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.

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.

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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