It falls off a bit towards the season's conclusion, because it's started doing stories about defeating baddies instead of its central couple, but I still loved the show. It's wonderful. It's about broken people healing each other... but in a fantasy world with dragons, militant religious paladins (the Angelic Knights), etc. Our messed-up heroes are:

Looks and talks like a supervillain, although less so than the show seems to think. (The character design wimped out.) This world's sorcerers are psychopaths, sneering at the concept of "friends" and strolling past unconcerned as people get robbed or murdered. They ignore ordinary people except as potential corpses to be broken down and used as magical catalysts. They believe in power and the strongest of them have a terrifying amount of it. The church regards them as evil enemies of humanity.

Zagan, though, isn't all bad. He was originally a street orphan, stealing to survive. He got taken in by a sorcerer who meant to use him as a catalyst, but Zagan killed him instead and is now living in a gloomy castle with dungeons and torture devices.

He's beyond incompetent at conversations. He'll default to a gloating evil tone that makes him cringe inside. He can't say what he means and he has no meaningful sex drive, because he lacks connection to other people. If he ever fell in love, he'd be a comedy train wreck. Well, guess what.

She was abused even by her own people, because of her appearance (white hair) and powers (weird nature-based magic). She thinks she shouldn't have been born. Her village got massacred and she was sold to a sorcerer to be killed and used as ingredients. Unsurprisingly, she's in a dark place psychologically. She's lost all hope and doesn't react to anything. She sometimes wonders how she'll be tortured and executed, but the idea of Zagan trying to be nice to her is so alien that initially she can't even process it.

She hates the Angelic Knights because of the death of her father. She attacks Zagan's castle. However, her human form looks like a child and what she really needs is parents.

Slavery is normal and people getting robbed and killed is an everyday sight. Sorcerers treat people as insects. If mages got hungry, I'm pretty sure they'd murder and eat you (or even each other). Recently, there's been a spate of serial killings as women get snatched for sorcerous experiments. The only people who can resist mages are Angelic Knights, who work for the all-powerful, slightly sinister church and it's unclear which side is worse. There are both good and bad Angelic Knights, with the good ones getting in trouble with their superiors and falling silent when challenged about their colleagues' behaviour.

That's dark, but the show is heartwarming. I couldn't get enough of seeing Zagan and Nephy heal each other. (The show's title includes the word "bride", but they're currently way too shy and socially incompetent for romance. Even children comment that it'll take them fifty years to find the courage to kiss.)

Zagan can stress out over the correct response to "good morning". He can't remember. Just talking like a human being is a work in progress that he never masters. Even eating in company gives him trouble. He can do upsetting things (e.g. episode 4), but even that plot development immediately creates new kinds of "heartwarming". As for Nephy, she gradually starts thawing into expressiveness and even sometimes made me laugh with goofy actions. Her powers are impressive too. Don't annoy the elf. When angry, she's scarier than Zagan.

Ultimately, this is a happy, fluffy show. It's feel-good. I loved it. My only complaint is that Nephy's sidelined in the final story arc, which undercuts my main reason for watching this series. Zagan on his own is just another magic-wielding anime protagonist and I couldn't care less about seeing him beat bad guys. I still want more of this anime, though. This season only covered the first two volumes of the original light novel series (which is a sensible pace, avoiding rushing through the material), which currently has 22 novels and counting. The anime could almost keep going forever. I hope it does, although I'm pretty sure later seasons wouldn't live up to this first one. Here, I'd often be rewinding to rewatch bits I particularly enjoyed.

"I wondered if I had seen something I shouldn't have and braced myself for death."