What does Kanna’s tail taste like?
Impression
Maid Dragon is AOTS. Yes, I stand by that statement even though Konosuba also exists this season. In fact, it’s precisely because they both air on the same evening that it’s become a little easier to draw comparisons between them. Yesterday evening, I told myself that I’d only watch one of the two due to time constraints. I opted for Konosuba, but after I was done I had a sudden urge to see more Tooru and watched Maid Dragon anyway. I actually find it really interesting that, despite there being so much this season that can be broadly classified under the umbrellas of comedy and slice-of-life, they’re all so different from each other. Konosuba and Gabriel Dropout lean heavily towards the former, but Konosuba is very much vulgar comedy and was a surprise hit whereas Gabriel Dropout is relatively clean and is a classic Dogakobo production. Urara Meirochou sits somewhere between those two in terms of lewdness, but is more a slice-of-life than a comedy. And then, under the slice-of-life umbrella you have stuff like Demi-chan and Maid Dragon, both which tend to prioritise being comfy and pleasant with the odd laugh-out-loud moment at times. Of course, that’s not to say those are divides without any overlap.
After two weeks of each, I’ve concluded that Maid Dragon is the best. It’s such a joy to watch. Amongst all the gags there are so many comfy moments, like the hand-holding scene (“I won’t wash this hand for a while”) and the one near the end where Tooru and Kanna reminisce about their home world. And you pick up small things here and there, like how Tooru is slightly taller than Kobayashi or how she could have used more of the covers last episode as her tail poked out the side a little, but she left it like that because she didn’t want to take up more than half the bed. Cute details like that. It’s also so classically KyoAni that it almost hurts. But it’s a beautiful pain. I love how you can tell when certain scenes have been lifted almost verbatim from the source material, whereas with others it’s obvious that KyoAni have gone off on a liberal tangent. So for example, everything that’s preceded by a yellow transition frame with shapes in it is almost definitely from one set of 4-koma panels. They’re short, and are over almost immediately. This episode had three of those, and for some reason they were all about tails. The easiest contrast to make with that would be the fight scene when Tooru and Kanna were ‘playing’ together, which had all the classic KyoAni colours and fluidity last seen in any of their recent fantasy productions like Kyoukai no Kanata, Chuunibyou. or even the CM for Violet Evergarden. And that nose bumping near the end of the episode, holy shit. I think that was the precise moment when I realised that this was undoubtedly AOTS.
Let’s talk about tails. I think it’s becoming a running gag, and I’m still not tired of it. Apparently dragon tail (or at least Tooru’s, anyway) tastes sweet and creamy? I’m sure there are multiple reasons why Kobayashi isn’t too interested in eating it no matter how many times Tooru can regrow it, but it would probably look tastier if it didn’t look so strange. Like, if it wasn’t slightly tinged with green. I still do love her tail itself, though. I was looking forward to Kanna’s tail, but it ended up being a hairy ball and that’s not as good as Tooru’s fat classic tail. That applies to Tooru and Kanna in general – I was expecting to really like Kanna because lolis are the best, and I do like Kanna, but just not as much as Tooru. Kind of reminds me of a younger Ren-chon. Her dragon form overall does blow Tooru’s out of the water, though. It’s elegant and looks like it’d be really fluffy to touch. Now I’m genuinely wondering what her tail tastes like, as well as why Lucoa doesn’t seem to have a tail in her human form. I’m into ‘ara ara’ onee-chan type characters almost as much as I am lolis, so I’m super excited for Lucoa’s proper introduction next week!
“So for example, everything that’s preceded by a yellow transition frame with shapes in it is almost definitely from one set of 4-koma panels. They’re short, and are over almost immediately. This episode had three of those, and for some reason they were all about tails.”
Here’s a shock for you: NONE of those segments exist in the currently translated manga material. Tooru attempting to feed Kobayashi her tail has only come up a few times. It’s not a regular gag.
The Tooru and Kanna “playing” scene, on the other hand? 100% manga material. Down to the exact moves they used against each other.
Here’s the thing that may be throwing you off: Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon is not a 4-koma. While Cool Kyoushinsha does draw several 4-koma manga, and his previous animated series have been 4-komas, this series is not a 4-koma. It is an ordinary manga. A lot of people tend to forget this, because they’re so used to him drawing 4-komas that they just say that this is one of them without remembering or checking to see that it’s not.
Kyoani is simulating 4-koma-ness with these transitions. That is not a bad thing: the short segments still fit the mood of the series. But it’s interesting to see that people who haven’t read the manga are thinking that anime-original segments are copied straight from the source, and segments that are copied straight from the source are anime-original.
Are you serious?! Is this what they mean by KyoAni finds a way?
That’s insane. Even regardless of precedent like K-ON! or Lucky Star (or stuff like Komori-san from the mangaka’s side) the way Maid Dragon mixes gags and slice-of-life together feels so similar to a 4-koma. And if that assumption were true, it would make sense for KyoAni to add extended anime-original scenes so that the content better fits a full-length TV series. I’m so used to them being contrarian with everything they adapt, like adding large helpings of yuri or creating entire characters who never existed in the source material like Dekomori and Shinka, but not like… this. Those scenes blended in so naturally that I couldn’t tell at all.