#i am actually planning to draw all three of them more along with fafnir and some other nobodies. i cri—

[yakny]

Knight Bobo, wearing some of the patterns I drew :D!

[undeadimpulsereviews]

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

Real quick context, when I speak of the manga I will be addressing it as Dragon Maid; let’s begin.

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, from Mangaka Cool-Kyou Shinja, is a comedy slice of life manga which is currently ongoing as we speak. It started it’s run back in 2013 for Japan, but we in America didn’t get it until three years later. It is currently being published by Monthly action magazine in Japan, and Seven Seas in English; as of today only two volumes are out in stores for us, but the third and fourth volume are already planned to release in the future. For Japan all four volumes are out and able to be read, while the fifth volume is being worked on; if you don’t wish to wait for the physical copies however, you can find volumes one through four online easily and the beginning of volume five as well. I found this manga randomly one day and saw that it was gaining some popularity; I started reading it for a little bit, but I ended up putting it down to read other things. I didn’t dislike what I read, but the start can be a little slow; after hearing and anime was in the works for the manga I decided to pick it back up and now currently I’m all caught up. I’m glad I went back and gave the manga another chance; it may start a little slow, but as it moves on it really starts to pick up. So what exactly is Dragon Maid? The name says a lot, but there’s a lot about this manga that the title can’t convey; so lets see what Cool-Kyou has in one of his most recent works.

Dragon Maid follows the story of two individuals in their day to day life; Kobayashi is a honest office worker who tends to keep to herself. One night after a long day of work a drunk Kobayashi wanders into the forest, and what she finds isn’t something most people would call normal. Lying there is a giant green dragon whose been injured and wants nothing to do with Kobayashi; after Kobayashi helps the dragon they spend some time together. Fast forward to the next morning and there is a mysterious woman standing at Kobayashi’s door in a maid outfit; this woman is Tohru, and it just so happens to be the same dragon from the night before. Apparently in Kobayashi’s drunken state, she invited Tohru to live with her; thus begins the random adventures of Miss Kobayashi, and her dragon maid Tohru.

I really like the story of Dragon Maid; it’s sells itself as a comedy, and the comedy is definitely well done, but in my mind the manga really shines when it gets serious. Throughout the manga you’ll get a lot of really worthwhile scenes that explore a lot of what day to day life could be like. The importance of family, how similar we may look when in reality were so different deep down; it’s a surprisingly deep story for what it is. The relationship that Kobayashi shares with Tohru throughout the manga is really well done and makes for some great scenes. Tohru grew up being taught that humans are inferior beings, and that all they’re good for is a quick death; however, after living with Kobayashi she learns that maybe what she was taught isn’t all that accurate. She learns to live along side others regardless of their standing, learns that even humans have different upbringings, and that not everyone has the same family experience as others. Life isn’t easy, but you shouldn’t take it all on your own; it’s a lot more simple when you have friends there to assist you. You may have some preconception about someone or something, but you might actually learn a lot about them if you gave them the chance; just like Tohru learned a lot about humans from Kobayashi and vice versa. Overall it’s a great story that supplies a nice balance between both comedy and serious moments; the manga is well aware of what it is becoming and I can’t help but love it.

Dragon’s maid has a very peculiar cast of humans and dragons; it has somewhat of an even spread, but with the recent chapters the dragon side of things has started to expand a little more. That aside these characters develop so well; the humans, like Kobayashi, develop really well but I think that the dragons are where the story really shines. Tohru was the first of many dragons to appear in the manga; she is a chaos dragon who was raised thinking that humans must die, but after many days in the human world she begins to question her upbringing. Are humans really all that bad? She doesn’t want to return to her world, but rather finds enjoyment in her new life. Yet she’s not the only dragon who has this effect on them; Fafnir, for those who don’t recognize the name, is a chaos dragon who guards his horde of treasure from greedy humans; he is from Norse mythology and is usually known for cursing those who attempt to steal his gold. After a couple chapters he, along with other dragons, begin to come to Kobayashi’s world; at first he wants nothing to do with it, but after being introduced to video games he starts to think differently. He doesn’t fully accept humanity, but starts to feel that maybe not everyone is as bad as he thought. Now what of the humans? Kobayashi is the main one that develops; thanks to Tohru; Kobayashi is able to not only accept dragons big and small, but also gets better at knowing how to deal with dragons and finding out what they want. The second dragon to appear is a small one by the name of Kanna; she’s an old friend of Tohru’s and is known for pulling pranks. She doesn’t accept of Tohru’s decision at first, but Kobayashi sees what it is she’s really after thanks to being around another dragon. Overall the characters of Dragon Maid are really lovable enjoyable characters who are developed really well over the course of the story; The story is still in full swing and new characters are currently being introduced, but I’m sure that Cool-Kyou can make them just as good.

Now I’ve only read two of Cool-Kyou’s manga, this being one of them; and from those two manga I can see that Kyou has quite the unique art style. The first manga I’ve read of his was this, then the second was Ojojojo; Ojojojo is a 4-koma, while Dragon Maid is an official manga. After reading both as far as I could I think that Kyou’s style fits more into a 4-koma rather than a normal manga, but I’ve only read two and I think his art style definitely works in Dragon Maid. His work doesn’t really rely to much on detail when it comes to characters; there isn’t much shadowing, or really well defined features of his characters. This is why I believe his work fits better in a 4-koma, but for Dragon Maid he keeps his style, while also adding more to it.

When I was going through the manga in search of photos I found the one above; So much detail in just one picture and these are scarce; most of the time the more detailed shots will happen when ever Tohru or another person starts to change. Take the third frame for instance, not much is changing but while Tohru is priming her shot her eyes and mouth alter slightly; there’s intense amounts of shading along her face, and well defined lines around her eyes that help show emotions. Then a frame later you have a very simple picture of Kanna.

Most of the manga will look like the frame about, not much shadows or defining lines; plus the facial features and body look simplistic. This is the normal style that I’ve seen in Kyou’s works; take the third frame for instance. Instead of going more a realistic look in terms of body, Kyou instead goes for a more simple approach. Take Takiya for example, his body is slender and tall; it’s not to well defined and instead it looks like a simple triangle moving up towards his head. Same with Kobayashi, she’s smaller than Takiya, but she has basically the same build; very triangular and simple.

Then in the photo directly above we some normal drawings and some of the more detailed when Tohru enters; though for this picture in particular, I want to look at the facial features and head shape. Look at the second frame with Kanna and Kobayashi; Kyou’s style and choices are easily seen in this frame. First Kanna, her eyes are huge and take up a good portion of her face; however, that’s all that’s on her face. There is no indication of a nose or mouth, only the eyes; which are basically all pupil. Now lets look at the head itself’ both Kanna and Kobayashi are great example; instead of a more defined head where we can see the chin or other features, Kyou tends to draw his head a little rounder; Kobayashi is a little more defined in this area than others but not by much. Kanna on the other hand is almost perfectly round; look at the last frame for example, there is no clear sign of her neck but instead it looks like her head is resting on her body. Overall I really like Kyou’s style; it’s different from your average style, but it’s still good all the same. I don’t know if I can see the art style working in the future for something outside of the current genre, but it’s good nonetheless.

Like I said before Dragon Maid has grown in popularity; so much so that it was able to get it’s own anime adaptation. I am currently caught up with the anime and I really enjoy it, but kind of wish it followed the manga a little more. I do love the random episodes that the anime has, but there are so many chapters of the manga that could have been adapted but never were. I can understand some chapters can’t be adapted given that they introduce new dragons that wouldn’t be in the anime, but a lot of chapters could have been great episodes. That aside it’s a beautiful anime; it tends to rely a little to much on fan service though. The manga had it’s fair share as well, don’t get me wrong, but the anime went another level with theirs. I understand that it sells to a vast demographic of people, but I wouldn’t mind having it slightly toned down; I know it’s not the manga, but I can’t help comparing the two. The manga has it’s fan service but it doesn’t need it to be something; the anime, I feel, relies a little to heavily on it. Though overall it’s not only a good manga, but a good anime as well.

Overall I give Kobayashi- san Chi no Maid Dragon an 8 out of 10; it’s a great manga with some heavy themes; it’s cute, heartwarming, and funny. I think the reason it isn’t higher in terms of rating is because when you get down to it, it’s still your everyday slice of life; it’s a great manga, but it still doesn’t give me the impression to push it further. When I read it I think “man what a great slice of life” there is nothing really setting it apart from the rest even with the themes it explores.

That will do it for the March reviews and tomorrow I’ll be posting a special post as well as the update for what’s to come in April; sorry for the somewhat late review, it was originally ready sooner, but I had some corruption problems and had to start anew. Regardless, I’ll see you all tomorrow for April. Peace out