Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

 Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: A Lonely Dragon Wants to Be Loved, premiered in Japanese theatres this time last year. It ran stateside for one night only last October, and although it allegedly premiered on Netflix not long after, I never found it. So, when it suddenly showed up on Crunchyroll this past weekend, I made plans for it. 

And off we go …

As told in Cool-Kyou Shinsha’s manga, Kobayashi (no first name given), was a programmer who went on a drunken hike in the mountains. She ends up pulling a sword out of a dragon, who shows up at her apartment in human form. Her name is Tohru, and she’s now Kobayashi’s maid. A few other dragons, also in human form, show up, and some of them move in with Kobayashi and Tohru. That’s kind of it.

The titular Lonely Dragon isn’t Tohru, but her youngest flatmate, Kanna Kamui. One day, her absentee father, General Kimun Kamui, shows up looking for her. Rather than catch up on lost time, Kimun wants Kanna for the “Dragon Orb” she absorbed into her person. It’s a powerful MacGuffin, with which he can help his Chaos Dragons win the war against their rivals, the Harmony Dragons.

Kobayashi can tell a lousy parent, at least by Earth standards, when she sees one, and refuses to give up Kanna. Kanna, however, acquiesces for her daddy’s approval. Kobayashi and the others go after Kanna when they find out that Kimun’s advisor, Azad, is up to no good. Did I also mention that Kobayashi is adept at magic? She is. And how will Kanna's new smartphone play into the plot?

You probably know what to expect if you’ve seen Kyoto Animation’s TV anime. Technically, it’s not much different than the show, which you’ll notice during flashbacks. Between both mediums, the character designs are cuddly, the color palette is pretty, and the music is nice to listen to. The show’s staff is retained for this production, which includes first season director Yasuhiro Takemoto’s - a casualty of the 2019 arson - honorary credit as “Series Director” (Tatsuya Ishihara is the main director here). About the only thing I disliked was the pitch of Tohru’s energy blasts, which sounds like someone mashing a high-pitched keyboard. It was a bit unbearable, but thankfully short.

This is Kanna’s movie, so let’s discuss her. She barely emotes, not even when she plays with her bestie, Riko Saikawa, which is weirdly amusing. Less amusing, however, is her relationship with her dad, which gets her beyond dull surprise. You’ll feel bad for her when she tries to reach out to Kimun, who sees her as an ally, not a daughter. Kimun’s personality, which I’ll touch upon soon, complicates this relationship, especially when Kobayashi knocks him and Azad out with a Spirit Bomb (long story). You don’t need to know the manga’s story - which the movie adapts one volume of - to be moved by the finale, though. 

Try as I might, I couldn’t necessarily bring myself to hate Kimun. Granted, Kobayashi and the others have a point when they criticize his parental skills. But at his worse, he’s more of a naive dolt than a callous monster. He’s also surprisingly friendly, allowing Kanna and Kobayashi to write to him regularly (even if he fails to grasp their points). He starts to redeem himself when he saves Kanna from Azad after the latter’s scheme is exposed. And then, there is the finale. Maybe I’m reading him wrong, but that’s what I thought about him.

Amongst its large cast, a few discernable dragons include Lucoa (a gender-flipped Quetzalcoatl); Fafnir (a game obsessed butler dragon); and Ilullu (one of Kobayashi's other flat mates). They're all quirky, but you will need a character guide to fully grasp them and their human companions. You'll have little trouble understanding Miss Kobayashi and her Dragon Maid, even if they aren't truly the main characters. They're quite likable together, and especially with the other dragon girls. Kobayashi cleverly exposes Azad to the warring dragons by putting Kanna on speaker, while Tohru gets a fine post-climax battle with Azad. It's quite amazing to watch them throw down against evil.

Oh, and what about Azad? It doesn't take much to peg him as the villain, even before we see how he is. He's got a sad backstory, but a bit of an underwhelming defeat. I'm not annoyed, as he shows up later in the manga, and might get some more time to shine. When's the third season coming?

I'm kind of late reviewing it for this Father's Day, but I'm sure it'll be there for the next one. You won't need a crash course in lore to understand its central family story. Just some understanding. In any case, why don't you check out this movie, and its associated anime? There's a lot to love about them, aesthetically and narratively. I'll let you decide the order you watch them.

Oh yeah, and before the month is out, you'll get a review for another Crunchyroll anime movie that dropped last weekend. It's quite a SAGA ...