Manga: If It's For My Daughter... - Volume 4

 

Content Warning: None. What? It’s a “cute girl does cute things” series. At least, for now…

Welcome back to the series that has the stupid long name but a very cute little girl in it. We’ve gotten past the first horrible thing and now get a nice long period of world building and character building. Let’s get the ball rolling.

This volume with a few little things being talked about by Latina, Chloe, and Sylvia, including discussion of the difference between human and Demon food, the main thing being that Demon food doesn’t have a lot of flavor. After that, Latina figures out that Dale is babying her, buying her everything she needs and all that. I like this because it shows how aware Latina is. But she doesn’t want to have everything given to her, she has a drive to make her own way. This culminates in a few things, the first being Latina’s decision to get something for Dale’s “birth month” (which gives us a tiny bit of world building). After some observations, Latina figures out that Dale could use a new pouch but there’s the matter of money. Sure, if she asks Dale, he’ll give her all the money she wants but that doesn’t help, as it’s important to Latina that she does this on her own. She talks to Kenneth about the whole affair and he comes up with an idea. He’ll take her on as his apprentice, officially. Sure, she’s a little young but she has been helping in the kitchen for a while now already.

Here, we get some more exploration of the setting, with talk about the gods, those they have “touched,” and a rather interesting way of explaining how the modern system of banking could work in a fantasy setting using magic. The short version is that the blue deity, Azrac, has the domains of finance and commerce, making their temples into banks. The mortals (of every race except for Demons) can be touched or chosen by the gods, given extra powers and such, so long as they obey their gods’ rules. If they break the rules, the god revokes their blessing. Which is something I think is really cool. Anyway. Using a magical registration thing, you can create an account with the church and access your gold anywhere. You can also use the vault but you can only remove stuff from the vault you put it in. You even get a debit card. I mean, they don’t call it that, but that’s what it is. I really like how they did this, with Latina being young and from a different culture, it’s a great way to explain things like this.

After this, Latina makes Dale a pouch and gives it to him, causing much happiness and rejoicing. And spinning. The story finally lets Dale know that Latina is making money and has her own account. And Rita is pregnant! Dale suggests that he and Latina move out but Kenneth and Rita want Latina to stay (they don’t care about Dale) but this does prompt Dale to take a trip back to his home.

This trip does require a few things on Dale’s end. As he’s in the service of the Duke, he has to head to the capital and lets him know about the trip. While there at the capital, he goes shopping for supplies for Latina, like Magical Tools, which will get explained a little better later on (I think). While shopping, he runs into Hermine, a lady elf that he seems to have a history with. He doesn’t really like her but will have her help him pick out stuff Latina, for the sake of Latina. This guy, I swear…

During this, Latina herself starts to prepare for the trip. She goes to Rudy’s family smithy to pick out a knife. Rudy’s dad is a little dismissive until Kenneth explains that the girl is going to travel and needs the knife for cooking on said trip. We also see that Latina is a bit of an airhead, not telling Rudy that she’s going on a trip, which causes a brief moment of confusion.

The volume concludes with Latina promising to write letters to Chloe while she’s gone and little bonus comic about Latina seeing kind of a circus act. Which I’m not going to talk about because you should buy it yourself.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Suggestion: This is a filler volume but it’s nice to have the break after the last one. You can probably skip it or skim it, as nothing important happens but it does drop some hints about later stuff.

Manga: If It's For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat A Demon Lord, Volume 3

 

Content Warning: Racism, self harm, and Dale’s cold fury

Okay. This is it. I can do this. I know I can… Okay.

It’s time for The Incident. In a bit.

This volume opens with Latina and her friends attending school and learning things. One of the things we learn is the colors, names, and spheres of influence, which is really interesting. As I mentioned before all of this relates to the number seven. And how rainbows represent them looking down upon the world. There’s a very bitter sweet part about Latina’s father’s wish for her future. Which is only going to make the next part even harsher.

Okay. Okay. I can do this. I’m sorry but every time I read or see The Incident, and what happens after, I cry. I’m just going to power through it.

The happy times come to crashing halt when Latina gets a new teacher. The one with the scary eyes. This teacher scares Latina. Keep in mind, she’s been growing up in a tavern that caters to adventurers, who aren’t exactly the nicest looking people. So, that’s a thing. What happens next is just… Tragic. Latina drops her chalk and her new teacher sees her horn. And she flips all of her shit. Starts talking about how she’s a beast, not human, so on and so forth. Now, I’m going to tell the story in chronological order, rather than the flashbacks in the story.

When this happens, Latina just shuts down. Why? Because in the rant from the teacher, Latina learns that she will live 100 years. You might be wondering why that effects her more than anything that’s been said. Think about it: Latina has been cast out of her home, her father died trying to give her a better life. Everyone she knows now, especially Dale who’s older than her, will die longer before her. Even her friends, who are the same age as her will die as old men and women, and she will still live on for decades more. She’s eight years old and she realized that she will die alone. Thankfully, her friends come to her rescue. Chloe, the best friend ever, throws her slate at the teacher, but misses. Rudy, Marcel, and Anthony leap into action, kicking over the table and putting themselves between the teacher and Latina. The ruckus brings in the other priests, who hear the teacher call Latina “it.” So, yeah, fuck that bitch with a bundle of rusty barbed wire. Just to make this clear, never, ever, EVER refer to a person as an “it” unless they’re a corpse.

Ahem. Anyway. Latina gets back home and looks like a zombie. She goes up to her room that she shares with Dale and… This part is the hardest part to go over. I’m not even looking at it and I want to cry. Inner Strength! Ahem. So… She uses the spell Dale taught her for self defense and uses it cut off her remaining horn. What she doesn’t realize, or maybe she just doesn’t care about, is that the horn has blood vessels and nerve connections to it. When Kenneth makes his way up there, she’s passed out and bleeding. He gets one of the regulars to cast a healing spell and then rushes her to the Indio deity to get more help. When Dale gets home, Rita tells him what happened and he rushes there. After he gets there, he and Latina talk about some hard truths. Even if Latina was human, she would out live Dale, in part because he’s about ten years older than her and also because he’s an adventurer. He tells her how important she is to him and she tells him that he’s her “special person.”

After this, Dale goes on the war path. It turns out that Dale is a high ranking priest of the Yellow deity of fertility. He uses this to go to the school, run but the Green deity of knowledge, to get the whole story out of the headmistress. She tries to defend the teacher by saying that she’s from a village near the Demon lands and her family was killed in a dispute but… Yeah, that doesn’t go over well. Dale then uses his rank and status to get the teacher kicked out of the order. Which, have to say, is way better than she deserves. I’d say put her to the sword but I’m not exactly known for my kindness.

The last bits of fallout is when Chloe goes to see Latina after she recovers. And slaps her for being so stupid. I keep telling you, Chloe is the best. They talk, they cry, and things are put back to normal. Latina then goes down into the tavern and celebrates with everyone, who’s happy to see that she’s recovered. We also find out that Latina has one thing she can’t do: She can’t hold a key or a tune. So, I guess she’s not completely perfect. Just, you know, mostly perfect.

The very last bit, a comic version of a side story presented in an earlier volume, shows how Latina helps out the adventurer community. She draws pictures of missing animals, to help people identify them, and helps some new adventurers with finding work that’s suited to their experience.

This is a good volume. Most of it is about The Incident, which is important. However, one thing I find is interesting is how this stuff isn’t really brought up again in later volumes. Except for the horn. When I first read this, I was thinking that the teacher would become a foe for Latina and Dale but that hasn’t happened yet. Which I feel is a shame. Latina is amazing and seems to befriend just about everyone she meets but here’s a chance to have someone to become a low-level antagonist and it doesn’t happen. Just because you have a setting that has high adventure and monsters doesn’t mean that your enemies must be black hearted villains and monsters. Someone who hates a Latina for getting her kicked out of her order would have made for an interesting threat for her, without it being life or death. Of course, the former teacher would be going against some very rough and tumble adventurers, so…

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: An important part of the story, so far, and one of the more emotional parts of the story. Read it.

Manga: If It's For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat A Demon Lord, Volume 2

Content Warning: Violence, beheading, and a tragic backstory. No, I’m not kidding.

This volume is one of the most important and yet is also one of the last ones before things start getting… Intense.

This volume starts with Dale having to go to the capital for work. You see, Dale is under contract from the Duke who controls the area that Kruez, the city we’ve been in thus far, is. However, while Kruez is important, it isn’t the capital of the area. So, Dale has to catch a dragon to the capital. What is Dale doing? Well, we’ll get back to that because it’s time for Latina’s tragic backstory! Or, at least part of it. If you remember, Latina was found wandering alone in the woods, after her guardian died, and has a horn broken off, the sign of a criminal in her culture. Latina becomes depressed while Dale is away and begins talking with Kenneth about why Dale is special to her. You see, Rag, her father, was sick and went with her when she was cast out of her home. And then he died. The corpse Latina led Dale to was that of Rag, her father’s. Why Latina was cast out isn’t said, except that was a “bad girl.” That’s why she loves Dale so much, because he was the first one to tell her that was a good girl that wasn’t family. So, Kenneth gets an idea and Latina learns how to make a Shepard’s Pie (or something like that) to make for Dale when he returns. The customers, those grumpy old bastards, are given a discount to eat her first attempts (at a discount) while she learns how to make it properly.

But what has Dale been up to, during all this cuteness? Well… He’s been summonded by the Duke to investigate rumors of the forces of the Seventh Demon Lord being in the area. Dale meets with Gregor, the son of the Duke, and proceeds to gush about Latina. The change between Dale before and after Latina is stark, to say the least. During the trip to locate the enemy forces, we see how Dale is obsessing over Latina. Before long, they locate the forces of the Seventh Demon Lord, who have a dragon with them, and we see exactly why Dale is part of this group. He uses extremely powerful magic to take out most of the demon people, before cutting off the head of the woman leading them. Yeah. Intense.

Upon his return, Dale showers Latina with gifts and has one of her meals. We also find out that Latina is seven, almost eight years old. This means that she’ll be starting primary school soon. We also see that she has remained friends with Chloe, Marcel, Anthony, and Rudy and they play together in a park. We also see that Rudy has a budding crush on Latina but, like most boys, bullies her instead of saying something. I can say that because I was once a young boy and did stuff like that. I will take no comments on that at this time.

The volume ends with us learning more about the world. You see, there are seven gods, each with a sphere of influence and an associated color. There’s also seven races, Dwarves and Elves, as well as Beastmen, merfolk, and a winged race. And there’s seven spheres of magic… Starting to see the pattern yet? Anyway, we discover that Latina has an affinity for Dark and Holy magic, while Dale is able to use Dark, Earth, and Water magic. Since the language of magic is also the language used by the Demon Race, Latina can learn a lot of magic right off the bat. But Dale doesn’t teach her everything. He does teach her some magic that can be used in self defense. After this, it’s just a few little things, like Latina using magic to make ice cream and visiting Chloe, who’s mother (a tailor) has been commissioned by Dale to make something for Latina. There’s also a discussion about how Latina picks things up very quickly. Think about that time, back in the last volume, how Latina figured out that busing the tables was something that needed to be done, could use a pen, and a host of other things. And yet, she also had some gaps in her knowledge, like how to peel potatoes and wring out a washcloth. Latina drops a very cryptic line of how she “hadn’t been decided yet” and then when asked, she says “But… Ri…” and then cuts herself off.

I could drop spoilers, having read the light novels, but I do like they’re giving us just enough of her backstory to keep us interested and still having “cute girl does cute things” stuff as well. There’s even a little bonus chapter but you’ll need to pick this up to see what happens in it.

Sadly, the fun isn’t going to last forever because in the next volume, there’s The Incident...

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: Keep reading, keep enjoying, and just hang on until things get going.

Manga: If It's For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat A Demon Lord, Volume 1

 

Content Warning: A single corpse

In case the name didn’t give it away, this manga is based on a series of “Light Novels” (read: novellas). I know this was also made into an anime but I just happened across this manga at a local bookstore which is just reopening, so I thought I would share. And, yes, I will be covering the books in the future (but probably not the anime).

Our story opens with Dale, an adventurer in a typical J-Fantasy world, sitting around a fire, frying some fish and drying off his clothes after an encounter with some stinky frogs. He sees something in the woods and discovers that it’s a child of the Demon Race that looks in pretty poor shape. Since Dale knows some magic, he’s able to communicate with her in very basic terms. He gives her one of the fish and then finds the body of her father. After doing the right thing and burying him, he offers to take the girl, Latina, with him. He takes her to the Mackerel Tabby, the Adventurer’s inn he’s been staying in. The Tabby is run by Rita and her husband, Kenneth. There, Dale bathes Latina and they go to bed.

In the morning, Rita has prepared a list of things that a girl needs, as well as giving her a ribbon to wear in her hair to cover her horn (the other one is broken, a sign of a criminal in Demon Race culture). They go out and buy a whole lot of things, including picture books so Latina can learn the human language. We also see that she’s one smart cookie, figuring out greetings by context. After this, Dale has to go and collect his reward for the stinky frogs he killed, leaving Latina with Kenneth and Rita. While she’s there, business picks up, and she starts to help out. Kenneth finds out what’s going on when one of the grizzled adventurers, Jilvester, pointed out the young “waitress.” Kenneth is impressed and later makes a special desert for Latina. When Dale learns about this, he’s the proud parent. There’s this whole thing of him being overprotective towards her and impressed by her. I suppose this the “Moe” (mo-eh) thing I remember hearing about…

Next, we see that Latina has learned how to read and write in the local language and Dale takes her out to buy more notebooks. Along the way, they run into Jilvester, why slyly asks what she’s going to be making when she helps in the kitchen. File this away for a minute. The pair gets back to the Tabby and Dale has to hold himself back while Latina peels the potatoes. Before long, the Tabby is full and Jilvester orders a round of mashed potatoes for him and two others. That’s because, as soon as the rest of the adventurers discover that Latina made the mashed potatoes, there’s a rush for them. You see, Latina has stolen the hearts of all of the grizzled men that visit the Tabby. She’s pretty much their mascot. And it’s so wholesome, I love it. Having played a lot of D&D, I can tell you that there’s nothing quite like having a little girl around to motivate a group of dirty muderhobos to do the right thing.

Which is what happens next. While walking with Kenneth for sundries, Latina wandered away, and got lost. When Dale finds out, he runs out to search for her. Rita, being the brains of the show, posts a quest for the return of Latina, offering a free tab if they look for her and an extra reward if they find her. One by one, the customers make excuses to leave and go on the hunt for her. While this is happening, Latina is confused and scared, trying to figure out where to go so she can get home. She runs across a trio of boys, Rudy, Marcel, and Anthony. They ask her who she is, where she’s from, and why they haven’t seen her before. Of course, Latina is scared and has trouble answering, especially with Rudy being a bit rude. This is when Chloe arrives and flying kicks Rudy and fights with him and Marcel. Chloe is the best kid, behind Latina, just saying. After the scuffle, we find out that Latina can use healing magic. The kids, now working together, figure out where Latina needs to go, and bravely set off. Because the south side of the city caters to the adventurer type of people, it’s rough and tumble, and their parents have told them to stay out. But, helping someone overrides that and they make their way there. Along the way, they come across the various shop owners who know Latina. When they return, Latina apologizes to Kenneth and Rita, and Rita gives the kids some candy, completing their very first quest. Soon, the customers have returned and Latina is thanking them for looking for her. When Dale comes back, she bursts into tears, afraid that he’s going to be mad at her. Of course he’s not mad and she ends up falling asleep from the stress.

After this, we see that Latina is now officially friends with the group, spending time with them. However, Dale has to explain the concept of friends to Latina. It turns out that the Demon Race has a very low birth rate, so there weren’t any kids for her to play with before coming to the city. Now she understands and there’s a very touching moment. However, Latina hasn’t really talked about where she comes from and what her life was like, leaving a door open for further volumes.

And that’s where it ends. I really did like it, it tugged at my heart strings. I have some… Concerns going forward, as it’s become a more common trope for daughter characters (not actual daughters, unless you read hentai) falling in love with their father figures and I get the feeling that this is setting up for that. Other than that, it’s a fun little story and I want to see what happens. I might have set up to order, ahem, all of the manga that’s currently available… But I’m not going to admit that. Nope. Not saying a thing about it. And, given the title of the series, I know that Latina is going to turn out to have a big role in the Demon Race’s politics or mythology or something. But, she’s just so damn cute, I’m along for the ride.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Suggestion: If you want some sweet and wholesome fantasy stuff, give it a try. You might just like it.