Or as I would later put it to my sister:

Lesbian dragon and her aroace girlfriend raise small dragon child while trying to live normally in the human world.

This show has been out for a few years, but since I don’t much care about maids or other-species-masquerading-as-cute-girls tropes, I ignored it until I saw a review/comment somewhere online that mentioned this show had a nice portrayal of relationships?

Sure, I thought, I’ll give it a chance. A few episodes later, I texted my sister the description above.

The titular Miss Kobayashi saves Tohru’s life somehow—she’s drunk and doesn’t remember anything until the next morning, when she opens her apartment door to find a giant whole-ass dragon staring her in the face. (We get backstory in a later episode, fear not.)

Kobayashi eventually gives in, and Tohru assumes her cute, humanlike appearance and dedicates herself to being a maid…or, essentially and eventually, a housewife.

Kobayashi is, y’know, understandably weirded out, but Tohru puts a lot of effort into figuring out how to be in human society. There’s a good amount of storyline and humor that comes from Tohru not quite getting it, but there are also a good number of times that she does; in fact, one early episode has Kobayashi and Tohru shopping together, and Kobayashi being impressed with how Tohru not only shops well, but also makes small talk, befriends the merchants, and so forth.

Tohru isn’t the only dragon in the human world; several others eventually show up for one reason or another, creating both opportunities for hijinks, but also additional friendships to develop, and conversations about how whether relationships should be pursued at all if the humans are only alive for a tiny part of the dragons’ lifespan.

I really, really liked Kobayashi. She’s not emotionless, but can be pretty stoic, and seems generally content with her life as it is. She and Tohru are good foils for each other—Tohru being vivacious, excitable and enthusiastic—but it’s also made clear as the series goes on that what we might first assume is going to be a “world-weary character must put up with and guide an excitable ball of energy that doesn’t understand the world” isn’t going to be played straight.

Tohru is older than Kobayashi, and despite her enthusiasm, she’s not dumb, nor does she need hand-holding for everything. Sometimes, Kobayashi’s assumptions are wrong. Sometimes they just annoy each other because they live together and have started getting to know each other well. Tohru knows Miss Kobayashi doesn’t reciprocate her feelings, and mostly respects that. (I stand by my characterization of Kobayashi as aroace although she’s clearly fond of Tohru by the end; nobody tell me if the manga or currently-airing second seasons makes it different.)

All that said, it’s not an anime I would watch around my parents. (Or, ok, I would but I would get comments like “WHAT! are you watching!!!” every episode because…) There’s Luccoa, who bounces all over the place and, in what’s portrayed as humorous, was “summoned” by a 9-year-old attempting to summon a demon and decided it would be fun to stick around. Said 9-year-old thinks she’s a succubus and she doesn’t exactly do anything to change his mind.

Verdict

English dub? Yes! And all very good, especially Kobayashi.

Visuals: Nice, pretty standard for modern anime. As I mentioned at the top, based purely on the visuals and name I’d assumed this was a generic cute-girls-doing-cute-things moe show.

Worth watching? Yes! It doesn’t get super deep, but the relationships that develop between various dragons and their human friends/companions is very fun to watch (including, but not limited to, Kobayashi and Tohru), and the show overall is funny.

Also, it’s very aware when it’s hitting tropes. This is a show with episodes titled “The Strongest Maid in History, Tohru! (Well, She is a Dragon),” “Second Dragon, Kanna! (We’re Totally Spoiling Here),” and “Summer’s Staples! (The Fanservice Episode, Frankly).”