Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon

As Kobayashi sets off for another day at work, she opens her apartment door only to be met by an unusually frightening sight—the head of a dragon, staring at her from across the balcony. The dragon immediately transforms into a cute, busty, and energetic young girl dressed in a maid outfit, introducing herself as Tooru.

It turns out that the stoic programmer had come across the dragon the previous night on a drunken excursion to the mountains, and since the mythical beast had nowhere else to go, she had offered the creature a place to stay in her home. Thus, Tooru had arrived to cash in on the offer, ready to repay her savior's kindness by working as her personal maidservant. Though deeply regretful of her words and hesitant to follow through on her promise, a mix of guilt and Tooru's incredible dragon abilities convinces Kobayashi to take the girl in.

Despite being extremely efficient at her job, the maid's unorthodox methods of housekeeping often end up horrifying Kobayashi and at times bring more trouble than help. Furthermore, 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.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kamui, Kanna Main

Naganawa, Maria Japanese

Tooru Main

Kuwahara, Yuuki Japanese

Kobayashi Main

Tamura, Mutsumi Japanese

Quetzalcoatl Supporting

Takahashi, Minami Japanese

Elma Supporting

Takada, Yuuki Japanese

Fafnir Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Saikawa, Riko Supporting

Katou, Emiri Japanese

Magatsuchi, Shouta Supporting

Ishihara, Kaori Japanese

Takiya, Makoto Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Saikawa, Georgie Supporting

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Uetsuki, Mikio Producer

Reviews

Apr 5, 2017

Veronin

Recommended

Kyoto Animation has been something of a lost soul, struggling to find its identity in a post-Haruhi and K-ON world. It is through flipping back the dial and returning to their roots that their newest title, Maid Dragon, is able to find its footing. It feels like something that might have been animated once upon a time in 2005, and that is precisely what makes it so special in the modern climate of harem and superpower.

And unlike many of their more recent titles, it knows what it wishes to be and never compromises its vision in a futile attempt to appease everyone and anyone. It ... doesn't play around with drama, and it never centres on action and explosions despite its cast of malevolent dragons. It's silly. It's relaxing. And it can even be a bit heartwarming when it tries, too. Have I also mentioned that Tohru is cute as all hell?

Some may immediately wince and groan upon reading the series' synopsis. Maids plus dragons does not make for a very promising setting, nor does it seem like a combination that required much more than two or three seconds of thought. Everything that could possibly exist has, or inevitably will, receive some sort of series with cute girls indiscriminately slapped onto it. Modern anime has trained people to be cynical.

But to treat Maid Dragon as just another silly comedy with moe characters wouldn't be entirely fair, as there are a number of things it does quite differently. Kobayashi, the show's title character and languid protagonist, is a working adult rather than the conventional teenager. Whereas most anime of its nature would choose instead to play a teenager as some pseudo-adult ("my parents are conveniently away on a business trip, so, hey, I have this house and this maid lady all to myself"), Maid Dragon chooses instead to portray real adults with real issues. Kobayashi is so bored with the office-lady routine that she will choose to drink herself halfway to death after a long day's work. Such is life in much of Japan.

By portraying adult characters, the sense of family between Kobayashi, Tohru, and Kamui feels genuine. Kobayashi is the mother of the household, and she will snap back at her dragon friends whenever they do something unreasonable. She is strict, yet also caring, and tries her best to understand their difficulties with getting used to the human world. Even little things such as peeling oranges for the two on their kotatsu makes it clear that she appreciates their company, even if she may not always be clear and forthright about it. Maid Dragon is true slice-of-life.

Kobayashi being female also helps to keep the show away from any unnecessary sexual undertones. If she were male, the show would no doubt be a harem, and it would be all the worse for it. It is hard to care about a cast when the only thing characterising them is accidental breast fondling (yay) and walking in on (and screaming at) each other in the bathroom. Yawn. While Tohru's feelings for Kobayashi are humorously exaggerated as being romantic, that is not Tohru's actual intentions, and indeed, her reactions come more from gratitude and a desire to protect her guardian, rather than anything genuinely romantic or sexual. The one exception is that, yes, there is a compulsory beach scene, although I suppose I can't fault it too much as it was relatively short and harmless (and because Tohru's body is a lovely sight indeed).

Maid Dragon can occasionally be funny-- Tohru visiting Kobayashi's workplace and repeatedly tripping her crabby boss, or challenging one of the other dragons to a fight in another dimension only to close it on them-- but it isn't an anime that is particularly defined by laughs. It is meant more to be relaxing, and, undoubtedly thanks to Kamui's presence, cute, at times adorable. I just wish it didn't have to repeat the same joke about Tohru cooking her tail a million and one times over.

The anime is at its strongest when it focuses on these main three, which makes the scenes with the other three dragons and Kobayashi's otaku friend, Takiya, significantly less appealing. Takiya's split personality is so jarring and exaggerated that he is often more obnoxious than anything, and Quetzalcoatl is pretty much a non-character whose only defining traits are that her boobs are large and that she likes to dress in scantily-clad clothing. If they were taken out altogether, I don't think anyone would find much reason to complain. More time should instead have been spent developing Kobayashi's cynical worldview, and Tohru's newfound interest in human society, the show's two most compelling themes. It would be nice for Kamui to also have something else to her besides simply being cute and snugly, but then I suppose it would be difficult to develop a character who is essentially the equivalent of a six or seven-year-old child. I sure as heck did not have anything else defining me at that age besides a love for candy and temper tantrums.

Kyoto Animation's artwork is generally excellent, but it certainly stands out in Maid Dragon's case. While there are few scenes that draw particular attention for their animation, the cute and humorous expressions the characters make (notably Tohru and Kamui) make the anime a ripe for grabbin' screenshots. Tohru's eyes are especially detailed, and draw attention to her nature as a dragon while never seeming overtly inhuman. Bright colours and soft edges also do well to enhance the fluffy, relaxing atmosphere the anime strives for. Part of the problem I had with some of KyoAni's other titles, such as Hibike Euphonium, is that they just looked so bland and dreary all the time. It's always welcome to see them return to a more traditional style, as traditional, it seems, is the very thing that KyoAni is skilled at.

To label Maid Dragon as something stellar or ground-breaking may be giving it a bit too much credit, but there is little doubt that it is at least a return to form for a studio that has been losing its way for many a year. It is as well a fun time in its own right, an almost nostalgic recollection of what slice-of-life anime used to be, and could, can be once more.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 5, 2017

MetaThPr4h

Mixed Feelings

Honestly, I’m not a fan of writing negative reviews since I prefer to use them to recommend series that I enjoyed, but as a fan of both comedy and the “cute girls doing cute things” genre I felt disappointed with Maid Dragon, that was the anime I was looking forward the most for this Winter 2017 season. I know that comedy is a very subjective genre, so I can see why other people would like it, so in this review I will talk about what I liked and what I didn't from this anime, while trying to keep it as a recommendation to give it ... a try as long as you're fine with what this anime delivers.

The story begins when a woman called Kobayashi finds a dragon named Tohru, that looks for a home to live, and after insisting she becomes Kobayashi’s maid, from there other dragons start to appear and they become a part of the daily life of our protagonist. With each introduction we get hints that there is more to know about the dragon world and the conflicts that happen there, something that sadly doesn't get explored in this anime, and while I find that fine since this is just a context for the story and it’s still early on to really need development, I still feel a bit disappointed because the idea is interesting and I wanted to see more.

My issues with this series (and in the end what makes me like a comedy or not) is the characters and the comedy itself. While some characters were fine the way they were (Tohru and Fafnir in special were pretty nice and I enjoyed most of their comedy bits), there are some that very early on reached a point where I was annoyed with them, and the constant repetition of their gag (even 4 or 5 times in an episode at times) without them getting any development during the series to make me feel that there was more to them than that, reduced a lot my enjoyment of this anime.

First in that list is the duo Kanna-Ahegao girl (she's called Riko, but she really deserves that nickname), Kanna is cute, I get it, everything she does is made to be an overdose of cuteness, but all Ahegao girl did for the whole series was, yeah, doing an ahegao face when near Kanna because she was really cute like always, while some people find that face funny, I found it absolutely annoying right from the first time, and nothing about her character changed at any point to make the gag atleast funnier or different. One thing that really bothered me is how the series used Kanna for fanservice at times, and more considering how she has the attitude of a child. One scene with Ahegao girl in particular was very uncomfortable to watch and made me lose the hopes in ending up warming up to this anime sooner or later.

But if we're talking about uncomfortable, Lucoa definitely takes the cake here. I can resume her character in a single word: boobs, all of her comedy comes from them, either via having them bouncing, her wearing dresses that show them a lot (she even gets called as someone that “dresses like a slut” by Kobayashi, I'm dead serious), but definitely the worst part is her constant gag of breast smoothering a kid she lives with using them, I'm fine with some fanservice, but Maid Dragon reaches a point where I think that they went too far, both with how much it uses it, and to which characters the fanservices goes directed to.
Finally there is Kobayashi, our protagonist, that while I find her a pretty bland character, I think that this is exactly her purpose since she is there to bring the heartwarming moments of the series, related to her enjoying having all these weirdos around giving colour to the lifeless world around her due to her personality, I find that scenes well executed and I wish that the series revolved more around the family feel they create.

In the artistic part, well, it's KyoAni, really well animated moments in the scenes where the series needed them while staying nice from start to end. The series also provides a solid OST, with personal mention to the song that plays in the previously mentioned heartwarming scenes, that improved them a lot in my opinion, and the opening “Aozora no Rhapsody” that is a very catchy song to start the episode in a nice mood.

In the end, while I personally didn't enjoy this anime due to not being a fan of the comedy and the fanservice present in the series, it's definitely worth trying out if what I mentioned didn't bother you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 18, 2019

SpetzisnotaWeeb

Not Recommended

Dragon Maid is a yuri slice of life anime with some...interesting...undertones. I'm going to review this by Story, Art, Sound, Characters, and Enjoyment, like the official review scorer.

[SWEARING AND SOME SPOILERS AHEAD]

Story: 5/10 It's a great concept if a bit cliche, a magical being comes to the human and doesn't understand shit, the human is stoic and peeved, the magic being is all smiles, and there's a host of weirdos that come along for the ride. It's very good at first, with excellent comedy and touching moments with the title characters, Kobayashi and Tohru the Dragon Maid. Kanna is just generally adorable, and it ... feels very sweet and nice. Then the middle of the series rolls around and everything goes to absolute shit. This includes meaningless characters, idiotic repetitive jokes, and pedophilic undertones. Actually undertones is a bad way of describing it, as a fucking second grader has an ahegao orgasm every three seconds, a dragon with watermelons for breasts smothers a child with them repeatedly, and at one point Kanna nearly goes full on R. Kelly on ahegao girl. Thankfully it improves by episode 9, which was my favorite episode and single-handedly raised this anime's score from a 2 to a 4. the rest of the show is decent, though the last episode is a bit cheesy.

Art: 7/10 Nice art, simple in design and very colorful. I loved the fight scene animation and I wish there had been more. It was fluid, smooth, and very warm and cheery. The character design was good except for a certain ex-goddess of fertility.

Sound: 8/10 I loved the Dragon Maid OP, I even added it to my master playlist. It's very happy and fun to listen to, and I never skip it as it is quite frankly the best part of the entire show. The ending is good too, though I frequently skipped it. The actual anime audio is good, the sound effects are on point, although the amount of noises Lucoa's breasts make when they jiggle is a bit excessive. As for the English voice acting (I watched the dub) it's good overall, if pretty typical. Kobayashi is very entertaining to listen to when drunk, but Takiya's otaku voice is grating and annoyed me. The other characters have pretty typical voices and I can't fault them.

Character: 2/10 Oh boy, this category is a doozy. Every character in this anime has quality varying from good to downright awful. Let's start with the best. Kobayashi, Tohru, and Fafnir all are entertaining, sweet, and likable. Kobayashi's stoic attitude is a nice contrast to Tohru's cheery ignorance and Fafnir's comical emo hatred is funny and a nice way to balance out the cast. On to the "ok" characters. Elma is not altogether bad, but very underdeveloped, as her late introduction gives her a very one-dimensional personality with a somewhat exasperating indecisiveness. Takiya is an alright character, and his dual personality from normal office worker to Fafnir's crazed otaku roomie is comical but grating. Shota is also alright, though I was too busy pitying his poor slot in life to really analyze his character. Now here's the selection of characters that killed this anime for me: Kanna, Riko, and *shudder* Lucoa. All of these characters are awful, and each for similar reasons. You might be saying, "sPEtZ kaNnA iS ABsOluTeLY pERfeCt kILL yoURseLf" but let me explain. Kanna is indeed adorable, precious, and God's gift to humanity. Thing is, she also attempted to rape a child. Kanna is 600+ years old, and literally forces Riko onto the ground and says she's gonna go "Dragon Style". What. The. Fuck. This was a major turn-off to me as this kind of thing is unacceptable. So that's why I kind of hate Kanna. Riko is up next and her character is pretty simple. She's absolutely infatuated with Kanna in a clearly sexual way despite being a second grader. Whenever Kanna brushes by her she has a goddamn ahegao orgasm. A fucking second grader. Orgasming. Some of you may find this cute but for me that's really fucking creepy. Now, onto the bitch that literally brought this anime's quality down from a 6 to a 2. (episode 9 and the OP brought it up to a 4.) Lucoa is an awful character, not because she's designed for fan service but rather for the fact of how she does it. Her breasts aren't large, they're disproportionately massive, to the point of looking like tumorous watermelons growing off her chest. What does she do with these absolute units of tits you ask? She rubs the face of a nine year old boy with them. Dis-fucking-scusting. She also refuses to look modest, to the point of disgust rather than being turned on. She repeatedly antagonizes Shota with them to the point he thinks she's a succubus. She often acts pedophilic towards him but no one cares, because "hey! It's a chick!" despite the unnerving similarity to Boku No Pico at some points. Also, after analyzing the character, personality, and mythological factors it's safe to assume that Lucoa may be a male dragon. Did anyone else just see Jared from Subway flicker in front of them like Slenderman, or is it just me? Either way it made this character meaningless and intolerable. All in all, the characters are the worst part of this anime and if a good amount were dropped it could have brought this anime to an 8 or even 9.

Enjoyment: 4/10 This anime has a fantastic OP, an interesting story, and some likable characters. The art is clean, the audio is good, and Fafnir is hilarious. However, the inclusion of excessive fan service, maid fetishes, lolicon influence, and pedophilic undertones brought this anime down exponentially, and it's a sorry shame that this couldn't have been better. Fuck you Lucoa.

In conclusion, Dragon Maid is a failure of an anime that could have gone far. Don't buy into the hype, this anime is only worth watching if you like feeling like a pervert after completion. I would love to see a rewrite of this concept with a higher focus on the ignorance comedy and quasi-dimensional battle concept. However it is instead a pulpy creepfest that left me feeling uncomfortable. And that's my whole review of Dragon Maid, thanks for reading if you got this far!

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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