Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S is the second season of the anime adaptation of coolkyousinnjya’s manga series, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. It ran for twelve episodes during the summer 2021 season of anime, and is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S continues showing us the everyday lives of Miss Kobayashi, her dragon maid and all of their acquaintances. This second season introduces a new character into the anime: a dragon named Ilulu.
Ilulu has a fairly decent introduction in both manga and anime, but one of the earlier chapters that involves her I found to be somewhat rough. Thankfully that was toned down somewhat for the anime adaptation, but I still do not think too fondly back on that whole thing.
Things do get better once Ilulu is welcomed into the Kobayashi household, if rapidly being demoted to background character can be considered “better”. She gets one or two more dedicated segments here and there, but nothing leaves as quite as much an impact as her initial appearance.
As the cast grows, giving everyone equal time in the spotlight becomes something of a balancing act; one that perhaps Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S doesn’t pull of particularly well.
If you like Shouta and Lucoa, you’ll be happy to hear that they do get more time to shine, as too does Elma. It feels like that comes at the cost of Kanna’s screen time, which seems like a rather odd choice, as she is arguably the most popular character.
Kanna isn’t completely forgotten, but most of her stories from the manga seem to be altered in some way – such as including Ilulu on that theme park trip, or giving her an entire anime-original segment by the riverside. The screenshot above comes from a pretty faithful adaptation of a manga chapter, though.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S does not adapt any material from the Kanna’s Daily Life or Elma’s Office Lady Diary spinoff manga series. On one hand, it feels like something of a missed opportunity. On the other, though, that does leave the possibility of the spinoffs themselves receiving their own anime adaptations – I can’t speak for how likely that would be, though.
That shouldn’t come across as too surprising, though, considering there are quite a number of characters to be balancing. One’s enjoyment of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S is going to largely depend on one’s opinion of the extended cast.
The strong points of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S are incredibly strong, though. A lot of it involves the dragons, their world and how they are integrating into human society. The relationship between Tohru and Elma is another particularly fantastic plot point that is explored in this season. Things like that are enough to carry this show, but even then the good does still manage to outweigh the bad.
There is some incredible animation to be appreciated, too. When conflict arises between dragons, Kyoto Animation certainly goes all out to display just how much power they wield. It’s a real visual spectacle.
Whilst things may change, some others stay the same. Saikawa is still very much in love with Kanna, and Tohru’s feelings towards Miss Kobayashi should be plainly obvious. It’s nice to hold on to some familiar elements.
Both Miss Kobayashi and Tohru do spend some time considering their feelings towards each other a little more, although I feel like the final scene of this season might detract from that a little bit – everything beyond the arm wrestling was not in the manga.
I’m just saying that perhaps maybe there was a better way to end it than with a gag that goes back on Tohru’s character development…
In the end though, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S does prove to be a pretty enjoyable experience. Whilst it may have its flaws, some of the stuff in there is incredibly superb and that more than makes up for the rough edges.
Score: 8/10
Things like the dragons’ conflicts and their integration into the human world are fantastic, and we do see some growth on Tohru’s part in this season. Just a shame that there are times when main characters feel much more like side characters.
Rory Muses 
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