The Ogre’s Bride Ep 1 [First Impression]

Oh wow, I wrote a lot more than I thought I was going to for this! This was a very exposition heavy premiere, but with all tings considered, it wasn’t too bad! I think it did kind of leave me wishing that there had been a two episode premiere because the first half of the episode was a major info dump. As result it did cause it to be a bit of a slog, but it did get better, to the point I did wish this was one of the shows this season that had a double episode premiere.

In this society, because it were the demons who emerged from the shadow to put the end of the great world war that brought suffering and tragedy to so many, they have positioned themselves at the top of power. As such, they hold the most powerful positions politics, fiance, entertainment, etc.. Some demons take Human brides (probably grooms too), and only a handful are chosen. It said to be unconditionally loved and cherished deeply, making it a common romantic dream for Humans to have. And Yuzuko’s among them.

Yuzu’s checks off pretty much all of the boxes of your typical Cinderella heroine. Treated like an outsider, expected to be a servant, suffers from physical abuse and neglect from her family, and of course, a cherished pink dress ruined… But with the sole exception of one or both parents being dead: Incredibly, her situation what makes her situation even more messed up, is that it’s literally her own birth parents treating her like this.

Right from the get go, the one thing that immediately stood out to me, was just how fucked up Yuzu’s parents are. When you take into consideration of their behaviour and language they use when referring to their daughters, it’s rather telling that they view their daughters as a valuable investment gain access to Demons’ wealth and power. This made me pause and think: Wowww… so you can see how parents would basically want to groom and invest in their daughters in attempt to strike it rich by their daughter being chosen as a bride. And we saw this on multiple occasions, and the most telling part of the episode was when Yuzu’s father had the AUDACITY to slap her in the face, all because his own father called him to justifiably give him an earful for neglecting his eldest daughter! And what does the mother say after that: “We’re parents of a demon’s bride. Your grandparents need to remember the difference between you two.”

As result, since they didn’t believe Yuzu had hope to win a demon’s heart, she immediately lost value to invest in, and was cast aside in favour of the other child (Karin). And they did this by literally going into debt, borrowing money from their relatives, so that they could send Karin to a Demon School. All of this, solely to bank on the gamble that Karin would be chosen as a Demon’s Bride.

In other words, it looks to me that their daughters are nothing more than stepping stones to strike it rich.
Disgusting.

And because Karin was heavily invested in, she was the dotted one, and as result she became a horribly selfish, self-entitled brat. Whatever Yuzu has, she wants. Yuzu’s simply not allowed to really have anything to call her own. Everything must be for her sister. That’s why she has that egoistical personality, where the world revolves around her. She’s entertained by the fact Yuzu’s jealous that she’s special, and she even has the freaking audacity to gaslight her with that ridiculous claim Yuzu’s ‘mean to her’.

So it is rather nauseating to know they were immediately rewarded of that costly and selfish gamble when Karin was chosen by Kogetsu Youta, a Fox Demon. One of the highest ranked demons in their hierarchy and society. Thanks to that, Youta’s family paid off all her parent’s debts and now enabled them to live in luxury in return.

Jokes on them though, the one child they didn’t think had any chances was the one to chosen by the most powerful one on the top of the chain: an Ogre Demon! So now it will be very interesting to see how Yuzu’s parents are going to respond, and depending on how they do, it’s going to be very telling how how they truly feel about their daughters…

While the parents were gambling on Karin’s charms, as it stands right now (which means this could change/be clarified further in the future), it seems Demon’s brides are not chosen because they are ‘liked for they are’, but because the Demons rely on their instincts. They cannot explain the reason, they just know that’s the one when they encounter them. And this seems to be proven further when you see just how blind and one-tracked minded the demons are to their beloved. We were shown several examples of this: like Nyantachi, who changed schools to be with their chosen one if they are the kind to respect their beloved,others like Youta will not stop and consider whether their bride did any wrong or consider they are even lying (therefore always in the right). Youta’ s a prime example of he only sees his beloved is unhappy, therefore he will ruthlessly punish whoever made her so. (I will say though, it was also telling that Karin didn’t actually think Youta was going to go as far as burning Yuzu’s arm to punish her. It showed her a scary side that she probably hasn’t seen before, but I digress.)

Heck, not even Kiryuin Reiya is an exception, because showed us the moment he spotted Yuzu, that’s all he saw, just her. And what was the first thing that came out of his mouth? It wasn’t: Are you okay? But instead: “I found you. I’ve been waiting for this moment… My bride.”

And let’s be real here folks: In this moment when Yuzu’s in this battered, vulnerable state… that’s hardly romantic thing to say. In-fact, that’s a rather creepy way to one to introduce himself, not to mention incredibly bizarre to have not acknowledged the condition she’s in. It takes him a whole minute or two to finally break out of that trance he found himself in to finally realize: Oh wait, this girl was injured by a Fox Demon! Incredibly, instead of asking how did she end up like this, he just disregards that, and goes back to “I finally found you” and proceeds to suggest walking her back home— AND IT’S ONLY AFTER HE SAYS THAT IT FINALLY CLICKS TO HIM THAT GEE, I DON’T KNOW, THE FOX FIRE WOUND SHOULD BE HEALED! This dude need to get his priorities straight!!!!!!! Be attentive to the matter first, be romantic later! AND ALSO: HE HASN’T GIVEN HER ANY CHANCES TO EVEN PROCESS WHAT HE JUST DUMPED ON HER!!!! SHEESH.

See!!!! This is why Demons are scary when dealing with their bride or groom. They have a one-track mind, and all they can think about is literally “I FOUND YOU! I LOVE YOU! TIME TO GET MARRIED!” You really don’t want to mess around with that… Especially since there very likely scarier demons who will go after a bride or groom who are already committed to a relationship, or worse, the individual perhaps does not reciprocate their feelings. You can see how this whole thing of being chosen, isn’t necessarily sunshine and roses, since it entirely depends on the temperament and nature of the said Demon. This is something I’m curious too see if the story will explore further, but I digress.

So here we have poor Yuzu is just so emotionally drained is dumbfounded by this whole thing because she hardly had the time to even process this. This literally gets dropped on her instantaneously, the guy is a freaking Ogre– the most powerful demon in society, and this happens at such a convenient time that she can hardly believe it’s real. I don’t blame her for feeling this way! I’d be incredulous if I were in her shoes too!

Finally, let’s talk about Yuzu, it’s about time that I do! Her luck up until the end of the episode has been awful. Suffers from abuse and neglect by her parents, gets dumped by her boyfriend she has been dating for three months because he fell for her freaking sister at first sight, her dress gets ruined, then burned by Fox Fire…

Life sucks, but as bleak as things seem to be for Yuzu, compared to some other Cinderella stories, there’s still good people and light in her life. She has her grandparents, who do love her enough that they remember her birthday, are thoughtful about what she’d like as a gift, and even stand up to her parents when they know they are neglecting her. But she doesn’t turn to them because she recognizes are not really in the position to take her. Her grandmother’s unwell, and her grandfather is taking care of her, and worse since they getting older, she knows they won’t have the sanctuary they given her forever. (Though I think we can all agree, it really it would be better if they had or could for the time being).

She has her childhood friend Touko, who refused to go to a Demon school (that’s typical for demons and their chosen one to attend together), all so she could stay with Yuzu. And it also helps that Nyankichi seems to be a nice demon too, as he has become friends with her as well. So fortunately for Yuzu, this isn’t a situation where she’s completely alone in the world. What she feels she lacks however, is simply being one’s number one priority, to be sincerely loved by someone. She’s tired of being alone, she needs security and place she can truly call home, without worrying of being a burden to others. So it actually made me misty-eyed when she asked Reiya if he will love her, because there was truly so much weight to her words right then there.

But credit where credit is due: Although Yuzu is being raised in an abusive household, amazingly she’s not a complete doormat. She showed she does have a spine and fight in her. From getting a job to justify arriving home late (which simultaneously can help save money to become financially self-sufficient to live alone once she can afford to), to fighting back for the dress her grandfather gotten her for her birthday, and actually lashed out against her sister when her dress was ruined in the tussle. Unfortunately, because she lashed out physically (landing quite of punch), she was immediately punished by Youta, who had arrived just seconds after the incident happened.

Overall the first half was quite a sluggish start, but it wasn’t too shabby. The exposition was heavy, but it did the job of establishing the way society works, how the whole ‘dream to be a demon’s bride’ can be potentially exploited by greedy Humans who want to gain access to that power and wealth. I appreciated that this wasn’t a full blown pity fest for Yuzu, as by having at least some positive things in her life. This isn’t the kind of case where she’s not eating properly (allowed to eat a perfectly goo steak that was rejected), nor is this a situation where she’s completely isolated, alone and got no place to go to even get a chance to breathe like Miyo, from My Happy Marriage. And that’s also probably a major contributing factor as to why she’s not a complete doormat, she does have a spine but chooses not to use it really to protect herself since her family will hurt her, one way or another. So really it’s just a matter of surviving and ensuring she protects the freedom she does have at the moment. Unfortunately the one time she ended up lashing out, she got majorly punished for it, by a Fox Demon no less.

With that said, I’m curious how fast or long it will take for Yuzu to open up to Reiya. With this unbelievable situation, and life-time longing to be one’s beloved number one priority, it’ll be interesting to see how Reiya plans to remove all seeds of incredulous doubts that will need to be addressed.

If I have one gripe to say, while I did like the OP song a lot, the OP sequence I felt almost like it was spoiling the fun of the series for me. Like they even had a freaking kiss at the end of it! All I could think of in that moment was: Wouldn’t it be more special to save it for the actual story? Seeing that actually made me regret watching it, and I won’t watch it in the foreseen future for that reason. I’ll just listen to the song separately. Trying to erase it from my mind now. So if you’re like me, skip the OP! ED Theme is safe!

Possibility of Blogging: Moderate-High – If the next two episodes are solid, very likely I will continue covering this show. Got a lot of competition for Saturdays and Sundays, but I do have this at the top of my list of shows I want to cover this season!
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed