What's up people! Welcome to Ray of Reviews, where I, Rayden, bring you an array of videos
form the anime world and geek culture. Today, I be talking a look at the anime Miss Kobayashi's
Dragon Maid. It is a 13 episode fantasy slice of life comedy that is based off a 2013 manga
by Coolkyoushinja. The animation production for Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is none other
than Kyoto Animation. The same studio that brought you other anime titles such as Clannad:
After Story, Beyond the Boundary, and Nichijou. This anime is rated TV-14 due to its suggestive
sexual content and humor. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is available on stream legally on Crunchyroll and Funimation
Now in glorious HD so please go out there and support its official release.
One morning, Kobayashi, an ordinary Japanese office worker, wakes up hungover to answer
her door. However, it's not a neighbor or a childhood friend at her door step, but a
a giant dragon named Tohru staring back at her. Ah correction, a magical dragon for the
dragon quickly transforms into a human girl. What would a magical dragon appear out of
the blue, you ask? Why to become Kobayashi's maid of course. It turns out, Kobayashi stumbled
upon Tohru in the mountains and saved her life while she was wasted and had totally
forget about their fateful encounter. Knowing this you must wonder, why would a dragon come
dressed as a maid? Well Kobayashi is really into maids and in her drunken state told Tohru
she could live with her as her maid.
Kobayashi is hastent as first with rooming with a killer dragon, but Tohru is determine to pay back
Kobayashi whether she likes it or not so ultmentaly gives in to Tohru's demands and accepts her as her maid. From there, Tohru
learns what it is like living in a peaceful world where humans are not at war with dragons
and what it takes to be a proper maid in Japan. Along the way, other dragons from Tohru's
world become a part of Kobayashi's life and soon make her quite boring life not so boring
anymore. And that is basic plot line of this series.
It is pretty anime in my opinion yet there is a bit more here than meets the eye. Let's
start off with Kobayashi. Now Kobayashi is indeed a woman though many people think
she is a guy because of her looks and behavior, which makes her fairly unique as a female
protagonist in an anime. In the beginning, she is an alcoholic loner with the exception
of her platonic friend and drinking buddy Makoto Takiya. However, when Tohru and the
other dragons show up, Kobayashi has to adjust living with these fantastical beasts and learns
what it is like having other people in her life. As time progress, she opens up as a
person and appreciates her time with her new dragon friends even if they drive her crazy
sometimes. Torhu is a mischievous fearless hot headed
dragon of a maid. She is deeply in love with Kobayashi and is willing to do anything to
get praise from her human savior. She looks down on humans with the exception of Kobayashi
yet as the show goes on, she discovers that not all humans are bad thanks to Kobayshi
and the people at her local shopping district of all places. As you can imagine, where there
is character development, there is a happy Rayden. I found the story and main characters
to be ridiculous yet heartwarming at the same time especially in some of the later episodes.
As for the other dragons, I thought were just as entertaining. Kanna is an innocent young
dragon with a monotone stare, who acts like an adoptive daughter to Kobayashi. Lucoa,
the mature laid back ex-goddess dragon, is there to lend a helping hand. Fafnir, the
only male dragon of the show, would rather kill humans than become their friends though
he does put up with them if they have video games for him to play. And lastly, Elma, a
dragon about Toruhu's age and her rival, who was easily the weakest dragon out of the bunch.
Though not so much because of her personality, but because they kind of throw her into the
at the last minute and really don't do anything with her.
On the human side, the characters were a bit of a hit and miss for me. Makoto Takiya, who
I mentioned earlier, is a coworker of Kobayashi's and is a closet Otaku with a maid fetish too.
My only problem with him is his "nerd" face he makes when he geeks out. I find this
stereotypical geek look to be unoriginal and somewhat offensive. I get it's suppose to be
a joke, but nerds come in all shapes and sizes and are not just fugly looking guys with glasses.
Good grief. All these years and we are still just bloody Umino. And there is young Shota a
elementary student with magical powers. Yeah, magic is apparently a real thing in this world for humans though they really don't touch upon that on the show.
The poor kid's job is to setup boob jokes so he doesn't do much for me. More on that in a
little bit. Finally, Riko Saikawa is a young tsudere at heart and is Kanna's best friend.
She is really into Kanna and I mean really into to her. The joke is she thinks Kanna
is super adorable, which granted, she is, but there is just something not right about
a child who makes this face. At first I laughed at this joke; however, as the show continued, I started to cringe
more than laugh. Hacing said that, I did laugh at most of the jokes. It just some of them, not so much. Humor is super subjective and when it came to this show, I'll take dragons over the humans any day of the week.
over humans any day of the week.
If you have been an anime fan as long as I have, you know when you hear the words "KyotoAni," you think of great animation and Miss Kobayashi's
Dragon Maid is no exception. There are some funny actions scenes sprinkled here and there
in this show and boy are they beautiful to watch. Even they are not shooting energy beams,
the animation it top notch. Characters movements and expressions are very detailed and are
a treat for your eyes. The anime's art direction is going more for a cartoony look than a realistic
atmosphere with is its use of pastel backgrounds and simple character designs. It made me think
of other past works of theirs like Lucky Star and Nichijou. The whole cute or moe look has
put me off in the past though it didn't seem to bug as much this time. Maybe because its
been awhile since I've seen this art style or the writing was so good that I didn't even notice their
cute adorable round faces. Either way it just worked for me. The one thing I will ding this show for
as I hinted at before, would be the ridiculous chest sizes of some of our characters. They are just flat
out ridiculous. I get it, it's a joke, haha, big boobs, haha but man is that joke old as heck. Sure, when
And honestly, I wouldn't blame anyone who is tired of this anime troupe
and gave up on this show early. However, there
is some good stuff hidden in this anime. You just wouldn't guess that judging it by its
first episodes so urge you to have some patience and you will indeed be rewarded.
Let's tackle the Japanese side first, shall we? It's simply great. Definitely one of the best
well rounded performances that I have seen in a while. Everyone seemed to nail their
role perfectly. From Kyobashi's subtle indifferent smart ass tone to Tohru sometimes split personality.
If I had to pick a favorite seiyu it would probably be Daisuke Ono as Fafnir. He plays
the distinguish yet deadly butler so well though he has had plenty of practice nailing
that role since he also voiced Sebastian from Black Butler. Fun Fact! Flipping audio over
to Funimation's dub it's actually one of my least favorite dubs I've heard in a while.
It's not God awful by any means, it just wasn't anywhere close to same
level as the Japanese original and that's coming from a guy who really supports English
dubs. The only portrayals I thought came close to matching the Japanese was Lucoa and Riko.
Everyone else from passable or worse.
The OST worked for the most part. The music is most note worthy during the more tear jerking moments
accompanied by a soft piano melody. The rest of the music so more for comical purposes
by using long pauses in-between notes and the use of uncommon instruments like the xylophone.
It gets the job done. I just doubt I'll remember any of it after I'm done with this review.
The opening is a fast paced sickly sweet pop song that somehow is still playing in head
as I speak. I find that Kyoto Animation show's tend to have great animation in their
openings and they hit another home run. The timing in the sync with the music is impressive.
Though I've seen better from this studio, but still, its above average. The ending is
yet another song sung by the anime's voice actresses. Being a voice actor in Japan is hard.
To recap, the setup might not be that original, but the character development more than makes
up for its generic plot. Most characters are entertaining to watch even if I questioned
some of the writers' choices. The animation from Kyoto Animation is top notch as usual.
The art style is more cute though I actually enjoyed it and it made humor work more often
than not. The Japanese voice acting is impeccable so its fine if you skip the dub. The music
accomplished what it was set off to do, just don't ask me about it next week. So with that
all in mind, and based off my own enjoyment and preferences, I give Miss Kobayashi's Maid
Dragon a four out of five and a recommendation to watch it. This anime is definitely designed
for the mainstream Japanese anime consumer. It looks like you average monster harem yet
there some genuine feels hidden in this gem that is worthy of your time.
But hey, that's just my opinion. What do you think about Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon?
What are some other hidden gems out there you like? Leave me your thoughts in the comment section.
Got an anime you would like me to preview this spring season? Then feel free to put
your request down below and I'll try to make that happen. If you like what I do here, please
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so much for watching! I was Rayden and I'll see you guys again on the next episode of
Ray of Reviews.
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