Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Is How I’m Coping With The Garbage State of The World Right Now

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S is the second season to the popular anime Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. While it’s not a perfect anime by any means (I’ll get to that) I find myself just hooked on how, well, comfy it is.

Look, I’m not gonna mince words- things are kind of garbage right now. Just a few weeks ago the ocean was on fire, social events are practically a death sentence and odds are good we’re going to hit that 2 year mark of being extras in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding. We’re pushing back, sure, but some days it feels like it’s with the force of an overturned waterbottle against a bulldozer with a brick on the gas pedal.

For some people, they find this the perfect time to engage in similarly-toned escapism. Heck, barely a year ago I said the same thing about Bloodborne being the perfect COVID fantasy game. Maybe you like the unnaturally similar COVID-isms of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth. Almost 18 months into this garbage nightmare, you know who doesn’t? Me.

Enter, Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon. It’s a story about a Chaos-faction Dragon (Tohru)  who flees to our world after sustaining life-threatening injuries and meets a drunk programmer named Kobayashi. As all drunken escapades go some promises are made and now the dragon’s a cute girl working as a maid in Kobayashi’s house. The rest of the manga involves her other dragon friends coming to find her, arguing against the idea of Dragons and Humans living together, then just doing it anyways because screw that, it’s exhausting.

Aside from the occasional odd episode of actual plot talking about the Chaos Dragons hate for humans, it’s an incredibly comfy series, tackling all the small things in life that make waking up to a disease-ridden nightmare more bearable. Ever been good at something but not care for it as a hobby? There’s a great episode about that. What about the magic of anime conventions? There’s a really touching speech about that too.

Of course, it has its issues. Personally I’m not fond of how the anime treats its children characters, with a lot of “that’s super creepy when you think about it” moments such as Saikawa’s constant perving on the loli dragon Kanna, or everything about the Luccoa/Shouta dynamic. But you know what? I’ll take that over yet another torture porn scene about how humans are the real monsters all along in a dying world any day.

One of the best things it does is just that celebration of the little things in life, usually marked by great monologues. There’s a great moment in the first season where the shut-in dragon Fafnir comments about how after years of attacking any human that came after his treasure, he’s realized you have to choose to let people in even if it means risking getting hurt. This isn’t portrayed against some grand tragedy either- he’s literally just talking about how great it feels to have a friend that plays MMOs with him.

Similarly, Season 1 also has another gem, where Kobayashi and Tohru get into a fight over who can make a better bento for Kanna, and the gang reflects on how it’s specifically because you’re close that you’d have that stupid a fight turn into an Iron Chef rip off contest.

While to a lot of people it may sound boring or unexciting, I can’t recommend giving the Dragon Maid series a look-see, now more than ever. Aside from my personal reasons it’s also gorgeously animated by the lovely team at Kyoto Animation, and the first season is currently available on Netflix.

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