Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

I wanted to start off this video a little bit differently and hopefully not too radically before we
dive headfirst into the video proper.
As some of you may know I am a very big purveyor of of both legality and industry support as
far as anime and manga is concerned.
I’m not one to necessarily berate or belittle those who either can’t or choose not to
support the industry that we love so much for one reason or another.
But I always try to look for ways to continue that support myself and make it known to my audience,
such that if there are people who share my views that they are not left in the
dark and have their options open to them.
As such I wanted to very quickly point your attention to a website called Bookwalker.
Bookwalker global is a seller of digital manga and light novels that have been officially
translated into english.
Specifically those owned by Japanese publishing company Kadokawa.
They have a lot of stuff that is legally available and if having reading manga and light novels
are your thing I highly suggest checking them out.
There will be a coupon code in the description “grarkada” in all lower case that you
can use for a discount if there is indeed things there that interest you.
So now you know that exists if it's interesting go check it out, if not that's cool too.
Bring it back slightly to the topic at hand they do sell copies of the original manga
for the show we are discussing today, though we will not be discussing that manga itself
beyond its existence.
Because now we can put all that aside and talk about the anime.
Ladies, Gentlemen and others my name is Arkada and welcome to Glass Reflection.
Today!
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid!
Let’s Jam!
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a 2017 comedy / slice of life series directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto
based on the work of the same name by Coolkyoushinja
and produced by Kyoto Animation.
It takes place in modern day Japan focusing around a software engineer by the name of
Miss Kobayashi.
As if the title didn’t give that away.
Kobayashi is a person that at the start of the series exudes a feeling of normalcy.
She gets up every day, goes to work in her cubicle, listens to the demands of managers,
and then goes out drinking with her co-worker who shares similar niche tastes in hobbies.
Such as Maids.
Of course that’s only half of the show’s title.
The next important part is Toru.
After a drunken escapade lands Miss Kobayashi lost in the middle of the nearby mountain
wilderness, she come across the dragon Toru.
Though her wit, charm, and all these other attributes only her drunken self is confident
with, she convinces Toru to come and be her maid!
Only to forget about it the next morning when she encounters a real life dragon outside
her front door.
AND LET THE HIJINKS BEGIN.
Over the course of 13 episodes we cover the life of Kobayashi, her new life as her normal life now
has to accommodate an existence of dragons.
Plural.
The show doesn’t necessarily follow any semblance of an overarching plot, as is the
norm with comedy anime, however quite a bit of emphasis is placed on character arcs.
By and large the characters we get introduced to at the beginning of the series get the
ability to grow and change as they encounter new experiences.
This isn’t just with the obvious, like having the dragons Toru and Kana offhandedly learn
something new about the world of humans only to never bring it up again.
But something things like how humans interact in social situations, how they work under
pressure, and of course how to be a maid.
Or at least a better maid.
The latter of which takes Toru some time to really get a handle on.
Kobayashi as well ends up developing into a character
that is good at adapting to new situations.
Early on her life consisted of going through the motions, but now every new day is a little
mini adventure.
She could have just mentally shut down, or forced the dragons out of her life because
dealing with them sometimes is far more trouble than it's worth, but that’s not who
she is as a character.
One of the first full scenes between Kobayashi and Toru we see is when Toru explains how
the two of them met.
As the entire conversation plays out and we see Kobayashi quickly move to a stance of
“Ok how can I get back to my normal life.”
Saying that hiring a maid would be “impossible” and she just can’t help the impossible. All the while this
is happening there are hints in the conversation that Kobayshi is not personality against having Toru around,
but rather that she is unwilling to go against her quote unquote “normal life”.
It’s not until Toru’s usefulness is brought to the forefront, like with an ability that’ll
quickly get Kobayashi to work when she’s late for example, that whatever social expectations
or inhibitions she had previously go out the window in favour of not being late for work.
Then somewhat reluctantly then allowing Toru to stay with her.
That whole scene from episode one is just the start in a long series of development
for Kobayashi as a character.
She’s not one to just completely shut down, and fight against the changes in her life
instead opting to slowly embrace them and the consequences.
She becomes more of a “head of the household” type person as she supports Toru and Kana
through their new experiences.
And the gentle transition of this is what in part makes the show entertaining.
Of course there is also the inherent comedy that a series like this possesses, but I never found
it to be particularly harsh comedy.
It’s not a series that got me in stitches or laughing heavily out loud or something like that.
Sure there are the moments of slapstick that will probably wrangle some semblance of a
positive sounding noise from my lungs, but mostly I found the show’s humor to be far
more subtle.
Toru in her first attempts to clean, or explain to Kana the purpose of a teeter totter when
she has no idea, these things mostly just fall under cute misunderstandings, and while
I many not openly laugh with them it’s a kind of comedy that warms the heart.
That's what's enjoyable about this show.
That's the kind of thing I like out of this.
In addition to that is the character designs that exhibit the kind of cuteness
and moe-centirc style that a studio like Kyoto Ani is known for.
The designs have this kind of inherent cuteness to them that victims of this style can’t
help but adore.
JUST LOOK AT THIS TINY DRAGON!
I WILL PROTECT HER WITH MY LIFE.
Of course, the boon of having a show such as this animated by Koto Ani is that, while
the vast majority of the series is quite simplistic when compared to other shows from the same
year, every few episodes we get that brief flash of a quality increase.
Either in little moments like Toru using her dragon powers, or more intricate
moments like when when she and Kana decide to roughhouse out in a field.
Which looks more like a Dragonball Z-esk fight to the death by our standards.
It’s those flashes of detail that exist when Toru while still in her Human form brings
out her dragon side that I found to be rather special with this show.
Though I’ll be honest, I was less impressed with the actual dragon forms used for the
most part.
Unless it was used as a flashback or a close up, the Dragon forms of the characters I just
didn’t find to be as appealing.
But what do I know, I love moe-trash to pieces.
SHE'S SO FREAKING SMOL
AND CUTE
WE HAVE TO PROTECT HER
[unintelligible cuteness overload]
I suppose I should bring up that the series also suffers at times from a bit too much
in the fan service department.
Either from Toru spouting that she is a D for dragon, and of course the appearance
of one of her friends, a dragon goddess by the name of Lucoa, most well known in the
show for being extremely thiccc…
I mean wise and knowledgeable!
Not at all fan service whatsoever!
Aku: EXTRA THICC!
Even if she was the dedicated fanservice character, which she's not at all
I’m sure the show would self-realise
this and promptly knock that off.
To be fair though, jokes aside, I never found the fan service to be that much of a distraction.
and as long as it never becomes the focus unnecessarily I don’t tend to
mind all that much.
Overall though, one of my favourite aspect of the series is it’s take on the non-traditional
kind of family that was able to be built out of the show’s rather fantastical situations.
Kobayashi over time develops into a sometimes stern but always fair parent, with Toru both
doubling as the over enthusiastic mom and older sister, with Kana rounding out the trio
as youngest and most impressionable.
Other anime have had stories about family units before but the vast majority of the
ones in recent memory are about families coping with poor circumstances.
A father who tries to take proper care of his young daughter after the death of his
wife like we see in Sweetness and Lightning for example.
We don’t normally see a show where the parental figures are the main focus, let alone one
of this kind of yuri makeup.
There are no signs of it getting a second season disappointingly, but the
manga is still ongoing even if the mangaka has two other series on the go as well.
Ok! Good for them!
Really though, with Kyoto Ani’s habit of only producing works that they own the full
rights too, it’s quite surprising that they animated Kobayashi in the first place.
So I’d have to say the chances of a season two are rather low.
Though what we have is still very much worth the watch.
As such, I’d like to present Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid with the rating of Buy it.
It’s the best comedy that Kyoto Ani has come up with since Nichijou, and has far more
heart to it than many other shows that I’ve watched in the past several seasons.
I think that it would be best to use it as a nice palate cleanser to enjoy whenever else
or whatever new other show that you happen to be watching at the same time
or perhaps just a series to watch to relax and use to reflect on the world.
As I find myself so often doing.
If you are interested in watching maid dragon there will be some links in the description for
both Crunchyroll and Funimation where you can watch in sub or dub if you so choose,
as well as some free trial links for premium access on those sites should you require it.
Going back to Nichijou though, that’ll be my first alternate recommendation for today!
While Kobayashi is a series with plenty of heart to it I found it to be a nice balance
between that heart and some clever comedy which overall made this show entertaining.
Nichijou on the other hand is all comedy all the time.
Like Maid Dragon it excels in taking extraordinary situations and masking or resolving them with
the ordinary.
It’s a series that is the pinnacle of the kind of high school slice of life slapstick
that other shows like Azumanga and Kyoto Ani’s own Lucky Star help to popularize and today,
despite being 6 years old is still memorable for just how zany and insane it can be at
times.
Second recommendation goes to a much chiller slice of life series by the name of
Non Non Biyori.
This series gets the nod for in my mind being one of the originators and best examples of
a character similar to Kana in Kobayshi.
That character in Biyori’s case being Renge [Nyanpassu].
I say it’s far chiller because, well that’s the long and short of it.
It takes place out on the country, doesn’t have any kind of fantasy or supernatural elements
such as Dragons or Magic, but the lives of its main cast still come off just as loveable
and heartwarming as those in Maid Dragon.
So if you haven't watched it yet, you definitely should.
Thank you gentle viewers for taking the time to watch this video, thank you to my patrons
who help support this channel and make it so I can continue to make these videos and a
very special thanks to Bing Theo, Calhoonboy, Siri Yamako, Viktor Ekmark, Robert Chumzai,
Joshua Garcia, and Hedrel Leon for donating already you guys are supremely awesome.
And until next time Ladies, Gentlemen and others, stay frosty

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid | GR Anime Review

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