Nowadays, fantasy seems dominated by the dark and depressing. Admittedly, quite a few of these darker anime, web novels, books (NSFW), and more (NSFW) are entertaining and well-made. Sometimes I need sweet fantasy made to make me laugh. Enter The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!!.
This show wasn’t on my radar until I saw a GIF of the titular demon king’s daughter tickle-torturing a man for information. That moment convinced me to try it, so join me to find out how this anime lives up to the innocent tickle torture potential.
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The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!! … for World Conquest
The premise of The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!! is simple. Mid-campaign to conquer the world, the successful demon king Ahriman hangs up his kaiju powers to return home and dote on his daughter. His subordinates become concerned that he hasn’t returned to the front after a while, and one of his top demons, Jahi, goes home to find out what’s going on. Yet, instead of bringing Ahriman back to the front, Jahi is recruited for a vital job. Someone must teach Ahriman’s daughter Doux to be a proper demon, and it may as well be her.
Now, if world conquest wasn’t enough, the setting makes it clear how awful and dangerous demons are. The demons keep massive numbers of human slaves to do their labor. Torturing, intimidating, and murdering humans are all normal. The forest near Ahriman’s castle is full of beasts with wicked horns, like… cute unicorn bunnies. Okay, I included that just so I could justify including a picture of unicorn bunnies, sue me.
The point is, demons are evil and want to conquer the world, and Jahi and Ahriman are sure this is the natural way of things. Except Doux isn’t evil at all.
Training Days
Doux is sweetness incarnate. During a trip through the aforementioned demon forest, Jahi is aware and cautious. Doux makes friends with the wildlife with an ease Disney princesses would envy. When Jahi tries to teach Doux to extort humans for tribute by threatening them, Doux is given a speech to use. However, when Doux delivers Jahi’s evil speech, the woman Doux is ‘extorting’ decides she’s a little girl playing a game and hands over the tribute willingly. Later, this same lady is in a bind and wants to give Doux an assortment of handmade dolls she’d otherwise have to abandon. Instead of taking them, Doux brings the dolls to life so they can tell the lady that they love her, when Doux was supposed to use mind control to force the lady to do her bidding.
Sweetness Overload
And that’s in one episode. In case you haven’t guessed, the format of The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!! is similar to Spy x Family, specifically how it sometimes splits episodes into two half-episodes. The short plots have advantages here. Along with being kind, Doux is so inexperienced that even an outing to a village is new to her. That means Doux can do almost anything, and the plot is fresh through her eyes and compassion. On the one hand, the novel creativity meant I could binge every episode I watched. However, I’m sure I couldn’t have sustained this viewing commitment for a full twelve episodes. This is not a show to binge in one setting; it’s a show for indulging in a burst of sweetness.
The short plots don’t only keep the novelty flowing, though. They keep the pace of the show up. While a show like Frieren is built on drama and emotional buildups for catharsis — like seeing Fern learn to blast a rock over an episode — The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!! is built on quick catharsis. Lingering would weaken the comedy.
Take when we see human slaves for the first time. It would be easy to make slavery depressing because slavery is evil. What’s hard is having Doux innocently approach slaves with kindness long enough that we see her making their bad lives better, while not letting us linger on how Doux hasn’t ended slavery. It helps that she’s a smol child, but the short episodes mean the pace doesn’t let pain or suffering linger. The anime feeds us bursts of sweetness for the joy of it, and lingering plots would undermine the joy.
Conquering With Kindness
Doux has everything it takes to conquer her world. Even her dreaded demon king father and slave prisoners who hate demons are no match for her kindness. If you like fantasy and want a break from seriousness and darkness, or are a comedy fan, The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!! is the show for you. It is simplistic, but sometimes simple creativity is what we need in a complex world.
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Summer is so hot, no one wants to go outside. Instead, you should stay indoors where it’s cool, and browse the J-List website. We’ve got a new general sale, giving you 15% off all in-stock products shipping from Japan. So start browsing our newest manga and doujinshi, amazing artbooks, “dolphin polishers” and more!
