The Gist: while drunk in the mountains, Kobayashi invites a dragon to live in her apartment as a maid. Tohru, the dragon in question, happily agrees for reasons not entire clear to the hung-over Kobayashi the following morning. This agreement, including Tohru’s apparent sexual love for her, may stem from a life debt. More on that later…
In the meantime, Kobayashi has to go to work and Tohru, who knows very little about the human world, has to get by with internet searches and calling other dragons on a magic phone. As you would imagine, Tohru doesn’t totally get it right…
You’ll probably like Dragon Maid if you enjoy peppy humor, with the hints of a darker story beneath the surface. (Tohru’s nightmares, whatever Kobayashi did to save her, etc.) The visuals are average but pop pleasantly. The dialogue has strong comedic timing and the situational surprises are nice and quirky. (Kobayashi and Takiya being opinionated maid-otaku when drunk was hilarious, Tohru washing Kobayashi’s laundry in her mouth was gross but fun, etc.)
You may not care about Dragon Maid if the whole ‘pretty girl with animal parts’ genre is played out for you. While her ability to fly, breathe fire, and turn into a giant, not-at-all-human looking creature separates Tohru from the average Cat-Girl, the humor structured around her is effectively the same: She doesn’t understand our world and makes odd choices while trying to please her new master.
The Verdict: I was pleasantly surprised by Tohru’s nightmares, which bumped the show above pleasant but forgettable comedy. Making Kobayashi female is also a nice twist on the convention. Even though she’s somewhat andro, and her coworkers tend to think of her as one of the guys, she is not homosexual, which gives the showrunners more to work with regarding Tohru’s advances.
Go on, you know you want to give this one a watch!