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kohakuneko · 6 years

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12 Days of Anime 2017 ~ Day 1: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Thinking back, I honestly don’t remember what got me to start watching this show in the first place. The most likely answer is probably that I’m a sucker for nearly anything gay, so there was no way I was gonna avoid this show for long, but I also recall finding some clips on YouTube and liking them enough to watch it. Funimation also picked this one up for SimulDub and I’ve got a subscription with them and follow them on social media, so I did see a number of promos for it as well.

But the thing that I really think got me hooked on this show was that it aired at the exact right time for me. I won’t go into details, but basically at the beginning of this year I just really needed something that would lift my spirits. And that’s what this show did for me. Okay, I can’t remember roaring with laughter while watching it, but it really made me smile. Every time I rewatch part of it I just start smiling like an idiot. I love the opening theme, too, it cheers me up any time I hear it. Maid Dragon isn’t what I’d call an amazing show, but it’s definitely a very heartwarming, feel-good one that makes you get all tingly inside. And it still makes me very happy.

Also, the SimulDub for this show was very well done. I like this show equally in both Japanese and English. And a big part of that has to do with the cast and crew. All of them very clearly loved and cared a lot about the show they worked on and I really like seeing that. (Sarah Wiedenheft, Tohru’s VA, even bought a Tohru tail pillow and wore it to recording sessions like how’s that for dedication lolol)

(Not featured from the main cast: Garret Storms as Fafnir, Jeff Johnson as Takiya, Alison Viktorin as Shouta, Sara Ragsdale as Saikawa, Jamie Marchi as Lucoa (she also adapted the script, I think), and Rachel Glass as Elma)

seriously tho i love all of these people and they did a phenomenal job on this show send them all some love and check out all their other work

Moving on, when trying to select a moment for this year’s 12DOA feature, I initially went for their first meeting in episode 12, where we see how Kobayashi got completely wasted and accidentally invited Tohru to live with her. It’s easily one of my favorite moments in the show since it’s simultaneously hilarious and full of feels.

But as much as I loved that scene, in the end I’m really gonna have to go with the final episode instead. Within the first ten minutes or so, Tohru gets forcibly taken home by her disapproving father, leaving Kobayashi and Kanna to deal with her absence for most of the episode.

To be perfectly honest, the first time I watched this episode when it aired, I actually found this portion to be underwhelming. I don’t know, it just felt too slow and quiet and I guess I expected something more from the series finale. Besides, I feel like I and a lot of people have seen this set-up before, with the girlfriend leaving and everyone else moping.

But the more I rewatched this, the more I realized that this was actually a whole lot more tragic than I first gave it credit for. And to understand why, we have to look back on the series as a whole.

I’ve been trying to think about what really separates Maid Dragon from other similar slice-of-life shows. Because after all, there’s been plenty of these “magical girlfriend from another world comes and falls in love with someone while bringing in more wacky people and shenanigans with her” anime in the past (that was very specific but I’m sure you know what I mean). These days, it’s kind of a tired set-up and come to think of it, you don’t really see too too many of those anymore; there’s still a couple every year, but I think this genre really peaked in the 2000s and maybe the early 2010s (don’t quote me on that; I’m a weeb not an expert). So yeah, we all know this story by now.

But something about Maid Dragon always felt different to me; something always set this one apart from all other shows like it. Of course, there’s the fact that Kobayashi is a woman and our main pairing is a same-sex couple, but ultimately that doesn’t really change anything since Kobayashi’s still the jaded protagonist who’s missing something in her life and Tohru’s still the wacky magical girlfriend who comes and shows her the way. The rest of the cast is typical for this sort of show, too, and throughout the whole thing we kind of go through all the motions of a fantasy slice-of-life: beach episode, hot spring episode, shrine/festival visit, boob fanservice, y’all know the drill by now. So then what is it that Maid Dragon does different? I think I’ve found out what it is: the relationships between the characters and the actions they all take feel very real and genuine.

The moment where I first started to realize this aspect of the show was episode 4, when Kobayashi and Tohru are talking about Kanna getting all excited for her first day of school. Specifically look at this part here, where they’re watching her through the bedroom door.

The way they’re talking about her while she sleeps, the way they smile at her like that from the door, it all makes them look like two parents watching over their child, no? There’s no real prompting for them to be acting like this; there’s no scene where they go “whoop we parents now gotta start acting like it”. They don’t even comment on the fact that that’s what they’re acting like until a bit later, but I’ll get to that. This is something they just settled into naturally. And I’m not speaking from personal experience, but I feel like that’s how it is in real life, right?

This really put the rest of the series into perspective for me because it made me realize quite a lot. Maid Dragon spends a lot of time in the background building up Tohru, Kobayashi, and Kanna’s relationship together. Nothing about them changes incredibly drastically - all of them are still very much the same people/dragons they were at the start - but there’s subtle changes in how they start talking to and treating each other. Kobayashi, whether she realizes it or not, is very quick to start talking to Kanna like a parent would their child when she starts encouraging her and giving her advice. Same for Tohru: Kobayashi is quick to pick up on how to deal with her antics and through that comes to learn what she likes about her, just like a real couple might. So when Kanna tells Kobayashi and Tohru that Kobayashi’s like a mom to her, it may be played for laughs, but it honestly doesn’t seem all that surprising. I think all of us viewing think the same way by now, too, whether we realize it or not.

A lot of their daily behavior is also something they gradually start to settle into throughout the show. We never get a scene where they lay out their morning routine together, but then one day we see Tohru make everyone breakfast, send Kobayashi and Kanna off to work and school, then get her chores done in time for everyone to have dinner. There’s no real attention drawn to these moments even the first time they happen, so it all feels just as natural to the viewers as it does to them. We still have Tohru being her usual silly self about it, of course, but that’s become natural to us, too, at this point.

What I’m trying to get at is that the way they so seamlessly fall into these roles without much fanfare really solidifies their connection and their growing dynamic as a little family. I feel like most other shows I watch like this tend to have a lot of cheesy scenes or dialogue to call attention to how the characters are acting, but it’s so much stronger in Maid Dragon because of how natural everything is played.

And that’s why episode 13 hits so hard.

Just look at this first bit where Kobayashi and Kanna are just silently trying to figure out what they’re going to do now that Tohru’s not there anymore. There’s not a whole lot of dialogue exchanged between them and then they’re just silent; neither of them know what to say or what’s going to happen next, which is just such a genuine reaction.

Speaking of genuine reactions, that’s exactly what they have for the rest of the sequence without Tohru. Their numb acceptance of everything is just so real and I think maybe even relatable. Both of them know there’s nothing they can do about their new situation, so they just figure out what they think they have to do now and try their best to resume their normal daily life without Tohru.

First and foremost is Kobayashi, who’s running around doing the best she can to take care of herself and Kanna. One of the big moments in this sequence for me is when Kobayashi’s not only picking up some of Tohru’s jobs, but also when she making sure Kanna can take care of herself in case she works late. It legit feels like she’s learning and doing her best to be a good single parent.

Then there’s Kanna, who’s always wearing her usual expression and not complaining at all to Kobayashi so as not to worry her, but she’s clearly affected by Tohru’s absence; the shot of her erasing a doodle of Tohru gets me every time. And if you thought that was sad, we then get the little scene of her at Saikawa’s house where she finally just breaks in front of her and starts crying.

There’s even Takiya, who in any other show might be doing the “GO AFTER HER YOU DUMMY” thing that best friends are supposed to do. But instead he’s super considerate and supportive, doing his best to give Kobayashi the space she needs while also looking out for her to make sure both she and Kanna are doing alright in the wake of this loss, like maybe a real co-worker/best friend might.

Honestly this doesn’t feel like the season finale of a slice-of-life anime. It feels more like the opening to a movie about a widowed parent trying to cope with the loss of their wife while raising their kid. I mean yeah, we all know Tohru’s not gone for good, the show wouldn’t do that. But the way this part of the episode is done, she might as well be dead.

Sometimes family is two wives and their tiny dragon child. (yeah, Kanna says it’s like having a big sister and a mom, but come on, we all know what’s up) From start to finish, everything about these characters is very real and human (barring the fact that everyone’s over-the-top anime and most of the cast consists of dragons), which is a big part of why every moment, happy or sad, hits home for us. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid isn’t as much a story about romance as it is about the bonds between members of a family, whether that family is even blood-related or all belongs to the same species. And it’s beautifully executed the whole way.

damn remember when i said this show made me happy

#this gets more serious after the break I promise #ok i rambled way too much about the dub cast lolol #but it's always so exciting when the cast of a show loves it as much as you do #and this show's got a pretty good dub seriously #this is the only one im writing ahead of time #i have a bit of a free moment rn and i know i wont on the day this goes up #plus ive been itching to write this for like months #miss kobayashi's dragon maid #kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #maid dragon #i really hope i articulated everything well and everything gets across good #12 days of anime #12 days of anime 2017

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