Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「イケメン、小林！（いろんな意味で」 (Ikemen, Kobayashi! (Ironna Imi de))
“Hot Guy Kobayashi! (In Many Senses)”
Is it bad to say I was actually expecting Kobayashi to eventually grow a penis as part of some plot point? Well, it finally happened. I appreciate how the series didn’t delve into the traditional fan service moments you would expect from these kind of gender bend situations. Or at least Kobayashi didn’t accidentally mash her face into boobs or blush from inadvertently seeing panties. In fact, as we all knew, Tohru was the one who had been waiting for this moment more than anyone else – only she discovers upon stripping that Kobayashi-san loses all interest. Because well, turns out she had a maid outfit fetish. Who could have known? Nevertheless, despite being self-conscious and flustered, Kobayashi’s self-discipline hugely impressed me.
While Tohru is over the top with her lesbianism, I find it a lot less stifling than Kuroko from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Plus it helps we’ve seen the development of her relationship with Kobayashi over many episodes and can see where she’s coming from, whereas Railgun laid it on thick before diving into the exposition. Also it helps that Tohru is way less annoying and has never actually molested Kobayashi the way Kuroko keeps feeling up Misaka Mikoto.
Kobayashi does the right thing taking Iruru under her wing, even though Iruru pulled quite a nasty prank on her. She proves to this jaded, radicalised dragon that there are good humans out there. Ones who will stand for what they believe to be righteous and kind. And Iruru realises this too. She’s done nothing but horrible things to Kobayashi. Yet Kobayashi still protected her and even knowing full well there was a chance she would get hurt in the process. This is precisely how Daryl Davis went about deradicalizing members of the Klu Klux Klan, including their Chief Wizard. By being such an exemplary example of the thing they hate, that they have no choice but to realise their world views are fundamentally flawed, killing their hatred with kindness. So that’s what impresses me most about this particular story arc. It’s very much true to life and a believable account of how someone could come around on their hatred and slowly develop for the better. Although Iruru’s propositions of making kids with Kobayashi left me grimacing – even if I must confess that Tohru’s incredibly heated reaction made me chuckle quite a bit.
If Iruru can’t go to school, and is searching for something to do in life, what will the future hold for her? I suspect she will be sticking around at Kobayashi’s place until she can figure that question out. And I look forwards to seeing how her soul searching plays out. Especially the new experiences she will undergo as well as further changes to her world view when it comes to humans.
Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you all next week!
End Card
 |
Hard to believe that Iruru’s the same age as Tohru.
ROFL at Tohru’s manual.
I think the manual is actually very well-written. It also shows how Tohru has had deep thoughts and is serious about making things work between humans and dragons, rather than messing around for the sheer fun of it.
Also I think Tohru suggests Iruru looks a similar age in the context of not looking like they’re Kanna’s age – so she’s basically insinuating that Iruru also looks like a late teenager/young adult.
All of the dragons in the setting are thousands of years old, with the exception of Kanna, who is an actual child. Fafnir is over 20,000.
Tohru is not lesbian. Tohru is Kobayashi-sexual . That’s all folks.
Good point. At least the example with Kuroko still works, because now that you’ve mentioned that Tohru is Kobayashi-sexual, Kuroko is pretty much Misaka-sexual.
Wait I haven’t watched this episode yet, your first paragraph, that for real or just you messing around?
I am not messing around. Iruru thought she could trip up Kobayashi with an ulterior motive for treating dragon’s nicely by using magic to make her sprout a penis, so that she could point to that and go ‘Look, the ulterior motive is lust!’. Little did Iruru realise it mostly runs the other way round, with Kobayashi trying to keep Tohru off of herself.
You could almost say that Iruru pulled a dick move on Kobayashi. 😛
I’m a bit surprised that the scene where Kobayashi saved Iruru from that exorcism dragon didn’t get any mention. It sounded absolutely brutal the way that Thoru snapped his neck after he hit Kobayashi.
Also, I feel the animation budget for this series is bonkers. The characters have a lot of small posture changing animations and the actions scenes have so many frames with almost no corner-cutting. Really nice coming back to that after having watching Kumo desu ga and Back Arrow last season with all their bad CGI fights.
If he had more presence on the episode, potentially. But he was pretty much a mook who ended up being instagibbed by Tohru when she showed up. I prefer to focus on the characters themselves anyway as opposed to writing too much in summary. But if there’s enough of a demand, I will take it into consideration with future writing.
Welcome back, Kobayashi-maru… aehm, sorry Star Trek Glitch… Kobayashi-san chi no maid Dragon
Everyone thought of Doraemon when Iruru made those hands but for me it was a mii also couldn’t Kobayashi just give her v to Takiya wouldn’t that make more sense?
Illulu confirmed to be Merlin the dick wizard XD.
I do like how Kobayashi is making an earnest effort to help Illulu out. With how much she’s been conditioned to go against wanting to get to know humans, they really put in the work to help you empathize with what she’s been through.
I’m also impressed with how the flashbacks were pulled off with the sketchbook aesthetic reflecting the trauma she faced to be forced to disassociate from humans or the storybook aesthetic of Kobayashi reflecting on the past. Not to mention the crazy action with Tohru popping up to save Kobayashi.
Oh boy now poor Kobayashi has not one but two dragons going after her chastity…
Must be hard (pun unintended) having male bits and being sandwiched between a thicc, buxom dragon girl and a dragon loli with a cute plushy bu— (*Loud knocking noises*) YA BE… (That TV show Kanna’s watching be looking similar to the setting of Uramichi Oniisan, though.)
Other random thoughts:
– Kanatan?! (J/K. :^) )
– Cremene – Sugita Tomokazu? IIRC, Kuwahara Yuuki is a massive fangirl of Sugita, so having him in the same show is a pretty big thing for her. (As well as the fact that Sugita previously worked with KyoAni as Haruhi‘s Kyon.)
– Kobayashi: (*To Ilulu*) “You’re damn heavy!”
Me: “Pretty sure it’s Ilulu’s boing-boings that are heavy. And also the tail.”
– “♪ ~Long Long
ManTongue!~ (*sexophone*)♬”– Damn, I know KyoAni is second to none when it comes to gorgeous visuals, but they can pull off “nightmare faces” pretty well, too!
Any more gratuitous views of Ilulu’s (or Lucoa’s) boing-boings and I’ll be singing/referencing “Chichi wo Moge”…