KOBAYASHI-SAN CHI NO MAIDRAGON

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyKobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon
SPECIAL ComedyKobayashi-san Chi no ○○ Dragon
OVA ComedyKobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon: Valentine, Soshite Onsen! (Amari Kitai Shinaide Kudasai)

REVIEWS

• 

  agendator

  59/100
  Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

  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.

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• 

  kyuusaku

  90/100
  Meidragon is accessible to wide variety of fans looking for an off-the-wall concept grounded in a sound premise.

  

  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, Demi-chan wa Kataritai (which I'll be reviewing later), or the offering from this season (2017 Summer), Centaur no Nayami.  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, 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 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, 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.

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• 

  beanwolf

  90/100
  One of the best slice-of-life comedies to grace anime in years. Classic KyoAni polish and charm with great characters.

  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!

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