Ah, Winter 2017: the season of anime finales that make you go “MEH”[1].
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid[2], aka Maidragon on twitter, was a mostly charming show about Kobayashi[3] who somehow winds up with the chaos dragon Tohru as her maid and effective partner in raising the younger dragon Kanna.
The first thing that needs to be said about Maidragon is that it is very fanservice heavy, and some of it, particularly with two minor characters, is both creepy and way overdone.
On the other hand Tohru’s attempts to understand how to live as a human are often hilarious, Kanna is adorable, Kobayashi is a decent deadpan snarker[4], and the slowly growing familial relationship between the three of them is lovely to watch.
Structurally, most Maidragon episodes are vignettes around a theme for the episode, with the themes ranging from house hunting through to wanting parents to show up at your sports festival. Often quite funny with some gentle social commentary, I pretty much enjoyed this show from start to finish[5].
The finale? Meh. Amusiing enough like many of the Maidragon episodes but not anything particularly special.
Funny, and occasionally touching, if you can tolerate the fanservice[6], avoid it otherwise. Here’s the rather amusing OP:
And because Fhána clearly had a huge amount of fun making this song, here’s their full video for it:
[1] In which unlamented category Maidragon joins Demichan, MinaKama and Kemono Friends.
[2] Literally Kobayashi-san Chi no Meidoragon. Hence the Maidragon abbreviation/hashtag.
[3] Her given name is never revealed in the show, she’s always Kobayashi-san.
[4] Appropriately given that Kobayashi is a developer for (I think) a games company.
[5] Lucoa notwithstanding. BOOBS DON’T WORK THAT WAY. Even on dragons in human form.
[6] i.e. not one I’ll be showing to friends. Unless they ask (which is unlikely).
I don’t know if the writers looked at Lucoa and he way she interacts with Shouta and realised they were going to far, since throughout thought she was teasing and tormenting him on purpose. But when she is called on he behaviour in a later episode, she acts like it never occurred to her she was being inappropriate, so perhaps if this gets a renewal that aspect might get toned down.
Maybe. I was certainly grateful that those scenes were kept short in each episode.