Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is based upon the manga series. The first season is 13 episodes long and there was also an OVA. Kobayashi is your average normal boring office worker. After returning drunk home one night, she wakes up the next morning, gets ready for work and opens the door to find… a gigantic dragon. No, she isn’t dreaming but then the dragon suddenly transforms into a girl in a maid outfit. Introducing herself as Tohru, she moves in with Kobayashi and acts as her maid.
Tohru can transform from her human form (with some dragon elements such as horns and her tail still visible) to her gigantic dragon form at will. She has magical abilities, so that she can prevent others from noticing her, which conveniently explains away any potential for an all-out panic amongst the population if they ever saw her in her dragon form. She is clueless about the human world at first, but she does normally detest humans. The biggest exception for this is Kobayashi, whom she apparently loves and is the reason why she turned up here in the first place.
It is a ridiculous premise, and it is hard to say if it works or not. The anime is a comedy series although the humor isn’t great. The events aren’t that interesting in the beginning. It is more of a slice of life with some fantasy elements thrown in. Other mythical beings will appear, being Tohru’s friends and apart from being absurdly strong, having magical powers and aren’t that informed about the human world, they are not much different than any other anime character. These other characters have their own quirks, especially as they try and settle in the human world.
There are some sweet moments, especially when Kobayashi does her best to treat Kanna well. Kanna is another friend of Tohru’s, but she has the appearance and apparent mentality of a primary school kid. She’s easily influenced and believes Tohru without any hint of doubt. Eventually, you can see how the characters have become a family. The anime is rare in the sense that Kobayashi is older than most anime protagonists, being a working adult. Although she’s single, she soon starts to see Kanna and Tohru as a core part of her family.
These mythical beings are more common than you’d think as it is revealed a bit later by Tohru how much are just walking around, living amongst humans. For beings that theoretically have little clue in how the world works, they adapt easily and soon develop common sense. The slice of life aspect isn’t bad but can feel too normal at times, even with the crazy of the top powerful characters. They each have somewhat normal interests.
There are plenty of attempts by Tohru to get Kobayashi to have the same attraction to her that she does. There’s a running gag of Tohru trying to get Kobayashi to eat her tail, but it isn’t quite as funny as the anime expects, although it’s a consistent theme. The season finale is a good ending as it nicely shows us what happened during Tohru and Kobayashi’s first meeting and Tohru’s background. There’s a little bit extra on what Tohru means when she mentions that she is not allowed to interfere with this world as well as the expectations of her in the other world.
The OVA is surprisingly not the fan service episode like you would expect. Well, the fan service episode was already in the middle of the season. Given the theme of Valentine’s Day and a hot spring vacation, this is surprising. The character designs trend towards being overly cute, especially Kanna who is adorable. The bright colorful visuals make the anime a relaxing and happy one to watch. There’s barely any violence or friction, everyone eventually becomes good friends. It’s a feel-good anime.
Overall, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is average. The premise isn’t too unique as it is just a character from another world trying to settle down in the human world. She has an extreme affection towards one character and that’s where most of her focus lies. The cast quickly grow, and it turns into a fell good slice of life comedy. There are highlights but by and large, it doesn’t do anything surprising.