KyoAni tries their hand at this mythical SoL.
(Spoilers in this review)
…and the result is alright so far. It’s only the beginning, right?
Kobayashi saved a dragon’s life while in a drunken stupor and asks the dragon, Tohru, if she’d like to come over to her place. Tohru tries to repay said debt to Kobayashi by becoming her maid (which is one of Kobayashi’s passions). It turns out she has no idea about what it means to be a maid, so it’s up to Kobayashi to teach her the basics.
Tohru gets jealous of Kobayashi’s co-worker, who she believes is trying to seduce Kobayashi. However, they’re just drinking buddies and fellow maid fanatics.
Kobayashi tries to teach Tohru how to properly wash laundry. However, Tohru uses her mega breath to cause the cloudy skies to become sunny skies (gotta dry that laundry!) which allows another dragon to take notice of her.
The episode ends with Tohru and Kobayashi sharing a bed. Tohru has a recollection / nightmare where she’s stabbed by a sword while fighting with humans. Kobayashi reassures her which causes Tohru to smile.
Thoughts on Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon thus far:
- Kobayashi managed to balance being a heartless stickler and a big softie, in my opinion. Dismissing Tohru’s nightmare / memory by reassuring her that everything is fine now may have seem cold-hearted, but it was just her way of saying, “Now is now and you’re okay.” I kind of liked how she tried to convey her feelings this way.
- There’s definitely room for more subplots to develop. Tohru’s laundry antics caused another dragon to notice her, first of all. The second episode implies she’ll be knocking on Kobayashi’s door next week, in fact.
- And when she called up another dragon, Quetzalcoatl, for advice, she asks Tohru if she was enjoying living with others. Tohru seems to catch herself, lower her gaze to the ground, and enthusiastically proclaims, “Yes.” Is Tohru forcing herself? Did she have a hard time living with others in the past? Will the dragons she called on the phone also show up later?
- Either way, it seems unlikely that this show will remain just about Tohru and Kobayashi, which is fine by me. There’s only so much you can do with the whole “dragon doesn’t understand human” gags.
- Speaking of which, said gags were reused a lot during this episode, but it’s not like they had much choice, did they? Not many characters to bring in yet without making the story feel rushed or chaotic.
- As such, this episode was a bit of a stepping stone. It lets us get a glimpse of the setting and is a setup for additional interesting characters and dynamics to emerge. Still funny, too!
- Yuri vibes are strong.
tl;dr – the story unfolds as expected when the story starts with a stranger moving into the main character’s house. This episode was a stepping stone for future developments, after all, and was still funny for what it’s worth. I’m eagerly waiting for episode 2 to see if I’m pinning too much hope on the show!
The Lily Garden 
I actually saw this the other day on a Crunchyroll ad and thought it looked awesome and hilarious. So might give it a try, especially after reading your review ^^
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I would recommend it! It might start off a bit slow at first, but I genuinely think this slice-of-life is getting better and better and that there’s deeper lessons to be learned from each episode.
Thanks for the kind words as always.
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That’s awesome! I’ll definitely try it. I recently got into anime again so I’m looking for nice ones to start watching 🙂
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Oh yay! Hmm not sure this should be among first pickings yet, but it’s good to keep your options open haha
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Yuri vibes do indeed sound strong.
I’m kinda torn about this show after this review. I was interested in the premise but those screencaps show a very unequal relationship and those are more often than not likely to rub me the wrong way.
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Ah, the show isn’t going to blow you away so far, but I might have painted an excessively bad picture of Kobayashi.
…then again she made Tohru strip after Kobayashi had a few too many beers. But she also gave Tohru some clothes as a thank-you gift (the pink stuff!)
Tohru for the most part does get treated slightly unfairly by Kobayashi, but she’s also prone to mentioning how humans are inferior creatures.
….yeah the miser, Kobayashi, kind of has the upper hand in this relationship, good point. Dang.
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When one person in a relationship rrreally wants to please the other and the other is not as invested-yeah that’s gonna end up unequal. It also makes me uncomfortable to watch tbh. *cough*personal experience *cough*
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Fair enough. ;_;
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I loved that her first impression of what maids do was to hold up a sign and pass out flyers. Even if they’re going to rely on the gimmick that she doesn’t understand humans, funny little moments like that will keep me going for a while.
Tohru’s feelings are a bit of a mystery. She was crying when Kobayashi said she couldn’t stay but her conversation with Quetzalcoatl did show some hesitation, as you caught.
The little story about Nidhogg was a nice touch too. I hope we get a lot of these small mythology nods.
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That got me, too. We did see that often in shows these days!
Mmm. Maybe I was a bit harsh on KyoAni since these kind of jokes can go strong for a while.
Usually I’m more interested in the snarker, but Tohru is interesting in more ways than one. I’m glad I wasn’t overthinking things.
I hope so, too, even though most of them will fly over my head, haha.
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