The Ogre’s Bride Episode 6

I’m sad to report Reiya and Yuzu’s communication progress gone back to a screeching halt. What was exchanged between them was more or less the same old thing we already know, and for some reason they felt they needed to repeat it again three or four times this episode. (Yup, this really does remind me of Olympia Soirée’s notorious flashbacks– if you know, you know.) At this point I’m no longer surprised by this, but I’m still flabbergast by appalling lack of progress and substantial scenes between these two! Next week, we have five episodes left. Make that make sense!

While I was very disappointed to see Reiya and Yuzu’s relationship progress has taken the backseat, this episode was salvaged because we did get something else that was really good and fun to watch for an exchange. I had been hoping to see a bit of Touko’s and Nyankichi’s backstory of how they met, and this week we got just that. And best of all, I think this was really the first time I truly laughed for good reasons rather than bad. The way Nyankichi and Touko had met was actually hilarious in a nutty, yet endearing way.

The two of them met in passing when Touko was a middle school student. He saw her and the next thing she knows, he’s grabbing her arm and shouting like a fool, “You’re my bride!” And like any sane person, Touko thought he was crazy and quickly fled. But Demons are persistent after-all, but it seems a lot of them are told the wrong thing… which is the belief that ‘Humans are always happy to be chosen’. Touko proved that’s not always true, even more so because she’s was a middle-school student when the two met, and Nyankichi was (stupidly) going on about Brides being special, their babies are born with great power, which will make him more powerful too. Like let’s be real here: The vast majority of the time, this kind of talk and stalking was not gonna be taken well by anyone, especially given Touko’s age at the time. That’s everyone’s cue to run for the hills.

And sure enough, that irritated the hell out of Touko, so she fearlessly confronted by being as direct as she could be with him: “I don’t even know you! You’re crazy! I’m still in middle-school! Why are you assuming I’ll have your kids?!’ Because seriously, he was behaving like a creepy stalker who had been persistently by waiting outside of her house every morning bearing gifts or repeatedly confessing to her. Why wouldn’t she be alarmed and put off by it?

But Touko’s lack of filter and having the guts to give him a piece of her mind had greatly benefited both of them. Had she not been to frank about it, how else would Nyankichi have learned the things he had been told by his clan were outdated and wrong? He genuinely thought the right approach was to awkwardly show up outside her home every morning, and ask her to marry him before she went to school.

Fortunately Nyankichi was never the type to resort dragging Touko off to be his. He had actually took her complaints to heart, and decided to earnestly put in the work in hopes she’ll fall for him in all sorts of silly ways. And he was able to do that because he was very honest and upfront about both his feelings and personality from the get-go. Luckily for him, his efforts paid off when they realized they actually share a lot of common interests, such as both having the rare limited edition Lapine, liking the same bakery, and so on forth.

Their newfound friendship had also progressed to the point where seeing Touko smile became something more special to Nyankichi. And by noticing his feelings, I think this was really the first sign of him truly falling for her outside of the being naturally drawn to her by his instincts. So in a way, you could say Nyankitchi’s earnest efforts was allowed him to take back control over the instincts that were driving him to claim his bride in the first place. It was settled in a healthier way. And through genuine efforts of getting to know each other, he ended up genuinely falling for her, and more deeply at that, and she ended up falling in love with him too.

I will say though, I did find it very predictable that their first instance of misunderstanding after he hadn’t showed up for a few days was because of woman that Touko has seen hooked to his arm was a relative. But it was extra funny to know that was actually his mother of all people. Touko certainly made a first impression by having the guts to punch a demon, in front of his mother no less! Though as Nyankichi said, she really didn’t have to punch him. That was admittedly an overkill of a jealous reaction. But it was funny when she said, “That’s how I knew I really loved him.”

And this is where we can start to compare how Nyankichi and Reiya went about their respective’s approach. In both cases, they had royally screwed up at the start, but where we start to see the contrast of how they go about trying to win their ‘fated bride’ over. Nyankitchi changed his approach after he was told off, and actually started having proper conversations with her once he found the two of them shared a common interest. Reiya on the other-hand, hasn’t done so much of attempting to spend time with her outside of keeping her by his side while working, giving her gifts, and in return for favours and gratitude get a kiss at every opportunity he can get until she’s comfortable enough to lock-lips again. >_>;;; (Yeah sure, “so romantic”.) Also his obsession with trying to get her to kiss him on the lips is actually starting to make me wonder if he’s just horny at this point.

But we do see he’s trying in his own awkward ways. He’s aware that Yuzu has nothing to do and is probably bored when she’s at home, so he tried buying things to wear, games to pass the time, and thinks gifting her things every day is the way to ‘do things for her’. Yet at the time same, not once has he asked Yuzu if they wanted to play a game together, go out to eat together, spend time together to get to know each other better, or you know HAVE NORMAL CONVERSATIONS. Instead, all it’s been is “time to show your gratitude, kiss me.” Excuse sir, what? What is this supposed to be, some kind of peasant and noble kinky shit? BECAUSE NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS ROMANTIC. NOT BY THE SLIGHTEST!

On top of that, ever since Yuzu said, she’ll do anything in return to make him happy, this whole daily gift routine feels like a shrewd scheme with the ulterior motives of getting kissed because now he’s always ending it with, “I expect gratitude”. Whelp! This right here is why you should NEVER say “I’ll do anything” in return for something! And frankly, the worst part about it is that it kills the whole credibility case of “Reiya’s trying!” After-all, when you care for someone, it shouldn’t be because you’re expecting something in return for it, let alone have any strings attached. You simply do it because you care. So again, this is why I’m still not convinced that Reiya’s actually in love with Yuzu yet. This guy has a long, long, LONG way to go!

But honestly speaking, it is just sad at this point that Reiya’s character has been limited to such few lines and action. We’re now halfway through the show, and the poor guy is absolutely getting shafted in the development department. And it’s because the writer has been refusing to give him any opportunities to  flesh out his character, much less give them any time to nurture their relationship properly. At this point, considering how hopeless Reiya seems without any guidance, I would like to see Nyankitchi and Reiya talking with each other about Touko and Yuzu. I really think Reiya needs somebody to better explain to him how to properly form a proper relationship founded on trust with Yuzu. I can only hope that if someone talks some sense in him, maybe he’ll finally get his shit together properly. Because what he’s doing is essentially forming a transactional relationship, not one of founded and driven by unconditional love, which is what Yuzu wants and desperately needs.

As for Yuzu, unlike Touko, she just didn’t have the opportunity, nor the leisure of time to get to know Reiya before agreeing to be his bride. So she’s not in a better position herself, but she at least has enough self-awareness of her insecurities and why it’s hard for her to identify how she feels about Reiya. So while Touko’s thinking Yuzu’s already starting to get feeling for him because she was upset about hearing he had a fiance, what she failed to account for, is that it had nothing to do with her being in love with him, but rather everything to do with her fear of being abandoned.

Yuzu made it clear this episode that she’s very self-aware of the fact that she doesn’t know whether her feelings for Reiya right now is rooted from gratitude and feeling indebted towards him, or she’s actually starting to fall for him. At this point, I think most of us can agree she’s on the gratitude boat. Love simply won’t happen until she can truly come around to trust him. Trust must come first to have any chance of fighting off the that dark cloud of uncertainty, fear and doubts from consuming her whole. And right now, there’s individuals out there who want to make sure those scars of being unable to trust does not heal.

Speaking of trust, Reiya is trying to get comfortable with giving her the amount of freedom she’s used to having. So she has been given permission to stay over at her grandparents for a few days while he attends the annual Demons Banquet. But one problem. He neglected to follow up on the fact he did sense something of concern. He just tried to assure himself that it’ll be fine, she has two guards with her. (Though I have to say, those little retainers uh… haven’t exactly done anything inspire a lot of confidence in them…) Unfortunately that something ended up being freaking Sakurako, who has invited herself into Yuzu’s grandparents place. Oh yeah, this is totally fine. TURN THE CAR AROUND DAMN IT!

And that finally brings us to Sakurako! The demon lady made her debut today, and goodness she’s as two-faced as it can get. We can see how she managed to crawl up the ranks and gain such influence by putting on that dainty perfect lady act. Just because Reiya found his bride, doesn’t mean she’s going to simply yield her the opportunity of marrying the most influential demon clan in the sphere. And it’s seriously bruising her ego to know she’s presently being chosen over an ordinary high school girl– one Takamichi went as far to call a peasant, (who he personally is jealous of the fact Reiya smiles at her, while he has never so much as given him a smile after-all these years).

To make matters worse, amazingly she and her family has only gotten the news of the annulment of their engagement today, which seems to point to either the Oniyama’s family was in disbelief and were waiting to see if he changed his mind, or Takamichi potentially stalling the news for as long as he could. So now we have a cunning demon who’s already making plays to sabotage any progress by stirring distrust and misunderstandings between Reiya and Yuzu. The way she kept touching her belly sure made me half wonder if she’s brazen enough to suggest she and Reiya have already spent nights tangled in bed together. Or she really will suggest Yuzu can be relegated as Reiya’s mistress, while she acts as the main wife or something. But odds are she’s more likely to go on and on about how much she knows about the Reiya and the position and responsibility that’s on the bride, aka: what Reiya needs, compared to Yuzu, who knows absolutely nothing about the clan nor anything about Reiya himself.

That said, there was one thing Sakurako had said that caught my attention. “The role of Reiya’s bride is to revive the Kiryuin family.” This seems to suggest that the Kiryuin clan’s power has been dwindling for a while, and are at risk of losing their position of being at the top of the chain. That’s why Sakurako believes she’s the best person to be by Reiya’s side, and perhaps that would also explain why Reiya’s clan members (including Takamichi) is against this marriage.

Last thing before I wrap things up: SERIOUSLY WHAT’S UP WITH THE BACKGROUND MUSIC?!?!?!?!?!?! I’ve kept this bottled up for the past five weeks, but I can’t take it anymore! Am I the only one who finds it so incredibly distracting and unpleasant to the ears?! It’s so bad! I don’t feel like it matches let alone set the mood for any of the scenes. God, it’s not often when I hate the BGM, but this one is definitely the worst I’ve heard in a while…

Well, let’s hope that because of the shit Sakurako gonna be stirring with her presence that maybe we’ll actually get some conversations going next week. Preferably ones longer than one minute please!