Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon S (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S)

This sequel season is more of the same for better or worse. If you didn’t like the first season this probably won’t change your mind. Though this changes things up just enough to stay interesting that I can’t imagine many people that liked the first season not liking this one. This season starts out with the introduction to Ilulu, another chaos dragon who gets into a fight with Tooru. Things are serious for a bit, but they quickly settle down into the standard status quo but with Ilulu now also living at Kobayashi’s. Based on the first season, this may lead you to think she’ll be a main character as all the other residents are, but she is not. After her introduction, she gets about as much focus as all the other side characters, if not less so. She’s still a pretty fun addition to the cast though.

The comedy is really similar to the first season in that it’s centered around pretty much all the same themes. Kobayashi is a work-a-holic. Tooru keeps pushing herself, and her tail meat, on Kobayashi. Kanna is an innocent, curious, and adorable little munchkin that Riko enjoys being friends with way too much. Shouta has a hard time dealing with Lucua despite her best efforts to get along with him. Takiya and Fafnir are still extremely otaku. And Elma still eats way too much. It’s just as varied, fact paced, and well written as the first season and thus just as enjoyable.

The parts with more depth I would say are a bit weaker. Here there’s less of a focus on Tohru learning more about humans and her and her relationship with Kobayashi, and more of a focus on Tohru’s past, especially her past with Elma. However, it didn’t really feel like it really went anywhere. It fleshes out both Elma and Tohru somewhat, but it doesn’t really seem to make much of any difference. It doesn’t really result in any emotional beats as strong as those related to Tohru in the first season. Ilulu’s story makes up for that somewhat as she has some really strong moments, though not completely.

The art and animation are still fantastic. Battles are animated way better than they have any right to be. Ilulu is a great new design and the reoccurring designs are great too. The soundtrack is decent enough. The OP is pretty great in terms of the song and visuals and the ED is pretty solid too in both regards. The mini-dragon specials are just shorts not all that different from the main season, though purely focused on comedy. Thus, they’re pretty good too.

A similar and just as good sequel season.

8/10

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid)

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