UchiMusume First Impressions

“I’ve heard that when devils commit a crime, one of their horns is broken off and they’re banished…”

There are pros and cons to going into a series blind, and, given the nature of such a dichotomy, the reverse would obviously be true as well. Right out of the gate, UchiMusume or Uchi no Ko no Tame Naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maō mo Taoseru Kamoshirenai (You can tell I just copied and pasted that) suffers from two issues that hinder it. The first is that title which makes me want to beat it 29 times, once for each syllable. The second problem is I heard the source material get compared to Usagi Drop, for better and for worse. In other words, there is a rather icky shift from heartwarming story about an adoptive parent-child dynamic to a romance at a certain point. I can’t personally attest to whether that’s a fair assessment of the source material, but it means every cute moment in this first episode was getting a decent amount of side-eye from me. When it is all said and done, though, this first episode presents a cute story of two individuals who forge an odd family connection even if it comes across as mildly saccharine with uneven execution.

The story follows Dale, an adventurer in a fantasy world who stumbles across a small demon girl named Latina while hunting in the woods. He discovers that her guardian died, and decides to bring her back to the city with him. One of the key barriers Dale faces is the language kind. Latina only speaks the demonic language, and while he knows key phrases, it’s barely enough to get by. One potential flaw of this first episode is the second half of it feels rushed. The parts involving Dale interacting with Latina are okay, but he reaches the decision to adopt her a bit too quickly. I would have preferred it if he had devoted more time to determining what to do with her, as it would have made his final decision come across as more natural. I get the feeling the show recognized its primary draw was a little girl doing cute things and wanted to get all the heavy decision-making out of the way fast. By comparison, Usagi Drop also took an episode to build to the main character’s decision to adopt, but, in that instance, the narrative was clearly aware that Daikichi was making an impulsive decision based on the moment. It didn’t present this as a bad decision, merely one that had drawbacks due to its abrupt nature. There were stakes driving that decision, but, in Dale’s case, it feels like he just came to the conclusion, “You know what? ….Why not?”

Maho Film is handling the production on this, and you could be forgiven for never having heard of them. This is the first title they have produced, and it’s a noble first effort. Like Maou-sama, Retry! before it, I’m not comfortable saying that the inexperience isn’t noticeable, but I’ve seen worse efforts from established studios, so take that as you will. My biggest issue from a design standpoint would be the character designs. The character models are just bland. In any other anime, these would be the background characters that populate the streets. Latina has the most personality to her design, but that’s because the animators recognize they’re banking on her cuteness to sell the series. Frankly, they probably rely on it too much. It is a fantasy world, but that doesn’t diminish the need for emotional realism, and this first episode gives the sense that, whenever a hard bit of drama comes up, UchiMusume may just go, “But look at how cute Latina is!!!” These are less criticisms as they are observations about how the series may progress, but the fact remains that, for all the delicate and interesting subject matter the series could potentially tackle, we mainly get a saccharine half-measures.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• In the latter half of the episode, Rita, the woman who runs the tavern Dale lives in, puts Latina’s hair into pigtails to hide her broken horn. It’s amazing how generic this makes her look compared to her initial appearance. Before, she looked a little like Kanna from Miss Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon, but afterwards she almost looked as generic as Dale and Rita.
• The dynamics between demons and humans isn’t very clear. No one objects to Kanna’s presence, and the only reason they hide her broken horn is because it is a sign of a criminal. So, why are there no demons in the human city? Do their cultures not mix at all?
• Also, the idea that a broken horn is a sign of a criminal seems like a relatively stupid means of signaling that information. I’m not saying that anyone should go around branding or tattooing criminals, but if you have to mark them in some manner, maybe don’t do it in a way that could be emulated by a rather significant bump of the head?
• Was I correct with that syllable count? It can get tricky to keep track after a while.