The Ogre’s Bride
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Episode 1: Destiny
Introduction. We begin in a post-war Japan. Demons stepped in from the shadows and saved the world and played a huge part in the post-war construction of Japan. Demons are powerful and beautiful. They are known to occasionally select a human as their bride. They cherish their bride so it is a great wish by human women to be chosen. The greatest honor a woman can achieve is to be chosen as an ogre’s bride.
Fast forward to a high school hallway. Yamato, a high school boy, is breaking up with his girlfriend, Yuzu. His excuse? He has fallen in love with her younger sister, Karin, despite her being a chosen bride. Yuzu’s best friend, Touko, is furious.
While she is walking to work, we find out that Yuzu’s parents were always more interested in Karin. They always hoped that Karin would become a demon’s bride even borrowing money from family to send her to a demon’s school. She was always tossed to the side once Karin was chosen by a fox demon. This particular fox demon’s family is powerful and rich.
Yuzu gets depressed on her way home. After all, she only got the job to avoid going to a home where she is treated like a second-class citizen. The minute she gets home, he is harassed by her mother to help cook dinner. Youta, the fox demon and Karin’s fiancé, is waiting. Yuzu overcooks the steak and Karin demands that she recook it, but they have no more steaks. The mother then demands that she go buy more. Youta, instead, tells Karin he’ll take her to a steakhouse.
It’s Yuzu’s 18th birthday and her parents forgot. She goes and visits her grandparents where they give her a nice dress and have a cake ready for her. However, when she gets home, she gets hit by her dad.
After getting out of the shower, Karin is inside Yuzu’s room admiring the dress that their grandparents gave her. She tells Yuzu to give it to her. They get into a squabble over the dress and it rips. Devastated, Yuzu slaps Karin across the face. The family is up in arms, however Youta is still there. He punishes Yuzu.
She leaves the house and walks the streets holding the dress still wearing her charred clothes and her burned arm. Distraught, she collapses on a bridge and cries. Then, a tall, dark and handsome man with red eyes walks up to her and says, “I found you…my bride”
He introduces himself as Kiryuin Reiya. A powerful ogre. He heals her arm and offers to walk her home, but that is the last place she wants to be. Still crushed by the fact that her family doesn’t love her, she asks Reiya if he’ll love her to which he replies, “I’ll love you and you alone.”
THOUGHTS
This one tugged at my heartstrings. I feel so bad for Yuzu. Her family is terrible. Her sister is a bitch. I want to throat punch them all. It breaks my heart that all she wants is love. I am hoping that it is a full-season of Reiya building Yuzu’s self confidence and teaching her that she’s worthy of love. And, maybe putting her parents into their place, because any parent that abandons and favors a child that way is pure trash.
Will continue to monitor.
Leave a Reply