Everyone is afraid of things that are different.

Maid Dragon is the KyoAni product that sticks out. With its fun and funky art style, this is not your K-On or Violet Evergarden - but the warmth it radiates and the focus on subtle human interactions is how it reminds you which studio it's housed in.

Story & Execution

Maid Dragon follows a basic plot of boy(girl) meets girl - overworked, single office worker Kobayashi suddenly meets a dragon girl who is madly in love with her. With nowhere else to go, Kobayashi decided to house her in exchange of being her maid.

On paper, the story isn't very unique and it's easily predictable - however, in my opinion, the soul of the SOL genre is being able to provide fun twists to the shallow plots with unique characters and episodes that heal the heart. This is where KyoAni's strength lies.

There is nothing realistic about the setting and the series is shameless about that fact. The dragons are all able to transform into attractive, young humans and they don't go in depth on how the world works at all. Their inhumane abilities don't serve much purpose other than to power gloat and flex KyoAni's budget - but god damn, is it fun to watch.

Finding realism in an unrealistic family setting

Maid Dragon's strongest point is how it really feels like you're watching a close and small family go through different stages of both life and in human connection.

Tohru and Kobayashi have at first, a shallow and gimmicky relationship - with Tohru almost always forcing herself into Kobayashi's world, and the latter rejecting her. However, they both learn to understand boundaries, compromise with each other and open up about themselves. Kobayashi doesn't let herself be pushed around by Tohru's whims, and Tohru encourages Kobayashi to get out of her shell.

The show continues to follow an episodic nature, with some deeper and intimate moments here and there, but mostly just wacky events with the cast - with the usual package of going to the beach, festivals and seasonal events.

Characters

This is where the score flunks a little. Although I found every character unique and quirky in their own ways, as a character design artist... it can be horrendous at times.

Design wise, it is really just Tohru and Lucoa who I have a hard time looking at. The series does play jokes at this, aware that there are 'too many things going on' with Tohru's design. I am well aware that the point is for dragons to look super extra compared to the boring humans, but I just feel really bad for the animators sometimes.

Lucoa isn't much better, she was designed to be gooned to, man. I don't even want to mention what's going on with her and Shouta (his name is literally shota dude). When I first watched the show, I raised an eyebrow at them but then I found out that the author is a gooner with a penchant for OneeShota so... Yeah.

Now onto personality, I didn't really find any of the main cast annoying. But, that Saikawa girl was. Good god, an eight year old shouldn't be acting like that when her crush touches her. Anyways for the main cast, I thought they were all really entertaining, seeing them interact with each other felt like I was watching a bunch of real, good friends.

Personal Enjoyment

I'm not really afraid to say I enjoyed this show and rewatched it a couple of times even.

It's just so warm, and was able to capture the heart of daily life. Monotonous tasks like grocery shopping, greeting neighbours and preparing lunchboxes are all menial yet healing parts of our lives. A scene that really stuck out to me was when they went shopping for Kanna's school materials - it was strikingly similar to my childhood.

They aren't a forced family at all, it's the smallest details and natural acting of the characters that really makes every episode feel good.

This show has got SOL right - as a genre, it's supposed to make you appreciate daily life, no matter how 'uneventful'. It just sucks that it was made by a gooner. We just can't have nice things man...