The ogre’s Bride – One-Sided Sibling Rivalry

Loving someone deeply is a slow process. There are many stages or forms of love. To love someone so deeply takes time. You get to know them from their Dunkin order to their insecurities. It’s a lot of opening up and hoping it doesn’t end in heartbreak. When Reiya Kiryuin proclaims that Yuzu Shinonome is his bride whom he’ll love unconditionally, she doesn’t know what to say. They’ve never met, and yet he can confidently declare his undying love on the spot. Her heart is closed, and his has never felt more open.

In the world of The Ogre’s Bride, humans and demons live peacefully alongside one another. Demons hold higher status in society, with most families being wealthy and holding positions of power. Demons do end up sharing their power and wealth with human families if they fall in love with someone. When a human is chosen by a demon, they are called a bride. It’s a big honor, and brides immediately have a higher status. There is no rhyme or reason, and it’s love at first sight for a demon. They’re immediately devoted and feel a deep love they’ve never felt before. At first, it all sounds like a fairy tale. I expected a lot of fluff. Yuzu is wary of this love at first sight, which I get. I also realized The Ogre’s Bride, to some extent, is a tragedy.

Yuzu’s story is rough. Being the eldest daughter of a struggling family, she is pushed to the side when her younger sister is picked to be a bride. Her younger sister, Karin, raises her family’s status, and her demon husband monetarily takes care of them. Yuzu is seen as worthless, and her parents treat her more like a maid than their daughter. She’s slowly pushed out of the family. Her parents don’t even celebrate her birthday. Yuzu plans to leave her family, but the decision is made for her the night Karen’s husband burns Yuzu’s arm with his fox demon magic. It’s a nasty burn, too. Yuzu runs away from home and ends up meeting Kiryuin, who tells her she’s his bride.

Going from the family punching bag to a beloved jewel of a wealthy house isn’t an easy transition for the brain. Yuzu has to heal before she can trust Kiryuin. She’s been unloved for the majority of her life. The people who were supposed to love her the most mistreated her. How can a stranger just admit they love her out of nowhere? I like how Yuzu’s trauma isn’t swept under the rug. Kiryuin learns of the cruelty Yuzu experiences at the hands of her family, and he works to undo it. He never pressures her into anything and lets Yuzu experience love her own way. All he ever asks of her is to live a life that makes her happy.

I think The Ogre’s Bride is a refreshing romance anime. Yuzu isn’t just falling in love; she’s learning to let herself be loved. She’s accepting gifts and letting people do things for her. Kiryuin gives her a birthday gift with heartfelt notes for each of the birthdays he missed. He didn’t even know Yuzu existed a few days prior. Yuzu is a driven character, and her own love language is doing things for others. She insists she work for Kiryuin to be a productive member of the family she would be marrying into. She’s also soft-spoken and anxious. Her timid nature plays into the surface-level drama of the show. There are a handful of misunderstandings meant to make Yuzu question Kiryuin’s love. My jaw dropped when Kiryuin’s ex-fiancé told Yuzu he was secretly dating his male assistant. His ex-fiancé was surprisingly supportive and asked Yuzu to be understanding of their forbidden love. Yuzu actually befriends her after this. I liked that any misunderstandings were handled in the same episode. There was no large overarching rumor that hung over Yuzu and gave her doubt. The real drama was sibling rivalry.

No one wants to see Yuzu fail more than her younger sister. She purposefully puts her sister in harm’s way. Karin let Yuzu be horribly burned when she couldn’t borrow Yuzu’s new dress. Karin became horrendously jealous of Yuzu. Karin couldn’t stand to see her smile. I was so curious to know what made her hate her sister that passionately. Karin basically attempts murder out of pure rage.

I was surprised but delighted by the episode that’s all about Karin. I felt like I finally understood where her pure hate and rage came from. It was poor and greedy parenting. Karin originally loved Yuzu and looked out for her sister. Karin was always favored, but if she received a toy or got cake, she made sure Yuzu got some too. Karin was declared a bride at a young age, and her parents praised her, but exploited her immediately. She couldn’t grasp the manipulation at play. They told her how amazing she was. Karin saved the family from their money struggles. She could do no wrong, and that turned into a princess complex. Karin still attempted to look out for Yuzu for a while. Being called special and watching Yuzu get put down shifted something in Karin’s brain. She became more spoiled until she finally started abusing Yuzu too. As if it’s what she was supposed to do. When Yuzu became the bride of a more affluent demon, Karin was suddenly less special. Her title was stripped away as her parents tried to appease Yuzu for money. Karen was getting in trouble in a way she had never experienced and couldn’t handle it. She was no longer in the spotlight and felt like she was being abandoned. She was being told no for the first time in her life as a teen. Their parents really messed them up psychologically.

I wonder what it would be like if Yuzu and Karin’s parents never pitted them against each other. The parents would probably be well taken care of instead of being cursed to wander the woods for eternity. Which is a small punishment they receive. Karin, who always had everything at the tips of her fingers, lost it all. No longer accepted by the fox demon clan, she lost her bride status. I almost feel bad that, at the end of it all, Karin can no longer talk to the people who actually cared about her. She’s now probably going to be treated poorly by her parents as a failure for losing the bride title. They don’t care that she’s lost the only unconditional love she’s ever known. Yuzu still mourns her sister who she knows she’ll never see again, no matter what evil she’s done. I don’t think Yuzu blames her sister for being so angry.

The Ogre’s Bride wrapped up neatly with 12 episodes, and I don’t think it will receive a season two. I don’t think it needs a season two, but I kind of wanted to see their wedding. After years of being told she was nothing, Yuzu had to fight to start believing the one person who said she was special. It can be hard opening your heart to love when it’s been devoid of it for so long. I recommend watching The Ogre’s Bride to see the drama for yourself. Your jaw is going to drop. Would you believe a love-at-first-sight confession?