This anime is about a completely normal office worker named Kobayashi that gets drunk and hires a dragon to be her maid. The dragon, Tohru, actually shows up at her doorstep, ready to get to work and though Kobayashi is reluctant, ultimately her big heart wins out and she agrees to let Tohru stay. However, Tohru knows nothing about maids, or the human world at all really. Rather, she has a pretty extreme view where she looks down on all humans other than Kobayashi who she is obsessively in love with. Still, over time she manages to learn enough about the human world to fit in quite nicely, and ultimately various other dragons that follow her do so as well.
The greatest strength of this anime is it’s interconnected cast. The main pair is definitely Tohru and Kobayashi, both of whom have a pretty amusing dynamic due to Kobayashi being really down to Earth and cynical while Tohru is pretty pompous and free willed. However, another dragon, a young girl named Kanna also begins living with them and makes it into an amusing trio. While Tohru is like a foreigner in a strange land, Kanna is more so just a young girl that’s learning more about the world. The writing manages to capture her innocence and curiosity brilliantly. The three play really well off each other. However, that’s just the beginning. Kanna makes a best friend at school that has funny personality quirks of her own. And most of the dragon friends that come after Tohru also end up living with a human companion, each pair with a very different dynamic from the rest. And all of these characters interact quite a bit, both at an individual level and as pairs, each dynamic resulting in somewhat of a different feel to things.
This anime is primarily a slice of life comedy without much of an overarching plot. The variety to the cast and their interactions results in a lot of variety to the comedy as well. As a result, this allows for the comedy to be pretty fast paced without getting repetitive at all. This combined with it being pretty solid in general allows the humor to land pretty well throughout. What I was more surprised by was the amount of heartwarming moments scattered throughout the anime. Over the course of the anime, Kobayashi becomes less of a loner and comes to appreciate other people’s company more, especially Tohru’s. Tohru becomes more human, and comes to appreciate things in a more mortal way. Most of the heartwarming moments are pretty light and subtle, but a couple were somewhat strong. The ending especially was a pretty nice place to end on. Still, ultimately all of these moments were centered around Kobayashi and Tohru. Going forward I’d like to see more of the rest of the cast get moments to shine.
The art and animation are fantastic. The style and fluidity of the animation fits the humor perfectly and makes it land better. The character designs are pretty varied and also pretty great. The OP and ED were both pretty solid in terms of art and animation. The soundtrack was decent enough and fit well but was not particularly memorable. The specials are hilarious. They’re basically a mini cosplay festival with a different theme each special. Most of it is chibi, but it has some pans in the standard art style showing off outfits, though they’re so quick you don’t really get to appreciate them much.
An amusing anime about a salary woman, her abrupt dragon maid, and all their friends plodding through life.
8/10
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