In this world, demons (ayakashi) coexist with humans. They sometimes take human brides, and are known for loving and cherishing those brides deeply. With that preamble out of the way… Yuzu’s boyfriend dumps her in favor of her younger sister Karin (despite the fact that Karin has already been chosen as a demon’s bride!). Their ambitious parents have always favored Karin because they thought she had what it takes to become a demon bride, and indeed Karin was chosen by the fox demon (kitsune) Youta. His wealthy family is quite generous to his fiancee’s family, enabling Karin and Yuzu’s parents to live in luxury. Yuzu celebrates her eighteenth birthday with her paternal grandparents, who are the only family who actually care about her. They gift her a nice dress, which Karin promptly tries to steal and ends up ripping. The overburdened Yuzu finally snaps and slaps her sister, so an angry Youta blasts Yuzu with magical fire. As she wanders the streets in physical and emotional pain, an unfamiliar ogre named Reiya approaches her and declares Yuzu his bride. She’s kind of in disbelief about the whole thing, though.

Well, it’s yet another Cinderella story. Do you like those? Then you’ll probably like this. You’ll find a bunch of the usual tropes here: the unloved and neglected girl, her cruel parents, the nasty sister, unexpectedly finding love, etc. Since this episode doesn’t get any further than Yuzu and Reiya’s first meeting, it’s hard to say if this series will put any interesting spin on the story. Personally, I do like this kind of story and always find them heartwarming, so I’m probably going to end up watching the whole thing. That said, if you’re not particularly in the mood for one more Cinderella-archetype anime (there have been a lot of them over the years), you can probably safely pass on this one.

The Ogre’s Bride is streaming on Crunchyroll.