Is this a dream? Or was her imprisonment and death the dream? No, Jill Cervel decides—neither is true. Instead, she’s been given a chance at a “do-over.” Jill’s past life ended at the hand of her former fiance, the prince of her kingdom who had her unjustly imprisoned and sentenced to execution after she discovered that he was having an affair with his own sister. The “God of War’s daughter” then attempted to flee, but her escape ended in tragedy. Or did it? Jill’s life is reset to the fateful moment at age ten when the prince, Gerald der Kratos, proposed to her. But with a chance to avoid her fate, Jill runs from the prince and into the arms of another man, to whom she in turn proposes before realizing who he is—the only man in all the kingdoms who may be even more despicable than Gerald: Hadis Teos Rave, who will one day bring fire, blood, and torture to her homeland. But for now, he’s simply a man in love…with a little girl?
Yes, we’ll get to that because the series very much hinges on the “adult male is in love with a little girl” angle. But first, let me sing The Do-Over Damsel’s praises. Much like its manga adaptation (and I’m assuming the original light novel before it), the anime is exciting, humorous, and fully engaging. Jill is a great lead—as courageous and physically powerful as she is smart. And the setup by which she is engaged to the man who will one day become her nemesis, but who for now is just a weird, kind young man, is a fun idea. Further, J.C. Staff takes the story to the next level by employing so many interesting directional and layout choices. There are a ton of cuts in episode one and so many cool things going on every few seconds, whether that’s character movement, names flying across the screen, cool background text, or a myriad of other animation choices. The color palette is bright and pleasing, and there’s a beautiful, storybook portion of episode one in which a myth within the story is explored. Based on all this, the show is worth tuning into.
The big question, though, is what to do with Hadis. The episode lets viewers know immediately that it won’t shy away from taboo topics by discussing (and showing—at least in the shadows) Gerald’s incestuous love. But at the very center of The Do-Over Damsel is Hadis’ immense and immediate devotion to Jill, who while an adult in mind is very much a young girl in body—age ten, as I’ve mentioned, and drawn to look even younger. Right from the start, you can see the wheels turning in the creator’s head: “How can I make such a relationship acceptable?” Justifications are thrown in through dialogue, with Hadis explaining that this type of relationship is “normal” in this world, declaring that sexual relations are off the board for now, and mentioning that there are a variety of reasons that he wants to marry Jill other than her young age. There are even more justifications that are subtly placed within the episode—the medieval-style setting, in which younger betrothals would be more common; Jill’s adult age, as well as her being the one to propose the arrangement instead of the other way around; discussion of “age gap” instead of focusing purely on Jill’s young age; and the use of humor, both in referring to marriage and in Hadis’ character, making him seem innocent and incapable of abusing a minor. But what’s true is true, no matter how you disguise it. The series wants you to not only accept that the relationship between Jill and Hadis is ultimately “okay,” but that it’s also worth rooting for; just look at the title of the series—this is a romance between these two characters through and through. To that, I’ll also note that the romance does move toward being more physical as the story progresses, though I dropped it by volume three of the manga, so how far it moves along, I can’t say. Still, all this evidence should be enough—the adult/child romance is a gross concept that didn’t need to be a part of the series, much less an emphasis of it. I’ll be skipping this show, despite the excellent production values—and I suggest you do as well.
The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor is streaming on Crunchyroll.
- First Impression: Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None - 12.12.2025
- Fanart Friday, Too: Clerith Christmas - 12.12.2025
- Fanart Friday: A Genshin Christmas - 12.12.2025
Oh, that’s too bad. It sounds like most of the anime has a good premise, it’s just that “age gap” thing that’s a big problem. Why couldn’t the anime creators leave that one part out? Anime adaptations often leave out parts of manga stories for different reasons. Changing the main character to be a bit older seems like a minor thing that would be easy to do. The artists could still make Jill cutesy looking, they could use the same voice actress, the writers just needed to tweek some of the dialog and that’s it. It doesn’t seem like there would be much more to change. And wouldn’t the story make a bit more sense if Jill was betrothed as an older teen, rather than at ten?
I definitely think this is one of those cases where you realize that Japan, for the most part, isn’t thinking of the U.S. market when adapting a manga into anime. For better or worse, this is for audiences that won’t be terribly troubled by the relationship, and indeed, the series really lives and dies by the central joke and romance. 🙁
[…] Read More […]