agendator

Self-awareness might be the best friend of otherwise average to bad shows. The most recent example of how this works well might be Boku no Hero Academia. It doesn't promise you anything it can't deliver. And you get exactly what you were looking for, nothing more, nothing less. Sounds like a fair deal, right? With that in mind, Dragon Maid tries to do the same - this time among the vast ocean of slice of life mediocrities. Many comment on the cute girls, casual humor, light fanservice and KyoAni's visuals. But what this show actually revolves around is often missed. Kobayashi is an office lady who used to live alone until Tohru and Kanna formed a family-like setup in her life. And that's it. How much becoming responsible for a family can change an adult? What Kobayashi's experience answers to us is that it won't change people at all. Sure, we do learn new things from raising a child, we do need to concede and make some sacrifices. That's why Kobayashi is the same person from episode one to the last. She's always the same laid-back, hard-working gal who loves a happy hour once in a while, with those dead-fish eyes to die for. And that's good enough. Unfortunately, the other aspects​ of this show are almost negligible. Side characters have any but surface-level purposes such as comic relief or fanservice. Also the setting doesn't make any difference. We could not have any dragons and it woudn't touch the purpose of the story. Having only Kanna, Kobayashi and Tohru introduced would not change the theme of the anime. What is redeeming though, is the self-awareness of this show. Whenever it takes a turn on fanservice, comedy or a heart warming moment, Dragon Maid knows what it is doing. And will be honest about it whenever possible. The best example of this is might be the "beach episode". It sure has a dose of fanservice, but soon we get to know a little more about Kobayashi and Tohru. The result is a heartening experience, instead of what a plain showcase of the girls' bodies would provide. This is far from being a sign of recovery by KyoAni, but it's already a step ahead. As expected from them, audiovisuals are of top-tier quality. Distinctive character designs, fluid animation, gorgeous backgrounds. All in a tradicional cartoonish style, uncommon to see in anime nowadays. OST might sound repetitive many times, but this doesn't bother at all. Also unskippable opening/ending songs make it up for the experience. Voice acting is on point too, with a special spotlight on Kanna and Kobayashi's voices - They stand out above the rest in their characterizations. Sometimes making it simple is the best. Sometimes we need a more human, light hearted story to sit and relax after a long day. It's time for the industry to try to be more honest, sensitive, and human on anime. Let's hope that KyoAni gets the message. Let's make this the starting point. And one more word: Kobayashi is the best girl.

kyuusaku

img220(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gpj4fhQs86Y/maxresdefault.jpg) I loved this series. A series like this with a premise like that doesn't ordinarily make my radar, and it seems like the trend for the past couple of years has been around the "monster girl" sub-genre of stories being animated in Japan.  However, _Meidragon_ is bit different than something along the lines of 2015 Summer's [_Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou_](https://anilist.co/anime/21093/MonsterMusumenoIruNichijou), [_Demi-chan wa Kataritai_](https://anilist.co/anime/97592/DemichanwaKataritai) (which I'll be reviewing later), or the offering from this season (2017 Summer), [_Centaur no Nayami_](https://anilist.co/anime/98519/CentaurnoNayami).  In this series, rather than the characters being outwardly obvious as to the nature of their being, Touru's transformation is done with the intent to hide that nature outright.  That adds a layer of comedy to the series that's missing in the others, all of which seem to simply accept that Monster hyrbids or Demi-humans exist and are therefore receive governmental administration in some fashion. The other aspect of this show that I thoroughly enjoyed was the fact that it is a predominantly female cast of characters engaged in the overall plot.  Any other similar premise would involve at least one male central character to give the hetero-normative approach typically seen in these cases.  In _Meidragon_, however, we have an adult woman being the central character which Touru finds herself hopeless devoted to (much to Kobayashi's chagrin) was utterly refreshing.  I enjoyed watching that play out over thirteen episodes, and also appreciated the divergence from one of the tried-and-true settings of a high school or that Kobayashi would've been hyper-sexualized in some fashion. In fact, we see Kobayashi being a contributing member of society; doing her work and overcoming the adversity presented by her projects and the overbearing balding boss who seems to only speak in ALL CAPS all the time.  Her closest work associate is a closeted otaku, Makoto, who doesn't seem to be interested in her other than as a confidant in their shared sociologically-shunned hobbies.  The relationships and conversation surrounding Kobayashi definitely pass the [Bechdel test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test), which is pretty unusual for most anime. As a character, I found Kobayashi to very interesting given the unusual living situation that she finds herself in as a result of her drunken expedition.  She's level-headed, kind, warm-hearted, keeps her cool in tense moments, and often is the single voice of clarity and reason.  She is an ideal in terms of what's needed for the purpose of telling this kind of story, but in that presents a strength of character not often seen in female anime characters.  She is neither _tsundere_ or _yandere_, she doesn't react disproportionately violent to comedic misunderstandings (in fact, the complete opposite), she doesn't spend a majority of the anime pining over someone else, and she is perfectly fine with living alone and keeping her own company.  Over time, her typical desire to live alone is altered as she comes to enjoy the company of her new maid and friend in Touru.  The development of the Kobayashi character from the beginning to the final episode had me investing emotionally, and I cared enough to see the whole thing through to the end to find out what happens. Where Kobayashi's appearance is low-key, Touru's is not.  Between the two central characters, Touru is definitely sexualized in that she's busty and curvy, as you would imagine an anime dragon-girl to be.   In fact, three of the five dragons transform into super-sexy human analogues.  The other two are a butler-looking guy (Fafnir) and an elementary school-aged girl (Kanna).  Over time, though, even that visual becomes less of a factor for me (until Lucoa shows up and she went with a structurally unsound level of endowment).  The comedy surrounding the physical attributes is more in line with the comedy I'd find in a series like [_Oruchuban Ebichu_](https://anilist.co/anime/1060/OruchubanEbichu) than anything else. Touru and Kobayashi's relationship form the core of the series, and in this it begins as a standard fantasy component of the meet-cute between two people.  Touru's upbringing as a dragon often serves as the basis for most of the comedy, which is fantastic because it shows the aforementioned cool-headed nature of Kobayashi in dealing with a dragon's solutions to everyday human life in urban Japan. In the very first episode, Kobayashi's meeting with Touru before work results in her being late.  Touru's solution is to reform into a dragon and fly Kobayashi straight to work, while casting an invisibility spell to prevent those on the ground from looking up and seeing a huge green dragon flying overhead.  The visual tickled me and Kobayashi's thought-process is revealed as she's coming around to seeing the virtue of having Touru around. Speaking from a technical perspective, I enjoyed the animation style a lot.  I thought it matched the style of the story perfectly, and the direction remained on point in presenting each episode's halves.  The overall feel of the average episode reminded me of [_Azumanga Daiou_](https://anilist.co/anime/66/AzumangaDaioh), which forced me to go online to find out if _Meidragon_ was also a yonkoma (four cell manga or newspaper comic strip).  It turns out that it's not; it's (still) a monthly running in Monthly Action.  I loved the interstitials they used to separate the individual stories, like the animated version of the horizontal line to make it clear that this is a line of demarcation. Musically, I loved the themes.  Upbeat numbers both, beginning with the opening in "Aozora no Rhapsody" by the band fhána, and matched with the ending "Ishukan Communication" by the seiyuu of the series, Yūki Kuwahara (Touru), Maria Naganawa (Kanna), Minami Takahash (Lucoa)i, and Yūki Takada (Elma).  The slate of background music for this series delivered as well, composed by Masumi itou. While this is supposed to be a "slice-of-life" genre series, the nature of the life being sliced changed from episode to episode.  I felt that at its core, _Meidragon_ was almost a love letter to its manga fans, as a lot of the (sub)titles of the episodes seemed to indicated in-jokes to stories presented in that format.  Even under those circumstances, this was a highly enjoyable series, and accessible to wide variety of fans looking for an off-the-wall concept grounded in a sound premise.

beanwolf

This show is a real treat all around: great relaxed mood coming from a good adaptation of a 4-panel manga, downright adorable character designs, KyoAni polish and sakuga at the best times, and inadvertently the most wholesome yuri romance in recent memory. Although at first glance this show seems to pandering to the monster girl "genre" pretty heavily, it really doesn't have much to do with the dragons themselves (and yes, 70% of the characters are dragons) but rather with their unique and over-the-top personalities. We experience these personalities through the lens of Kobayashi, a young woman working as programmer. She starts off guarded, as anyone would in the presence of powerful supernatural beings, but she slowly opens up and comes into the role of "mother" to all these wayward dragons looking to understand and reconcile to varying degrees with the human world. This leads to all sorts of "wacky" situations that you would expect from a slice-of-life comedy like this, but with its own definitive fantasy and KyoAni flair. The "romance" between Kobayashi and Tohru is mostly played off for comedic purposes, but some of the more emotional scenes show off just how heartwarming their strange relationship can be. It's a yuri romance presented without fanfare or (real) fanservice which is so much of a rarity that I'd hazard to say that it doesn't really exist, and it's really a treat to watch. Like any primarily slice-of-life show, Maid Dragon rides and dies with its characters. This is a good thing, because characterization is a something that I think the show does better than almost all of its contemporaries. All of our core cast have pretty clear-cut goals and motivations with the exception of maybe one (Lucoa), and they play off each other well. A lot of the comedy stems from misunderstandings and misinterpretations of human culture from the dragons, and although that was probably what we were expecting, it's executed pretty well. By overcoming these challenges our characters grow closer together as a family, with both the dragons and Kobayashi learning to care and rely on one another. If I had any complaint about the characters or "plot" in Maid Dragon, it would be the Kanna/Saikawa stuff. I originally read it as innocent, but the joke definitely went too far at some points and was even more "out-of-tone" than the Lucoa/Shouta comedic bits. Whether or not this bothers you is up to your own reading of it, but honestly it just really plays against Kanna's cutesy and innocent personality. In the audio and visual department, Maid Dragon might just be the most impressive of the season, which might strike you as odd for a genre that isn't really known for having very many opportunities to create very expressive movement. Since KyoAni had a lot of freedom in adapting this manga due to its 4-panel nature, they were able to add a large amount of anime-original sections and heavily expand the interpretations of individual panels. What results is an incredible amount of pure sakuga scenes that really show off just how talented KyoAni's staff is, and they can absolutely jaw dropping to watch. Their animators are also no stranger to the importance of detail, and are masters of their craft when it comes to minute but impactful facial expression. Although far more exaggerated due to the show's tone, I'd put Maid Dragon on the same level of facial detail animation as Kyoukai no Kanata, another KyoAni show that went out of its way to budget-dump into these kinds of details. Furthermore, the music is goddamn near perfect. I couldn't even begin to bring myself to skip the OP or ED once, and the happy and bright orchestral string pieces that are peppered throughout each episode really help keep the tone light and fun. Some more dramatic piano-based pieces also nail those occasionally heavy character-to-character moments, adding just that much more punch to those rare scenes when they occur. Overall Maid Dragon was an absolute treat, and anyone who enjoys a good slice-of-life or comedy (or yuri) should definitely give it a look. I'd risk to say that it would be one of my top recommendations in-genre, even next to stuff like K-On!

OVERPOWERED99

img(https://orig00.deviantart.net/463e/f/2018/247/9/1/kobayashi_san_chi_no_maid_dragon_score_banner_by_overpowered99-dcm0hiz.gif) Hmm, the mundane side of things in life. Do they really contain more than just activities described as being unexciting? Well, how about we take that exact question and spice it up with a bit of fantasy and imaginative writing? The result? Say hello to the wonderful slice-of-life anime titled Maid Dragon! Dragons in a human world. They're powerful, quirky, quite bouncy indeed, and one apparently wears a maid outfit. In the eyes of programmer Kobayashi and ours as well, you can say the ordinary is becoming rather extraordinary... and quickly too! Now, a combination of oddness and conventionality might be a bizarre thing. But here's where I tell you how this show has succeeded in putting a refreshing twist to the slice-of-life genre. At first glance, it's only a fuzzy and cute display. True, however, there's more to this than just heart-tugging sweetness. These dragons, who have little knowledge about humans, are given the chance to experience the goodness of human nature by meshing with the world of people. Pretty much everything in an everyday life. From what we do, how we communicate, what we enjoy, and how we bond. In their eyes, they are shown all these ordinary circumstances that we find as mundane and repetitive, but to them, they feel a different kind of specialness and become appreciate of it. They've grown attached to it. Like a reflection reminding us that we too can be grateful with an ordinary lifestyle. This, together with Kobayashi who now has her life livened up by eccentricities, speaks for a fun filled with many heartwarmers. And you know what? A fantasy day-to-day full of dragons, I can definitely appreciate such a quirky family. Yep. Life is such dullness? Such monotone? Let's erase all that! Because the human world where this family resides in is a world brightened up by the colors of innocence and cartoony toons. Glee replaces humdrums and peculiarity replaces the usual. Every nooks and crannies envisioned from a combination of fantasy and slice-of-life, drizzled with some comedy, are animated with a lot of activity. Hey, even the fan service got that treatment as well, overemphasized or not. There's the blobby highlights nailing down the child-like look while detailed eyes refresh them as the fire-breathing beasts they rightfully are. And to soften everything up, the pastel-styled backgrounds subdue these characters against an ordinary world. As their attachment to the world grows, their expressions show both blissful and heart-warming growths. Which is something wonderful to see. It's even more precious in how there's so many emotions pronounced through the voice acting. Lively, adorable, loving. Each of this brings out Kobayashi's and the dragons' whole personality out to form them as a family. And finishing things off, the soundtracks serve as an addition that harmonize the odd and normal together. While mostly bustling with lightheartedness, the tempo can slow down into a gentle and mellow maturity, paving way to a sincerity this show has its roots in. Oh, plus the catchy opening too. Chu chu yeah! So there you have it. Maid Dragon is a slice-of-life show that really knows how to unpack what its genre is all about. It reminds us about the positivity contained within the everyday setting that we live in. The mundane? Not anymore with these dragons. A life of no excitement has now transformed into something truly hearty, and that is certainly a wonderful thing.

Darielquinta

~~~ Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Review~~~ >“I have not fallen enough to introduce myself to dust like you.” - Tohru :( I am going to admit this right now. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid isn’t a masterpiece. There are a lot of things that I don’t like about it. Even so, I still personally think it's good for a number of reasons. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __General Information (MyAnimeList)__ - Type: TV - Episodes: 13 (+ OVA and Specials) - Aired: Jan 12, 2017 to Apr 6, 2017 - Producers: Lantis, Pony Canyon, ABC Animation, Kyoto Animation - Source: Manga - Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Fantasy [MyAnimeList ](https://myanimelist.net/anime/33206/Kobayashi-san_Chi_no_Maid_Dragon) | [Crunchyroll ](http://www.crunchyroll.com/miss-kobayashis-dragon-maid)| [AnimeNewsNetwork](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=18807) Facts: - According to [ANN](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2018-02-23/miss-kobayashi-dragon-maid-manga-has-1.2-million-copies-in-print/.128191), the manga had sold 1.2 million copies in total. - The anime won the “Best Comedy” award at Crunchyroll’s 2017 Anime Awards. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Story MyAnimeList: “...the circumstances behind the dragon's arrival on Earth seem to be much more complicated than at first glance, as Tooru bears some heavy emotions and painful memories. To top it all off, Tooru's presence ends up attracting several other mythical beings to her new home, bringing in a host of eccentric personalities. Although Kobayashi makes her best effort to handle the crazy situation that she has found herself in, nothing has prepared her for this new life with a dragon maid.” Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is set in the human world. Kobayashi works at an office job and one day encounters a dragon with a sword stuck on it’s back. She surprisingly removes it and the dragon is saved, introducing itself as Tohru. Tohru wants to return the favor by becoming Kobayashi’s maid. Along the way they encounter other dragon friends and crazy experiences. The story is pretty unique and not half bad, however there seemed to be an endless amount of possibilities, and so I feel it could have been better. For example, Tohru destroying the universe. This plot was hinted at once in the anime, with Tohru saying that she can destroy the world easily. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Characters Kobayashi: A woman who has an office job and lives in an apartment. She is kind-hearted to her friends and the people around her but when she’s drunk, she’s less serious, more careless and, well, how a drunk person acts. She was a pretty good character in the anime. Tohru: Dragon from the dragon realm that was saved by Kobayashi while she was drunk. After that day, she started living with Kobayashi, became her dragon maid, and even loved her. She was a weird and unique character that at the end of the day was a good character overall. Kanna Kamui: Dragon and Tohru’s friend. Because she pulled too many pranks, she was forced to leave the dragon realm. She goes to Oborozuka Elementary School as a third grader, as she is very young. She is a very cute and funny character in the show, similar to Tohru. She was the main character for the punchlines/humor. Elma: Another character from the Dragon Realm. She was once friends with Tohru but then Tohru started hating her for eating too much, and after that they became rivals. I feel that she wasn’t necessary in the anime and was used for filler moments/arcs. However, on 7/4 they announced a monthly manga based on Elma’s daily life, so at least this has a happy ending. Lucoa (Quetzalcoatl): Former dragon goddess and is friends with Tohru. She stopped being a goddess after she drank cursed wine, and it went off from there. She’s kind and wise, but lacks common sense. She’s probably the worst character in this series, mainly for her stupidity and pedo attitude towards Shouta. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Romance Let’s speak about the most popular relationship in the anime, Kobayashi and Tohru. It is very evident that Tohru is deeply in love with Kobayashi. Every episode incorporates this relationship into the anime as a punchline, and my advice would be not to repeat a joke over and over again and expect it to still be funny. However, I still think the relationship is cute in the anime. Even though Kobayashi doesn’t show any affection of love back to her in the anime, she actually does in the manga, which is surprising. While Kanna was in school, Riko loved Kanna, similar to how Tohru loved Kobayashi. Both do love each other, as seen when Kanna agrees with Riko that they should get married. There are other relationships not mentioned here, but most of them are funny, the reason being how ridiculous they are. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Humor Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid has humor, it just doesn’t execute it well. They use repetition as humor throughout the anime, especially for the romances. Kanna is probably the funniest character in the series. For example, when she accuses Kobayashi for seducing Tohru into living with her, it was honestly pretty funny. Tohru always tries to make Kobayashi eat her (regenerating) tail that is poisonous. It’s a good joke as it wasn’t overused, but there wasn’t an actual good/real reason why she would do this, other than to show her affection. Kobayashi is flat-chested, which creates a running gag whenever she sees someone that isn’t (which is always). As you can see, the anime has humor, it just doesn’t use it correctly at all times. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Audio There are no audio errors (or any obvious ones) throughout the anime. The opening theme and ending theme are both amazing and catchy. One thing that I despised about the anime is the dubbed version by Funimation. There was a lot of controversy about them changing things that don’t fit in at all. For example, in a scene with Lucoa and Tohru, Lucoa explains why she’s more clothed than usual. “Everyone was always saying something to me, so I tried toning down the exposure. How is it?” The dub, however, changes what she said more to their fitting. I personally don’t feel it was right to do something like this. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Final Thoughts Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is an anime that I’d go back to re-watch. It’s a slice of life, so it doesn’t need context with whatever episode you watch. It also has good humor, which made me laugh a lot of the time. The characters are unique in their own way and their plots are good too. Overall, I honestly enjoy it for many reasons and I hope you do too. But hey, that’s my opinion, what’s yours? ~~~Score: 8.42/10 (84/100)~~~ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sources: - [MyAnimeList](https://myanimelist.net/anime/33206/Kobayashi-san_Chi_no_Maid_Dragon) - [AniDB](http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=12091) - [Japanese Official Website](http://maidragon.jp/) - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Kobayashi%27s_Dragon_Maid#Anime) - [AnimeNewsNetwork](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=18807) - [Wikia](http://maid-dragon.wikia.com/wiki/Kobayashi-san_Chi_no_Maid_Dragon_Wiki)

CryingLad

# [~~~**This show good, Imma talk indepth about it.**~~~]()
Fun lil Anime about a dragon who becomes a maid cause a tired office worker got drunk and said they liked maids. [**PREMISE:**]() Maid Dragon focuses on an office worker named Kobayashi. She finds Tohru randomly and then drinks with her, because of Kobayashi's nonchalant behaviour she fell in love with her. Kobayashi drunkily said she likes maids and so Tohru become one and insterted her self into Kobayashi's house. The rest of the show is about Tohru learning how to become the best maid and spending a lot of time with Kobayashi, Kanna also makes an apperance. Kanna is just so cute, she is basically the whole pinnacle of the show. The sheer amount of cuteness Kanna posses should be illegal. ~~~img420(https://66.media.tumblr.com/d8634198ee6d28d784bad8a56957aa8d/tumblr_olgcm7gX3K1skbmyho1_r1_400.gifv)~~~
[**CHARACTERS:**]() There are many characters in Maid Dragon: **Kobayashi** - The main character, she is an office worker who is so done with life. She at first didn't want Tohru but soon enough took her in. She might not show it but she cares about Tohru, though she does a lot of affection towards Kanna very much. **Tohru** - The dragon that works as a maid for Kobayashi, she is basically in love with Kobayashi. She has incredible strength and speed in her human form. She is eager to learn how to improve her maid ethic. She is honestly one of the best maids out there imo . **Kanna** - The loli that took over the internet. She is so cute and precious. My heart melted each time she appeared on the screen. She behaves just like a child would and goes to a school as well. Kobayashi really does treat her like her own child. So fun to see. **Lucoa** - The big tiddy dragon. She is more on the "ara ara shota-kun" side. But she is also a great character. She likes to pester a young "wizard" who summoned her. **Elma** - She isn't on good terms with Tohru, she does end up working in the same company as Kobayashi. She is easily influenced by food. She will do **anything** for food. **Fafnir** - He doesn't really have much screen time. At first he didn't really like humans but once he saw video games he was hooked. He just can't stop playing. He is such a gamer. ~~~img420(https://i.imgur.com/f5rc0p2.gif)~~~
[**ART/ANIMATION:**]() The animation is fantastic, I mean its KyoAni animating it afterall. The art style is also really good, nice and colourful with thicc lines which is amazing imo. It's really smooth and fluid and really stands out from a lot of other SOL anime. ~~~img420(https://pa1.narvii.com/6351/e3e1e0575fcb75c3d72f2df7109e2f9fad7e0117_hq.gif)~~~
[**MUSIC:**]() The OP is such a bop, aozora no rhapsody is great. So is the ED, I honestly have been listening to them so much over the time. The OST is also really good in this show. KyoAni does know how to make their shows. ~~~img420(https://i.makeagif.com/media/2-18-2018/XfXw0a.gif)~~~
[**OVERALL OPINION:**]() Maid Dragon is a SOL that manages to breath something fresh into the genre, the concept seems so generic and yet the twist of dragons is just so fun. I honestly cannot wait for season 2 to air.

kyuki

Lovely Anime! This anime is the perfect mix of things you'll need if you enjoy Yuri/Fantasy anime! They don't go over the top like in some other Yuri animes, this one is more of a comedy! Which I personally really enjoyed. The characters have so much detail in them and they each have their very own personalities, dislikes, likes, etc. No character is the same! For example; Kanna - Kanna is a adorable dragon in the show! She's soft-spoken and most of her thoughts are shown through motions, actions, and very short clips of her speaking. She's 7000 (As a dragon) but acts exactly like a 5 to 7 year old child. Tohru - "Tohru was raised to hate humans and was supposed to be a fierce and dangerous force of evil with nothing other than destruction in mind. However, this all changed when she met Kobayashi. Overall, Tohru is warm, loving and responsible." Koybayashi - "Even though Kobayashi maintains a cool demeanor, she has been regarded as kind-hearted and reliable among her friends and colleagues. Level-headed and pragmatic, she stands as the source of reason when dealing with her dragon friends." Quetzalcoatl (Nickname Lucoa) - "She is a calm, easy-going and laid back dragon, and has much better perception when it comes to what consists of normal human behavior (except, perhaps, for Elma). However, she easily gets flustered if her past is mentioned" Moving away from the characters for now, the overall anime has so many great details and so much is shown in it that makes it automatically puts it in my top 10. Examples - adorable scenes of dragon playful fights, cute eating scenes, etc. This anime gets even more points (in my opinion) because the girls have love/hate relationships with eachother. A few times Tohru does "foolish things only a dragon would do" and sometimes she really does help! Miss Koybayashi did accidentally hire tohru after all, as said in episode 1, so they didn't exactly have time to know each other beforehand. Personally I think that small detail really changed some things! They didn't know a lot about each other which resulted in Koybayashi and Tohru to have small scenes together! Which I thought made a small difference. To end it off here, this anime deserves more in my opinion. It's unique and adorable. From the characters, to the plot, even all the way down to the art! I can't say I regret watching this anime, Honestly I would consider rewatching this! Even just rewatching all the adorable scenes make me love the anime even more than I already do! If you're deciding whether to watch this anime or to skip it, reconsider and watch it! You won't regret your experience with this anime! Overall I think this anime really had a lot of effort put into it and is a anime that is worth watching.

HidamariSeashore

Move out of the way, catgirls! We've got a new thing coming from Japan, and those are dragon girls! As if that's not enough, they've got dragon girls that are maids! In all seriousness, I first discovered this anime when I found out it was getting an anime adaptation; I was, at first, just slightly intrigued because of it being based off of the same mangaka as Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken, but when it was announced that Kyoto Animation would be the animation studio behind it, I decided that I was going to watch it for sure. I even read the manga to prepare myself for the anime, and it was rather amusing, to say the least. Despite all of this, however, I still wasn't prepared for exactly how good this anime was going to be. Ladies and gentlemen, dragon maids all around, here is my review of "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon", known in English as "Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid". Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon begins when Kobayashi, an office worker, finds a dragon standing at her door that day; the dragon then proceeds to transform into a cute girl with D (for dragon)-cup breasts and introduces herself as Tohru. As it turns out, Kobayashi and Tohru met on the mountains one night when the former had taken a drunken excursion there and the latter got defeated and fled to this other world; seeing that she had nowhere to go, Kobayashi offers Tohru to live with her. As a result, Tohru has arrived to not only accept her offer, but she has also become her maid! Albeit reluctant at first, Kobayashi agrees to let Tohru stay. With Tohru around, it's needless to say that Kobayashi's life has gotten more interesting, especially with other dragons arriving in this world, too. I'll say this first, just to get it out of the way and prevent me gushing over it too much; the animation from Kyoto Animation is, once again, a sight to behold. With its fluid movement, simple (although simplicity is perfect for an anime like this) backgrounds, and cute character designs, it goes without question that the folks at KyoAni has provided excellent animation once more. The voice acting is pretty solid, too; the voice actors do their best with their respective roles, and not only do they succeed, they also seem to be having fun with their roles. The opening and ending themes, which are respectively "Aozora no Rhapsody" by fhana and "Isshuukan Communication" by Choro-gonzu (the seiyuus for Tohru, Kanna, Elma, and Lucoa), are also excellent songs that both fit this anime's atmosphere to a T. As for the story, it's rather simplistic; if you're looking for an anime that has both dragons and a complicated plot, you're not going to find the latter, so unless you're just going to settle for the dragons, I suggest looking elsewhere. It's not a huge problem for me, though; as a fan of slice of life anime, I enjoyed the story this anime had to tell. There were also quite a few jokes that were thrown my way that made me bust up laughing. For example, there is one running gag where one character, Saikawa, goes crazy for another character, Kanna, in certain situations; those moments never failed to make me laugh, especially because of the facial expressions she has as a result. Now, let's talk about the driving force behind Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, and that is its characters. Kobayashi is a rather standard protagonist, but even she has her moments of amusement; that, along with the strong bonds she has with Tohru, Kanna, and other characters in the series, made her a great character through my eyes. Tohru is also a fun character; her energetic personality and genuine determination to make Kobayashi happy make it easy for the audience to root for her. However, the best character is, without a doubt, Kanna; her antics are definitely adorable, and every time she was on screen, a smile never failed to grow on my face. There is also a great number of lovable supporting characters, such as Saikawa (for reasons I've already mentioned), Takiya, and Fafnir; all of the supporting cast have a role in bringing color and life to this anime. Overall, Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon is an extremely well-executed anime. If you're in for a cute slice-of-life/fantasy anime, you're in for a real treat. After all, who can pass up dragon girls, especially if they're dragon maids?

gabrielz8

[ENG] (TL;DR at the end) "Sometimes it's better to have nobody, because that way nobody hurts you, nobody deceives you, nobody use you and nobody leaves you..." Interesting phrase, isn't it? It's funny to imagine that we, beings who were shaped to live in a society, are increasingly inclined to deny this normality in order to live alone and isolated in this world. There are countless reasons why someone might think like that, and if you ended up identifying yourself with that phrase, you know very well what I'm talking about... You probably have heard that relationships, trust and even love are very complicated matters, but nobody explains why they are so complicated in the first place, since, if we stop to think about it, it is not difficult to trust something or love someone, but the problem is precisely when that pure and sincere feeling is destroyed in our hearts, and finally we learn how painful it can be, opening up wounds in our hearts that will be difficult to heal Everyone goes through this in life, and some people do what is considered “normal”, which is learn from the mistakes, hold their heads high and try again, but for other people, this destruction is something so painful and traumatic that they end up isolating themselves from everything and everyone, preferring to live alone than risk getting hurt again. And the interesting thing, which is very well explored in the Anime, is that this “isolation” can happen in different ways, either physically locking yourself away from society, or even isolating the feelings inside your heart. This can be seen, in one way or another, in all the characters of the Anime, but let's focus on Kobayashi herself Despite having “dead fish eyes” that are somewhat terrifying, she is an incredible, intelligent, kind, caring and very reliable person, whether with her colleagues at work or even with Takiya, who is her drinking buddy, and even with all these characteristics, she lives in the same way that we found her at the beginning of the Anime, completely alone Little is revealed of Kobayashi's past, and even of what her life was like before Tohru appeared, but at various times it shows that she is someone that who got hurt in the past and who is afraid to try again, be the fact that she's only sincere when completely drunk, show that she is a very wise person about life, and that wisdom usually comes with pain, give signs that she had a very lonely childhood, and so on; But the interesting thing is that, despite being hurt, she did not physically isolate herself from society, as she continues to interact with people and even made a good friend, but rather isolated her feelings, since she keeps all these people at a “safe distance”, that is, close to chat and interact, but never anything else. That is explored further in the eighth episode, when Tohru realizes this on Kobayashi, gets sad and asks why she doesn't show any kind of affection for her, and Kobayashi finally reveals that: “Tohru, I’m not used to being wanted, that’s never happened to me before, I don’t have a clue what to do about it...often I think human relationships are just confusing, sometimes I even put distance between mysef and others, I’ve had friends, but never close friends...” TL;DR And that is the main message behind the story, it is not to show all Tohru's effort to win Kobayashi's heart, but actually show Kobayashi herself overcoming this fear of getting hurt again, and allowing herself to receive all the love and affection from the people around her. That what's truly complicated in a relationship: isn't to love someone, but is to allow someone to love you Bellow there is a video link, entitled “This Anime Will Teach You About Love”, which better analyzes the Anime and its premise as a whole, making this review even more accurate (Please turn on the English Sub for it). [PT-BR] (TL;DR no final) “Às vezes é bom não ter ninguém, porque assim ninguém te machuca, ninguém te engana, ninguém te ilude e ninguém vai embora...” Frase bem interessante, não é mesmo? Engraçado imaginar que nós, seres que foram moldados para viver em uma sociedade, estamos cada vez mais inclinados a negar essa normalidade para vivermos sozinhos e isolados nesse mundo. Existem inúmeros motivos pelas quais alguém pode pensar assim, e se você acabou se identificando com essa frase, sabe muito bem do que estou falando... Você provavelmente já deve ter ouvido que relacionamentos, confiança e até amor são assuntos bem complicados, mas ninguém te explica do porque eles são tão complicados para início de conversa, já que, se pararmos para pensar, não é difícil confiar em algo ou amar alguém. Mas o problema é justamente quando esse sentimento puro e sincero é destruído em nossos corações, e enfim aprendemos o quão doloroso isso pode ser, podendo abrir feridas em nossos corações que serão dificilmente curadas. Todo mundo passa por isso na vida, e parte das pessoas faz o que é considerado “normal”, que é aprender com os erros, levantar a cabeça e tentar de novo, porém, para outras pessoas, essa destruição é algo tão doloroso e traumatizante que elas acabam se isolando de tudo e de todos, preferindo viver sozinhas do que arriscar se machucar mais uma vez. E o interessante, e que é muito bem explorado no Anime, é que esse tal “isolamento” pode acontecer de diferentes formas, seja fisicamente se trancando da sociedade, ou até mesmo isolando os sentimentos dentro do coração. Isso é trabalhado, de uma maneira ou de outra, em todos os personagens da obra, mas vamos focar na Kobayashi em si. Apesar de ter “olhos de peixe morto” que são de certa forma aterrorizantes, ela é uma pessoa incrível, inteligente, bondosa, carinhosa e muito confiável, seja com os colegas do trabalho ou até mesmo com o Takiya, que é seu amigo de bebedeira. E mesmo com todas essas características, ela vive da mesma maneira que a encontramos no começo do Anime, completamente sozinha. Pouco é revelado do passado da Kobayashi, e até mesmo de como era a sua vida antes da Tohru aparecer, mas em vários momentos mostra que ela é uma dessas pessoas que já se machucou no passado e que está com medo de tentar mais uma vez: Seja o fato de só ser sincera quando está completamente bêbada, se mostrar ser uma pessoa bem sábia sobre a vida, e essa sabedoria geralmente vem com a dor, dar sinais de que teve uma infância bem solitária, e assim por diante; Mas o interessante é que, apesar de ter se machucado, ela não se isolou fisicamente da sociedade, pois continua interagindo com as pessoas e até fez um bom amigo, e sim isolou os seus sentimentos, já que mantém todas essas pessoas em uma “distância segura”, ou seja, perto para conversar e interagir, mas nunca nada além disso. Isso é explorado mais afundo no oitavo episódio, quando Tohru percebe isso na Kobayashi, fica triste e questiona do porque ela não demonstra nenhum tipo de carinho por ela, e Kobayashi enfim revela que: “Tohru, eu não estou acostumada a ser desejada, isso nunca tinha acontecido comigo antes, eu nem sei o que fazer...normalmente acho relações humanas confusas, às vezes até me distancio dos outros, eu tive amigos, mas nunca amigos próximos...” TL;DR E é essa a principal mensagem por trás da obra, não é mostrar todo o esforço da Tohru em conquistar o coração da Kobayashi, mas na verdade é mostrar a Kobayashi superando esse medo de se machucar mais uma vez, e se permitindo receber todo o amor e carinho das pessoas à sua volta. Isso que é realmente complicado em um relacionamento, não é amar o próximo, e sim permitir que o próximo ame você. Segue o link do vídeo, intitulado de “Esse Anime vai te Ensinar sobre o Amor”, que analisa melhor a obra e sua premissa como um todo, tornando essa review ainda mais precisa. [Link of the Video](https://youtu.be/Of6FkskW-SU)

Junomonogatari

#__~~~Kobayashi-san no Chi no Maidragon~~~__ --- This anime adaptation of the [manga](https://anilist.co/manga/86303/Kobayashisan-Chi-no-Maidragon/), serialized with the same name, is about Tohru, a dragon; and Kobayashi, a stiff officer. The story revolves around the daily events taking place in Tohru's life on the Earth. Expectedly, being a dragon would give her many strange but funny adventures along with her friends. In this review, I am going to explain the reasons why I think you should watch this anime, taking into account factors such as plot, characters and animation. ~~~img350(https://media0.giphy.com/media/10cPOH26Lb1LkA/giphy.gif)~~~ Whether you are a KyoAni fan or not, one does not need to be into the studio —or even anime in general— to catch up with Kobayashi. This anime, yes, is simple, but it is also fun, and nothing else matters. Kobayashi could be a good anime to get into Mostly-female Cast format. The characters, whom I am going to write about later, are heart-warming and unique among themselves. When I initially watched the first episodes of this anime I had high expectations; after all, Kyoto Animation had been my favorite studio for quite a while. That aside, Kobayashi met my expectations, perhaps not that much, but enough to make me enjoy every episode of this anime. That said, I shall get into the matter and give my opinion on some aspects that I liked about this anime. Regarding the plot, Kobayashi is really simple and easy to catch, which is not harmful to the enjoyment of this anime. As you may already expect, this is a slice of life that only tries to get a smile out of you. It's got not so much drama for you to cry but it is not shallow. This KyoAni adaptation could be a great choice to watch on a boring weekend. This anime has laughs assured. Also, I want to point out that [Naoko Yamada](https://anilist.co/staff/102498/Naoko-Yamada) worked on this project. Thus, it would likely be a good show. ~~~img350(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/EnlightenedRigidAurochs-size_restricted.gif)~~~ On the other hand, regarding the characters, this anime is full of heartening dragon and human girls. They are cute girls doing cute things; though being a dragon would get them into bizarre situations. I feel confident to say that you would identify with at least one character of this anime. Although most of them are dragons, they have strongly set personalities and traits. Thus, they might appeal to you if you let them. Furthermore, as they are dragons trying to fit in the human contemporary society, it is really fun to watch them go shopping or even work as full-timers. ~~~img350(https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/187/187824.gif)~~~ Finally, when it comes to animation, I am not too demanding but I am aware that it is an important factor for many people. Kobayashi does not have the best animation made by KyoAni but they gave attention to this project just as they do with any other. Compliments aside, the characters of this anime have cute designs that appeal more to prettiness rather than realism or detail. To summarize, you should watch Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon. This anime is fun, entertaining and easy to follow. __Reviewer notes:__ ~!This was supposed to be my first review in Spanish but I started to write in English. When I realized this, it was already too late to start over. I hope you enjoyed this review and found it useful for you to learn more about Kobayashi before watching it. Please give me some feedback so I can improve my writing, I always try my best since English is my second tongue. About Kobayashi, I hadn't planned at firsts to make this review but I promised to. I am a KyoAni fan, as you might have realized while reading this review.!~ __IMPORTANT:__~! This is a re-upload of a review that I wrote in an account I no longer use. I made sure of deleting the original one in the account I had it in so that this wouldn't be self-plagiarism and moderators marked it as such.!~

JULESWK

>___Si llegas a ver algún punto verde sobre el cielo, o quizá una ráfaga de viento te aviente hacia atrás, no te alarmes, quizá estás viendo a una maid volando de regreso a casa, quizá estés viendo a Tohru, la peculiar sirvienta dragón de Kobayashi San...___ ~~~img(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vj7cIMDfWpo/YDd-nFQQ2wI/AAAAAAAAIm8/R6ld1gSh48I9wnwzCjlGK7smKZ9I9InuQCPcBGAsYHg/s16000/S1E12_Tohru_Cleaning_2.png)~~~ La serie nos narra la vida de Kobayashi-san, una oficinista soltera cuya vida es por decir lo menos, bastante monótona y aburrida. Sin embargo, esto cambiará cuando, tras una noche de copas y varias malas decisiones, Kobayashi rescate a una dragona en peligro, terminando con un intercambio de copas entre ambas y una oferta por parte de Kobayashi: Invitar a la chica dragón a vivir con ella. Y esto no tendría porque ser más que un recuerdo tonto tipico de noche de copas si no fuera porque al otro día, Kobayashi se encuentra con una chica vestida de maid frente a su puerta; y peor aún, porque la chica resulta ser Tohru, la dragón a la cual salvo e invito a vivir con ella, siendo así que de buenas a primeras, Tohru esta decidida a mudarse con Kobayashi y convertirse en su fiel, digna (y enamorada) sirvienta dragón personal, con cola y todo... ~~~ __Dragon Maid a tu servicio!__~~~ Es así que el eje sobre el cual girara la serie será la nueva convivencia entre Kobayashi y su (no deseada) sirvienta dragón, así como a la forma en que esta irá acostumbrándose a las formas humanas. Y es que ver a Tohru siendo "humana" es bastante divertido gracias a sus caras, a sus intentos por imitar y sobre todo a los malentendidos entre lo que cree que esta bien y lo que no (como la cola de dragón) sin olvidar claro, su tremendamente obvio afecto hacia su nueva "jefa", siendo una apuesta arriesgada el presentar una pareja así tan abiertamente (acierto total). Y kobayashi no la tendrá mucho más fácil porque de pasar a tener una vida bastante simple y tranquila (aburrida) ahora sus días estarán dedicados a lidiar y aleccionar a Tohru en las artes de comportarse bien y al mismo tiempo de aprender de esta y su alegre sentido de la vida, siendo que poco a poco, ambas van cambiando como personas y posteriormente, como familia, gracias a la inclusión de la pequeña dragón Kanna chan. ~~~img(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aRkLKqBpTF8/YDeDOKXj7wI/AAAAAAAAIoY/WK1DP5reRAo-1WzDRj0Moc58ygal0Qz0QCPcBGAsYHg/w280-h400/25.png)~~~ ~~~__Un hogar extrañamente reconfortante...__~~~ Porque es precisamente con la llegada de Kanna que la vida de nuestras protagonistas comienza a cambiar más rápidamente pues posterior a ella se encuentra con la "sobre saliente" dragona prehispánica Lucoa y su pequeño anfitrión Shota; y a ellas se suman el "temible" dragón y gamer Fafnir y su rommie y compañero de Kobayashi, Makoto. Y por si no fuera poco, también llega Elma, otra dragona a la cual le encanta la comida. En fin que poco a poco la casa de Kobayashi comienza a ser el punto de encuentro para todas estás personas, volviéndose una pequeña familia draconiana... Y así, de manera simple pero efectiva, la serie nos presenta su verdadera esencia: La familia. Porque diferencias aparte, lo que sobresale del resto es que a todos ellos los une un silencioso afecto, siendo que personalidades tan dispares como Makoto y Fafnir aprenden a convivir y a aceptarse los unos a los otros. Y nuestra familia "principal" es el mejor ejemplo porque de a poco Kobayashi se acostumbra a despertar con los buenos días de Tohru, o a despedir a Kanna para el colegio y son esos pequeños momentos tan cotidianos lo más dulce y efectivo de la serie. ~~~img(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UMOxrlhzQB4/YDeC5kzI7yI/AAAAAAAAIoQ/aPS8plmqCcYR2S-au1x8t7mGZKBesKfKACPcBGAsYHg/w280-h400/Dise%25C3%25B1o%2Bsin%2Bt%25C3%25ADtulo%2B%252810%2529.gif)~~~ Con todo lo anterior, no es de extrañar que Kobayashi-san tenga pocos puntos débiles (quizá porque no desea ser tan profunda) siendo que personajes como Lucoa o Riko (la amiga de Kanna) pueden llegara tener escenas bastante repetitivas, fuera de lugar y por ende molestas para el espectador. Más allá de dicho fanservice, la serie cumple bastante bien lo que ofrece sin complicarse de más. Respecto al trabajo técnico de la serie, podemos estar seguros de un alto nivel de animación (como todo lo que hace este estudio). Cortesía de __Miku Kadowaki__, estamos ante personajes bien definidos y que logran diferenciarse los unos a los otros de manera fácil, ya sea por su vestimenta o rasgos físicos tanto en su forma humana como siendo dragones, teniendo bastante fluidez de movimientos. Respecto a Kobayashi ella también tiene variedad de expresiones, las cuales logran imprimir el sentimiento exacto a cada situación, haciendo su papel de humana conviviendo con dragones algo natural y creíble. Caso aparte merece Kanna, porque, pues Kanna es un rayo de luz... En cuanto a sus escenarios, si bien son lugares genéricos, el detalle continua presente y su colorida paleta va acorde al ritmo alegre de la obra. ~~~img(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j5tKgbUx8xw/YDeBvMTyhmI/AAAAAAAAIns/VP-eLwues8MkPLQ0jGgC4C2Ivn-waVN3gCPcBGAsYHg/w640-h448/4%25281%2529.png)~~~ Ya entrando en el aspecto sonoro, la serie cuenta con bastante variedad de temas, tanto instrumentales como los vocales, siendo en su mayoría tonadas alegres y que impulsan los momentos y ridiculeces en pantalla, aunque hay uno que otro que evoca más nostalgia. Los temas principales son el OP _"Aozora no Rhapsody"_ cortesía de la banda J-pop fhána mientras que el ED es el tema _"Ishukan Communication"_ cantado por las seiyū de la serie. El primero es bastante alegre y desparpajado (aunque el visual no tiene mucho sentido) mientras que el ED logra dar un adecuado cierre a cada episodio. _____________________________ _Para aquellos que somos asiduos a los trabajos de KyoAni (o al menos nos gusta su estilo) Kobayashi san es un soplo de aire fresco gracias a esa candidez y desfachatez que nos muestra. Teniendo una historia que es poco menos que un sinsentido, pero llenándola de corazón, un adecuado trabajo técnico, unos personajes bastante fáciles de querer y una situación loca tras otra, Kobayashi-san y su maid dragón es una de las mejores (y más divertidas) historias de KyoAni en tiempos recientes, y todo gracias a sus aladas criaturas..._ >___Checa más contenido en mi blog personal https://13fotogramas.blogspot.com/___

Kalladry

~~~_Miss Kobayashi is your average office worker who lives a boring life, alone in her small apartment—until she saves the life of a female dragon in distress. The dragon, named Tohru, has the ability to magically transform into an adorable human girl (albeit with horns and a long tail), who will do anything to pay off her debt of gratitude, whether Miss Kobayashi likes it or not._~~~ Or as I would later put it to my sister: >_Lesbian dragon and her aroace girlfriend raise small dragon child while trying to live normally in the human world._ This show has been out for a few years, but since I don’t much care about maids or other-species-masquerading-as-cute-girls tropes, I ignored it until I saw a review/comment _somewhere_ online that mentioned this show had a nice portrayal of relationships? _Sure,_ I thought, _I’ll give it a chance._ A few episodes later, I texted my sister the description above. The titular Miss Kobayashi saves Tohru’s life somehow—she’s drunk and doesn’t remember anything until the next morning, when she opens her apartment door to find a giant whole-ass dragon staring her in the face. (We get backstory in a later episode, fear not.) Kobayashi eventually gives in, and Tohru assumes her cute, humanlike appearance and dedicates herself to being a maid…or, essentially and eventually, a housewife. Kobayashi is, y’know, understandably weirded out, but Tohru puts a lot of effort into figuring out how to be in human society. There’s a good amount of storyline and humor that comes from Tohru not quite getting it, but there are also a good number of times that she _does;_ in fact, one early episode has Kobayashi and Tohru shopping together, and Kobayashi being impressed with how Tohru not only shops well, but also makes small talk, befriends the merchants, and so forth. Tohru isn’t the only dragon in the human world; several others eventually show up for one reason or another, creating both opportunities for hijinks, but also additional friendships to develop, and conversations about how whether relationships should be pursued at all if the humans are only alive for a tiny part of the dragons’ lifespan. I really, really liked Kobayashi. She’s not emotionless, but can be pretty stoic, and seems generally content with her life as it is. She and Tohru are good foils for each other—Tohru being vivacious, excitable and enthusiastic—but it’s also made clear as the series goes on that what we might first assume is going to be a _“world-weary character must put up with and guide an excitable ball of energy that doesn’t understand the world”_ isn’t going to be played straight. Tohru is older than Kobayashi, and despite her enthusiasm, she’s not dumb, nor does she need hand-holding for everything. Sometimes, Kobayashi’s assumptions are wrong. Sometimes they just annoy each other because they live together and have started getting to know each other well. Tohru knows Miss Kobayashi doesn’t reciprocate her feelings, and mostly respects that. (I stand by my characterization of Kobayashi as aroace although she’s clearly fond of Tohru by the end; nobody tell me if the manga or currently-airing second seasons makes it different.) All that said, it’s not an anime I would watch around my parents. (Or, ok, I _would_ but I would get comments like _“WHAT! are you watching!!!”_ every episode because…) There’s Luccoa, who bounces all over the place and, in what’s portrayed as humorous, was “summoned” by a 9-year-old attempting to summon a demon and decided it would be fun to stick around. Said 9-year-old thinks she’s a succubus and she doesn’t exactly do anything to change his mind. ___Verdict___ _English dub?_ Yes! And all very good, especially Kobayashi. _Visuals:_ Nice, pretty standard for modern anime. As I mentioned at the top, based purely on the visuals and name I’d assumed this was a generic cute-girls-doing-cute-things moe show. _Worth watching?_ Yes! It doesn’t get super deep, but the relationships that develop between various dragons and their human friends/companions is very fun to watch (including, but not limited to, Kobayashi and Tohru), and the show overall is funny. Also, it’s very aware when it’s hitting tropes. This is a show with episodes titled _“The Strongest Maid in History, Tohru! (Well, She is a Dragon),” “Second Dragon, Kanna! (We’re Totally Spoiling Here),”_ and _“Summer’s Staples! (The Fanservice Episode, Frankly).”_

dommywommy

#~~~___Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid___~~~ ~~~img420(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9T1TlOm2Tds/YHE8fZ-8xEI/AAAAAAACIm0/M2Ql02YaFBUocVpc2ihHhgVNJG-b7ZvZQCPcBGAsYHg/s1920/Kobayashi-san%2BChi%2Bno%2BMaid%2BDragon%2BS2%2BShorts%2B-%2BEpisode%2B1%2B-%2BTouru%2BSpreads%2BWings.gif)~~~ ~~~___Summary___~~~ A great series about a sexy dragon maid and her questionable obsession with a mundane working woman. The series has a bubbly, sexualized, comedic exterior that conceals a bunch of deep themes and cultural critique that I quite enjoyed. The show has absolutely kick-ass visuals, which is unsurprising given Kyoto Animation’s previous works. Season 2 is definitely better than Season 1, and I even really liked the special, _Valentines and Hot Springs_. The intros and outros of each season are dynamic and fun, and the series as a whole was quite enjoyable. That being said, there was some minor annoyances when it came to side characters that really held back the series in my view, though these are largely subjective critiques that I imagine not many others share with me. All things considered, it was a great series and ___I definitely recommend it___. ___SCORE: 9.3/10___ ~~~img420(https://pa1.narvii.com/6914/8a958d643f2d0b5ee58f281e88b6d4f8e86bf74fr1-500-250_hq.gif)~~~ ~~~___Story___~~~ _Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid_ tells a charming story about a dragon maid (and later her dragon friends) and her fascination (obsession?) with humans. The plot is largely disconnected from episode to episode, though there is a thematic connection across the entire series. The series sprinkles in themes of diversity, mutual understanding, adapting to new circumstances, love, and more. For a show about a well-endowed maid and her well-endowed dragon friends trying to come onto their new favourite human, there’s a _surprising_ amount of depth in the plot. While I would have enjoyed a slightly less sexualized storyline, I do think the series managed to convey its themes and messages well. I would rate it very much above average, but not an all-time great. ___SCORE: 8.5/10___ ~~~img420(https://64.media.tumblr.com/5f7c4c28900f13bc515f648907272b71/462785e768580756-3a/s540x810/f4de9c8c4744e0c188772601472690374ee6a304.gifv)~~~ ~~~___Characters___~~~ Again, for a show about a sexy dragon maid and her sexy dragon friends trying to bone their new favourite human, there is a lot of character depth. Tohru, the dragon maid, has a deep backstory that is very nicely explained throughout season 2 (_Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S_). In the first few episodes she just seems like a hyper-sexual dragon, but by the end of the series we learn that she is a hyper-sexual dragon _with a cool backstory and motivations_. There is a lot of development of the side characters as well. Personally, I was a fan of Kanna the most (_omg so cute what the hell I want to adopt her_), as well as Elma and Ilulu. I’m going to be honest and I’m not sure if this is a hot take, I wasn’t a fan of Fafnir or Lucoa at all, for various reasons. Neither character was too deep, and I didn’t really appreciate the sexualized relationship between Lucoa and Shouta, which seemed both inappropriate and largely pointless. That being said, I won’t let two side characters tank the rating because the rest of the side characters and the two main characters are exceptionally well developed. ___SCORE: 9/10___ ~~~img420(https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/187/187952.gif)~~~ ~~~___Visuals___~~~ Given that this is a Kyoto Animation work, I think it will surprise _absolutely nobody_ that I am in love with the visuals of the show. I am continually impressed with KyoAni and its range. I thought that it would be impossible to match _Violet Evergarden_, so I set lower expectations for _Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid_. As is the theme with my snap judgements related to anime, __I was wrong.__ KyoAni managed to absolutely nail a very different, yet still wildly impressive visual style with this series. I love the studio’s ability to convey emotion through stylized animation. I would describe the visuals as very dynamic, with stylistic adaptations as the situations call for it. Seriously, this is yet another impressive work from Kyoto Animation. Additionally, the visuals in the first season were already a 10 for me, and the visuals receive a massive upgrade in season 2! ___SCORE: 10/10___ ~~~img420(https://c.tenor.com/VN6LTn-WDbMAAAAM/anime-miss-kobayashis-dragon-maid.gif)~~~ ~~~___Intro/Outro___~~~ Both seasons enjoy superb intro and outros, though they are not the type of songs I would listen to in my spare time. That being said, just because they are not going to be added to my Spotify playlist, I do think that the songs were very good! I actually didn’t skip the intro once throughout the series which is something I only usually do if I really like the song. More importantly, the opening sequences really fit the music and the music really fits the theme of the show so it was pleasant to view each episode. ___SCORE: 9.5___ ~~~img420(https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/187/187963.gif)~~~ ~~~___Enjoyment___~~~ I really enjoyed this series. When @KisaDi told me there was a lot of fanservice and to prepare myself, I knew she wasn’t kidding. Still, _damn._ There’s a _lot_ of *questionable* design choices. Despite the fact that I am not a large fan of hyper-sexualized characters (_I know, I’m a stupid old person_), this series was still very enjoyable. I enjoyed the plot development, thematic connection and progression from the series’ start to end, and the kick-ass visuals. All things considered, I would definitely put this right up near the top of my list in terms of enjoyment, though definitely not the top. You won’t go wrong watching this series, _it is definitely worth your time_. ___SCORE: 10/10___ ~~~img420(https://c.tenor.com/bO7w6ESYTYoAAAAC/dragonmaid-saikawa.gif)~~~

Calxylian

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid flips the switch and returns to Kyoto Animation's identity roots. The anime rediscovers the studio's footing, making the series memorable in a modern harem or isekai climate. Unlike many of the studio's newer titles, the series knows its audience's wants. It never compromises its vision in a futile attempt to appease the audience. Aside from not messing with drama and never being centered on explosions even though the cast is a dragon, it's relaxed yet silly at the same time. Therefore, it can even be a little heartwarming when the audience tries to watch it, thanks to the cuteness of the dragon character, especially Tooru's character design and nature.

The synopsis can be moaning and groaning to a specific audience. The helpers plus dragons don't make such a promising arrangement. It also doesn't seem like a combination that requires more than three or more seconds of thought. It may have been, or indeed will be, receiving some series with cute girls being slapped indiscriminately. In essence, modern anime is always cynical about its audience. However, treating Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid as another goofy comedy with moe characters isn't entirely fair. Because there are things that are done very differently. Kobayashi is the title character of the series; the protagonist is passive and a working adult more than the average teenager. Most anime will choose to play teenagers as pseudo-adults. On the other hand, the series instead portrays adult characters with real problems. Kobayashi was so bored with the routine of an office woman that she always chose to drink half to death after a hard day's work.

The sense of kinship between the characters of Kobayashi, Tooru, Kamui is sincere. Kobayashi plays a homemaker. She would snap at her dragon friends whenever they did something unreasonable. In essence, Kobayashi is strict but also caring. She always tries her best to understand their dilemmas and difficulties in getting used to the human world. Even small things like peeling oranges make it clear that she appreciates their presence, even if she is not always clear and candid about such things. The series is a slice of life. Kobayashi becomes a female character and helps keep the series away from unnecessary sexual overtones if only she is a boy. Yes, Tooru's feelings for Kobayashi are hilariously exaggerated as romantic; that's not the true nature of Tooru either. Indeed, her reaction comes more from gratitude and a desire to protect her guardian rather than anything genuinely sexual or romantic.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid can be hilarious when Tooru visits Kobayashi's workplace and repeatedly trips her grumpy boss or challenges one of the other dragons to a fight in another dimension to seal it off. However, it's not an anime specifically defined by cute as it's meant to be more relaxing, and no doubt thanks to the adorable yet cute presence of Kamui. It could be the running gag between Tooru and her tail no longer needs to be repeated over and over again. The anime is most muscular when it focuses on the main three, making the scenes with the other three dragons and Kobayashi's otaku friend, Takiya, significantly less attractive. Takiya's split personality is so jarring and exaggerated that he is often more annoying than anything else. Quetzalcoatl is also pretty much not a character whose only defining trait is her breasts. She likes scantily clad. More time should be spent developing Kobayashi's cynical worldview and Tooru's new view of human society. It would also be nice for Kamui to have a thing with him other than just being cute.

Kyoto Animation's trademark is generally excellent. However, it certainly stands out in the case of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Although many scenes draw special attention to its animation, the cute and funny expressions of the characters make the anime ready for a frame. The bright colors and soft edges are perfect for enhancing the peaceful and relaxed atmosphere that the anime crave. However, due to the gimmick in front of it, the artwork becomes so gloomy and bland all the time. It's always welcome to look back at a more traditional style, something the studio is very passionate about. The series is something extraordinary or groundbreaking that would probably give little credit. However, little doubt returns to the studio form that has lost its trademark over the years. It's also a fun series, nostalgic memories of a slice of life anime, and could, be, once.

KuroGFX

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Dᴷrͦaᵇgͣoʸnͣˢʰᶦ'ˢ ᴹᵃᶦᵈ

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Synopsis__

*skip if you know the general plot already __smartass__* 
One day a severely drunk out of her god damn mind and stressed out office woman forgets to get off at her train stop and ends up climbing a mountain where she ends up meeting a Dragon embedded with a thorn scratch that SWORD OF GOD Kobayashi due to her extreme lack of faith in God due to her stressful office life-sapping work any faith in a higher power is able to pull out the sword. The Dragon transforms into a well-endowed (big-titted) girl named Tooru and the two of them Get FUCKING DRUNK as SHiIIT and in a stupor release all their annoyances and frustrations and despite the catastrophic difference in lifestyle and situations are able to relate well. Tooru coming from a different world and not having a place to stay gets offered one by Kobayashi in return for Tooru becoming her Maid. A __Dragon Maid__ that is………………… --- __

How Kyoani *fucked* the brains out of Dragon Maid

__ When it comes to feeling good shows I don’t think theirs a better anime that comes to mind than this Kyoani x CoolKyoNinja Marvel of a show While I’m currently reading the manga I decided to go back and check out this instant bombshell of a show. Dragon Maid is an extravagant show but what makes it leans towards this level of bewildered visuals is the possibilities in the premise itself. With the Premise of an all-powerful Dragon becoming a Maid to a casual maid-obsessed office lady this gives the show a lot of flexibility or maybe it's just that Kyoto Animation has a back for imagining beyond the canvas of the manga panel. With SOL storylines it's not atypical for the show to carry a consistent tone in terms of visual appeal and in some ways, it feels static and excruciating to viewers who aren’t able to pierce that genre due to a certain lack of tenseness and Although that isn’t to paint the genre as boring since the whole point of SOL is to replicate daily life in a relaxing way that doesn’t aspire to hyperintense storylines that are packed with dramatic and tense moments Dragon Maid is still grounded in that core appeal of it which is to showcase day-to-day activities and interactions but it strengthens a lot of the aspects that cause people not to be able to get into the genre. --- __

~~~Dragons and Humans The Comparable Relatability~~~

__ The characters in Dragon Maid are separated into two positions one being the human characters that are totally bewildered (or in the case of Kobayashi totally adapted) by the situations of the otherworldly characters and the Dragons But despite this cataclysmic difference in background between the two groups of characters, the Dragons all have comparable human problems albeit translated to a Dragon background #__Fafnir__ Fafnir is basically a shut-in which is why Takiya who is a closet Otaku that flips between his closet Otaku personality and his professional adult public work personality is able to develop a really good friendship with Fafnir despite him being a cursed Dragon hell-bent on keeping his treasure out of the hands of others #__Lucoa__ Lucoa is essentially a sobering adult who has been kicked out of their own home by the rest of their family and is heavily ashamed of their actions which might be why Lucoa is an observer in most events as a way of trying not to draw any more attention to herself and I find it really wholesome that she gets offered a place to stay by __*(NOTE: there are some changes to Lucoas backstory in the anime due to the backstory in the manga uh well its um not suitable for live broadcast being the fact that in the manga she basically gets extremely drunk and molests her younger sister….uh yeah)*__ I mean the fact that Toohru has trouble going into department stores because of previous trauma surrounding castles and their similarities to the department stores is not really so different than people with trauma or fears surrounding school or certain places. A good addition to this perspective and idea of the Dragons being pretty similar is even brought up by Kobayashi who is fucking floored that Toohru is better at socializing than she is the dragon who condescendingly calls humans an "inferior species" several times and can bring about armageddon. --- __

Does the Show Get Carried by the KyotoAni?

__ ##__*Breaking Down the "Carried" by animation debate*__ This is a bit of a hard thing to really explain in general I feel that this idea of a source material being carried by the animation studio that picks up the material has always lacked a bit more nuance to its argument I think a good analogy for an animated adaptation (or just plan adaptation) of any work would be to think of it as the work being reborn like stepping out of a puddle into a new world instead of being reworked into another medium as if your attempting to squeeze a circle into a peg. The reason why I think that's important is that adaptations need creativity and new quixotic perspectives from people that are deeply talented and or versed in the adaptations medium. So when I compare a scene of Dragon Maid from its source material to the adaptation work it's not in an attempt at undermining one for the sake of placing the other on a pedestal rather I'm comparing how each tries to tell the story that they both stemmed from and which one appeals to me more which I think is the more important question than a debate of the whole carry thing ##__*How Making a Great Adaptation is not just about Animation*__ This one scene is a helpful dissection of how the studio is innovative with how they approached Dragon Maid youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkKp1HGpGA8) The entirety of the scene in the manga is three panels long something which you can easily glaze over when reading manga which is a negative of the medium is the fact that most people will intake manga like they eat fast food and read it on hand or just mindlessly scroll on a free website with the strengths of a passive medium there's much more humor and vibrant character comedy and interaction that is able to breathe and bubble to the surface using fun editing and over the top animation like the exaggerated pan-around and pink smoke which they DID NOT HAVE TO DO even stuff added like Kobayashi grabbing Toohrus's hand with a visible tension before the two separate is exactly what I want from an adaptation is the ability to add in subtle ways that don't break from the faithfulness but at the same time clearly show a director's own individual touch with the show form I'm not just after good animation __What I want from anime is stuff I can't get from manga its as simple as that and Dragon Maid knocks it out of the park __ ~~~ --- ~~~ I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself Have a good day Have a good day Have a good day Have a good day Have a good Dislike This Review Dislike This Review Dislike This Review Dislike This Review ~~~

NullNVoid

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon [Full Review] Kyoto Animation Objective Score: 8.5 Personal Score: 8.5 Season 1 (13) & S (12) Times Watched: 1 Comedy, Fantasy, Slice of Life, _Reverse Isekai_ Awards: Seal of Approval Recent Changesa: n/a Despite its outward appearance, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is one of the cutest, coziest, and most wholesome shows I’ve ever seen. Episodes are broken up into short character stories with some overarching plot. The storytelling in Dragon Maid is surprisingly methodical, allowing ample time for each character and their subsequent stories. This is one of the best slice of life anime I’ve ever seen. The show does a great job showcasing real, everyday problems like back pain, working too much, and having a place to call home. Dragon Maid is incredibly wholesome, and that’s entirely due to the amazing cast of characters. The characters in this show are some of the best written and most human characters I’ve ever seen; even if a majority of them are dragons. Tohru is one of the most powerful dragons in the show, but acts more like a lost dog, and her love for those around her is on full display. Elma has a complicated relationship with both Tohru and other humans, but is sweet and loves food. Kobayashi is the obvious stand out in the show. She’s kind, stoic, and level-headed, acting as the mother for basically all the dragons and helps ground the story. Her traits and mannerisms are what make her such a relatable and realistic character like overworking, drinking too much, and an interest in maids. The show is strikingly beautiful with an abundance of color, soft and cute designs, and gorgeously smooth and fluid animation that looks pretty most of the time, but sharp and visceral when the action kicks in. The sound design is also brilliant. Sound effects pop and the music is melancholy and beautiful. The voice acting is great as well. Each character has specific mannerisms and quirks that makes just listening to them a treat. Love is showcased in many ways in this show. From Tohru and Kobayashi’s romantic love, to Kanna and Tohru’s sisterly love, to just characters simply loving life. Unfortunately, Dragon Maid’s outward appearance doesn’t do it any favors. Barring Kobayashi and Kanna, almost every female character has a bust size that would snap spines. Also, some of the relationships between characters can be seen as creepy and borderline fan service like Tohru’s lust for Kobayashi and Lucoa’s attention seeking behavior towards Souta. However, the relationships between these characters are more complicated than what’s on the surface, and watching the show would reveal that things are not so black and white. I can see several elements in Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid as reasons why people might drop the show, but the show and these characters are just so goddamn wholesome that it’s easy to look past. The show is a hilarious, over-the-top yet down to earth slice of life fantasy show that is as sweet as sugar.

TheRealKyuubey

Miss Kobayashi was just an ordinary office worker.  Not a lot of information is available about her past, but it’s fair to assume that she graduated college, moved away from her folks and found herself a decent paying programming job at least a few years ago, because while she’s become just adjusted enough to the daily grind of the 9-to-5 office life, she's still not adjusted enough that she doesn’t need some liquid encouragement to wash the stench of mundane labor out of her mouth at the end of the day.  One night, after drinking a bit more than usual, she misses her stop to go home, and instead winds up wandering the Japanese wilderness...  Which is where her bland, boring, repetitive everyday life is suddenly shaken by a dose of fantasy.  She meets a wounded dragon, and like the proverbial mouse to a lion’s paw, she ignores the potential threat to her life and saves the dragon’s.  Now, that dragon is forever in her debt, and she decides to pay it off by becoming Miss Kobayashi’s maid!  And if that wasn’t wild enough, a number of other fantasy creatures follow her into the human world as well!  Will the arrival of so many terrifying creatures spell doom for mankind, or are they just what the human race needs to spice up their meaningless lives? Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid was produced by Kyoto Animation, which is probably one of the most famous and well known anime studios, right up there with Ghibli and Gainax.  When it comes to small work, like In-Between stuff, production assistance and finish animation, they’ve had their fingers in an unbelievable number of pies, which is probably how they’ve been able to afford pouring lavish amounts of money into their OWN projects.  For the majority of their primary work, IE the titles they’ve been listed under “Animation Production’ for, they’ve developed a reputation for taking relatively dialogue heavy slice of life anime and just animating the crap out of them in order to please the eyes of the audience.  Thanks to their consistently high budgets, a good amount of these projects HAVE benefited from having a supernatural edge to their stories, such as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Beyond the Boundary...  And it has also helped them to create subtle visual effects that heighten the emotions of numerous titles that have since been popularly considered to be among the most classic tearjerkers. That’s not to say they haven’t faced some criticism...  They are the largest producer of the oft-lamented “Moe-blob” faces, which I guess you could kind of consider the anime equivalent of the western Cal-Arts style, and there have been no small amount of otaku who consider this character design aesthetic to be the bane of their existence.  They also like to use the runny egg trick sometimes, in fact there was a brief period where almost everything they produced had to resort to that frame-breaking tactic to show fast motion while still saving money, een changing style on shows they had already animated in a smoother and more normal style, as was the case with the second seasons of K-on, Haruhi and Clannad.  They would eventually get a lot better about this, and Dragon Maid is a prime example of this, as it deftly blends both of these styles into one, and it’s probably one of Kyoani’s best looking anime as a result.  The aesthetic of this series is very intentionally cartoony, but in a way that’s very deliberately being controlled and kept in line.  The way it looks, slightly sketchy and sometimes reminiscent of water coloring, the occasional frame-breaking animation switch doesn’t feel nearly as jarring as it would in your average JC Staff anime, and even then, it’s only used sparingly in scenes of intense action, where it’s not as likely to be noticed.  The animation, as a result, is crisp and smooth, the characters feeling fully articulated without feeling like an unreasonable amount of money was necessarily behind it.  The character designs are a bit of a mixed bag...  I love how Miss Kobayashi’s hair is considered an unnatural color in Japan, it’s still slightly muted, as if to convey her draining spirit at her dead end job.  I also really love Tohru’s design, especially the color blend at the tips of her hair.  There are a few OTHER dragon characters that, in my opinion, are just a bit too over designed to me,  but none of them are in the show enough to really damage it.  It’s a good looking show, probably one of Kyoani’s very best. The same could honestly be said for the English dub.  Originally produced by Funimation...  Which means Crunchyroll owns it now, sadly...  The entire cast is pretty much spot on.  Leah Clark tends to get typecast as really airy, soft-voiced characters, which you would think would make her the more obvious choice to play a maid, but she gives the perfect deadpan, world-weary performance as Kobayashi, while still allowing for a wide emotional range in her character’s daily life.  Jad Saxton has long since carved out a niche for herself as the nasally tsundere, always down to play rich haughty girls or the social adversary to a number of different protagonists, so she is completely unrecognizable as Kanna, portraying a character who’s both way older than she appears, but who also has a cadence and a subtle trend of mispronunciations that are just adorable enough to not creep into annoying territory.  The star of the cast, however, is Sarah Wiedenheft, playing Tohru as eternally enthusiastic, with a slight rasp and an edge of both warm affection and devious mischief.  ADR Director Jamie Marchi also gave herself the role of Lucoa, which also meant she gave herself one of the most consequential lines in dubbing history, which we’re going to have to talk about now.  I’m gonna put the next section under a spoiler tag, so if you don’t want to read my latest political rant, just skip it. ~!Okay, are we good?  Remember, you chose to click on this.  For those who don’t know, around the mid-late 2010’s, Funimation made a number of small, politically motivated rewrites in their dubs, which sparked massive backlash from the western anime community.  The primary battlegrounds were Prison School, who had their errant line replaced, and Dragon Maid, which never followed suit.  There’s a line where Lucoa quips that she started dressing more conservatively because of those ‘pesky patriarchal types,’ which was not in the original script, and didn’t make a whole lot of sense in context.  I don’t know if Jamie wrote it...  I know she didn’t personally write the Prison School line...  but she did approve and defend it.  It’s a really bad line that only really works in context if you squint at it hard enough, but here’s the thing;  This happened seven years ago, and the people who are still raging about it need to calm the fuck down, get the fuck over it and move on with their lives.  Which they never will, and here’s why. The people who are still harassing Jamie Marchi and other members of Funimation’s  dubbing staff to this day will tell you that it’s not a political matter to them, it’s all about defending accuracy in dubs.  This is bullshit, and I can prove it.  First off, there were issues with Jamie Marchi’s dubs before they got political.  Where were all of y’all when I was complaining about all of the awkward slang she wouldn’t stop using?  Back when every other dub she worked on contained the phrases “Totes” and “What the crap” at least once each?  This shit drove me crazy, and nobody else cared.  Second, she is not, and has never been, the worst name in dubbing.  Remember Stephen Foster, the guy who rewrote his dubs in ways that barely resemble human speech and made characters way less likeable?  The guy who apparently lied about the backstory of the Ghost Stories dub?  He retired a few years back, but what about J Michael Tatum?  Tatum is a wonderful actor and a sweet person, but he’s also a massively pretentious writer who likes to cram memes and internet references into his dubs, and he never hesitates to replace entire lines of dialogue with recognizable American idioms and expressions, even at the expense of the scene’s intentions. If these people genuinely cared about ‘accuracy in dubs,’ they’d be lighting Foster and Tatum up like Christmas trees, but no, they’re only interested in targeting Jamie Marchi specifically, and...  And for some reason Monica Rial?  Why?  I don’t want to sound like a simp here, but I’ve been watching dubbed anime since the mid-nineties, and I’ve never had a single complaint about any dub Rial worked on.  If anything, I’d say she’s one of the better script writers/ADR directors, right up there alongside John Burgmeier and Colleen Clinkenbeard.  No, it’s obvious why they’re targeting this show specifically, and there’s a reason they’re targeting Jamie and Monica specifically.  They’re targeting Dragon Maid for the same reason a certain subsection of the internet won’t let Ghostbusters 2016 die, even though they stopped caring about the even worse Jem and the Holograms reboot years ago.  They don’t care which product is worse, or which one insults the original source material more, they only care about the one that helps them to continue to wage their culture war.  No matter how many badly written dubs there are out there, only one directly called out The Patriarchy, so only one supports their political rage-boners. And speaking of rage-boners, the only reason they’re specifically targeting Jamie March instead of Stephen Foster or J Michael Tatum, and the only reason they feel the need to drag Monica Rial into it, is probably because they’re still pissed about the allegations both made against Vic Mignogna.  In other words, they’re full of shit and they can go fuck themselves.  Dragon Maid has an awesome English dub, and while that one exchange is pretty bad, it’s easy enough to ignore.!~ Okay, putting all of that behind us, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a slice of life comedy, which means everybody’s going to come away from it differently.  Comedy has always been extremely subjective, as not all people are going to find the same things funny, and this goes doubly so for slice of life comedy, as these kinds of shows are going to be engaging and relatable to some, and boring and unfunny to others.  It usually depends on how well any given viewer takes to the cast of an individual series, and how well the pacing and atmosphere strikes them, either hitting their comfort zone or ultimately alienating them.  With Dragon Maid, I guess I might as well let you know right now that while the pacing and atmosphere of this series are to my liking, I find the comedy to be a little more hit or miss.  I love the two main characters, and to an extent, I like how they play off of each other, with their wildly different lives and perspectives complementing each other really well. Kobayashi is a native to this world, but she’s also been closed off in her own little world as an introverted workaholic.  Tohru is a foreigner who doesn’t quite know how this world works, but she’s also outgoing and sociable.  So while Kobayashi helps Tohru get accustomed to her world, Tohru helps Kobayashi to come out of her shell and have more of a social life.  Because of their relationship, Kobayashi learns to open up, and Tohru learns to get her more extreme dragon instincts under control, which means they’re both gradually improving each others lives and teaching each other how to live.  As for what their relationship is, however, well, there are a lot of different ways to look at this series, but for the sake of this particular review, we’re going to be examining two of them.  We’re going to examine the relationships in this series through metaphorical perspective, and then a literal perspective, in order to explore how both approaches will lead you to have drastically different experiences with the material.  From a metaphorical perspective, Dragon Maid is a thoroughly positive and reaffirming look at a theoretical society where people from different cultural backgrounds are able to live in peace and harmony, with respect for one another’s differences.  This is a world where dragons, demons and other mythological creatures are able to assume mostly human form and live amongst modern day Japanese society...  Which is refreshing on the grounds that Japan is still a massively racially homogenous country...  And even when these beings reveal their true natures in front of people, walking around with horns and tails and pulling off superhuman stunts in public, everybody’s pretty chill about it.  Nobody busts out the pitchforks and torches, nobody screams and runs in terror, nobody tries to force them to leave, they’re just accepted.  Also on a purely metaphorical basis, Kobayashi and Tohru represent a normal, well adjusted, and socially accepted lesbian couple, living their daily lives in domestic bliss while taking care of their adopted daughter.  Kobayashi has a male best friend who is REFRESHINGLY not in love with her, where in ANY other anime he’d be one of her many love interests, and the only pushback their relationship receives is from Tohru’s father, who Kobayashi stands up to. This is all, mind you, purely metaphorical.  According to the actual text of the series, Tohru and Miss Kobayashi are NOT a couple, they are just a bachelorette and her roommate/maid.  Her Roommaid, if you will.  Now, to be clear, stories about metaphorical queer couples who are never canonically acknowledged aren’t necessarily a bad thing.  Yuri On Ice and Revolutionary Girl Utena were able to achieve a lot under those same circumstances.  The catch is that, even if you don’t acknowledge the metaphor, and only see what’s on the surface, that relationship still has to be a likeable one.  If Yuri and Victor aren’t a couple, then they’re still a pair of close friends with a strong, supportive bond to each other.  If Utena and Anthy aren’t a couple, you still have Utena defending her friend from abuse and objectification.  When it comes to Kobayashi and Tohru, however, once you step back from the metaphor and stop looking at everything through lily colored glasses, things honestly start to look a little fucked up.  Sure, the setting itself is still positive and reaffirming with it’’s level of acceptance, but beyond that, this show has some huge problems. Early in the series, Miss Kobayashi states that she isn’t interested in women.  Now, due to her actions later on, I do believe in the fan theory that she’s either in the closet or hasn’t come to terms with her sexuality yet, but even so, no still means no, and rejections should always be respected.  And yet, Tohru still refuses to give up, dedicating her life to her, acting jealous and possessive over her, and taking every opportunity to try and bypass her lack of consent, playing the long-outdated ‘predatory queer’ cliche.  Sure, she never outright attempts to force herself on Kobayashi, but she keeps trying to trick her into eating her tail, and in the OVA episode, she tries to slip her a love potion, which is attempted rape.  For her part, Miss Kobayashi shamelessly takes advantage of Tohru, stringing her along and exploiting her despite never intending to return her feelings.  So they aren’t so much a couple as they are parasites mutually feeding off of each other.  Hell, Tohru’s feelings aren’t even genuine.  She isn’t in love with Kobayashi due to her personality or her looks, there’s no actual attraction involved, she’s just honoring a life debt. Then you have Kanna and Rika, which...  I want to be clear about this, people don’t just choose to be gay as adults, most LGBT people are born that way, so I do think it's important to acknowledge queer identities in child characters in media, but if you’re trying to portray a queer little girl character appropriately, it’s probably not a good idea to base her personality on the wolf from Red Hot Riding Hood.  I don’t know, maybe I’m exaggerating there, but when she’s constantly reacting to her crush with a facial expression that’s one exposed tongue away from being an ahegao, that’s definitely a red flag.  What’s even worse, however, is the relationship between Lucua and Shota, which doesn’t look good from ANY perspective.  Shota is an apprentice mage who accidentally summoned Lucoa when trying to summon a demon, and now she lives with him.  He’s also literally a very small child.  How do Shota’s parents feel about a grown woman sleeping in their son’s bed with him, bathing with him naked against his will, constantly smothering him with her giant breasts while he struggles to get away, and dragging him off to other strangers’ homes with her?  I don’t know, i don’t think it’s ever made clear whether he even has parents, but even if they fully approved of everything, Lucoa’s behavior towards him would still be fucking reprehensible. I don’t know how things work in Japan, but in America, if you enter someone’s private space while they’re naked or in a state of undress and refuse to leave when they tell you to, that’s legally considered sexual assault, and that’s when both parties are adults.  For a grown woman to do this to a little boy, even when they’re just fictional characters, is disgusting.  In a cast full of dragons and mythological creatures, Lucoa is the only true monster, because she is a child molester.  I could see somebody ignoring this so it wouldn’t hurt their enjoyment of the series, but I can’t begin to describe how morally bankrupt you’d have to be to find this material funny.  You may think I’m over-reacting, but if the genders were reversed, I would not be the only person pointing this out. Now, because this series features a story arc where an adult acting inappropriately with a small child is treated like a joke and is never adequately examined and addressed, does that mean the whole show is irredeemable?  No, but it is the worst of a series of very huge problems that taint and threaten to drag down all of the more positive qualities that the series does have.  I generally do have a soft spot for fish-out-of-water stories, specifically in the context of reverse-isekai characters, people and mythological creatures coming to our world and having to adapt to our cultures and technology, and this show does explore that concept with an inspired level of creativity, even if it does resort to the same two or three jokes way too often.  I love how warm and cozy this series can be when you turn off your brain and watch it purely through the metaphorical perspective that I mentioned earlier, and while the comedy is hit-or-miss, it’s pretty damn funny when it hits.  Unfortunately, those negative qualities present a heavy burden that it never fully recovers from. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and its sequel series were available from Funimation, but now that they’ve been bought out by Crunchyroll, I don’t know just what its availability is going to be in the future.  The original manga, along with its various spin-offs and full color variant, is available from Seven Seas entertainment.  The video game is not. I have made a severe and continuous lapse in judgement by expressing unpopular opinions in my reviews, despite the number of people who have very kindly tried to correct me by informing me of how wrong I am, and today is no different.  Despite how popular and beloved Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is, the nicest thing I can personally say about it is that it’s kind of a mixed bag.  It has its positive qualities, to be sure, and your experience with it can change exponentially depending on how you choose to look at it, but the problems that it has are just so glaring and obvious that I personally can’t ignore them.  Still, despite my mixed feelings, I guess I enjoy just barely enough of it to give it a pass. I give Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid a 6/10.

Aschenbecher

CONTAINS PROFANITY!!!! I'm gonig to keep it (somewhat) short and simple. I did NOT like this show. I have initially dropped it like 3 years ago, and I don't even remember when I started that show. Almost 5 years ago, I think. I dind't find any character in this show cute or funny, the contrary; most of them annoyed me. It was either how they looked like or how they acted with me, sometimes a mix of both. I know there are hateable characters in most shows, but I hate almost all of the main and supporting cast. The anime had an interesting premise, despite being a mere Slife of Life anime. I have enjoyed most of the Slice of Life entries I have watched, but I didn't like this one. The anime started off well, with Tohru moving in with miss Kobayashi after her drunk ass talked her into letting it happen. I personally liked Kobayashi a lot since I'm able to relate to her on an emotional level as well as her ways of coping with stress from the never-ending work struggles. Her character actually had depth, not much needed to be said and more shown to understand her and for that, I actually can give the show some positive praise. Not a lot of shows can create a main character so understandable only by show rather than tell. I was able to enjoy the anime until all the supporting cast appeared. As stated above, I didn't like the supporting cast. At. All. Most of the cast only appeared for a mere few seconds, meaning they got very little screen time, and the screen time they got wasn't interesting, or simply annoying to me. It didn't give me a good impression of the characters. The characters I have seen the most throughout the series were the edgelord Fafnir and the fan-service milk machine Quetzalcoatl (for the love of god, I can't even spell it). You can't tell me these are "peak characters". Speaking of fan-service, did I mention the comedy in that show? It is fucking atrocious. Most of it is recycled "comedy" humor, rather than being something original. After a few times, I've gotten bored with the jokes. I can't appreciate comedy in anime if I have seen the same type of comedy 100000000 times before. I know this is just being nitpicky, but it's the same with any other medium. If you have seen the same trope, main character, jokes etc. in a hundred other shows, movies, books or games before it becomes atrocious and annoying. Not to mention the "funny" fan service and the oh so "mature" sex mentions. CONCLUSION: (Disclaimer: this is all simply my opinion. I am not saying you're wrong for liking the show or liking the comedy, characters and plot) Apart from my love for Kobayashi's character being shown in a rather interesting way, I don't have much to say about this show that would make my suffering sound any better. This show is mostly horrible. I didn't enjoy it at all, the premise got thrown out of the window to make place for mostly annoying characters that only made the viewing experience worse for me. I didn't like the recycled comedy or character tropes and the fan-service in this show is, like in most shows, NOT. FUN. AT. ALL. I did NOT laugh a SINGLE TIME watching the series. It was PAIN. If it stuck to just being Tohru and Kobayashi, I think I would have enjoyed the show way more. It was good as is without all the unnecessary side characters that mostly didn't bring anything into the show.