Honestly, I'm somewhat tired of many people clinging to typical stereotypes and age-gap tropes or making stupid and inappropriate jokes (those very dumb jokes that portray Dante as a pedophile), while the actual characters and their personalities are simply ignored.
Based on canonical materials (anime, games, manga) and the established dynamics of their relationship, accusing Dante of grooming and pedophilia would be incorrect, superficial, and would ignore the essence of their bond. This is a classic example of how blindly applying rigid social templates to unique, fictional circumstances leads to a false conclusion.
Here’s why this accusation falls apart when analyzing the facts:
1. The definition of grooming does not match his actions.
Grooming is the deliberate, systematic building of emotional connection and trust for the purpose of later exploitation, usually sexual. Key words: intentionality, strategy, gradual erosion of boundaries with a selfish goal.
· Dante's actions: During Patty's childhood (in the anime), he was a protector and temporary shelter in an extreme situation where her life was threatened by demons. His role was reactive and protective. After saving her and her mother, he did not maintain constant close contact, did not insert himself into her life as a mentor or authority figure, and did not manipulate her attachment. He returned to his own life — that of a lonely, down-on-his-luck devil hunter.
2. The dynamics of their adult relationship contradict the "victim-manipulator" schema.
· The initiative comes from Patty. All their communication in adulthood is initiated and maintained by her. She bursts into his office, she scolds him, she takes care of him, she openly and directly expresses her feelings. Dante, on the contrary, takes a passive-defensive position: he jokes, tries to brush her off, and attempts to maintain distance.
· She is the active subject; he is the "object" of her persistence. Patty is not under his spell or control. She chose him as the focus of her attachment, and her feelings are a complex mix of gratitude, admiration for his strength, and love for his vulnerable, human self. She sees his problems and consciously walks towards them.
3. The key factor is the absence of exploitation.
Dante does not use her feelings for his own benefit. On the contrary, her feelings are a source of discomfort and fear for him, from which he runs. He does not manipulate her for money, services, or emotional support (although she offers them). Essentially, he is the "victim" of her determination, not the other way around. Is this healthy? No. Is it grooming? Also no. It's a different, more complex dysfunction.
Accusing Dante of grooming means substituting a complex, unique psychological and plot context with a simplistic label.
The real problems of this pair lie in a completely different plane:
· Her fixation, born from childhood trauma and rescue.
· His emotional immaturity and flight from responsibility at any cost.
· An imbalance in readiness for a relationship: she is ready to invest her entire youth into healing his wounds, while he is afraid to accept even a drop of her care.
· The existential rift between her human mortality and his demonic longevity.
These problems are much more serious and interesting than the flat label of "grooming" or dumb jokes about pedophilia. They are about two traumatized people trying to find a connection against all odds, not about an exploiter and a victim. Focusing on grooming is not only incorrect but also distracts from understanding the real drama and the real risks they face — the risks of mutual emotional exhaustion, not a one-sided crime.
1. Patty's maturation, for Dante, is not a goal but a threat. Grooming implies anticipation and preparation for the moment when the object becomes "available." For Dante, this moment is the collapse of his inner world. When he suddenly notices that it's not a child but a beautiful young woman in front of him, it's not a triumph — it's panic. It means his last safe refuge — the role of "big brother" or "clumsy protector" — is crumbling. He has to deal not with an abstract "little girl" but with a specific, living, demanding young woman experiencing complex feelings towards him, including sexual attraction.
2. His tactic is not manipulation, but flight. "Brushing her off rudely" is not a strategy of control but a panicked reaction of a cornered animal. He tries to push her away not to pull her closer later, but in the hope that she will finally leave him alone and everything will return to understandable, albeit lonely, boundaries. Every joke, every retreat into himself, every mention of pizza is a barricade he hastily erects against the advance of her reality.
3. To him, she is "sacred," and therefore untouchable. This is a key point. In his perception, Patty is not an object of desire, but the keeper of that very simple, bright humanity which he long ago buried within himself or considers inaccessible. Touching her (literally and figuratively) is tantamount to desecrating the last pure thing in his life. His block is not moral, but existential. He believes his touch (his demonic blood, his burden of violence, his cynicism) will spoil, taint her.
4. Patty's puberty and awakening sexuality is an external, objective factor that complicates everything. It is a force controlled by neither him nor her. It just happens. And Dante is absolutely unprepared to deal with it because it transforms her feelings from a "cute childhood attachment" that can be ignored into an adult, physical demand requiring an adult response. And he is a master of evading any demands.
Dante is trapped between:
· Fear of desecrating the only bright thing he has.
· Fear of accepting responsibility for a living, fragile human feeling.
· Fear of losing his last connection to the normal world if he pushes her away for good.
And Patty, with her direct, emotional pressure, constantly confronts him with this trap. This is the drama and the comedy. There is no grooming. There is a fugitive who has been caught, and a captor who has no idea what to do with the captured beast except love him and be angry with him.
It should be noted that this is only my personal opinion and my personal interpretation.
