Tag: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S anime series cover art
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S

Return of Kyoto Animation

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S (Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon S / 小林さんちのメイドラゴンS) is the sequel series to the fan-favorite anime Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. It’s also the first full-length TV anime series to come out of Kyoto Animation since the arson attack on one of their studios that killed 36 and injured 33 in 2019.

And because of that, I want to use this first section of the review to explain a bit of the context surrounding this season of the Dragon Maid anime. I don’t know everything all of the victims had worked on or were working on, but many of them were directly connected to this series.

For example, the series director Yasuhiro Takemoto was one of those who died in the attack. But since production on Dragon Maid S was underway at the time, he’s still credited as a director of the season.

Obviously, because of the attack on the studio, Dragon Maid S was greatly affected. However, the new director, Tatsuya Ishihara stated that he wanted to follow Takemoto’s original vision for the season as closely as possible. And, I think he and everyone else who worked on the series did a great job of that.

If you enjoyed the first season of the series and have been putting off watching the second season, I highly recommend you watch it. It’s very good, and I think it’s going to end up being in my top 3 anime of the entire year, only behind Mushoku Tensei and Sonny Boy.

I know Kyoto Animation has released multiple movies, specials, and shorts since the attack. But the release of this, their first full-length series, really tells me that the studio is back. I can’t wait to see what else comes from them in the future — they’re one of the best animation studios around.

Season Overview

Now that you know why Dragon Maid S is kind of a big deal for the anime community as a whole, how does this season compare to the original? I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but I actually think this season is better.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the final episode of the season. But aside from that, I feel like it generally improved on everything.

It’s been years since I watched the first season, but I don’t remember it having as much great animation (sakuga) as this season did. Don’t get me wrong, I know the animation was great in season one. However, season two felt like it had a lot more of it.

Kanna, Kobayashi, and Tohru from the anime series Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S
Kanna, Kobayashi, and Tohru

What’s more important to me, though, is that the characters all got some really nice development throughout this season. This was mostly done through flashbacks to the time before Tohru and her friends arrived in the human world.

We got to see how Tohru met all the other dragons and what they were like before compared to how they are now. As it turns out, Kanna hasn’t really changed. But, these flashbacks made me appreciate both Elma and Lucoa in particular more.

Elma was always my least favorite of the main character, which I understand is a pretty unpopular opinion. However, her backstory turns her into a much better character, in my opinion.

And on the other end of the spectrum, I actually always liked Lucoa, which I realize is another unpopular opinion. I get that people are weirded out about her relationship with Shota, but that’s kind of the joke considering his name. Anyway, this season gave us some great Lucoa and Shota content that showed some of the more wholesome aspects of their characters.

Ilulu Appears!

You may have noticed that I’ve avoided mentioning Ilulu at all in this review until now. The reason for that is that since Ilulu is the only new character, I felt like she deserved her own section.

So, to start, I should probably address that Ilulu brings some huge controversy to the series in the form of her character design. She’s sugoi dekai. I get that a lot of people hate that about her, but I actually find her design to be pretty funny. It’s a comedy series, calm down.

Now, as for how Ilulu is used in the series, I was pleasantly surprised. Based on how the season began, I thought it was going to be very Ilulu-centric, which would obviously have taken away from the other characters we know and love. That’s not the case.

Ilulu from the anime series Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S
Ilulu

After her introduction, Ilulu slots into the series quite nicely. We get a decent amount of content focusing on her, but it’s not overwhelming or anything. She might even have the least screen time of any of the dragons after her introduction.

As for her personality and role in the series, Ilulu is kind of a combination of Kanna and Lucoa. She has a somewhat ecchi mindset, but she’s also very childish. I know there are people who don’t like that combination. But I think she’s a decently complex character and I really like her overall.

If Ilulu’s appearance has been putting you off from watching this season, I recommend giving her a chance. She’s not great when she first shows up, but she quickly proved to me that her inclusion in the series was the right call. I don’t want to go back to the pre-Ilulu days.

Conclusion

In the end, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S is an 8/10 from me. That’s the same rating I gave to the original season, but I do slightly prefer this season. I like Ilulu’s inclusion, and I think the other characters really benefited from having their backstories explained.

How do the OP and ED stack up, though? Obviously, the original OP and ED are iconic. But, I like the Dragon Maid S OP a lot more and I think the EDs might be about equal.

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Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Cover Art featuring Tohru
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Cover Art

Overview

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a comedy slice-of-life anime about, you guessed it, Miss Kobayashi’s maid who is also a dragon. But, don’t let the title confuse you, there are more dragons than just Miss Kobayashi’s maid.

One night after she was out drinking, Kobayashi wandered into a forest and found an injured dragon; no this isn’t a fantasy world so that’s not normal. Since she was still drunk, Kobayashi told the dragon that if she ever needed a place to stay she could work as her maid. Plot twist: the dragon showed up the next day in the form of a human ready to be Kobayashi’s maid.

After Tohru, the original dragon who is now Kobayashi’s maid, came to Earth, other dragons soon followed suit and adopted the forms of humans.

Characters

Kobayashi is one of the main characters of the series. She works as a programmer and has an obsession with maids. Her maid obsession becomes much more extreme when she’s drinking. She also has a friend from work, Takiya, who shares her obsession with maids.

Tohru is the other main character. She’s the dragon who works as Kobayashi’s live-in maid. She is constantly coming up with schemes which she thinks will make Kobayashi fall in love with her.

Kanna is the main supporting character, although she could also be considered a main character. She is another dragon who takes the human form of an elementary schooler. She’s a classic example of the “looks like a child, but is actually over 500 years old” trope.

As a main source of both comedy and moe, Kanna seems to be everyone’s favorite character. Throughout the series Kanna is seen doing various generic elementary schooler activities, but with the twist that she’s actually a dragon so she doesn’t quite understand half the things she’s doing.

There are three more dragons who appear as supporting characters in season one.

The first is Elma, a dragon who became stuck on Earth after going there to stop Tohru from messing up things in the human world. She loves food, particularly sweets, and works with Kobayashi so she can get money to buy sweets.

Lucoa is next. She is a dragon who appeared in front of a boy, Shouta as he was attempting to summon a demon and so he believes that he summoned her. Due to Lucoa’s appearance, Shouta believes she is an evil succubus.

Finally there is Fafnir. While originally despising humans for being weak, he learns of the world of online gaming while living with Kobayashi’s friend Takiya. He becomes a tsundere character, not willing to admit that Takiya is actually his friend and that not all humans are that bad.

Kanna eating a cicada
Kanna

Conclusion

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid was definitely one of the best shows to come out during the Winter 2017 anime season alongside the second season of KonoSuba. This anime is easily one of the better slice-of-life series I’ve seen and so I gave it an 8/10.

Hopefully there will be a second season either this year or the following because we all need more of Kanna in our lives.

My review of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S is available now.