Is it really already time to talk about 2024 series? I guess it is since we now have a promo video and release window for the upcoming anime adaptation of the light novel series (ready for this one?) An Archdemon’s Dilemma – How to Love Your Elf Bride (Japanese title: Maō no Ore ga Dorei Erufu o Yome ni Shita ndaga, Dō Medereba ī?).
In this series, the main character is an evil sorcerer named Zagan (played by Yūsuke Kobayashi). He prefers to spend all his time in his castle studying magic and torturing trespassers. Zagan sees a beautiful elf girl for sale in a slave auction house. Falling in love at first sight, Zagan buys the girl, Nephy, and brings her back to his castle. Kana Ichinose plays Nephy. Unfortunately, while both Zagan and Nephy have feelings for their new roommate, neither of them knows how to express them.
The animation for How to Love Your Elf Bride is handled by studio Brains Base. Hiroshi Ishiodori sits in the director’s chair. Assisting him will be Keiji Gotoh as the animation supervisor, Aya Yoshinaga as the script supervisor, and Mina Ōsawa designing the characters. Yuma Yamaguchi composed the background music. They will release the series in 2024.
Background
Originally a light novel series penned by Fuminori Teshima and illustrated by COMTA, the first volume of How to Love Your Elf Bride hit shelves in Japan in February 2017. Hobby Japan published the series in their HJ Bunko imprint line. Over the next six years, they released sixteen more volumes (volume seventeen hit store shelves in August 2023). Meanwhile, on this side of the Pacific, J-Novel Club licensed the series in 2018 and has been releasing the volumes in English. They released volume sixteen of the series in English in July 2023.
Ignoring the slightly grosser elements of that plot introduction, How to Love Your Elf Bride looks like a charming romance. My concern is that the series is already seventeen volumes long, which is quite a long time to get comfortable with a slice of life, rom-com.
Sources: Anime News Network, Crunchyroll News
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