Dᴷrͦaᵇgͣoʸnͣˢʰᶦ'ˢ ᴹᵃᶦᵈ
Synopsis
skip if you know the general plot already smartass
One day a severely drunk out of her god damn mind and stressed out office woman forgets to get off at her train stop and ends up climbing a mountain where she ends up meeting a Dragon embedded with a thorn scratch that SWORD OF GOD
Kobayashi due to her extreme lack of faith in God due to her stressful office life-sapping work any faith in a higher power is able to pull out the sword.
The Dragon transforms into a well-endowed (big-titted) girl named Tooru and the two of them Get FUCKING DRUNK as SHiIIT and in a stupor release all their annoyances and frustrations and despite the catastrophic difference in lifestyle and situations are able to relate well.
Tooru coming from a different world and not having a place to stay gets offered one by Kobayashi in return for Tooru becoming her Maid.
A Dragon Maid that is…………………
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How Kyoani fucked the brains out of Dragon Maid
When it comes to feeling good shows I don’t think theirs a better anime that comes to mind than this Kyoani x CoolKyoNinja Marvel of a show
While I’m currently reading the manga I decided to go back and check out this instant bombshell of a show.
Dragon Maid is an extravagant show but what makes it leans towards this level of bewildered visuals is the possibilities in the premise itself.
With the Premise of an all-powerful Dragon becoming a Maid to a casual maid-obsessed office lady this gives the show a lot of flexibility or maybe it's just that Kyoto Animation has a back for imagining beyond the canvas of the manga panel.
With SOL storylines it's not atypical for the show to carry a consistent tone in terms of visual appeal and in some ways, it feels static and excruciating to viewers who aren’t able to pierce that genre due to a certain lack of tenseness and
Although that isn’t to paint the genre as boring since the whole point of SOL is to replicate daily life in a relaxing way that doesn’t aspire to hyperintense storylines that are packed with dramatic and tense moments
Dragon Maid is still grounded in that core appeal of it which is to showcase day-to-day activities and interactions but it strengthens a lot of the aspects that cause people not to be able to get into the genre.
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The characters in Dragon Maid are separated into two positions one being the human characters that are totally bewildered (or in the case of Kobayashi totally adapted) by the situations of the otherworldly characters and the Dragons
But despite this cataclysmic difference in background between the two groups of characters, the Dragons all have comparable human problems albeit translated to a Dragon background
#Fafnir
Fafnir is basically a shut-in which is why Takiya who is a closet Otaku that flips between his closet Otaku personality and his professional adult public work personality is able to develop a really good friendship with Fafnir despite him being a cursed Dragon hell-bent on keeping his treasure out of the hands of others
#Lucoa
Lucoa is essentially a sobering adult who has been kicked out of their own home by the rest of their family and is heavily ashamed of their actions which might be why Lucoa is an observer in most events as a way of trying not to draw any more attention to herself and I find it really wholesome that she gets offered a place to stay by
*(NOTE: there are some changes to Lucoas backstory in the anime due to the backstory in the manga uh well its um not suitable for live broadcast being the fact that in the manga she basically gets extremely drunk and molests her younger sister….uh yeah)*
I mean the fact that Toohru has trouble going into department stores because of previous trauma surrounding castles and their similarities to the department stores is not really so different than people with trauma or fears surrounding school or certain places.
A good addition to this perspective and idea of the Dragons being pretty similar is even brought up by Kobayashi who is fucking floored that Toohru is better at socializing than she is the dragon who condescendingly calls humans an "inferior species" several times and can bring about armageddon.
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Does the Show Get Carried by the KyotoAni?
##*Breaking Down the "Carried" by animation debate*
This is a bit of a hard thing to really explain in general I feel that this idea of a source material being carried by the animation studio that picks up the material has always lacked a bit more nuance to its argument
I think a good analogy for an animated adaptation (or just plan adaptation) of any work would be to think of it as the work being reborn like stepping out of a puddle into a new world instead of being reworked into another medium as if your attempting to squeeze a circle into a peg.
The reason why I think that's important is that adaptations need creativity and new quixotic perspectives from people that are deeply talented and or versed in the adaptations medium.
So when I compare a scene of Dragon Maid from its source material to the adaptation work it's not in an attempt at undermining one for the sake of placing the other on a pedestal
rather I'm comparing how each tries to tell the story that they both stemmed from and which one appeals to me more which I think is the more important question than a debate of the whole carry thing
##*How Making a Great Adaptation is not just about Animation*
This one scene is a helpful dissection of how the studio is innovative with how they approached Dragon Maid
The entirety of the scene in the manga is three panels long something which you can easily glaze over when reading manga which is a negative of the medium is the fact that most people will intake manga like they eat fast food and read it on hand or just mindlessly scroll on a free website
with the strengths of a passive medium there's much more humor and vibrant character comedy and interaction that is able to breathe and bubble to the surface using fun editing and over the top animation like the exaggerated pan-around and pink smoke which they DID NOT HAVE TO DO
even stuff added like Kobayashi grabbing Toohrus's hand with a visible tension before the two separate is exactly what I want from an adaptation is the ability to add in subtle ways that don't break from the faithfulness but at the same time clearly show a director's own individual touch with the show form I'm not just after good animation
What I want from anime is stuff I can't get from manga its as simple as that and Dragon Maid knocks it out of the park
I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself
Have a good day Have a good day Have a good day Have a good day Have a good
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