute and funny.
Yeah, they were a great couple who developed their feelings naturally. I loved how when they first met, she was fully expecting to be used as a sacrifice, but then he gave her a room with a view of the moon. Even then, he still couldn’t out right say why he bought her or what his plans were for her. There was a lot of great chemistry in this series.